Dodger Blue

How can we be expected to “Catch the Adventures of Dodger Blue,’ as the billboards around town so adamantly demand, when there are so many variations of it? The most familiar is Dodger Logo Blue, a rich royal blue like that of the new recycling bins, seen on the team’s logo and on the back of players’ uniforms (it’s what causes the letters spelling “PIAZZA’ to pop out so brightly). Then there’s Dodger Light Blue, a hybrid of blue, green and gray that, when examined in a paint dollop, looks more apropos for San Quentin’s cafeteria; however, slathered across Dodger Stadium’s top-deck stands and railings, it deepens and becomes a strangely satisfying canvas for a high fly. Finally, there’s New Fence Blue, the regal purplish blue found on the padding around the field’s periphery and on the stadium’s club level. The various Dodger Blues are concocted from secret formulas by John Villatoro, an employee at Par Paint, an otherwise unassuming paint store on Sunset Boulevard in Echo Park since 1949. Par Paint provides about 3,000 gallons of pigment to Dodger Stadium per season--not just the blues, but the yellows and oranges as well--an account it has handled for 20 years. Villatoro admits he is distracted at games by the large expanses of his handiwork: “Yeah, I look out at the stadium and I say, ‘It’s all my colors.’ ‘