Blog

Short blog posts, journal entries, and random thoughts. Topics include a mix of personal and the world at large.

This is embarrassing

Today is one of the days I am glad my car has an automatic transmission. The day after running a 10K is not the time to be operating a car using both feet (as one must do in a vehicle with a manual gearbox). Not only did I run the 6.2 miles in the morning (freedom units!), but I also then walked another 13,000 steps in the afternoon, doing the usual photowalk in San Francisco’s Chinatown. My legs are a bit tired today, to say the least. Single-foot driving is definitely a luxury worth having. Long live the manual transmission, but these tired old legs prefer a car that can shift gears itself.

The day before the 10K run, I went to the Oakland Coliseum to watch baseball. The Los Angeles Angels was in town to face the Oakland Athletics, and that means the phenomenal Shohei Ohtani is also in town. While it’s sad he’s injured his elbow, and therefore won’t be pitching for (at least) the rest of the season, the two-way star is still serving duty with the bat as the Designated Hitter. Never one to pass up watching greatness in-person, we made the trip across the bay to Oakland.

And it was immediately clear that Ohtani is blockbuster in drawing a crowd. I’m fairly certain that half the people at the Coliseum was there to see him play. A sizable of number that continent was Japanese - some from here locally, some from Japan on travel. We were lined up at security behind a few Japanese travelers, and it was somewhat embarrassing to see them go through bag searches and metal detectors. Embarrassing for us Americans, and for America. Because back in their home country, security checks before entering a stadium is not a thing.

Crime is so low in Japan, and communal trust is so high, that people can freely go into sporting venues as if it’s a grocery store. I know this for a fact, because I’ve been to the Tokyo Dome to watch the Yomiuri Giants play. Meanwhile, here in the land of freedoms, we can’t even bring backpacks into venues now, because god forbid some maniac might sneak in something explosive. For a country that’s all about freedoms, the United States sure have a lot of movement restrictions. We ought to be embarrassed, honestly.

Island in the sun

What better way to spend the hottest day of the weekend than to attend a baseball game. It was like a sauna sitting out in the afternoon sun. I can feel the perspirations forming on my head, dripping down the back of my neck through the stands of my hair (which in itself had a strange cooling effect). There’s no avoiding the sweaty and the uncomfortable when the sun is beating down on you like that. You just have to bear through it, making sure to have the appropriate sun protection.

Because the point is to watch a baseball game! Granted I’ve definitely got enough vitamin D to last me a week.

Did you hear the Oakland Athletics team is leaving Oakland for Las Vegas? It looks to be a done deal ever since the Nevada legislature approved a boatload of public money for a baseball stadium on the famous Las Vegas strip. For a Bay Area native, it’s sad to see yet another Oakland team leave (first went the football Raiders, also to Las Vegas). At least the Warriors only moved across the bay to San Francisco. As it stands, in a few years’ time there won’t be any major sports franchises in Oakland. The fans there deserve so much better.

Be that as it may, if we want to see the Oakland A’s at the Oakland Coliseum, then time is going to run out on that. My friend and I have never been to the Coliseum, so we figured this past Sunday was as good a time as any to do so. The San Francisco Giants - our local team - was in town from across the Bay Bridge for a series, so it’s kind of like killing two birds with one stone. The Coliseum is super easy to get to from San Francisco: park at Daly City BART station, then take either the Dublin-Pleasanton or Berryessa line eastbound. Get off at the Oakland Airport station, then it’s a short walk to the stadium.

The Oakland Coliseum is a decent stadium. Sure it’s really old by modern standards, but the amenities are all there. Improvements can be had, but I would say it’s not integral to the overall baseball-watching experience. I can see why the owners of the A’s would want a new stadium, though: to attract more than just baseball. Across town, Oracle Park - home of the Giants - play host to all sorts of other events such as soccer and concerts. That is revenue that the A’s do not see from the Coliseum, and presumable will from the new stadium in Las Vegas.

Still, sucks for the fans in Oakland.

Day game after a night game

On Saturday I went to an afternoon baseball game. The first time doing so with this season’s new pace-of-play rules (namely, the pitch clock). Awhile back I attended a night game, and I have to say it is nice to have a nine inning game be done in about two and a half hours. You can get home in a reasonable time and not be too effected for the work day following (unless you’re a complete night owl.) So how does the pitch clock affect going to a day game on a leisurely weekend afternoon?

Much like the night game, it still feels bizarre that a baseball match can go by so quickly. You sit down, eat your food, and boom, it’s the fourth inning already. We use to be able to fit in whole conversations in between pitches. With the new rules, you miss a whole lot of action when your attention is occupied away just for a few moments. Keep that smartphone in your pocket because there isn’t time to go on social media.

I have to say, for a day game on a weekend, I actually wouldn’t mind sitting at the (beautiful) ballpark for a little longer. The particular game we went to was completed in two hours and 16 minutes. It definitely felt rushed because we were in no hurry to get home. Obviously, MLB isn’t going to adjust the pace-of-play rules for games played on different days of the week. For now, my short verdict is: great for weekday night games, not so great for weekend afternoon.

With the shortened game times, I bet the food vendors are making less money than last season (controlling for attendance). Fans are less inclined to go for a second round of food when by that time the match is already over. When games are shortening by half an hour (let’s say), there’s that half hour less opportunity to sell food. Basic, right? Though, perhaps I’m underestimating the gluttony of the typical American baseball fan.

First of the 2023 season

Yesterday I attended my first Giants baseball game of the season. It’s been a while since I’ve stepped foot in Oracle Park for baseball-related activities. The last time I was there was for the annual 10K run last, I want to say, September? Coming out of the pandemic, attending baseball games is so far down the list of favored activities that it may as well have disappeared entirely. Of course it doesn’t help the Giants hasn’t been doing well. Who wants to sit in the San Francisco cold for three hours watching a mediocre product? Not a lot of people.

But when your friend is in town from New York City and asks if you’re free at short notice to go to a game, I had to oblige. Besides, this season the league have implemented a pitch clock (and various rule changes to promote a faster game). Basically the pitcher have a limited amount of time to throw the next pitch. The batter likewise have to be ready in the box to receive. Games that used take more than three hours to play the full nine innings have now been finishing in just two and a half. We can now go to an evening game and still get home before 10:00 PM!

And indeed the game last night felt like it went by super quickly. I was actually surprised when the 7th inning stretch arrived. The game that started at 6:45 PM was over well before 9:30 PM. Say what you want about putting a clock on the game without a clock, but on first experience, I quite like the new rules. The game felt natural to watch as it did before. Hitters and pitchers have obviously adjusted to the new speedier pace. Those of us watching can no longer fit in whole conversations in between each pitch.

It was a sparse crowd for a Tuesday evening game against the St. Louis Cardinals. So sparse that they didn’t even bother announcing the attendance figure. That said, heading to the park on 280 northbound is as congested as it ever was once you get near the ballpark. I did the usual and parked near the Hall of Justice (free street parking, naturally), then walked the 10 minutes to Oracle Park on 3rd and King. That part of the Giants baseball experience has not changed in a decade plus.

Baseball is back!

The 2022 Major League Baseball season has begun in earnest this past weekend. It’s just nice to tune into a Giants game on the television during a lazy weekend afternoon. The YouTube TV package includes the local NBC Sports channel that carries the Giants broadcast, so I am setup for the whole season. No more diving into the depths of Reddit to find that one sketchy streaming channel. Completely illegal, obviously. What’s the statute of limitations on that sort of stuff again?

I also get my Formula One broadcast in legit fashion now. YouTube TV carries the entire ESPN family of channels, home to F1 in America. The NBC family of channels carry English Premier League, so I’m truly made in terms of sports I like to have on in the background while I do something else. Sports that I use to have to access via the aforementioned Reddit.

At $65 dollars a month, YouTube TV is expensively priced like a cable subscription. I would never pay for that by my lonesome - otherwise what’s the point of “cutting the cord”? Thanks to family sharing, we are able to split that cost four ways. $16 dollars per month is far more palatable, and an absolute bargain for how much channels are included (70+). Of course, a de-facto prerequisite is having unlimited home internet. The typical 1 terabyte per month data caps simply won’t cut it: one hour of 4K streaming uses about 20 gigabytes. 50 hours of 4K and you’re already at the limit.

So after a historic 107-win regular season last year, what are my expectations of for the 2022 Giants? I predict a team of feisty dogs that grind out games. This is not a team of marquee names and big-time contracts. But the sum of all the parts will be highly competitive game in and game out. Well worth having on the TV in the background!

It’s the most, wonderful time, of the year.

Back to live baseball

This is the short story of how I attended my first live baseball game in almost two years.

My friend and I were traveling in Los Angeles. We had a day in the schedule to basically do whatever. Turns out our hometown team the San Francisco Giants were playing a series agains the Los Angeles Angels in Anaheim. It’s a sort of goal of mine to visit as many baseball stadiums around the country as possible. This seemed like the perfect opportunity to tick off Angels Stadium, and get to watch the Giants play.

Coincidently, two-way phenom Shohei Ohtani was scheduled to pitch on that Wednesday. This kid is straight out the wildest create-a-player fantasies in video game land. Not only can he throw an 100 MPH fastball along with one of the best splitters in the game, but he is also one of the best sluggers in baseball. As of this writing, Ohtani leads the major leagues in home runs. This guy is once-in-a-lifetime special.

Needless to say we jumped at the chance to see our team play and Ohtani pitch. But there’s a problem: the game is in Anaheim, which is rather far from where we were staying in Koreatown - especially when we don’t have a car. Luckily, there’s a local train that takes us right to the Angels Stadium doorsteps. We just have to get an UBER to LA’s Union Station. Imagine that, taking a train to go do stuff in America.

Of course, going to Anaheim and back, plus the game itself, consumed our entire day. That’s okay, because we’re on vacation and we built in that slack in the schedule on purpose. The game itself was spectacular: a five-hour, extra-innings thriller. The Giants persevered, even though Ohtani pitched supremely well, finishing six innings for a quality start. That’s about the best outcome we could’ve asked for.

It felt great to be back in a baseball stadium, taking in a game. God bless the people who got us the COVID vaccine so quickly.

Baseball is truly back

Baseball has been back for about two weeks now, and the games are something nice to keep on in the background while I go about other tasks. I can’t say I follow the San Francisco Giants like I used to, but I will always root for them to do well. The days of spending three hours a day watching baseball is truly over, and that’s been the case even before the pandemic.

It feels as if there weren’t any baseball last year at all, though obviously the league did manage to hold a 60 game season late in the year, and the Los Angeles Dodgers are the World Series champion of 2020. An asterisk on them not because the team isn’t deserving, but to mark the year of the pandemic, where everything turned weird. Watching baseball on TV with no crowds in attendance is thoroughly unexciting, which is why I did very little of it last season.

With America doing a fantastic job of vaccinating its population, fans are once again allowed back into the stadiums. The ebb and flow of the crowd’s emotions throughout the game has been sorely missed. The cheers when the team scores, or the groans when the umpire misses a crucial call. These elements are essential to baseball, even though they don’t directly affect the outcome of a game one bit.

And it is the return of the fans in the stands that I am now happy to keep baseball on in the background. So that I can hear when something happens, good or bad, because the crowd noise will alert me to it. It’s also nice to watch an inning or two when I’m taking a break from whatever I am doing. Best of all, it’s good to see kids in attendance being given caught foul balls. That’s the magic of baseball that you don’t get from other sports: a souvenir and a memory to last a lifetime.