We have been in the city for almost a month now and it should be no surprise that the short list of things we have done so far includes attending a Giants baseball game.
This year the Giants are celebrating their 50th anniversary of baseball in San Francisco and before the game they had a ceremony honoring a variety of former outfielders for the team. We knew ahead of time that we would see Willie Mays however we did not know until we got there that Barry Bonds would be there as well, making his first (we think) return to AT&T Park since playing his last game with the Giants last year. Both Mays and Bonds spoke briefly to the adoring crowd before the game.
Jeff was at AT&T Park once before but it was Renee's first trip to the park. It is an absolutely beautiful stadium with views of the Bay Bridge and downtown San Francisco from the concourse areas. Renee likes it because of the scenery. Jeff likes it because it was financed with relatively little taxpayer money. Although we didn't try most of it they offer a wide variety of traditional ballpark food and less-than-traditional food (sushi anyone?).
Fortunately for us the Giants were playing their cross-state rivals (the Los Angeles Dodgers) meaning we were going to witness whether or not west coast rivalries match the ferocity of east coast rivalries.
We have to admit that we were a bit disappointed in the intensity throughout the ballpark during the game. While there were certainly many Dodgers fans throughout the park (especially in our cheap - relatively speaking - seats) the game just didn't seem to boil the blood of fans such as we have both personally witnessed at Yankees-Red Sox games. Whereas both Giants and Dodgers fans would start chants such that would change letters around in certain words to avoid using actual profanity, Yankees and Red Sox fans seem to make up chants for the sole purpose of including as much profanity as possible.
There are a couple of possible explanations for this. First, the Giants aren't any good this year so the teams aren't exactly fighting for playoff position. However, despite the fact that the Dodgers aren't all that great either they are in the playoff hunt, which means that every game should be meaningful for them. Given that the game was important for at least one team we expected to feel a bit more electricity than we did.
We have a second theory as well. Our second theory is that fans (at baseball games at least) are less likely to spew hatred towards each other when they are too busy blowing on their hands to stay warm. The one thing the two of us are having a difficult time getting used to is the relatively cold summer weather in San Francisco. While we don't miss the upper 90's of Washington, DC we are a bit thrown off by the lack of summer heat. And at 9pm when the sun is down it gets downright cold in San Francisco. Consequently, the most popular stadium vendor at the game wasn't a beer guy (we don't even think we saw one) but the hot chocolate guy pictured below, who multiple times could not satisfy the demand in our section alone and had to leave to refill on both cups and hot chocolate.
Ed. note: If anyone leaves a comment with the word or even referencing steroids the comments section will be turned off until further notice
Barry Bonds and Willie Mays during the pregame ceremony
Barry Bonds addresses the crowd
The view from our Uecker seats
Gorgeous views throughout the ballpark
I'm not positive but I'm pretty sure this is the only ballpark where you can watch a game while sitting in a cable car
Renee at the stadium with the Bay Bridge in the background
Probably the most popular guy in the stadium after 8:30 p.m.
