The Numbers: The San Francisco Giants home since 2000 has been the AT&T Park, which was formerly known as the Pacific Bell Park (2000-03) and the SBC Park (2004-05). The AT&T Park is located at 24 Willie Mays Plaza, San Francisco, CA. The Stadium contains 41,915 seats and includes about 68 luxury seats. ESPN has considered this park to be a pitcher friendly field. Since it has opened it has averaged about 3 million people per season and 40,000 per game. This stadium is living proof of “If you build it, they will come” it also helps that the Giants have made it to the world series 3 times (2002, 2010 2012) and won it twice, once in 2010 and recently in 2012 and are now the reigning champs.
So what makes it special?
The stadium has its own whacky and fun features in the outfield. Behind the left field bleachers is an 80-foot long Coca-Cola bottle that has playground slides within the bottle itself, and it lights up and blows bubbles when the home team hits a homerun. On the right of the coke bottle is a Giant four-fingered baseball glove and to the left, a mini baseball diamond. In that same general area there are concession stands and a plaza where parties are held during the games. Behind the centerfield there is a retired San Francisco street car that says, “No Dodgers fans allowed” and on the centerfield scoreboard there is a foghorn, which was used in the old Candlestick Park which goes off during homeruns and home team victories. The team also has a Wall of Fame section and a build-a-bear type store where kids can make their own mascot.
Now the right field is one of my favorite parts of this stadium. The walls are 24 feet high and are that height to honor Willie Mays who wore number 24. Along the wall there are 4 pillars that shoot out water when (you guessed it) homeruns are hit. The really interesting part about the right field fence is the fact that just beyond the fence is the China Basin, a section of the San Francisco Bay area, and has been named McCovey Cove after former Giants first-basement Willie McCovey. The Basin is so close to the water that homeruns can and do get hit into the water and are called “splash hits”. The right field wall has an electronic counter recording the hits since the park opened 62 to homeruns have been splash hits. Another cool feature is a pier where ferries can go and let fans get off right next to the park. One of the funniest parts of the cove is on game days many people go out onto the cove with kayaks and fishing nets waiting to see if they can get a homerun ball.
This stadium is really impressive and has so many things to make the fan experience so much more exciting and is a great place to bring the family to watch the game. Looking at aerial shoots of the stadium parking is easy to get, there are parks and a few baseball diamonds around to play baseball and a great place to walk along the water. This stadium could be easily be one of the great parks around and the envy of the league because of all the things they offer and for all the people who live in that area they are very lucky to have their team and that stadium. This is a park I would really like to see and hopefully more the once, because AT&T Park seems to be a great baseball place and a great place to have fun.
Next Stop Chicago! If you missed my look at Miller Park in Milaukee, definitely check it out.
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Photo Credit: Daniel Schwen, Wiki Commons
