Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Entering the Heart of Darkness (aka Dodger Stadium)

I'll start at the beginning, and that's waking up on Colin's couch. Colin has breakfast made, eggs cooked perfectly, white sharp cheese, avocado and toast with butter. I am sad because I can't eat more than half of it. I have trouble eating before I've been awake for a couple of hours, I have no idea why.
We eat, shower and dress, then roll out and into the neighborhood. There's a farmer's market around the corner and it's a good one. Its a triangular park that borders Sunset and they turn it into the most perfect little street fair with great produce, art, and lovely, interesting people walking around everywhere. I was particularly struck by the all female acoustic guitar/ukulele quartet that had a south American/Peruvian vibe and dress.
We proceeded to Colin's work Intelligentsia on Sunset. They are the quintessential scientific/European coffee bar. Only coffee and pastries, but with lines out the door and onto the sidewalk. Colin and I had a "Gibraltar" which is like a latte' in a shot glass. He forbade me from adding any sweetener. It was good. Then we had a $7 cup of coffee. Yes, a cup of coffee, for $7. Again I was forbidden from adding cream or sugar. Heaven forbid I disturb the flavors of the co-op grown, single plot, organic, fair trade, artisan coffee beans. It was ok. If I wasn't getting it for free then I wouldn't have had this experience, so I try to go with the flow.
Now I must begin one of the saddest stories of my life; that of watching my beloved Giants play like a farm team at Dodger Stadium. They won Friday handily, and Sunday after 13 innings, but on Saturday it was sad. Just sad.
Let me preface by telling you about the build up to this game. I wore my Giants gear into Yankee stadium to see my team, and I wasn't going to be cowed into forsaking my allegiances in enemy territory. Let me be clear. I hate the Dodgers. Hate. It's a strong word. Being in an edifice devoted to the glorification of this franchise was an affront to every sensibility that I posess. But I digress....What I was trying to say was that everyone was telling us to be scared to go to Dodger Stadium. "You're gonna get beat up/spit on/beer stained/food thrown on you, etc." Colin was reading me online reports of Giants fans getting stabbed in the parking lot, and when the security spotted our Giants lids upon entry they told us to watch our backs. I NEVER want to have security anywhere tell me to watch my back....and needless to say there was some apprehension on our part. We quickly found our seats and stayed there until the 3rd inning.
The game was a joke. I had given Colin the lowdown on the Giants' most exciting rookie starter, Pablo Sandoval, so of course he didn't play. His replacement Juan Uribe, played unbelievably bad defense and the Giants had 4 hits in the game. They lost 8 to 0 and gave up RBI hits to the Dodger's backup shortstop (a Double A player), and the pitcher Stultz, who threw a complete game 4 hit shutout. It was quite possibly the worst Giant's baseball game that I have ever seen. Listening to thousands of Dodger's fans (who showed up in the 3rd inning and left in the 8th) cheering in this game was one of the most painful torments I have had to face as a man.
We never got beat up. In fact the worst we got was a "Giants suck!" here and there. I speculate that it might have been different on a drunken Friday night game that the Giants win. Overall I'm glad we went. Go Giants! The Dodgers dogs were not very good and besides the weather there was nothing in Dodger Stadium that was better than we have in SF. Not one thing.

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