After last night’s thumping of the Pittsburgh Pirates (8-0) by the San Francisco Giants in a one-game playoff, it seems only appropriate that I publish this photo of AT&T Park and McCovey Cove.
For those of you unfamiliar with baseball, Willy McCovey was the most famous first baseman ever to play with the Giants. He is in the Baseball Hall of Fame and was one of the most prolific home run hitters in the history of the game. It was only proper that this small inlet behind the stadium would be named after him. It takes one heck of a blast to hit a home run out of the stadium and into the cove…and McCovey could drive a ball a long, long way. He is credited for hitting the longest home run ever at Candlestick Park in 1966.
On game day, when the Giants are in town, fans can rent kayaks to sit in the cove and wait for a home run ball. Although there were far more kayaks in the water when Barry Bonds was playing, people still do it in hopes of getting a ball and getting on TV.
The Giants keep track of “Splash” home runs on a special scoreboard in right field…although they only keep track of Giant home runs. Right now, the count is at 67. One week after I took this photo, I was at a White Sox/Giants game and saw Adam Dunn hit a home run into the cove. Of course, it didn’t go up on the splash scoreboard as he played for the White Sox.
I actually took this photo when the Giants were on the road. My friend Hardy Miller and I drove over to The City and took a tour of the Giant’s home ballpark, which is only offered when the Giants are not in town. I couldn’t help compare this tour in my mind with the tour I took of Wrigley Field a few years ago.
While AT&T opened in the year 2000, the first game in Wrigley was played 100 years ago. While Wrigley celebrates all those years of history in both baseball and football, AT&T celebrates mostly the history of the Giants in San Francisco (they moved from New York and the Polo Grounds in 1958).
If one is a Giants fan (as I am since I lived in the Bay Area when the Giants moved here), there is a ton of memories to be seen here, the majority of which took place at Candlestick. Sadly, many of the great Giants memorabilia is in an area that most Giants fans at the ball park cannot see.
Other things I saw on the tour was the press box, views from the upper deck, Tony Bennett’s box, and the visitor’s club house. I also saw stadium personnel set up the stadium for a music concert set for the next night. Interesting.
I enjoyed this day and was glad I was able to share it with my old friend Hardy Miller, another diehard Giants fan. PS: After the tour, we walked a block to have lunch at a sports bar appropriately named, “The Polo Grounds.”
(To see a larger version of this image, just click on it)
To see more of my work, both in photography and digital painting, please visit my website, www.corkrum.com…or visit my Flickr Page.
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