It all started out in front of the Ball Park at Willie Mays Plaza where Air NZ had a big board and a handful of staff promoting flights to NZ. If you took a picture and tweeted it (#airnzgiants), you even had a chance to win a free flight to NZ. I got a pic with these two (rather tall) flight attendants. Haven't heard whether I won the flight yet...
They played a number of promotional videos (clever advertisements) extolling the virtues of traveling to NZ on this special night. Seemed to work as I overheard several folks in the crowd discussing NZ.
Eager for a bite to eat once inside the park, we hunted down the Crab sandwiches that I heard I had to try. The verdict: tasty crab with buttery garlic bread. Delicious but, as with all sporting event foods, kinda pricey at $16 for how much you get.
We stood on the First base side as we awaited the first pitch of the night (thrown at 7:19pm). Play Ball!
As a part of the Air NZ promotion, four players from the All Blacks came up, did some activities with the Giants players before batting practice and got to hang around to watch the game. I definitely wanted to be at the game to have a chance to see some ABs players, in the US no less. So, as I gazed around the park, I kept a keen eye out for Aaron Smith, Conrad Smith, Cory Jane and Victor Vito (of course, players all on Super Rugby teams eliminated from the playoffs). While sitting in our seats in the left field bleachers, I spotted a group of the Air NZ flight attendants (wearing their conspicuous uniforms) walking towards an elevated area near the Coke bottle slide. I walked near there and, low and behold, saw Aaron Smith and Cory Jane! I caught CJ's attention, he noticed my All Blacks jersey and he gave me a thumbs up. I gestured to get a picture and he got Aaron to turn around to pose for a pic. At this point in time, I didn't know for sure whether I could get up there for a closer picture or not. But, I became determined to find out if maybe I could...
And I did! They had just given away tickets to NZ to four lucky fans in the crowd and I managed to catch the two guys at a good time to snap a quick picture (CJ on the left, Aaron Smith on the right). Had a enough time to exchange a few words with the guys and they mentioned: 1) Conrad and Victor probably stayed in the luxury box 2) they would only be in town for couple days total. I shook their hands and went back to the bleachers as a few other All Blacks jersey wearing fans made their way up to get pictures. Mari mentioned that she could see me during this entire event and that I looked like an overly excited, child-like fan. Too true.
After the 7th inning stretch, the game had settled down into a low scoring affair (even CJ mentioned someone needed to hit a home run or two). Unfortunately, all these kayakers in McCovey Cove didn't see any home run balls fly in their direction. In the end, the Giants held onto their two run lead (all scored in an exciting 1st inning) and Sergio Romo got all three outs in the 9th to end the game. Giants win!!!
On the way back to the Caltrain station, we stopped to grab a snack (sushi and a meatloaf sandwich) from the Safeway. Unfortunately, that little detour put us towards the back of a really long line to get on the train. As it turns out, they loaded up as many folks as they could onto the 10:40pm train and we missed the cutoff (meaning we had to wait for the 12:02am train). The card (which they handed out as a part of the Air NZ promotion - it had 9 facts about NZ on the back) pretty aptly describes our situation with the train having departed the station (the tired face also adds to the storytelling).
All things considered an awesome overall night filled with great company, an entertaining game and a close encounter with a couple of my sporting heroes. Throughout the evening, I had that sort of buzzing feeling that I remembered getting as a young kid meeting a few All Blacks for the first time. Very thankful to have had the opportunity to come up for the game and participate in the experience. I hope it turns out to be a successful venture and perhaps we might see a few more NZ celebs up here in the not too distant future. Well, this Bay Area Kiwi can dream!
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