As some of you know, I was out in San Francisco last week for the Oracle convention. Since I was traveling alone and looking for things to do during the evening, I took in a SF Giants game. I will declare that I am a White Sox fan, so I don't really have a like/dislike of the Giants in general, and when it comes to fantasy baseball, I have Cain and Lincecum, but also have Holliday. Anyway, I'll link to the box score here so you can see what I was dealing with:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SFN/SFN200809240.shtmlFirst of all, parking was $30. Wow. That seemed pretty hefty -- my ticket was only like $40, but I pressed on. I had a ticket behind home plate (at least behind the netting) 22 rows up. I'm thinking this is one of these single ticket lucky deals.. most people are buying at least two tickets, so maybe I lucked into getting behind the plate tickets. Anyway, the game is scheduled for first pitch at 7:15 Pacific time. I arrive inside the park at about 6:50, find my seat, and settle in with a Bud Light. There was a Willie Mays dedication ceremony (they dedicated a wall to him on the semi-exterior of the building --- pretty cool as they had bats and balls from key moments in his career) and there was the National Anthem, and then they prepared to play ball. At this point, the closest fan to me was about 15 feet away. I have been to some games late in some really bad White Sox years, but I cannot recall attendance being that poor. Sometime during the third inning, a couple came and sat right next to me (they were clearly season ticket holders) so when I went for the next beer, I sat one row back for a little breathing room, but I literally had nobody next to me for the whole game. It was pretty much a farce -- neither team cared about the game... I got to see some home runs (no shots in the right field water, alas.) I did enjoy the park however, and they did do a really cool/cute thing in the 2nd inning. They had kids in their equivalent of the Fundamentals Deck announce the first three batters for the home team. It was pretty cute.
All in all, I would go again, but would take the public transportation (which drops you off quite literally right in front of the home plate entrance) and would like to see a game that meant something. Half the crowd literally did a standing ovation once they announced that J.T. Snow was being signed to a one day deal for the last game of the season.