Los Angeles Dodgers @ San Francisco Giants (game 3)

The final game of this three game series was also a night game, presumably because both teams have an off day tomorrow.  San Francisco's starter was Matt Moore, whilst the newly-aquired Yu Darvish started for the Dodgers.

It has been threatening to rain all day, with a light drizzle, so I returned to the hotel and fetched my coat.  The rain stopped by the time i got back to San Francisco, and I could have dealt with the cold.

I have another bobblehead!  This is a Frank Robinson bobblehead giveaway from tonight's game, celebrating African-American heritage in baseball - Frank played for the Giants, and later was a player-manager for the Cleveland Indians, thus becoming the first black manager in major league baseball.

It was more of the same that I've seen recently, unfortunately - defensive miscues leading to big innings for the opposition, and offensive miscues running ourselves out of innings in return.

Angelique was the friendly usher in section 219

I started with seats in section 219 last week and met Angelique for the first time - I was in that section again today and despite all the losing the team has been doing, she is still cheerful and friendly

Inexplicably, three Giants fielders stood around in a small circle and allowed the ball to fall and thus allow Yasiel Puig to reach base.  The ball should have been Hunter Pence's coming in from right field.  Then with Pence on second base, Denard Span hit a sharp ground ball back to the pitcher, who caught Pence in a run-down between 2nd and 3rd base.  The idea for the runner is to at least drag this out to allow the batter-runner to make it to 2nd base, but in the event Pence was tagged, and then Span was tagged out at 2nd base as well for an unlikely double play.  Another double play later in the game occurred when Buster Posey hit a deep fly ball to centre that was caught, and the runner who'd started at 1st base got doubled off.

The Dodgers scored 2 in the 1st, 2 in the 5th and Hunter Pence scored a consolation run in the bottom of the 9th, to leave the final score 4-1.

 This gentleman was selling popcorn, but never seems to miss a chance to have a dance - one of things I notice about baseball is that the people working at the stadium range from students earning their way through college up to seniors - some of them very senior.

Los Angeles Dodgers @ San Francisco Giants (game 2)

The second match of this three game series had the marquee pitching matchip: Clayton Kershaw for the Dodgers against Johnny Cueto for the Giants.

With no sign of rain, the game started on time and progressed without interruption.  However, Cueto struggled through 3 2/3 innings, having to throw 101 pitches before being removed having given up 4 runs.  The big inning was all caused by an errant throw from the shortstop Tomlinson to third baseman Calixte which was an attempt to throw out the lead runner.  The ball got there in plenty of time, but was slightly off-target, and so the tag wasn't made - if it had been, Los Angeles would have had a runner on first base with 2 out instead of runners on the corners with 1 out.

Meanwhile the Giants clawed their way back into the game one run at a time, missing multiple opportunities for big innings, not least in the 9th inning with the bases loaded and one out with Buster Posey at the plate, who got to a full count against the Dodgers' closer Kenley Jansen, but struck out, as did Nick Hundley to end the game, leaving the Dodgers as 5-3 winners and clinching themselves a play-off berth.

I was sitting in a row in front of a couple of very loud Australians, who weren't averse to swearing either.  It was a relief whenever they went to buy more food and drink.

Meanwhile, I had a great chat with the two gentlemen sitting next to me, John and Steven.  The former is from the Bay Area, and the latter from Boston.  We talked about the game, and our favourite stadia.

A couple of special guests were present for the game tonight.

Firstly, Takuma Sato, the former Formula 1 driver and now IndyCar driver who won the Indianapolis 500 this year.

Secondly, a man who always gets a huge cheer, Joe Montana, former quarterback of the San Francisco 49ers, who led the 49ers to multiple Super Bowl championships in the 1980s.

Ocean Beach

After lunch at Bacon Bacon, I returned to the metro line and continued along the 'N' all the way to the Pacific Ocean.  It was cloudy on the coast and quite breezy.  I had put on my sun cream anyway, just in case it had been sunny.

I'm never sure what the tide is doing here, as the waves seem to always reach approximately the same place.

I didn't see very many of the tiny wading birds today - the ones with the short legs that run comically back and forward.

I did see lots of crows, which was unusual.
There was a lot of foaming water, and a lot of seaweed on the beach too.  The beach is sandy, but the part away from the water is also very soft, so you sink into it and it's hard work to walk through it.

I walked along the water's edge from Judah Street (where the 'N' terminates) down to Taraval Street (where the 'L' terminates) intending to catch the 'L' back to downtown San Francisco.

I actually had to go another couple of streets further to Vicente Avenue to find a stop at the junction with 46th Avenue.  It's obviously windy here a lot of the time - there aren't that many trees, but most of the ones that do exist and clearly fashioned by the wind.

It is quite bleak along the coastal highway - it's protected by high sand dunes on the sea side with very low vegetation, but very few trees, as you can see in the photos.  There are lots of pedestrian crossings though, to enable all the residents to get across onto the beach and these are well used.

I got to the bus stop just in time, as did another lady, Dorothy, who was also going to the game tonight.  We sat and talked all the way to the ballpark, where we went our separate ways - she was on the top deck, I was on the deck below.

Bacon Bacon

One of my Roku colleagues, Tom, had recommended a great place for lunch in the Haight-Ashbury area of San Francisco: Bacon Bacon.  I'm not sure whether he's actually been there, or just experienced some of their food on a mass delivery to Roku's offices.

Fortunately, Haight is pretty easy to get to on the Muni Metro 'N' line that runs between the Caltrain station and AT&T Park in downtown and the Pacific coast beach (although the number 6 bus goes there too)


The area is mostly residential and quiet with a number of small parks dotted around, with curving paths, grassy areas and flowers.

It was all remarkably well kept and free of litter, with some low walls on which you could sit - and several people were doing just that, passing their lunch time in the peace and quiet.

As it was lunch time, I passed a few people out for lunch and some dog walkers, and it was a nice warm day.

I had to walk through a couple of parks and along another block on Frederick Street to find a rather unremarkable cafe.  I had expected a large place that was more of a restaurant rather than a simple cafe - or at least a large sign!

There wasn't very much seating inside, but there was an enthusiastic man at the counter taking orders.


As you might imagine from the name, most of the items on the menu involve pork products, mostly bacon.


I had a bacon burger sandwich, and an iced coffee.  It was OK.  I was expecting a larger menu with more types of bacon, but it is what it is.

There are also lots of photos around the place of people on the pig ride, so here's one of me, riding the pig.  I don't know if it still goes, but I didn't have 10 cents to find out!

Los Angeles Dodgers @ San Francisco Giants (game 1)

This game was extremely strange, and I didn't see much of it, except on television from my hotel room, unfortunately.

A converted DeLorean was being "sailed" around McCovey Cove

As I was queueing for security to get in, the large raindrops started falling and once I was safely inside, the downpour started.  Nevertheless, it eased right off and the radar showed that it should clear up shortly.   After around a 45 minute rain delay, the game finally started.  Unfortunately, this was the game that I had a front row seat on the club deck, which meant it was out in the rain, so I used several napkins to dry it off.  During the national anthem performance, it had started spitting again, and after Curtis Granderson had struck out for the first out of the game, the rain became much heavier and the umpires called the players off and the grounds crew on to cover the infield.

The radar continued to show that the rain was going to clear momentarily.  It eventually did stop ... 2 and a half hours later, after which the umpires inspected the field and discussed the conditions with both managers (as a courtesy, as the decision on whether to play rests solely with the umpiring crew chief) and apparently they also discussed it with officials at MLB headquarters, because by this time it was 10.30pm.  The problem for MLB is that the lack of off-days remaining in the season and that each game is important for Los Angeles in their attempt to finish with the best record in the National League to clinch homefield advantage, so they don't want to unnecessarily disadvantage them by making them play on their (last remaining) off day or in a double-header.

The decision was made that the game would continue at 10.50pm.  Since there'd only been one out, it was like starting the game.  The Giants' originally starter Stratton could not return after such a long break; the Dodgers' starter Kenta Maeda hadn't warmed up to game temperature so was able to play.
According to the ushers near my section, this is the first rain delay the Giants have had at AT&T Park this season.

As it got later and later, messages were put up on the scoreboard about when all the ferries, buses, trains and BART would be stopping running.  My misfortune was that the final BART back to the East Bay where my hotel is departed from downtown San Francisco at 12.20am, so sadly, I had to leave the stadium at 11.45pm at the conclusion of the third inning, with the Giants leading 4-0.  By the time I got back to my hotel, they were playing the fifth inning, where I discovered LA had scored 4 runs in the 4th to tie the game.  The game didn't seem to be on any of the TV channels in my room, but I was able to stream it using my Roku Streaming Stick that I've bought with me.  Once I'd connected it to the hotel wi-fi, I was able to have the HD TV signal on the large television in my room and apart from occasional rebuffering, it worked just fine.

The game finished at 2.11am, with the Giants holding on for an 8-6 victory, that extended LA's losing streak and made the few remaining fans in the stadium happy. 

Once the game had finished, I got a quote from Uber for a journey from the stadium to my hotel to see how much it was, and it would "only" have been around $30.  In the future, I'll know that it's safe to rely on that to get home again if a game really goes late, so I won't have to miss the end, or most of the game!

Berkeley Scrabble Tournament

Today I went to a Scrabble tournament in downtown Berkeley.  It's only a few stops north on BART, so I decided to make sure I was there in plenty of time and went to arrive 30 minutes early.  On BART, a lady sat down opposite me on the train and we started talking - she told me that she compiles crosswords and likes word puzzles, so I asked her if she liked Scrabble, and she said she was going to a tournament in Berkeley, to which I replied "me too!"

Andrea and I walked along together, as she knew where exactly it was, and she introduced me to several people.  I was welcomed warmly by everybody - I had to explain that I hadn't come 5300+ miles just to play 6 games of Scrabble, but was here for work and baseball too.  Andrea was in a different division to me, so we didn't play against each other.  I was playing in Collins Division B, so I avoided the really top players and played against 5 others, although I was seeded 6 in the group of 6 because I do not have a NASPA rating, although I do have an ABSP rating and a WESPA rating.

Key for Scrabble player organisations

Organisation	Full name
NASPA	North American Scrabble Players Association
WESPA	World English Language Scrabble Players Association
ABSP	Association of British Scrabble Players

This tournament was actually taking place in the diner, on the tables of the diner.  It was $20 to enter, although we were all asked to spend at least $10 on food and drink through the day.  The diner was quite large, but the overall turnout was so huge, that there wasn't enough space in the diner, so one division had to move to another cafe just down the street!

I was drawn to play against the number 1 seed Sam first, and I got off to a great start, playing ORGANISE and CRAWLED and hanging on to win 465-384.  Then I played against the number 3 seed Mina, who is one of the people who was displaced from southeastern Florida by Hurricane Irma, who was on her way to stay with her parents, but dropped in to play too.  I played TOPPLING, but she had 3 bonuses and won 506-348.

Third, I played Isaac and again started with a bonus of FOALING and later on STARCHY to hold on for a narrow 406-392 win.  Next up was Mary, who built up a decent lead whilst I struggled with racks with 3 or 4 'I's on, but I found VERITAS to go out for 69 to snatch a 410-371 win.

Mina, who beat me in round 2, but I got even in round 6

Finally in the round robin section, I played Paula who hadn't managed to win a game by that point.  She played BAROQUES and DILLIEST, but it wasn't enough to beat my DARTING and late NOSIEST as I won 446-397, leaving me with 4 wins and 1 loss.

Meanwhile, Mina had also lost just 1 game, so Mina & I played again in the final round, with the division win going to the victor.

I challenged off HOGGIER that would have given her a 125+ point lead early on.


Then I was able to get DOUBLES, ZA, NY in the mid-game and finally SOURS to give me a 16 point lead, with two 'I's on my rack, and Mina holding just an 'E' - and fortunately, she could only score 11 with that E, so I won the game by a single point and won the division (and $50!)

All the people were so friendly here,including all my opponents, Andrea, Chris, John, and Ed the organiser, and so many others. 

Santana Row

I've been at work all week with several other people from my office, but now we've finished and everybody's started returning home - Tom and Vini flew home on Friday evening, Pete's gone up to see friends in Oakland and will fly home on Sunday, and the other 5 of us went up to Santana Row in San Jose for the evening.  It's a fairly large shopping and restaurant and bar complex, and whilst most of the shops were shut by evening time, all the restaurants and bars were still open.

Whilst Ademola and Antonio went to try the bar scene, Marcin, Jacky & I went to the Cheesecake Factory and enjoyed an extremely reasonably priced dinner (the entire bill was less than US$120 for the three of us)  It was nice to be abe to relax for the evening.  By the time we'd finished just before midnight, we couldn't find the others, so we returned back to the hotel.  Marcin & Jacky were going to visit Alcatraz on Saturday morning (so had to leave very early!) before flying home on Saturday evening.

Meanwhile, I didn't have to leave until midday when I took another Uber back to the light rail station and went back to San Jose, took the Caltrain up to Millbrae, and then took BART across to Oakland.  I'm now in my new hotel in Oakland.