jorge's jome

I went to Petco Park on Thursday night to see the Padres host the Dodgers. Most of you know I'm from Orange County and was a Dodger and Angel fan as a kid (yes, you can be a fan of both teams since they are in different leagues, I realize that is a strange concept down here). This was my first time at the new downtown ballpark and I have to say I was pleased overall with the experience. Well, except for the parking, which was extremely painful. Some of the lots closer to the park were charging $30/vehicle. I ended up parking on the corner of F and 11th streets and paid $15, and then walked the six blocks or so to the ballpark.

I meant to take quite a few pictures of the park and the surrounding areas, however, traffic was absolutely horrible coming down the 15 from Escondido and it took me almost 2 hours to get downtown, which left me with little time for taking pictures. Here is a shot of the new scoreboard.

It was a pretty exciting game. The matchup was Brian Lawrence vs. Hideo Nomo. The Padres got out to an early lead, Loretta and Nevin (go Titans!) in the #2 and #4 spots hit solo home runs in the bottom of the first and added a run in the bottom of the 2nd with an RBI single. Nomo was looking pretty shaky. Looks like he's put on some weight, also.

Nomo would go on to get the win, thanks to a hefty dose of Dodger offense, something you couldn't say last season. The final was 7-5. I got a treat at the end when Eric Gagne came out to close at the bottom of the 8th after the Padres had pulled to within 2 and the save situation was on. This guy is just scary, came out of the bullpen and was throwing 97-98 mph heaters. Got the 3rd out of the 8th easily and then later finished up the 9th. There were quite a few other notable plays, one was an attempted tag from 3rd by Paul Loduca who was gunned down by Brian Giles from fairly deep in right field. A great game overall, it was nice to get out to the ballpark again.

The seats were great, I went with a friend and ex-coworker Nick Piazza, who has purchased season tickets for the last 7 seasons or so. In all that time, he has missed 3 games...this guy is hardcore. The nice thing is, of course, that he has some pretty good seats, 8th row field level just beyond 3rd base. Here is the view sitting down.

Let's see, what else...oh yeah, THE FOOD! How can I talk about a ballpark without mentioning the food! Well, I didn't get much time to check out all the food areas. Although there were a couple things I liked right away, such as the multiple hot dog and nacho stands that are spread out around the park. You can get in line for a Friar Frank behind 30 other people, or you can go to the hot dog cart and get a hot dog in less than 2 minutes. I bought a hot dog and a coke, devoured the dog while in line for nachos, and still made it back to my seat in less than five minutes. I didn't get a chance to try out the beers, but there seemed to be quite a selection by looking at the people sitting around me.

Oh, and I almost forgot...we got a surprise visitor in the 5th inning. At the top of the 5th, I noticed quite a few people standing up and looking over at the next section over on my right, which would be the section immediately beyond the Dodger dugout, behind the press photographers. I looked over to see who it was and got pretty excited about who had just arrived. Unfortunately, I noticed this gentleman just as he had almost reached the aisle where his seat was, so by the time I grabbed my camera he was just about in his seat. It is pretty hard to tell who it is from the pictures, only one is in focus, but rather than spoil it for you, I figured I'd leave it to you, my astute readers, to try to figure out who it is. A couple of you I know (Rudy? Tom?) should be able to figure it out pretty easily. Give it your best shot. If you need a hint, I'll post one in the comment area if no one correctly guesses within a couple days. :)