4th Of July Baseball Game

Hello Blog Readers,

It is Saturday, the 4th of July over here in San Francisco. We went to the baseball game at the Oakland Colosseum to see the Oakland A's play the Seattle Mariners.

We got started poorly, as we searched for a nice breakfast spot on the way to the BART station and had an abject fail. We tried Burger King (Hungry Jacks) and it was pretty easy to get into but the food was not great.

I seem to have picked up a cold as well, which colours my world a bit darker.

After our breakfast fail we found the Powell Street BART Station (BART = Bay Area Rapid Transit) It connects about 6 stops in San Francisco with outer suburbs and nearby cities around San Francisco Bay. The Green Line goes under the bay to Oakland and beyond. We travelled right to the Oakland Colosseum where the A's play. The BART Station took quite a few thousands of people with us.

Fortunately the trains are long, sometimes 10 cars or so, which each hold a hundred or so. Doesn't take too many trains to clear a lot of people.

Since the Boston Red Sox weren't playing and we were in Oakland and I grew up partly in Oakland, Maine, we were supporting the Oakland A's against the rotten Seattle Mariners. The Mariners had one of the best pitchers in all of Baseball playing for 7th Inning Stretch.them today; "King Felix" Hernandez. He was pretty good but not up to his usual very high standard.

The A's eventually got up 2-0. Yay! A's! There was lovely flag ceremony for 4th of July before the game and a Navy Petty Officer sang both The Star Spangled Banner to start the game as well as America The Beautiful at the middle of the 7th inning. (The 7th Inning Stretch).

The relief pitchers (they come in for short stretches after the "Starting Pitcher has had enough.) are walking out to the "Bull Pen." Note the last pitcher in line with his Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle backpack. All his essential Game Gear! In his treasured back pack.

O.Co. was an excellent venue. The weather was sunny but not scorching. We had a good time.
The A's won, obviously because we were cheering for them.

"King Felix" pitching from a "Stretch" late in the game.

After the game we slowly (like bump-a-cars with the huge crowd) got back to the BART Station and amazingly, managed to squeeze onto the very first train back to Powell street in San Francisco. Our hotel is on Taylor Street just two blocks up Powell from Market St. and then three blocks left on O'Farrell. The Hotel is on Taylor which is perpendicular to and between O'Farrell St. And Ellis
Street.

We then went to the absolutely humongous Westfield Shopping Centre on Market Street to get:
   a) Food for dinner.
   b) Drugs for my cold and also tissues and cough drops and Joint Pills that have Glucosamine, Chondroitin and Vitamin D.
   c) Chocolates Ross wants to send to Lee for a meeting at the TAFE.

We also looked into the Oakley Shop and Sur Le Table.  Fun.

Then we walked home and we are both working on the computer (one of us is writing a blog about our day's events.) and then Ross is going for a nice long walk for the exercise, while my plan is to take my NyQuill and see if I can go to sleep for a few hours.

4th of July Tout Fini.

Lance and Ross.