For the 2nd year in a row I was sent out to California by Fairfield University to participate in the Bay Area Case Studies. It is one of the best trips offered by our office because a) it is in San Francisco, b) it is not a typical college fair program, and c) you basically work 4 hours a day. Last year it let me see game in Oakland, San Diego, and eventually in conjunction with another program, Colorado. This year, a Giants and Dodgers game would be on my radar. Both teams are celebrating 50 years of abandoning New York “greener” pastures in California. Wonderful. Before I get to the ratings for the Giants game, here is a quick review of the game.

 

#1 I have to get the picture of this banner on here, but I saw one of the funniest things ever outside of the field. There are banners lining Willie Mays Way with different Giants players on there with slogans. The one for Barry Zito is priceless. "Throwing left until there's nothing left. Barry is a gamer." I am fairly certain there is nothing left, and you still owe him $100+ million. You enjoy that San Francisco.

 

#2 Get there early for batting practice. Chances are you are not going to see a ball hit into McCovey Cove during the game, so stand it right field until you see one at BP. They are very easy going about letting you walk around the park to get pictures and maybe catch a home run ball.

 

#3 Jonathon Sanchez put on a show. He pitched 8+ innings yielding only 1 run (in the 9th) and striking out 10 batters. If only the SF Giants had any hitting whatsoever.

 

#4 In the 4th inning Bengie Molina hit a double to right center field to put the Giants up 1-0. He hit it pretty hard but it had enough air under it that CF Ryan Freel thought he could make a play on the ball. He made a valiant diving effort but the ball was still about a foot out of his range and rolled all the way to the corner about 410 feet away from home plate. Griffey was not backing the play up form right field so Freel had to pop back up, run after the ball and get it into the infield. This would have been a triple for just about any other player in baseball. Guys could pop a hamstring rounding first and still have gotten to third. Molina took forever to get around the bases. Freel had not even made it to the ball and Molina was “easing up” content with a double. I couldn’t believe my eyes…and this is coming from the kid who was consistently the slowest runner on his team. I am convinced Jose Reyes could have not only turned it into an inside the park home run, but he could have gotten to first a second time before Molina got to second. However, Bengie is everyone’s favorite.

 

#5 Nothing really stood out about the game other than Sanchez’s filthy performance on the mound. It was a nice quick game of 2 hours 25 minutes and the ballpark rocks.

 

Stadium Grounds: 50

Yes…this is the first category and we already have a perfect score. I forget that this stadium is already on its third name in less than a decade. However, even though it is almost 10 years old the place looks great. The main entrance line with 24 palm trees in honor of Willie Mays is great. Based on it’s location it’s really tough to screw it up, but the club does an unbelievable job on stadium up keep. This stadium can pass for a brand new ballpark. Hats off to the Giants organization.

 

Parking: 0

The parking is relatively close to the stadium however it is $20 to park. Granted I took a bus to the game so I can’t fully trash it, but according to my tour guide last year, the lots are an absolute traffic nightmare and way too many people drive to the game. However since I didn’t drive to the game I can’t dish out negative points here.

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Seat Value: 25

I have come to realize that everything is just expensive in San Francisco. Gas is already well over $4 a gallon. I think the one thing I was surprised to find fairly cheap about the city is tools. Golden Gate Bridge is $5 and Bay Bridge is $4. Plus you only pay one way! YOU HEAR THAT NEW YORK/NEW JERSEY!!! I bought a seat in the upper deck for $28 which outside of standing room is the cheapest seat in the park. That seems absurd, but walking around the park it was one of my favorite seats in the park. The way the stadium is built, if you are in the first 10 rows of the upper deck, you get the same feel from a seat in the mezzanine at Shea, and views are unreal from behind home plate. Also, the seats are comfortable and fairly spacious for a ballpark. While almost $30 to sit in the upper deck is not ideal (especially if you take your family to a game) the quality of the seat brings its value up.

 

Interior Design: 50

The place is magnificent. The outfield area has some great places to hang out and watch the game. The feature of the high right field wall with really only 4 rows of seats before McCovey cove is great. Here’s something I didn’t realize. The giant coke bottle out in left center field, is not just advertising. There is a slide in there for kids. The brick layout is a great look for the park. It really gets me giddy for next year.

 

Tribute to Jackie: 0

You know…they have his number up with everybody else’s retired numbers. It is in the corner, but I am sure the Giants really couldn’t be happy about retiring a Dodgers number. We’ll give them a push here...

 

Sightlines: 50

Let’s see…you got the Bay Bridge out in left field, the mountains behind the bay in left center, endless water straight out in center field and McCovey Cove and sailboats and kayakers in right field. Can you ask for anything better than that? Plus, by the concession area you get views of the San Fran skyline. I will say that there are some seats in the “field level” section that are covered too much where you might lose sight of the ball. I am really nitpicking here though. This may be the best feature of the ballpark.

 

Concessions: 50

I stand corrected. Holy crap was the food great here. Two words: Garlic fires. They are so good they actually give you TWO peppermint candies with every purchase. Dip them in some ketchup…I am getting so hungry thinking about these. I didn’t even get a hot dog. There was a Sausage/Burgers/Chicken stand by my section. It makes the Premio sausages taste like rubber. It might have been the best kielbasa I have had in my life…and it was huge!!! They have plenty of local and specialty beers mixed in with the regular stuff. It is easily the best stadium food I have ever eaten.

 

Prices: -10

Again…the value is great for the price, but it is an expensive park. I need to mark it down a little here.

 

Scoreboards: 40

They have a HUGE Hi Def screen in center field to show the lineups and score of the game. They balance it with an old fashioned scoreboard along the right field wall in which you can get scores from around the league. All you get from there is the score and inning…no pitching information. The corners have scoreboards showing you game info on the pitchers like speed and pitch count. If you sat in right field you would have problems getting much info.

 

Weather: 40

Considering this was an April game on the water I was very comfortable. The key was my seats. The way the upper deck is built, it blocks the wind unless it is coming off of the bay. The wind tonight was blowing out from home plate and thus did not affect me. In my seat I was wearing jeans and had a fleece jacket over my polo shirt unzipped. Out side by the concessions I zipped up as you felt the wind big time. Still, I have been to much colder baseball games in May at Shea Stadium.

 

Staff: 25

Nothing really stands out about them…which the more I think about is definitely a good thing vs. bad. They let you walk around the stadium with out a problem and the service was fine.

 

National Anthem: 40

They had about 100 little leaguers between the ages of 6-10 singing the national anthem in centerfield. It was very cute and the crowd gave them a great ovation. Why in the world would any team NOT have a live person singing the National Anthem? In addition they bring a kid on the field to yell “play ball” to start the game.

 

Promotions: 40

The game was Playstation night and the first 20 fans received a decent SF Giants hat with admission. The cap was black with and orange brim and had the SF logo on the front. The back of the hat had a small Playstation logo above the hole and it was Velcro adjustable. If I was a Giants fan I would wear the hat to games on a regular basis as long as they won when I was wearing it. Not bad at all. Another cool promotion they have is a $20 mystery bag for charity. From what I heard most of the bags had bobble heads in them, but some contained 4 tickets for another game. At the worst, you donate $20 to charity and get a bobble head. Then again, you run the chance that the bobblehead doll may be Barry Zito.

 

Crowd Support: 25

They LOVE Bengie Molina out there. I mean it is hysterical to here the ovations he gets. By the way, I run faster than Bengie Molina…I would bet my life on a race with him. For the most part it is a decent crowd, but there were plenty of “Let’s go Giants” chants and they got loud at big moments in the game. No regular 2 strike clap for pitchers or anything, but when they need to get loud they do. I’d imagine it’s a much more negative crowd at a Zito game but you can’t blame them for that.

 

Crowd Personality: 25

The people in my section knew what they were talking about. I can’t go crazy about them however because they are still IN LOVE with Barry Bonds. Despite this fact I still enjoyed the fans as a whole.

 

Speaker System: 50

Fantastic. Not overbearing but incredibly clear. The female PA announcer is fantastic as well. I don’t know her name.

 

Stadium DJ: 35

Good mix of songs going on. No specific sing-alongs which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

 

Crowd entertainment: 25

There is lots of trivia going on for entertainment. They don’t have the T-Shirt launching gun which I think is officially a must for all stadiums. Also, every Friday Night home game they pay tribute to one Giants player celebrating 50 years in San Francisco. Tonight’s addition was Rob Nen. I was impressed with the reaction he got from the fans. They also had nice interviews with current players on how he represented the Giants franchise, and interviews with former teammates on what it was like to play with Rob Nen. I thought they missed the highlight of Nen blowing the save of game 3 of the 2000 NLDS when Edgardo Alfonzo ripped a single into left field to tie the game in the 8th, before Benny Agbayani hit the game winning home run in the 13th. It basically changed the whole series and led to Bobby Jones masterful 1 hitter in game 4. Just thought I would bring that up.

 

Location:  50

What a perfect setting for a game. The stadium is situated at the end of the even numbered peers right on the water. Apparently when they built the stadium it was not a very nice area of San Francisco. However they built up the surrounding areas with bars and high end apartments and the ball part is right along the harbor for crying out loud. I think it’s ideally what the Mets would like to do with Citi Field, but I just don’t see it happening.

 

Transportation: 50

As I mentioned earlier I took a bus to the game which is actually more of a “T” like system in Boston.  The BART as it is called are electric cars that go throughout the city is only $1.50 one way. They are very clean as you are not permitted to eat or drink on the BART (something I didn’t realize until I was about halfway through my iced tea). I took me about 45 minutes to gets there and 35 minutes back. A cab would have taken me about 30 and 20 minutes respectively so I think it was well worth saving the $20 each way. Also the stadium is located near a major train station in San Francisco where people in the suburbs can get to the game. I honestly have no idea why so many people drive.

 

Total Score: 660

I really enjoyed the experience at the game. It is a pricey stadium but the quality easily makes up for it. I’d rank it right in there with experiences at Petco Park in San Diego and Coors Field in Denver. If you are ever in the area and the Giants are in town I highly recommend seeing a game. Get the garlic fries…trust me.