Let's Go Giants

On Saturday 28th of May I dragged Owen into my office at lunch time to watch the Champions League final. Now there's no need for me to go into the details of the horror show that unfolded and that's not really what this post is about. Once the humiliation was complete we spent a bit of time playing guitars and drums on the X-Box and then moved on to Wii Sports and specifically the baseball game. To cut a long story short, Owen had trouble moving his arm the next day (although he was able to pitch at speeds in excess of 95mph) and I'd learned enough of the basics to whet my appetite for the real thing.

Rather than go through the painful process of organising a trip for the entire office, I grabbed a "baseball friendly" colleague of mine who likes answering questions and suggested a trip to the AT&T park on Friday night. Thankfully he accepted and, come Friday, we picked up some bargain tickets from StubHub and off we went. What a great evening! The Giants won 3-1 (although we were buying hotdogs and garlic fries during the innings they scored their 3 runs) and I got a real feel for the game. It's really quite simple when you have someone to explain the terminology. At the top of the ninth the Giants brought on their closing pitcher Brian Wilson aka "The Beard" with all the screens around the ground flashing "Fear the Beard" - they do know how to put on a show!

The next morning I told Jo and the children all about it and, as the weather was looking decidedly dodgy for the weekend and we had no real plans, Jo suggested that I try and get some tickets to go that afternoon with Owen and Rosie. So that's what we did. I planned it as a bit of a surprise but nothing gets past Rose. The moment I mentioned that we were doing something secret that afternoon she asked "are we going to see the Giants?" Why do I bother? Anyway, we headed off with a bag packed full of snacks and a scribbled map of bus stops near the ground.

Rose was beside herself with excitement for at least the first ten minutes of the when she began asking what Isla was doing with Mummy. Fortunately the wide array of snacks and the regular advert breaks in the game were enough to relieve the boredom of the game itself and she made it through. I loved it again and Owen was happy as usual watching the proceedings and asking questions.

I'm not sure Rose will come again but Owen and I will be looking for good deals from StubHub when we have nothing much planned at the weekend.....