I Left My Heart . . .

A too-short stay in Marin County with daughter Joan recuperating from a total hip replacement was interrupted by a trip with grandson Matt and his father Don, to the San Francisco Giants' AT&T Park, to see the Giants and Rangers play an inter-league game on Saturday evening.

Matt Cain, 9-1 this season, who has carried a pretty good batting average for a pitcher, around .230 for the last 3 years—I like pitchers who can hit— and Derek Holland, only a major leaguer for about 2 months now, hooked up in a pitching duel with only one home run mistake per pitcher for eight innings. They were both throwing bullets from where I sat.

We left so as to get home at a reasonable time listening to the extra-inning finish in the 11th inning with an anti-climatic wild pitch. Some nice views out over San Francisco Bay. A ferry from Larkspur docks right down in McCovey Cove where Bonds hit all the home runs. They don't seem to remember him anymore in this stadium.


Maybe that is why they bought aging Randy Johnson and pumped him up quite a bit before and after his 300th win. He was presented with a plaque and lots of other famous guys with 300 major league wins were present for the ceremony (see them seated at the lower left hand corner of the picture to the right. Nolan Ryan in person along with others and video appearances by Roger Clemens and other noteworthy pitchers of the past.)





We enjoyed ourselves in the bleachers, the brats were from Sheboygan, the beer from Petaluma, and the lady announcer didn't annoy us much as she could have because her voice was lost in the din of the crowd.

Nice score board to the left, except that in the bleachers you have to look over your shoulder to see it and the replays etc.


And the pitching data, total pitches and mph, were in a separate place down the right field line. The above picture on the right is of the cove named after Willie McCovey. The right field bleachers are only 309 ft away from home plate and only about 5 or 6 rows deep. Maybe they should move them out now that Bonds is no longer active.