Sunday, noon:

The gameplan that the team distributed went something like this:
For Sunday:
1:10 pm: Dodgers vs. San Francisco Giants game
Post game: Check in (begins roughly 1 hour after game ends) in at the Loge Terrace, Lot 5. Sign a release form, receive a wrist band and get a goody bag that included, among other things, a towel, an alarm clock and a soft pillow.
7 – 8 pm: Dinner by Outback Steakhouse at Loge Terrace
After dinner:Relocate your cars to lots 8/10
8:30– 10 pm: Activities and entertainment on the outfield grass
8:30 pm: "Dodger Blue: The Championship Years" video on DodgerVision screen
10:00 pm: Late night movie on DodgerVision
Midnight: Bed-time, lights lowered
For Monday:
7:00 am: Rise and shine!
7– 8 am: Breakfast served in pavilion
8 am: Event concludes

These were the rules and regulations (noting that everything was subject to change at the sole discretion of the Dodgers):
-Event will occur rain or shine
-No tents will be allowed on the field -- blankets, pillows, and sleeping bags only!
-No food and beverages other than water may be consumed on the playing field
-All children must be with a parent or chaperone
-Restrooms in the pavilions will be available for use during the night
-No showers will be available while you are at the Sleepover

At $300 a head, or $1,000 for a family of four (with two of the kids 14 and under), the Dodgers were entering new turf. The Chicago White Sox were the first to try it. The San Francisco Giants have done it a few years now, too. This was the Dodgers' first shot to see how it'd go, and they used the last game before the All-Star break so that if there was any damage to the field, there'd be time to fix it.

Temporary fences (above) marked the part of center field that was available to the campers, with a few inflatable kid-friendly things along the outfield wall like a bounce-house, slide, jousting area and mini boxing ring (with large puffy gloves).

How much fun one could have seemed relative, and how many relatives you came with. There was one person who paid for about 20 kids to attend. One drove in from Texas, leaving his wife off in Las Vegas, so he could do it. Another said he flew in all the way from New York and hadn't been to the stadium before until he attended Thursday's Dodgers-Giants game. One guy used the opportunity to propose to his girl, and it was captured by one of the many local TV crews that came by to see what was going on.

This is the couple we pegged right from the start as the one who'd be caught doing something that kids really shouldn't be seeing. Here, it looks like they're packing a few extra beers into their sleeping bags before going through a security check. They soon realized that the security was checking everything pretty well, and a few minutes after this shot, they were going back to their car to stash the coolies. This is why tents weren't allowed.

But we'll get back to them later.

My car was loaded up with as much stuff as I figured I could realistically bring in. But when I showed up with my beach chair, I was told that wasn't going to happen. I had my sleeping bag, a baseball glove, a "personal belongings" bag (nothing out of the ordinary, just another T-shirt, a pullover sweater, another pair of socks, plus a fully-charged laptop, digital camera and cellphone.

6:15 p.m.: At the loge-level outside terrace pregame barbeque (a hamburger and some fries, plus a soda), team owner Frank McCourt made an appearance to thank everyone. The campers had the cameras clicking while former Dodgers Willie Davis and Bobby Castillo sat almost anonymously in the shade, available to sign any autographs for anyone who recogized them.

7:45 p.m.: "Vin Scully Is My Homeboy" says the homemade T-shirt that belonged to Chatsworth's Lauren Pinto, an education major at Cal State Northridge and a Providence High of Burbank grad. She and her boyfriend, Brad Smith of Burbank and UC Riverside, staked out a spot next to the temporary white fence behind second base. As for the T-shirt, Lauren says: "My hope is he (Scully) sees it someday, and then we have this long conversation and then we become best friends for life." Brad quickly adds: "She's not kidding."

Outside the white barrier near the left-field line, some Dodger employees organized relay races for the kids. Most involved running on hands and knees, or exaggerated crawling. Not sure if any of them realized they kept going through a large pile of sunflower seed shells that no doubt Barry Bonds had left behind earlier in the day.

8:30 p.m.: The air seems to be a bit more chilly now that sun has gone down, and the sleeping bags are getting damp fast. Half the crowd has put on sweatshirts or climbed into their bags as the Dodger championship video plays on the screen. Only the lights behind the Stadium Club along the first base line, and another couple of banks along the left-field line are on.

9:45 p.m.: A Channel 7 TV crew, one of several who are now shing their camera spotlights into campers' faces, starts making the rounds. One of the cameramen talk to Dodgers spokesman Josh Rawitch, telling him there are some couples who've admitted their gameplan includes being able to tell their friends that they did it in the Dodgers Stadium outfield. Rawitch maintains that's not going to happen since this is a family-minded promotion and security is on the prowl.

Eventualy, Lon Rosenberg, the Dodgers' head of stadium operations, starts going around to some couples asking them to not zip their bags together. A couple situationed just a few yards away seems a bit perturbed, mostly because they've done it to stay warm because of the chill.

"They could have said something earlier," the blone-haired woman remarks. "I think they're just making up the rules as they go along."

Before Rosenberg can ask Lauren and Brad to break it up, Lauren responds: "We know, we heard."

Lauren, who now really isn't interested in watching the feature movie of choice -- they're showing something called "Duma," about a boy in Africa who raises a cougar and has nothing to do with baseball -- eventually chimes in the who's sleeping with who issue: "I can see why they'd do it, but I mean, if we were going to do it, you'd know, and then you can ask us to leave. But I'm cold and don't have a lot of warmth in this bag."

10:30 p.m.: Yes, it's cold even for us single guys. It feels like going through the frozen food section at the supermarket with that chill coming off the meat coolers.

Remember our couple in question? They'd been camping out near the AM/PM sign at the 375 marker in right center field, and now they're packing their things and heading out back through the center-field gates. Another couple in front of us is also getting their things together to leave. I ask why. They both just start giggling. "I'm from Phoenix, and I'm not used to this cold weather," the girl with the pink Dodgers had and pink top says. They both laugh again.

Rawitch admits the couples refused to sleep seperately and decided they'd rather go home with a refund. Although Rawitch and media relations assistant Crystal Fukomoto have brought their sleeping bags to join the crowd, they head back to the stadium's club level where they can each find a couch in a luxury box to sleep on that's a little less soggy as the night dew starts to thicken.

11 p.m. The line for pizza and chips out in the center-field area starts to finally thin out. There's not a lot of demand for the two portable bathrooms set up. Most have lost interested in the movie except for the kids loaded up with sugar who continue to play pickle with other kids around the campers.

11:45 p.m.: The movie's over, the stadium lights go out, then a bank of lights above the first base line come up -- right in my eyes. Because it's cold enough, I'm pulling my head inside the sleeping bag. But then it gets too warm, so I keep popping back out. The full moon above the top level would have provided enough of a night light, but that seems now to be secondary to the low hum of some generators running the lights...

Just as long as that guy across the way doesn't give me a full moon when he gets out of his bag to find the portapotty.

It's easy to drift in and out of sleep ...

If only I could ... stay ... awake ...

5:35 a.m.: Daybreak. There's something you'll never get to see, no matter how many extra innings a game might go: The sun coming up over the right field pavilion. The chirping from the birds and cackling from the crows picking over the garbage still left from the previous day's game echo loudly through the empty seats and serve as an interesting wake-up call.

Can't tell you how disorientating it is to open your eyes, see wet grass, then empty yellow seats and smell the remnants of Dodger Dogs and some stale beer to get you wondering what the heck happened to you before everything went black. "Did I do something stupid? Do I have a ride home? Wait, I'm sober."

Another TV news crew has its portable lights flashing bright, so that adds to more disorientation. The Channel 11 reporter already has the microphone in camper's faces:
"So how was it?!"
"It was great."
"So how was it?!?"
"Awesome."
"So how was it?!?"
"Who are you?"

If I didn't need to use the restroom so bad, I might have stayed in the bag and tried to wake up slower. I'm glad i slept with my shoes on inside the bag, otherwise they'd be pretty wet to get back into. My pillow felt like it had just been fished out of a lake.
A few other campers had a better idea and just kept sleeping, even if they were pretending, while a few kids were already up and playing catch again -- one of them, a kid who brought his grandmother along for the adventure (above).

6 a.m.: The cleanup crew began rattling broomsticks and trash cans up and down the aisles of the stadium, so falling back asleep wasn't much of an option. I climbed out of the bag and started to wonder again why I decided to do this.
I looked back toward home plate as the morning sun hit the pitcher's mound (above), which was covered. I figured I was probably at about the spot where the Dodgers' shortstop might be shifted if Barry Bonds was the batter, to the right of second base. I could imagine the pitcher getting into his windup and trying to jam Bonds in on the hands, and then watching as a second baseman makes another step or two toward the right-field line. The perspective from this spot seemed pretty far away, but if ...

Then a gnat flew up my nose and spoiled the whole fantasy.

7:30 a.m.: Walking back to the car dragging the wet sleeping bag and groggy from the whole thing, it seemed like a pretty cool thing to do. Once. If only for bragging sake. There are some bugs I'm sure the team will work out -- such as making it much more clear beforehand that anyone doing this to join the "I Had Sex at Dodger Stadium Club" best not even spend the money.

Rosenberg told me just about everyone said the experience was worth it. One woman went home because she had a headache. Another went home because the thought of a nice warm bed felt better than the hard outfield turf. It's definitely a camper's mentality that's needed. Especially without a shower to run to once you needed to get up and, for some, head off to a morning of work.

At least I'll be able to look out at the field whenever I come to the stadium for years now and see the spot behind second base.

That's where I did it.

Slept, that is. Isn't that enough to brag about?

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOOXOXOXOXOXOOXOXOXOXOOXOXOXOOXOXOXOXOXOOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Here are more photos of how the event played out:

Stadium employees check in the campers at the loge terrace before the dinner Sunday night.

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The facilities. No shower? No worry.

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The bouncehouse was an early casuality. But it didn't let the air out of the rest of the evening's fun.

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Brad and Lauren have their bag situation figured out.

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Getting this up-close-and-personal with the stadium facilities, you get to see all the nooks and crannies in the outfield wall. Remember back when it was just light-blue painted plywood? The plywood is still there, but with a much thicker cushion. But you can see how the wood gets beat up from day-to-day use.
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Some of the insomniacs weren't ready to sleep when the lighs were dimmed.

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The sun inches higher up behind the right-field pavilion

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The stadium cleaning crew works on the loge level at about 6 a.m., after the previous day's trash has been piled up and needs to be bagged.

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While her better half slept, this woman snaps off a few pictures at daybreak. He eventually woke up to have a catch with her. (And they were the ones complaining about the Dodgers "making up the rules" as they went along).

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She had the right idea. Maybe she's got earplugs, too.

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Excuse me while I flash a camera in your face while you're trying to sleep.

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Dad lines the boys up for one last shot before heading to breakfast.

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This group of ladies go over the minutes of their latest Ya-Ya Sisterhood meeting.

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My spot? Naw, it wasn't too bad.

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Drive home safely. Or, drive to work quickly.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOOOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

A post script:

Lisa Leff, an Associated Press writer in San Francisco, wrote recently about taking her 8-year-old daughter to the June 21 annual promotion at AT&T Park, the Giants' home field, that allowed fans to spend the night on the outfield grass.

The tickets were $180, down from $300 that the team charged in past years.

"I'll admit the price of entry colored my experience," Leff wrote. "I showed up expecting club seat treatment, only to encounter conditions that felt decidedly more like the bleachers."

The stadium was still full of litter from that day's 6-3 loss to the Angels. Everyone was awakened at daybreak by the sounds of the crew washing down the seats. By the time she got around to getting a cup of coffee at 7 a.m., the urn was empty.

"Yet my appreciation for having done something unique grew as we trudged back to my office five blocks away," Leff concluded. "People on their way to work grinned at a little girl wearing a Giants T-shirt, her brother's hand-me-down baseball pants and a 49ers. A week later, the minor aggravations had receded. I still don't know if sleeping where (Barry) Bonds spits is worth $180. But I do know that even though we skipped having our picture taken by a team photographer, the longest night of the year produced memories I'll savor for a long time."