Giants vs. Cubs
Last night Sean and I went to the Giants game with our friends Jill and Rob. Fortunately Sean reminded me to take a sweatshirt. I had forgotten that while it is beautiful and 80F degrees on the Peninsula, it is always freezing in the summer in San Francisco. Sean and I cruised up to the city on Caltrain, and as we got to about Brisbane the train started getting colder and colder. I was kind of worried that I should have brought a scarf, but fortunately it was fairly nice out when we got toAT&T Park.
It was kind of funny, because when we finally got to the stadium, we had to wait a couple of minutes for Jill & Rob. I mentioned to Sean that the Willie Mays statue in front of the ballpark has really turned into an unofficial meeting spot. Just as I said that, this woman walks by and asked her husband why all of these people were just milling around. :)
Once Jill & Rob showed up, we all confirmed that we were starving, and food was a top priority. As we were walking to our seats along the outer wall of the stadium, the announcers showed a video advertising Gilroy Garlic Fries behind centerfield. Jill and I promptly headed over to the stand while the boys went to scout for hot dogs and beer. I was puzzled why there was a huge container of free candy sitting next to the register until I realized they were mints the workers were giving away for your breath after you eat the fries!
The game was sold out, 41,000 screaming fans in attendance, so our awesome bleacher seats were fairly packed. We played musical chairs about 10 times throughout the evening as people were mostly sitting wherever they wanted to rather in their assigned "seat".
I'd have to say that the game was rather uneventful, until the last two innings. The Cubs were up a couple of runs, then the Giants caught up, then the Cubs scored another run to leave the game 6-5 in the bottom of the ninth. There were a bunch of rowdies in the bleachers, so there was a lot of trash talking by pompous Cubs fans and angry Giants fans, I felt badly for the parents of the young kids - hee hee.
Down just one run, our Giants batter got up to bat with 2 outs and hit a triple! The crowd goes wild! The Giants put in a pinch hitter for the pitcher who was up next, and the guy just loses the whole game. Seriously, on the second pitch, he starts to swing and then stops, and gets a strike called on him! What the heck?!? Seriously, just swing at it! The whole crowd was chanting "Freddie! Freddie! Freddie!" and I think the pressure got to him. He just watched all three pitches fly by him. I mean, it is little league and softball 101 to at least go down swinging!
Anyway, by the end it was one of the most exciting if disappointing games I've been to in a long time. But the best part of the game was when the fireworks started, which were sponsored by Chevron. We giggled to ourselves that that was where ourgas money was going. The PA system was playing "Lights" by Journey, and just as the crowd sang the last, "I wanna get back to my city by the bay", they turned off all the house lights and the fireworks began.
It was a great show save the fog, so the fireworks looked more like glowing bursts of light, but hey, that is why we love San Francisco.
