A Dodger tribute to Mormon Pioneers
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LOS ANGELES — The Church kicked off the celebration of Pioneer Day in a big way, spilling over into Dodger Stadium on Friday, July 23. Through the efforts of the Church's Southern California Public Affairs Council, the Dodgers agreed to cooperate with the commemoration that weekend of Brigham Young's arrival in the Salt Lake Valley by allowing a pioneer exhibit to be set up outside the stadium.
Though Church organizers asked the Dodgers for the significant date relating to Utah's history, the display they assembled told the story of the Mormon pioneers of Southern California. The exhibit included three covered wagons, a pioneer band providing music, and demonstrations of rope making, quilting and making of rag dolls.
Fans arriving at the game were able to mingle with members of the Church clad in pioneer attire at the display outside the outfield pavilions.
The Dodgers went along with the idea because of the Church's support of the team, according to Sonja Eddings Brown of the Southern California Public Affairs Council. She noted that the Church is the largest, single-game group client for the team.
The Church easily sold out it's allotment of about 10,500 tickets for the game, providing a good portion of a happy throng sent home by Adrian Beltre's ninth-inning home run that gave the first-place Dodgers a 3-2 victory over the second-place San Diego Padres.
Elder R. Randall Huff, an Area Authority Seventy, was pleased to note that Church attendance accounted for about a fifth of the record crowd of 55,311, announced as the largest to attend a regular-season game in the 42-year history of Dodger Stadium.
Besides the display outside the stadium, the Church was recognized in many other ways. Several members of the Church were honored in pregame ceremonies. In the third inning, a clip from the Church video "More Precious Than Gold, Contributions of the Mormon Battalion," depicting California pioneers, was shown on the giant outfield video screen as the public address announcer spoke of the Church. At various times during the game, the scoreboard displayed a welcome to the Church as well as the names of all the Southern California stakes participating. Also, the missionaries clustered in a section of the upper deck were spotlighted several times on the video screen.
The Church sold out all the seats in the outfield pavilions, the upper deck and other areas of the stadium.
Sister Brown said that the Church has had a relationship with the Dodgers for nearly 10 years of Mormon nights, but this year was the first when the Church's pioneer heritage was honored.
E-mail to: ghill@desnews.com
