Today is the San Francisco Fan Fest. This year I am unable to attend mainly due to three reasons. Firstly, I was disappointed with last year's Fan Fest held inside the stadium . Secondly, I have a deadline to meet tomorrow with a project that I forgot about. And thirdly, my dad is not able to attend with me (I love attending Giants events with my daddy). I would like to have gone but honestly, I am not disappointed at not going this year.
My dad and I have attended the Fan Fest the last 3 years. The 1st two years were a huge hit. Everything was held in a pier building next to the stadium. You had room to walk around and could actually see the planned events/exhibits and stand in an organized line to get autographs.
Last year the organizers decided to hold the event inside the stadium around the playing field. That sounds confusing. All of the venues were on the 1st or 2nd level of the walkway where all the concessions stands are. There were huge lines of people that were intertwined with thousands of people trying to move through the lines. It felt like I was a car in the worst commute on get away day before the 4th of July holiday on the spegetti maze (what my sisters and I call the 580, 80, 880 interchange in Oakland). The reports out the following day of the event said that 30,000 people attended the fest. Now for a normal baseball game that might be a little crowded but at a normal game situation most of those people are sitting in their seats. But last year it was like everyone was buying a hot dog and a beer all jamming the hallways at the same time.
It was actually funny to look back and remember how my sister Amy, my dad and I walked through that crowd. We held onto the belt or waist band of the back of each other's pants. It was the only way we could stay together. As my middle school students would have said, "big wedgy". Anyone who knows me well, knows that I have a slight fear of earthquakes. It did go through my mind several times last year about having an earthquake in the crowded stadium. There would have been no way for us to have evacuated the stadium.
Guess the promotors wanted the feel, smell, taste, sights and sounds of being out at the good ol' ball park. There were a few good things from last years fest. Hot dogs and drinks were on sale for $1. We each enjoyed a couple of dogs and a Coke. We were able to walk on the playing field. My dad so loved walking on the blades of grass, touching the dirt and running across home plate. He just lit up like he was brought back a sweet memory of his childhood playing ball. One funny thing about the home and opposing teams dugouts was the ventalation system. The Giants dugout had fans and heater ducts and nice cushioned benches. The opposing teams's dug out had no fans or heating ducts and there was just a beat up piece of wood for the bench. No love for the opposing team. Love it.
Excited for spring training to start and opening day!
1 comment:
We had our first fanfest yesterday. It was as you described. Crowded, cattle herd. We had a stroller with us so we had to be inventive with the dugout and clubhouse stairs. The killer for us was that the entire field was under a foot of dirt on top of a tarp due to a recent tractor pull.
Post a Comment