San Francisco Giants - Stadium #1

 

The Giants game was the first game on our bucket list trip (well, the first we were acknowledging as we’ve been to a bunch of Mariners games already and one Padres game).  We took the short hop ferry (free) from the ferry terminal to the park.  Not only was it amazing to just pull up right outside of the stadium via boat, but it was so much better than looking for parking and paying way too much money to walk a quarter of a mile. The first stop in the stadium is the team store for my souvenirs.  I assumed it would be somewhere around home plate, but how to actually get around the concourse took some effort.  As we wandered around, we did see a game area which was dubbed “the arcade” by the locals.  It had cornhole, skee-ball and probably something else I missed while on my mission.  The concourse ended up being one of the more crowded stadiums that we went to.  We never did actually find the real team store, we just ended up at a rogue store.  After we got done at the team store, it was time to figure out how to get to our seats.  We eventually found our way to the third level and made the appropriate stop at concessions before we headed in.  It was an afternoon game and even though it was only about 78 outside, the sun was beating down on us.  It was HOT!  But the view from our seats was pretty spectacular.  Being able to watch a baseball game and lift your head ever so slightly to see the bay right behind it was a beautiful thing.  The game went into extra innings and since we weren’t sure how to navigate back to the ferry efficiently (and did I mention it was hot?), we left at the middle of the 10th inning.   According to the book Jeremy bought me for my birthday, the 8th inning is when the seagulls were supposed to show up in droves.  I saw one seagull the entire game.  There was a definite lack of seagulls when I was told there would be seagulls.  As far as the overall fan “experience”, it seemed like it was lacking.  They’d show some players answering various questions, but I don’t really recall much other fan engagement type things or things to make the game “fun” such as sound effects.  Though, I will say I am judging the fan experience based on what I’ve seen at Mariners’ games, so take it with a grain or two of salt. I know you’ve been waiting all post to hear my opinion of their hotdog, so wait no longer.  It was mediocre.  It had a nice and soft bun and was a good ratio of thickness to length, but flavor wise was just sort of meh. The Giants played the Boston Red Sox on July 30, 2023 at 1:05 pm and we sat in section 310, row 3.  The price I paid for the tickets to this game was $60 and it seemed slightly overpriced.  The view was amazing, but I think we were paying for the team they played, which was dumb. If you want to see the box score, here’s a link

Savannah Bananas

While the Savannah Bananas were not actually on my bucket list, the entire catalyst for this trip was to go to their game.  Since they were so popular, they had a lottery to determine who was eligible to purchase tickets.  My name was not picked for the ticket lottery and I never made it off of the waitlist after they drew the names. 

Sigh, maybe another time.

The Bucket List

Shortly after Jeremy and I started dating, we decided that visiting all 30 MLB parks was on our bucket list of things to do together.  Luckily, we got married and have plans to stay together, so finishing that task is doable.  Last year, Jeremy introduced me to the Savannah Bananas and how hilariously awesome their games are (find them on YouTube if you don’t know).  In fall 2022, they announced that they would be doing a tour and playing on the road at stadiums all over the country.  They happened to be coming to Arizona and California.  The date of the Arizona game was right next to Mariners' spring training so I could make a vacation out of that!  But there were two in California and both in the summer and you know what else is in California?  5 MLB ballparks.  I put my name in the hat for the tickets, as they were done from by a lottery system, and planned an entire trip around that one date.

I found a way to hit up the Giants, Dodgers, Angels, Padres and Athletics in that order while still carving out time to visit Alcatraz, Disneyland, Universal Studios and the Jelly Belly factory.  Of course, the Bananas’ game would be the first game on our trip.  After hours upon hours working on spreadsheets for this trip, I started buying tickets to the various events and booking hotels, all the while, waiting to see if my name was picked in the lottery to see the Bananas.  Out of curiosity, I checked the Mariners’ schedule and they happened to be at home the day after I planned on returning AND it was my 11th wedding anniversary.  Perfect!  We’ll let the kid spend the night at a friend’s house, as I’m sure he’ll be sick of having mom & dad 24/7 at that point, so Jeremy and I can go to the game to not only finish off the trip with a 6th game, but also go on a date for our anniversary.  The kid isn’t into baseball like Jeremy and I are, so I knew going to 5 games would be tough (6 if you count the Bananas), but I didn’t see another way for Jeremy and I to escape for 2.5 weeks to do it ourselves.  I figured he could tolerate a few hours of baseball as long as I tempted him with Disneyland, souvenirs and a phone with WiFi.

The next 6 posts will be about my experiences at the various games.  Before going to any game, I had decided that I wanted to eat a hotdog at every park (to judge), buy the same item from each park to put in some sort of display and buy a kid’s t-shirt with the logo on it to eventually make into a quilt.  We took various forms of transportation to the parks and that’ll all be included in my trip synopsis.  One last note before I move on, since Seattle is our home stadium and we’ve been there many times over the years (every opening day, except 2, in the past 16 years with Jeremy and the All Star Game in 2023), I’m going to be judging each stadium against T-Mobile Park.  “But Jenny, shouldn’t you be objective?”  No, it’s my blog and as Cartman said, “I do what I want”.