The first game I ever attended at Pac Bell AT&T Oracle Park was on August 23, 2002. It was the first summer I participated in the Junior Giants program in San Luis Obispo, for which the reward was a trip to see the San Francisco Giants in their like-new stadium. The game was a clunker, but it didn’t matter. The snap of the ball hitting the catcher’s mitt, the smell of freshly cut grass, the gentle blue of bay and sky, the crack of the bat, the oversize glove and Coke bottle—it was serene and surreal, a magical stage set apart from the world.
Thoughts on what may be Madison Bumgarner’s last home start
