Game 14: May 25, 2014 Twins at Giants

My United flight from Seattle didn't get to San Francisco until almost noon. I knew this was going to be tight. For some reason I thought this was the only morning non-stop, but when I got to the airport I found out Alaska has an earlier non-stop. I don't usually fly Alaska, but I still shouldn't have missed that flight existing. So I rushed from the airport out to the BART station, only to find out that BART comes every 20 minutes and the train was 14 minutes out. So I waited and waited and waited. And knew I'd be late. It's not that BART isn't great. It is. It's comparably inexpensive and it doesn't run into a ton of traffic problems that San Francisco can be known for. I got to the Powell Street station, dropped off my bags at the Mosser, and walked to the game.

I arrived 20 minutes late and missed the first inning. All in all, that's not horrible. I ended up watching eight innings of the game. I've watched less due to it being too cold in Boston or wanting to get on the road early enough on the drive from Cleveland to Cincinnati. I did miss getting the Giants barbecue apron that's now selling on ebay for nearly what I paid for the ticket. I wouldn't sell the apron. On the contrary. I want a souvenir from every game I go to. I had to settle for the souvenir schedule cup, which I've actually done at several other stadiums.

I did get there in time to see a quality beer selection and get a delicious carved turkey sandwich.

I then enjoyed a Hunter Pence home run. My puppy isn't named after him. Pure coincidence. Wouldn't I name him Schmidt or Utley if I was going to choose a ballplayer?

AT&T did have narrow corridors and I was jostling with people just to get to the bathroom. They did do it right with the field, however. Most of the seats are in the infield bowl and there's a great view of the Bay beyond the outfield. It amazes me how few teams did this with their outfield. At Citizens Bank Park they even put home plate in the southeast corner to get the view.

The Giants have some great fans. I talked to a bunch of people and they were knowledgable and they really get loud when the Giants score. That was a lot for this game. And there were a lot of them. It was something like the 62,000th consecutive sell out. (Note: double check this before posting)

And the Giants put on a good show, celebrating an 8-1 win.

I originally was going to stay at the Union Square Hilton, but changed to the Mosser. The Mosser had a couple of pluses. It was less expensive and it was between the BART station and the stadium. That was convenient to drop off my bags and not lose any more time. On the other hand, the Mosser's room was tiny and the bathroom was down the hall. In all fairness, I'm guessing for a bit more money I could've gotten a bigger room with a private bathroom. I did spend a little more time in the hotel than I did in Seattle, since it was a day game and I'm headed over to Oakland today. So it was a little cramped. On the other hand, I'm writing this using their free Wifi. Hilton only gives that to the gold members.