While composing our Oracle Park View Reserve, also known as upper deck, review, it hit me that the stadium is almost 22-years old. Having grown up in Northern California and gone to numerous games when it first opened, this is really difficult to process. Part of that is due to the ballpark still looking and feeling like a new venue.
The same can be said about any of the stadiums built during the 2000s. Petco Park, Safeco Field (Yes, I know it’s not called that anymore) and the rest are all in great shape. However, there was something about Oracle Park that allowed it to standout.
A big reason for that is the scenery. The Splash Landing has always been a cool feature. But sitting in the View Reserve, or upper deck, sections and looking out over the San Francisco Bay is among the most unique spectacles in all of sports.
Not even those awful San Francisco Giants teams of the mid to late 2000s were enough to stop fans from attending. Seriously, people were willing to shell out large amounts of money to see a way past their peak Ray Durham and Omar Vizquel helplessly swing away at the plate. Oracle Park is that remarkable.
That being said, the great views and waterfront location comes at a cost. It can be bitterly cold, especially at the View Reserve level. And we’re not just talking about April and September. It’s a year-round occasion. You better bring a jacket to night games in July and August.
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Where Oracle Park really lets you down is with everything else. It costs $40 to park. You could take BART and/or the Muni Metro. But seriously, BART sucks. Traffic around the entire city is a nightmare.
The food is nothing to write home about either. Everyone used to rave about the garlic fries and while once good, they are a soggy mess these days. There was also nothing edible sold in a helmet. That’s a big thing for me. Their Tokyo-based counterpart, the Yomiuri Giants, sells both nachos and ice cream in a helmet.
It’s important to mention the fans who make things about themselves. Here are two examples from my most recent visit to Oracle Park. For starters, there was a dude in the upper deck shouting nonsensical stuff. One of the Giants’ players had Led Zepplin’s ‘When the Levee Breaks’ as his walkup song. This fellow just starts yelling, “Break the levee!” He tired himself out by the sixth inning, but it was all about him. The guy paid to go to the game so he could yell his stupid crap.
However, the worst was a couple in their mid-20s. They had been drinking quite a bit and the girlfriend was looking for a fight by the time the eighth inning rolled around. I couldn’t overhear everything in the buildup, but eventually she asked the question, “Do you masturbate to my Instagram?”
Firstly, there is no right answer to that question. Dude was being setup to lose. Secondly, maybe a baseball game isn’t the time or place for this conversation. Thirdly, no man has ever masturbated to his girlfriend’s Instagram.
Oracle Park View Reserve (aka upper deck) review: 7.5
Personally, I’d rather watch the A’s play at the Oakland Coliseum (read that review here). Oracle Park is really good and it is a stadium everyone should go to at least once. But everything around brings it down. The fans are lame. The food is bad. It’s expensive. Traffic is awful. You may freeze in the summer. As great as the view is, this stuff does take away from watching a game here.
