I was watching "The Wizard of Oz" the other night when it came to the part where Dorothy told the Scarecrow, "I think I'll miss you most of all," and it got me to thinking.

When we move away from California, probably sometime next year, what will I miss the most?

It's actually an easy call. Only one thing even comes to mind when I think of all the people and places, all the sights seen and unseen in the state where I was born.

I'll miss Dodger Stadium.

[caption id="attachment_192" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Heaven in Chavez Ravine"]<img class="size-medium wp-image-192" src="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/Dodger_Stadium_at_Night_-_September_2002-300x225.jpg" alt="Heaven in Chavez Ravine" width="300" height="225" />[/caption]

I thought about it the other day, and I realized I have probably gone to baseball games at Dodger Stadium more than 200 times in the 20 years I have been here.

Other than home or work or church, I don't know that there's anywhere else I have gone more than 200 times. There certainly isn't anyplace else I would rather have gone. I've seen exhibition games, regular season games and playoff games there, and I have seen the best baseball has to offer.

I saw Fernando Valenzuela pitch a no-hitter in 1990, although I missed Kevin Gross's no-hitter that same summer because I had a night off for a date. I actually missed Dennis Martinez pitching a perfect game -- aargh! -- against the Dodgers the next summer because I had a weekend off.

I got the chance to do something wonderful for myself and my children in 2001 and 2002. I purchased four single-game tickets in a silent auction to benefit the La Canada High School Band. The tickets were box seats in the very first row just beyond the dugout on the third-base side. The first year I took Virgile and two of his friends, and the next year I took Pauline, her future husband Ryan and my friend Mick Curran.

The most humorous part of all of it was that I have been going to baseball games for more than 50 years and have never had a foul ball hit to me. Virgile got two in the first five innings in our front-row seat.

Maybe you have to live in Southern California and be a Dodger fan to appreciate how wonderful the stadium is. There aren't a ton of luxury boxes, and the stadium is nearly 50 years old so it lacks the gimmicks a lot of newer ones have. But between the balmy weather, the great view out past the fence and the voice of Vin Scully, there really is no place in the world like it.

Ry Cooder's wonderful album, "Chavez Ravine," tells the story of Mexicans in Los Angeles and of the thriving neighborhood that was destroyed to make room for the stadium. In the climactic song, his Latino character sings of heaven:

<em>"... and if you wanna know where I'm gonna go when I hit my last home run ... third base, Dodger Stadium."</em>

Me too.