My third addition to the baseball collection from this trip. We picked this ball up on the day we arrived as it was a supply, and shopping day. I would see other baseball's in the park, but this one with the year on it was the only ball I had any interest in.
On Wednesday came the planned baseball game at Petco Park. This is the one baseball game I was looking forward to more than any other we will do all season. Despite not being a fan of either the Padres or Braves. There was just something about this field that made me want to see it. Leaving early, and arriving as usual which is well before game time. Our first goal was to get our tickets for the game before anything else. Once purchased we made our way to the centerfield area which opens well before the main gates. With time to kill before the main part of the stadium opened I made my way into the team shop, and got me a few goodies.
Another addition to the baseball collection. I had a tough time deciding on which ball to get as they had a few cool ones, but in the end this ball won out. My daughter thought another glow in the dark ball would be awesome so I got it.After the shopping we took the wife to our seats before the daughter, and myself started our tour of the stadium.
This is the view from our seats. We chose these as the wife wanted seats that would be in the shade if the sun came out. The crazy thing is we could have used some sun that day. It was chilly the entire game, so chilly the daughter brought a blanket with her. She sat bundled up in it the entire game. Even shared it with me later on in the game as it just never warmed up. Got to share a funny story about her, and the blanket. A cameraman walked by, and saw her all bundled up like it was the dead of winter. He made fun of her for a few seconds before the camera came on, and put her on the big screen. She gave him back the look of why are you doing this to me. Not sure if it was on the game feed or not, but it was pretty funny stuff.As for the other views from the stadium on our pregame tour.
The Gwynn statue was something I wanted to see, but forgot about, and missed on our initial walking around the centerfield area. We were coming down from the second level to head back towards our seats when I remembered it, and wanted to search it out. While taking pictures an employee told us Gwynn was over at the wiffle-ball field doing an instructional for the television crowd. We walked over as they were wrapping it up.
This last picture is an aircraft carrier model they have in the right field area. It had some interesting information as you can see in the picture. We were running real close to game-time so I didn't get to read much of it.
My thoughts on the stadium. The outside was real bland, and could have used some imagination. The inside of the stadium was everything I had hoped for, and more. The aircraft carrier is a cool tribute to the Navy influence in the area. A nice surprise that I didn't know existed until visiting the stadium. So stadium wise I was completely satisfied. The part that I hated most, and would discourage me from a future visit. Leaving the stadium was a total pain in the butt. The people guiding traffic just stood there doing nothing, and basically let the traffic guide itself. Everything went down a road taking you into a residential area, and then left you hanging. We were forced to use our phone navigation app to find our way back to the freeway.
On Thursday we ran into a guy who lives in San Diego, and we got talking about the game. Our conversation moved onto about how the leaving thing went. He told me that the Padres fans absolutely hate the way they do exiting the stadium. I guess they just built the stadium, and gave no thought on how to get all those people out of the area. It's a real nightmare for people like us who aren't from the area. In the end though I am so glad we were able to knock Petco Park off the list of stadiums we have visited.
I remember having a harder time getting down to the stadium. It was only a short distance but it seemed to take forever.
ReplyDelete