As Dave said, this may just be one that I check the box and move on. I rode the trolley cars up and down the hills of San Fran before the game and it was more exciting than McAfee Coliseum. I hopped on the subway over to Oakland and it was actually really nice but hindsight says I probably should have taken the Golden Gate Bridge over to the game. I ended up getting a bunch of pictures from afar but never driving over it. Oh well.
Game Notes:
On the way in I saw two signs that made me regret my scheduling choice. First, EVERY Wednesday the A’s have a promotion where patrons are only charged $2 for tickets in certain sections and everyone can buy $1 hot dogs!! After Tampa I said I wouldn’t see that again, and even though I didn’t…it exists! Also, I went to a Friday night game but on the following Sunday they were giving away retro jerseys to the first 10,000 fans! That’s a heck of a promotion if you ask me.
The Athletics share the Coliseum with the Oakland Raiders and, much like the Marlins, it is definitely a football stadium. The entire place is very hollow, echo-y, windy and unfriendly. I found myself repeating over and over again “well, they did what they could.” I took a lap around the upper deck first and came upon a crazy usher who took my picture and told me her life story at the same time.
She works both A’s games and Raiders games. She likes the football much more because it’s crowded and she works in a “pretty rowdy” section in the upper deck. I won’t recount the rest of our ten minute conversation because it bored me to tears. She did point out the all-you-can eat section for $30 though. I’ve been seeing more and more of those, maybe I’ll have to try one for a game. Thoughts??
Continuing on my loop I made this happy discovery:
Round 1, game 6 was playing on TVs throughout the park! I’ll give them points for that one. The unfortunate part was that they cut it off in the 3rd quarter when the baseball game was about to start.
It turns out Seattle wasn’t so special with the garlic fries. Both San Fran and Oakland offered the same thing, maybe it’s a west coast thing? They also did what they could with the food they offered. Something I hadn’t seen offered at a baseball game was a baked potato! You could get it made 6 ways to Sunday…or maybe just 4 different combos. I went with the broccoli and cheddar. They didn’t specify the “cheddar” was “wiz”
I was able to move around pretty freely before and during the game. The ushers didn’t seem to mind that much and there weren’t enough of them to keep tabs on the entire crowd.
High Points:
-For as empty as the park was, the best part had to be the fans and the buzz they created throughout the entire game. In both left field and right field there were some super fans that were dressed to the hilt, waved flags, beat drums, blew horns and went ballistic for much of the game. Aside from that, the rest of the crowd was actually really engaged in the game. People SANG “take me out to the ball game” during the 7th inning stretch instead of the usual muddling through of the half hum/half mumble version. That was refreshing and reminded me of Fenway when I was growing up.
-Also, and almost inexplicably, the fans at McAfee Coliseum were passionately into the “pog race” between one of the innings.
Initially I was furious that this race was being completed by “pogs” which were just red white and blue discs. At all the other stadiums, a graphically enhanced version of this race was completed by cartoon speedboats, zany characters or condiment bottles. I soon realized I had been suckered in and that the graphical representation of the racing piece mattered absolutely zero. The outcome was still predetermined and it could have been 3 dining room chairs, a knife fork and spoon or 3 blind mice and it wouldn’t have mattered. After that I felt better. I’m sure Chip is nodding his head in approval right now.
***DISCLAIMER: Apologies in advance to those who are easily offended. Please realize you are reading this blog of your own free will and the purveyor of its contents cannot be held responsible for any emotional damage hereby caused. If you have any reservations about continuing on please exit your browser window now or skip down to the “Low Points” section of the post***
This was friggin funny
The last time I saw a urinal trough was in Europe and before that, Fenway. It brought back childhood memories of Fenway Park and I knew immediately that it MUST be included in the “High Points” section of this blog :-)
Low Points:
-The cheese wiz on the baked potato helped nobody out that evening. Also, I was totally swindled on my hot dog purchase. I’ve scaled back and decided only to get a dog or sausage or whathaveyou (and everythingandstuff!) if it has ties to the team or park (i.e. a “Rockies Dog”). So at the A’s game I got the “Coliseum Dog” for five bucks. It’s just a larger freaking hot dog! WTF? Not cool, Oaktown.
-I was planning on moving around during the game (and did so) but I had to make an early exit from my first section I settled into because of all the kids. I guess some entire area little league program had tickets to that night’s game. There were three sections COMPLETELY filled and then there were maybe 50-60 people in the rest of the sections of the park. I was actually booted from seats twice because so many people were filling in. I got outta there in a hurry.
-The mascot, “Stompy the Elephant”, just rubbed me the wrong way. I didn’t like his antics.
-Again, not completely the A’s fault, but I couldn’t get change on the subway if I wanted to buy a $4.00 ticket. All I had were $10/$20 bills so I had to buy something before I left the park. I bought an $8 shot glass and I’m not happy with it.
-Not a low point, but here’s the full stadium:
Teams: Athletics vs. Rangers
Final Score: 4-3 Rangers
WP: Vicente Padilla
LP: Joe Blanton
S: C.J. Wilson
Time: 2:41
Announced Attendance: 15,408
Ticket Price: $9.00
Parking Price: N/A
Trip Stats:
Home team record: 3-4
Best Anthem: Tropicana Field
Miles Driven: 2205
States Visited: 6
Beds slept in: 8
Next Stop: California Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim Orange County Los Angeles
Favorite Park: AT&T Park (Giants)
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