Phillies-Giants on April 17

I made my annual trip to a Phillies-Giants game last Tueday and as tradition dictates, it must be one of the games that they lose. As another tradition dictates, I am not permitted to see Tim Lincecum or Cliff Lee pitch (I have seen Halladay once). Instead, I was treated to the molasses slow stylings of Joe Blanton and Madison Bumgarner.

Neither pitcher distinguished, seeming to alternate bouts of wildness with strings of strikes....of course, most of the strikes were of the fouled off variety. I don't know how many batters had two strikes with Blanton and he was not able to put them away; Bumgarner had the same problem. The game had an ominous feel from the start when the Giants scored 2 runs in the first 3 batters. At this point in the season, the Phillies weren't even averaging 3 runs/game. The Phillies ended up losing the game 4-2, bringing them down to one game under .500, which they still are to this point. So not much has changed since my visit. This also brings my record at a Phillies game in San Francisco all time to 1-6....not good.

It was a positive experience overall. The location of the seats were great....for once, I was not exposed to the elements. For those who have not been to a night game in San Francisco, the normal dress is sweatshirt, winter coat, winter hat, and maybe gloves. It's also recommended to only eat hot food, preferably something with hot sauce and grease that can drip down your hands and keep them warm for 30 minutes. I recommend the carvery station or the street tacos....other people like the clam chowder in the bread bowl, though this doesn't have enough chowder for my taste. This time my seats were under the overhang on the lower level, which means there was no wind, which means I made it through a night game without wearing a winter hat for possibly the first time.

 Some crowd related observations:

1. They love Boster Posey there....I mean...L-O-V-E him. I haven't seen Giants fans so excited for a player since Bonds and that was mostly for the home run race. I would not be surprised if he got the most valentines in the mail from fans.

2. There was a father and son in front of me who each had an ipad....it looked they were only talking to each other through the ipads and taking pictures with them...it was very strange.

3. I heard the worst heckle ever in my section. Some guy really hated Hunter Pence and screamed at him when he was at the plate. "Pence, you're no good." "Strike three, Pence" "You can't hit this guy on your best day" "Pence, you're bad" Not very original. Then, Pence hit a home run.

Fun times at the ballpark.