5 DAYS – 5 STADIUMS – 5 BASEBALL GAMES – DAY 4

DAY 4

Day 4 is a Sunday and I’m in San Francisco to see the Giants face off against the Arizona Diamondbacks. When I checked my blood sugar that morning it was registering 160. Still a little high but down 100 points from the day before, and I was feeling much more myself.  I wasn’t going to let a little thing like diabetic shock stop me. Truth be told, although I was looking forward to going to the games in San Francisco and Oakland, I was looking forward to going to San Francisco even more. It has always been one of my favorite cities, since the first time I went in 1979. Sadly, the city has gone downhill over the years, making it less attractive. There is still a lot to see and do, making a visit to the City By the Bay a great weekend. I hadn’t been there in a year or two and was really looking forward to visiting the old girl and seeing what new changes, good or bad, had taken place in my absence.

Given the choice, I prefer to fly out of Burbank. It is so easy to get in and out of the airport. Parking doesn’t cost a fortune. Traffic is nil. And check-in and TSA lines are usually short. I generally fly Southwest. They have a hub in Burbank and it’s a direct, one-hour flight to San Francisco. The airport was five minutes from the hotel, which I left at 7:00 AM for an 8:20 flight. I quickly found parking, walked to the departures terminal, got a boarding pass, checked through TSA, and walked to my gate. I still had enough time to stop and buy a sandwich, bag of chips, and a diet soda. That was a mistake! Twenty-four dollars! Sheesh, airport food at airport prices! Aside from the cost of the food, the only downside was we were sitting on the tarmac, ready for take-off, when the pilot announced that, due to heavy fog in San Francisco, we would have to wait about 30 minutes. Once we were finally in the air, the pilot must have gotten out and pushed because we actually made the flight in less than 50 minutes and were only slightly delayed from our original scheduled arrival time.

Now I had to get to work. While I was waiting for my group to start boarding in Burbank, I had logged onto my Expedia account to check on my hotel reservation at the Grant Hotel. I had stayed there once before and liked it so, when I saw there was a room available, I grabbed it, or so I thought. There was no record of my reservation on Expedia and there was also no charge to my credit card. I guess I must have looked at it and thought about making a reservation but got distracted and never actually made it. By the time I realized my mistake I was boarding my flight to San Francisco, and without in-flight Wi-Fi capability, I was pretty much screwed until I got to the San Francisco airport. Once back on the ground, I found a quiet corner and sat down, logging into Expedia again. I quickly found a cheap motel, the Bay Bridge Inn, a little over a mile from Oracle Park at a cost of $150 a night. That’s a bargain in San Francisco. I made a reservation and logged on to my Uber account. I don’t know how I ever survived before the invention of the iPhone. A short 30 minutes later and I was at the Bay Bridge Inn. It was only 10:30, much too early to even hope for a room, but they held my single carry-on bag, while I started walking towards Oracle Park. The game didn’t start until just after 1:00, so I had about 2-1/2 hours to make the mile-and-a-quarter walk. That allowed me to take my time and get reacquainted with the city I had once loved so much.

San Francisco is known for the hills it is built upon. I can personally attest to their steepness. Fortunately, this walk did not include any of those hills. Even though I arrived at the stadium a solid hour before game time, crowds were already starting to gather. The outside hot dog vendors were getting their carts set up. Tourists were taking selfies outside the stadium. I would never do that. All my selfies are of me standing as close to home plate as I can get. The scalpers were hawking their tickets. One guy noticed that I was single and was pushing single tickets. I told him I already had a ticket and even had an extra. He asked me where the seat was located and how much I wanted for it. I told him to give me a minute and I would check. I went on my StubHub account and saw that, not only had it sold, but the ticket for the next evenings game in Oakland had also sold. Hallelujah!

Built in 2000, Oracle Park is a true downtown stadium, when downtown stadiums were all the rage. Seems like they regularly sell their naming rights too. The stadium was originally known as Pacific Bell Park and then later, SBC Park. Still later, the rights were sold, and it was AT&T Park. It has been Oracle Park since 2019, which means they are about due for a name change. Like Petco Park in San Diego, both built about the same time, Oracle is fan centric. It has wide concourses with areas set aside for small gatherings, specialty foods, microbreweries, and memorabilia.

One of the great attractions to San Francisco is the great food you can buy. From crab and seafood at Fisherman’s Wharf, to Chinatown, to Little Italy and more, the food in San Francisco just cannot be beat. And that great eating tradition carries on at Oracle Park. You know, the iPhone has become such a valuable everyday tool. I just now googled places to eat in Oracle Park. I wish I had done that while I was at the game. After eating way too much junk the past few days I had to be very careful what I ate. Even if I wasn’t being careful, I doubt I could have tried all the great sounding dishes I discovered in my Google search. I would have either run out of money or notches on my belt. But here is a sample of some of the things you will find at the park. There is something called the Laughing Sal Cocktail, which is a drink consisting primarily of Tito’s vodka punch served in a glass rimmed with pop rocks. Garlic fries, overflowing the plastic helmets in which they are served. There’s the crazy crab sandwich that reportedly has lines stretching all the way across the concourse. On game days they sell 2500 of them. Tony’s pizza, from North Beach, has an outlet at Oracle Park. Apparently, they have a vegetarian slice so I could have hit that. There is something called the Impossible Cheese Steak which is a plant-based version of the traditional sandwich. There is more but that’s the highlight reel. So, what did I eat? Well, I stumbled into the Impossible stand, home of the Impossible Cheese Steak, quite by chance. I have a friend that’s been trying to get me to try this Impossible product for a couple of years, but I have always resisted. As far as I’m concerned, if it doesn’t bleed, it’s not meat. But these days I am rethinking my eating philosophy and I was looking for something healthy. The Impossible stand also offers vegetarian chicken nuggets and a vegetarian chili that is such a fan favorite it is the only chili served in the ballpark. I settled on the Impossible burger, mostly because I had yet to do my Google search. If I knew then what I know now, I probably would have opted for the cheese steak and a sample of the chili. Mmmmmmmm Chili! The burger, though, wasn’t all that bad.

As for the game itself, it was a tight one. San Francisco took an early 1-0 lead in the first inning. Arizona kept getting runners on base but couldn’t push anything across until the 5^th inning, when they scored a run of their own to tie. Meanwhile, the Giants were making the best of the few hits they had. In the bottom of the 7^th they took a 2-1 lead only to see Arizona tie the game in the 8^th, which led to extra innings. In the top of the 10^th the Diamondbacks scored a run on a single, their 13^th hit of the game. When the Giants came to bat, they got a walk and a single, only their fifth hit of the game, to load the bases. David Villar, the next batter, got the Giant’s sixth hit of the game, a single, to push across the tying and winning runs. While all of this was going on I had a lengthy conversation with the guy next to me. He had bought my ticket on StubHub. He was a few years older than I am, which makes him ancient by most standards. He was retired and living in Redwood City but came into San Francisco regularly, usually for Giants games. His wife had passed away, somewhat recently I think by the conversation. I could tell he missed her terribly. We talked a lot of baseball. For years he and his wife had attended spring training games in Arizona. I have yet to do that. I was planning a trip, had tickets and an Airbnb booked back in 2020. Then the country closed the day before we were supposed to leave. Looking at crossing that one off the list in ’23 and he highly recommended the experience. My new friend had also been to 22 of the 30 major league stadiums. We talked some politics and a little bit about the oil business, my stock and trade. Of course, we discussed how much the world had changed over the past couple of years. It was a great three-hour conversation surrounded by a baseball game. This is the kind of interaction that makes going to the games worthwhile.

I think you can already guess that Oracle Park ranks highly, much as I hate to give the nod to the rival Giants.

Average cost (family of 4) – #4 $245.31 But they are off to an inauspicious start. It is San Francisco after all, and it really is no surprise that the Giants and Dodgers are the two most expensive stadiums in California.

Cost of one hotdog, one soda, and an order of nachos – #2 $22.24 While I didn’t actually eat any of this at Oracle Park (well the diet soda) I still tracked the cost. Surprisingly the Giants rank second behind the Angels.

Parking – There is none. You arrive at the stadium either on foot or by rail. On the face of it, this may seem a bit inconvenient. But it does make it easy and fast to get in and out of the stadium without a lot of hassle. As a tourist, and a non-driving tourist at that, I was able to walk from my hotel straight to the stadium and, having arrived early, walk right in without the added hassle of lines and security. I imagine it is pretty much the same if you live in the city. San Francisco is not particularly large so why drive to the park when you can walk or take public transportation and save yourself the cost of gas and the headaches of San Francisco traffic. My new friend from Redwood City said he took the train.

Cost of tickets vs. location – #4 $308.50 for two tickets Oracle lags just behind Dodger Stadium as the most expensive. My seats were in section CL208, row E, seats 9 and 10 placing us just down the line on the first base side. This was the only game where I couldn’t get field level seats and settled for the CL level, which is the second deck. What I didn’t know at the time is this entire level is sponsored by Alaska Airlines and is known as the Alaska Airlines club level. Only ticketholders have access to the concourse and seating. This was evidenced by the heavy security checking tickets of everybody that entered. The AA club level boasts that the fans here have access to upscale food, beverages, and memorabilia.

Food Quality – #2 I could easily flip this rating with the Dodgers #1 rating. The other three stadiums are in a 3-way tie for third. I’ll stick with the Dodgers because I love that Brooklyn dog, even though I didn’t even have a hot dog at Oracle Park. The Giants did score high marks because of the Impossible stand. And the other food choices, of which I only read, could easily put the Giants in first place the next time around. I’ll have to remember in the future, if I want to find the best places to eat in a particular stadium, to use Google.

Accessibility – #1 The Giants score very high marks here. Oracle Park is such an easy venue to get into and out of. A couple of years ago my wife and I attended a concert here. We saw the Doobie Brothers, Eagles, and Zac Brown Band. Even though we arrived 15 minutes late amid heavy security we got in and to our seats quickly. That also was a great experience. The less stress you feel, the more you’re going to enjoy yourself at these venues. That means eliminating or greatly reducing lines, making ingress and egress as easy as possible, making parking hassle free or eliminate it altogether while providing a better alternative. The Giants do all these things down to a science.

Stadium Ambiance – #2 But not by much. It’s interesting that the two newest stadiums in California scored one and two here while three, four, and five were not even close. A lot of that has to do with the stadium design. These newer stadiums are designed with the fans in mind and how best to serve their needs. You look at a Petco or an Oracle Park and compare it to a venue like the Oakland Coliseum, which is next on our list, and the difference is night and day. Of course, meeting people and having great conversations is an important part of the experience.

Fans – #2 I said in an earlier blog that it is the interaction with the fans that really makes for a memorable experience. Sitting there and having this conversation about baseball and life with a gentleman I had just met, and whose name I never even got, was what really made this a memorable day for me.

Girls – #2 What can I say. The wife wasn’t around so I was looking. I’m 64, not dead. San Francisco not only has great food but also great looking women, sexist pig that I am.