Boston, California.

The Red Sox visited San Diego this weekend, and we were among the Red Sox fans who took over the place and helped set a Petco Stadium attendance record.

Some observations about the field:

• Petco Park's a major sports stadium named after a place that sells puppies and chew toys. We were less than inspired. And once we stepped inside, we continued to be underwhelmed. It was new, yeah, but boring. A giant slab of concrete, like an open-aired version of the FleetCenter

• But one cool thing is that it sits in the middle of a downtown neighborhood. Meaning the surrounding high-rises were so close that people could stand on the balconies and look down into the park. Same for some of the condos in the area.

• No pitch count to be found,and it took us 4 innings to find the radar gun reading.

• Not enuff vendors. We were at the top row, and all we saw were cotton candy and Crackerjack vendors. Either the vendors there are too lazy to climb stairs (a possibility,y looking at some of them) or there are not enuff.

• Plenty of beer stands, tho. Never had to wait in line, so long as you aren't fussy about what you are drinking. (one stand only had MGD)

• Also looks like its a “Potty Parity” joint, one of the stupidest ideas of modern times. A trend in the 90’s to address the fact that thew lines for the ladies rooms were out of control. However, the geniuses decided that, in a venue that is 70% male on any given day, women should have an equal amount of restrooms so there were long lines for the men's; rooms, and no lines for the women's rooms.

• These are the ushers. Look more like refugees from a Jimmy Buffet concert than a paid employee at the park We walked past 4 of these guys until we realized they were wearing a uniform.

• No security. At all. 30,000 Sox fans came into town, and the Petco folks had no idea what was coming. Because it was Sand Diego, it took 6 full innings for the jawing back and forth to turn into full scale fights; once that happened, the stadium responded by sending an usher up to check it out. “If this was Fenway, the cops would have kicked his ass out a long time ago” is something we heard over and over again.
  

• About the fights- there were a few. Among the Sox fans were some very obnoxious fans, acting as if this was a Yankee game. One fat ass in a Sox jersey sitting behind us kept throwing things onto the fnas below- water bottles, trash, full beers. Said our buddy who’s been in CA for the past 10 years: “I hope Red Sox Nation doesn’t become like Raider Nation.”

• It was Throwback Night; both teams wore uniforms from the 80’s. Meant that we got to see those great road grays that the Sox abandoned. Also got to see the Padres sport their brown and gold uniforms again. (but things went too far) There’s a movement in SD to go back to a brown color scheme (but not as garish as what they used to have) We agree. None of the fans we saw wore the current Padres blue; most of them were in brown T shirts.

Top Photo via flickr.com