Tag / Candlestick Park

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Giants All Time Leaders – Through 2015

giantsWith 5 months until baseball in Chicago returns, I thought it would be interesting to look at the all time leaders in both offensive and defensive categories for all 30 teams. We continue today with the San Francisco Giants.

The Giants began life in 1883 in New York, before moving west to San Francisco in 1957. I’ve seen them play 15 times, first at their old home at Candlestick Park in 1999 and most recently last year at Dodger Stadium during my time in LA.

Home Runs

Name Total
Pedro Feliz 2
8 tied with 1

Hits

Name Total
Pedro Feliz 8
Rich Aurilia 6
Bengie Molina 6

Runs

Name Total
Pedro Feliz 4
Rich Aurilia 4
5 tied with 3

RBI

Name Total
Pedro Feliz 4
Ray Durham 4
Bengie Molina 4
Pablo Sandoval 4

Doubles

Name Total
6 tied with 2

Triples Continue reading →

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Ballpark Tour: AT&T Park

ATTPark

Stadium Name: AT&T Park

Location: San Francisco

Home Team: Giants

Years in Service: 2000 – Present

Visits: 1

The San Francisco Giants opened Pacific Bell Park in 2000 after 40 seasons at Candlestick Park.  The ballpark was the first stadium built without public funds since the completion of Dodger Stadium in 1962.  The stadium was renamed SBC Park in 2003 and then finally AT&T Park in 2006 thanks to the corporate upheaval in the telecommunications world.  In April 2010, the stadium became the first MLB ballpark to receive LEED Silver Certification for Existing Buildings, Operations and Maintenance.

In May of 2008, I made my second trip out to Bay Area, this time to attend the Java One conference.  The week started with the A’s in town while the Giants returned home for a weekend series, so I adjusted my schedule so that I could attend games at both stadiums.  Friday night, after most of the techies had left town, I hopped on the bus down to AT&T Park to see the Giants, once again, take on the Phillies.  I dropped some major coin for the best tickets in the house, which got me in a box between home plate and the Phillie dugout and a prime spot on the evening’s telecast.  The Phillies, on their way to a World Series championship, defeated the Giants 7-4.

As one would expect from a newly built stadium, AT&T Park offered all the amenities one would expect.  The park is a huge upgrade over Candlestick and, given the Giants recent success, has proven to be a boon for the franchise.  Given the opportunity, I would love to go back for another game.

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Ballpark Tour: 3 Com Park

Stadium Name: 3 Com Park

Location: San Francisco

Home Team: Giants

Years in Service: 1960 – 1999

Visits: 1

When the New York Giants moved west in 1958, the city of San Francisco began constructing a new ballpark for them, and Candlestick Park was born.  The stadium opened in 1960 and was the home of the now-San Francisco Giants through the 1999 season.  Along the way, the stadium has also played host to the Oakland Raiders, the San Francisco 49ers, dozens of commercials and movies, and, in 1965, the final commercial concert appearance by the Beatles.

In September of 1999, I headed out to the Bay Area to visit an old friend.  One of the items on our agenda was to head out to Candlestick, which had been renamed 3Com Park by this point, to see a game before the Giants moved to their new home the following season.  With only 13 home games left on the schedule, we set out to see the Giants take on the Phillies on September 2.  The Giants, behind starter Joe Nathan, defeated the Phillies 3-2 on a cool autumn afternoon.  I would return to San Francisco 9 years later to check out the new stadium, but that is a tale for another day.

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Ballpark Tour: Qualcomm Stadium

JackMurphy

Stadium Name: Qualcomm Stadium

Location: San Diego

Home Team: Padres

Years in Service: 1969 – 2003

Visits: 1

San Diego Stadium opened on August 20, 1967 as the home of the AFL’s Chargers and opened for baseball the following spring for the final season of the minor league San Diego Padres.  The following season, San Diego’s expansion team, also named the Padres, moved in and stayed as the main tenants until the end of the 2003 season.  The stadium was renamed in 1980 for local sportswriter Jack Murphy, who had championed support for the building of the stadium, after he passed away.  That name stuck until 1997, when the naming rights were sold to technology company Qualcomm.

In 2003, I was in San Diego for what, to date, was my 3rd and final Comic Con.  On the afternoon of July 17, I skipped out on the con and took the trolley out to Mission Valley to take in the day’s contest between the Padres and the Diamondbacks.  I don’t remember much about the game, which the Diamondbacks won handidly 9-1, other than Curt Schilling taking the bump for the Dbacks.  The park, one of the last remaining cookie cutter stadiums that popped up in the late 60s and early 70s and designed to house both baseball and football teams while doing service to neither, did not really register one way or the other and hold’s no particular space in my memory.  I do seem to remember a giant outdoor escalator, but that might have been Candlestick.

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30 For 30 – See One Of The Seven Wonders Of The World

The fine folks at away.com have come up with a list of 30 Things Every Traveler Must Do Before They’re 30.  Of those 30, I’ve managed to accomplish 12 of them, or roughly 40% of them, some of which was even before I turned 30.  We start with #2 on their list, see one of the Seven Wonders of the World.  They open it up to more than just the original seven wonders of the ancient world, which is good, because who has seen those?  So, for the sake of this post, we will concentrate on the wonders of the modern world and the not so exciting story of the first, and so far only, time that I saw the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, CA.

In the fall of 1999, I took my first trip to the Bay Area to visit my old friend Scott, who had moved there after college for an exciting opportunity with the chip-maker known as AMD.  While there, we took trips to both Candlestick Park in San Francisco and whatever name the Oakland Coliseum was using at the time.  One of those trips took us across the fabled Golden Gate Bridge.

There you go.  As I said, nothing exciting about the story.  But, a story none the less.