PacBell/AT&T

AT&T Park was originally PacBell Park. I’ve been to a handful of games there and this is easily one of my favorite parks. I have sat in upper deck first base side, field level by third base, club level first base, and field level in shallow left field. They’re all good seats. The view from the upper deck is spectacular. You can see the top of the SF skyline, McCovey Cove and the SF bay, and Oakland. Outside the park along McCovey Cove you can see into the stadium from under the stands in right field. They also have a great Willie Mays statue by the home plate entrance. If I had to complain about something, the only drawback is they didn’t angle the seats towards the infield.

Original and updated front gate

The first season the park was open, tickets were hard to get. I was able to see two games that first year with my friend Tom and his son. The unpredictable thing with baseball in San Francisco is the weather. To be safe, attend every game with shorts & t-shirt and a heavy winter parka. Another cool feature of the stadium is one of the kids play areas. They have a mini stadium where they can play. There’s even a JumboTron with a camera person showing live footage.

It turns out the three seasons I attended games here the Giants made the post season [2000, 2002, & 2003]. The Giants obviously had some pretty good talent over these years. They had Barry Bonds through this stretch. Say what you will about his steroid use, the dude could hit the ball. Other Giants included Jeff Kent, Rich Aurilia, and Marquis Grissom. For pitching they had mediocre starters having the best years of their careers and Robb Nen as the closer. For opponents I saw the Expos, Pirates, and Padres at their home opener in 2003. For one of the Expo games, I saw ‘the fat pussy toad’ Hideki Irabu out pitch Russ Ortiz. This Expo team featured Vlad Guererro – who was 0 for 6 in two games. I also saw Kirk Rueter have a great outing with a Nen save. For the Pirates game the next year, I saw Rueter again. He had a decent start but ended with a no-decision as did Kris Benson. The Pirates also had Jason Kendall, Brian Giles, and Jack Wilson. The Pittsburgh bullpen gave up 5 in the seventh inning for the home team victory. For the Padre game Jason Schmidt had a good outing but the bullpen handed him a no-decision. The Pads had no one of note on the roster. They had guys like Mark Kotsay, Ryan Klesko, Xavier Nady, and Jake Peavy in his first full season. [To hear how much of a dick Peavy is, see the Petco Park entry.]

A funny thing happened on the way to the park for the home opener in 2003. This game was right after the BRBL draft in San Francisco [obviously]. I attended the game with John, CJ, BoCJ, and my girlfriend. John and I used to work together in a drug abuse treatment program. Over the years we saw a lot of people with severe psychiatric illness beyond their addiction. One particular patient had chronic paranoid schizophrenia in addition to his drug abuse problem. He was consistently homeless and would show up into our clinic sporadically – usually every 4 to 5 months. As we’re walking from our car to the stadium, I see this guy walking towards us and say to John, “Hey…that’s Joe Smith” [The patients’ name isn’t really Joe Smith. I’m protecting his real name.] John says, “what?” and I repeat myself. So John calls him over. ‘Joe’ comes over and says hello like he expected to see us.

This is a fantastic ballpark. If you’re travelling to the bay area, do your best to see a game here.