Ballpark: Petco Park

My aunt and I took a day trip down to San Diego on Thursday, May 16, to watch the Padres play the Nationals. Petco Park is nestled in between luxury apartments and hotels in downtown San Diego. We entered the stadium through the right field gate. Directly behind the sand beach and bleachers in center field is a grassy lawn where fans can watch the action from about 600 feet away from home plate. On a portion of the lawn blocked by the batter's eye there is a miniature baseball field for kids to hit a whiffle ball. The unique feature in Petco Park is the Western Metal Supply Co brick wearhouse that has been converted into luxury suites. Not only has the original sign and brick of the wearhouse been left in tact, the corner of building serves at the left field foul pole. In addition to the Western Metal suites, there were additional suites above the field level seats and in the light tower. There were tons of food options ranging from hot dogs to veggie burgers to fish tacos. The concourse of the ballpark looks more like a mall than a baseball stadium with stone walls and flora hanging from balconies above. Also on the concourse are a variety of exhibits dealing with baseball and the military which is a cool nod to the military presence in the city. The upperdeck hangs over many of the field level seats which is nice because it keeps fans out of the sun but I can see how that could take away from the baseball feel of the ballpark. However from our seats in right field, I definitely got the baseball park feel. One big problem I had with the ballpark was that many of the seats were not angled towards home plate or the pitchers mound. Once my aunt and I moved down (more on this later), our right field seats were angled toward center field making them slightly uncomfortable.

There wasn't really a lot of notes on the game itself. Padre's starter Edison Volquez danced in and out of trouble by walking hitters until Adam LaRoche touched him up for a two-run home run to center. The Nationals added three more runs before the Padres loaded the bases in the bottom of the 5th inning. However, the Padres were only able to get one run across to cut the lead to 5-1. Steven Strasburg was able to hold on for the victory by allowing only 3 hits through 8 innings. Although his performance was impressive, I didn't think Strasburg was dominating. I guess Nationals fans have to be pretty excited that Strasburg went 8 innings. Bryce Harper homered for the Nationals but I was impressed with Padres shortstop Everth Cabrera's base running and defense.

The excitement of the game started when we were walking to our seats in the upperdeck above right field. The ushers asked us if my aunt and me if we knew it was 'College Night' and warned us that we could get pretty wild. My aunt didn't want to deal with drunk college kids so she was able to get moved down to about 8 rows up from the playing surface in right field. I opted to "tough it out" for the first few innings. Even though there were a decent amount of good looking San Diego State sorority girls with fraternity brothers around, the seats in the 'College Night' sections were about a quarter full I was beginning to think 'College Night' wouldn't live up to the hype. Then I got up to get my souvenir cup in route to sit with my aunt sitting all alone below. The Budwieser Patio was just covered with college girls wearing a combination of Padres gear and nice clothing that I expected them to wear to a bar on Thursday night. It was the kind of atmosphere I would have expected a Blue Lep or Charlie's in Ann Arbor on a Friday night. Next time there is a 'College Night' at I park I am going to I need to bring a couple of friends.

My take-away from Petco Park (other than go to 'College Night') is that it is a beautiful ballpark with some really unique features: the Western Metal suites, the luxurious concourse, and the center field items. It lacks the great views of the city skyline (or bay) of some ballparks but that it is only a minor detail. I did like that it was much less crowded than AT&T Park.