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Take me out to the ball game

"take me out..." is a  100 plus year old song that is as American as Apple Pie.  It is part of the traditions of the game of baseball to blast it around the stadium during the 7th of 9 innings when two professional or major league teams duke out.

So on a balmy San Francisco spring (work) day the organization that I work for decided to treat the entire team of around 60 odd people to a baseball game between the San Francisco Giants and the Los Angeles Dodgers played at the Giants home base here in the city by the bay.

ATT Park so named for the telecom giant that owns the rights to the (15 year old) ball park name, was the venue for the season opening series of games between the two west coast rivals.


We had seats in the bleachers which for the rabid fans is a no no because you can barely see the action (and the ball) which is a speck on the green inside the diamond that is in the middle of the frame (above).

However the team was there more as a matter of social interaction and beer and less about what was going on on the mound (the raised portion that a pitcher stands to let out his projectile).

At an average of around $60 a seat for this game there was still near capacity crowd that filled the 40,000 odd seats.  What do these people do that they can afford this luxury?  Not to mention the atrocious parking and concessions which could easily burn a hole as wide as couple 100 dollars in the Levis.

Many a fan was ogling parts of other people's anatomy (why not given the oglee were equally eager to invite the peeks) and some were hanging out in the cooler shade with a stack of garlic fries and an overpriced cup of watery beer taking in some action on the TV screens which frankly gave a better play by play than the actual stadium.

I did not stick around for all the innings but decided with one other prudent thinking colleague to escape at the top of the 7th and avoid what would be a mad sea of humanity oozing out of a restrictive area as the game wrapped up.

Giants won late in the 10th inning against the guests 3-2.

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