Sunday, September 16, 2007
From the halls of Montezuma to the stands at Petco Park
I've been working very long hours recently, including all day yesterday and well into the evening. Today, though, I was free of obligations. I popped awake at 6, which is rather late considering the time difference from the East coast, and repaired to a local Starbucks to read the newspaper and blog. Mid-morning I went up to the rooftop pool to finish Michael Ledeen's book, The Iranian Time Bomb: The Mullah Zealots' Quest for Destruction
It was actually the second time I'd seen the Giants this year, having caught a game in San Francisco in early May. There is no explanation for this, except that I will usually only work up the energy to go to a baseball game if I can walk to the park and San Francisco and San Diego are two places where you can do that from most of the downtown hotels.
Suffice it to say, the baseball experience in the two cities is very different, particularly in the affiliated pageantry. In San Diego, we all got up and sang "God Bless America" at the seventh inning stretch. Suffice it to say that we did not do that in San Francisco.
The other difference is in the regard for our military. At some point in the fourth inning the announcer declared the presence of a company of newly trained Marines, directed us to look up into the stands to honor them, and led the crowd in a stirring round of the Marines Corp Hymn.
When I was young, I thought that San Diego was the most boring of the three big California cities, and that San Francisco was the most interesting. That may still be true, but with the wisdom of age and the changing of the times I am increasingly certain that if I had to live in one of Los Angeles, San Francisco, or San Diego, I would choose the last by a long shot.
And to those new Marines: Good hunting, with all our gratitude and respect.
15 Comments:
By 
antithaca, at
Sun Sep 16, 11:01:00 PM:
Ahh, "sectionalism" as some might call it.
In my home city, there's almost no military presence (physically or virtually). Local residents sprayed their own blood on the walls of the recruiting station in protest of the Iraq War.
On a recent trip to Atlanta, at the airport, troopers were marching through the terminal. As they did everyone would stop what they were doing and applaud them. It was so unexpected to me I almost spilled my coffee in a rush to set it down and join in.
By Escort81, at
Sun Sep 16, 11:58:00 PM:
Unfortunately, the Padres keep winning, making it harder for the Phillies to win the wild card and get into the playoffs.
I don't enjoy being in the metro LA area. I almost moved to SF in 1989 (although I would have been there for the earthquake that year had I done so), and it is a beautiful city. It's hard for me to understand how real estate can be so expensive in a city where the majority of residents have serious qualms regarding the legitimacy of the concept of private property ownership (as opposed to their preferred mode of state ownership). San Diego is a nice city, and there's plenty of good sailing in the area (one time site of the America's Cup). Of course it will be more military friendly than SF because of the proximity of Navy and Marine bases. In SF, many residents don't even want military recruiting stations located there (and I think that predates the Iraq war).
By 
, at
Mon Sep 17, 12:50:00 AM:
Heres hoping the PADRES cream the GIANTS and the SAN DIEGO CHICKEN dose a number on GAVIN NEWSROM the leftists mayor of HANOI ON THE BAY
By Purple Avenger, at
Mon Sep 17, 08:02:00 AM:
25 years ago when I was in grad school at UCSD (which is actually a few miles north in La Jolla), San Diego was a pretty nice place.
Moderate weather, always 5-10 degrees cooler than LA. Two months out of the year you'd get fog so thick on I5 you couldn't see 20' though.
The LA area was nightmarish. I fled every weekend when I was working there. Got in my old VW beetle and headed anywhere but the LA area. I spent a lot of time wandering the little farming towns in the central valley and exploring the desert.
By , at
Mon Sep 17, 08:28:00 AM:
did anyone comment onthe flag? i´ll bet it isnot italian
wardryan
By , at
Mon Sep 17, 09:46:00 AM:
Thanks for the great post. Beautiful day, game and tribute!
Andrew
By , at
Mon Sep 17, 03:42:00 PM:
I tend to agree. However, the Padres did have Family Day and Gay pride day for the same game. Many children exposed to a lot of same sex affection and other things. Bad taste in my opinion.
By mlah, at
Mon Sep 17, 05:36:00 PM:
i noticed the flag right off too.
i went to navy boot in san diego. didn't spend too much time out in the city. someday, i'll get to visit.
good hnting to the devil dogs. not only did they have the gumption to join the marines, they did it in time of war.
By Dawnfire82, at
Mon Sep 17, 06:27:00 PM:
"Many children exposed to a lot of same sex affection and other things. Bad taste in my opinion."
Because shielding them from the realities of the world is so much better.
By , at
Mon Sep 17, 10:00:00 PM:
And Dawnfire, do you have a line drawn to "shield them from the realities of the world"? Or is every "realty of the world" OK by you? OK to observe actual sex between parents or consenting adults? OK for children to watch "reality" TV. Sounds like the Berkeley area appeals to you, you know the boobs not war mentality.
SEW
By , at
Tue Sep 18, 06:03:00 PM:
In defense of the Padres, they also fly the US flag; it just isn't visible in that picture. They are, after all, only a few miles from the Mexico/US border, and they are tying to attract paying customers - the Padres are a better MLB team than anything available in Tijuana (g), but MLB has fans (and I think teams) in the Dominican Republic, Japan and Cuba is another hot bed of baseball (can you tell I prefer college football?). Where I draw the line is at _government_ using non-english languages, flying other country's flags, etc. Private businesses - not as much a problem.
That said, we in San Diego are fortunate that we have a visible military presence - one of the big problems with the entire BRAC project is that it is reducing the military footprint in society, so fewer and fewer people actually know anyone who knows anything about the military - this is not a good trend.
TH, next time you are in town, let me buy you a beer.
andrewdb
By Eric, at
Fri Sep 21, 11:48:00 PM:
Hm. When I did my Army basic training at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, nobody took us to any St Louis Cardinals games.
I guess Marines just have it easier in Basic than soldiers.
By Cardinalpark, at
Sat Sep 22, 11:45:00 AM:
San Diego is a huge Navy and Marine town boys. Pendleton is close by.
By , at
Mon Sep 24, 01:26:00 AM:
Camp Pendleton, Miramar MCAS, MCRD, 32nd St Naval Station, Sub Base San Diego, North Island NAS, Amphbious Base Coronado, and many lesser-known facilities that do classified work so they don't advertise very much.
I see quite a few Army uniforms too, but I don't know what they do here.
By , at
Sat Sep 13, 11:23:00 PM:
Thanks for the picture of me... I am in the lower left side of the "sea of green" and I just ran across your picture by coincidendce. When we marched into the stadium we were greeted like celebrities, even though we couldn't acknowlede any of it. Thank you everyone for your support of the military, and for those that don't stand behind the war, please stand behind the troops, we're only doing what we have to.
