by: Ben Embry
As I've mentioned before, I live in Arkansas so getting to Yankees games (or any MLB games actually) is not easy...or cheap. My goal is to see a game in every major league city before I die. After last night I have 8 under my belt and only 2 more within an 8 hr drive of my house so I've got an up-hill climb in front of me! No doubt I'll still be working on this after retirement in (30+ years). My wife and I are talking about going to Houston in September (7.5 hr drive) for the last series of the season.
San Diego was a big one to get because its so far away and NY seldom plays there. Obviously my preference is for all the games to involve the Yankees, though one of the games I went to was Rockies vs Dodgers in Denver. And this is probably the last time I can make a trip like this for a while because my son was too young to travel anywhere and we felt ok leaving him with family at home. At 9 months old he doesn't even have a concept of vacation, let alone wanting to go. Starting next year that will change; our family trips will probably be limited to road trips because flying will be cost prohibitive. St. Louis is a quick 6 hr drive away. I think Cincinnati, Chicago are do-able and maybe even Milwaukee and Minnesota too. Plus Tampa is a short drive from Disney in Orlando and we'll definitely be going there in a few years. We may fly to NY in the next few years so I can fully indoctrinate him into Yankee fandom with a game in the Bronx. I've already been to 3 games at the old stadium so it's technically already crossed off the list but I need to see the new stadium now. Plus maybe we could catch a game at Citi while we're in town.
Petco Park is in a cool little section of San Diego known as the Gaslamp Quarter. It's several walkable blocks of nice restaurants, hotels, and bars. We stayed at the Hilton, just 2 blocks from the ballpark.
We got to the ballpark almost 4 hrs before first pitch. We had tickets for a tour and were told to arrive 15 mins early. For some reason it started almost 30 minutes late and we didn't get to see anything we couldn't have seen by walking around on our own. But the tour guide Patty was nice and we heard some interesting stories. I like the one about how McDonalds founder Ray Kroc bought the team in the 70s. They were about to move to Washington and after hearing this, Kroc called and offered to buy the team. When asked what he had as collateral, he said "I have cash", (he paid about $12.8 million).
We did get to watch BP near the Yankees dugout and got to see all the guys...Mo, Jeter, Robbie, etc.
We sat in the RF seats. Normally I want to sit closer but these NL teams jack up the prices on Yankees games because they know they will draw, (Atlanta did the same thing last year). But if I we had sat anywhere else, we wouldn't have seen this guy:
Yes, he's dressed like a monk. And he did a roll call like Bald Vinny, except the concept hasn't caught on as well and lacks the caché. He was pretty vocal throughout the game, leading cheers and what-not.
The much anticipated pre-game event was what the Padres would get Mo as a retirement gift. I was pretty certain it would be a surfboard presented by Trevor Hoffman. I got the Hoffman part right...the former Saves record holder presented the current Saves record holder a navy blue beach cruiser bicycle with the Yankees logo on it. I was underwhelmed...I don't think anything will top the rocking chair made out of broken bats from the Twins.
As for the game, obviously it was a big letdown. NY looked like it would score early when Jeter and Cano got on in the first with one out. But the failed to cross the plate as we're getting accustomed to happening. Sabathia gave up two earned in the bottom of the first, one of which was a bases loaded walk. NY came back and tied it in the second but those were their only two runs of the game. CC was totally ineffective, giving up at least 10 hits in 6+ IP. Joba gave up a bomb to deep center on his first pitch in the game. It was one of three HR on the night for the Padres.
I kinda take it personal when they lose while I'm in attendance. They're 4-5 in games I've been at, which is pretty hard to imagine considering how good they've been since I started going to their games in 2004.
In summary, the park is nice and San Diego is in the top 2 of my favorite cities to visit, (with NYC obviously). It's beautiful and the weather is as good as advertised. I can't recommend it highly enough. It's always disappointing when the Yankees lose games I'm at but we still had a great time and its always rewarding to cross another park off the list.
