about town

Giants Wonderland

Natalie's father is part of a group of SF Giants season ticket holders down at (insert phone company here) Park. Some weeks ago, as newly renewed patrons, they received an invitation from the team to a special complimentary event to be held on an off-day when the team wasn't playing. Impossibly, fantastically, none of the group could make the date, and the tickets fell all the way down to Natalie and me.

Before we were more than a few steps into the park, the champagne girls were upon us. Not yet having given our tickets to anyone, I silently chuckled to myself Wow, looks like anybody could cruise in off the street and grab some free champagne! My amusement continued as we were handed shrimp skewers. It turned to incredulity as we turned into the passages in the underbelly of the stadium, then to astonishment as we found ourselves standing on the infield, the strains of the piano positioned on homeplate gently tickling our ears, without ever having been asked for tickets, ID, or anything at all! Next year, tickets or no, we're trying to crash this thing, we decided on the spot.

The event was unbelievable. We were given free reign over the entire field, and some farsighted people with gloves immediately began playing catch on the outfield grass, with everyone else watching them jeaously. People began exoduses to the walls, for photo-ops at Barry Bonds' position and the "Splash Hits" sign, with the amplified piano audilble everywhere. The dugouts were our luxury lounges, with open bars serving wine, beer and champagne, and baskets of peanuts set out along the padded bench. Novelty foods were floating around; tiny ballpark hotdogs and burgers, wrapped in tiny wrappers, were passing by on a constant stream of food trays.

Some celebrities were on hand, starting with current Giants pitchers Matt Cain and Brad Hennessey signing for the crowd. There was Giants television broadcaster Duane Kuiper milling around, and there was radio's "voice of the Giants" Jon Miller, personally my favorite broadcaster (as well as President Bush's) and known nationally for his ESPN broadcasts with Joe Morgan. Team mascot Lou Seal was hanging around, hamming it up. Willie McCovey was sitting and signing autographs in the Giants locker room, which was opened to us. As were the clubhouse batting cages.

The sun set and they kicked us out at 8:30pm. Indescribable.