March 29, 2008: Record 115,300 fans see Red Sox beat Dodgers at L.A. Coliseum exhibition

The largest crowd to ever watch a baseball game was 115,300 at the Los Angeles Coliseum on Saturday, March 29, 2008, for an exhibition between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the reigning World Series champion Boston Red Sox.1

It outdrew the crowd of “about 114,000”2 who had seen a game at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Australia during the 1956 Olympic Games.3

The 2008 game was held to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Dodgers moving from Brooklyn to Los Angeles. The first regular-season major-league game the Dodgers played in LA was at the Coliseum, on April 18, 1958. They beat the San Francisco Giants, 6-5, before a crowd of 78,672, itself a single-game regular-season record attendance at the time.4 The Dodgers played in the Coliseum for four seasons before moving to Dodger Stadium in 1962.

The Coliseum, which had opened in 1923, had hosted many different events over the years, from religious crusades and rock ’n’ roll shows to college and professional football and the 1932 and 1984 Summer Olympics. The largest draw was for the final night of the Billy Graham Crusade on September 8, 1963. A crowd of 134,254 filled the bowl to overflowing, according to a Los Angeles Times report, “to hear evangelist Billy Graham preach the climax to his Southern California crusade against materialism and sin.”5

Demand for the 2008 ballgame tickets had been high. Two days beforehand, it was reported that more than 100,000 tickets had already been sold.6

The Times noted of the venue: “A normal sell-out is 92,000. For Saturday’s event, which raised more than $1 million for the Dodgers’ ThinkCure charity, more than 23,000 extra tickets were sold for bench-style seating beneath the peristyle and a standing-room area behind the right-field fence, a sort of baseball mosh pit.”7

The Coliseum exhibition game was one of three the Red Sox and Dodgers played that weekend. The other two were at Dodger Stadium, which seated 56,000. Los Angeles won both games at Dodger Stadium, beating Boston 3-1 on March 28 and shutting out the Red Sox, 8-0, two days later.8

The Coliseum was an odd place to play baseball, though, in its 2008 configuration. The distance to the left-field foul pole was 201 feet. It was noted that in the Little League World Series games, the left-field barrier was 225 feet from home.9 There was little room between home plate and the backstop; runners would have to hesitate on any wild pitch or passed ball. Plate umpire Chris Tiller also recalled, “There was no batter’s eye in the outfield. You couldn’t see anything.”10

Netting that was 60 feet high was put up to protect fans in left field. More than one article referred to the modified football stadium as a “wiffle ball-sized field.”11 With a power alley of 280 feet to left-center, Clay Buchholz said it was like fields he’d played on when he was 12. Given the odd dimensions, Boston catcher Jason Varitek jokingly predicted before the game: “Dodgers 85, Red Sox 81.”12 Red Sox manager Terry Francona said, “It’s more of an event. We’re just going to have to be flexible.”13

Flexibility was the word of the day for the Red Sox, who had been on a whirlwind. They had already started their regular season, leaving Grapefruit League play to open in Tokyo, with two exhibition games and then the first two games of the 2008 season at the Tokyo Dome against the Oakland Athletics.

Those games drew more than 44,000 on March 25 to see Boston win in 10 innings, 6-5. Oakland won, 5-1, a day later, before a similarly sized crowd.14 Three days after that game, likely more than a little jet-lagged, the Red Sox were to play the Dodgers on a weirdly shaped playing field before the largest crowd to ever watch a baseball game.15

In terms of getting ready for the long haul of the season, Francona said, “This is probably not the best atmosphere to prepare a team – but the concept is tremendous. We’ll try to respect the occasion, but the idea is not only get prepared for the season but don’t get unprepared.”16

The Dodgers had been equally busy. They had played their first 18 spring-training games in Florida, then played on March 15 and 16 in Beijing, China, against the San Diego Padres.

China was getting ready to host the 2008 Olympic Games but was on edge due to troubles in Tibet. The first Beijing game, played before 12,224 at Wukesong Stadium, ended in a 3-3 tie.17 The Padres won the next day, 6-3, as those Dodgers who had been left behind in Florida traveled on to Arizona.18

Security was exceptionally tight; whenever CNN showed something on Tibet, local Beijing TV screens went blank. One reporter counted 67 police, soldiers, and security guards outside the Dodgers clubhouse.19 The Dodgers returned to the United States and played six games in Arizona from March 20 to 25.

The temperature on March 29 was 56 degrees at game time. The first pitch was at 7:17 P.M. There was a mild 6-mph wind out toward center field.

The Boston Globe’s Dan Shaughnessy wrote, “The Dodgers didn’t even bother with a left fielder.”20 Manager Joe Torre and the Dodgers employed a five-man infield. The Associated Press opined, “Too bad they weren’t allowed to put a player or two in the Los Angeles Coliseum stands.”21 The AP report detailed that “center fielder Andruw Jones played behind second base on the skin of the infield at the start, with left fielder Andre Ethier in center, leaving left field unprotected.”

The game at the Coliseum featured starting pitchers Esteban Loaiza for the Dodgers and Tim Wakefield for Boston. David Ortiz doubled in the first but got no farther. Swinging at Wakefield’s first pitch in the bottom of the inning, Rafael Furcal lined a ball into left field that hit the wall … and was fielded in the corner by shortstop Julio Lugo.

Furcal held at first with a single. He took second on Wakefield’s wild pickoff throw to first base, moved to third on catcher Russell Martin’s fly ball to right, and scored on Ethier’s sacrifice fly to left. It was 1-0, Dodgers.

Loaiza struck out the first two Red Sox batters, Kevin Youkilis and Coco Crisp, but Jacoby Ellsbury reached on a ball misplayed at third base. When he stole second, it was Andruw Jones – the center fielder – who attempted the tag. Bobby Kielty walked. Catcher Kevin Cash homered to left-center, to the right of the screen and maybe 20 rows deep.22 Boston led, 3-1.

In the Dodgers second, Matt Kemp one-hopped a ball off the left-field wall, again fielded by shortstop Lugo. They did not score.

In the top of the third, Youkilis homered over the screen in left field, which NESN broadcaster Don Orsillo said was 62 feet high – 25 feet higher than Fenway Park’s Green Monster, but much closer to home plate. It was 5-1, Red Sox.

In the fourth, Ellsbury was caught stealing, 2-8, center fielder Jones taking the throw from catcher Martin.

Boston scored twice more in the top of the fifth. With runners on second and third, Alex Cora singled into left-center and drove both in.

The Red Sox nearly pulled off a triple play in the bottom of the sixth. They got runners on second and third with nobody out in the seventh, but Dodgers pitching and defense prevented either from scoring.

The score held at 7-1 until the bottom of the seventh. Los Angeles’ James Loney led off with a home run off reliever Bryan Corey, completely over the screen like the one Youkilis had hit in the third. Kemp singled up the middle and into center. Two more singles followed, but Corey escaped further damage.

In the bottom of the ninth, with closer Jonathan Papelbon on the mound, Kemp picked up his third hit of the game, a hard-hit ball to short, knocked down but without the possibility of a play. With two outs and Kemp on, third baseman Blake DeWitt homered over the right-field fence into the crowd of standees. It was 7-4. Two more Dodgers reached base, which brought up the potential tying run in Jason Repko, who had replaced Ethier in center. Papelbon struck out Repko and the game was over.

The Red Sox had used four pitchers; the Dodgers had used six. Wakefield got the win; Loaiza bore the loss. Boston used 19 players, Los Angeles, 16. Each team had 10 base hits, no one from the Red Sox getting more than one. Thanks to runners on base when they hit their homers, Cash had three RBIs and Youkilis had two. Kemp had three hits for LA. DeWitt had two RBIs and Ethier and Loney had one apiece.

When all was said and done, Hall of Fame Dodgers Spanish-language broadcaster Jaime Jarrín, who had called his first game at the Coliseum in 1959, put it this way: “It’s not a game. It’s a celebration. What a spectacular night.”23

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Kevin Larkin and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Sources

As an exhibition game, it is not included in the box scores and play-by-play listings of either Baseball-Reference.com or Retrosheet.org, but we are fortunate in that the New England Sports Network (NESN) broadcast of the game is available in full on YouTube.com:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOcKbUr2aMM

A box score is available on MLB.com:

https://www.mlb.com/gameday/red-sox-vs-dodgers/2008/03/29/237641/final/box

Thanks to Mark Langill for information about Dodgers spring training in 2008.

Photo credits: Jacob Pomrenke.

Notes

1 “Largest Attendance at a Baseball Match, guinessworldrecords.com, accessed February 22, 2024, https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/largest-attendance-at-a-baseball-match/. For more on baseball at the Coliseum, see Don Zminda, “A Home Like No Other: The Dodgers in L.A. Memorial Coliseum,” The National Pastime (SABR: Phoenix, 2011). https://sabr.org/journal/article/a-home-like-no-other-the-dodgers-in-l-a-memorial-coliseum/.

2 Associated Press, “Red Sox Beat Dodgers 7-4 Before 115,300 Fans at Los Angeles Coliseum,” Foxnews.com, March 30, 2008. https://www.foxnews.com/story/red-sox-beat-dodgers-7-4-before-115300-fans-at-los-angeles-coliseum.

3 Baseball was a demonstration sport, so that, too, was an exhibition game, between the Australian national team (of amateurs) and an American team “made up of service members of the United States Far East Command.” BR Bullpen, “1956 Olympics,” Baseball-Reference.com, accessed February 22, 2024, https://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/1956_Olympics. It was said that the Melbourne game “was not well advertised and there were only a few thousand fans in the stands at the start of the game. As the game wore on, fans waiting to see the track and field events began to arrive, and by the game’s end an estimated 114,000 were in attendance.” The US team – managed by Ron Darling – won, 11-5.

4 Art Ryon, “78,672 See Dodgers Beat Giants 6 to 5,” Los Angeles Times, April 19, 1958: 21. On September 12, 1954, some 86,563 fans had filled Cleveland’s Municipal Stadium for a doubleheader against the New York Yankees.

5 Jerry Crowe, “Text Messages from Press Row,”  Los Angeles Times, March 27, 2008: D2. In addition, “[a]n additional 20,000 were estimated to have listened on loudspeakers in Exposition Park.” Decision Magazine Staff, “Los Angeles 1963,” July 21, 2020. https://www.billygraham.ca/stories/los-angeles-1963/. The Rolling Stones played the Coliseum on October 9, 1981, and drew an estimated 94,000, for a show opened by Prince, George Thorogood and the Destroyers, and the J. Geils Band. See Bryan Wawzenek, “The Time Prince Got Booed off the Rolling Stones’ Stage,” UltimateClassicRock.com, October 8, 2016. https://ultimateclassicrock.com/prince-booed-rolling-stones/. The author of this article attended the 1981 event.

6 Steve Hymon, “Dodgers Hope Parking Fears Off Base,” Los Angeles Times, March 28, 2008: B2.

7 Paul Pringle, “A Squeeze Play for L.A.,” Los Angeles Times, March 30, 2008: A1.

8 The March 30 game was a one-hitter, the one hit surrendered by Clayton Kershaw in his four innings of work. Kershaw was assigned to Double-A Jacksonville, but not long afterward was called up to the big leagues for his major-league debut on May 25.

9 Dodgers catcher Russell Martin said, “This might be the only place Juan Pierre could go opposite-field home run.” Bill Shaikin, “Baseball from Another Dimension,” Los Angeles Times, March 30, 2008: D1. When the Dodgers played regular-season baseball in the Coliseum (1958-1961), the distance to the left-field foul pole was 250 feet.  There was a screen atop the left-field wall then, too. See Zminda.  

10 Chris Tiller, interview with author, November 8, 2023. Tiller, who flew in from Arizona just the day before, was working with a veteran crew of crew chief Derryl Cousins, Paul Emmel, and Brian Runge. Tiller was in Triple A at the time. He worked the first of his 64 major-league games two months later, on May 28. Perhaps his favorite memory was watching Kareem Abdul-Jabbar bury the ceremonial first pitch in the dirt well in front of the plate, then ask him for another ball, and toss a perfect skyhook over the plate. Tiller also recalled that the crew almost arrived late, held up by the large crowds arriving at the stadium.

11 Kevin Baxter, “Fun for All Inside the Crazy Confines,” Los Angeles Times, March 30, 2008: D14. Ihe NESN broadcast said it was 417 feet to straightaway center and 300 feet to the right-field foul pole.

12 Alex Cora had said, “It’s been such a difficult week. Hopefully it’s not like a USC (football) score.” Associated Press, “Red Sox Beat Dodgers 7-4 Before 115,300 Fans at Los Angeles Coliseum.”

13 Baxter. Baxter quoted Alex Cora: “‘It’s a true exhibition game,’ said Boston infielder Alex Cora, who admitted he wasn’t totally sure what would be exhibited. But he was willing to go along since the game was a benefit for the Dodgers’ anti-cancer charity ThinkCare. ‘If the fence is 100 feet [away], it’s 100 feet. It doesn’t matter. It’s for a great, great cause. I’m more impressed by the number of seats out there.”

14 To read about the Japan Series in 2008, see Bill Nowlin, “2008 Opening Series Boston Red Sox vs. Oakland Athletics,” in Robert K. Fitts, ed., Nichibei Yakyu: US Tours of Japan Vol. II, 1960-2019 (Phoenix: SABR, 2023). Spring training for the Red Sox had run from February 28 through March 19 in Florida. The team then flew to Japan and played exhibition games against the Hanshin Tigers (winning 6-5) and the Yomiuri Giants (winning 9-2) on March 22 and 23.

15 Boston Globe writer Dan Shaughnessy declared, “[T]he Sox are pretty tired of ‘appearances’ and meet-and-greet sessions with well-meaning sponsors, fans and foreign dignitaries; it’s hard to keep those frozen smiles going after a while – a guy can only be nice for so long.” He then quoted manager Francona: “Hey, it’s for charity. But I know I could hit that wall [the 60-foot ‘screen monster’] here, and there’s not many places I can say that.” Dan Shaughnessy, “Another Dimension to Sox Trip,” Boston Globe, March 30, 2008: E1, E16.

16 Gordon Edes, “Colon to Start Pawsox Opener,” Boston Globe. March 30, 2008: E16. After resuming the regular season with games in Oakland itself on April 1 and 2, the Red Sox traveled to their third country to play the Toronto Blue Jays on April 4-6. They won the two in Oakland but were swept in Toronto. In a 10-day stretch, they had played games in Japan, the United States, and Canada – and this exhibition game at the Coliseum. Exhausted though they may have been, the 2008 Red Sox made it all the way to the seventh game of the American League Championship Series before being beaten by Tampa Bay. The Dodgers won the NL West, and also made it to the NLCS, but lost out to the ultimate World Series champion Philadelphia Phillies.

17 “And the crowd booed when an announcement was made that the game would conclude at the end of the ninth inning.” Dylan Hernandez, “Dodgers in Beijing,” Los Angeles Times, March 16, 2008: D10.

18 Dylan Hernandez, “After Hectic 72 Hours, Dodgers Return Home,” Los Angeles Times, March 17, 2008: D10.

19 Kurt Streeter, “China’s Control Issues a Problem for Games,” Los Angeles Times, March 17, 2008: D1.

20 Shaughnessy.

21 Associated Press, “Red Sox Beat Dodgers 7-4 Before 115,300 Fans at Los Angeles Coliseum,” Foxnews.com, March 30, 2008. https://www.foxnews.com/story/red-sox-beat-dodgers-7-4-before-115300-fans-at-los-angeles-coliseum.

22 Given the relatively short distance, Cash allowed, “I thought I hit it good. You put it at Yankee Stadium, it’s probably not a home run. It was a home run here.” Associated Press, “Red Sox Beat Dodgers 7-4 Before 115,300 Fans at Los Angeles Coliseum.”

23 Baxter.