A Holiday Baseball Outing

Today we went to see the SF Giants play the Oakland A’s in SBC Park in San Francisco. We drove to Vallejo and took the ferry from there into San Francisco. The ferry ride is a very pleasant 55 minute journey, and it was crowded with people going to the game, both A’s and Giants fans. The boat even docked at the pier nearest the ballpark, owing to some temporary problems at the Ferry Building. This was convenient allowing us to arrive in time to catch some of the batting practice. We got some lunch, and then went to our seats high above home plate (see my sketch at right).

The A’s were dominant all day, and ended up winning 9-6. Mark Mulder pitched well and won the game, bringing his record to 11-2. Eric Byrnes had a banner day, hitting two three-run home runs. We saw Barry Bonds break a record: he walked twice and thus became the all-time career walks leader, passing Ricky Henderson. But he didn’t get a hit today, and struck out on a 96-mile-an-hour Octavio Dotel fastball (the A’s new closer from Houston) to end the game.

It was a long 10-hour outing. The kitties were hungry when we got home, but seemed to harbor no resentments at our extended disappearance.