Fan Appreciation DayGiants vs. Dodgers
AT&T Park, San Francisco
October 1, 2006
This was the final game of the 2006 Season for Umlaut's home team; appropriately it was against Tour Manager Doug's Los Angeles Dodgers. The game was also a chance for the Rock Brigade to finally meet: Tour Manager Doug, Volume Merchant Ted, John Marshall Stack, and TMD's colleague "You're Jammin' Me" Spencer. THANKS to Ted for coordinating!
While walking from BART to the stadium there was almost a fist fight between a pair of Dodgers fans and a Giants fan and his girlfriend. The Giants' fans were dressed completely in orange Giants gear; they even had orange pants and tennis shoes. The confrontation started when the Dodger dudes taunted the couple with "Who's in the playoffs??" and the Orange Man responded with "That Dodger jacket looks brand new. Did you just jump on the bandwagon??" Then the verbal punches started flying with facts and figures about who finished where, this season / that season, by how many games, etc. etc.. It probably would have done humanity a favor if they'd all been hit by an SUV at that point, but I walked around them as they continued their verbal slap fight.
They actually played that crappy Europe song 'The Final Countdown' over the stadium's PA before the first pitch. Uhhh, that song was NOT the rabble rousing Rock anthem I would have chosen to get the hometown crowd into a frenzy on the final day of the season!! If they were going to play a crappy 80's Euro Metal song they should have at least gone with Accept's 'Balls To The Wall'... this being San Francisco and all... plus the Folsom Street Fair was just last weekend.The National Anthem was played by "Bay Area legend" Dick Bright solo on the electric violin. WTF?! L-A-M-E. I can only guess that Huey Lewis was already booked and Dick Bright & His Electric Violin was Plan B (or even C.. maybe D..). That's the power of love.
At the top of the 2nd Inning, a huge commotion erupted 6 or 7 sections over; the crowd in that area was on their feet, pointing, waving, booing (although some were cheering). The cause of the uproar was a white-haired biped (almost human-like) walking slowly (almost pasta-like) down the aisle towards the Lower Box seats next to the Dodgers dugout. It was Tommy Lasorda. It was funny that we recognized him from that far away, although it wasn't as funny as my last Lasorda encounter.
On the other hand, another celebrity commotion broke out later in the game, but this time it was only one section over but we could not figure out who the guy was... Football player type. African American. Diamond studs in each ear. It wasn't Jerry Rice. He was eating up the attention, signing autographs, waving, posing for pictures. Maybe he was an American Idol contestant. That's the power of love.
Long story short: The Dodgers toyed with the Giants like a hippie with a hacky sack and then shot them behind the ear execution-style 4-3 and dumped their body in The Bay. I still like The Beisbol, but I had ALOT more fun following the Giants twenty years ago than I did this year.
On the BART ride home there were quite a few Oakland Raiders fans making their way back from the East Bay, some of them in their Black Hole costumes. They looked like Napoleon's Grand Army retreating from the Russian Winter; quiet and dejected clutching their souvenir beer cups. I found out later the Raiders blew a 21-3 lead to Cleveland and are off to their worst start since 1961. Bummer for the Silver & Black.. They should play Accept in the locker room next week before they face the FORTY-FUCKING-NINERS in San Francisco...
