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Splash Balls & Garlic Fries
© 2004
by Darryl Musick
On our continuing quest to see every major league baseball park, we finally made it up to the bay over the 4th of July weekend to see this wonderful facility. After a bit of a trial trying to secure wheelchair accessible seats, we got our tickets and proceeded to the park via the BART subway and the MUNI trolley.
Luckily BART and MUNI are not connected with the park because some of the people working on them that day are, by far, the rudest transit workers I’ve ever come across. Those of you used to public transportation know that’s saying a lot because people in that business don’t have a reputation for courtesy to begin with and they far exceeded any rudeness we have experienced in Boston, New York, Chicago, or Los Angeles’ transit systems. But enough about that, I’ll detail it more in the San Francisco review.
We arrived about 90 minutes prior to game time so we took a walk around the bay side of the stadium. Along the right field wall, there is a section…about a hundred feet long…where people outside of the stadium can look in and watch the activities on the field for free. Don’t think you’ll get to watch a whole game free here, however. It gets very crowded and security clears everybody out after each three innings to give others a chance.
Tim made sure I got his picture miming catching a ball going into McCovey Cove and then we completed the loop to the home base gate.
A nice plaza is set up here and a very reasonably priced (compared to what’s inside) bar is set up on the sidewalk next to the Acme Chop House restaurant that’s built into the side of the stadium. A band is playing and there’s a statue of Willie Mays to pat on your way in.
Before reaching the gate, a program vendor tells us to go in via the VIP entrance (because of the wheelchair), which is off to the third base side of the plaza. We enter, going through a quick security check, and are ushered into an elevator run by a friendly, joking, singing, and mildly risqué gentleman.
The elevator deposits us at the View level (top deck) behind home plate. We get some cash at an adjacent ATM ($1.50 service fee) and take the short walk to our seats in the first base/right field area.
The usher takes our tickets and shows us to our seats – which don’t
look accessible. Before I can even start to get depressed over this
fact, the usher whips out a wrench from his pocket, quickly unbolts a seat,
and removes it creating the wheelchair space for Tim.
The view from the seats is incredible
The usher also shows us the views…we have an excellent view of the bay and the Bay Bridge…and tells us where the best concession stands are. Tim and I take the pregame time to take a stroll out to left field where a giant Coke bottle houses four slides. Ramps let wheelchair users go to the top of the slides and, if they're adventurous enough, slide down. There’s also a tiny diamond where kids can play and a metal statue of an old time glove. Also out here is Orlando’s Caribbean Barbecue where many players like to get food. I get a Cha-Cha Chicken bowl for my wife which has jerk chicken, beans, rice, and assorted vegetables along with some habanero hot sauce to sprinkle on it. (about $8)
Before getting all the way back to our seats, we had to make one more stop to get SBC Park’s signature snack…garlic fries. We got one order to share ($5) and a Coke and returned to the seats. The fries were great, not the absolute best I’ve had (#1, Café le San Germain in Paris and #2 at the Date Festival in Indio, CA) but still very good.
Our seats had a great view of the field although, being in the accessible aisle, they were not canted toward home plate as the rest of the seats were. The accessible aisle is the 4th row of the upper deck and is a good five feet above the third row so no one blocks your view. There are also accessible seats in every part of the stadium ranging from the first row behind home plate to the bleachers in the outfield.
The anthem is sung and the lineups announced (this park features the only female PA announcer that I’ve heard) and the game begins. Unfortunately for us, the Giants big star – Barry Bonds – has decided to take the day off so we don’t get to see him play. Also, the pitcher – Brett Tomko – has a pitiful outing giving up 5 runs in the first inning. They were playing the Colorado Rockies the day we were there.
Also, the boats and kayaks in McCovey Cove – waiting for those infrequent splash home runs – were joined today by the lonely Maytag repairman who sat alone on the bow of a big boat with a washing machine next to him. If a Giant were to hit a home run into the machine, Maytag would give one lucky fan $100,000. Didn’t happen.
Later, I grabbed a couple of hot dogs and beers. Both were very delicious. The hot dogs were reasonable at $4.50 for a rather big sausage but the beers were expensive (12 ounce Rolling Rocks on tap for $7.25) as they are at most ballparks. Our favorite treat turned out to be the fried dough with powdered sugar and cinnamon sprinkled on it ($3) that I found at a stand next to the Rolling Rock bar.
The fans here seemed to really follow the game and cheered heartily every time manager Felipe Alou would put a reliever in the bullpen hoping that Tomko would soon be sent to the showers. Absent was that pesky device that mars games in Southern California, the beach ball.
The ushers were real strict about people not taking their seats during game play. You had to wait until a break in the action before you’re allowed to scoot in front of others to go back. Also, they were very good about keeping people from hovering over our seats (accessible rows usually have the aisle to their back and many standees feel compelled to stand right over you to see the action).
With all the good sight lines, snacks, views, good fans, and good ushers the game still came up a bust. The Giants lost in a weak effort against the Rockies. Oh well, at least we got to see this marvelous stadium.
Here are the stadiums pros and cons:
PROS – Great views and sightlines. The view of the bay ranks only
behind the view of the Pittsburgh skyline at PNC Park (the ultimate 5 start
stadium in my book).
Good food at surprisingly reasonable prices for such a new stadium.
A wide variety of adult drinks (many microbrews, good wine selection,
and easy access to cocktail bars) – but these are expensive.
They serve COKE not Pepsi like most stadiums do!
Public rail transportation right up to the door of the stadium.
Good and knowledgeable fans.
Competent and friendly staff.
CONS – Ticket sales. This is my biggest gripe here. If you’re not in a wheelchair, this would not apply to you (you can just log on to sfgiants.com and buy ‘em online) but woe to those who are. Online ticket sales do not support wheelchair accessible seats instead directing you to fill out a form asking how many seats you need. The form lists up to 10 companion seats. I filled it out two times before someone from Tickets.com (like Ticketmaster, an agency not connected to the team) who said they could only sell one companion seat.
- side note: this is in violation of the law since any able bodied fan can buy as many as they’d like
Being an out of towner, I can’t go in person to the box office, as Tickets.com suggests, so I try to call the stadium. The phone number listed on the web site transfers callers back to Tickets.com. I try again and press “0” (not one of the options presented to callers) hoping I’ll get lucky and find an operator at the stadium. After a bit on hold, I do get lucky and talk to an operator. To his credit, he is friendly and quickly sells me a wheelchair seat plus two companion seats over the phone and mails them to my house. It REALLY bugs me when someone makes is this $*&@ hard to buy their product when anyone else can just waltz up and complete the transaction with little effort in just a few seconds.
Now, let me end my rant and get back to the other cons of the stadium.
On field Bullpens – Some people like them, I don’t. I think it distracts from the game and can be dangerous for the pitcher warming up if someone hits a ball in that direction.
High beer and other adult drink prices – OK, most major league ballparks also have high prices. I give up, I’ll pay it but could you at least give me a bigger glass?
Only one elevator location (behind home plate) makes it very hard for a wheelchair to get around the multiple levels of the stadium when you’re not seated right in front of it.
High ticket prices – Again, pretty much a given at new ballparks. $10 buys you a standing room only ticket. Our tickets, one section from the extreme right field end of the upper deck in the fourth row, were $24 each. At our home ballpark (Angel Stadium in Anaheim – where they do not sell SRO tickets) the cheapest regular adult ticket is $9 (weekdays can be half that much) and a similar seat to the SBC seats would be $15 – although the wheelchair seating areas at SBC are superior to Angel Stadium.
SBC Park, for me, is just a notch below the very best stadiums in the
country. It is a very nice place to watch a ballgame, just not so
easy to get tickets for when you’re disabled. It’s definitely the
best ballpark in the bay area and worth a visit when you’re in town.
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