Pics here.

First business of the day, after showering, etc, was figuring out which Giants jersey to wear.  I was leaning toward the orange soccer-style pullover, since it was Friday, but I didn’t think they would do Orange Friday on Opening Day, and Glenn pointed out that they usually only do that for night games.  So I opted for the cream home jersey that my brother got me the year the new park opened.

As I finished packing my trusty JackSack messenger bag, Glenn arrived, a little after 9am.  He mentioned how cold it was, even though the sun was out.  I grabbed my heavy black coat, and we were off to the train station.  No way we were gonna mess with parking on opening day, after the experience during the playoff game that we went to last year.

The train arrived a minute or two late, and about 10 minutes later we were in China Basin, a block or so from the ballpark.  A quick stop at the ATM for both of us, and we were off to eat.  We stopped in front of AT&T Park to check out the World Series plaque that they added.  Glenn asked a worker to take our picture with the plaque, and he gladly did so with both our cameras.

We then trekked to Red’s Java House, a favorite of mine, and where Glenn had never been to.  The line was out the door, but we waited patiently.  We noticed most folks were ordering breakfast items, but we were hungry for burgers.  We even noticed that folks were waiting a LONG time for breakfast, but burgers were served pretty quickly.

So I ordered my usual double cheeseburger and fries, with a diet Coke (no Pepsi here).  I remembered that it was fish Friday, but it was Opening Day, and God’s a Giants fan.

Faster than even I expected, Glenn and I had our food.  We then began to hear others complain that they had been waiting much longer and had not gotten their orders.  Turns out that a stack of orders had been placed under some plates that the chefs didn’t see.  Whoops.

After chowing down on the burgers and fries we walked back to the ballpark.  On the way back we chugged a couple of free sample Monster Energy Drinks, with I think helped us stay alert through the game (more on that later, heh).

The atmosphere around the stadium was festive, and it felt much like it did back in November, after the World Series victory and during the parade.  We walked over to the Giants dugout store, which had a line, but it moved pretty quickly.  Before we got in, Renel had stopped in front of the line on her way into the ballpark, and she talked with some fans and took pictures with them.  I was too slow with the camera to get any pictures of her.  Once inside we heard the people ahead of us talking about Renel, and one of the guys said, “She smelled nice!”  Glenn and I just chuckled.

“That’s my catchphrase of the day,” Glenn said.

This was Glenn’s first chance to buy some World Series merchandise, having been too busy to visit the Dugout store since last year.  After some browsing I stood by the stairs as Glenn went to pay for his stuff.  The lines were expectedly long, so it took a little longer than usual.

As I waited, my cousin Rich, his girlfriend Crystal and another friend spotted me and stopped to talk.  I love seeing my family at the ballgames, as their enthusiasm and love for the Giants is infectious, especially with Rich, as he’s the only one other than my brother-in-law Rubin that has worked for the Giants during ballgames.

Purchases bagged and slung under his arm, Glenn and I parted company with my cousin’s group, and headed back out to the front gate.  We walked inside, got our calendars (yay!) and went up the escalator.  This was around the time when I felt that it didn’t feel like Opening Day, but rather a continuation of the celebration since November 1st of last year.

We took the sweeping tour around the main level of the ballpark, snapping photos, maneuvering around the occasional bunch of people, and checking food prices for the year.  Crab sandwich: up 50 cents to $15.50; Cha-cha bowl is STILL $9.75!

We also noticed that there were some new awards plaques up around the Coca Cola Family Area, like two Cy Young plaques for Tim Lincecum, and some Rookie of the Year plaques.  Don’t recall those being up there last season.

We headed up to View level, which is when my left calf began to feel like it was going to cramp up.  It didn’t, but the sensation surprised me, considering how much walking I did last weekend at WonderCon when I wasn’t in the Ballroom on Saturday and Sunday.  Getting old sucks. :p

We found a souvenir vendor at the top of the ramps, just setting up shop.  I decided to pick up my Opening Day t-shirt there, since there was no crowd to fight through.

We finally made it to our seats.  I pulled out my big camera and started taking pictures of the new logos and stuff around the field.  I switched to the zoom lens for the rest of the game.  Pregame stuff was still being set up, and there was a pedestal in front of the Giants dugout, where a guy in a suit and gloves (yak hair, maybe) placed the World Series trophy, which was wrapped in a light blue dust cover.

The pregame ceremony began with the introduction of the visiting team, the St. Louis Cardinals.  Two familiar faces came out first, Jose Oquendo and Mark McGwire, and then the rest of the team, the starters, and manager Tony La Russa.

A stage was set up behind the pitcher’s mound, and Train come out to sing “Save Me San Francisco”.  As the song ended, the centerfield wall opened up and out came the 2011 San Francisco Giants.  Introductions started with the batboys, and then Clubhouse manager Mike Murphy was introduced, then the coaches, the non-starters, and finally Bruce Bochy and the starting lineup.

A giant flag was unfurled as Pat Monahan of Train sang the National Anthem, followed by the traditional F-18 flyby.  Next came a short presentation of the last pitched ball from the World Series by Brian Wilson to James Sammet, a season ticket holder since 1958.  Another presentation with Cody Ross and Tim Lincecum.

Next was the first pitch by the entire team, but not before recognizing Bryan Stow, the Giants fan and paramedic who was beaten after Opening Day in Los Angeles, and is currently in a coma with a skull fracture and brain damage.  Matt Cain, the longest tenured Giant, pitched to manager Bruce Bochy.

Then came the moment we were waiting for.  The team lined up along the 3rd base line again, and out of the dugout came Willie Mays, bearing the World Series Championship banner.  He handed it to Bochy, who then passed it to the line, and every member passed it down the line, eventually to Brian Wilson.

Wilson took the banner and sprinted across the outfield, up some stairs into the bleachers, and over to the flag stand.  He helped attached the banner, and then hoisted it up the pole.  By now my eyes were quite teary, happily watching the banner raised to the top of the pole, and it really did finally, ultimately sink in.

The San Francisco Giants won the 2010 World Series.  Wow.

Oh yeah, we remembered, there was still a game to play.

And what a game. A homer from ‘Michael’ Tejada, an RBI by Freddie Sanchez, a homer from Pat Burrell, a lead going into the ninth inning.

Much like last year, the Giants fans went through another round of torture, thanks to the home plate umpire and his questionable calls in the top of the ninth.  The Cardinals took the lead, but the Giants tied it in the bottom of the ninth.

Free baseball!  Woohoo!

By the 11th inning, Glenn noted that he was glad that he had the double cheeseburger from Red’s and I said that the Monster Energy Drinks helped keep us up, too.

This was the also the inning where the strangest defensive move I had ever seen happened.  With the winning run on 3rd and no outs, Tony La Russa pulled in one of his outfielders to play infield, and with 5 infielders and 2 outfielders, the Giants failed to score the winning run.  This is why La Russa is considered a genius.

The Giants finally won in 12 innings, and Glenn and I were simply spent.  Hands down the best Opening Day game that I’ve ever seen.

On the way out I checked the CalTrain schedule.  It was too late for us to catch the train about to leave, and the next train wasn’t scheduled to leave for another hour.  After weighing out options, we decided to take the T-line back out to Glenn’s car.  Long as the ride was, it was still faster than waiting for the next CalTrain.

We got back to my place in time to watch the pregame stuff again on TV.  We were too tired to go eat or watch anything else, so after showing Glenn what the Roku Box could do (including trying to watch an episode of Dark Side Cat on Crunchyroll, eeek), we just sat around and talked, catching up with stuff.

Glenn left a while later, and after uploading my Opening Day pictures (almost 200!) online, I went to bed, left it on KNBR for the midnight replay of the game, and fell asleep.

A good day.