tons of biodegradable confetti

Kudos to the City and County of San Francisco for the great organization of yesterday's victory parade.

Neat lines, jumbotrons T Civic Center, confetti canons... there's nothing like the first bit this time around the parade was much less chaotic.

Thanks to Speedy, the greatest Giants fan I know, we nabbed a great vanatge point for the parade. We saw everything... the trophy, the players, and all the fun fluff. I even caught a Levi's t-shirt and saw one of the most recognizable ushers, Bernice. The darling woman didn't see anyone as she was talking on her phone on top of a bus but I knew it was her.

One more thing: Panda rocked orange pants!

Bernice on her phone,
probably calling her family...
"I'm in the parade!"

Buster and wifey...
but no twins! :(

Panda's car was last and they moved along too briskly...
but the pants are orange!

Bochy and trophy

Let's do it again? Done!

Buster Posey home run + Blanco and Pagan catch everything + Cain's dominant pitching + Affeldt strikes out 4 in the relief + Theriot finally gets a base hit + Crawford's sac bunt + ever-dependable Scutaro gets a base hit and RBI + Sergio Romo strikes out Triple Crown winner Miguel Cabrera = World Series title No. 2 for the best team for the best city and the best fans, the San Francisco Giants! And all done in a SWEEP!
Long formula, I know, but Civic Center is still popping with cars honking and people yelling and awesome tricked-out orange motorcycles. It's a warm night and I already know a lot of people are calling in sick tomorrow.

Huzzah!

Parade to follow this Wednesday on Halloween Day!

rhymes with orange?

Awesome. Winning. Best. These words don't rhyme with orange phonetically but right now in baseball, they're poetry.

Gazing at all of the Giants orange around me... got my wall of Giants, my orange jeans and nail polish, a colleague's neon orange kicks, and my ever-so-warm jacket. Not counting all of the orange bits on my desk (stadium cup, toy gun, etc.)

I wish there was a game today so I'd have some more winning to look forward to. Thank you Mad Bum, thank you Giants!

I totally need to marry an Italian man

Just so I could pig out on Italian Wedding Soup! This bowl from San Francisco Soup Company.

NLCS MVP Marco Scutaro seems to fit the bill... except he's Venezuelan, not Italian. And he's already married. What a deceptively Italianate surname that sureshot has.

Well good soup and great series. As Buster Posey said back at the Giants parade in 2010, "Let's do it again!"

 

 

Let's go Giants! Beating the odds like Lady Luck on crack! Ooh, I should go easy on this soup.

SF is VogelSTRONG!

Watching Ryan Vogelsong strikeout Daniel Descalso witb a bag of chocolage-covered potato chips.  Let's go Giants!

dogs on money

Hello, this is Soleil. As you can see I'm wearing a Giants jersey. That's because I love everything my human likes, and she's a big Giants fan.

You'll also notice that I'm at home instead of the game. This is not because I am a dog - at least I don't think that's the reason. It's because the prices for these post-season games are crazy! The face value to stand is in the ballpark of $68! Excuse me but that's a lot of steak I'm giving up. For $68 I need a steak, a chew toy, and a nice secure place to curl up.

So instead of going to the Game 1 of the NLCS, my human took the money and threw a viewing party. There was soda, beer, guacamole, garlic fries, mini tacos, tomato-mozzarella sticks, whoopie pies, and lots of chicken wings... I stole a lot of those. And on top of that, my human's friends brought other tasty treats.

The cost was well under $68, which means nothing to me since I am a dog but there you go!

The game was pretty amazing - I loved it when the Giants batted in 4 runs in one inning. But I wish they would've used the money my human saved to score a few more. I hate the Cardinals... well I think I hate all birds but I definitely hate the Cardinals!

say hello to my little friend

I may have missed the clinching game for an awesome baby shower but you knonw that the Giants were going to make it this year, regardless of who was at that game. Still, I know it would've been tons of fun to be there...

My Giants crew felt bad that I wasn't there but they couldn't find a single fan selling their Panda Gnome figure. So my co-worker and friend Gingy graciously presented me with his Panda Gnome.

I love the bubblegum detail... that's so Panda!

enter the panda

Last night's game was brutal. Extra innings again and despite hits by Scutaro, Buster, and Panda, the Giants lost to the D-backs.

But you know what? Not every city can claim Bruce Lee's hometown!

cue the ominous music

What a stressful game. Up by 4 in the 1st, then trailing by 3 in the 6th. The force may have ended up with the Giants but it took extra innings, base hits by the entire team, and a Jedi-worthy hit by Marco Scutaro to secure a victory over the D-backs.

My R2-D2 dress was well-received by everyone except the lady at concessions ("Who are you? Somebody get this girl some Star Wars fries!") And the Death Star baseball now sits at the front of my collection.

the hit streak

Redemption from last night's fiasco was earned as Madison Bumgarner led the Giants to a resounding 6-1 victory over the Nationals tonight. Madison completed the game and everyone played well... Melky, Buster, and Panda started off a hit streak in the eighth that gave the Giants they needed for a win. That's right, everyone got to bat in the eighth!

This is Buster Bunny's and my last game before Colombia, so it was extra sweet that it wasn't cold, that the $5 splash credit on my ticket worked, and that we won.

Go Giants!

do the robot

So I'm not a fantastic sewer, and the addition of a sewing machine didn't aid my endeavor to create an R2-D2 costume for Star Wars night at the ballpark. But don't think that I'm going to show up in plainclothes just yet.

I have returned to good ol' craft foam! I'm still sewing the patches onto the dress but now it's by hand instead of by machine. And for some reason, I'm just not that handy with machines.

Besides, foam is easier to cut than cotton cloth and naturally holds its shape. And... I got glitter foam! A short night's work produced these quick results.

R2-D2, here I come!

the world should come to the classiest ballpark in the States

San Francisco will be hosting the finals of the 2013 World Baseball Classic! I always wondered why MLB awarded a World Series to a team that only played in the contiuous 48 States and sometimes Toronto... then this little e-mail came along! Wish I'd known about the World Baseball Classic sooner.

Given the Giants' strong showing in the All-Star Game, can we expect to see some black and orange in Team USA?

U.S. VENUES FOR 2013 WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC ANNOUNCED AT&T Park Will Host Semi-Finals and Finals World Baseball Classic, Inc. today announced the United States venues for the 2013 World Baseball Classic, which will be played at sites throughout the world in March. San Francisco will make its debut as a host city for the World Baseball Classic, succeeding San Diego's PETCO Park (2006) and Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles (2009) as the host of the Semi-Finals and Finals. Miami's Marlins Park will be a second-round host venue, and the homes of the D-backs, Chase Field and Salt River Fields, will serve as host venues for the first round. International venues that will host 2013 World Baseball Classic games, pool composition and game dates will be announced in the weeks ahead. Complete coverage | World Baseball Classic

"healthy"

So says the team on what Madison Bumgarner's bobblehead would say if he could speak. The comment is in response to the Madison's favorite question "How are the cows doing?"

I am really impressed by how much this bobblehead resembles the young lefty. The detail on the scruff is fantastic, as is the signature pose for the star pitcher. Bobbleheads have come a long way!

But before I unwrapped the figure at home, my friends and I sweated in our seats as the Giants attempted a sweep against the Astros. All eyes were on perfect-game-Matt Cain as he led the Giants through two-thirds of the game. His pitching was good, but it could've been better.


The offense warmed up, even without everyone's favorite milkman Melky Cabrera. The team scored two runs in just the first inning and Buster hit 3 for 4 at-bats. Panda also stepped up to the plate and kept the crowd roaring with a double.

The game turned into a nail-biter in the 9th as Santiago Casillas allowed a runner on base. But we finally shut down the Astros and achieved a feat that impels grown men to wave brooms.

SWEEP!

Now if only it was just as easy to get rid of this minor sunburn... my foremarms and half of my forehead are a scandalous shade of red!

pack a light saber

I may have missed out last year but there is no way I'm not getting myself a death star baseball this fall... I'm going to Star Wars Night 2012 at AT&T Park! This Labor Day as the Giants take on the D-backs the crowd will revel in all their Jedi, Sith, Ewok, and cyborg greatness.

Tickets are on the expensive side... I'm not paying $55 to sit in the arcade. So it's back to the top deck for me!

But even though I paid a price that would normally cover my seat and my meal, I feel like I've done the right thing. Sounds silly, right? Well take a look at today's crossword theme...

Hands down one of the top five crossword themes ever!
So I missed 4 clues... help me out?

Star Wars Night, here I come!

And to sweeten the deal, today the Giants completed a historic shutout sweep of the Dodgers. It's a good day to be a Giants fan!

showstopper

If you thought last night's game was great... Matt Cain led the Giants to a 10-0 PERFECT GAME victory over the Houston Astros. Cain racked up 14 strikeouts (more free sausage!) Notable assits from Blanco, Arias, Belt, Posey for catching, and the whole team for scoring!

image courtesy of google image search

To top it off, this is the very first perfect game for the Giants, East Coast and West Side!

Not to rain on last night's hit parade but darn! Wish I'd been at this one!

it's tradition

For the past three years my baseball gang has just happened to choose Irish Heritage night for a June game at AT&T Park. The first year it just happened. The second year we were gunning (and got) a Brian Wilson Chia Pet. And this time? We were just looking for a game with cheap tickets on stubhub. Lo and behold, it's our third consecutive year at Irish Heritage night! Bring on the Riverdance and blonde children!

Besides the recurring Irish phenomenon, tonight's game was fun (so long as you're a Giants fan.) A few errors here and there made no difference. Starter Madison Bumgarner started the inning off strong with three strikeouts and continued to rack up the Ks. He also scored the first run for the Giants by means of a crowd-rousing solo home run. That must've shaken up Astros starter Bud Norris but you know what? I'll take another one of those anyday, Madison!

Bumgarner's home run was followed by a series of base hits that brought the Giants some insurance runs. We enjoyed all of this from our spiffy Arcade seats (though it was very windy that night!)

Madison struck out twelve! Then Sergio Romo took to the mound and added one more K to the wall...

You know what 13 Ks mean!

Free sausage!

Unfortunately, tonight's lucky level was the Club Level. Call me crazy but if you have the money to spend on club level seats, then you probably don't need free sausage.

Despite the sausage gaffe, things continued to turn up for the Giants as Brandon Belt scored his first splash hit with a mighty home run that soared over right field. My anemic Giants ended up winning with a jaw-dropping six runs!

Every birthday game should be like this!

new view

Muddy is moving away and we can't stop him (or haven't lashed him to a couch yet) so I decided to treat him to his last ballgame at AT&T Park on Tuesday's match against the Diamondbacks. Instead of the usual View Reserve seats on the top deck, I tried seats in a different area of the ballpark. I was thrilled with the view from these arcade seats, as you can tell...

Pre-game, the Coors Deck next to section 145 is pretty empty. The deck has fancy seats and heaters to keep people warm.

Even with my six year-old camera, I was able to get a few nice shots of Buster Posey stretching. That is how close I am!

I'm even closer to outfielder Gregor Blanco, who started out in right field that night. He ended up tossing a ball into the section I was sitting in, but due to my miscalculation and hands full of hot chocolate, neither I nor Muddy ended up with the ball. Maybe next time!

Buster at bat!

Vogelsong nabbed quite a few strikeouts.

Melky added two hits that night and ended up beating Willie Mays' record for the most hits by a Giant in May!

Giants ended up winning 3-1, I found a fabulous new place to watch games, and Muddy got a kick out of almost getting a game-used ball... If only I wasn't in the way!

p-p-p-panda!

Last Wednesday was Carnaval at AT&T Park and they could not have picked a foggier, windier, chillier night for this special event... but I have to give props to the Queen of Carnaval, who fearlessly samba-d in her bedazzled bikini despite the weather. Now if only the Giants had brought the same fierceness to the ballfield...

The Carnaval dancers and band played outside the Marina Gate...

... and right before the game.

But all is well because I have a new Chia Pet! Unfortunately it doesn't really resemble his panda daddy but this is a real Chia Pet, made of absorbent Terra Cotta. Maybe this time I can actually watch it grow (ahem Brian Wilson!)