San Francisco is My Home

25
Mar

Tuesday profile: Local ballparks

Author: kris, Category: Landmarks, Oakland, Sports

I don’t write about sports much on this site because, well, I mostly find them boring. But I do enjoy baseball. Not in the sense of following it or understanding it in anyway. I just like going to games. And for this reason, this week’s Tuesday business review deals with the two baseball stadiums available to a local fan.

We begin with AT&T Park* in San Francisco. With its sweeping views of the water, this is a gorgeous place to hang out even if you hate baseball. It’s especially nice on sunny days when the water gets all gemstone-sparkly and all the colors seem crisp and new. The drawback, of course, is that tickets are expensive, even for the cheap seats.

For cheaper and less classy game, I like to head for McAfee Coliseum, current home of the Oakland A’s. I like this place because of the cheap Wednesday night games. For a while, tickets to these games were $2, but I think they might be as high as $4 now. That’s in addition to the cost of ten or so dollar hot dogs (now raised to $2 I think) which are an integral part of the experience. A cheap baseball game isn’t a cheap baseball game unless you sneak in your own hooch and make yourself sick by eating way more hot dogs than you wanted simply because you can pay for them with the loose change you find floating around in your car. This stadium is especially exciting because of the side games being offered such as dot racing (three dots “race” on the message board; every guy I know explodes in a frenzy of ridiculous wagering). It’s like even the people who work for professional baseball know that you need fun distractions when watching professional baseball.

Rumor has it that the A’s are making a bid to move to Cissy Field in Fremont, which will be a great sadness for everyone. Get your cheap games in now, because later you might not have the option.

*I’m sure real baseball curmudgeons have covered this much more adroitly and ad nauseam on the internet, but don’t you hate the branding of sports fields? I don’t even like sports and I hate it. You strip the poetry from sports and all it is is big business. What about the little kid who plays on a Little League team and still dreams about making the major leagues, not because it pays well but because he loves the game? What does the branding tell him about that dream? (Don’t get me started on what’s happening to the little girls who love the game.)

This view could be yours.