Results tagged “williemaysplaza”

Some video to amuse you as you kill your Friday afternoon at the office: Schlomo Rabinowitz suggests what . We can't believe it either.

We know, we know: It's Barry Bonds Week in Bay Area baseball. That's very exciting, but there's also a pennant race going on just across the bay from 24 Willie Mays Plaza. After Monday night's 2-0 victory in Cleveland, the A's are a game behind Los Los Angeles Angeles de Anaheim Anaheim in the AL West and 1 1/2 games behind Cleveland in the AL Wild Card race. There are only so many ways to write that it's all going to come down to 4 games against Los Los Angeles Angeles at the Coliseum at the end of September, though, and to exhort our readers to get over there and get behind the green and gold, so we'll be back with that message in a week or so. Today, we've got bigger problems. Bigger problems, even, than Harden's oblique or Crosby's ankle. Media problems.

Since SFist Jon's out, it's fallen onto your poor sports-illiterate correspondent, to report the news that's got 24 Willie Mays Plaza all abuzz for tonight's game -- intrepid blogger Mr. Barry Bonds has deigned to fly up from L.A. and bat fourth in tonight's Giants lineup against the San Diego Padres. Well, it might help -- and certainly couldn't make things worse for-- the Giants, who, remarkably, remain second in the famed NL-W(or)est division, and only seven games back, despite having lost more games than they've won this season. Are you cheering or booing? Or, like us, do you really have no idea what's going on? (All we know about Barry Bonds is that someone we used to work with's main claim to fame in life was that he had pitched against Barry Bonds in high school and struck him out. Our former colleague was no walk-Barry chicken!)

Hey, want to spend an evening with an aging former drug abuser watching four other aging former (?) drug abusers shake their wrinkled heines on stage? For $100,000 and the cost of some plane tickets, you can go see the Rolling Stones perform at Fenway Park in Boston with Herr Governator! We think it would be worth it to watch him dance to the Black Eyed Peas and maybe spark a 'special' cigar. It's all possible thanks to the benificence of Ameriquest, which is sponsoring the Stones' rolling around America on tour and funding Arnie's pet projects to the tune of $1.5 million.

So of course we weren't in The City for most of the week -- you may have noticed parts one, two, three, four and five of our coverage of SXSW in Austin. As nice as the people and the place was, though, it sure wasn't San Francisco, and we are so glad to be back home.

We're sure there are some people out there who are all interested in the AT&T/SBC merger because of what it means to the stock market. And we're sure there are some of you out there who are interested in the merger because of what it means for your job. But we here at SFist are interested in it for only reason -- what name will the Giants now call home? While the people behind the merger have admitted that they haven't figured out what the new name will be, whatever it will be will ultimately affect that little park the Giants play in. After all, it would serve no purpose for the new company to keep its namesake stadium by a name it no longer is. Fifty-three million dollars in naming rights, after all, gets them the ability to name the place any ol' way they want. They could name it "The Fletcher Memorial Home for Incurable Tyrants and Kings" or Frodo's House of Prime Ribs and there's nothing we can do about it.

Last week, the Giants asked the city assessor's office to reassess the Ballpark at 24 Willie Mays Plaza for tax purposes. The point being the Giants are claiming that their four year old park is already starting to get a little less shiny and a little less new and therefore the Giants should pay less money in taxes. Currently, the Giants pay $4 million a year in property taxes plus another $6 million or so in payroll, parking and other taxes, but those rates are based on rates established when the park was brand spanking new. For those of you who are able to actually buy something here, you'll know that reassessing property is a perfectly legitimate thing to do. Economists can also vouch for the fact that stadiums often depreciate in price, as they get older, although four years of a state-of-the-art ballpark might be pushing it. Also pushing it is the idea that any property in California can depreciate since there's no such thing as property values going down.

Now that all the dirty secrets of the BALCO trial have been leaked and suspicions confirmed, those of us who bleed orange & black are in the midst of some of the darkest days to befall the Giants since Scott Spezio went deep. We've had a charmed life in our snug little baseball world -- records broken, playoff games played, World Series games held -- and Barry has been responsible for a large portion of it. There is no way you could run a highlight reel of everything that's gone on in that magical place we call the Stadium at 24 Willie Mays Plaza without giving lots of time to the feats of Barry. A Bonds' at-bat has been the best show in sports for years now and we've had front row seats for all of it. But now what?

Getting to the South Bay is getting a little easier with the rejiggered BART schedule. Previously, trains ran either to Millbrae, or to SFO, with only a few going to both. Now, all trains will run through SFO to Millbrae. This is not only good for you guys with the wheeled luggage carts trying to make your United flight to Chicago, but also for you folks trying to catch the Baby Bullet Caltrain at Millbrae, since now twice as many trains will go to both locations now.

As much as we love 24 Willie Mays Plaza, we Giants fans have to admit it's been a bit of a mixed blessing. Sure, it just might be one of the most beautiful places on God's green earth, but it has also meant that the image of the Giants fan- that being us- has taken a bit of a beating. For those of us who go way back to the rough and tumble Candlestick Days- when braving the drunken brawls and the frozen foggy chill of a July night was a badge of honor, this is a bit disconcerting. Now Third and King is the place to be and be seen, the stereotype of the Giants fan has gone from being that of a brawling boozer to that of a cell phone checking, laptop wielding, wine drinking Yuppie. Which is why we here at EssEfist were more than chagrined when we opened up last Thursday's Chron to find an article in the Wine Section debating the merits of the A's brand wine vs. that of the Giants. Sports teams having their own wine brand of wine? Could it GET more NoCal? Seriously, do you ever expect to open up the New York Times and find a story debating the merits of the Mets' wine vs. that of the Yankees? I think not. Would they even allow wine drinking in Wrigley or Fenway? But what really cut was the photo included in the story, that of your typical effete wine-drinking Yuppie couple watching a Giants' game from tony box seats (with pictures of boats in the background, natch) while their friend sat there "chatting" away on his cell phone. All that is missing from the photo is somebody checking their e-mail. Could they have found a more stereotypical group of people to represent Giants fans as this group? We're inclined to think that the photo was either a parody or taken by an A's fan. Seriously, this season has been hard enough.

There aren't too many doubleheaders in baseball anymore, and most of them are split admission, so you gotta have two tickets, one for each game. Today, though, it's just like old times and you can watch two games for the price of one at 24 Willie Mays Plaza. Los Gigantes and Les Expos are playing their regularly scheduled game today as well as a makeup of one that was rained out in Puerto Rico in May, and since the Giants couldn't really get away with charging admission for what was supposed to be a road game, it's all on one ticket.