AT&T Park -- San Francisco, Calif.In a word, WOW. AT&T Park is perhaps the most beautiful park I'll ever see. The stadium itself is beautiful and quirky and accessible, while the view from it doubles its worth. From the upper deck behind home plate, you can see for miles on a clear day, including the Bay Bridge and the other side of the bay. It's absolutely breathtaking. Even the other way, where you can see the city skyline above the stadium, is amazing. While I haven't yet seen every MLB ballpark, I'm pretty confident the views from the other stadiums won't surpass those at AT&T Park.
All in all, this might be the best stadium I've ever been to, in any sport. Seriously. It's a tight race with PNC Park in Pittsburgh, and PNC might have the slight edge, but I could discount that because our seats at PNC were unbelievable. Other than that, it's tough for me to decide which park was better.
We (J, her family and I) were lucky enough to see a great game and a great rivalry, with the Giants hosting the Dodgers. I felt a twinge of sadness when the PA announcer announced Joe Torre, the Yankees' former skipper, as the Dodgers' manager. Here's the game recap in a 5-2, come-from-behind win for the Gigantes.
The Positives
Obviously, the first positive is the view. I don't think any stadium, in any sport, can match it. But that's not all. It's a great park to watch a game, and ultimately, that's what's most important. Even the view from our "View Level" seats (the 300 level in the upper deck) was excellent. And, since baseball is a game with a lot of downtime, there were plenty of other things to look at between pitches. The view from the stadium -- both the waterfront, the bridge _and_ the city skyline on the other side of the park -- was breathtaking and almost worth the price of admission alone. It did get a little chilly in the upper deck toward the later innings, but that's to be expected in Northern California when you're on the water.
(An aside: From some of the stories I heard, it was nothing compared to what Candlestick was like. One story I heard, from J's uncle, had him receiving a winter jacket and gloves from J's other uncle -- who lives in SF -- before attending a game in Candlestick … in July. When he asked what they were for, he heard, "You'll see." He certainly did see - it was nearly freezing with the wind chill in the stadium.)
I know E doesn't like these things (pictures and quotes of history don't make history, if I understand him correctly) but I enjoyed the pictures and quotes on the wall on the way into the stadium, and especially the quotes on the walkway up to the upper level - it made the walk a little more palatable (and it was a looong walk).
Also interesting -- and of note -- the stadium's public address announcer is a woman. I've never heard that before in any other major sports venue. She had a pleasant voice and was clearly into the game. It took a bit to get used to her inflection -- I'm used to the staid, old white guy voice, like Walter Cronkite but in a stadium (listen to Jon Shepherd at Yankee Stadium, for instance) -- but once I did, it was cool. She somehow made the game more exciting than it already was. I have to admit, at first I was skeptical -- I think it was a bit of misogyny :( -- but eventually I got used to it and I enjoyed it quite a lot.
I mentioned the rivalry above; it was pretty intense. There were nearly as many Dodger fans in the stands, and they were fairly loud (We were unfortunate enough to sit in front of a few of them, who insisted on continually dropping the F-bomb, despite the fact that we were sitting with two young girls. I eventually had to tap one of them on the leg and point out this fact, and they calmed a bit, but I still heard a few the rest of the way. But that's not the park's -- or its employees -- fault, and the ushers had pretty good control of the fans). The Giants fans heartily booed former Giant Jeff Kent whenever he was announced. I guess his years of service to the Giants weren't appreciated. Maybe Giants fans were siding with (soon-to-be-convicted perjurer and steroid user) Barry Bonds, after the two had a dugout spat several years ago. Maybe that's why the team store has Bonds' t-shirt. Bad choice, team store. Anyway, the fans seemed pretty knowledgeable and didn't need prompting from the scoreboard or the organ or any other external source. They knew what was going on. The Giants did an excellent job of not bombarding the fans with on-field promotions and advertisements. Come to think of it, I don't remember one the whole game -- although there must have been. In addition, they didn't have any of those lame "Kiss Cams" or "which hat is the ball under?" games. It was refreshing.
Also -- and this is huge -- the ushers did an excellent job of keeping people out of the aisles during action. You'll remember from my review of Nationals Park that this is a big problem I have with the DC park. It's almost not a problem at all in SF. Of course, there were some stragglers coming up the steps, and a few people going down the steps, but not too much to be annoying. Each usher had a sign they'd hold up (see the pics) to discourage people from interrupting the seated fans, and the vendors moved quickly and ducked down when they had to stop to serve a fan. Thank you, San Francisco -- that's how you do it.
The Problems
One problem of the park is the entrance. As far as I could tell, there was only one entrance -- from Willie Mays Plaza in centerfield. Admittedly, I only looked around one corner, but that side of the stadium was blocked off by barricades. There perhaps were other entrances on the other side of the stadium, but it didn't appear that way with the throng of people joining me in entering the park. Plus, since I entered in centerfield and my seat was on the right-field side of home plate in the upper deck, it was a long walk to my seat. Still, there was plenty to see along the way, so the walk wasn't all that bad, even up to the "View" section.
That is one thing I wanted to address. The park does not label the sections by number (ie. the 300 section), it calls the upper deck (the 300 level) "The View" section. While it _is_ a great view (see the pictures), it's a bit confusing when you're coming into the park for the first time, as I was, and trying to find your seats. I knew our seats were in the upper deck, so I just kept going up to the top, but I wasn't sure if there was a 400 level above us or not (there wasn't).
As for ticket prices, we paid pretty handsomely for upper deck seats -- $32 a piece. I saw the price list online, and the seats were normally $20 for a Monday-Friday game and $26 for a Saturday-Sunday game, but since this was a "premium" game (with the big LA-SF rivalry), the tickets were a bit more expensive.
One detractor of the park was the out-of-town scoreboard. As a lot of other parks do, the Giants put it in the outfield wall, in this case in right field. Unfortunately, we couldn't see it from our seats (section 311, upper deck about six or seven sections to the right of home plate, just past first base). If I had to guess, the location of the scoreboard makes it not visible for approximately 1/3rd of the entire crowd. I'm not sure if this is the case for other parks, but if you've read any of my other reviews of parks, the out-of-town scoreboard is very important to me. Not allowing a third of the crowd to see it is a major faux-pas, in my book.
I could definitely do without the "Build-a-Bear" and the miniature AT&T (whiffle ball) Park in center field, but, of course, I'm not a parent. I'm there to watch the game.
Conclusion
Like I said above, overall, this may be the best park I've ever been to. I'll call it a tie, but I reserve the right to change my mind. Perhaps this is a good excuse to go back to San Francisco; I hope I get a chance to go back to AT&T Park. Apparently, my heart belongs in Frisco.
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