AT&T Park San Francisco

On my girlfriend and my visit to North America, mainly for a wedding in British Columbia in Canada, we found it was cheaper to fly on a round-ticket including a stop elsewhere on the western seaboard of the USA. As such we found ourselves in San Francisco, which was a lovely city that was a really enjoyable stay. Admittedly, the stay was made even nicer by waking up on the first morning watching England get cordially dumped out of the World Cup 4-1 by Germany, but the visit to this City of Madness was really enjoyable, relaxing as real tourists on Pier 39, Cycling over the Golden Gate Bridge to Sausalito and visiting ‘The Rock,’ Alcatraz.

We also managed to add to our itiniery a trip to AT&T park, formerly PacBell Park (see here for more ‘information’), to see a regular season contest between National League Rivals the San Francisco Giants playing host to the Los Angeles Dodgers. I have to say, having been to many ballparks previously, that it really was a lovely wee ballpark, and I can understand why it is rated so highly in a variety of differing ballpark guides.

We managed to walk the 20 or so minutes to the ground from our centrally located hotel without fear or any abuse and we made our way to the top tiered, behind home-plate seats, which cost a reasonable $25 or so. And as the photos show, the views over the ballpark, the bay behind and over to Oakland were absolutely superb. It was, I hasten to say, a touch cold (62°F or 16°C), with a wild wind blowing from behind home plate, but happily we were dressed well for the occasion and the small roof behind us managed to keep the majority of the wind and cold off us.

AT&T Park - Pre game

AT&T - Once the floodlights came on during the game

Some favourite aspects of the ballpark for me included:

1. McCovey Cove - Beyond right field is China Basin, a section of San Francisco Bay, which is dubbed McCovey Cove after famed Giants first baseman and left-handed slugger Willie McCovey, and into which a number of home runs have been hit on the fly. Sadly non occurred on our visit.
2. The Coke Bottle & Glove - Behind the left field bleachers is "The Coca-Cola Fan Lot". The ballpark features an 80-foot (24 m) long Coca-Cola bottle with playground slides that will blow bubbles and light up with every Giants home run. Next to this is another oversized representation of a ballpark stalwart, the "Giant 1927 Old-Time Four-Fingered Baseball Glove" — this particular one is made of steel and fiberglass.

The Coke Bottle & Glove

3. The 404 Advertisement – One possibly unfortunate feature of AT&T Park's field is the Yahoo! ad at the corner of left center field. The distance to that portion of the wall is 404 feet, which is clearly marked right next to the Yahoo! ad. The number 404 is also a notorious error code in Internet parlance.

As for the game, the Dodgers won 4-2, and sadly our glimpse of Manny Ramirez was restricted to one plate appearance as he, in a way only Manny can do, managed to injure his right hamstring base-running (badly), in the first inning. It was in the fifth innings that the damage was done with James Loney hitting a go-ahead, two run single. Later that same inning Blake also singled that drove in Loney to make it 4-1. Pat Burrell hit a homer in the bottom of the ninth to make things interesting and allow us to see all the paraphernalia that accompanies a homer at AT&T, including the loud blasts of a fog-horn, but it wasn’t enough and two outs later the Dodgers had a 4-2 win.

Manny Ramirez for short time he was in the game

Please see the following for a game recap: Link.

Amanda Enjoying a Beer and Sweeties

Overall, a very enjoyable evening, attendance was 35,289 a figure representing 84.9% capacity

The Derby

The first sports venue for my new blog therefore is Epsom Downs, home of the Derby, where I was today for the 2010 Derby.

In truth, it probably wouldn't be counted as an actual proper visit as it was more a social event than the actual racing that was being watched. As you can see from this first photo, I wasn't particularly close to the action and the main grandstands, but it meant there was no top hats and tails required!

Happily though, as you can see from this picture, I was not the only person there with a touch of class, as HRH The Queen also was there, mostly for the Derby, but she also had two horses running in the first race:

I'm not 100% certain what having a bullet-proof car on the racetrack does for going and all that, but it was nice to see her there anyway!

As for the racing, well I was pretty much a good person to follow if the bookies wanted me to win them a lot of money, choosing only one short-priced winner and one longer shot when they were placed.

The action did look good though!

The main event was spectacularly won by little run 'Workforce' who managed to set a new course record for the race, a Shergar-esque performance. It proved to be a great Weekend for trainer Michael Stout and Jockey Ryan Moore, the jockey in particular, winning his first two classics on consecutive days!

I think I'll be there next year too, again enjoying the social scene, it will require a separate visit to enjoy the sport more I'd say!