It
was the first baseball game of the year at AT&T Park last Thursday and I
was there! Of course, it was just a meaningless spring exposition game between
the Giants and Athletics but, hey, we fans need our spring training games, too!
I need to get my lungs in shape. So I arrived at the park when I usually do;
during batting practice just after the gates were opened to the public. There,
I saw this guy (below) sitting in the bleachers wearing a Giants Hawaiian shirt
shooting a monologue with his video crew. I don’t know who he was or what his
schtick is but I’ll keep an eye out for him in the future. Maybe he’s filming a
videography of the Giants’ 2010 season?

This
chilly day turned even colder as evening fell but I was well prepared with my
long underwear and gloves. I also got a chance to try out my new long range
“ultra-zoom” Olympus camera though I later found out that I need to keep the
camera very still when clicking long distances at night. But I did take a
couple good shots crowd close-ups and such. I’ll be able to bring intimate pics
of the bleacher creatures to you, my blog fans, throughout this season. I can
here your twitters of acute anticipation as I type this. Here are my two best
Olympus shots:

As
for the game itself, it was entirely forgettable. Barry Zito set down
the first two A’s in the first inning but then walked rightfielder Ryan
Sweeney on a full count and, after falling behind third baseman Kevin
Kouzmanoff on a 2-0 count, Barry grooved a pitch that Kevin sent far over Nate
Schierholtz and careening off the rightfield wall for a run-scoring double.
Not to repeat that mistake, Barry then started catcher Kurt Suzuki off
with two quick strikes before hanging a belt-high slider that Kurt turned
around in a hurry for a two run homer. And that right there, boys and girls,
was pretty much the ballgame in a nutshell.

That’s
because Justin Duchscherer set down 15 out of the first 17 Giants he
faced. Catcher Benji Molina worked a four-pitch walk with two outs in
the second inning. And Justin’s potential no-hitter finally went by the boards
in the fourth inning when third baseman Pablo Sandoval punched a single
into leftfield but then he was picked off five pitches later when Kurt
Suzuki threw behind him with first baseman Daric Barton applying the
tag. First baseman Aubrey Huff promptly ended the inning on the next
pitch with a ground out to second base.

The
Giants’ only real threat of the game arose in the sixth inning when John
Bowker pinch hit a one-out double off of Justin Duchscherer followed
by a two-out single by shortstop Edgar Renteria and a walk to Pablo
Sandoval. But it all went for naught when Aubrey Huff grounded out
to Mark Ellis at second base again. Meanwhile, the A’s scored two more
runs off of Barry Zito in the third inning when centerfielder Coco
Crisp and leftfielder Rajai Davis led off the inning with a double
and single, respectively, and came around to score two batters latter. Nor did
rookie Kevin Pucetas help matters when he allowed three more A’s runs in
the fifth inning with a one-out hit by Kurt Suzuki, a four-pitch walk to
Daric Barton, an eight-pitch single by Mark Ellis, and capped by
a two-out single by Coco Crisp that drove Kevin Pucetas to the
showers to wash the stench of an 8-0 lopsided score all happening before
most of the Giants batters even had their second turns at bat. Yech!

After
that, the game was properly punctuated by the invasion of a ravenous flock of
seagulls circling around the stadium against the night sky and landing en masse
in the bleachers to feed. These birds waited all winter for the return of their
summer-long human leftover food buffet and I swear I could almost see them
smiling! So with the Giants losing 9-0 on a cold spring night by the bay, this
game truly belonged to the birds. It was April Fools on us Giants fans this
night. But I am eagerly looking forward for this season to finally begin. Go
Giants!