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.

Bristol Hotel, Los Gatos

This hotel is somewhat anachronistic from top to bottom.

It looks like it's come from pre-WW1, but with aircon, candelabra, HD TV, comfy armchairs, a giant portrait of Helmut Kohl, a giant portrait of the young Queen Elizabeth II, quite a few Romanesque nude statues dotted around the place and some German flags.

"What do you think of it so far?"  "Rubbish!"

There's even a bust sitting on the table just inside my room, which gave me a start when I first went in.  It's really heavy too, so it's not just some cheap cast that they've had made.

In fact, it reminded somewhat of the Morecambe & Wise sketch with Glenda Jackson, with the talking head.  I took some photos, and I met another lady who was also taking photos of the corridors, as we agreed that neither of us had ever stayed anywhere quite like it.



The rooms opened directly onto the passageway, even right by the front door of the hotel - room 101 is just inside the front entrance before you even approach the lobby desk.

There are a lot of decorative lights everywhere .

And urns.  And statues.

San Francisco to Los Gatos

Today, I had to check out of my hotel and travel down to Los Gatos to spend the rest of the week at Roku headquarters as part of my induction process.  I confirmed to the hotel that I wanted my 4pm guaranteed late checkout, and they denied it - and eventually consented to 3pm.  I'm not convinced that I'm actually getting any benefits from being a Marriott Gold Elite member - I had to pay for my breakfasts here too, because Courtyard doesn't participate in the free breakfast promotion!  I'll see what happens in Oakland ... which is a real Marriott ... where I don't need the late checkout as I have a really early flight, but we'll see about breakfast.

I had dinner at John's Grill and then headed to the Caltrain station, which is the next station on the Muni Metro line after AT&T Park.  I caught the "Baby Bullet" train to San Jose, which left bang on time and arrived on schedule at San Jose Diridon Station - 1 hour 9 minutes later, after the less than 50 miles trip, which Google Maps tells me would take only 50 minutes by car.  The Baby Bullet is the semi-fast service, rather than the all stations stopper which takes twice as long!

However, with my Clipper card, it only cost $9.20  I then took a tram down to Winchester station (the end of the line) for $2 and then tried something new ... I used an Uber to get from the station to the hotel.  I sent out the request and it was accepted immediately and a man picked me up 3 minutes later and took me the very short distance to the hotel.  You don't pay the driver - you pay the website and the website pays the driver.  I was charged less than $5 for the trip (which I'll be claiming back on expenses)  I'll do almost the reverse journey on Saturday, except I won't go all the way to San Francisco, but I'll get off at Millbrae and transfer to BART to go straight through to Oakland.

St Louis Cardinals @ San Francisco Giants (game 4)

The final game of this 4-game series has arrived and Madison Bumgarner was starting for the Giants, after being scratched from the first game of this series.  It's slightly cooler today, but my seat was further round and nearer the front, so was in the sun for almost the entire game, so I spent a lot of the game sitting near the back, further round nearer to where I was yesterday.  Today, the usher had a plant mister and was going up and down spraying anybody who wanted it with cold water.

The Cardinals managed to take MadBum deep on multiple occasions in today's game, unfortunately, although they were all solo home runs.  I did get to see Madison get one back on his own, though - his first home run since the two he hit on opening night!  And it wasn't a cheapie either - it sailed deep into the crowd down the left field line.

In the end the Cardinals hung on for a 7-3 win to take the series overall 3 games to 1, which was disappointing.

In the evening, I had dinner at the Chart House at the end of Pier 39.  This is the place that used to be called Neptune's, until a year or so ago - a fact that I remember when I saw the entry on my credit card bill and wondered where on earth the charge had come from!

It has superb views over the harbour, which are even more picturesque as you sit there watching the evening light fade as the sun sets.  Pier 39 was still crowded when I came out later, with shows taking place on the small stage (it was the same woman doing the same show last time I was here, walking along the balancing poll held up by two large men picked from the audience!)

It's the 39th anniversary of Pier 39 this year, so there's lots of flags playing on that theme too.

The fog started to roll in whilst I was having dinner, which has finally thankfully killed off the excessive heat and it's all far more pleasant.

St Louis Cardinals @ San Francisco Giants (game 3, part 2)

I forgot to say ... it was a pitching duel, with Lance Lynn pitching 8 scoreless innings for the Cardinals, and Jeff Samardzija looking as if he was going to pick up the tough 1-0 loss, until Buster Posey drove in the tying run to cap a rally in the bottom of the 9th inning and then Nick Hundley hit a walk-off home run in the bottom of the 10th to give the Giants a 2-1 victory!

Buster Posey is having a good year, as usual - the problem is all the other players around him are having down years, and when we lost Madison Bumgarner early in the season for a few months, it really scuppered our chances.

St Louis Cardinals @ San Francisco Giants (game 3)

For me, one of the joys of San Francisco is that it never really gets that hot.  I can rely on it being in the 70s Fahrenheit (low to mid-20s Celsius) most of the time, getting a little chilly in the evenings at the ball park.

I think today has been the hottest day I've experienced in my life.

At game time today, the temperature was 40C/104F - in the shade.  Even at 7pm, it'd cooled off to only 32C/90F, and the excessive heat advisory ended at 9pm, but it's still 30C/86F now at 9.15pm.  The forecasts say that's going to be it for the heat, and it'll all return to normal tomorrow and thereafter, thankfully.

The usher in my section 219 was particularly good - about a quarter of the seats were in the shade and the rest in the direct sun at the start of the game, and she was reseating people and moving people around to keep them out of the sun if they wanted to.  It seems to me that there's a lot of common sense deployed in this country at awkward times like these - it makes no difference what your precise seat allocation is, just as long as everybody can watch the game in relative comfort and have a good time.

Many of the inter-inning features were cancelled today, replaced by health advisories on how to recognise heat stroke and dehydration, warnings on continuing to rehydrate even when you don't feel thirsty, and especially imploring children, the elderly and those who were unwell to keep drinking water.

Cool-off areas had been set up on the lower and upper levels - no aircon on those levels. Inside the club area was packed too, as many people chose to stay indoors in the air-conditioned areas, although even those were struggling with the heat and the number of people.

There are a lot of Cardinals supporters at the games, and many of them were completely happy to sit out in the sun - but I suppose this sort of weather is more common in the central regions.  One lady in my row had even brought a plant mister with her and filled it up with cold water and was willing to give people a quick spray if they wanted!

After the game, I was resting inside the club area before facing the heat outside again and met Eileen - the lady from the ticket window who sold me all my tickets!

The journey back to the hotel was warm.  However, there was a nice breeze on the Muni Metro platform at Powell St. so I lingered there a while to cool down.  With this being a day game, I was back in the centre of town at 5pm and so there was a massive queue for the cable car, instead of being able to hop on one almost immediately.  So instead I took the 30 bus back the way I had come.  It was a bendy bus - the bendy buses are brilliant, as they have really good aircon.

I had dinner at Boudin Bakery - I'm glad I booked, as it was packed with walkups being told of a 45 minute minimum wait for a table.  Unfortunately, their ice cream machine had broken down, so they weren't able to serve any desserts at all - quite a thing to lose on the hottest day of the year.  However, although it's close by, I don't think I can manage any anyway - it's too hot even to eat ice cream.

St Louis Cardinals @ San Francisco Giants (game 2)

The weather has still not relented.  The temperature was in the mid-90s today, so it was a case of going from building to building, walking in the shadows as much as possible.  I had dinner at the McCormick & Kuleto's restaurant at Ghirardelli Square.

Diners are afforded a superb view of the bay with the way the tables are arranged there, and the food is good ... although I don't appear to have received my $25 birthday voucher from them yet.  I didn't want very much, so I had the salmon sandwich (right)


The second game of the series featured the return of Johnny Cueto from the disabled list - he's not pitched in a month and a half, but you wouldn't know it, as he threw well, leaving on a pitch count, with a 5-2 lead.  Brandon Crawford made up for last night's non-homer by crushing a ball over the 421ft mark in centerfield. 

I checked in on the At The Ballpark app as usual, and found I was one of 30 lucky app users to win a mystery prize that had to be collected from the cafe behind the scoreboard - typically, exactly the opposite side of the ballpark to where my seat was and down on the promenade level.  I made my way down there and out into the heat and picked up my mystery prize: a Giants retro bobblehead.  Hopefully, one of my work colleagues will be able to take it back home for me next week, as there's no way I can fit it in my own luggage.  Then I went up to the View Reserved level to pick up my Star Trek shirt - tonight was Star Trek night - so I also have a T-shirt which looks like the Starfleet uniforms in the original Star Trek series, but in the Giants black and orange colours.  It took me a couple of innings to go around collecting all of that!

Unfortunately, the Giants' bullpen did not function well - again.  Despite being handed that 3 run lead, 2 runs were given up the 7th, the tying run in the 8th, and then a total meltdown occurred in the 9th as the Cardinals plated SIX more runs to eventually win the game 11-6 as we got a consolation run in the bottom of the 9th inning.

One great thing about the Muni Metro vehicles is that they have air conditioning that (usually!) works.  It was a relief to actually board the shuttle metro back to Powell St.

It was a more exciting trip home than last night, as the cable car driver slipped off the handle at one point, and he also let us zip downhill faster than I've ever been in a cable car - sort of like Jaws in the cable car in Moonraker but on a ground-based vehicle instead :-)   We almost hit a car being towed across an intersection too, but fortunately, we arrived safely at Hyde Street.

It was still hot, even approaching midnight.  And I've received a heat advisory warning on my phone for tomorrow.