The Giants came to Phoenix for three games against the Diamondbacks at Chase Field, and we attended all of them. Monday was Labor Day and it was a day game, so we got to the park plenty early. Still, we only managed to see a little bit of batting practice and just Shawon Dunstan was signing autographs. (The DBacks Brandon Webb was signing and smiling pretty for fans though, and he autographed my free program.) We bought tickets at the park, where they add $1.00 to the price of a ticket on the day of the game. We were in section 315--nice and high behind home plate where the tickets cost $16 each. Madison Bumgarner pitched. His DiamondVision photo looked as if he had just flunked a math test. All the Giants were showcased in front of Photoshopped scenes of San Francisco, including one of AT&T Park that had a picture of Barry Bonds as the current hitter!
It was a pitchers' duel and we got bonus baseball. Nate Schierholtz won it in 11th inning with a triple!
Tuesday, it was Timmy's turn to pitch. We went to the local library and searched StubHub for some lower deck seats and snagged tickets in section 112, row 3 (yes, actual row 3!) for $17 each! Most of the section consisted of Giants fans, with signs even! So maybe you saw us on TV. Lincecum pitched four perfect innings before a clean single came down the right field line. The Giants scored three in the first inning and Brian Wilson got his 41st save.
Wednesday, Tracy found seats behind home plate--section 122, row 24--on StubHub for $19 each. There was a Roberto Clemente tribute and Miss Arizona sang the national anthem. Every time that leadoff hitter Stephen Drew was announced and the hometown fans did their "Drewwwwww" thing, we added "--Ribe!" We just couldn't help ourselves. There was a genuine "Uuu-Ribe" chant going on in the ninth inning, but the magic wasn't inside Chase Field. Barry Zito only gave up two runs, but the Giants could only score one on Freddy Sanchez' home run in the first inning. And so they lost 3-1.
The park itself is very family and fan friendly. The Golden Glovers (like ball dudes and dudettes) were always chatting with people along the sidelines. There were condiment races, and a Legends race with "Randy Johnson", "Matt Williams", "Luis Gonzalez", and "Mark Grace". Mark Grace has never won--how embarrassing for him! The food was good, with lots of choices at affordable price points. Giants fans, have you ever purchased a soda at AT&T for $1.50 or a Subway sandwich for $4.00? Even the waffle cone sundae from Cold Stone Creamery was only $6.00. While in section 122, we could have gotten margaritas at our seat from the strolling margarita vendor--sure beats coffee and hot chocolate!
The roof was open for the night games, and even though it was 95 degrees at game time, inside the park it was a cool 75! The only thing we didn't like about the seats in 315 was that it was quite dark up there--hard to see what we were writing in our scorebook.
Autographs obtained: Darren Ford and Mike Fontenot. Most players were not signing. Jonathan Sanchez was, but I was too far away. We saw Jon Miller, Dave Fleming, Krukow, and Amy G in the area near the dugout. Pat Burrell and Aaron Rowand came over to talk to two guys standing next to us behind the dugout. They were trying to find out who was going to some tournament in Vegas…hmmm...
No comments:
Post a Comment