After Tuesday night’s exciting Team USA 2-1 win over a highly favored Team Japan in front of a 33,462 at Dodger Stadium – the largest stadium in all of major league baseball with a seating capacity of 56,000 – I, like many, listened to MLB Network Radio’s “Round Trip,” hosted by former MLB general manager Jim Bowden and noted baseball analyst Jim Memolo on my drive home.

As you would expect, most of the discussion on the popular late night baseball talk show centered around the just-concluded WBC semifinal game between USA and Japan. And while the two radio show hosts were, for the most part, very complimentary of both Team USA and Team Japan, Bowden, as he so often does, went on a rant about how he was angry that there had not been a sellout crowd at Dodger Stadium for the second-to-last WBC game of the quadrennial event.

Now I’m not exactly certain where Bowden’s warm and comfortable in-home radio studio is located, but I am absolutely certain that it wasn’t in a chilly and very wet seat at Dodger Stadium. That’s right, Mr. Bowden, it drizzled (and at time downright rained) for nearly the entire three hour and 12 minute game.

While Bowden was (presumably) sitting in his warn and comfortable recliner, 33,462 die-hard baseball fans were dealing with this. (Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

As does every other ballpark in Major League Baseball, the announced attendance at Dodger Stadium is based on the actual number of tickets sold, not on the actual number of fannies in the seats. And while a (very) large percentage of those in attendance on Tuesday night sought shelter from the constant light drizzle in the covered concourses on every level of Blue Heaven on Earth (including yours truly), an even larger percentage braved the elements from their assigned seats.

Fans who braved Tuesday night’s inclement weather were treated to what was arguable the best WBC games yet. (Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

Now granted, 33,462 is a far cry from a Dodger Stadium sellout crowd of 56,000, but had most of those in attendance actually been in their seats, Bowden and everyone else watching the game on television would have seen a much fuller Dodger Stadium.

The point here is that those of us who love this game – and our respective countries – so much that we were willing to completely disregard less-than-perfect baseball viewing weather were there.

Jim Bowden was not.

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(Author’s note: Seeking shelter from the rain on Tuesday night came at a high cost. Because my friends and I had arrived early enough to secure barstool seats along the drink rail on the Field Level to be out of the rain, I was not in my normal season seats in the front row out in the Left Field Pavilion. Had I been there and as the guy who had taken advantage of my absence did, the game-winning ground rule double ball hit by Team USA’s (and Kansas City Royals) first baseman Eric Hosmer would have landed in my lap. Ugggh!

The trade-off for seeking shelter from the rain was not ending up with this Eric Hosmer ground rule double ball. (Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)