5:15 is Really Early

Yesterday around 4 pm I was lucky enough to be given two great seats to the Giants/Dodgers game so my afternoon plans quickly changed.  I went with a friend to The Bus Stop Bar in San Francisco for some pregame beverages.  The bar has been around since 1900 and has 4 flatscreens within view and luckily one of them was tuned to NESN.  The bartender was from Worcester, Mass. and the guy sitting next to me was wearing a Japanese Dice-K shirt, Dirty Water was even playing on the jukebox.  The rain started falling at the Fens so we, like most of you, were watching wiffleball highlights and wondering how Lester was going to get out of the bases loaded jam when the game resumed.

We left the Bus Stop and headed to Red's Java House near AT&T Park for some more beverages and greasy food before heading into the game.

While people out here like to compare the Giants-Dodgers rivalry to that of the Red Sox-Yankees, it isn't really the same.  25% of the fans at the game last night were in Dodger blue and both sides were pretty vocal but not near the intensity you get when the Yankees are at Fenway.  It was a must win game for the Giants who were trying to catch the Rockies in the wild-card or the Dodgers in the division to get into the playoffs.  Those dreams however disappeared into the San Francisco night when Casey Blake crushed a pitch from Matt Cain in the 6th.  It was strange seeing Manny in a different uniform but he wasn't much of a factor in the game and he is still was not running out ground balls.

I headed home to Sonoma County after the game but realized I had to set my alarm early to call into The Baseball Show at 5:15 am, which is way too early for any sane person to be up on a Saturday morning, especially after a night on the town.

You can watch the clip from "Web Sox Nation" below: