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P E T C O P A R K
July 16, 2011
San Francisco Giants v. San Diego Padres
5:35pm
San Diego 11, San Francisco 3
WP: Luebke (3-3, 2.57 ERA)
LP: Zito (3-2, 4.78 ERA)
Attendance: 42,024
Time: 2:49
69 degrees, clear
PETCO Park. This place is a great place for baseball. It’s in a neighborhood, so there’s plenty of stuff around the park. A ton of restaurants within walking distance. The weather in San Diego is perfect just about year-round. If I could pick up the St. Louis Cardinals and bring them here, I’d do it in a heartbeat. San Diego definitely did this place right when theY built it. It has a very nice open area beyond centerfield where many people sit on blankets to watch the game.
The gates here opened 2-1/2 hours before game time. Woot! Woot! Plenty of time to run around this place, and you need it because it’s huge. I got there 4 hours before first pitch. Needless to say, I got a good parking spot. I went and ate at one of the local places a few blocks from the stadium.
In the area behind the outfield, they have a band that plays pregame. You can take in batting practice from the “bleachers” or the outfield field box seats. I put bleachers in quotes because they aren’t typical bleacher seats...the area is behind centerfield and quite nice with real seats (no backs) and a whole lot of leg room. There’s even a beach at the bottom of it. This place has more food than any place I’ve been to. It is EVERYWHERE. A LOT of stands with a lot of grilling. Probably a half dozen different kinds of hot dogs, or more. Though my hot dog didn’t rate as high as others, this is the place for a dog. They have Kosher, too! You can even grab a gluten-free dog if you got the sprue. Lots of bars. Lots of places to sit after you grab your food and enjoy the views of town.
The Atmosphere: Great! You could put two A-clubs on the field and still want to come and watch. It’s just a great place to watch a game.
The Scorecard: They definitely did better than Angels, Dodgers, or Diamondbacks, but it’s not perfect. It was free...though you have to seek it out. It’s one 8-1/2 x 11 piece of paper, one side for the Padres and the other for the visitors. At first I was trying to figure out how to use it because it was too thin to write on and I didn’t think that I’d need to bring a clipboard. But, then I smartened up. I got 3 of them. That made it thick enough to write on, and allowed me to use 2 different ones--one for each team--that way you can display them in the future if needed.
The Hot Dog: A lot to choose from here. I was ready to go for the Kosher dog grilled but they had dogs called Friar Franks everywhere. I had not had or heard of that before, so that’s what I had. Unfortunately, I could not find one grilled, except for the one that was way too big. When I got it, my heart almost sank...it was wrapped in a Wienerschnitzel piece of foil, the same brand served at Angel Stadium, and a fair dog at best. This did have a better bun if that counts for anything. After I got this one, I actually did found one that was grilled--it was the ONLY stand I had not looked at. Oh, well.
The Broadcasters: Two that worked in tandem. The main guy was not afraid to criticize the other team...at all. He was critical of a lot, sometimes too much. He had a lot of jokes to tell--they really weren’t funny. I followed along just fine, though, and they did provide some amount of entertainment.
Entertainment: Quite a bit less going on between innings. They did have a t-shirt cannon. They did the routine hat dance...and actually used hats this time. Nothing else really sticks out. They really depend on the “fan cam” to keep people entertained between innings.
The Scorecard.
Friar Frank.
No authentics items at all.
Views from Around the Park:
Other words: This park is a winner! EXCELLENT place to enjoy baseball. You can even sit in the sun and not get hot in the middle of July!
Gripes: Essentially none. The only one I have, and it’s minor, is that it’s hard to walk around the park in a complete circle. It certainly wouldn’t keep me away from here, though.
S T A T I S T I C S U P D A T E
MLB Games Seen
6 of 31
Days
15 of 86
Driving Miles
3,841 of an estimated 18,735
Estimated Gallons of Gas
197 of an estimated 1,102
Hot Dogs Eaten
6 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 6 OF 30 GAMES)
Runs
61 of 249
Hits
101 of 512
Errors
9 of 36
Home Runs
17 of 65
Doubles
17 of 101
Triples
2 of 10
Sacrifices (Hits & Flies)
6 of 31
Strikeouts
92 of 415
Walks
43 of 189
Home Team Wins
4 of 17
Complete Games
0 of 1
Shutouts
0 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.
The Atmosphere
1. PETCO Park, San Diego
2. Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, Arlington
3. Angel Stadium of Anaheim, Anaheim
4. Minute Maid Park, Houston
5. Chase Field, Phoenix
The Stadium
1. PETCO Park, San Diego
2. Minute Maid Park, Houston
3. Chase Field, Phoenix
4. Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, Arlington
5. Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles
6. Angel Stadium of Anaheim, Anaheim
The Crowd
1. Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, Arlington
2. Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles
3. Angel Stadium of Anaheim, Anaheim
4. PETCO Park, San Diego
5. Minute Maid Park, Houston
The Scorecard
1. Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, Arlington
2. Minute Maid Park, Houston
3. PETCO Park, San Diego
The Hot Dog
1. Minute Maid Park, Houston
2. Chase Field, Phoenix
3. Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, Arlington
4. Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles
5. PETCO Park, San Diego
The Broadcasters
1. Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles
2. Angel Stadium of Anaheim, Anaheim
3. Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, Arlington
4. Minute Maid Park, Houston
5. PETCO Park, San Diego
Entertainment
1. Minute Maid Park, Houston
2. Angel Stadium of Anaheim, Anaheim
3. Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, Arlington
4. Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles
5. Chase Field, Phoenix
P E T C O P A R K
S A N D I E G O , C A L I F O R N I A
H O M E O F T H E P A D R E S
The matchup featured the first place Giants and the last place Padres, though it didn’t look like that tonight. The Padres did what they’ve been struggling to do all season...hit the ball. They essentially dominated the game from beginning to end. Got to see former Cardinal Ryan Ludwick play again. I still can’t believe we got rid of him. He still is sporting the Beastie Boys’ “Brass Monkey”.
Perhaps the most unique thing about PETCO is the Western Metal Supply Co. building that sits in left field. It’s corner is the left field foul pole. They essentially built the stadium around not destroying this building.
Tony Gwynn’s statue sits on the grassy knoll in centerfield.
The Crowd: Though not the best crowd, it was a good one, especially considering they’re pulling for a last place team. They claimed it was a sell-out. A lot of Giant fans made the trip down.
The “bleachers”.
Not a bad place to sit and watch a game.
The Stadium: Awesome! Many unique features. The open area beyond the outfield. The old factory building serving as a foul pole and seating. The beach in centerfield. It’s the first stadium on this journey whose seats match the team color! The thing that cracked me up the most were the bullpens. The Padre bullpen sits safely beyond left center field. The Giant bullpen sat down the right field line just waiting to get a line drive hit their way.
The fully-exposed visitor bullpen.
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