October 24, 2012 (Wednesday)
Today at 7:00 p.m. the World Series of Major League Baseball gets under way in San Francisco when the Giants meet the Detroit Tigers for the first game.
On Monday the Giants won their playoff series with the Cardinals in the seventh game when local favorite, Hunter Pence, formerly with the Corpus Christi Hooks and Houston Astros, hit the ball three times with one swing of the bat. When he hit the ball, his bat broke, causing a bounce that enabled the top half of the bat to hit the ball a second time, and then a third time as it made its way away from home plate.
The San Francisco Giants have played ball at highly acclaimed AT&T Park, near downtown, since the 2000 season. From 1960 through September 30,1999, the team played at Candlestick Park, which seemed to have one problem or another for baseball but continues to be used for football by the 49ers. (A new stadium for football in Santa Clara is planned for the year 2015).
I attended a game in the old Tiger Stadium in Detroit in 1966. We sat behind the Cincinnati dugout and saw Sparky Anderson in action closeup. (The final game was played in the old stadium September 27, 1999). The historic baseball field was unique in that it sported a 125 foot tall flagpole to the left of dead center field. The flagpole still stands today on land left vacant after demolition of the stadium. In 2010 the old playing field was restored by a special group of fans. A new stadium, Comerica Park, was constructed at a different site and has been in use since 2000. A new flagpole was positioned there in fair play, until the left field fence was moved in closer prior to the 2003 season.
