If you haven’t heard by now, Dodger fans recently took over Yankee Stadium; not figuratively but literally … sort of.

On Monday night, September 12, there were 1,311 members of the Los Angeles-based Pantone 294 fan group who traveled on seven separate flights from Los Angeles to New York and converged on Yankee Stadium in support of their beloved Dodgers; this in addition to countless other Dodgers fans who made the trip on their own and thousands more who live in New York. In other words, a very good percentage of the 32,058 in attendance to watch the Dodgers pound the Yankees were wearing Dodger Blue.

“It was as energetic as I’ve seen. That energy picked us up,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of the Pantone 294 group. “[Our fans] travel well, but that was more than I expected. On a Monday, we might have caught the Yankee fans off guard a little bit.”

Although there were officially 1,311 tickets sold by Pantone 294, there were far more than that down the left field line at Yankee Stadium last Monday night.
(Photo credit – Ron Cervenka. Click on image to enlarge)

But who are these guys? And what the heck is a Pantone 294 anyway? The answer to that is one of pure genius and the brainchild of 28-year-old Huntington Park resident Alex Soto, a lifelong Dodger fan and longtime season ticket holder out in the Left Field Pavilion at Dodger Stadium.

“Pantone 294 is the official color tone of the Dodgers,” Soto said. “If you go into Home Depot and you want to paint your room Dodgers Blue, there’s a color chart. You can’t just say ‘royal blue,’ they’re going to say ‘Which blue? Baby blue? Hot blue? Blue? Light blue?’ There’s different shades of blue. Every color has a number. The official Dodger color is listed as Pantone 294.”

So when and how did Soto come up with the idea for his Pantone 294 fan group?

“It was in March or April 2009. I like to travel and people know that I like to organize things,” Soto said. “When I go on road trips I like to plan things out instead of just showing up.

“I was sitting in the Left Field Pavilion one day with a couple other season ticket holders and someone said ‘Hey you know what? We should go to San Francisco, take a bus and just have fun,'” Soto added. “‘Well who’s going to do it?’ I asked, and everybody looked at me and I said ‘Alright cool, I’ll call the bus company.’ I bought the tickets and everybody came to me and we traveled to San Francisco. It was just an amazing experience. It started in a garage in Huntington Park but it was born in the Left Field Pavilion at Dodger Stadium.”

Soto said that for the first four years, they were simply known as “the people who go up north to San Francisco.” But all of that changed in 2013.

“There were six of us and in 2013 we said ‘You know what? Let’s make it more official. Let’s get a name out there, let’s get a logo, let’s get a website,'” said Soto. “We didn’t want anything that was gang-related or anything that sounded bad. We didn’t want a name like ‘Crew,’ we didn’t want ‘Pimps’ (the name of an earlier failed Dodgers fan group), we didn’t want ‘Army.’ We wanted a unique name that was tied to the Dodgers.

“For three months we couldn’t come up with a unique name and I was going to give up. I sent an email out to the other members in our group telling them let’s just forget it and they all replied saying ‘Don’t give up, you’re not a quitter.’ Later that day as I was taking a shower I thought to myself, ‘I need a new Dodger hat, mine is getting kind of old and beat up and all of a sudden it came to me. ‘I wonder what color the Dodger color is?’ Bam. I kid you not. It was just a body wash, didn’t do my hair, got out of the bathroom, got on my laptop looking for the official Dodger color. It took a couple minutes to find it and I was like boom – Pantone 294.

“I photoshopped a quick logo, sent it to a guy. Everybody said ‘That’s it, we’re Pantone 294.’ That’s how it happened. It took three months.”

The Pantone 294 logo.
(Image courtesy of Pantone 294)

Soto said that the number one question he frequently gets asked – often as many as 500 times a day (via social media) – is ‘How do I become a member of Pantone 294?’ His answer may surprise you.

“Anybody is welcome to join, everybody can go on the trips as long as you’re a Dodger fan and you don’t cause drama. Everybody’s welcome but there is no application to be submitted. But to be a Pantone you’ve got to be around. Most of the people who work for Pantone and work with Pantone have been around for three, four, five years, if not longer.

“So it’s not like ‘where do I apply,’ it’s more like first of all, you’ve got to be around, we’ve got to know who you are, we’ve got to get to know you and you’ve got to get to know us and we’ve got to be able to trust you. There’s a lot of inside scoop that goes on, it’s invite-only, but everyone is welcome on the trips.”

In addition to Yankee Stadium, the Pantone 294 (or Pantoneas, as Soto affectionately calls his group) traveled to AT&T Park in San Francisco (450 members), Chase Field in Arizona (500 members), Rogers Center in Toronto (200 members) and Petco Park in San Diego (800 members) this season and to PNC Park in Pittsburgh and Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia last season (50 members). But Soto readily admits that none of those trips required the amount of work and planning that went into the New York trip.

“I started on the New York trip on September 6, 2015,” Soto said. “I remember the date because it was the same day that the (2016) schedule came out. That same day, that’s when we called the Yankees. It takes about a year of planning.”

In addition to the games themselves, the Pantone 294 also make transportation arrangements, lodging arrangements and, as an added bonus, they offer their members a list of available side excursions at each city they visit. For the just-concluded New York trip, they visited Jackie Robinson’s gravesite at Cypress Hills Cemetery in Brooklyn, the site where Ebbets Field once stood, a tour of the Empire State Building, and the 9/11 Memorial and Museum.

The Pantone 294 pay their respects to the great Jackie Robinson at Cypress Hills Cemetery.
(Photo courtesy of @pantone294)

But hands down, the most incredible side excursion were the two hour-long cruises of the East River aboard the tour boat Zephyr.

“What a great tour!” said 63-year-old lifelong Brooklyn and LA Dodger fan William Isabella, who was born, raised and still lives in New York City. “I’ve lived here my entire life and have never taken this tour. It was great. And to do it with a bunch of Dodger fans made it even better.”

Seeing the Statue of Liberty at night was absolutely incredible.
(Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

According to Soto, 600 Pantone members took part in the two river cruises, which included a breathtaking night view of the Statue of Liberty and, of course, the spectacular New York skyline.

Taking the river tour on the 15th anniversary of 9/11 was quite emotional for many Pantone 294 members. (Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

You would think that there might be some issues when a large group of Dodger fans invade places like Yankee Stadium, AT&T Park, Petco Park and Chase Field, but to their credit, the Pantone 294 have never had even one reported incident of misconduct or impropriety, including Yankee Stadium.

“Not one problem. No one complained, security didn’t give us a hard time, no one got kicked out, no one got into a fight, we never said ‘Yankees suck,’ we respected the stadium and everybody had a blast,” Soto said. “Considering there were 1,500 people, seven planes, three hotels, two yachts, not one single complaint.”

So what is Alex Soto’s goal with the Pantone 294 group? Where does he go from here?

“The 2017 schedule came out two days ago and we already left a deposit with the Miami Marlins, the San Diego Padres and the San Francisco Giants,” Soto said. “We’re also planning to go to St.Louis, Colorado and Chicago (Cubs). For Chicago, we’ll probably have to go on Wednesday (April 12) or Thursday (April 13) because that Monday (April 10) is the Cubs’ Home Opener and we probably won’t be able to get enough tickets, but we’re going to Chicago. Other than Yankee Stadium, people want to go to Chicago.

“Our goal is to duplicate what we did at Yankee Stadium at every single stadium in every single city,” Soto added. “Our goal – we have one simple goal – to unite all Dodger fans everywhere we go. When we’re at Dodger Stadium everybody is at home but when we go on the road there’s not one group that unites us, there’s just Dodger fans scattered all over. So what we wanted to do is be a network of all Dodger fans uniting. Say we’re all in Colorado, let’s all meet at the same bar and let’s all eat together, let’s all get together. We want to convey what we experienced last Monday at Yankee Stadium everywhere. That’s our goal.”

That’s who the Pantone 294 are and what they are all about. You can learn more about them through their website at Pantone294.com. You can also follow them on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter (@Pantone294) for the latest news, information and photographs.