Mapping the path

California Baseball: Day 2

San Francisco Giants

For our second ballgame, Danny and I took Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) west across the bay into San Francisco, then hopped aboard a Muni light-rail train directly to Oracle Park, home of the San Francisco Giants. Opened in 2000, the park is one of the most acclaimed in a string of ballpark gems designed by architectural firm Populous in the 1990s and 2000s. It has a similar old-timey feel of red bricks and earthy green highlights found at Populous’ original masterpiece, Oriole Park in Camden Yards, built eight years earlier.

There are four statues of Giants greats around the perimeter of the ballpark. We stopped first to see Hall of Famers Orlando Cepeda — a consistent .300 hitter who also averaged 30 home runs during his eight seasons with the Giants — and notorious pitcher Gaylord Perry. Though Perry played 10 years with the Giants, I know him best for the two years he spent with the San Diego Padres. In 1978, at the age of 39, Perry revitalized his career in an amazing season with the Padres, doubtlessly aided by his generous application of foreign substances to the baseball. Perry tallied a 21-6 record and a 2.73 ERA that year, winning the Cy Young Award and finishing 8th in MVP voting.

We circled back to the other side of the ballpark to see Juan Marichal, who put up six 20-win seasons and maintained a sub-3.00 ERA eight times in his 14 years with the Giants. Marichal is well-remembered for his exceptionally high leg kick — not just athletically effective but almost balletically beautiful, poised and balanced — and for taking his bat to the head of Dodgers catcher Johnny Roseboro during an August 1965 grievance-clearing beanball-fest between the two fierce rivals.

Marichal also took part in one of the finest pitching performances in baseball history, matching 15 scoreless innings with 42-year-old Milwaukee Braves Hall of Famer Warren Spahn in June 1963. The Braves lineup featured Hank Aaron, who would smack 44 home runs in 1963 but went 0-for-6 against Marichal that day. In the bottom of the 16th, the game finally game to an end when Spahn gave up a homer to the most celebrated Giants legend of them all, Willie Mays.

Considered by many to be the greatest baseball player of all time, Mays enjoyed a career of incredible success and longevity. In his 23 seasons, he was named to the All-Star team 20 times, not including his Rookie-of-the-Year season in 1951. He won the MVP twice, and was in the top six in MVP voting 12 times. He had a career .302 batting average, hit 660 home runs, and won eight Gold Gloves. His Oracle Park statue is right behind the home plate entrance, in what is known now as Willie Mays Plaza.

Almost immediately after entering the stadium, Danny and I came upon a stand serving up dogs and brats, with pepper and onions. We were definitely in the right place.

We went up to the top deck for an iconic view of the stadium, with San Francisco Bay and the shores of Alameda and Oakland just beyond. It was characteristically windy and quite a bit cooler than the previous night in Stockton. The freshly watered field, perfectly green, the base paths raked, new chalk around home plate — all framed by this stunning view — gave me the same sense of anticipation that it has for more than 40 years, that feeling of a stage set for a performance where anything can happen.

First things first. Time for dinner. We walked back down to the main level, then around the right-field side to Levi’s Landing, a thin line of seats above the right-field wall. To our right was McCovey Cove, where 81 home runs have landed as “splash hits” since the ballpark opened. Another Giants legend who spent a brief spell with my Padres, Willie McCovey is honored with his own statue on the opposite side of the cove. Just beyond Levi’s Landing sits a real San Francisco cable car bearing the number 44 in honor of the celebrated slugger.

Oracle Park was one of the first Major League stadiums to really push the boundaries of ballpark cuisine, and it continues to provide a wide variety of options for Bay Area fans who like to venture beyond the standard fare. These include local favorites such as clam chowder in sourdough bowls, crab sandwiches, Gilroy garlic fries, the Stinking Rose Forty Clove Garlic Chicken Sandwich, and Orlando’s Cha-Cha Bowl (introduced by former Giants slugger Orlando Cepeda and featuring jerk chicken, black beans, and rice with pineapple salsa); plus meats not encased in tubes, such as tri-tip, brisket, corned beef, pulled pork, roasted turkey, and fish; and international options from rice bowls and sushi to burritos and tacos, Argentine-style BBQ and empanadas, spicy Italian sausage and ravioli, Greek gyros, and a concoction called Irish Nachos (chili over potatoes).

The open plaza behind the center-field scoreboard offers many of these delicacies in one pleasant spot. I enjoyed a perfectly crispy and juicy crab sandwich. Danny, whose palette does not seek culinary adventure and excitement as much as a steady routine and plenty of ketchup, elected to go with a cheeseburger.

After dinner, we continued walking toward left field to see the two most recognizable Oracle Park landmarks: the “Giant 1927 Old-Time Four-Fingered Baseball Glove," a 27-foot-tall steel-and-fiberglass sculpture based on an actual glove; and an 80-foot-long Coca-Cola bottle with playground slides that lights up after Giants home runs. Closer to the left-field line, we passed another kids’ attraction, a miniature ballpark for T-ball heroes to practice their swings.

My big kid was much more interested in the LEGO sculptures we bumped into on the Club level. Created in 2016 by certified LEGO Masters, they depict pitcher Madison Bumgarner and catcher Buster Posey, two of the most essential pieces in the Giants’ World Series victories in 2020, 2012, and 2014. The Bumgarner statue alone took 300 hours to build, weighs 180 pounds, and is comprised of more than 36,000 bricks. 

Danny grabbed an ice cream sandwich for dessert and dialed up his girlfriend in Australia on video chat so she could share in the experience. We made our way to our excellent seats behind the Giants dugout. After a night of oppressive heat in Stockton, the weather on the bay was mild but breezy — I wore a long-sleeved shirt and needed it — and coastal clouds soon consumed the skyline.

It was a tight contest throughout. The Giants led off the scoring with a home run from Kevin Pillar in the second inning off Padres starter Joey Lucchesi. The Padres scored a couple of small-ball runs in the third and fifth to take the lead, but the Giants responded in the bottom of the fifth with two runs from singles by Steven Duggar, Donovan Solano, and Evan Longoria.

Down 4-2 in the ninth, the Padres loaded the bases with a single, double, and a walk, but Giants closer Will Smith coaxed Manuel Margot to pop out to end the game. Smith would represent the Giants in the All-Star Game a few weeks later, ending the season with 34 saves and a miserly 2.76 ERA for a team that finished 29 games out of first place. Giants starter Shaun Anderson got the win, giving up just two earned runs in six innings — one of only three wins he would record in 2019.

Danny and I joined the rush of 31,000 happy fans heading out into the night after another win for the home team.

Highlight Reel

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