A Trip to AT&T Park

Despite a 10-4 drubbing by the Padres yesterday, I think I may have lost Colin forever to the Giants.  Wanting to be fair, after taking (dragging) Colin to two A’s games this season, yesterday I took him to a Giants game.  And he was immediately impressed by the place.  Of course, we made a stop at the Coca Cola Fan Lot, where Colin enjoyed going down the slides and watching other kids run around the “bases”.  He observed that the A’s home did not have any “kids’ stuff”.  I don’t think it was just the kids’ stuff that won him over, though.  Even though he’s young, I think he can’t help but enjoy the views of the water, Bay Bridge, and huge TV screen much more than an empty upper deck and Mount Davis.  The energy in the stadium was completely different, too.  While I enjoyed the empty space at an A’s game that let me stretch out, the packed Giants game just made the game feel more important, even if it was a blowout in the wrong direction.  A lot of fans stuck around even when it became clear the Giants weren’t making a comeback.  And you can’t beat the location of AT&T Park.  Right after you walk out of the stadium, you’re in the city, with restaurants and stores all around.  I don’t know why, but I thought it was really neat that I could go from my baseball seat to a Borders store in five minutes.  At an A’s game, you walk out to this huge parking lot, where you spend the next 30 minutes trying to get the car out of the lot.  My last time there, I couldn’t see a single Coliseum employee directing traffic as cars were attempting a 50-to-5 lane merge out of the lot.  At a Giants game, the crowds are huge, but I feel there’s at least some order to it.  As I’m writing this, I’m wondering was it really Colin that became a Giants fan, or was it me?  Well, I’m definitely still an A’s fan, just a very envious one.  I don’t think I have the heart to even try converting Colin into an A’s fan anymore.