A Great Day at the Ballpark


“Just Thinking"

Last week I went on a full-on Giants rant, and I thought I got it out of my system… but nope, I got sucked right back in. I was at the game today at Pac Bell Park, SBC Park, AT&T Park… I mean, Oracle Park, watching them take on the Oakland, Sacramento, Las Vegas A’s.

It was a beautiful day in the city, and I enjoyed being out at the park. The Giants take a 6–5 lead into the 9th. Two on, two out. You’re thinking, just get one more out and get out of here. Instead? The bullpen gives up four straight hits. Four runs. Game over. They gave up seven runs over the last three innings. Terrible. Just terrible.

I did, however, have some thoughts out at the old ballpark today that are worth sharing. Was Brian Wilson, the Giants closer from 2008 to 2012, a nut job, a trendsetter, or just ahead of his time? I’m sitting there at the game, and you look at the Giants, they are wearing orange spikes, purple spikes, black and white spikes. The A’s? Green, gold, white, black spikes. Brian Wilson got hit with a $1,000 fine for wearing bright orange spikes in a game. He laughed it off, grabbed a Sharpie, and literally colored part of them black to make them legal, he said that he was fined for his awesomeness.

And then there was “Fear the Beard.” In 2010, Wilson was out there with a jet-black, full-grown beard, one of a kind. Nobody looked like that. Nobody carried themselves like that. Now? Look around the field, most of the players wear beards. Maybe not as big, not as black, but still, facial hair went from the exception to expectation.

I also thought about how perfect Crash Davis’s speech was in Bull Durham when Annie Savoy asks him what he believes: "Well, I believe in the soul... the c_ _k...the p_ _ _y... the small of a woman's back... the hangin' curveball... high fiber... good scotch... that the novels of Susan Sontag are self-indulgent overrated crap... I believe Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. I believe there ought to be a Constitutional amendment outlawing Astroturf and the designated hitter. I believe in the sweet spot, soft core pornography, opening your presents Christmas morning rather than Christmas Eve, and I believe in long, slow, deep, soft, wet kisses that last three days. Goodnight."

I also found myself thinking back to those cold nights out at Candlestick. Midweek games… maybe 7,000 people in the stands, the wind, the fog rolling in, that damp cold that would cut right through you. At the end of the 9th inning, a 2–1 game that felt like it lasted forever, your feet would go numb, your nose to freeze… and by the time you got home, you almost forgot whether the Giants even won or lost.

And then I jumped ahead to 2007, sitting in Roc’s seats with my three sons when Barry hit his 756th, record breaking home run. Watching Matt Cain’s perfect game, Melky at the wall in the 6th, Blanco laying out in the 7th, and how my heart stopped when Arias took that step backwards before firing to first for the final out, perfect. Then the run, 2010, 2012, 2014, three rings, three parades. A wonderful stretch that we all waited so long for. Mays, McCovey, Marichal, Will the Thrill, Matt Williams, Buster, Crawford and even the Giant who wore #51 before Jung Hoo Lee, Willie McGee.

Despite the outcome of today’s game, it was a good day out at the old ballpark.

Let me know what you think.

 

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Location: Martinez, CA 94553, USA

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