Inside the Stadium and Outside the Stadium

This is how the stadium looked last Saturday night from reserved seats above the First Base line, and...

...this is how the stadium looked Sunday afternoon from a picnic area in Elysian Park, above Plotzer Stadium, as viewed from the side of a hillside above the gulch that is/was Chavez Ravine.

The sounds of the 40,000 people in the stadium carried clearly to the few dozen people in the park on Sunday, but no one had a radio so we all had to guess what each cheer might have represented on the field. Up until the final, raucous explosion of noise, we mostly heard sounds like a-a-aaa-AHHHHHHHH-OHHHHHHHHHhhh-h. This meant "maybe, maybe, MAYBE - RATSrats."

When the organ played 'Take Me Out to the Ballgame' we knew it was the bottom of the seventh inning.

When the game was won in the bottom of the ninth, the noise was astonishing, accompanied by drums beating, the organ playing, lights flashing off and on above the upper deck and insane, sustained cheering.

Everyone agreed it was every bit as much fun to listen to the crowd reactions from the Park as it was to watch the game on the field the night before. That may have something to do with the Plotzers getting creamed on Saturday but winning Sunday.

It turns out to be possible to eat a Plotzer Dog while wearing a baseball mitt.