Tonight, thanks to a night off, I got to actually use my own season tickets and enjoy the game from the Arcade section (the view is actually much better than my photo at right makes it seem — you can judge pitches quite nicely from these seats).

As I made my way to the seats from underneath the center field scoreboard, since Marina Gate is my favorite gate of the four at AT&T Park to enter, I passed the ballpark operations crew that runs the water cannons, the Barry Bonds home run counter and the intentional walks chicken toteboard. For those who don’t know, the Giants keep track of the number of intentional walks issued to their players by a tally next to a cartoon representation of a chicken and a string of rubber chickens hanging on a line, one chicken per intentional free pass. It started in 2004, when Barry Bonds was racking up intentional walks so fast, he outpaced every other entire team in baseball by a huge margin. The Giants even started selling a special orange, SF-branded rubber chicken named "Walk’er" as part of "Operation Cluck."

A few of the chickens hanging from the wire affixed to the Arcade in foul territory down the right-field line are a special breed — they’re known as "Neifi chickens," named in honor of former Giants infielder Neifi Perez, who, as the frequent No. 8 batter in the order ahead of the pitcher, received three intentional walks in 2004. Perez has pretty skinny legs, so Giants broadcasters Mike Krukow and Duane Kuiper found a particularly scrawny chicken on the string, circled it with the telestrator and dubbed it the "Neifi chicken."

Now, what causes a Neifi chicken? Is it the runt of the flock that didn’t get enough rubbery feed at the rubber farm? Does the cold weather cause some birds to shrink to conserve energy in some weird form of adaptive evolution?

Nope. Turns out, as I have witnessed out on the Arcade before games, the chickens must have air blown into them to puff them out, and yes, this is something the gameday staff have to do mouth-to-mouth resuscitation style. It appears some rubber chickens don’t get as much of the breath of life as others.

Boy, it seemed like forever since there’d been a game at AT&T Park before the Giants returned home and kicked off a 10-game stay with Orange Friday. They’re back, finally, and plenty of cool things are on tap at the yard, which has already seen a nice retirement ceremony for Kirk Rueter and today’s Strike Out Cancer commemoration. (Side note: PA announcer Renel Brooks-Moon did an excellent rendition of the national anthem, accompanied on keyboards by the ballpark’s DJ, Michael Addicott, aka DJ Addi.)

This week is the very popular Heritage Week, starting with the season’s second Irish Heritage Night on Monday and continuing with Italian Heritage Night, Jewish Heritage Night, African American Heritage Night and the first Mexican Heritage Night. Fans with special tickets, available online, can redeem them at the game for a nifty heritage-themed item, like a Giants cap in Hebrew or the very cool Giants sombrero.

Monday is also "Law and Disorder" Legal Professionals Night, where judges, lawyers, law students, friends and family who purchase special tickets will be treated to an evening of baseball, drinks, live music and a speaking engagement by Jack Bair, the Giants’ general counsel and a pretty good baseball player himself.

On Saturday, the Giants will welcome nearly 5,000 participants in the Junior Giants program to Junior Giants Day at the ballpark. The Giants Community Fund helps more than 13,000 kids get the chance to play baseball in areas that otherwise might not have that opportunity, while also providing them with life lessons about character, leadership, teamwork and other positive qualities. For some, this is their first chance to see a Major League game in person. I can’t say enough about this wonderful no-fee, non-competitive program, and it’s a treat to see these kids get to parade around the field before the game.

Finally, the first 20,000 fans at Sunday’s game will get a pack of Emerald Nuts trading cards. And don’t forget that kids get to run the bases after every Sunday home game. Line up along the Portwalk outside the free viewing arches for that.

One of my very favorite promotional days is slated for Saturday: the 10th annual Dog Days of Summer at AT&T Park. Hundreds of dogs and their humans will be at the park to participate in a pregame parade and costume contest, which you really have to see to believe. Then they get to watch the game from a special "dog zone" in the bleachers, and they go home with a goody bag, which this year includes a bag of dog food, some "party mix" dog treats and a nice black dog bandanna, all supplied by the fine folks of Purina.

Now, I really like dogs. But what’s especially neat about Dog Days is how much a lot of the players like dogs, even bringing their own pooches to the yard that day. You’ll see plenty of them hanging over the rail of the dugout with huge grins on their faces as the dogs parade by, some of them even dressed to resemble those same players.

Representatives from "Late Show with David Letterman" will be on hand from 4 p.m. until the fifth inning to audition candidates for the show’s "Stupid Pet Tricks" segment.

While fans need a special ticket to bring their dogs to the yard, anybody going to the game will enjoy the experience. The first 40,000 humans in attendance will get a fan courtesy of Purina.

 

As I arrived for last night’s game, pulling into the parking lot was quite different from the last homestand, when the Bay Area, like most of California, was suffering through a record heat wave. Not only had the temperatures returned to normal, the notorious wind was threatening to take off my door as I got out of my car.

The wind is an interesting phenomenon at AT&T Park. During the All-Star Game this year, the media made a big deal (and rightfully so) of the stunning downtown views at PNC Park in Pittsburgh. Originally, AT&T Park was designed to sit 90 degrees counterclockwise to where it sits now, with the outfield views featuring the Bay Bridge and downtown San Francisco looking north. But a wind study showed that orientation would have made the park more windy than the infamous gusts of Candlestick Point, so the decision was made to situate the park as it is now, where the shoulders of the yard absorb the worst of the wind. That decision also gave us the fun of McCovey Cove and the trademark of Splash Hits over the right-field wall, of course.

That said, the wind still can play havoc at AT&T Park. The open archways out in right field (where fans can stand and watch the game for free) allow gusts to come in and create a weird vortex in shallow right field and behind second base. Balls often smack into a wall of air and drop nearly straight down there, making Ray Durham‘s ability to field popups back there pretty impressive. Last night, Randy Winn noted after catching a long fly that the wind was also swirling in deep right. There’s also a jet stream headed straight out to the Bud Light sign in left field — a ball hit at the right height directly to that sign will often carry and carry and carry, right over the fence for a homer. And catchers often look like drunks stumbling out of a bar fielding popups at the plate. Wind coming over the top of the ballpark can take any ball hit just high enough and push it in crazy directions.

But the nice thing is that for the most part, the ballpark does a great job of cutting down the wind that attacks fans sitting in the main seating sections. My season tickets, out in the Arcade, get a little buffeted, but nothing like when I went to games out at Candlestick. And folks sitting in the top few rows of the View level also take more of a hit from wind coming over the top of the yard.

Of course, many of those folks also get to experience some of the most breathtaking views available at AT&T Park, a fair trade, if you ask me. (Check out my 360-degree shot from the View Level here.)

A group of about 50 kids from Alameda’s Chipman Middle School got a special treat tonight. They attended the game as guests of Barry Bonds through the Major League Baseball Players Trust’s Buses for Baseball program. The kids were provided transportation to the game, tickets and a pregame meeting with Bonds where they shook hands, got autographs and took photos with the slugger.

It was also Poker Night at the ballpark, one of many special events held here where fans with special tickets sit with like-minded folks, get special souvenirs (like a black, white and orange poker chip set, for example) and have a great time. Some of the more popular events are Singles Night, held several times a year, and the heritage events, like Irish Heritage Night, Jewish Heritage Night and African American Heritage Night. Tuesday night happens to be Scout Night.

Fans arriving early for tonight’s game might have been surprised to see many of the players on the field standing about 3 feet tall. It was the Giants’ annual Family Day, where players and their wives bring the kids to the park to play a little softball on the field. My favorite had to be little Omar Alfonzo, who took the whole thing very seriously, stretching with his dad, Eliezer, batting left-handed, running the regulation base paths instead of the shortened ones set up for the kids and sliding into home like a pro.

Here are some photos from the event.

By the way, if you think this looks like fun, the Giants have an amazing event coming up that will let you do the same thing: Family Day in the Park on July 30. Most people would love just to have the opportunity to set foot on the AT&T Park field, but at Family Day, you can hit off a pitching machine at home plate, run the bases, play catch in the outfield, use the Giants’ indoor batting cages and watch the Giants vs. Pirates road game on the Astrovision board. It even includes ballpark snacks! A family of four can participate for under a hundred bucks, and they have larger group rates, too.

In keeping with the family theme, it was Build-A-Bear Night at the yard tonight, with the first 6,000 kids getting an adorable Giants-themed bear. When I first heard they were adding a Build-A-Bear Workshop to the Coca-Cola Fan Lot this year, I wondered if it would really do much business, but it seems to be quite popular, with the line of folks picking up bears and Lou Seal dolls lasting well after the final out most games. They *are* quite cute, I gotta say.

It was a stunning 85 degrees at first pitch (6:06 p.m.) tonight, quite possibly the hottest night game ever played at AT&T Park. The odd start time got me thinking about next year, when the All-Star Game will be played here. The Midsummer Classic hasn’t been played in the Pacific time zone since 2001 in Seattle, and though the players may not like having to deal with the sun and shadows, it will be a real treat to see the Home Run Derby and the game played mostly in daylight.

I’m not sure if this is something the fine folks in scoreboard operations have done before, but I noticed during batting practice tonight that all the songs had "San Francisco" in them, from local music icon Chris Isaak’s "San Francisco Days" to "San Francisco (Open Your Golden Gate)" to Vanessa Carlton’s "San Francisco" to the theme from "Streets of San Francisco." Pretty subtle, but pretty cool.

After the game, in honor of Orange Friday, there was a fireworks show. Somebody once told me the best fireworks show they ever saw was at a Giants game at AT&T Park, and though I can’t really see the show from the pressbox, I’m not likely to disagree. They shoot off the fireworks from a barge on the Bay, which has to be pretty neat.

After the game, just as the fireworks ended, the scoreboard flashed the notice that the Giants picked up Shea Hillenbrand from the Blue Jays. It was a lot of fun to see the sellout crowd gradually start to notice the message and excitedly poke their neighbors, saying, "Hey, look!" I’m sure it made the fans’ ride home even more electric, knowing the Giants are just a half-game behind the Padres after Matt Cain’s gem and offensive help is on the way.

I first became a Giants season ticket holder in 1993, and since 2000, I’ve had a pair of amazing seats in the Arcade section atop the right-field wall at AT&T Park, right where Bonds’ 73rd home run in 2001 landed (the view from those seats is at right).

But even though I think there’s no better place to be than watching a Giants game at AT&T Park, the best ballpark in the country, I sit in those seats perhaps twice a season. That’s because I’m lucky enough to have a job that allows me to sit in the lower pressbox for just about every home game, working for MLB.com as an editorial producer.

Whether I’m sitting out in the Arcade or in the pressbox, however, one thing remains the same — this is an amazing place to be. Though I don’t often experience the game from a fan’s point of view these days, I know exactly what it’s like and how special it is, coming to the yard. I love getting that free orange giveaway cap, buying that ballpark dog that tastes better than anything you could ever get in a store and taking in everything that happens, from the chicken dance they play when a Giants player is intentionally walked to watching the ferry dock right behind the outfield wall at the Marina Gate to hearing Tony Bennett sing "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" as fans slowly, reluctantly leave the park. I think Dog Days is an absolute kick in the pants, I love to show my friends the actual cable car sitting beyond center field and I can’t wait to bring my niece to play ball at Little Giants Park out in the Coca-Cola Fan Lot.

So what I’d like to do in this MLBlog is share with you what’s neat about AT&T Park, whether it’s features of the yard that folks might not know about or upcoming promotions and special events or just cool stuff that happens during a game.

I hope my insider’s view of AT&T Park will be interesting both to those who’ve only seen the ballpark on TV and also those who are here on a regular basis. I think next to the outstanding ballpark operations staff, I possibly know this place better than just about anyone. I’ve photographed just about every nook and cranny of it, and I’ve even spent the night here more than once.

I want to hear from you as well — what do you like about coming to a
Giants game, what makes it so much more special than watching the game
on your couch or your computer.

So welcome to the corner of Third and King. Hope you have a great time.