Sunday was actually a pretty cool day… Unfortunately not comfortable cool, it was still a bazillion degrees (yes bazillion is a real quantity, it’s slightly more than googlpillion) in town, but we made the best of it… by leaving town!

We had tickets to a Giants game at PacBell Park SBC Park AT&T Park, soon to be called Identity Crisis Stadium!  Little did we know when we purchased those tickets on a chilly windswept day in March, that this outing would be an escape from the oppresive heat of our home.  It amazes me San Francisco is about a half hour away (without traffic) but is typically 20 degrees cooler than it is out our house.  They call the crazy weather patterns here “micro-climates” and its supposedly why the grapes do so well over in wine country.

Since I don’t feel like cluttering up the front page with this one post, you’ll have to click below to read more…

The day actually started with a blessing in disguise, since we were lazy and didn’t buy our ferry tickets before hand, they were all sold out when we got to the pier.  It was made even worse by the fact that we had been building The Boy up to going on a boat ride…  So we piled back in the car, and consoled The Boy of promises that instead he would get to go through TWO tunnels AND a bridge!  Sometimes it amazes what can excite a three year old…

As we thought about it on the drive, not taking the ferry would probably be a better option for us anyway… While we’d have to pay a $5 toll and a wallet draining $25 for parking, the fact is that while The Boy had been to two other baseball games (one of which was in the crack den that the Washington Nationals play in) he has yet to sit through an entire game, we’ve always had to leave early.  If we had taken the ferry we would have had to stay the entire game, as there’s only one boat and it doesn’t depart the stadium until 30 minutes after the last pitch.  We weren’t sure how long he’d last this game, and if the game went into extra innings, there could be trouble.

I’ve got to say, the pre-gram show absolutely SUCKED!!!  It’s fantastic that the Giants support an organization like Until There’s A Cure, which is an AIDs research group, but it might be better for the Giants and Until There’s A Cure if you didn’t bore the fans to tears while honoring the organization…

And The Other San Francisco treat?  That was our nick name for the San Francisco Gay Men’s Choir…  And I can’t help but  wonder why such an organization exists…  Were they not good enough for the San Francisco Mens Choir?  Do they not get along with the San Francisco Mens Choir?  Maybe it was to offset the testosteron being given off at every performance of the San Francisco Male Bodybuilders Choir?

The game was ok, the bottom of the 8th inning was terrific but the rest of the game was nothing spectacular.  We left in the top of the ninth and were on our way out when the Padres tied the score at 5-5.  Turns out the game went to 12 innings with the Padres winning 6-5.

I’ve got to say despite that fact that The Shrine of Barry Bonds holds 41,000, it definately felt like a small ball park.  It’s a really nice ball park, it just felt surprisingly small.  Granted I’ve also been in Pro Player Stadium for Game 6 of the World Series in 1997 when they crammed in 55,000!  I think the park also had the best variety of food of any other ballpark I’ve been to.

So far my list of major league ballparks I’ve been to includes: Shea Stadium [NY Mets], Pro Player Stadium [FL Marlins], The King Dome (rest in pieces!) [Seattle Mariners], Oriole Park at Camden Yards [Baltimore Orioles], Tropicana Field [Tampa Bay Devil Rays], SafeCo Field [Seattle Mariners], and AT&T Park [SF Giants].

I think Camden Yards and SafeCo are my favorites, while Pro Player Stadium is my most hated especially on those hot muggy Florida nights!

A few pictures for your pleasure…