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Bay Area Baseball Dilemma

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I?m a Dodgers fan first, A?s fan second. Two of my best friends happen to be Angels fans don?t respect that because, after all, I grew up fairly close to the Angels and went to many Angels games growing up. But I was never a huge fan, largely because I bleed Dodger blue. My first memories of baseball were parking at the LAPD police academy and walking with my dad through Chavez Ravine. I remember watching Fernando Valenzuela playing catch with Vin Scully from the broadcast booth before the game, I remember buying peanuts from the same guy every game, and for some reason, I thought Steve Sax was just the greatest ball player on earth. I remember watching the epic Mets v. Dodgers NLCS 1988, and, of course, Kirk Gibson?s miraculous homerun off Dennis Eckersley in the World Series. I continued to go to Dodger games in my adolescence and teenage years. When I got married, my wife thought the going to a Dodger game was the most romantic date I could take her on, which is largely why I married her. I was dismayed when News Corps bought the team and I?m not a big Frank McCourt guy, but no matter who owns the team, Dodger Stadium will always be the baseball Mecca for me.

So my love for the Dodgers kind of led me to be apathetic about the Angels growing up. In 2004, Joe lent me Moneyball and I developed an admiration for the A?s. The A?s are a small market, low budget team which is consistently out moneyed by the Yankees, Red Sox, and Angels. Whenever the latter teams have wholes in their team, they can just spend big coin on Alex Rodriguez, Curt Schilling or Vladimir ?The Impaler? Guerrero to help bridge the gap. The A?s have to rely solely on their farm system and signing free agents that no one else wants. They?re the classic under dog and despite their monetary short comings, they are consistently competitive.

So when I moved to the Bay Area for law school, I knew that I would not become a Giants fan (my Dodger heritage wouldn?t allow it) and I knew that I would officially become an A?s fan. Why not? No other American League team had my affection and it made geographic sense. So I root for the A?s. And I think my affection is understandable. The problem, however, with being an A?s fan is that actually going to an A?s game sucks. The traffic getting to Oakland from San Jose on a game night is almost 405 freeway bad. Once you get there, you have to pay $14 to park (or at least you did last season). Once, when I didn?t have cash, I tried to find an ATM somewhere around the stadium, which is a demilitarized zone. The stadium is horrible. It?s a football stadium first (it?s where the Raiders play), it?s old, cold, stinks and even in a pennant race, is perpetually half empty despite being small to begin with and with a freakin? tarp on the upper deck to boot. My wife does not find an A?s game to particularly romantic.

So what?s the dilemma? Well AT&T park is closer and one of the best parks in all of baseball. And the hated Giants play there. My wife enjoys going to Giants games and has begged me to get her a Giants jersey because she likes the colors. I had to explain to her that she couldn?t be both a Giants and Dodgers fan at the same time, and she begrudgingly withdrew her request (she?s a big fan of the cream.)

So it looks like I?m facing a baseball season of going to a lot of Giants games and not too many A's games. Outside of watching a team I?ve always rooted against, it is a better overall baseball experience and I guess, at this point, that?s more important.

Full post as published by SoapBox Law on March 31, 2008 (boomark / email).