Los Angeles Dodgers at San Francisco Giants

If you are coming from the suburbs south of San Francisco to a Giants game it may make the most sense to take Caltrain to AT&T Park rather than drive. That is what I did Monday night on the way to game one of the three game series between the Dodgers and Giants.

Obtaining Tickets
A main area for buying Giants tickets from scalpers is directly in front of the Caltrain station after getting off the train. I offered $10 for tickets from the scalpers but nobody would accept my offer. Then I waited to see if any fans had extra tickets but nobody did so I walked the few blocks to AT&T Park.

I had just past the Willie Mays statue headed for the ticket office, when I passed a group of three people with four tickets. I asked if they had an extra and the man said he did. He handed me the ticket ($25 face value) and I told him thank you. A free ticket!

The Game
The Dodgers used a four-run 4th inning to defeat the Giants 4-2. San Francisco’s manager, Bruce Bochy, was ejected after arguing two calls with first base umpire Bill Hohn. The first came in the 3rd inning and the second in the 5th inning. Both calls were out calls in favor of the Dodgers, but it appeared the Giants should have been called safe in both cases.

Manny Ramirez was booed by the crowd each time he came to the plate in Ramirez’s first game in San Francisco since coming back from his 50-game suspension after violating baseball’s drug rules.

Cincinnati Reds at San Francisco Giants

With Nicole attending her sociology conference in San Francisco, I went to the Sunday afternoon Giants game with my Dad.

Obtaining Tickets
We needed to buy two tickets and again my goal was to find tickets for $10 each. However, I was only offering $15 for two tickets. None of the scalpers would accept my offer until one scalper got creative. He offered us two singles in the upper deck for $15. Since I had sat in the lower level Saturday afternoon and had planned to do the same, I accepted the offer.

As I thought, I sat in the same section I had Saturday afternoon and we were not asked to move once. The reason I chose these sections Saturday was because there were a lot of empty seats no ushers were checking tickets. The sections towards home plate all did.

The Game
Aaron Harang won his first game since May 25 as the Reds defeated the Giants in the rubber match of the three-game series 5-2.

Post Game Dining
After the game, I met the Ultimate Sports Wife at Union Square. Union Square is a 20-25 minute walk from AT&T Park if you want to do some shopping before or after the game.

After wandering around Union Square, we took a cab to the Mission District where we ate dinner at Café Arguello located at 2832 Mission St. and went to Laszlo, located at 2526 Mission St., for some post dinner drinks.

Game #1 of 3: Reds at Giants

Something I forgot to mention in yesterday’s post is that the Giants do not always play at 1:05 pm on Saturday afternoons. They usually play at night – meaning this day would not be possible without a scheduled afternoon game.

Nicole and I drove to her conference on Saturday morning. We parked the car around 12:15 pm and I walked over to AT&T Park – about a 20 minute walk from Market St. and 6th St.

Obtaining Tickets
As with any baseball game that is not sold out, cheaper tickets can be found outside the stadium. I talked to a couple of scalpers on my walk to the stadium, but none of them wanted sell a ticket below $10. I figured I could find a $10 seat and waited to see if I could get a free ticket.

As I approached the Willie Mays statue, I found a guy with a $42 ticket who was willing to sell it for $20. The seat was down the left field line. I rejected the offer because I still only wanted to pay $10. However, I found it difficult to buy a $10 ticket. Scalpers wanted $15 or $20 – not too much more than I wanted to pay but enough when I knew I could buy a $10 ticket.

The line to buy tickets at the box office was incredibly long. That is when I discovered that the Giants now have ticket kiosks where you can buy a ticket. No need to wait in the box office line. In addition, I believe you can buy tickets at any time – day or night. I approached the screen and punched in the correct game – the cheapest seat was $26.50. “Yikes,” I thought. Let’s go back and talk with the scalpers. I even went back to the fan who offered me the $42 ticket for $20. Of course, he was gone.

After some haggling I finally bought one of the Giants variable priced tickets for $10. Not my best effort but the best with what I was given today.

The Game
I ended up walking over to the $42 seat area and found a bunch of empty seats down the left field line and in the shade where I sat for the entire game.

Barry Zito won his third consecutive decision for the first time since May 23-June 4, 2007 (he is 3-0 in his last four starts) as the Giants defeated the Reds 4-2 in 2 hours and 44 minutes – the perfect game ending time for me. The game ended about 3:50 pm and I was off to Nicole’s presentation.

Tripleheader Saturday in San Francisco

Today is a complicated day for three sporting events – at least two of them are at the same venue. The wife and my original reason for being in San Francisco is for Nicole’s sociology conference – the American Sociological Association’s annual event. She is giving a presentation scheduled for 4:30 pm this afternoon (Saturday) and to be a good husband I thought I would attend.

With the San Francisco Giants game starting at 1:05 pm and a soccer doubleheader at Candlestick Park (Game 1 is between the San Jose Earthquakes and the Columbus Crew and Game 2 is between FC Barcelona and Chivas de Guadalajara) starting at 5:30 pm, I need perfect timing in order to see the end of the Giants game and make the doubleheader on time.

There are a couple issues that could occur:

1) I am not sure when Nicole is presenting or how long she will present. The session is scheduled from 4:30 to 6:10 pm. If she presents late I can make the MLS game by halftime (in order for the game to “count,” I need to attend only half the game with extenuating circumstances – which today falls under).

2) The Giants game could go to extra innings. As stated in #1, I am not entirely sure when Nicole is presenting. Extra innings works if she presents later in the session, but then I will miss the beginning of the MLS game.

Next part I forgot to mention – my parents are attending the soccer doubleheader and coming to the presentation. They need to pick me up from the Giants game, drive to the hotel where the conference is located, find parking, watch the presentation intently, get back to the car and drive to Candlestick Park.

Ideal situation – Nicole presents immediately at 4:30 pm for about 20 minutes and we immediately leave for the soccer doubleheader.

Los Angeles Dodgers at San Francisco Giants

For the second time in three days, we attended the Giants game at AT&T Park. Yesterday, we had planned to purchase the Chevron ticket deal we had purchased for Friday’s game. However, in order to avoid the ticket handling fee from tickets.com and since we were buying 6 tickets, we planned to buy the tickets at the Giants’ box office.

Ticket Buying Tip #8:
When attending a game with more than 4 people it generally makes sense to buy tickets ahead of time or at the box office. Normally scalpers do not have 5 or more tickets together – meaning that you either will not all sit together or you will have to sit in an empty area of the stadium in order to do so.

I hopped out of the car as we pulled into the $15 parking lot we had parked in Friday (a good deal compared to spending $30 in the official AT&T Park parking lots) and walked over to the park.

Surprisingly, the scalpers on the way actually had 6 tickets together. I offered the first guy $5 each ($30 total). He laughed and walked away. I offered the same to the next scalper. He said, “Hey man…the A’s are back in town tomorrow night. Why don’t you go home today and save your money for the A’s tomorrow night?” I continued my way to the box office – upping my offer to $10 per ticket but no scalper would accept that price.

At the box office, I asked for the Chevron ticket deal – View Reserved seats would cost $12.50 each, plus I needed to purchase a $25 Chevron gift card. The total should be $100. “That will be $143,” said the ticket seller. She eventually explained that I needed to buy tickets in lots of 4 for the Chevron deal. I could not buy 6 at the cheap price. She was charging me $34 each for the final two tickets. I told her no thanks and walked back to the scalpers.

I offered the first guy I saw $74 – as much money as I had in my wallet. He hesitated at first but talked to his buddy who accepted the offer. I had bought the six tickets for the same price I had wanted to pay at the Giants’ box office but did not have to buy the $25 Chevron gift card.

After buying tickets, I met the family at Tres Agaves – a Mexican restaurant a few blocks from the ballpark. We ordered Mexican brunch and margaritas to start the day. The area around AT&T Park is definitely one to hang out in before or after a game. It has multiple restaurants and bars to choose from.

The Dodgers beat the Giants 5-3 as Rich Aurilia recorded his 1500th hit on a home run in the bottom of the 4th inning. Aurilia wanted his milestone ball back so he traded an autographed bat to the fan that caught the home run ball.

Fourth of July at AT&T Park

I booked our flights to San Francisco in early June and called my parents that we were planning to visit over the July 4th weekend. My mom, knowing I would want to go to a Giants game and not a believer in scalping tickets outside the park, logged onto the Giants website and discovered they were selling $32 face value tickets for $12.50 each (you have to buy at least 4 tickets plus a $25 Chevron Gift Card for a total of $75). My mom, excited about the deal (and probably more excited about the gas card) purchased the tickets.

We decided to eat at MoMo’s before the game. MoMo’s is directly a across the street from AT&T Park. You cannot miss it if walking by the stadium. We arrived at 11 am, order a bottle of champagne and ate lunch. After “Chunch”, the Ultimate Sports Wife and I hung out in the outdoor patio. The patio is crowded and apparently the place to be before and/or after a Giants game.

Today, players were allowed to wear Red, White and Blue hats to celebrate MLB’s national fundraising campaign for the returning of troops from Iraq and Afghanistan. Today was also Andruw Jones and Nomar Garciaparra’s first game after coming off the disabled list. Jones went 0-5 and struck out 4 times, while Nomar has a better day – 2-4 with 2 RBI and a run scored.

The Giants paid tribute to Dave Righetti’s no-hitter on July 4, 1983. Today was the 25th anniversary of the Giants’ Pitching Coach’s no-hitter against the Boston Red Sox when he was a pitcher for the New York Yankees. Of course, the Dodgers rallied for two runs in the top of the 3rd inning after the tribute was played.