J&J Adventures Part 2: AT&T Park

AT&T Park – Home of the Giants

Talk about going from one extreme to the other. Wow, can you find a prettier location than the home of the San Francisco Giants? The views inside and outside AT&T are splendid!

The park opened on April 11, 2000 against the Giants arch rival, The LA Dodgers. Unfortunately, the Giants lost that game. In fact, they lost their first 6 games in their new park, but that didn't stop the fans from coming, They sold out every game of the 1^st season, with more than 3.3 million fans visiting that season and captured the National League West title. The reports from the park were glowing and one of the significant improvements was in the weather. Candlestick park was known for its cold winds that started nearly every evening. Before building the new stadium, an environmental review showed that if you changed the angle of the field, the wind off the water would be significantly lessened. The weather at China Basin is also warmer than at Candlestick Point. We found it chilly once the sun went down and were happy we had plenty of clothes and a blanket.

During its history at Candlestick the Giants had the first all brother outfield with the Alou brothers (1963), Felipe, Matty and Jesus. Willie Mays broke Mel Ott's National League record for home runs on May 4, 1966 he hit his 512^th homer. The Giants Gaylord Perry and the Cardinals Ray Washburn threw back to back no-hitters on September 17 and 18, 1968. Houston's Bob Watson on May4^th, 1975 scored baseball's 1 millionth run.

Willie Mays

Any Giants fan can tell you that the most sought after ticket is when the despised LA Dodgers come to town. It is one of the most hated rivalries in all of sports which spans 2 coasts and dates back to the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants. Tommy Lasorda would blow kisses to the hecklers on the way back to the dugout. The Giants grounds crew would water down the field to slow down the Dodgers speedster Maury Wills.

The Willie Mays statue sits in Willie Mays plaza. He hit the 4^th most home runs in Major League history behind his godson Barry Bonds, Hank Aaron and Babe Ruth. Many experts say he his career runs would have been closer to 800 if his home field was not Candlestick park with the fierce wind gusts that slowed down the ball.

A statue of Juan Marichal stands outside the 3^rd street entrance. He had a delivery like no other with his left foot high over head and his right arm down low, holding the ball. He threw 244 complete games during his career. On June 15, 1962 he no-hit Houston at the Stick and 18 days later against the Milwaukee Brewers and Warren Spahn. He threw a complete game shutout that lasted 16 innings with Willie Mays hitting the winning home run off Spahn to win 1-0.

There are also statues of Orlando Cepeda, the baby bull, and Willie “Stretch” McCovey.