MLB Parks Tour #15 – AT&T Park, San Francisco, CA – 2013

On our anniversary, 8 years after visiting our first park (Boston on our honeymoon), we hit the halfway point on our journey toward visiting every Major League park.

As I said in the last installment, the roadtrip to San Francisco was quite the undertaking, spanning over 4000 miles and visiting the likes of San Fran, Oakland, Lake Tahoe, Las Vegas, the Grand Canyon, and Phoenix. Five of us packed into our Explorer and headed for the coast. San Francisco is a great city, full of history. We truly enjoyed our time there, and marveled at some of the sights we had only seen in photos and on television. We trekked across the Golden Gate Bridge, saw Alcatraz (though only from the boat), braved the curves of Lombard Street, and even got in some catch at Fisherman’s Wharf. But obviously this trip would have been incomplete without a visit to AT&T Park, the home of the San Francisco Giants.

AT&T Park is an impressive structure, sitting right along the San Francisco Bay featuring an incredible waterfront and views of the Bay Bridge. The park opened in 2000, and has featured an exceptional amount of history along the way. Perhaps the biggest is the home run prowess (*asterisk*) of Barry Bonds, who hit 500, 600, 700, and ultimately 756, which put him on top of the home run records above Hank Aaron, all at AT&T Park. He also hit 71, 72, & 73 in the park, which gave him the single season record in 2001. In addition, it hosted three World Series Championships in 2002 (lost to the Angels), 2010 (where they beat the Rangers), and 2012 (won over the Tigers). The park itself is spectacular. From our perch in the second deck on the first base side, we had a bay-view into the water on the right, the Bay Bridge straight ahead in left-center, and a great view of the field. The weather was chilly, but manageable, and we had a great time. Cheers to Giants fans, you have an incredible park for baseball.

A few notes:

From getting baked at the Oakland Coliseum, to bundled up in jackets at AT&T Park, we were glad we packed for both.

I was pleasantly surprised to see Matt Cain get the start for the Giants in this one. Just a year prior, he pitched only the 22nd perfect game in MLB history. While he pitched well, this was a back and forth game that left him with a no-decision.

On that note, this game was great. Totally back and forth with way too many wrong predictions that the game was over.