Padres Home Opener 2010: Random Stuff

how am i not mentioned?! hahaha JK :)

or am i.

not.

i was really excited okay?

 And nothing happened there, did it? Nope, no siree! And Dex just magically appeared!

The new lower priced $5 beers were not available at every concession stand. From my seats in section 129 I had to walk all the up the ramps and back up to the main concourse and to the Friar Frank concession stand before I found them. After a couple trips of doing just that I gave up and payed the $7 or whatever it was at the closest stand to me. Not cool Mr. Garfinkel, not cool.

Worse thing was that when I asked vendors at a couple of stands where I could find said $5 and they all looked at me like I was crazy.

in that, uh, position.

thanks for replying to my DM yesterday, jbox. Not.

Can sing and pose naked (all parts hidden)
Link

I get: 2 hot dogs, nachos and a drink (diet coke with my 8 year old nephew, or a beer if with friends / a lady friend). Hot dogs are hard to screw up, same with the soda.

But I had a real issue with the nachos. I got them right before the first pitch and 2 condiment stands were already out of jalapeños. I had to adventure for a stand that wasn’t out. Then, when I got to my seat and ate the top, say 6 chips… everything else was crumbs. Every other sporting venue I have been too has had decent nachos… hell even movie theaters do. Bad luck? Maybe, but I will be judging next game… judging harshly.

One reason I hated going on Opening Day is that it is everyone’s first day at the stands and they are all dealing with the largest crowd of the year. I know Opening Day is a “thing”, but I passed this year on getting tickets.

My 20Y hits on Saturday.

No more Clock/Thermometer display in right field (the one about where they count the K’s). The display know shows the pitcher name and the balls/strikes/total counts. It still flashes the pitch speed like it did before.

The only clock I could see when looking out at the field from the perspective of being behind homeplate was on the main scoreboard, underneath vistor’s lineup. The main scoreboard now shows both teams lineups simultaneously (it used to only show the hitting team’s lineup). There is something underneath the home team’s lineup (like the clock below the vistor’s), but I can’t remember what it is. The main scoreboard also presents the stats differently. Batting Average was moved so that it is separate from the “table” of stats and instead is after the player’s name. In the “table” they know have OBP, SLG and (the redundant and mostly useless stat) OPS.

There are free programs available when you come in. Nobody was handing them to me and I looked in the box to see what they were, but it looked like some ad or something so I skipped it. During the game there was some video on the jumbotron showing these and I had one of those, “Oh, that’s what that is” and “Oh, that’s the free program that Dex didn’t know about the other day.”

New MC guy for the between innings stuff. I didn’t catch his name. He was very enthusiastic. Not that Johnny Midnight wasn’t, but this guy care a little less than Johnny about keeping his cool.

New MC guy hosted the attendance guessing, which no longer involves the scoreboard. They are having a fan rearrange the numbers while the rest of the crowd (except those obstructed from seeing the scoreboard in left field that normally shows the pitcher name and pitch counts) knows the actual number and helps him.

New MC guy introduced the Jerome’s best seat in the house which is not a U shaped couch that can fit more people than the two lazy boys that used to be out there.

New MC guy hosted the Jack in the Box guess the hat game. I wasn’t really paying attention to what happened other than the guy picking the one that gave everyone two free tacos. That wasn’t an option for the hats last year. You had to pick up the coupon on the way out, but I always go out one of the secret stairwells and they didn’t have someone posted there to give out the coupons. My arteries are thankful. I wonder if this promotion is meant to go along with the new Jack in the Box ads next to the main scoreboard that has “Jack” with one sign that says “Go Padres” (I think that’s what it said, it was definitely baseball related) and the other that said “Go Tacos”.

They brought out the giant American flag for the opener, but then rushed it off when the rain came. I seem to remember this happening before where they didn’t even bother to bring it out because of rain in the opener.

The starting lineup came in through the stands and down stairs to the field (did they televise this?), which they did last year and was a hit. They get to high five fans as they come down to the field, which is pretty cool.

Philip Rivers threw out the first pitch and it was very awkward. My friend said to me “He threw that kind of funny” and I said “Doesn’t he always?”

That silly follow the hidden ball game is still around. New graphics, no more USS Midway, just Padres hats. Not that anyone should care.

When I left the game (which was after many had already shuffled out as I watched the highlights on the big screen) the concession stands were just closing up shop. Last year they were almost always packing up before the game was over. This may not be that interesting, since the game ended around what most would consider dinner time and maybe business was still strong at the end, also the crowd was bigger than most of the games I went to the last couple of years and it could have something to do with opening day. But, I noted it anyway.

I went to that Gastropub before the game. They have an upstairs patio that has fews of park at the park. It was full when I got there around 1ish so we sat downstairs. The beer selection is obviously very british pubbish and the food is obviously trying to distinct. Its not tremendously pricey, but its definitely not any sort of deal to go there. My favorite pub fare is fish and chips, but you’d be better off at Tin Fish for that.

First home game of the season, GLB reports on him dumping out the balls collected by the ball boys and Ducksnorts commented on him flicking sunflower seeds at the San Diego Chicken.

i sat over in right field so i didnt see. i only saw it when i watched it on tv later. thought that was neat. do u think they only did that for the homeopener?

who wrote the schedule?
Mon, Tues, Wed, Thur