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to the San Francisco Giants, SBC Park
was/is the first privately financed ballpark
in Major League Baseball since Dodger
Stadium (dated 1962). Formerly called
Pacific Bell Park, this baseball stadium
cost over $319 million dollars to build.
Meant to replace Candlestick Park, the
former home of the Giants, it opened on
March 31st 2000. The park has a seating
capacity of 40,800 and is often filled
to capacity as Barry Bonds hits home run
after home run. It is an odd fact that
during a game people wait outside the
stadium and just off shore, directly in
the path of one of Barry’s famous
home runs. They wait to see if a ball
comes over the wall, and each aims to
be the one to dive and retrieve it from
the water; these are called “splash
hits”.
Barry
hit his 500th at the park, as well as
getting his 660th home run on April 12,
2004. This tied him up with legend Willie
Mays, and soon after he entered baseball’s
prestigious 700-club. The spirit of Willie
Mays is alive and well at the park: Not
only is the stadium built on a street
named after him, but also there is a large
statue of him just outside the park.
The stadium contains 63 luxury suites,
5,200 club seats on the club level and
an additional 1,500 club seats at the
field level behind home plate. Interesting
features of the park include an 80-foot
Coca-Cola bottle with playground slides
and miniature version of SBC Park behind
the left field bleachers. There is also
a giant baseball mitt and a small cable
car and a fog horn that blows when a Giants
player hits a home run.
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