Caroline Thorpe

Caroline and her husband Dale.

I know Caroline from my time at the Los Angeles Times. She was the Executive Secretary to the Publisher. She texted me a nice message tonight and I sent a long message explaining I had ALS. Then I looked back and saw I had already done that months ago so I texted back I was dumb and apologized. We had a nice conversation via texting tonight and it was great to hear from her. She was always a very classy lady to know. And we kept in touch after she left the Times and then over the past few years as well. She is one of the good ones I met at the Times.

I had several jobs during my 15 years at the Times, but I really got to know her when I was SVP of Operations and Home Delivery and our Publisher was Eddy Hartenstein. I discovered from chatting with Caroline that the dugout club seats for the Dodgers that the Times had had gone unused the previous night. That outraged me and I quickly volunteered to take any tickets that weren't being used. I am thoughtful that way. These seats are directly behind home plate in the second row from the field. But they come with a couple extras. Like excellent food, included in the price of the ticket. And a full desert bar which is to die for. And a station just outside the club on the way to the seats with peanuts, Cracker Jacks and anything else you would find in a ballpark. So Caroline would call me, I would guess I went to eight or ten games that year. Unfortunately for all of us, the paper had to make some cuts and they cut the purchase of the dugout clubs the next season. But I enjoyed it while it lasted. Lots of good memories!

Here is a picture from the game. Matthew our son is on the left, Ben Martinez a good friend of Matt's is next and then Sue my former wife.

Ben and Sue.

This a picture of the dugout club behind home plate empty.

And here it is filled with patrons.