I have always thought that attending a baseball game was one of the quintessential American experiences. I'm not sure if I got it from watching "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" more than 100 times as a kid....but Ferris certainly included a trip to the ballpark in his ultimate day.
Regardless, as I was on holidays in the USA, I decided that I really must get to a ballgame. As it turned out we would be in the bay area on a day when Oakland had a home game, and I had a good friend who was happy to get the tickets and take me...winning!
So, we set off on a sunny San Francisco afternoon to the ballpark.
To say I was excited would be an understatement. I didn't have any fan gear, but wore my Australia Socceroos jersey as it was the same colours as the A's, green and yellow. As soon as I got inside I would get a cap.
We started the game in the "Shibe Park Tavern" where we enjoyed a few cold drinks and some snacks and watched the first 2 innings. The view from here was great through the floor to ceiling windows. It was during this time that my buddy, a local Bay area resident filled me in on the state of the A's. They weren't doing real well, there was not a lot of money being spent on the team, they also shared the Oakland Coliseum with the Oakland Raiders football team which gave this particular stadium a weird shape. This sounded like just the type of underdog team I could support.
At the start of the 3rd innings we loaded up with some more beers and a team cap and headed to our seats. The seats cost $30 which I thought was great value, and I was told if we wanted to we could have got some for as low as $10 in a not so good position. I could see why baseball was still a great family day out, at $10 a ticket it remains very affordable to most, and this is great. I noticed all around us there were groups of families enjoying the game together.
Our seats were great and we even got to watch the opposition team's pitcher warm up right in front of us. I asked if it would be ok to heckle him a little. My buddy said it would be fine, then reminded me that the pitcher was about 6 foot and the fence separating us was only about 3 foot high. I thought better of it, and remained quiet.
The game was fairly close for the most part with only 1 run seperating the 2 teams. I was coached on the finer points regarding stealing bases, pitching tricks and tactics. As an Australian I could relate to the similarities with cricket.
A few more beers and trips to the bathroom and we were at the 7th innings stretch and leading by a run. I never realized that the entire crowd stands up and stretches during the 7th innings stretch...lol. I always thought it was just a figure of speech hat this was the long part of the game.
The game finished with the A's striking out the Orioles batter and winning 5-4, and thus completed a great afternoon. I got to see my first ballgame and the Oakland A's got themselves a new fan!
If you ever get the chance to go to a ballgame, I highly recommend it!
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