Ahh, tailgating season. When the weather is awesome in the Bay Area, there’s no better way to enjoy a Saturday afternoon. Even better when you get to enjoy it with the company of friends, as well as the opportunity to make new ones.

The Texas Rangers came into town a few weeks ago & played a few games in Oakland. Perfect occasion to break out the tailgating kit & BBQ to enjoy a parking lot lunch with fellow baseball fans & fans of free food. Foul on me, though—we managed to fit our whole tailgate kit in my tiny GTI, but realized that I forgot the barbeque grill in the living room [sad trombone]. All good, because whenever people are having fun, they forget that the hot dogs they’re eating are cold.

…can you sit this close to the players in the middle of a live game AND have them take your phone & try to play games with it. The only time I leave my awesome seat was to use the bathroom, & during the two minutes I was gone, this gem between bullpen pitchers Jerry Blevins (left) & Grant Balfour (right) played out. Grant tries to ‘play’ a game called Speed Test (it was an iPhone app that tested Internet speed) & tried to call his family back home in Australia. So awesome.

My cousin Mel captured this with her camera. Good quality video, I must say.

Baseball’s back! Giants won it all last year, now we’re hoping to share the glory on this side of the Bay. The Seattle Mariners started off the season in Oakland, & my friend/co-worker Fumi hooked it up with some awesome 3rd-base-side seats with an awesome view.

It was Japanese Heritage Day, & the A’s hooked it up with free Hideki Matsui t-shirts:

Why buy expensive authentic MLB-branded clothes when we can get them for free?

I may have said this last year: March is an awesome month to visit Arizona. We got to escape the insane Bay Area weather & got to take in some sun while enjoying our beloved A’s baseball! Score!

After she got married, my cousin Myra moved out to Glendale in Arizona, not too far from Phoenix & it’s many Spring Training ballparks. When my cousins learned that one of their old classmates/bandmates was playing baseball in Arizona (for the curious, it’s this dude named Troy Tulowitski of the Colorado Rockies, no big deal), my cousin Myra & new cousin-in-law Jay, cousin Mel, the wife & myself made it a mission to go out to visit him during practice at the gorgeous Salt River Fields at Talking Stick to see if he remembers them. We tried our darndest to try to catch him during at his home practice field, but was unsuccessful. Oh well, there’s next year.

By the end of the weekend, I was in the positive. I scored:

• a Phoenix Suns bag
• an $8-off coupon at a local drugstore, which we used to buy sunscreen (the Phoenix Suns shot eight 3-pointers that day)
• a Verizon t-shirt
• a souvenir game ball from A’s relief pitcher Grant Balfour
• & a Jared Dudley Phoenix Suns t-shirt, which I ‘earned’ by doing this:

Can’t wait until next year! It’s fun to hang out with family outside of the Bay Area!

We’re back from our annual Phoenix trip! More pics to come & more stories to tell about my awesome time with my cousins & the wife, but I wanted to share this story with you before my horrible memory betrays me.

The last day of our weekend trip, we went to an A’s Spring Training game at the Phoenix Municipal Stadium. In my research, I read online that the best place to sit is right behind the A’s bullpen because fans can literally sit about a foot away from the players.

As we walk to our seats & even before we sit down, A’s setup pitcher Jerry Blevins turns around & greets us:

Jerry Blevins: How are you guys doing?

Me (in awe & surprise): We’re…fine.

Jerry: Awesome seats, huh?

We both look around. There is absolutely nobody sitting in our section. The A’s had a split-squad day, & the other half of the team was in Scottsdale playing the Giants. Just like in the Bay Area, the A’s vs. Giants games usually have a huge turnout.

Jerry: You scored some nice seats in the family section.

I guess it was a tongue-in-cheek joke. I appreciated the effort, though. Again, still in shock. Me & Mel sit close in the first row. Cindy was a bit shy, so she moves a few rows higher.

It was an experience like none other. You can actually hear conversations amongst the bullpen pitchers. It’s mostly talk about the players on the field & making clubhouse runs for cold drinks. Anyway, TV broadcasts or regular season games can never emulate this experience.

A few innings pass. I excuse myself to the bathroom. Coming back & walking down the steps of the metal bleachers to my seat, Cindy & my cousin were trying to tell me something, but I can’t hear over the clanging of my footsteps. Maybe a foul ball was hit & landed in our section. I even brought my baseball glove just for that reason. Bummer.

“You missed it,” they say as I take my seat. Apparently, the bullpen guys saw Mel playing around on her Blackberry, so they asked her if she had any games on it. She said she didn’t, but she gave them my iPhone which she was using while I was using the can. They tried to find games on it, but only opened an app called Speed Download, an app that measures broadband speeds on a network. They couldn’t figure out how to play that game.

Geez…I missed a lot in the two minutes I was away. I get my iPhone, lean into the bullpen & said, “I have Street Fighter IV, if you still wanna play.” Grant Balfour, another A’s bullpen pitcher from Australia, takes the phone from me.

Grant: Aww man! I haven’t played that [game] in such a long time!

He tries to play, but hands the phone back to me. With his Australian accent:

Grant: I’ll play with your phone later. You can ask me again during Game 7 of the World Series.

Me: Sure! I’ll make sure to buy tickets behind the bullpen for that game.

Grant: You know what? I’ll get you those tickets for that game if it means I can play Street Fighter again.

Me: Thanks! I’ll give you my business card so you can get my info.

Of course, no business cards were exchanged, but he came off as a super cool guy. In between innings, the bullpen guys would sometimes get up & play catch with the outfielders. After the catch session, they usually toss those balls into the crowd for a fan. I gesture with my glove toward Grant & asked him for a ball.

Grant: Sorry, man. I can’t give you this ball. It would break the streak & Dallas would get mad at me.

Dallas Braden, Mr. Perfect Game, was the starting pitcher & was throwing a few scoreless innings. Baseball players tend to be superstitious, & I guess they believe that balls shouldn’t leave the field during a scoreless streak, or something to that effect. Totally understandable.

Anyway, as I was looking around the park, my back was to the field & the bullpen. I keep hearing, “Hey, Rudy!” from the field. I turn around, & Grant tosses me another ball he found. I was wearing my bright yellow Joe Rudi throwback jersey that day.

Here’s Mel modeling next to my new souvenir:

Such a grand ol’ time! More weekend stories coming soon!

Unfortunately, the A’s didn’t win it this year, so you got the next best thing with the Giants taking it all the way this season. Against all odds & after a World Series 56-year drought, they finally won it all last Monday. Well played!

Being in a South San Francisco company, it’s Giants fever in the office. The company wanted a Giants group photo, so being the only hardcore A’s fan in the office (it’s hard work, lemme tell ya!), I was more than happy to be behind the camera. Come to think of it, I don’t think I have any orange in my wardrobe, except perhaps my Texas Longhorns boxers.

I was in the photo in spirit. My contribution were the pros: the baseball, two gloves, the mini bat, & the Timmy Lincecum bobblehead in the center bottom of the photo.

Quite the eventful trip we had out there! Cindy & I love taking short vacations, especially if they’re related to baseball! The A’s finished their season in Seattle, so we thought it would be fun to support the green & gold up in cool Seattle for the last two games this year. So we packed up our A’s jersey, baseball glove, & camera, but most importantly, my iPhone to help me build my iPhone autographs collection.

Cindy hooked us up with some outstanding seats five rows from the field—super close to the action. She pretty much set us up for a good time. What a great way to end the season—I scored two autographs in one game! Chris Carter (above) & Eric Sogard (below) are rookies, naturally relatively new to the A’s. They did their ballplayer duties & made the rounds for the fans, signing his autographs for the kids.

The best souvenir of the weekend: we made it on TV!

After the second inning, the family that sat behind us unfurled their home-made A’s banner. With the combination of sitting so close to the field, wearing out-of-town colors, & sitting next to a family with kids, all sporting A’s paraphernalia, I realized this would be an opportunity to be on camera, so I prompted Cindy to start waving. It’s really hard to tell if the camera is pointed at you, especially hard to know if you’re being broadcasted, so I just started parade-waving, panning left to right just in case the cameras happen to be on.

Of course, this wasn’t the first time we were on TV with the A’s:

This happened in 2009. With last Friday’s broadcast, that’s two years in a row on TV. Let’s keep the streak going next year!

Summer finally warmed up for us Bay Area folk. I’ve always wanted to go to a mid-week baseball day game, & now my wish has been fulfilled this season. We were lucky that on the most comfortable day this summer, our company bought a whole bunch of bleacher seats at the Giants game. After the success of our company’s outrageous anniversary party, our CEO thought it would be a blast to throw another company function. Baseball during work hours? Yes, please!

The game itself was good. You have to appreciate good baseball, even if it’s not played by your favorite team. The Giants stuck it out with the red-hot Cincinnati Reds, coming back to tie it up in the 11th inning after being killed earlier in the game.

Many of you know where my alliances lie, but visiting AT&T Park is always a treat. They have nicer things on this side of the Bay. The garlic fries, for example, can’t be beat.

Best part? Hanging out with good people from work. It’s nice to stretch out my legs outside the office, even though our office environment is far from being overly formal. I may have gone a bit overboard with my energy level, but I absolutely love baseball & it becomes hard to contain myself. Oh well, at least with that, I was able to get us on the big screen! (Not the first time this happened!)

Even when I’m not in Oakland catching an A’s game, I’m always trying to find a way to get my baseball fix. When my uncle told me my young cousin started little league, we didn’t hesitate to catch his early morning games across the bridge in Hayward. My little niece Ava shared our enthusiasm as well,  so we took her along to go see him play for the Hayward Athletics (can’t go wrong with a name like that!).

At the game we watched, he was the only player to hit a home run, & he caught a good game to boot.

Ava didn’t understand the rules of the game, so she made friends with a five-year-old girl she met at the ballgame. She didn’t absorb as much baseball as we did, but had just as much fun!

I had to come in to work last Thursday morning so I can take the super early shuttle to get to the Oakland Coliseum. The A’s were giving away a fleece Snuggie—what they called a Sluggie—to the first 10,000 fans. I had to get a good spot in line to guarantee getting the wearable blanket. Otherwise, my wizard hat wouldn’t make sense (photo above).

Thanks to all my friends & family who came out to rock the left field bleachers. Without them, I wouldn’t have got us on DiamondVision (finally!) & started the wave that went all the way around the Coliseum 7.5 times. Ahh, what a good game.

Another thanks to my cousin Daniel for wearing my camera & taking almost all of the photos of the evening. Nice shots!