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Oakland!
Back in the bay. Yesterday was work and stuff. I'm staying at Jenny and Phil's place this week. I got here at like 11:30 last night and felt bad about getting here so late, except Phil's Magic the Gathering stuff was still going on, and infact, we ended up staying awake talking to one of their friends until like 2am anyway.
Today I made Phil go with me to the Orioles-A's game at the Oakland Coliseum. I hadn't been there in years and years and this looked like the best time to go, honestly (and Phil's a big Orioles fan). I was a little sad that Koji Uehara got traded a few weeks ago, but it's ok. We met at the park at 6:45, and got tickets... it's insane that ALL THE TICKETS ARE CHEAP! Relatively. I mean, I spent $50 for those upper-deck seats at AT&T Park, right? well, Phil and I got seats about 10 rows behind home plate for $35. Yeah.
The game was pretty good too, but the most surreal thing really is how the A's stadium is like... almost like glorified minor league. In a good way. There were 12,000 people there (Phil was like "I can't believe we get to sit this close for a major league game!") and what was nuts is, EVERYONE ACTUALLY SEEMED TO WANT TO WATCH BASEBALL! There was no gimmicky crap between innings for the most part, there's no playground for children or bar for adults, etc, it's just "come here and watch baseball". That's so cool. Part of what I hate about so many other places is how it's like "come to the park to [do this other thing that is not baseball, such as eat, drink, watch fireworks, see a band, enjoy gimmicks, be a hipster, etc]".
Also there is an ouendan!!!! It's not a serious all-the-time one like in Japan, but they have drums and some kinda horn thing, and they sit in the RF bleachers and do cheers sometimes, AND they put up signs and stuff for Hideki Matsui (apparently it's called "Matsuiland" and embraces some Japanese ouen traditions, and came up from the Angels).
Seriously, if I do end up moving to the Bay Area, I'm going to start going to A's games, dammit. Screw the Giants and their stupid legions of hipster San Francisco fans.
The A's beat the Orioles 8-4.. it really was overall a pretty good game. I got a gratuitous Tokyo Big 6 photo to go with my other ones afterwards:
And I stopped in at the team store and got a Matsui shirt (not a standard one. I wanted a Kurt Suzuki one but they didn't make the shirt style I liked with Suzuki's name/number).
Phil had driven there, so he drove back here. I should sleep.
Today I made Phil go with me to the Orioles-A's game at the Oakland Coliseum. I hadn't been there in years and years and this looked like the best time to go, honestly (and Phil's a big Orioles fan). I was a little sad that Koji Uehara got traded a few weeks ago, but it's ok. We met at the park at 6:45, and got tickets... it's insane that ALL THE TICKETS ARE CHEAP! Relatively. I mean, I spent $50 for those upper-deck seats at AT&T Park, right? well, Phil and I got seats about 10 rows behind home plate for $35. Yeah.
The game was pretty good too, but the most surreal thing really is how the A's stadium is like... almost like glorified minor league. In a good way. There were 12,000 people there (Phil was like "I can't believe we get to sit this close for a major league game!") and what was nuts is, EVERYONE ACTUALLY SEEMED TO WANT TO WATCH BASEBALL! There was no gimmicky crap between innings for the most part, there's no playground for children or bar for adults, etc, it's just "come here and watch baseball". That's so cool. Part of what I hate about so many other places is how it's like "come to the park to [do this other thing that is not baseball, such as eat, drink, watch fireworks, see a band, enjoy gimmicks, be a hipster, etc]".
Also there is an ouendan!!!! It's not a serious all-the-time one like in Japan, but they have drums and some kinda horn thing, and they sit in the RF bleachers and do cheers sometimes, AND they put up signs and stuff for Hideki Matsui (apparently it's called "Matsuiland" and embraces some Japanese ouen traditions, and came up from the Angels).
Seriously, if I do end up moving to the Bay Area, I'm going to start going to A's games, dammit. Screw the Giants and their stupid legions of hipster San Francisco fans.
The A's beat the Orioles 8-4.. it really was overall a pretty good game. I got a gratuitous Tokyo Big 6 photo to go with my other ones afterwards:
And I stopped in at the team store and got a Matsui shirt (not a standard one. I wanted a Kurt Suzuki one but they didn't make the shirt style I liked with Suzuki's name/number).
Phil had driven there, so he drove back here. I should sleep.