THE San Francisco Giants Blog

Your First Baseball Game

Posted in Uncategorized by Flavor on July 4, 2012

This is authored by Chuck. He’s out of town and I’m posting it for him. I will be out of town, too, in a few hours. Have a good 4th everyone. Try not to light yourself on fire. 🙂

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Since this is all about the nostalgia trip (at times), let’s hear about your first actual game memories. This being an off day and all (I’m writing this on 7/2), I’d love to hear stories of the first game you remember going to. Where they were, what went down, who played Anything that you remember about that first time you walked (or crawled) into a big league ballpark to see your first real-live ball. I’ve heard a coupe of your stories (Flav’s Ed-Haliki-no-no springs to mind), but let’s hear ’em.
Mine was pretty cool. For my 7th birthday, my mom, who was as far from a sports fan as could ever be imagined, took me and about 10 classmates to Bat Day for my 7th birthday in 1968. Bat Day always fell around my birthday, so I guess my mom thought it would be a great idea to take a bunch of kids to a ball game. The details of the game are hazy, I’m pretty sure the Giants played the Cards, but I’ll never forget walking through those double doors, getting that blast of air in my face, and then seeing the impossibly green field for the first time. It looked perfect. The Stick back then was still grass, and not yet enclosed for football, and I guess it was still relatively new. I don’t think it was a sell-out, but the crowd was pretty good, and we made our way to the upper deck, 1st base side. All us kids had our full sized (none of this puny half-assed bat shit) bats (I got a 32) , and were busily trying to stab each other and bash each other’s brains out. The coolest thing happened though when the Giants leadoff hitter (Jesus Alou? Bobby Bonds? No idea) came to bat. EVERY kid that got a bat started bouncing it off the ground. After 3 seconds, the whole place had the timing down. Whap whap whap! Whap whap whap! Whap whap whap! 10,000 kids beating out a rhythm. It would break out during rallies and other random times, but it sounded so cool. The two old guys in front of us didn’t like it so much, but there wasn’t jack that they could do about it. They were too busy getting their buzz on and throwing one-liners at us.
The game? Weird thing is, as cool as it was to be there, I don’t remember much about the actual game. We all ate a few hotdogs and drank all the soda that the vendors could give us. Got bags of peanuts. We got those malted things with the little wooden spoon (NOTHING reminds me of childhood more than that taste of that spoon when the ice crem’s gone). Best part was trying to see how many peanut shells we could stack onto the hats of the two old guys in front of us (who were dead asleep by the 6th inning) without them falling off or the oldsters waking up.
But there they were: Mays, McCovey, Bobby Bonds, Jesus Alou, Jimmy Ray Hart, Jimmy Davenport, and the rest. Guys whose baseball cards I had, but had never seen play. The place, and the game, seemed so impossibly big. The Giants won the game, we all left happy, and for some crazy reason, my mom thought this was such a good idea that we did this for the next 3 years. Crazier still. I still go to ballgames with one of those guys.
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  1. Del Mar Dennis said, on July 4, 2012 at 5:43 pm

    Tough baseball/movie trivia question for the Fourth of July. What’s the name of the player who catches the ball on the warning track as you hear on the radio while Mayor Vaughn looks anxiously over the crowded beach in Amity?

    • tedspe said, on July 4, 2012 at 6:27 pm

      I don’t remember the name that the announcer , Charlie Jones who *was* a play-by-play announcer for the Reds, says but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t a real player

      • twinfan1 said, on July 4, 2012 at 7:02 pm

        Charlie was a good announcer, he did a lot of golf with my Dad. I think he usually got the 17th hole- back then 15 through 18 were all that were covered for most tournaments. Charlie is in the NFL’s broadcasting HOF, the Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award.

      • tedspe said, on July 4, 2012 at 7:30 pm

        Perfect. You know while I was typing Charlie Jones’ name I was asking myself “I wonder if twin’s dad knew him?”

  2. twinfan1 said, on July 4, 2012 at 6:52 pm

    I suppose I could watch through my Netflix acct. but I’ll let someone else do that if they think it’s worth it.
    What’s the answer, DMD?

    • Del Mar Dennis said, on July 4, 2012 at 8:12 pm

      Ted was right, it wasn’t a real baseball player’s name. I’m thinking Steven Spielberg had a good friend named Jerry Christian along the way…

      • tedspe said, on July 4, 2012 at 8:20 pm

        I bow to you, sir, for knowing that

      • tedspe said, on July 4, 2012 at 9:08 pm

        You know what else is interesting–and it’s one of the reasons I love The Flap–not one of us ever mentioned, because we didn’t have to, the name of the film Dennis was referring to. We just–knew

  3. PawlieKokonuts said, on July 4, 2012 at 7:13 pm

    Guess I won’t get to my first-game write-up tonight. All wired up in a hospital sleep center for, obviously, a sleep study, about which I remain dubious. I look like a feckin monkey cosmonaut chimp feckin astronaut guinea pig.

    • big flavor said, on July 4, 2012 at 7:18 pm

      what the fuck are you doing, lol?

      • PawlieKokonuts said, on July 4, 2012 at 7:22 pm

        no shit, I’ve got about 12 electrodes on me and other shit to see if I have sleep apnea. I feel like a fool. I can send you a pic, but too feckin embarrassing. fuckyoutoobozo

    • DJLoo said, on July 4, 2012 at 7:19 pm

      Pawlie’s starry night?

      • PawlieKokonuts said, on July 4, 2012 at 7:24 pm

        I can’t possibly imagine sleeping like this. I have a hard enough time under the best of conditions. And no porn! BTW, speaking of porn-abstinence, where is our guy of the north woods, Stix?

      • Flavor said, on July 4, 2012 at 7:35 pm

        you see, this is an example of the genius that is “DJLoo” that the world fails to honor. POTD? Ummmm, yeah.

      • Flavor said, on July 4, 2012 at 7:42 pm

        Stix got lost in the woods. Dennis got lost in the fog. There’s a little town in Oregon on a lake called LakeintheWoods that I went to years ago—-good times.

  4. PawlieKokonuts said, on July 4, 2012 at 7:35 pm

    hey, check this site out if you want to figure out stuff about a game; I’m searching Whitey Ford – Billy Pierce, and pretty sure I found it.

    http://www.backtobaseball.com/search.php?s%5Btype%5D=regular&s%5Bplayer%5D=Whitey+Ford

  5. twinfan1 said, on July 4, 2012 at 7:35 pm

    Wishing for a good outcome, Paul. What are the possibilities besides sleep apnea? Send me an E-mail if you don’t to discuss it here. If you wish..

  6. blade3colorado said, on July 4, 2012 at 8:23 pm

    Rich get richer file – “In an unforeseen twist that could thrust the Los Angeles Lakers straight back into title contention, two-time NBA MVP Steve Nash has successfully negotiated a sign-and-trade deal from the Phoenix Suns to the Lakers that will team him up with Kobe Bryant.”

    Interpretation of “sign and trade” means that David Stern once again fucked the “have nots” of the NBA.

    • tedspe said, on July 4, 2012 at 8:28 pm

      David Stern. What a Sternum

      • blade3colorado said, on July 4, 2012 at 8:32 pm

        Yep . . . Especially galling after Nash said in a radio interview last week that he would have a hard time putting on a Lakers (or Heat) uniform due to their playoff clashes in the past. Don’t get me wrong, I like Nash, he is a class person, but that statement is total BS.

        Anywho, the real dick head in this deal is Stern allowing it to happen.

      • Del Mar Dennis said, on July 4, 2012 at 9:06 pm

        Wanna hear another rigged one for tonight? The girl who made it to the bonus round on Wheel of Fortune was named Precious. The puzzle answer (thing) was Precious Cargo. How many times did she have to blow Pat to win that extra $35,000?

  7. blade3colorado said, on July 4, 2012 at 9:16 pm

    On Let’s Make A Deal, the Big Deal involves three doors, famously known as “Door #1”, “Door #2”, and “Door #3”, each of which contains a prize or prize package. In the two-trader format used until 2003, the top winner of the two was offered the first choice of a door, and the second trader was then offered a choice of the two remaining doors. I always thought this was rigged, i.e., either Carol Merrill or Jay Stewart was behind the doors pushing the good stuff out after a door was selected and putting a “Zonk” prize in the space. I never trusted Monty, Carol or Jay.

  8. snarkk said, on July 4, 2012 at 9:22 pm

    Pawlie, I am very well versed about sleep apnea and the various treatment modalities. Unfortunately, all too well. If you need any advice from somebody who has been through a lot, please let me know. There are certain websites and groups that are well worth knowing to get the real info on downsides and upsides of various treatments, etc. There is a great sleep apnea patient community out there where you can really learn what might work, and what does not. I’ve done some of them, including surgery. We can talk offline if you want to do so…

  9. twinfan1 said, on July 4, 2012 at 9:29 pm

    I often watch Jeopardy. Usually I get the channel switched before that dreadful Wheel of Fortune music begins. If I’m late and the music starts… well, it can get ugly here.

    • blade3colorado said, on July 4, 2012 at 9:37 pm

      Jeopardy use to be my favorite show back in the 60s and early 70s with Art Fleming and Don Pardo. I like the show with Trabek too, since the format is the same . . . However, I rarely watch it today, except when I visit my parents. It use to be something my Mom and I did when I lived at home. She still watches it religiously. Same thing with Wheel of Fortune, but like you Mike, I hate that show and usually go in the other room where their computer is.

  10. twinfan1 said, on July 4, 2012 at 9:47 pm

    Goodnight all. BTW, if it was missed, Bat Day in 1968 was supposed to be June 7 against the Mets. The game was cancelled due to the RFK assassination. They played a double header the next day. Haven’t seen that it was rescheduled but I’d think it was unless Stoneham saved the bats for 1969..

  11. unca_chuck said, on July 4, 2012 at 9:53 pm

    Yer right, Mike. I just saw my friend yesterday (who was there) and realized that he didn’t go to my school in 1st grade. He got there in 2nd grade, which puts the game around the weekend after April 25th, 1969 . . .

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