Cubs vs. Giants 6/30/08

So for my birthday (6/29), I got to do a lot of things. I played three shows this week (Pyramid Sac, Pyramid Walnut Creek, and G St Pub in Davis) and had multiple cakes (angel food with chocolate frosting and a chocolate/vanilla ice cream cake.) I got to eat at a number of awesome restaurants and I had an overall great time. But last night was definitely the "icing on the cake" (pun intended.)

I went with my girlfriend Adrianne, my brother Tim and my friend Sean to the Giants/Cubs game at AT&T Park. The first story I have was before we even arrived at the game. My girlfriend and I were driving from Sacramento to SF. When we finally arrived at the toll for the Bay Bridge, we were ready to be done with the drive. I rolled down the window and heard some music being bumped from the toll area. An older Asian man was working the toll booth and to our surprise, was listening to Sir Mix-a-Lot. Not only that, but I handed him the money right at the point of the song where it goes "my anaconda don't want none unless you got buns hon!" I know the story doesn't translate as well in print, but it was damn-near the funniest thing I've seen in a week!

Upon arriving at the game, we found metered parking and paid for 6pm - 7pm, and got the rest of the night for free. $1.50 is waaaaaaaaaay better than $30 by the way. We met up with my brother and Sean was driving up from Monterey so he'd arrive later. We went to the garlic fries stand and got an order (a must when visiting AT&T Park.) I then ordered a Polish sausage and dressed it with brown mustard, relish and onions (no ketchup, right G$?)

We then went to our seats where I was about to bite into my meal, and at that exact minute Sean called and I had to go get him his tickets. I put my meal on hold and ran over to the gate. Sean actually made it in decent time and only missed two pitches. We then went back to our seats and I got back to my food and the game...

The game featured Ted Lily versus Barry Zito- a pair of lefties and former teammates. Lily was just fantastic and Zito was, well- not. Zito walked 5 and continued to struggle as he has all season. The Cubs got up 3-0 when the event of the night happened- Mark DeRosa hit a two run homerun. Usually not a big deal, except he blasted the homer into our section. In fact, I'm pretty sure my brother ducked out of the way, and a guy with a glove made a nice grab. He was one row behind us and two seats over from me. I have never had a homerun hit so close to me. My brother's friend texted him saying he saw my brother not make the play. So apparently we were on TV last night. I wonder if I can get a tape of the broadcast?

But why stop there? DeRosa's next at-bat, the bases were juice and he hit another jack. Right back to our section. This one only went to the first row (we were about 5 rows back) and some dude made a fantastic bare-handed grab. Once again, I think we made an appearance on TV.

This was all made funnier because my girlfriend had decided that Mark DeRosa was her favorite player because 1) he's friends with American Idol contestant Michael Johns and 2) she watched one inning of a Rays/Cubs game and he made an error in the outfield and she felt sympathy for him. Apparently she's a damn good good luck charm for DeRosa and the Cubs.

We also sat next some ridiculous Giants fans. Obviously insecure about the amount of Cubs fans that show up when the Cubs come to town, they were attempting to talk shit. Unfortunately, the Giants were never in the game and they didn't really have anything to say. The guy in front of me threw out an awfully clever "where's Bartman at?" To which my brother asked, "where's Jose Cruz*?" He just nodded as if to say, "yeah, I'm a moron who has nothing better to do." He was not quiet for long as he then began yelling at a guy with an A's hat on in the next section. He kept yelling, "11-1? C'mon man." He was refering to Sunday's A's/Giants score. The worst part was that the Giants were currently losing 9-0 while he was yelling across sections. It was bad. He was also making an unnecessary amount of gay jokes about Chicago and Oakland. I guess someone forgot to tell him that SF is stereotypically the most gay city in the world. Giants fans are truly looking for something to entertain themselves because their team is clearly not getting it done.

Overall, it was a great time at the ballyard and the Cubs' 9-2 victory was a great birthday present.

*Jose Cruz (who won the Gold Glove that year) dropped a routine pop fly verses the Marlins in 2003 to help the Giants lose to the Marlins thereby setting up the match-up of Marlins/Cubs in the NLCS.

UPDATE! Here's a picture of me during the first Mark DeRose homerun. I put a red box around me in the lower left corner. Awesome.