Baseball With The SF Giants

Game Day With The SF Giants at Oracle Park

After breakfast in-room I check out at 11.15 am, leaving my bags in the hotel.

It’s a big risk leaving a car in a public garage in America these days. The news is full of an epidemic of vandalism and theft, mainly by homeless drug-users. Garage owners seem uninterested in stopping or preventing this, and secondly the police seem unwilling to deal with it either.

I had no option however here in SF, and will just have to deal with any unfortunate outcomes later. I certainly wasn’t going to leave my bags in the car today.

SF MUNI bus ticket

Google Maps finds my best public transport options to get to Oracle Park, home of the San Francisco Giants. I got costs from Uber, Lyft and Waymo and all were extremely expensive. It’s $3 each way on a bus and takes about 17 minutes. The ‘taxi’ companies wanted $20.

Baseball ‘Live’, Finally

I follow American baseball ‘loosely’, at a distance. I know I watch it in bars a lot on a trip but that’s just because it’s on and mainly as something to do. Baseball I do know is a huge part of American culture. I reckon I know enough about it to have a sensible conversation without delving into the deeper statistical aspects that seem, from the outside, to almost border on nerd territory at times.

So I wanted to go to a live game just to experience it. I don’t follow any particular team although because I keep up with news and sport in California, and mostly San Francisco, I’m probably more aware of the SF Giants than any other team.

It was just the way the timings worked out on this trip that I’m in SF today to see the Giants play the St Louis Cardinals. I also had to book the game months ago to ensure a decent seat. At the time the Giants were borderline to make the playoffs but they are now out of contention. In fact today is the penultimate game of their season. The Cardinals are also out of the playoffs, so who knows how today’s game will play out.

A Walk Around

When I get off the bus, it’s a short 4 minute walk to the stadium. When I get there it’s clear there’s still a sizeable crowd coming to today’s game. I walk all around the outside of Oracle Park to take everything in. The stadium is built right on the harbour-side next to the sea. I knew about this but it is still an amazing location when you actually see it.

There is however something rather bizarre happening today. It’s “Dog Days 2” (there was one earlier in the season). Ticket holders are invited to bring their dogs to the game. Not only that, they are given the chance to walk their dog around the outside of part of the pitch before the game.

I come across a gate with a sign for Stadium Tours. I ask a security guy about them, and he explains the tours are not running today but that the long line of Giants fans is for this dog activity. Looking more closely, I then realise that everyone in the line does indeed have a dog with them! Many of the dogs are also dressed up in Giant-themed dog coats and hats. And on a swelteringly hot day…

I continue my walk around the outside but the dog line just gets longer and longer. It continues for a full two sides of the stadium. I can’t see all of these people getting to walk their dogs inside before the first pitch. The line is hardly moving and it’s about 30 minutes until play starts.

Inside Oracle Park

I finish my outside walk, enter the SF Giants team store just to have a look and then go inside the stadium. Once in there, I do a walk around the concourse, similar to what I do at Levi’s.

I get a beer for ‘kick off’, deciding to get food later. The stadium holds just over 42,000 people and I reckon it’s about two-thirds full. The game starts and… well, that’s just about it. There’s little emotion from the crowd and hardly any atmosphere, just a bit of background crowd murmurs.

Where I’m sitting, almost directly behind home plate, no-one talks to each other, even people who have clearly come together. There’s no interaction with folks in rows in front or behind either. No-one says a word to me all afternoon apart from beer and food sellers. The contrast of Giants fans throughout today to a game at Levi’s is stark. Maybe it’s end of season blues? I hope the atmosphere is not like this at every game.

I don’t know how the crowd reacts to a home run because I didn’t see one. But when runs are scored (Run Batted In), there are a few cheers and some folks get to their feet, but there are no high-fives, fist bumps or anything like that. All quite subdued. You can see a video I took of an RBI (on a Cardinals error) from the game on YouTube.

After a couple of innings I go for food. I have a bacon-wrapped sausage in a bun with sauerkraut from a stall I spotted earlier. It was very good.

Not A Fan…

The game ebbs and flows but, frankly, I’m bored about halfway through. I suspect the average supporter cannot tell what is pitched to a batter in real-time. Unless you are the home plate umpire or catcher, to my eyes no-one else can really see what the ball does: fastball, curve ball, slider etc. And to me this is the real battle, that between pitcher and batter. I’m sure the nuances of any ball’s flight must be unfathomable to many watching in person.

It also seems clear to me that everyone, certainly sitting around me, relies on the home plate umpire to signal ball or strike before they clap, or in rare instances, give a little cheer. There’s obviously no strike-zone white box like they have on TV games these days to show whether it was a ball or strike. Live inside the stadium you just can’t tell. It’s this lack of insight into the pitcher-batter battle that, I think, means a live game ‘in the flesh’, for me, just doesn’t have enough to hold the interest.

Bottom of the 7^th, the game is tied at 5-5. I’m conscious of the time in terms of not getting to San Jose too late this evening. And what the parking garage might hold for me. I never leave a sports game early. I never did when I watched soccer live in the 1970s. Even in the bad days of the 49ers in the mid-20 teens, I stayed to the bitter end. Today, I make an exception for the Giants.

Time to leave

I also think that if the crowd had made any sort of decent noise or showed sustained enthusiasm through the game, I might have stayed. But if they can’t be bothered, neither can I. As I walk out of the stadium at 3.30 pm, there’s an awful lot of Giants fans leaving who seem to agree with me. I discover later the Giants won 6-5 with an RBI on another error in the bottom of the 8th.

I-280 S to San Jose

I walk back to where I got off the bus. There is one at the stop, same number as the route I got to the stadium. I ask the driver through the open door if the bus goes to Sutter Stockton Garage. I repeat the question four times but the driver, of Chinese heritage, clearly can’t speak much English, as he just repeats “I don’t know” back at me every time. He does then manage to say “I’m leaving now” so I take a chance and get onboard. Thankfully my gut instinct is right as I use Maps to track our route back towards the Garage.

With trepidation I enter the Garage and walk to the car. With huge relief, everything is fine. I drive out onto Bush St and down the street to park outside the hotel. I retrieve my bags from inside, program my route into my phone and set off for San Jose.

Back At The Four Points by Sheraton Hotel

Hwy 101, the programmed route, has roadwork delays so Maps re-routes me down I-280 S again this year. I stop at a Safeway in San Jose to buy the next two day’s breakfasts and then it’s on to the Four Points by Sheraton Hotel.

This used to be my preferred hotel in San Jose on the early road trips, but it closed for renovation in 2019. I had originally booked back in at the Hotel de Anza for this trip but got a message from Booking.com about two months before the trip saying they were cancelling me. It appears they had to quickly shut the whole hotel for “essential maintenance”. Must have been something pretty serious to cause that.

Anyway, back at the Four Points I decide to change my original plan of parking in a nearby public garage after the stress of SF. I opt for the hotel’s more expensive but located next door parking lot. The rooms at the hotel, at least the ones I’ve stayed in, are very spacious. I was surprised they had a re-fit 5 years ago because I never noticed that the place was run down at all, it always seemed in good condition in the past. This year’s room is good as well, but I can’t say I really notice any signs of a refurbishment.

The Brit It Is

I check out the music that’s on tonight at the Poor House Bistro. Despite an advertised 9 pm finish I thought I’d go then walk down the road to the pubs I found when I stayed at the de Anza. Tonight’s musical offering is however a “Southern California Dance Party”. WTF? I don’t think I’ll be going to that, I say to myself. Maybe the bar’s location move and even earlier finish has put blues bands off from wanting to play there?

So a change of plan is required and I decide to go to one of the aforementioned pubs all night instead. I choose The Brit as it had a wider choice on its food menu. To get there, although not too far to walk, I check out Lyft and Uber. The latter is way more expensive so I order a Lyft for $7. Still not that cheap for a five minute ride but I just want to get there fast.

The Brit is busy at the bar but there’s hardly anyone sitting at the numerous tables in the place. I find a seat between a couple of guys and ask for a menu. There’s a top notch college football game on TV, Georgia vs. Alabama. I overhear that it has been an exciting game so far. It’s into its closing stages and the score is tight.

Not The Desired Result

I decide on some nachos for dinner but the server doesn’t know what ‘mojo park’ is. As I ask more, the black guy on my right tells me it’s shredded shoulder pork. To drink I choose a favourite, Lagunitas IPA. I do sample some others but they’re not much good, which has been a bit of a common thread so far: not a good selection of IPAs to choose from.

Most of the people at the bar are rooting for Georgia to win the game so they are all disappointed when Alabama score again and win. The nachos are good but I don’t finish them as usual given US-sized portions. So much food in this country must go to waste.

The pub clientele turns over after the football finishes. The black guy and I had a little football-related chat but the white guy on my left was with people and ignored me. Next up, and I had read about this on the pub’s website earlier, it’s no surprise when a DJ starts to set up his equipment at 9.15 pm. I think they keep going as a ‘disco’ until the early hours.

An Interesting Walk Home

Around 9.45 pm the DJ starts to crank the volume up so it’s time to leave. I walk back down W Santa Clara St towards First St, intending to get a VTA back to the hotel. But when I get to First St to find where the station is, I discover I’m only five minutes walk from the hotel. So I walk.

Whereupon I discover some amazing San Jose nightlife hitherto unknown to me. I’m on the southbound sidewalk. N First St has two road lanes. Then there’s a central sidewalk, beyond which is the northbound VTA track. Then another sidewalk with shops. And a couple of bars, with bouncers on the doors, that I’d never spotted before.

The outside lane of the road has been commandeered by some very large custom-build pick-up trucks parked up by the central sidewalk, all blasting out music at huge volume. There is no sign of police anywhere, and no-one trying to move the trucks on. On the central sidewalk, many people are setting up pop-up hot food stalls. There are loads of ‘youths’ – mainly Hispanics – milling about the area. Most of the females are wearing clothes that barely conceal their “assets”.

Maybe this has always happened on a Saturday night. Thinking back to previous visits, I don’t think I’d ever ventured onto this part of N First St on foot. I’ve travelled on the VTA past this section when staying elsewhere, like for the 2020 Playoffs, but never noticed anything. Equally, not every 49ers game has been on a Sunday.

Clearly it’s not my scene, nor something I’d want to be part of. The ‘new’ bars all looked as if they were populated by Hispanics, so I possibly might not be welcome. But it was interesting to see. Maybe I’ll go back on another trip later in the evening or night and see how the scene pans out.

“Touch Too Much” (?) *

Back at the hotel I redeem my $7 off, $15 minimum spend, drinks voucher (that I got on check-in) at the bar and return to my room with a Knob Creek nightcap. I do some more diary then go to bed.

Today was a bit of a day. Too much, perhaps? The timing of the finish of the baseball was always going to present a challenge in getting down to San Jose at a ‘reasonable’ time for dinner and beer. Who knows what I’ve have done should the game turned out to be good, or even if there was overtime.

Then however I don’t think the baseball issue will arise again. I can’t at this point in time see myself going to another Giants game, or another team, having ticked that particular one off my bucket list.

Ditto parking overnight in San Francisco. Over the years I’ve done everything I want to see and do in the city. The only reason for this visit was the baseball, and there is nothing else at this stage to warrant staying overnight there again, certainly when visiting by car.

So, yes, it was a lot to cram in and it had its built-in stress factors. But it turned out fine. I’ve no regrets about going to Oracle Park to see the Giants play (or about leaving early). Just something that I wanted to do, now done. Onwards and upwards!

* Touch Too Much by The Arrows and AC/DC