Ultimate Baseball Road Trip (139 page)

Josh:
I can’t believe you just recommended watching the game from inside.

Kevin:
I’m not twenty-five anymore and neither are you. There’s something to be said for a few innings in a climate-controlled environment.

Josh:
Yikes, I can’t wait to see what the tenth edition of the book will look like when we’re both in our seventies.

Though the close seats on the first level give the park an intimate feel, the seats on the View Level make the park seem huge. The best seats in all of these sections are the View Level Boxes, but we don’t recommend spending the extra money. If you want better seats for fewer bucks, head for the bleachers. If you want to take in the sweeping views of the Bay, then perhaps the View Level is a good choice, but make certain to get the first ten rows in Sections 311–321. And beware, this upper level is among the steepest in baseball, so if it’s your turn to make the beer and dog runs, think about making two trips. Even a mild fear of heights is cause to sit elsewhere.

The first-base side is preferable to the third-base side, because less of the corner is lost and the views are better.
From the seats on the left-field side, the Bay Bridge and Treasure Island are in full view, while the right-field side offers views of mostly industrial areas and parking lots.

The ballpark designers did a good job of protecting sight lines in the View Level, but by Section 326 the corner of the field is shaved off and it gets worse as the section numbers increase. Section 332 feels very removed from the action, and we cannot recommend sitting anywhere past it. Sections 333–335 suffer a severe loss of the corner and of the left-field wall, as well as foul-pole obstruction. Section 336 is just plain terrible. These seats are bad enough that management took our previous advice and lowered the prices—or so we like to tell ourselves.

We love these bleacher sections and prefer them to the many more expensive seating options throughout the park. The low wall along the left-field line blocks only the warning track, so most plays against the wall remain in view.

Bleacher seats to avoid, however, are the high seats near the batter’s eye. The seats right next to the batter’s eye may not have views of the opposite portion of the infield, and should be removed. In Section 143 steer clear of Seats 1–10 in Row 33, and then angling down to Row 30, while in Section 142, avoid any seat numbered 25 or higher in Rows 30–33.

The Arcade-level seats are completely unique to AT&T Park. The sections are only two seats wide and run along the high oblique fence out in right field. The seats face the action, but the wall is angled, giving these sections a very distinctive feel. Section 149 has a few seats to avoid, because they have been poorly placed right behind the foul pole. Don’t sit in Row 2 Seat 20, or Row 3 Seats 19–21.

It’s not a problem finding ticket hawkers outside AT&T. But buying a scalped ticket can be as cutthroat as a sellout game in Boston. Scalpers may not be as aggressive as they are in the Fenway, but they’ve got paper gold in those orange and black tickets in their hands and they don’t let them go on the cheap.

BEWARE: There have been incidences of counterfeit tickets being sold outside AT&T Park. They look fine, but the barcode readers won’t scan them. And by then, the scalpers are long gone. This means that for sellouts you have four options: (1) Bite the bullet, dig down into your wallet, pay scalper prices and pray they’re real, (2) get tickets from StubHub, or another online ticket broker, (3) wait until the second inning until the prices outside come crashing down, and pray they’re real, or (4) visit the Dynamic Deals section on the Giants website. In essence, the Giants are scalping their own tickets here, so expect to get a seat and pay a little more, but at least you know it isn’t a counterfeit. Remember that the Giants introduced the idea of “dynamic pricing” a few years back. What this means is that the team charges less for games against the bad teams (low demand games) than the good teams (high-demand games). As long as you’re not trying to score tickets to see the Dodgers, you’ll probably make out okay, but we recommend StubHub out of all these options.

Two large clock towers that adorn the brick exterior of AT&T Park along King Street are the most prominent features of the ballpark’s facade. The towers are capped by pyramid-shaped roofs, and flagpoles, and stand outside the Willie Mays Plaza and near the Second Street Plaza entrance. Along with the smaller clock towers located at the Seals Plaza and Marina Gate entrance that honors the San Francisco Seals, and at the Lefty O’Doul Plaza and Bridge honoring the local son and baseball great, these featured architectural elements tie the ballpark to the neighborhood and the similarly sculpted King Street Railroad station a few blocks away.

There are far too many ways to get to AT&T for us to list them all. But here are the major routes. Coming from the west on Interstate 80 or north on Highway 101, take the exits marked for the ballpark and follow the signs. Otherwise aim your road trip mobile for the corner of Third and King Streets, though the official address is 24 Willie Mays Plaza for those using a GPS.

Unless you’re arriving on a motorcycle, don’t even think about finding that elusive secret parking spot in this
town. Trust us when we say it doesn’t exist. We looked. Of the seven parking places actually in the city limits of San Francisco that are available, none of them are down by the ballpark. Rather, look for a cheap parking lot within the acceptable five-block walking radius. We found one at Fourth and Brannan. The team lot, located just across the Lefty O’Doul Bridge, will cost you quite a bit more than you’ll find a bit farther away.

AT&T Park is also convenient for folks using public transportation. The Embarcadero BART Station is a fifteen-minute walk from the ballpark, or you can get a transfer to the MUNI train that runs right out front and is only half-price if you’re going to the game. MUNI trains can also get you to AT&T from all other points of service as well. Yet another train option is the CAL-TRAIN: The downtown station is just three blocks away. For those still unsatisfied with the amount of public transportation, ferries service the ballpark from Oakland and other points of departure, but the ferries are generally booze-cruises, rather than quick rides for folks who’d like to get to the ballpark efficiently. If you don’t mind getting to the game right as it’s beginning and leaving a half hour after it ends, take the ferries that operate right in McCovey Cove. They’re cheaper than parking or taking BART, and you can enjoy a nice boat cruise (one hour each way). If you can’t get direct specialty service, there is always the option of taking the regular ferry to the Ferry Building, then transferring to the Muni. Eating at the ferry terminal once you arrive is also a great way to go. To learn more, visit:
http://goldengateferry.org/schedules
.

Finally, if you bike to the game (which a surprising number of people do) just wheel around to the promenade and drop off your two-wheeler at the check stand where folks will watch it for you all game. Pretty nifty.

For a full rundown of these and other transit options, check out this wiki dedicated to the subject:
http://www.transitunlimited.org/Main_Page
.

The main entrance to AT&T Park draws visitors through Willie Mays Plaza, a cozy palm-tree-lined pregame landmark where folks meet up with friends.

The centerpiece of the plaza is a statue of the Say Hey Kid. Mays’ swing is unmistakable for any other, and the sculpture captures perfectly the power he once uncorked. Mays’ lower right leg drags parallel to the ground and on first glance makes him appear off-balance. But the distant look in the eyes of the statue make it clear that the imaginary ball is headed for the fences.

Mays hit the fourth most home runs in Major League history (behind his godson, Barry Bonds; Hank Aaron; and Babe Ruth) playing half of his games at Candlestick, though fewer than a third (203) of his 660 dingers came at home. Had Mays played elsewhere, or had he been a left-hander so the wind gusts of Candlestick could help his fly balls rather than harm them, many experts say his career home run total would have been closer to eight hundred. Fellow Giants joining Mays in the 500 Home Run Club are Mel Ott (511), Willie McCovey (521), and Barry Bonds (762).

Kevin:
I told you in the first edition of the book that Bonds would break the record.

Josh:
Don’t even go there. He was juicing and I knew it.

Kevin:
He was never convicted. Besides, everyone was cheating.

Josh:
Even Edgar Martinez?

Kevin:
Bite your tongue.

A statue of high-kicking Juan Marichal stands in Lefty O’Doul Plaza, just outside the 3rd Street entrance. Marichal had a delivery unlike any other, and the statue depicts his left foot high over his head and his right arm gripping the ball and slung low. Marichal threw 244 complete games during his career, including the most impressive two during 1963. On June 15, he no-hit the Colt-45s at Candlestick Park. Then, eighteen days later, he threw a complete game shutout against the Milwaukee Brewers and Warren Spahn. Did we forget to mention that that game lasted 16 innings before Willie Mays clubbed a home run against Spahn to end the marathon, 1-0? The day the statue was erected the Giants wore jerseys that read “Gigantes” across the chest to honor Marichal, a native of the Dominican Republic.