A Fan's Perspective on the World Series

A Fan's World Series

Through a stroke of luck and some amazing family connections, I was given an opportunity to buy four seats to every Giant home game this post season. While I’m an avid fan I think I’ve seen more games this post season than I did during the entire regular season. The park is sold out every game and the market for post season tickets is crazy. Having playoff tickets does wonders for a guy’s popularity.

In the past week alone I’ve seen three amazing games. Each of these also managed to earn a slot in my top 10 games attended of all time. But after 3 games this week, I’m also exhausted and am ready to do some TV time over the weekend.

While I’ll leave the game reporting to the professionals, here are a few observations from one fan’s perspective.
When does it feel good to pay $60 to park the car? When the lot one block closer charges $120!
Security included back pack searches and metal detector wands. The crush of fans anxious to get into the park before the first pitch added a new word to the security strategy. The word was “cursory.”
Stub Hub has killed the scalping business. There are plenty of genuine tickets out there whose bar codes no longer work in the ticket taker’s scanners because the original ticket was already sold on Stub Hub.
Do not turn your nose up at those with standing room only seats. There was little to no sitting no matter how expensive your ticket.
It takes exactly 19 hours for one’s voice to recover after blowing it out yelling.
In playoff baseball every inning break is like the seventh inning stretch. Everyone was on their feet in every inning. The 43,000 of us all sang Shout along with Otis Day & the Knights during a pitching change setting the modern world records for decibels without the use of amplification.
There are two kinds of crazy fans. Those that care about being on TV and those that don’t.
There are two kinds of crazy fans. Those that like old fashion malts and those that opt for marshmallow and peanut butter Paninis.
The reason I know that the universe is curved is that the crowd was just as loud for the long ball (Sandoval’s 3 home runs) as the short ball (Blanco’s 20 foot bunt).
People will pay $5000 to sit close enough to get a TV view instead of watching it on TV for free.
When the fan in the stand looks at a pitcher and says, “he looks nervous” the truth is that he is on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
While I use the expression ‘sitting on the edge of my seat’ all the time, I don’t ever remember spending so much time literally sitting on the edge of my seat.
If you wear an opposing team’s jersey in a playoff game you need thick skin and an endearing personality and big smile. It helps if you are female as well.
Baseball games typically have lots of kids and families. When the cheapest ticket is going for over $400 a piece, there aren’t a lot of kids and families anymore. They probably sell more beer per capital as well if the men’s room line was any indication.
The rally rag is poorly designed…hard to twirl…bring back the foam finger.
Playoff baseball makes everyone nice and social. I’ve never talked to, smiled at, and high-fived so many strangers in my life.
The thrill of being there is a thrill that you can’t imagine by going to a regular season game.
For what World Series seats cost, fans in the stands should have full access to replays. Who cares if we boo the umpires. We boo them anyway.
There aren’t enough police on the San Francisco force to keep a stadium full of pedestrians on the sidewalk.
And finally, if you wonder how the massive underdog in the national press could win twice in a row, the answer is the fans.

Go Giants!

The Giants went on to sweep the Tigers in 4 games to earn their second World Series title in the past three years. We were able to attend Games 1 & 2 of the NLDS against the Reds, Games 1 & 7 against the Cardinals and Games 1 & 2 against the Tigers.

October 27, 2012