After a late start and a McDonald's breakfast, we hit the road. Our destination: Berkeley, for the Cal Football Fan Appreciation Day. It was very similar to a mix of the Giants' on-field photo day and FanFest.
It was cool, except I immediately regretted not bringing a Sharpie (some of the players didn't have them, and I would need it later) and we needed to be there much earlier.
First stop was to see Stockton's own Lavelle Hawkins, a transfer to Cal this season. Rhonda got up there and shouted out, "E-House!" He seemed pretty happy to see someone from home.
Aside from the player autographs (virtually the whole team was there), there were stations where the quarterbacks threw passes to you, you could hit the sled, or kick field goals.
There was also a sale of game-used jerseys and equipment, but we never made it there because the line was long. Instead, we got in line so I could get an autograph from Cal's next big thing, running back Marshawn Lynch.
While we were in the (very long) line for running back autographs, they announced the autographs were ending so the players could break for lunch. Maybe because he realized 90% of the people in line were there for him, Lynch made his way up the line to sign autographs. It was a classy act, showing him to be as great off the field as on.
After autographs we wandered around a bit. The longest line wasn't for Lynch though, it was for Coach Jeff Tedford.
The fans, especially the alumni, are nuts about this guy. Other than Dusty Baker, I don't think there has been this popular a coach in the Bay Area in the last 25 years. Bill Walsh was respected, but this guy is revered.
After a while, we were just screwing around. Here I am "running" through the big helmet they put at the end of the tunnel:
Rhonda takes end zone celebration to new levels:
On the way out, I posed with the cannon they fire off when Cal scores. Because of perspective, it looks like I'm about to smoke this fool next to me.
On the way out, we got hooked up with free burrito. They had free Coca-Cola Zero but ran out before we got there. The free burrito figured into my plans, so we could skip lunch. We walked back to campus and I picked up the Cal football DVD I'd been waiting to pick up. And a soda, I was dying of thirst.
It was getting to be about 1 so we hiked back to our car...and changed jerseys. And picked up a backpack and our seatbacks. Then it was off to the BART station, and off to the Giants game.
I'd forgotten how much walking is needed to get around Berkeley. By the time we walked downtown, got on BART, transferred to Muni, and arrived at the gate, it was the top of the seventh! And we were exhausted!
Normally that would be cause for concern, but today was also the first-ever Season Ticket Holder Appreciation Day at SBC Park. Or as I like to call it, "we're-sorry-the-team-sucks-so-we'll try-to-make-it-up-to-you day".
It was a pretty good three innings though - the Giants pulled out a nail-biter 2-1 behind Schmidt even though they demonstrated their usual lack of situational hitting ability, and Benitez lost command with two outs in the ninth.
After the game we headed for the portwalk, where we had a lengthy wait ahead of us to get into the park. They had told us it would be a picnic on the field, but other than that I didn't expect much. I just thought we would get to play catch on the field and see the dugouts. Imagine my surprise when they let us do whatever we wanted.
We picked a spot in left to settle into, the kind of place a blooper over the shortstop's head would land. They had food and beer stations on the map they gave us, and I was starving, so I went to get something and started counting what money I had left. I got there, and asked how much the sodas were.
Free. Hot dogs. Free. Vendors walking around handed out ice cream to us. Free. BEER. FREE. I didn't even want one. But how do you turn down frickin' free beer?
(Coincidentally, the guy in front of us in line, after pointing out the Kids' Fun Zone to his little ones, pointed to the beer stand and said, "this is the Daddy Fun Zone." High comedy.)
So it's a great day, we're on the field, people are playing catch and running the bases, the players are out signing autographs, and what does Rhonda do? Play Nintendogs (which, by the way, is a great game to play in public if you want people to think you are mentally ill, since you look like you are talking to yourself).
While I was partaking of free beer, a crowd gathered around the hot dog stand. That's because Todd Linden and Omar Vizquel were literally tossing hot dogs into the crowd.
After stuffing our faces, we started to mill around and, as usual, goof off.
We went down into the home dugout and back to the batting cage.
This sign tells us we must be special to be down here.
This is my favorite picture of the day. Considering how tired and sweaty we are from being in the sun and walking all day, we look pretty good. The home dugout is surprisingly luxurious (no report on the visitor's side).
Today, the role of Dave Righetti is played by Rhonda. Sadly, this is a pretty common sight this season.
This picture makes me laugh, because it looks like Rhonda is scoring from first.
After I noticed the battery was dying, we played catch on the first base line for about half-an-hour. They raffled off a lot of autographed stuff but we got none. They had a raffle for a "fantasy BP" session, on my birthday no less, so I felt it was in the stars for me to win that one. Nope.
The event was winding down but Scott Eyre and Ray Durham stuck around through the whole thing to sign autographs and meet fans. Very admirable. Again, no Sharpie...but I had enough in the battery to take one last picture with Scotty.
We were planning to eat Zachary's Pizza, but by the time we traveled back to the East Bay and walked to our car, we were ready to go home. Eventually, we had a bite to eat...at Target.
So we had a day packed with wall-to-wall sports goodness, and it only cost us maybe forty bucks for two fast-food meals and transportation. Not bad.
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