A Day at the Ballpark
Three months into the season, Kevin finally made it to his first baseball game! Woohoo!
...and boy, did he ever pick one to start with. /facepalm.
Let me start off by saying that I have had this weekend marked on my calendar for months. Interleague schedules can be hit and miss, but the stars very much aligned for me this weekend.
You see, Major League Baseball has two great rivalries- The Yankees and the Red Sox, and the Giants and the Dodgers. Others exist, but these are the biggest, most epic, longest-running and deepest-seated rivalries you'll find in American sports. They're kind of a big deal, and due to various circumstances in my upbringing, the Yankees and Giants are both very dear to me, whilst the Dodgers and Red Sox are the objects of my wrath, scorn and ill will.
In any case, while it's typical to see these rivals face each other during the season, this was a special weekend where the rivalries traded dance partners. Dodgers-Yankees is a bigger deal (the teams have faced each other in 11 World Series- and I will of course point out that the Yankees have won 8 of those), but my dad got tickets to the Giants-Sox series, so I went with the option that gave me a trip home, a chance to go to a game with my little brother, free tickets and a food budget.
Both series ran Fri-Sat-Sun. Both of my teams won on Friday and lost on Saturday, setting up a pair of rubber matches on Sunday. Ben and I left from church and headed into San Fran, making it to our seats about three minutes before the first pitch. We were excited for the matchup- Tim Lincecum, awarded as the best pitcher in the league for each of the last two years, was starting the game for us. It was going to be awesome.
Unfortunately, Boston had other ideas.
Boston packs one of the best offenses in the American League, even with an assorted slew of slumps and injuries. They demonstrated this in the first inning as David Ortiz, their regular DH playing first base in an NL park, knocked a ball over the right field wall and into McCovey cove- a shot I'd seen many times from Barry Bonds many times growing up, though I was understandably less excited about this one.
It just went downhill from there. Lincecum gave up four runs in just three innings for what amounts to the worst start of his career, and while the bullpen did a solid job for the next six innings, the Giants' feeble offense wound up on the receiving end of a complete-game masterpiece by Jon Lester. They avoided being shut out only because Andres Torres literally manufactured a run all by himself (infield single, stole second, stole third, and came home on a groundout). There were chances to come back, but they all choked, sputtered and died. They were very painful deaths.
All in all, it was a terrible game for the Giants. It really didn't help that the Red Sox Nation (TM) invaded the park- there were about as many Red Sox fans as Giants fans in the packed house. It's just obnoxious when you're watching your team lose at home and the crowd is happy about it.
On the bright side, due to a strikeout promotion, we got free brats from Safeway out of the deal. Also on the bright side, the Yankees mounted an epic comeback later that night, scoring 6 runs in the last two innings to beat the Dodgers in 10. So on the whole, the weekend was a push. And I got to go to a game at AT&T, which I hadn't done in years. So I'll call it a good weekend.
In other news, I have an appointment to check out an apartment in Pomona in 14 hours. I should probably sleep before that particular drive. But instead I'm here. With you, my dear reader. Don't you feel special?
...and boy, did he ever pick one to start with. /facepalm.
Let me start off by saying that I have had this weekend marked on my calendar for months. Interleague schedules can be hit and miss, but the stars very much aligned for me this weekend.
You see, Major League Baseball has two great rivalries- The Yankees and the Red Sox, and the Giants and the Dodgers. Others exist, but these are the biggest, most epic, longest-running and deepest-seated rivalries you'll find in American sports. They're kind of a big deal, and due to various circumstances in my upbringing, the Yankees and Giants are both very dear to me, whilst the Dodgers and Red Sox are the objects of my wrath, scorn and ill will.
In any case, while it's typical to see these rivals face each other during the season, this was a special weekend where the rivalries traded dance partners. Dodgers-Yankees is a bigger deal (the teams have faced each other in 11 World Series- and I will of course point out that the Yankees have won 8 of those), but my dad got tickets to the Giants-Sox series, so I went with the option that gave me a trip home, a chance to go to a game with my little brother, free tickets and a food budget.
Both series ran Fri-Sat-Sun. Both of my teams won on Friday and lost on Saturday, setting up a pair of rubber matches on Sunday. Ben and I left from church and headed into San Fran, making it to our seats about three minutes before the first pitch. We were excited for the matchup- Tim Lincecum, awarded as the best pitcher in the league for each of the last two years, was starting the game for us. It was going to be awesome.
Unfortunately, Boston had other ideas.
Boston packs one of the best offenses in the American League, even with an assorted slew of slumps and injuries. They demonstrated this in the first inning as David Ortiz, their regular DH playing first base in an NL park, knocked a ball over the right field wall and into McCovey cove- a shot I'd seen many times from Barry Bonds many times growing up, though I was understandably less excited about this one.
It just went downhill from there. Lincecum gave up four runs in just three innings for what amounts to the worst start of his career, and while the bullpen did a solid job for the next six innings, the Giants' feeble offense wound up on the receiving end of a complete-game masterpiece by Jon Lester. They avoided being shut out only because Andres Torres literally manufactured a run all by himself (infield single, stole second, stole third, and came home on a groundout). There were chances to come back, but they all choked, sputtered and died. They were very painful deaths.
All in all, it was a terrible game for the Giants. It really didn't help that the Red Sox Nation (TM) invaded the park- there were about as many Red Sox fans as Giants fans in the packed house. It's just obnoxious when you're watching your team lose at home and the crowd is happy about it.
On the bright side, due to a strikeout promotion, we got free brats from Safeway out of the deal. Also on the bright side, the Yankees mounted an epic comeback later that night, scoring 6 runs in the last two innings to beat the Dodgers in 10. So on the whole, the weekend was a push. And I got to go to a game at AT&T, which I hadn't done in years. So I'll call it a good weekend.
In other news, I have an appointment to check out an apartment in Pomona in 14 hours. I should probably sleep before that particular drive. But instead I'm here. With you, my dear reader. Don't you feel special?