Yesterday afternoon my company threw us a big party to celebrate the launch of our new site. The party was held at the SF Giants ballpark, SBC (Pac Bell) Park, one of the most beautiful baseball parks in the major leagues. We got to roam the field, the dugouts, the player batting cages, and we went on a tour of the press box and visitor’s club house.

Brian came over from his office, which is a block away, and hung out for a couple hours. Of course all the food and drink and ice cream were free, but I was lame and dumb and had a late lunch at work, which I paid too much for. BLEAH. Salad. So, no hot dog for me. But it was okay. The weather was perfect and we went into the outfield with a ball and two gloves and played some catch. You know, catching a ball in a glove is really not that easy. You would think it is, but if you don’t get the timing right, the ball will just pop right out. So you need to squeeze it right as the ball lands in the webbing or the heel of the glove. I was good at snatching the ball out of the air, not so good at not dropping it. I made so many errors.

We each got ten pitches in the underground batting cage, which is located right behind the dugout. I got a couple of hits, but mainly just swung through helplessly. It was still fun. They didn’t let us play with wooden bats — I guess it would be too dangerous if one of them broke.

Many employees brought their kids, so it was about 30% children running around. The Giants mascot Lou Seal was there to throw slow pitches to them with whiffle balls. I stood on the pitcher’s mound so I could get an idea of what it looks like from there. The plate doesn’t look that far away at all. It was really amazing. And the grass is just perfect, naturally.

The Navy Blue Angels were practicing yesterday and flew overhead a few times. I am pretty torn on whether I think the Blue Angels are “cool,” or whether they are a wasteful and frightening show of militaristic power at an inappropriate time. Let’s just say I wouldn’t go out of my way to see their show, but I do respect the flying skill of the pilots. I just don’t think that type of thing is a good idea in this time of, you know, illegal occupation and gas shortages.

We got the tour of the ballpark and checked out the print press room, a luxury box, and the visitor’s club house. Since the Giant’s season is over (sigh), everything was pretty much emptied out. As I suspected, the visitor’s club house lockers are made of cheap laminated press board and they get folding chairs and crappy sofas and so forth. The Giant’s club house, which we were not allowed to see, has huge mahogany lockers and leather chairs and probably not flourescent lighting. Heh.

I took a bunch of photos which I’ll post soon on my flickr account.

Go White Sox!!