Giants Fans Invade San Diego

One of the things I've always hated is to have numerous fans of the visiting team show up and act like they own the place.  You know, Yankee fans, Dodger fans, Red Sox fans, Cubs fans.  They're big market teams with huge followings, transplants, and travelling fans.  Often over the years, the Oakland Coliseum has had many a game where A's fans were outnumbered by Yankee or Red Sox fans, and Giants fans since interleague play started.

Well, the Giants have a national following, too, just not quite as big as the Yankees or Red Sox.  But one place we always show up in massive numbers is San Diego.  Transplants, college students, and cheap Southwest Airlines tickets.  This four game series vs. the Pads was no exception.  Thousands showed up and hijacked the crowd noise this weekend.  And Padres fans hate it.

You simply can't listen to the game and tell who just made the big play.  Today I was fooled by Tim Lincecum's two run single.  The crowd erupted in a roar, and I thought, "Oops, the Padres are coming back."  No, it was the Giants fans.

I've seen the Giants on the road in LA, San Diego, Oakland, Colorado and Arizona.  It's amazing how many show up, and how many cheer all the louder because they know they're on the road.  The first interleague game in Oakland between the Giants and A's back in '97 was about two-thirds Giants fans, and it was louder and more rowdy than most every game I've ever seen in San Fran.

Thanks to the fans who showed up this weekend and cheered the Orange and Black to three out of four to tie for first place.

A Visit To Petco Park

Our family was in San Diego last week and we took a trip to Petco Park last Saturday night to see the San Diego Padres take on the Baltimore Orioles. The Orioles had just been in San Francisco the series before we left, and we "followed" them south. We sat in the bleachers, being the cheapest seats for our budget.

Petco Park has a unique bleacher arrangement. The seats are stuck to the top of a small concrete wall, and there is grass between rows. The leg room is extra long, so you can actually sit on the grass, picnic style. Just behind the center field fence there is a huge sand box in front of the bleacher seats for the kids to play in. This was perfect for a family with three small boys. Notice our baseball fanatic five year old son in the third picture standing with a foam finger right behind the fence on the left side of the photo. He enjoyed most of the game from there, one of the best seats in the house. His description of the fly ball to deep center field included himself in the story.

Over all, Petco Park is one of the best parks I have ever visited, in terms of beauty, baseball appropriateness and other relevant characteristics. Architecturally, I believe it to be superior to AT&T Park, which is widely viewed as the best of the new parks. Petco isn't on the shores of San Francisco Bay with a grand view of the bridge and East Bay hills, but it is in a beautiful city, and a good downtown. I'm glad the Padres did something different from the now-cookie cutter throwback parks. The brick warehouse building being part of the park is absolutely awesome. The Padres team store is located on the bottom floor. The corner of the building is the left field "foul pole", the foul line taking a 45 degree angle straight into that corner. A ball bouncing left is foul, while one bouncing right is fair. What could be more easy than that?

I enjoyed our time there and will enjoy going back there numerous times in the future. The black and orange Orioles beat the Padres 5-4, even after a bullpen meltdown in the 9th. That helped our black and orange Giants in the race with the Padres. I'll probably post more pictures soon.