Bad Old Days

[kevin_standlee]

I took BART to the Oakland Coliseum yesterday evening to see game 1 of the "Bay Bridge Series" between the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland A's. Aside from having an excellent transit connection, the Coliseum reminds me of all of the worst parts of Candlestick Park: cold, windy, and poorly designed for actually handling crowds. But on the other hand, it rarely sells out, even for big games like this, so I could buy a ticket at the gate and waltz on in. Indeed, there were even some of the super-premium "diamond level" seats right behind home plate available if I'd wanted to drop $225, which I did not.

I found my way to my assigned seat and found that it was not the greatest place for someone wearing prominent Giants orange. (I was wearing a black long-sleeve shirt with an orange Giants t-shirt over it, plus my Giants cap with assorted pins.) It was a bunch of A's season-ticket holders, one of whom had turned in an unused ticket, which the A's had -- quite sensibly -- resold. They were good-natured enough about it, but joked that I should fear for my health sitting there.

I said, "Oh, I'm not worried, but if this were a Raiders game, I'd be taking out additional life insurance!"

Last night was a big celebration of A's pitcher Dallas Braden's perfect game. The A's presented him (and his grandmother, which I found touching) with prizes and awards and everyone cheered him, me included. A perfect game is an incredible feat -- his was only the 19th in the history of MLB -- and deserves the accolades.

In the middle of the third inning, seeing that a block of several seats two rows behind and one section to the left of me had never filled, and needing to do something for my freezing fingers, I excused myself from my seat, went up and bought a hot chocolate (mainly for the heat), and sat in the block of empty seats. This meant I missed the sequence where Barry Zito gave up three runs, which is just as well. As a bonus, most of the people in this area were wearing orange and black, not green and gold. Not surprisingly, there were lots of Giants fans at the game; unfortunately, their team didn't give the much of a chance to cheer for them.

It was not a very good night for the slumping Giants, who simply couldn't get a hit with runners in scoring position. Indeed, the only run they got was batted in from first. The A's won 6-1, and Barry Zito lost another game in his old home ball park.

At least getting home was simple enough, although I think it took something like twenty minutes to slowly inch my way through the sea of people working their way across the sky bridge from the Coliseum to the BART station. It was so crowded on the BART platform that I took the first train that arrived, even though it was going to Dublin/Pleasanton instead of Fremont, just to get clear of the crowd. I got off at the next station and boarded the Fremont train that was following the D/P train by about two minutes and rode back to Union City without further incident.

That exhausts my desire to go to the Coliseum for another season. And maybe my budget for seeing baseball games for the year, as I ended up buying a more expensive ticket than I originally intended simply because it was available. It was a great view of the field, though.

Comments

[garyomaha.livejournal.com]

We haven't seen a MLB game in a couple years -- whenever we visit a baseball city, they seem to plan ahead and be out of town. This summer we're going to Kansas City when the Royals will be out of town, and to Seattle when the Mariners will be out of town.

Perhaps we should schedule a trip somewhere around home games?

[cynthia1960.livejournal.com]

The Coliseum didn't use to suck for baseball. I curse Al Davis, that damned block of concrete in the outfield cuts out all the sun.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

As it's been about 30 years since I was last in the Coliseum, what is the block of concrete to which you refer?

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

"Mount Davis" is the derisive name given to the massive seating expansion built on the east side of the stadium in order to entice Al Davis to move the Raiders back to Oakland. It looms over the field, blocking the view of the hills, and gives the place a cavernous feeling. The A's got fed up with even good-size crowds looking lost in the place and tarped off most of the upper deck, taking the seats out of inventory except for a small economy-priced section high above home plate..

[cynthia1960.livejournal.com]

Seats and luxury boxes for football, derisively known as Mt. Davis.

[travelswithkuma.livejournal.com]

Kuma Bear like baseball by radio.
Ball parks do not server fresh fish.

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

That's true, although the fried fish at the Coliseum isn't bad. I know you like your fish fresher than that. We'll have to take you and Lisas to sushi restaurant.