Let's Go, Giants!!!

(clap...clap....clap clap clap..... Let's Go Giants!..... repeat ad infinitum)

So here it is.  Baseball season is well and truly upon us again.  As I type this, the Giants are top of the seventh against the LA Dodgers and about to head into the home straight.  How do i know this without even having to check the score online?  Why, because Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" is billowing forth from the Ballpark and the crowd is singing at the top of their collective lungs - as happens every game at the top of the ninth, that's how.   Its funny - that song, plus the guy on the old-fashioned organ that plays those little "doo-do-doo-do-do-doo" tunes has become the soundtrack of my summer here in San Francisco.  

And I love it.

Now, as any MLB fans will know, last year, the Giants won the World Series title (for the second time in three years), so they are obviously quite good.  And - after an entire summer of remaining resolutely indifferent about the baseball season that was unfolding quite literally at my feet, i finally got into it after the Giants had made the playoffs and well on their way to victory (i know, i know - fair weather fan).  Lori had persuaded me to go and watch a couple of the games in the sports bars that line King Street, right next to the ballpark - and, much to my immense surprise, I really quite enjoyed it!  Who'd have thought it?  Me, queuing up to get inside a sports bar to watch the baseball?  I guess I really am ready for that US Citizenship test now!!

Anyway, this year I figured it was probably time to go all-in (forgive all the sports metaphors - i can't resist) and succumb fully to the lure of the orange and black army, and go get myself kitted up with some Giants gear.  I'd skated through the end of last season with an orange dress and a free straw trilby that had SF Giants printed on the side, but if I was to truly pledge my allegiance to my new home team, then I knew i had to up my ante.  It was a Sunday afternoon, and I was meeting Lori for my first game of the season, so off to the Club Dug-out I trotted and handed over my credit card in exchange for two Giants jackets - one vaguely stylish, the other not at all stylish but very warm.  And very orange.

So, after meeting Lori (who was running late as she'd got...ahem... distracted by chatting to an attractive actor chap she'd met on the train and so missed her stop!), it was time to head on into the park.  It was an absolutely GLORIOUS day - one of those days that makes you glad to be alive and even gladder to be alive in San Francisco and gladdest (if that's a verb) to be alive, in SF and have great friends to share it all with.  

We had an absolute hoot.  Lori is a lifelong Giants fan and was just so excited to be at the game, in the stadium - I would imagine this is how excited Big Cuz is at a Fowest home game.  Our seats were well up in the gods, and a number of Lori's work colleagues were also there, so it was fun to meet them.  We'd already stocked up on the Worlds Best Garlic Fries and a couple of glasses of wine earlier, so were happy to sit and watch the game for a while, until about the 6th innings when it was time to wander round and explore and generally get up to mischief.  

So, here are some piccies from Sarah and Lori's Big Game Day Adventure... enjoy!!

Oh - and we won!  Huzzah!!  Let's go, Giants!!!  *clap clap clapclapclap*

Lori and I modeling our freebie umbrellas -
check on my new SF Giants threads!

Yep.  Thats a dude with a bag full of pizzas.
Mmm...toasty and fresh...

View from the bleachers of AT&T Ballpark.
Out back is McCovey cove where i went
kayaking and Duck Boating

Tiny people looking like the little Subbuteo soccer players

So many wrong captions spring
to mind for this one....

Suddenly, I realize where I am...

Putting that A level Maths to good use...

Up close and personal with the giant neon Coke bottle

View of my building, Coke Bottle side

Probably one of the best photo bombs i've ever seen....

We had absolutely NO idea!!

Bloody love this place. Palm trees and the Bay Bridge
serve as the perfect photo backdrop

Mini-park!

Lori quite literally talking to the hand...

Not sure why i had the sudden urge to pull a Mary Poppins

But obviously the urge was not a fleeting one...

Hmmm... wait, what??

What's that big noise all about?

Yep.  Whilst we were farting about playing around with the
 giant baseball mitt, the Giants went ahead and won the game
while we weren't looking.  Oops.

I guess that's what you'd call a win win?

Colorful crowd 

There's just something about having an umbrella that
results in an uncontrollable urge to mug for the camera

I ain't putting that sucker anywhere near my mouth

Game lights/arty farty shot

The crowd heads home.
I'm already there.