Wednesday, July 2, 2008

San Francisco

On Travel

AT&T Park
AT&T Park, 2008
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Chicago Cubs vs. San Francisco Giants
AT&T Park
Major League Baseball, National League
San Francisco, CA
7:15 PM


Outside the Game:
I knew this day would be the riskiest travel day of my trip, as I not only had to fly in from Denver, but also pick up a rental car and drive halfway to the LA area after the game.

The first part of the process started deceptively well. My flight in from Denver was uneventful (if early in the morning), and outside of seeing the smoke from the California wildfires menacing in the distance, I picked up my new rental car (a white Kia) and drove to downtown San Francisco with no problems with which to speak.

Knowing I had to take the Bay Bridge out of town after the game and following the very good advice of a former local, I found a parking lot right next to the on-ramp for the bridge and parked up for the day.

I had a couple of hours to kill before the stadium opened up, so I took a walk north to Market Street and its environs. As the last time I was in San Francisco Union Square was undergoing renovations, I spent most of my time walking around in that area to see what I had missed before heading back down for the game.

In George Romero's movie, Land of the Dead, the scavenger/soldiers of the last remaining human settlement regularly use fireworks to distract the zombie hoards that populate the wilderness, allowing the humans go about their business uneaten, as the unthinking animated corpses stare raptly at the bright display.

During the July 4th week, there are almost always fireworks displays after the games, and for those of us who don't care, it is a great way to get a jump on traveling out of Dodge before the majority of the crowd leaves the stadium. This was the case that night in SF, and despite my misgivings, I was out of the park and on the bridge out of town in record time.

And then I immediately got stuck in traffic due to construction lane closures that added at least an hour to my trip. It eventually cleared up, but I didn't reach the turnoff for my route south until 1 AM, ensuring I wouldn't arrive at my hotel any time before 3 AM.


At the Game with Oogie:
I was again sitting in the "View" level behind home plate. I was sitting next a soccer mom with her kid, but a definitively San Franciscan soccer mom, to be sure. (During the numerous patriotic displays at the game, she told her son that it was important to respect the soldiers, but that mindless and emotionally-charged patriotism was not to be appreciated.)

We initially started talking because while she and everyone else in the upper deck were bundled up in jackets and blankets, I was sitting there in shorts and T-shirt, considering the irony of freezing to death in San Francisco just days after nearly dying of heat stroke in Phoenix. Although the dew point was reached, I held out fairly well, all things considered, though the purchase of a shiny new Giants blanket was very much on the table for a while.

The mom's father had been a huge baseball fan, and her son was also being brought up in the faith, so they were an enjoyable company with whom to watch the game.


The Stadium & Fans:
AT&T Park was the second of the new-old-style parks built, after Baltimore's Oriole Park started the revolution. And it uses its location on the Bay to its great advantage, with the short right field wall leading right into McCovy Cove. (And we did get to see a home splashdown into the cove, and its requisite fireworks and camera shot of kayakers retrieving the shot.)

Although for the last two years the first stadium on my trip was always my favorite, I think perhaps that it is a close race between PETCO and AT&T for my favorite this year, with AT&T getting a slight nod (in spite of their inexplicable "Express Bathroom," which was never explained to my complete satisfaction).

In addition to the fireworks, there was a give-away of a team baseball card set. Besides fireworks displays, there were very few giveaways on this trip, which was odd for July 4th week. (The Padres did have a bobble-head giveaway, but it was only for kids 12 and under. Stupid kids.)

The fans were energetic, if bundled up, and were able to shout down the sizable Cubs contingent that had come out for the game.

ESPN was filming a segment in their "Titletown" series the day I was there. They are apparently doing an oh-so-scientific competition to see which city in the country should be named "Titletown." There was some manner of online vote, and they were filming segments in each of the eight finalist cities. This begs the question of how San Francisco managed to crack the top eight, considering the last title they won was the 49ers so many years ago, but I suppose that was beside the point.

As with the Dodgers, the Giants were celebrating 50 years of fleeing their home like a thief in the night. One need to only smugly look at their lack of titles since their cowardly retreat west to silence those festivities. (A certain former Giants player was also curiously absent from many mentions, though the politburo didn’t quite erase all mentions.)


The Hot Dog:
Another generic "Super Dog."


The Game:
The Cubs scratched out an early lead, and while they added on, the Giants came back to tie it in the seventh, only to give the lead right back for good in the top of the eighth, losing 6-5. One player on each team got the dreaded Golden Sombrero (for striking out three times in the game).


The Scorecard:
Cubs vs. Giants, 07-02-08
Cubs vs. Giants, 07/02/08. Cubs win, 6-5.
The scorecard was a $1 folded cardstock, separate from the $5 program/magazine. It was a little crowded by ads, but of sufficient size for its purpose.


Oogie's East Coast Connection of the Day:
I ended up sitting right behind a family visiting from New Jersey. One of them was wearing a (NY Football) Giants jacket, which was both appropriate and inappropriate in a pleasingly Heisenbergian way.


The Accommodations:
Best Western, Kettleman City, CA
Best Western, Kettleman City, CA
After the extended delays on the drive to the Best Western in Kettleman City, I was not in good shape. I was therefore immediately interested in the cheery handwritten note that greeted me at the hotel check-in desk that brightly described how there was a cricket problem this time of year, modestly stated there was nothing they could do about it, and helpfully suggested that stuffing a towel under the door would assist in mitigating the problem.


Upon getting to my room, I was greeted by a welcoming committee of several crickets. Too tired to drive on, I commenced in a half hour search-and-destroy mission that no doubt went down in cricket lore as "The Murderening," wherein I moved every piece of furniture and scoured every surface to flush out and kill the dozen or so crickets currently occupying my room. This was then followed by stuffing every towel I had into every crevice in my door until I felt secure not only against cricket infestation but also chemical attack.

Cricket massacre
Post "The Murderening"

It was after this effort that I finally climbed into bed and turned out the light. Almost immediately thereafter, I leapt out of bed and atomized the last remaining cricket in my room, who had insinuated itself into the sheets of the bed. Needless to say, it took a while to amp down from the experience, and the remaining night's sleep was not peaceful, nor filled with any manner of sugarplum visions.

For those still unclear: do not go to Kettleman City in the summer under any circumstances.



2008 The West Coast

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