Your help - London, UK honeymoon couple looking to watch a baseball game in Californi

[KevinMonk]

Hello!

I was hoping I might be able to get some help. I'm one half of a UK couple who are about to get married on September 4th. For our honeymoon, we're flying out to San Francisco and then flying back from Los Angeles three weeks later. As part of the honeymoon, I'd love us to catch a baseball game and soak up the atmosphere.

My girlfriend knows where we're going but she doesn't know all the things we'll be doing when we get there so I'm trying to organize lots of things like this without her knowing so you'll be helping me out in my clandestine activities.

So I've got a couple of questions you might be able to help me with:

• Is it possible to catch a MLB game and how do I go about getting a ticket? and
• If so, where would be a good place to catch a game in California? I'm happy with Major or Minor league. It seems to me that some of the minor league stuff could have an equally exciting atmosphere.

I'm also interested to hear if you have any other advice or recommendations, in general, for our trip?

Really looking forward to visiting your country!

Thanks in advance,

Kevin (and Francesca - although she doesn't know it).

[missionhockey21]

Hi Kevin, welcome to the site.

It sounds like you guys are going to have a fun trip. We have some members here who are in California, or are familiar with the area, who would likely be of more help than I can be. However, I do know about the various professional teams in California and I think seeing a San Francisco Giants game would be best for you. First of all, it is San Francisco, so the location is right. Secondly, it is a newer stadium and has some unique ballpark food, representative of local/California tastes. They also have the National League's best pitcher, so there would be a chance you could see him pitch. There are several MLB teams in California though, the Dodgers, Angels, Padres, and Athletics if you wanted to take a drive elsewhere in the state.

There is a series between the Giants and the Los Angeles Dodgers in San Francisco September 14th through September 16th. The Giants and Dodgers have a rivalry that extends back to when both teams were still in New York and they both play in the same division so that could be a fun game for you guys to experience. That would be the series I would try to attend. Here is a link below to see some of the upcoming games (you can click the T to buy tickets):

San Francisco Giants Individual Game Tickets | SFGiants.com: Tickets

Again, I haven't been, but San Francisco has a really good bakery my family has ordered stuff from before called Boudin Bakery. They have sourdough bread and lots of different packages, perfect for a picnic (wine, cheeses, etc.) That too might be something for you to consider.
Welcome To Boudin Bakery

Congratulations and let us know how the game is!

[KevinMonk]

Hello Mission,

Thanks for the quick reply. I've just been looking up the Giants stadium. It looks amazing. We're starting our holiday in San Fran on the 6th and then weaving our way down alng the coast road through Santa Cruz for some surfing and then Big Sur, Los Olivos (for a little 'sideways' style wine drinking), then LA, some Hollywood star gazing, Disneyland, Las Vegas, Grand Canyon, San Diego, Laguna Beach. I'm not sure about the order towards the end but the upshot is that we won't be near SF when they play the dodgers. It's a shame because I've been doing some reading around after your suggestion and it looks like it'd be a great game to catch.

The Dodgers are playing the San Diego Padres on 21-23 Sept. I thought that might be quite a good one as presumably there's some local rivalry there?

I'm amazed at what a range of tickets and prices there are for each game. In UK soccer games there's not such a huge range of ticket prices. Any ideas which seats would be good to soak up the atmosphere and join in the singing without breaking the bank? With such a range of tickets I'm a bit confused about which ones to go for. How far in advance do I have to buy tickets? Is it likely to sell out?

That bakery looks good. We'll have to check it out.

Thanks for your help and suggestions.

[KevinMonk]

Angels vs. White Sox in late September also looks like a good possibility:

Angels Baseball vs. Chicago White Sox tickets Angel Stadium of Anaheim Anaheim, CA, Directions, seating chart. Official Ticketmaster site.

Or this game whilst we're in San Francisco:

http://purchase.tickets.com/buy/MLBE...LB&pid=6647563

I'm so looking forward to this trip!

[realmofotalk]

[KevinMonk]

Spammer? where?

Nope. I'm for real. Either that or I've got a lot of time on my hands. You can check out our wedding website here:

Kevin and Francesca's Wedding Website

[Foster]

Wait a second.
I can upgrade your car to a convertible for just 758 dollars Canadian.
That's a steal....

Congrats by the way. Enjoy your trip.

[missionhockey21]

Hello Mission,

Thanks for the quick reply. I've just been looking up the Giants stadium. It looks amazing. We're starting our holiday in San Fran on the 6th and then weaving our way down alng the coast road through Santa Cruz for some surfing and then Big Sur, Los Olivos (for a little 'sideways' style wine drinking), then LA, some Hollywood star gazing, Disneyland, Las Vegas, Grand Canyon, San Diego, Laguna Beach. I'm not sure about the order towards the end but the upshot is that we won't be near SF when they play the dodgers. It's a shame because I've been doing some reading around after your suggestion and it looks like it'd be a great game to catch.

The Dodgers are playing the San Diego Padres on 21-23 Sept. I thought that might be quite a good one as presumably there's some local rivalry there?

I'm amazed at what a range of tickets and prices there are for each game. In UK soccer games there's not such a huge range of ticket prices. Any ideas which seats would be good to soak up the atmosphere and join in the singing without breaking the bank? With such a range of tickets I'm a bit confused about which ones to go for. How far in advance do I have to buy tickets? Is it likely to sell out?

That bakery looks good. We'll have to check it out.

Thanks for your help and suggestions.

Ah Big Sur, sounds cool. I don't know if you have ever read any Jack Kerouac but his novel titled Big Sur is one of my favorites.

Dodgers versus Padres would be a good matchup too. Dodger stadium is one of the big stadiums to visit and would also be a very good choice. I am not sure how early you would need to buy tickets, but as it is the second to last homestand for the Dodgers, it could be more popular depending on the playoff race. Right now the Padres and the Dodgers are fighting it out for first place, but that could be very different by September. As for seats, I typically like to sit on field level toward the corners, in the middle of where the infield meets the outfield. They are usually mid-priced tickets that still give you a great view of the action, a chance to catch a flyball, and have a good view of the ball being thrown to the batter.

If you are thinking about going to Dodger stadium but will wait a little while to buy tickets, you might want to sign up for their email list on the official Dodgers site. I know the Cincinnati Reds, the team I follow, will occasionally email fans about different ticket promotions.

I hope this helps!

[KevinMonk]

Wait a second.
I can upgrade your car to a convertible for just 758 dollars Canadian.
That's a steal....

Congrats by the way. Enjoy your trip.

Yep - That seems like a big number for an upgrade. I'm sure we must be able to get it cheaper. I was watching Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds and was thinking that it would be nice to drive along that coast with the top down. I'm not really expecting anyone to get that as a wedding gift. We just put it on there so we've got a range of gifts. You've got to put a few outliers in there! That's haf the fun of it. We're trying to range potential wedding gifts from a simple cup of coffee to some quite expensive stuff.

I think I need to double check the quote I got though. It seems very steep.

[Foster]

Remember that Canadian dollars. Our money isn't worth much.

[KevinMonk]

Thanks for all your comments.

I think we'll probably be going to see the Padres/Dodgers game on Tuesday 21st Sept. It looks like a good one to go with. Although I'm still working out what we're doing towards the end of our trip so we could possibly see the Reds play the Padres.

I'll go for the seats where the infield meets the outfield as you suggested.

I'm the man with the plan now!

Foster - I know what you mean but boy am I glad we didn't join the Euro. I've never understood why the US doesn't have State dollars. That way a Californian dollar could've weakened their currency instead of printing IOUs and I could get a cheap holiday! Everyone would be a winner.

[missionhockey21]

Awesome. Have a great time and if you have any more questions, feel free to drop by and ask.

[Saber]

You won't hit any minor league teams. All the Cal League and PCL teams are more inland. I do know beer, however.

[catman]

Enjoy your trip to the West coast. I've been there several times and enjoyed myself every time.

[KevinMonk]

UPDATE and QUESTION

Hi all,

Thanks for all those who have posted help and advice on this. Our wedding is this Saturday and thus our honeymoon is also swiftly approaching. We'll be in LA over the weekend Friday 17th September to Sunday 19th. We're therefore going to try and catch the Dodgers vs Rockies game. Looks like you get a free Manny Ramirez poster! That made me laugh. Didn't he get ejected from the field and now he's off to play for Chicago? I guess Dodgers fans could use it as a dartboard target or perhaps baseball isn't quite as tribal as football is in the UK.

Anyhow, someone kindly purchased the baseball game as wedding present for us on our wedding website and I'm therefore trign to purchase the tickets. I looked at the ones on the official MLB site and then I thoguht I'd tkae a look to see if I could spot any promotions online and I found al these tickets at swickets.com.

I don't want to put a link to them here in case they're scammers but they seem to be much, MUCH cheaper than the ones on the official site. It also seems to good to be true and my mum always said "If something seems to good to be true then it probably is". Is this a reputable ticket company in the states? or is it some kind of scam? How comes they're about a third of the price?

Kevin.