28 Mar 2019 - Padres vs Giants Baseball Game

28 Mar 2019
Beautiful day today.  About 1030 hrs we headed to the Green Line trolley and started our adventure down to Petco Park where the San Diego Padres will host the San Francisco Giants today at 1310 hrs.

The trolley station and people lining up to board 

The trolley station was much busier today as predicated, but as far out as we are, it was not too bad.  We both got seats.  The closer we got to the Gaslamp Station closest to Petco Park, the trolley filled.  A few stations out and there was no room for anyone.  The BTU production of the passengers caused the trolley to become very 'close' also!!

We arrived at the station and headed to Petco Park.  The whole area was abuzz.  This is opening day and the ball game is sold out.  People likely were calling in sick today or taking leave to be here.  Spring Break may be occurring today as there are a lot of children here also.

The Navy Seamen lined up to be a part of the opening day ceremonies

As we turned the corner to head towards the Team Store, all we could see for a block were Navy Seamen.  We would find out later they are here to be a part of the National Anthem ceremony to hold a huge US Flag horizontally on the field.

We passed through security and headed into the Team Store since that is where the rubber stamp for Doreen's MLB Stadium Passport book was supposed to be located.  We were told it would be at the counter where you check out of the store.  There must have been over 100 people in line with Padre's team items, clothing, hats and other items, and they were all waiting patiently to pay.  Ugh!  We got a hold of one of the employees and luckily the stamp was located on a separate table away from the checkout area!  So we stamped her book and were on our way quickly.

Our seats in the nosebleed section LOL

Our seats are in section 316, shown above.  The closer you get to the field, and the closer you get to home plate, the price goes up.  The seats behind home plate are several hundred dollars each.  We are not necessarily Padres or Giants fans, attending more just to experience a game here at Petco, so I did not want to spend a bunch of money on seats.  In section 316 where we were, I think our seats were about $50 each.  Even that is too much, but it is what it is!

We took the escalator up to the third deck and then had lunch.  I am trying to sample a hotdog at each stadium and then rating them, just for fun.  For quite a while, Cincinnati was the winner, but when we attended Spring Training at Sloan Park, they took the prize.  So I had a hotdog here and Doreen had a hamburger from Hodad's.  The hotdog was mediocre at best.  They were pre-packaged in foil, so mine was luke warm.  The bun was soggy and they had a very limited selection of condiments.  Not good!  Doreen's hamburger was really good. We had a great view from up here.

Game attendees lined up on the skywalk from the hotel waiting to get into the park.

Seamen lined up to enter.

Being goofy, sharing a soda in our Cubs shirts and hats

What the heck is a llama doing up here???  I guess it is 'Petco' Park.  Did not know it was 'take your pet to the game day'!

 We finished up our lunch and made our way up to section 316 only to find our seats occupied.  A family had read the signs wrong and were in the wrong section.  No problem!  The view from up here is really good but everyone looks like ants LOL!

The field is manicured.  

The Giants have been introduced on the third base line

Look at all the people out in the 'Park in the Park' grassy area outside the outfield.

SD for San Diego mowed into the outfield grass

You can see how high we are sitting - the very top section

From Doreen's selfie you can see how close we were to the very tip top!

Not many rows between us and the top.

The Padre's mascot, the 'Swinging Friar' entertaining the crowd and the
Padres players lined up on first base line.

The field is decorated nicely!

The Seamen lined up with the flag ready to deploy

Getting ready to deploy the flag

 

The National Anthem was beautiful, then it was game time.

 

Newly acquired Manny Machado playing third base

       

The line-up's for both teams

The first pitch of the season (hopefully this video will play)

We stayed until the bottom of the 6th and from the roar of the crowd as we were headed down the ramp we could tell they had hit another home run!  The Padres played a great game and won 2-0.  The trip back on the trolley was not crowded, but it would have been if we would have waited until the end of the game.  We are really glad we were able to tour Petco Park and then see a game there.  We plan to do the same thing at both the Anaheim Angels and the Los Angeles Dodgers.