Westercon, Day 0: Baseball Outing
Jul. 1st, 2006 12:22 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kevin_standleeI have gone back and written up my travel in a backdated entry that, if I understand how this works, is not supposed to show up in friends list feeds. If it seems long, note that I originally had four pages of closely-written notes taken while I traveled, and I decided after typing the first page that it was more detail than even I wanted, and started over.
After my all-too-short nap this afternoon, Lisa and I went downstairs, where we found Judy Bemis handing out the tickets for the Baseball Outing. Alas, poor Jim Briggs, who was obliged to front the money to buy the group sale of tickets, is on the hook for a bunch of unsold tickets, as far fewer people ended up buying tickets than they expected. Claiming tickets for Lisa and me, we walked back to the light rail station.
A train was arriving just as we were. Fortunately, I knew exactly what kind of fare we wanted -- a $5 day tripper -- so we didn't miss the train. I heard later that the machine stopped accepting bills and would only take coins, which doubtless slowed down everyone else who wanted to take the trolley downtown.
We got there a bit over an hour before game time, which gave us time to wander around Petco Park and get a feel for things. We went down to the left field lower seats and milled around hoping that one of the Giants taking batting practice would hit one to us, or one of the players shagging balls would throw it into the stands. I called out, "Hey, send one up to a Giants fan!" and the player (who I didn't recognize and who wasn't wearing his number) tossed it toward me. Unfortunately, one of the Padres fans stuck his glove right in front of me and snagged it.
Walking completely around the park and up to the third level where our seats were, we bought a couple of bratwursts and drinks and found our seats. Other people were sitting in them, so we moved over in the lightly-populated section 327. Later, as the rest of those fans who had bought tickets trickled in, the seat-poachers moved down a row.
The game started out well enough, with the Giants scoring first. There were a group of Giants fans in the section above us who were in G-I-A-N-T-S body paint and were starting "Lets Go Giants!" chants. I stood up and waved at them, and they shouted appreciation my way. To call more attention to myself, I donned my hair's-on-fire Giants Orange Wig.
Unfortunately, the Padres tied things up, and while the Giants got a solo home run to take a 5-4 lead into the ninth, the Giants bullpen let another game get away, and the Padres won, 6-5.
We took our time walking back to the light rail station, where we had a short wait for a train going our way, but it was tolerable, and certainly far better than driving.
Petco Park is a good baseball park. I'd say it compares favorably to the place currently named AT&T Park where the Giants play. This was the first time I'd ever seen the Giants in person at a road game, and I'm glad I went, even though the results of the game displeased me. I thank Sandra and Jim for setting it up, but I'm sorry that so few people actually bought tickets after expressing such interest.
Now I must get some sleep. I'm not getting up early on Saturday.
After my all-too-short nap this afternoon, Lisa and I went downstairs, where we found Judy Bemis handing out the tickets for the Baseball Outing. Alas, poor Jim Briggs, who was obliged to front the money to buy the group sale of tickets, is on the hook for a bunch of unsold tickets, as far fewer people ended up buying tickets than they expected. Claiming tickets for Lisa and me, we walked back to the light rail station.
A train was arriving just as we were. Fortunately, I knew exactly what kind of fare we wanted -- a $5 day tripper -- so we didn't miss the train. I heard later that the machine stopped accepting bills and would only take coins, which doubtless slowed down everyone else who wanted to take the trolley downtown.
We got there a bit over an hour before game time, which gave us time to wander around Petco Park and get a feel for things. We went down to the left field lower seats and milled around hoping that one of the Giants taking batting practice would hit one to us, or one of the players shagging balls would throw it into the stands. I called out, "Hey, send one up to a Giants fan!" and the player (who I didn't recognize and who wasn't wearing his number) tossed it toward me. Unfortunately, one of the Padres fans stuck his glove right in front of me and snagged it.
Walking completely around the park and up to the third level where our seats were, we bought a couple of bratwursts and drinks and found our seats. Other people were sitting in them, so we moved over in the lightly-populated section 327. Later, as the rest of those fans who had bought tickets trickled in, the seat-poachers moved down a row.
The game started out well enough, with the Giants scoring first. There were a group of Giants fans in the section above us who were in G-I-A-N-T-S body paint and were starting "Lets Go Giants!" chants. I stood up and waved at them, and they shouted appreciation my way. To call more attention to myself, I donned my hair's-on-fire Giants Orange Wig.
Unfortunately, the Padres tied things up, and while the Giants got a solo home run to take a 5-4 lead into the ninth, the Giants bullpen let another game get away, and the Padres won, 6-5.
We took our time walking back to the light rail station, where we had a short wait for a train going our way, but it was tolerable, and certainly far better than driving.
Petco Park is a good baseball park. I'd say it compares favorably to the place currently named AT&T Park where the Giants play. This was the first time I'd ever seen the Giants in person at a road game, and I'm glad I went, even though the results of the game displeased me. I thank Sandra and Jim for setting it up, but I'm sorry that so few people actually bought tickets after expressing such interest.
Now I must get some sleep. I'm not getting up early on Saturday.
