Baseball in San Francisco

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Baseball

The National League's New York Giants became the San Francisco Giants (AT&T Park, 24 Willie Mays Plaza, between 2nd and 3rd Sts., China Basin. 415/972-2000 or 800/734-4268. sanfrancisco.giants.mlb.com) when they moved to California in 1958, the same year that the Brooklyn Dodgers moved to Los Angeles. Today, the beautiful yet classic design of the Giants' AT&T Park has created a new legion of fans -- some more interested in the baseball experience than the Giants, per se. Still, buy your tickets in advance -- nearly every game sells out.

Getting Tickets

The park is small and there are 30,000 season ticket holders (for 43,000 seats), so Giants tickets for popular games routinely sell out the day they go on sale, and other games sell out quickly. If tickets aren't available at Tickets.com, try the Double Play Ticket Window, or even showing up on game day -- there are usually plenty of scalpers, some selling at reasonable prices.

Tickets.com (877/473-4849. www.tickets.com) sells game tickets over the phone and charges a per-ticket fee of $2-$10, plus a per-call processing fee of up to $5. The Giants Dugout (AT&T Park, 24 Willie Mays Plaza, SoMa. 415/972-2000. 4 Embarcadero Center, Embarcadero. 415/951-8888) sells tickets in any of its stores (check the Web site for all locations); a surcharge is added at all but the ballpark store.

The Giants' Web-only Double Play Ticket Window (sanfrancisco.giants.mlb.com) allows season ticket holders to resell their unused tickets. You won't always find a deal, but you might get a seat at an otherwise sold-out game. Click the "Tickets" menu on the homepage.

Where Giants Tread

The size of AT&T Park hits you immediately -- the field, McCovey Cove, and the Lefty O'Doul drawbridge all look like miniature models. At only 13 acres, the San Francisco Giants' ballpark is one of the country's smallest. After Boston's Fenway, AT&T Park has the shortest distance to the wall; from home plate, it's just 309 feet to right. But there's something endearing about its petite stature -- not to mention its location, with yacht masts poking up over the outfield and the blue bay sparkling beyond.

From 1960 to 2000, the Giants played at Candlestick Park (now Monster Park, the home of the NFL's '49ers). The huge, modern stadium has nice views, but it's also in one of the coldest, windiest parts of the city. (Giants' pitcher Stu Miller was famously "blown off the mound" here in 1961.)

In 2000, the Giants played their first game at AT&T Park (then Pacific Bell Park, later SBC Park -- in fact, some locals jokingly call it the Phone Company Park). All told, $357 million was spent on the privately funded park, and it shows in the retro redbrick exterior, the quaint clock tower, handsome bronze statues and murals, above-average food (pad thai, anyone?), and tiny details like baseball-style lettering on "no-smoking" signs. There isn't a bad seat in the house, and the park has an unusual level of intimacy and access. Concourses circle the field on two levels -- on field level, you can stand inches from players as they exit the locker rooms. On street level, non-ticketholders can get up close, too, outside a gate behind the visiting team's dugout.

Diehards may miss the grittiness of Candlestick, but it's hard not to love this park. It's a new stadium with an old-time aura, already a San Francisco institution.

The Famous Splash Hit

Locals show up in motorboats and inflatable rafts, with fishing nets ready to scoop up home run balls that clear the right field wall and land in McCovey Cove. Hitting one into the water isn't easy: the ball has to clear a 26-foot wall, the elevated walkway, and the promenade outside. Barry Bonds had the first splash hit on May 1, 2000.

Getting There

Parking is pricey ($25 and up), and 5,000 spaces for 43,000 seats doesn't add up. Take public transportation. MUNI line N (to CalTrain/Mission Bay) stops right in front of the park, and MUNI bus lines 10, 15, 30, 42, 45, and 47 stop a block away. Or you can arrive in style -- take the ferry from Jack London Square in Oakland (www.eastbayferry.com).

AT&T Park (24 Willie Mays Plaza, SoMa. 415/972-1800. www.attpark.com).

Park Tours ($10. Daily at 10:30 and 12:30).