Alex's Baseball Across America: AT&T Park Review

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A T & T P A R K

July 18, 2011

Los Angeles Dodgers v. San Francisco Giants

7:15pm

San Francisco 5, Los Angeles 0

WP: Vogelsong (7-1, 2.02 ERA)

LP: Billingsley (8-8, 4.07 ERA)

Attendance: 42,323

Time: 2:52

65 degrees, partly cloudy

AT&T Park is known for providing one of the best views in baseball. A far cry from old Candlestick Park, AT&T Park sits directly on “The Bay”. A perfect shot over right field will end up in McCovey Cove, where kayakers sit and wait with their nets. Past left field, there is a giant baseball glove next to a bottle of Coca-Cola. The park is surrounded with statues of baseball greats like Willie Mays and Orlando Cepeda.

The gates open up 2 hours prior to first pitch. You can roam anywhere during batting practice. It seems to be a harder place to get a BP ball. The bleacher area in right is small and not many seem to fly out in left. I saw several “ball retrievers”--home rigged poles that people use to get balls as they lie at the base of the wall. Players tended to throw the ball up a lot less here than other places. I’m not sure what came first...the players not throwing or the ball retrievers.

The Atmosphere: The only thing that can take away from the atmosphere here are the sometimes cold temps, but you won’t find me complaining about that. This is an almost perfect setting to take in a game...good atmosphere, good crowd, great stadium. I think this belongs under atmosphere...I’ve heard this for years on the TV in the background. They feature a lady announcer. I suspect she is the only one in Major League Baseball and maybe the only one in pro sports, but I don’t know that. They must like her because I’ve been hearing her for a number of years now. I do wonder how she got the job...it’s just not your typical overhead announcer voice.

The Scorecard: California has a scorecard, and it lives in San Francisco! They don’t advertise it, though. They have programs for $5 and it comes with a scorecard per say. I asked the vendor if they had an individual scorecard, and he went digging for it. It was $1 and almost exactly like what they sell at Busch. I finally felt at home! It even felt different writing on it...in a good way...

The Hot Dog: A Winner!!! I managed to find the “Grilled Homerun Dog”. It was $7.50 and worth every penny. I got it smothered in grilled onions. It had taste, flavor, spices, you name it! No clue what brand it was. They had forks and knives at the stand but I figured I didn’t need those...I should have gotten them. It was like eating a cheeseburger with too many toppings. Made for a mess, but it was well worth it! The only thing it didn’t have was a wrapper. It came on a piece of cardboard like they serve nachos in. I’ve been saving my wrappers from every park, and I had to have one from here, too. So, I did what any man with any shred of dignity would do...I cleaned out the cardboard and shoved it in my backpack.

The Broadcasters: The Giant radio lineup usually consists of Jon Miller. Unfortunately, he was doing a TV game that night. I would have loved to have heard him call the game. I don’t know why he and Joe don’t do the Sunday Night ESPN game anymore. The guys who did call it were good, though. I just can’t put them above Scully...

Entertainment: They did do a few things different here. One of the between inning activities was a game of “Press Your Luck”. They also feature a “Stretch Cam” after singing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame”. After a homerun, water is shot into the air from right field.

The Scorecard. It’s really a card!!!

Grilled Homerun Dog. Grilled!!! Onions!!! Flavor!!! Winner!!!

They do claim to sell authentic items but there was nothing game-used there, just MLB authenticated autographs and such.

Views from Around the Park:

Other words: Love it! Want to go back for another game! Actually tried to go back for another game, but they were out of town.

Gripes: None.

S T A T I S T I C S U P D A T E

MLB Games Seen

7 of 31

Days

17 of 86

Driving Miles

4,253.8 of an estimated 18,735

Estimated Gallons of Gas

223 of an estimated 1,102

Hot Dogs Eaten

7 of 30

Nights Under the Stars

0 of 12

States

8 of 35

Border Crossings

0 of 2

P R E D I C T I O N S U P D A T E

(AFTER 7 OF 30 GAMES)

Runs

66 of 249

Hits

118 of 512

Errors

10 of 36

Home Runs

18 of 65

Doubles

20 of 101

Triples

2 of 10

Sacrifices (Hits & Flies)

6 of 31

Strikeouts

107 of 415

Walks

45 of 189

Home Team Wins

5 of 17

Complete Games

0 of 1

Shutouts

1 of 2

Saves

3 of 15

Blown Saves

0 of 7

Balks

1 of 2

Wild Pitches

1 of 19

Hit Batters

2 of 18

Walk-offs

0 of 2

Stolen Bases

11 of 40

Caught Stealing

2 of 15

Ejections

1 of 4

Smallest Crowd

24,966

Chase Field, Phoenix

July 15th, Los Angeles v. Arizona

Largest Crowd

44,111

Angel Stadium of Anaheim, Anaheim

July 9th, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim v. Seattle

B A L L P A R K R A N K I N G S

I’m limiting this to the Top 5,

so some places will start to drop off.

I’ll keep a running tab on “The Stadium”, however.

I’m also eliminating “The Entertainment” category. I don’t think it matters and it’s all about the same. I’ll continue to comment on it, though.

The Stadium

1. PETCO Park, San Diego

2. AT&T Park, San Francisco

3. Minute Maid Park, Houston

4. Chase Field, Phoenix

5. Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, Arlington

6. Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles

7. Angel Stadium of Anaheim, Anaheim

The Atmosphere

1. AT&T Park, San Francisco

2. PETCO Park, San Diego

3. Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, Arlington

4. Angel Stadium of Anaheim, Anaheim

5. Minute Maid Park, Houston

The Crowd

1. AT&T Park, San Francisco

2. Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, Arlington

3. Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles

4. Angel Stadium of Anaheim, Anaheim

5. PETCO Park, San Diego

The Scorecard

1. AT&T Park, San Francisco

2. Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, Arlington

3. Minute Maid Park, Houston

4. PETCO Park, San Diego

The Hot Dog

1. AT&T Park, San Francisco

2. Minute Maid Park, Houston

3. Chase Field, Phoenix

4. Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, Arlington

5. Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles

The Broadcasters

1. Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles

2. AT&T Park, San Francisco

3. Angel Stadium of Anaheim, Anaheim

4. Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, Arlington

5. Minute Maid Park, Houston

A T & T P A R K

S A N F R A N C I S C O , C A L I F O R N I A

H O M E O F T H E G I A N T S

This was my second game to see the 2010 World Champion Giants play and the third time on this adventure to see the Dodgers. I was hoping for a chance to see “The Beard” make an appearance, but the Giants were too far ahead to need to bring in the closer.

There’s Orlando with a couple strangers.

Orlando, also a former Cardinal.

The Crowd: By far the best I’ve come across...so far. Some of it may be the fact that they are just coming off a Series winner, but I think these are more than just fair-weather fans. I was sitting next to a group of 3 ladies. They were probably in their early-60s and they all listened to the game on their radios. They really cracked me up. The one next to me said they come as often as they can and will probably make 55 games this year. Speaking of radios, there were 9 people listening to the radio just within a few rows of me--they pay attention to the game here. And despite dominating the game and a clearcut outcome, no one left early.

Juan Marichal.

The Stadium: Great! I intentionally got my seat in what they call the “view box”. It’s Busch’s equivalent of the terrace box. These seats provide a great view of both the game and the bay for just over $30. Outside the park in right field, you can actually look onto the field through a fence...you can see all the action for free! The entire outfield is bleacher seating...something you usually only find in old parks...put real seats out there and you can charge them as “field box”...they don’t pull that here.

A real, live Program Stand! At first, I thought it was a mirage.