Pregame: Dawdling Down Mission Creek
The morning broke baseball: crisp, clear and spring-like warm. After calling in sick to work, I head down to the ball park for an early afternoon game, the third in the series between the San Diego Padres and “your” San Francisco Giants.
Beginning at 16th and Harrison, where the first organized baseball game in San Francisco took place, I follow the flow of Mission Creek down Treat to Division to DeHaro, then wrap around the apartments on Berry to 7th and Mission Bay where the creek emerges. It only takes about 15 minutes at a moderate dawdle to get to the riparian park past the houseboats on the south side of the creek. Time to kill, I lie down in the sun. The next thing I remember is feeling a breeze. I think must be fog. Then: The game!
Pregame: Pep Talk
After the game last night, Coach Bruce Bochy tore into his club for a variety of mental errors, but he was also trying to clear the locker room of the torpor that has enveloped his club since the series began. They’ve been cold, out of sync and lifeless at the plate. Two of their best pitchers suffered through their worst games of the season. Snap out of it boys, barked Bochy, win tomorrow and we’re only one and a half games behind!
Inning Three: Hanging Out
I’m rushing over to the ball park, but stop when I hear the game on a radio. Ed, from the Mission, sits on a bench eating a tuna sandwich, his bike at his feet, listening to a little radio. It’s the top of the third, 0-0. Jonathan Sanchez is pitching for the Giants. Last year he had a no-hitter against the Padres; last month, he threw a one hitter in San Diego and lost 1-0. “He’s inconsistent,” sez Ed. “After three innings he can’t find the plate.” Something tells me I should hang with Ed, listen to the game on the radio, read the play-by-play and wrap up online. After sleeping through the first three innings, I figure my career as a sportswriter is finished anyway. Who would know?
Inning Five: Who is This Guy?
As I enter the Press Box at the top of the fourth, a roar from the fans. Not for me, but for Jonathan Sanchez who got the first guy to fly out to left. Sanchez is from Puerto Rico, a rising talent in the Giant organization. Through the fourth he’s given up only one hit and one walk. His catcher I notice is Eli Whiteside, not Bengie Molina, another Puertorriqueño and the Giants’ only real threat at the plate. In the fifth, Whiteside cuts down Nick Hundley attempting a steal. But with two out, Zawadsky doubles to right and comes home when Matt Latos hits an RBI single. Latos then mows down the SF side in order. After five, San Diego leads 1-0 and Matt Latos (?) is pitching a perfect game.
Inning Six
Eli Whiteside leads off with a sharp grounder off Latos’ leg and beats the throw to first by a nanosecond. It’s a hit! No way Bengie Molina makes that play. The next batter, Matt Downs, hits into a sure double play, but Whiteside, sliding into second, causes a poor throw to first, and Downs is safe, standing up, in scoring position with only one away. Sanchez flies out. Rowan pops up to end the inning.
Inning Seven: The Boys of Summer
Because both pitchers work so efficiently, there’s no time for the tension to build. The game slips away like a dream you try to remember, but the more you try the more you forget. Actually, Major League Baseball sells nostalgia, not dreams, and an ersatz nostalgia at that. The “field of dreams” motif gets played and replayed to construct a counterfeit boyhood or an Americana we’ve never known. While you’re walking past the endless concession stands, you can contrast the corporate imagery of white boys in cornfields with the reality of the African-Americans and Latinos who dominate today’s game.
The real American dream is not a championship, or a house, or a car; but playing a game, to pass the time, on a spring afternoon. How did Walt Whitman put it? “I lean and loaf at my ease . . . observing a spear of summer grass.”
Inning Nine: Hitters Apply Here
As the last inning begins, you can see Latos still throwing strikes with plenty of heat. He only needs eight pitches and the Giants are toast.
Post-Game: Good Stuff?
In the quiet Giants Clubhouse after the game, Giants’ security guards tell me I can’t sit and write my story while waiting for a player to interview, and would I please refrain from petting The Freak’s dog. Whiteside talks to the press. “He had good stuff,” Eli sez, speaking of Latos. What stuff? “Fastball, slider, curve.” Was any stuff better than any other stuff? “All his stuff was good.” How about Sanchez. “He had good stuff.” Then someone asks Sanchez if he’s frustrated after giving up four hits and two runs in his past two games with San Diego and losing both.
Padres 1, Giants 0. Padres sweep the series. Next up: Houston.