Baseball: Oakland-style

Sunday June 6th
McAfee Coliseum
Oakland Athletics vs. Minnesota Twins
Section 117 Row 15 Seat 9 (directly behind home plate)

When I put in my orders for tickets on Friday night, I didn't know what to expect. My thinking at the time was to go all out. This was my first California trip (and certainly not the last), so I wanted to make it memorable. When picking out tickets, I went to the Oakland Athletics official website and found the ticket, I would ultimately purchase. After the rehearsal dinner, I returned to my room and checked out Stub Hub, to see if I could find anything better. I didn't, so I put the order in, which came to a total of $55 after taxes.

Checking Out of Carmel
I woke up around 7:00 a.m. and did a blog entry and drank a couple cups of coffee in my room at the Hofsas House. After a shower and packing up, I sent a text to Quincy letting him know I had his card, as I had left it in the car at the hotel before the reception. Not getting a response, I decided to leave it at the front desk and let him know. At 8:45 a.m. I had checked out of the Hofsas House, and headed up north to Oakland.

Cruising California
After turning down the fresh pastries in the Hofsas House lobby, it wasn't a few miles down the road that I regretted that decision, as hunger set in. The plan was to get at least an hour of driving in. Oakland is about a two hour drive on a Sunday morning. Went through Castroville, which is the Artichoke Center of the World. The only time I ever remember hearing anything about artichokes is in some country song when I worked the morning show on WLMD. I think it's a Joe Nichols song.

There are also several stretches of highway in this area where you have to run your headlights during the day. The signs say, "Daylight Headlight Section". They are usually just stretches of 8-12 miles, or in that vicinity. The nice thing is, they also post signs that read, "Check Your Headlights", once you leave those zones.

A little further north and I headed through a portion of Monterrey County, I believe. I was too stuck on all of the signs that said things like, "Welcome to Hell: 18% unemployment", and "Thanks For Taking Away 450 jobs, Lou", and the like.

Gilroy Gardens, CA
After about an hour drive, I entered Gilroy, California. On the south edge of the city on the highway, there were several produce stands, selling garlic, sweet cherries, artichokes, among other things. I wanted to pick up some avocados and sweet cherries, but didn't know the regulations for taking this stuff on the plane, and didn't really care enough to find out.

I pulled off needing gas. My Toyota Corolla was getting excellent gas mileage. I didn't know how much to put in, because I wanted to leave it as empty as possible (I prepaid for the gas, meaning I brought it back on "E"). Gas was about $3.15 in Gilroy, and I put in $16. It was more than enough for the rest of my driving on the trip.

Not knowing the rental car, I did the old method of looking at where the gas gauge is on the dash. It was on the right side, and usually that is what side the fuel tank is. In this case, that is not true. I had to turn around and pull up to the driver's side. Then, as I tried to open the tank door, it had to be opened from the inside. I looked, looked, and then looked some more. Finally, after nearly going to the car manual, I found it on the floorboard next to the driver seat.

Birthday Wishes
Today was also my birthday, as many text messages and phone calls were coming in. After I gassed up, my friend Scott gave me a ring. We talked for about 20 minutes, and then I headed over to Carl's Jr. for a quick breakfast. Garmin told me I was going to arrive at the McAfee Coliseum at about 11:30, so I had some time. Game time was 1:05.

I ordered a sausage and egg burrito meal with an orange juice. It also came with an orange juice. It was a light crowd, with only three other customers in the place.

Music To Cruise To
Through the trip, my radio dial was set to three stations for the most part. Those stations were 102.5 KDON, "The Hottest Music", and Movin' 99.7 (KMVQ). These stations played the type of music that typified my view of California. Pop music, at the forefront. These stations would be playing songs now, that the midwest would be playing in another month. Of course, one of the most popular songs was a song already here in Illinois, "California Girls" by Katy Perry. Other songs that received a lot of airplay were "Bulletproof" by La Roux, "Cooler Than Me" by Mike Posner, and "Ridin' Solo" by Jason DeRulo.

Oakland
I pulled into Oakland around 11:30, and the McAfee Coliseum (formerly the Oakland-Alameda Coliseum) sits right next to the Oracle (home of the NBA's Golden State Warriors) along the freeway.

Pulling into the lot, it was a mere $17 to park. I guess this makes up for the really cheap seats, lol. After parking I took a walk around the lot, where a bunch of fans had set up for tailgating. I headed toward the Will Call window, and the lady working the gate looked at my ticket and said, "WOW! This is a really good seat!" Well, let's see.

Close Enough to Catch
I headed to section 117. I had known that my seat was behind home plate, but didn't realize how close, and how directly behind home plate it was. I walked down, down, and down some more. I found my seat, and it was the seat exactly...directly behind home plate, and the 15th row was much closer to the field than I had anticipated. In fact, it was so close, I heard the girl (Haley Freedman) sing the National Anthem, before it hit the stadium speakers.

I was there about an hour before game time, so I watched the grounds crew prep the field, players warm up, and some were signing autographs. There were quite a few Minnesota Twins jerseys and shirts in the stadium. There, of course, was a lot of Oakland A's apparel, but no jersey really struck me. It seemed that there were more Dallas Braden jerseys than any other A's player, past or present.

There was hardly anybody in my section when I arrived, but people started showing up in the seats around me 30 minutes later. I took a stroll around the concourse to get a game day program. It was $5 for a monthly magazine with the game day notes inside. A pretty good deal, I thought. It was all for naught, as I didn't even read the magazine, saving it for the flight home. During the game, somebody's drink spilled down and drenched it. I couldn't save it.

Next up: Game Time