Bonus Chapter 3: If You Build It, They Will Come
Did you know that Field of Dreams was released 30 years ago? This makes me feel really old. But I’ve been happy to catch it showing quite a bit on TV lately. That’s one of my favorite movies. In my opinion, it’s the very best performance of James Earl Jones’ career. He absolutely walks away with that movie, much like Sean Connery did with The Untouchables. Must be something about acting opposite Kevin Costner.
Anyway, that has nothing to do with anything other than I needed an awkward segue into baseball and that was the first thing that popped into my head. In the world of trip reporting, you don’t get finely-tuned revised manuscripts. You get the first draft, warts and all. Just another look into how the sausage gets made.
After navigating the San Francisco Muni transit system successfully, we got off at the 2nd & King St. station right next to
Oracle Park, home of the San Francisco Giants baseball team. I know this because it says so right on the sign.
We were taking yet another baseball stadium tour. Everybody’s got their thing.
@pkondz has his Japanese gardens. We have our baseball stadiums.
More accurately, David, Scotty and I have our baseball stadiums. Julie and Sarah just roll their eyes and tolerate us while we go on the tour. We would rather go to actual games (and the girls would rather avoid baseball altogether), but they’re usually prohibitively expensive for my family. We found that tours are a much more cost-effective way to see different ballparks around the country.
We had a bit of trouble finding the right gate at which to meet the tour guide. This resulted in some needless walking back and forth along the outside wall of the stadium before finally finding a sign that told us to go to the gate on the opposite side.
We munched on our PB&J sandwiches for lunch at the plaza. While there, we took note of something I’d been warned about but still hadn’t expected to witness myself: the San Francisco Poop Problem.
Right there, on the sidewalk in front of the stadium, someone had left a pile of
.
I hadn’t heard of this issue until my father brought it to my attention, but apparently
it is actually a thing. Many people are blaming the homeless population, although I can’t rule out the possibility that this particular little gift may have been left by a Los Angeles Dodgers fan. Now, I don’t want to delve into the causes of this or dump a load of politics on you. That would be crappy of me. In fact, I kind of feel like a stool pigeon telling you about it. Let’s just move on and I’ll tell you about our #2 attraction of the day.
Oracle Park has changed names a few times, but the ballpark was built in 2000 as part of the new wave of baseball stadiums which moved on from soulless, concrete cookie-cutter multi-purpose designs of the 70’s (thank goodness) and into an era of unique baseball-only parks that tried to fit in with the character of their home cities. This stadium was built on the south side of the downtown area right next to San Francisco Bay. It’s a gorgeous property and I’d love to see a game there someday.
We were led into a theater where we watched a 15-20 minute propaganda film about the Giants and their history. One of the most famous points of history was the 1989 earthquake which happened just before a World Series game was to be played at the old Candlestick Park. I remember having the TV tuned in to the game when they suddenly lost the feed during the pregame show. In the days before the internet, it took quite some time to figure out what had happened. Of course, given the damages and casualties from that quake, the delay of the World Series was the least of the city’s problems.
They made sure to remind us in the film many times that the Giants had won the World Series 3 times in 6 years: 2010, 2012 and 2014. In fact, this seemed to come up quite often throughout the tour.
We got to go inside the visitor’s clubhouse, where they had this cool model of the Golden Gate Bridge made from old baseball bats:
We also got to see the indoor batting cages where hitters stay loose between innings.
Typically, the high point of any ballpark tour is the moment when you get to go out on the field*. We entered through the visitor dugout.
*--As long as you stay on the warning track and don’t even think about touching the grass. Snipers are standing by if you so much as breathe on a blade of grass.
For any baseball fan, it’s a thrill to be right there on the playing surface. You can imagine yourself standing in the on-deck circle, bat in hand.
Or you can sit in the dugout, wondering what it would be like to call the shots as the manager.
Just pure magic, I tell ya!
Whatever. I thought it was cool.
On the way back inside, we spotted Bruce Wayne’s hideout.
The tour guide also made note of a special architectural feature, inspired by the 1989 quake. Oracle Park is built in 5 different sections, all attached by gaskets that allow the stadium to “move” with an earthquake. The idea is for the movement to be absorbed in these sections and minimize damage anywhere else in the building.
We got to take in the view from the Tony Bennett Suite along the first base line, which gave us a nice view of the Bay Bridge into Oakland.
Tony Bennett’s famous hit “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” obviously made him a favorite of the city. The suite was decorated with all sorts of memorabilia from Bennett’s career. This included a photo of a painted sculpture of a heart. The hearts were part of a public art installation and were placed all over the city. The tour guide told us that not only was Tony Bennett a great singer, but he was also an accomplished painter. He was asked to paint one of the hearts, and it was put on display in Union Square in the city. The photo in the suite
showed us his work. Sarah and I took a look and…agreed that it was probably a good thing he could sing.
Just behind the right field fence is a canal that leads into San Francisco Bay. The canal is known as McCovey’s Cove (named after Willie McCovey, a famous left-handed slugger for the Giants). If a left-handed batter makes great contact with a pitch, it’s possible for him to blast a home run out of the stadium and into the canal. Fans will often wait in kayaks and canoes, hoping to catch a “Splash Hit”. They even keep track of the number of home runs (from Giants players only) that land in the canal on a small scoreboard attached to the right field wall.
It was a fun tour, and I could have enjoyed the view of the bay all afternoon. The only drawback came near the end of the tour, when they took us through a hall of memorabilia displays—maybe 10 different exhibits—and slowly, painstakingly described the contents of every. Single. One.
Here’s an old ticket…here’s a photo of the owners…here’s another photo of the owners…here’s an environmental award…here’s some old baseball cards…here’s the very first mustard packet someone used on a hot dog in the park…and on and on.
So that was a bit of a drag. But I’m still glad I got to see the ballpark.
We took the muni train back into downtown, where I had hoped to use our transit passports to get a trip on the famous cable cars. If we’d had time, I had wanted to stop at the
Cable Car Museum in the city (which
@Steppesister had recommended), where we could get a glimpse of the machinery making these cars operate.
When we reached the California St. cable car turnaround, there was a fairly long line of people waiting for a ride. We could see two cable cars parked down the street, not moving. We saw a couple of drivers (don’t know their official titles) standing outside one car and shooting the breeze. Finally, they got into the cable car and drove it over to the turnaround, where they took on passengers.
They were actually able to accommodate most of the line, which was a mild surprise. As they moved off, we decided to jump in line for the next car.
However, there was no schedule available, and the other car was still sitting idle down the street. There was no driver inside. And no indication that anyone was going to be moving it anytime soon. I don’t think we waited as long as 20 minutes this time, but once again we gave up and bailed. Given the speed at which they operate, it was apparent that riding through the town was going to use up the entire afternoon, which would put us way behind schedule. So we had to content ourselves with riding the electric streetcars on the Embarcadero instead.
We retrieved our van from the parking garage and made our way out of the city. Our destination for the evening was the Monterey Peninsula, which was about a 2-hour drive away (not including traffic delays). Being Easter Sunday, we didn’t encounter a ton of traffic once we were outside the city and made it to Monterey with no issues. Everyone was hungry once we arrived, so we went downtown, found a parking garage, and then walked to the
Cannery Row Brewing Co.
This place was recommended by a fellow DIS-er, Alicia (
@Leshaface), as being a solid place for a meal. I sure hoped so, because feeding three teenagers is a chore these days. We all ordered different dishes.
Sarah went with a grilled chicken sandwich:
Scotty got his old standby, the bacon cheeseburger (he’s a boy after my heart):
Dave went with his standby, mac-and-cheese (with blackened chicken). Trust me, there’s chicken in there. No, really. There is.
Julie got rabbit food and a bowl of chili.
And I got a ginormous chicken-and-waffles dish. That’s caramelized maple butter that’s skewered on the top. Oh man, it was good. It really hit the spot.
Last but not least, Drew ordered a cheeseburger and then proceeded to get rid of the sesame seeds on the roll, which were completely unacceptable.
Not a single person was disappointed with this meal (except the aforementioned sesame seeds). As an added bonus, they had some ideas for things to do to pass the time while you wait for your meals.
Great food all around. I’m happy to say that you can indeed trust Alicia’s restaurant recommendations. Alicia, this Drooling Homer is for you.
Today’s driving/touring map:
Coming Up Next: We’ve already covered one exciting sports destination. Who’s ready for some golf?
The reaction of the kid is priceless, though!
People never fail to disappoint me.
So, were the offending items flung at his brothers & sister?
Perfect!!
