Giants v. Dodgers
Today was a relatively ordinary work day here in SF. I jinxed the weather by saying yesterday that I hadn't seen a cloud in 6 days because this morning the fog starting rolling in under the bridge and there was a marine layer over the western part of the City most of the day. The fog never quite made it down to the financial district, which was good because after work our entire team (3 client reps and 5 C&B lawyers) put on jeans and walked over to SBC Park to watch the Giants play the Dodgers.
I had never been to SBC Park before. It is right on the water within walking distance of our hotel. Our seats were in the sixth row between third base and home plate, in foul ball territory. We looked over the back wall at the ships in the San Francisco Bay. This is the park where kayakers hang out in the water over the wall to catch Barry Bonds home runs (he's a leftie so his home runs go over right field into the Bay). Whenever someone hits a home run the park organ systems blows a fog horn and tall sprays of water spray out of three tall water sprayer things (words fail me here). The concession stands are not just hot dogs, beer and cotton candy. You can also get sushi and edamame and lemon chicken and Napa Valley wines and ben & jerry's and gourment wine and steamed crabs and lobster and the "catch of the day." (get it?) We got hot dogs and beer anyway. The clothing stores sell very chic black turtlenecks with discrete Giants logos on them. Sail boat masts wobble outside the back wall. There's a sign that keeps track of home runs that go over into the Bay; they're called Splash Hits. This season so far there have been 38 splash hits. You can walk around the back wall from which you can see out over the Bay and out over the field at the same time. My colleague and I did that this evening and stood looking at the Bay to our left and at the field to our right and watching the fog pour around the upper decks of the stadium seats and then dissipate over the field.
Back in our seats we spent quite a bit of time dodging foul balls. At one point a ball went up high and started down generally towards my head, or so it seemed to me. My colleagues all lept up around me and started screaming things that male baseball fans scream; guttural noises and vowels sounds but never any words as far as I can tell. I was glued to my chair looking up at this ball aiming towards my head. I cowered. I think I said, "aaaaaccccckkkkk...." I did nothing remotely athletic. I may even have put my hands over my eyes and/or head. My boss looks over and yells out, "Come on, Kim!" The ball kept going and did not hit my head but instead hit the head of some 7 year old boy a few rows up, who was thrilled.
After the game was over the seagulls all flew down into the stands and ate the left over lemon chicken and sushi and edamame and steamed crabs and lobster and the catch of the day. The outfield seats were covered in seagulls. By the time the game ended it was also quite cold. People had scarves and mittens on and woolen hats. I had on a patagonia and the fashionable black nylon topcoat that you will recall I bought in SF in the middle of a freezing cold summer day about 3 years ago now. It's actually starting to get a little ragged.
I also realized during the game what it probably obvious to everyone else already, i.e., that this game was between two team that used to be in New York and were probably great rivals then and now both teams are in California but are still great rivals because LA and SF can't stand each other. The whole stadium was chanting "Beat LA!" most of the evening. I mentioned this to the client who was sitting next to me, who looked at me and said, "uh, duh, are you just figuring that out? Well I guess it's only the fifth inning." Then he laughed uproariously at me.
The Giants won.
posted by Anonymous @ 7:40 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home