{"id":867,"date":"2004-06-27T21:49:58","date_gmt":"2004-06-28T02:49:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/?p=867"},"modified":"2004-06-27T21:49:58","modified_gmt":"2004-06-28T02:49:58","slug":"another-day-at-the-ballpark-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/index.php\/2004\/06\/27\/another-day-at-the-ballpark-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Another day at the ballpark"},"content":{"rendered":"

OK, so back when I had a moment of weakness that lasted 10 months and blogged
\nalmost every day, I got the fine idea to do something called "blog me out
\nto the ballgame," in which a bunch of bloggers all go to the same game
\nand write about it on their blogs. After I retired the blog that gave me this
\nswell idea, the whole bloggers-at-the-game notion crept back into the background.
\nBut I still had my two tickets to the A’s-Giants game, and I knew of at least
\none guy<\/a> who said he had bought
\nhis tickets too. So I felt obligated to at least do something, and this is that
\nsomething. <\/p>\n

I’ll tell you right off, the game was unremarkable. The Giants won because
\ntheir pitchers kept A’s base runners away from home plate. None of the late-innings
\nknuckle-gnawing of the past two games. Mostly it was a scalding-hot way to spend
\na Sunday afternoon. But at least there was beer. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

One of the coolest things about A’s games is that the BART train stops at he
\nstadium so you can get in, get out and not have to fight parking lot traffic.
\nWhen the A’s aren’t playing the Giants and drawing crowds in the 28,000 range,
\nyou can buy your tickets at the stadium and get good seats. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

This is the crosswalk heading over to the ballpark. Network Associates Coliseum
\nis perhaps the least-charming sporting venue on the planet … built back before
\nit occurred to people to build charming, cozy ballparks in the middle of a big
\ncity (The Giants new stadium is a prime example). This one has industrial parks
\nfor neighbors. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Another great thing about the A’s is their winning tradition. They’ve never
\ngotten much respect — Bay Area people have always preferred San Francisco and
\nthe Giants to Oakland and the A’s. It gives ’em an underdog aura that’s really
\nundeserved: the A’s have always had one of the best organizations for developing
\nand finding talent and assembling great teams. The last time the A’s and Giants
\nmet in the World Series (in 1989), the A’s mauled ’em. It’s like a bug up the
\nbutt of Giants fans. The Giants had Willy Mays but the A’s have all the World
\nSeries rings. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

A bunch of hard-core A’s faithful at field level. We were in the park’s Plaza
\nLevel bleachers, which were cool because they had shade (at least till the sun
\ngot higher in the sky; it didn’t get unbearable till the eighth inning, by which
\ntime the Giants pretty much had the A’s licked. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Yeah, that’s my shoe. We arrived early enough to find seats at the front of
\na section, allowing valuable kick-backage. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Beers promoted even more kick-backage. Oddly enough, to my way of thinking,
\nthis here Sierra Nevada Pale Ale was selling for the same price as Bud Light.
\nI didn’t ask why, I just purchased. Some descendant of Carrie Nation must be
\nin charge of setting prices, because at $7.50 a glass nobody can get drunk without
\nrisking bankruptcy. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Between innings they have this promotion asking fans to wave their water bottles
\nin some outrageous fashion, and some prize goes to whoever acts nuttiest. Or
\nsomething. Anyway, this little girl and big guy were very much in the spirit
\nof the competition. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Here’s the dangerous Barry Bonds at the plate. He was first up in the inning,
\nright after the A’s had fought and scratched and clawed to get a single run
\nhome. Most teams walk Barry because the next hitter isn’t nearly so fearful.
\nBut if he’s at bat first in the inning with nobody on base and you’ve got a
\none-run lead with a solid left-hand pitcher who should be able to get him out,
\nyou let him pitch to Barry. He swings with enough force to launch a Volkswagen
\nto Neptune, but this pitch gets past him. I’m goofing off, looking away from
\nthe action when I hear the "pop" which can mean only one thing: Barry
\nhas smacked another one into the bleachers about 50 yards to our left. One swing
\nnullifies the A’s efforts thus far. It was going to be that kind of day. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I’m pretty sure the guy in the yellow is hollering "Let’s Go Oak-Land"
\nat the top of his lungs. When he’d rest, the guy in the Giants shirt next to
\nhim would do the same, only it’d be "Let’s Go Gi-Ants." The odd thing
\nabout these interleague games between local teams is that they fill the stadium
\nwith large numbers of fans rooting for each team. Which means if you’re on your
\nway to the john because of too much beer to early in the afternoon and you hear
\nthe crowd erupt into mad applause, you never have a clue who the beneficiary
\nof the uproar might be. I also wondered whether it was such a good idea to have
\nso many fans of the opposing team in one’s ballpark. If they’re outnumbered
\n500 to 1 they tend to behave; but if they’ve got lots of friends, and lots of
\nbeer in them, they could get carried away. But everything was calm from our
\nperspective (maybe they’re on their best behavior because they skipped church to
\nmake it to the ballpark in time for the first pitch).<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

This guy had the lime-greenest shirt I have ever seen. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

OK, so now it’s late in the game and the A’s are down by 3 and there’s not
\nmuch point hanging around, except we remember the Giants scoring four runs in
\nthe top of the 9th last night and we figure, what the heck, may as well stay
\ntill the last pitch. No miracles this time, though. Mostly it was hot and sweaty
\nin the sun, which, I suspect, is why we have so many night games in this league.\n<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

A saxophonist entertains the crowd heading back to the BART platform. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Here’s our train. We stood in line five minutes max, then we were on our way.
\nAnd somebody else did the driving. Great way to cap a day at the ballpark.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Our last look at the ballpark before the BART train pulls away. In the flower
\npower era, the hippies lived across the bay and the Hells Angels lived in Oakland.
\nI’s that kind of town. Gritty, unpretentious. Violent if you’re in the
\nwrong neighborhoods. The A’s have great fans; I just wish there were more of
\nthem, but then again, if they were popular they wouldn’t be cool. So let’s hope
\nnobody builds them a quaint little Wrigley clone downtown. It’d ruin the
\naura. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OK, so back when I had a moment of weakness that lasted 10 months and blogged almost every day, I got the fine idea to do something called "blog me out to the ballgame," in which a bunch of bloggers…<\/p>\n

Read more \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[41,32],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}