Baseball in the City - Field Club seating

I received another pair of Giants tickets from a raffle draw in the office.  This has been the best baseball tickets I have received for free so far.

Not only it was the Giants hosting the Dodgers, not only it was Field Club seating (our first time in that section, by the way), the Giants won the game that night 4-0.  And here's one more, the seats were just two rows behind the Giants dugout! Go Giants!

Through various sponsorships of the company that I work for, limited tickets are given to employees through raffle draws. These tickets can be a concert, movie premiers, ball games, or civic events. Of course, the tickets are drawn randomly and the last time I won tickets through this raffle was two years ago and it was for a baseball game. So can you imagine my surprise when I got an email with the subject CONGRATULATIONS? There is usually a window of time when you can claim the tickets and this window is usually a short time frame. So I marched to the other side of the building to claim the tickets eventhough I had to go to a meeting in the next 30 minutes. I also got my second surprise as soon as I opened the envelope. The seats were in the FC or Field Club section! Look at the photos to the left and right to give you an idea how close the FC section is to the action. I also call this section the Always Pay Attention section because foul balls could hit you and it can hurt you. So pay attention and duck as fast as you can when you see a ball coming your way. I wouldn't even catch the ball with my bare hands.

[read about my SF Giants - the 2010 World Series champs blog]

Since I've never been that close to the Giants dugout, I've noticed a couple of things I consider treats. First you go through a different entrance with a door. I guess this separates the other sections from the Field Club. Second, they don't let you in while there is a batter in play. You have to wait for the turn to finish. You would know because ushers carry this sign. Third, you get a special separate concession area inside the Field Club entrance. This means you don't get to see the rest of the ball park goers and the lines are shorter when getting food and drinks, lots of available bar tables and chairs and tv screens, and the people look decent and much nicer. Think of it like going to a nice friendly sports bar. Fourth, the people seating in our section seem like they know each other. I bet they are season ticket holders. Fifth, if you are seating that close to the action, bring a glove so you can try catching any foul balls.

Since we were just two rows behind the Giants' dugout, we could see the players from within a few yards. While they look like heroes and larger than life on TV, they look like your ordinary but good looking people you see on the city streets. Angel Pagan looks good upclose and so do Buster Posey and Brandon Crawford. Hunter Pence looks tall. Barry Zito pitched during the first 7 innings. I took a photo of the dugout right after an inning. 

Another bonus that evening was that the Giants won 4-0 over the Dodgers. 

Go Giants!

~rl