Until then... I'll share some photographs from the San Francisco Giants' game on Sunday vs. the Miami Marlins.
This is my wallet card's first trip to AT&T Park and it was a pretty decent game between two teams I have very little interest in.
And even though neither Buster Posey or Giancarlo Stanton started... I was able to cheer on some personal favorites: Ichiro Suzuki and Norichika Aoki. Here's a look at Ichiro's iconic samurai stance at the plate:
Unfortunately... Ichiro failed to get a hit, but he walked in the 8th and stole second base. And in the bottom of the ninth he showed fans that he's still a valuable asset to baseball with intelligent plays like this:
If that play seems familiar... it's because he's done it before and has slowly perfected the art of deceiving runners:
As for Aoki... he had a great game at the plate. He led off the bottom of the sixth with a single, then stole second base... which prevented the Marlins from turning a double play on back to back groundouts. Later in the inning he got the Giants on the score board when Brandon Belt drove him in.
And in the bottom of the ninth, he walked with the bases loaded to drive in the tying run. San Francisco won on the next play when some guy I had never heard of drove in the winning run.
It's a shame I missed all of the bottom of the ninth game heroics... since my friend and I left during the top of the inning to avoid the after-game traffic jam.
Oh well... the tickets were free. And like I stated earlier... I had little invested in either team playing.
How about you? When you go to games... do you always stay for the entire game? Or do you sometimes leave early?
Happy Wednesday and sayonara!
12 comments:
I admit it -- especially if the weather is extremely hot and humid, as it can get here, I have a tendency to leave early from games. This is really true if I take my wife along, but often neither of us needs much prompting to leave early.
When I lived in Georgia and went to weeknight games, I frequently left early. I lived an hour from the stadium and I didn't want to get home as late as midnight thanks to traffic. But I went to a lot of games back then. And when I've been traveling in Asia, sometimes the timing doesn't work out and I've arrived late, or had to leave early due to public transportation. On last year's Korea trip, I think I might have seen only one complete game out of the six that I attended.
Man you choose one heck of a great game to go to. That Ichiro deke is awesome and it's nice to see Aoki do some damage too :).
If there's a home game for a local minor league team and the day happens to end in y I usually go. I usually stay for the entire game (even if the date has already changed by the time I finally get home) because I want to get autographs after the game. I stopped going to major league games because I hate the atmosphere at major league parks (they're no fun zones).
I hate leaving early (I'd rather arrive late). I want to see how the game ends and more importantly take advantage of a less crowded stadium after all the impatient people (80-90% of the audience?) left.
I stay for the entire game always, win or lose, rain or shine!
I saw the post title and thought it was about me! Guess that means it's time to send you something. Stay tuned.
Leaving early is a crime, man.
I always let the person driving make that decision. Thankfully the people I go to games with never want to leave early. My free time is precious these days so if I'm going, I'm staying!
tony - i don't mind cold (even freezing) weather... but i can't stand the heat... if i'm baking in the sun and it's not a close game... i'm gone.
ryan - probably the #1 reason i'll leave a game early is the travel time. outside of sharks games... it takes me at least 45 minutes to come home from an a's or warriors game... and even longer for a giants game.
zippy - you make a great point about being around late in the game when some of the fans have left. but have you actually been to a game when 80% of the fans have left?
frankie - you're a better fan than i am. it really depends on the situation for me. too hot... i'm out. it's getting late and i need to work in the morning... i'm out. if the people i'm with need to go... i'm out. other than that... i'll usually stay the entire game 9 out of 10 times.
angels in order - lol. who knew that titles of post could translate into cards ;)
chop keeper - another great point. if i'm on vacation and going to an out of town game... i won't leave early.
night owl - bust out the handcuffs, because i'm a repeat offender. the good news is i stay the entire game 90% of the time.
matthew - yeah... i've been to games where i didn't drive and the driver wants to leave early. but going to a's games, i don't really have an excuse, b/c if i really wanted to stay, i could take BART.
MLB games, no.
MiLB games, yes. Especially on camp/school days and seemingly every group leaves the stadium in the seventh inning (poor kids, they always want to stay until the end), when games go beyond 9 innings, and when not too many people come in the first place (I question whether or not my local Yankees MiLB team regularly gets 100 people in attendance per game).
For me, an MLB game involves a 2-3 hour trip, which means I only go to Sunday day games and - DAMMIT! - I'm staying for the whole thing.
I see more minor league games than major league games. For those, I will stay the whole game if it's 9 innings, but start to waiver if it goes more than 10 innings. I'm always afraid that I'll miss a triple play or that a foul ball will fall right into my still-warm and empty seat.
Depends for me. When I saw the Yankees play the Rangers in Arlington in 2011, I left early since I had an international flight to catch and wanted to be sure I didn't miss it by getting caught in Dallas traffic. When I went to see the Yankees play in Kansas City in 2013, I stayed for the whole game in order to be sure and see Mariano Rivera in his final season. Luckily Kaufmann Stadium is really easy to get into and out of.
zippy - that's a shame. san jose giants games seem to have a pretty strong fanfare... although 9 out of 10 times I attend, they're merchant nights and the tickets are free. So maybe the only reason they're packed is b/c everyone had free tickets.
shlabotnikreport - if i drove 2 to 3 hours... i'd probably stay for the whole thing, because that's like a road trip to me.
carlsonjok - getting to see mariano pitch in his final season is definitely a reason to stay. very cool.
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