Brewers vs. Giants in San Francisco

But it was all good once I arrived at the San Francisco Airport, because my Uncle Gary picked me up and we headed downtown towards the ballpark. He brought a bottle of Captain Morgan, and we stopped at a Deli for lunch. We grabbed some Diet Cokes, and the quickly became Captain and Diets. And we quickly got all hyped up and ready to cheer on our Milwaukee Brewers.

Since I purchased my flight 3 days before departure, I didn't have a whole lot of options if I was going to keep the price as low as possible. So that is why you see me Walking in Memphis (Tennessee) just like the Marc Cohn song of the same name describes. Memphis is not on the way to San Francisco, but I didn't have the necessary funds to take a nonstop flight. 

AT & T Park is a really sweet gem of a baseball stadium. It's on the edge of downtown, and borders the San Francisco Bay. The park was opened in 2000 as Pacific Bell Park and has since undergone 2 name changes. I bet the people who design, construct and erect (tee hee) the signage in the park just loved that. Thanks to corporate merging and synergy, tons of product names are being changed almost daily. In 2004 it was called SBC Park after said company bought out Pacific Bell. Then in 2006, AT&T and SBC merged and they chose the more iconic and recognizable park. AT&T now owns Cingular Wireless, but I doubt they will change the name of the park again. Some things need to stay consistent. We didn't get much time to walk around the area, because it was just about time for the game to begin, so we went on inside.

The Milwaukee Brewers opened the 2009 season on the road against the San Francisco Giants, and I never in a million years thought that I would be there to see it in person. Wait what? Hold the phone - you heard it right folks. After the most exciting Brewers season (2008) in my lifetime, I already jumped the gun and kick started 2009 by going down to Phoenix for Spring Training. So you would think that I could wait until April 10th (Brewers home opener) to catch the Crew in person, right? Well, I was fully prepared to do that, but my Uncle Gary called me on Thursday April 2nd and offered me a ticket to the game on Tuesday April 7th if I would buy a flight and meet him in San Francisco. He lives in Palm Springs, and was up there for business or something. So that weekend I bought a plane ticket, took off of work for 2 days and got ready for another one of my whirlwind vacations. On Tuesday morning (April 7th) I bid farewell to Coach Gordon Bombay and boarded a plane to San Francisco. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. This trip was already super spontaneous, and I knew as the day went on it would become even more so. But the random adventures almost always turn out to be the most enjoyable because of the nonstop excitement.

My Uncle Gary is the best at making contacts and networking. He said that he got these tickets from some guys on the golf course, and that he bought them at face value. He's sometimes a little extravagant with his stories, but I would have to say that I believed him on this one. We sat on the field level even with first base, and we about 20 rows back from the field. They were absolutely amazing. I walked down to the Brewers dugout to see if I could get any sweet pictures of the players when I ran into Brewers principal owner Mark Attanasio. Mark (as I can now call him instead of Mr. Attanasio since I have formally met him) is an investment banker from Los Angeles, so for him it was just a short 1 hour flight to see the team that he owns. Beats the 4 hour flight it takes for him to get to Milwaukee for home games. I chatted for a minute, then let him take his seat. I didn't want to occupy his time too much. He came here to enjoy the game, and I wasn't about to stop him.

Home

Opening Day is always a very special day in baseball. Obviously it marks the beginning of the baseball season, but to a lot of people it also marks the beginning of summer. The weather may not always comply (there was talk of this game being rained out, something that worried me the day before since I was just about to travel cross country to for 2 days to watch baseball) but today the rain cleared up in time for the game to begin. They take Opening Day seriously in Major League Baseball, and they usually pull out all the stops in the pregame ceremonies. From the military presence, airplane flyover, giant American flag to American Idol winner Taylor Hicks singing the National Anthem, everything here was kind of a big deal. But enough of that noise - I came here to watch baseball. PLAAAAAAY BAAAAAALLLL!!!