Trip Reports

4/12/04
Milwaukee Brewers at San Francisco Giants
SBC Park Home Opener

I took quick notice of the pomp upon entrance: the bunting was up, a makeshift stage in front of the home team dugout, sellout crowd donned in orange. Felipe Alou takes the mic at the beginning of the game to celebrate the 2003 NL West pennant champions, thank the fans and the players in the process. Lon Simmons (retired Giants announcer) reads the starting lineups adding a personal quip to each introduction.

Simmons announces Bill Russell (5 time NBA allstar) and Wayne Gretzky (9 time NHL MVP), Bonds is presented with his unprecendented 6th MVP thanking his teammates, the fans, family and the sportswriters who voted for him. Bill Russell added a personal aside, mentioning Bobby Bonds as a great friend of his.

First pitch: Gavin Newsom, mayor of San Francisco (Democrat). Made a small splash in the national news for narrowly defeating Green Party candidate (and my neighbor) Matt Gonzalez. Made a bigger splash a couple months later by recognizing same sex marriages in civil court.

The celebrations aside, I look at Arizona's lineup, specifically the top half of their batting order. Peppered around/between Podsednik and Jenkins are Cousell, Spivey and Overbay, the 3-1 trade to Arizona for Sexson. That's a pretty nice pickup... 3/4 of their infield and top half of the batting order for Sexson who they could no longer afford.

Podsednik is very fast, great on the bases, not too deft in the outfield with the glove. He can motor into position but sharp grounders he had trouble with, booting a Bonds single in shallow center which allowed Durham to score uncontested from 2nd. Counsell's stance is still as horrible as ever. I wonder how he'd do if he took a simple approach to batting. In MVP 2004, I bean Counsell repeatedly because I refuse to look at that stance for more than one pitch per AB.

Neifi Perez leads the Giants in RBIs and is second to Bonds in OBP. I know it's early, but this has to be interpreted as a positive omen. During Neifi's second at bat, I began chanting "MVP, MVP, MVP" much to the chagrin of the season ticket holders in my section. oh well.

Bonds looked pretty good, he's not as disciplined as he has been the past 3 seasons. He is swinging outside of the zone much more frequently. 660 was cutting pretty far inside, only Bonds could make a pitch in at his shoulder go 445 feet into the drink. When he hit the ball, the scoreboard emitted fireworks and two long skinny banners dropped down both sides of the scoreboard (both said 660, one had a picture of Bonds, the other, Mays. Willie came out with the oft-talked about jewel-encrusted olympic torch but you guys probably saw all that.

I gave the popcorn vendor who partially obscured this at bat for me such a vicious earful, I felt bad afterwards. However, noone is interested in popcorn in this situation, it's ridiculous. If they expect fans to have ballpark ettiquete, it is asinine that during a potentially history-making moment that vendors get carte blanche. Going to the ballpark is not cheap entertainment, no need to treat it that way.

For the 7th inning stretch, an ancient Carrol Channing sang a take on "Hello Dolly" cleverly(?) retitled "Hello GIANTS" which was lackluster at best.

Jerome Williams has lost something. He is not the pitcher he was last year, a little slower, a little less control. A VERY shaky spring and not much better in his first 2 starts. Not to mention, the Giants bullpen is very shaky. Aardsma is getting a lot of press despite having a straight fastball that opponents are hitting for .417 against. Herges has shown grit, but also gets lucky with a solid defensive infield (Snow, Alfonzo, Perez and Durham) such as he did yesterday with a double play to end the game.

It was a great game as far as home openers go.