Photos and Recap: Fanfest 2008

It was a beautiful summer's day in San Francisco (in February) - perfect to attend KNBR's annual San Francisco Giants GeekFanfest ... which is how I decided to spend my Saturday. After getting my haircut, I headed over to AT&T Park in hopes of meeting my hero Barry Zito, as well as to get a feel for the Bonds-less 2008 Giants.

I started by just wandering through the stadium. There were players signing autographs, but the prospect of waiting upwards of an hour to meet Jack Taschner and Nate Schierholtz wasn't all that enticing.

The field is all tore up - as you can see - from a recent motorcross tournament, but the stadium still felt like home. Mostly I found myself stationed behind home plate, listening to the live KNBR broadcast that included interviews with Tim Lincecum, Rich Aurilla, Jon Miller, Duane Kuiper and Randy Winn.


What I learned is that everyone is really excited about this new pitch Lincecum will be adding to his repertoire. Also, Miller has been learning about the OPS stat and informed the crowd that Aaron Rowand's was exceptionally high last year. In more frivolous news, Gary Radnich considers Aurilla to be the best looking guy on the team this year.

Hitting up the concession stands, I realized that as much as I miss baseball in the off-season, I really miss garlic fries. It would appear I was not the only one.

Even though the Giants have said goodbye to the "Barry Bonds Era," they have not said goodbye to the "Barry Bonds 756 Merchandise Era." They're still milking the hell out of those t-shirts and pennants.

While I shopped around for merch (that's a music term, yo), I found myself tempted by the $20 mystery grab which seemed to include a DVD and bobblehead amongst other paraphernalia. I actually had my wallet out and was ready to ask for one when I heard a recent purchaser say, "Look, a Matt Morris bobblehead."

A Matt Morris bobblehead!

I was furious, and thought to myself, "This is how you treat loyal fans who are sticking through the steroid saga, the lack of exciting offseason deals, and this recent cockfighting controversy. You repay us with Matt Morris bobbleheads concealed in paper bags that sell for $20." I love you, Giants, but you are starting to make it very hard to.

So, no Zito sightings though it appears he was there. The closest I came was this dude in a Zito shirt.
Fun day nonetheless, and now it's time to get excited for baseball season.