Baseball

I'm not an athlete and not a sports fan.  But if there's one sport I enjoy watching, it's baseball.  Seems I always had boyfriends who played, starting with the Little League teams of my childhood -- the Farmers (blue) and the Wallkills (yellow).  My son Sam played T-ball, Little League, Fall Ball, and high school baseball.  It all ended four years ago, and I have missed it.

Tonight, Sam and I attended a San Francisco Giants baseball game at AT&T Park, a few blocks from our hotel.  The SF Giants, who just earned a spot in the playoffs, were playing the Padres.

Sam selected our seats several weeks ago.  High up, but with a good view of the Bay.  Call 'em the cheap seats  -- $23 each -- but we were fine with that.  We could walk to the game, it was baseball, it's a cool stadium (with an actual garden behind center field!) and a great view.  Okay, so $11 for a beer really sucks, but that's America.

The game started off rather slow, with a sense that the Giants would walk away with an easy win, but things soon got exciting.  We got to see a grand slam by the Padres, a home run that hit the foul pole, and a suicide squeeze.  But the best part was in the second inning, when the Giants' Brandon Belt knocked one into the water!  We had a bird's-eye view of some guy named DAVE in his kayak swoop in to retrieve the ball, joyful beyond belief.  But here's the best part -- whenever a ball gets hit into the water like that (and this was only the 68th time it's happened), one lucky section of fans gets rewarded for the "Levi Splash."  Section 302 -- that's us!

We showed our tickets at Guest Services and received a Giants sew-on patch . . . along with a paper to redeem at the Levi's store on Market Street for a $50 gift certificate!  We ended up with five patches (don't ask), drank another beer, and watched the Giants win, 9 - 8.

We were two happy baseball fans walking back to our hotel late at night.  Ya gotta love baseball.

Postnote:  Sam and I were first in line as the Levi's store opened its doors the next morning.  Our $250 in gift cards got Sam two pairs of jeans and two shirts, and I got a very nice wool and leather shoulder purse.  Score!