E.K. NATION

I've caught up on my sleep, having returned from Phoenix by way of Las Vegas at the bright and shiny hour of 3:15 yesterday morning. And the trip to Bank One Ballpark was a great one, with three victories by the Giants in the can. The games were well-played and full of great pitching; just one error, lots and lots of strikeouts and exactly nine runs total. The Giants managed to strike out in totals that reached double figures in each game but won the games 2-1, 3-1 and 2-0. And a big highlight was of course Barry Bonds, who knocked a home run in his second plate appearance on Saturday after a week off to mourn the death of his father and also got the game-winning two-run single in the ninth on Monday.

It was a very emotional day for Barry on Saturday, a rollercoaster of sorts: He hit the home run, touched home plate and pointed skyward a bit longer than he usually does on such an occasion, and upon returning to the dugout he was shedding a tear (a fact I learned later on SportsCenter that night). Then late in the game he was removed from the game and then taken to a hospital with a fast heart rate and what turned out to be a case of exhaustion. He appears to be fine now, having returned with the team for last night's 2-1 victory over Colorado, but the Giants will be keeping an eye on him for a while.

Bank One Ballpark: The stadium is situated in a very small and very deserted downtown Phoenix. The temperature was hovering around 105 degrees the entire trip, so of course they had closed the roof, allowing for some welcome air-conditioning, bringing it down to a cool 79 or 82 degrees. And therein lies the one major problem with the stadium: It's a cavernous dungeon in there with the roof closed, and all of the high tech scoreboard gadgetry and internal nuances common in newer baseball stadiums couldn't much keep the atmosphere from resembling the parking-garage depression of a Kingdome. Once the games were over, the roof would be opened again to help the grass grow, and when the bright sunlight hit every corner of the inside of the park I saw glimpses of what could be a glorious place to play ball if it weren't so damn hot. The contrast was dramatic.

I saw much more Giants gear at the games than I had expected and was afforded more than a few opportunities to talk with fellow Giants rooters. Ticket takers outside were playfully making crosses with their fingers as I approached, Giants hat squarely atop the dome. And even just two years removed from a World Series championship, Diamondbacks fans weren't much in the mood to curse the G-Men or trash talk. The P.A. man would announce that the D-Backs were "two-time defending West Division champions", a proclamation tempered a bit by the presence of the defending National League pennant winners. And I was proud to be a Giants fan amidst the throng of purple snake shirts.

We started at the third level for game 1, then moved down a level for each of the remaining two games, ending up in the "bleacher" seats (there was indeed no sun to truly bleach us) for Monday's game. Arrival on Monday was two hours early, in anticipation of batting practice. Surely I thought I would get a ball; alas, no B.P. was taken at all. I thought that was a bit ironic, it being Labor Day and all. But then again we tend to not labor on Labor Day.

Wound up paying nineteen-and-a-half dollars (!) for an official Major League baseball, and took it down to the Giants' side, where I picked up the autographs of young pitchers Jerome Williams and Jesse Foppert. Man, do they look young. But they were very personable and accommodating, even with the older folks. So finally, after 25 years of rooting for the Giants, I finally have a Giant's autograph.

Some notes of interest:

Jason Schmidt has excellent control. Okay, we knew that already. But on Sunday night he didn't start off a hitter with a ball until the third inning, and for the first two innings threw just two balls total. That's simply great stuff. And the only man he walked (Luis Gonzalez in the fourth) was the only man who scored.

A 44 oz. pop, a 32 oz. pop and a 20 oz. water will run you $14.25 at the BOB. Man, you could almost get a baseball for that. Two words: Arrive hydrated.

Baseball fans just simply DO NOT KNOW WHEN TO CHEER. Two cases in point: 1) On Sunday, in the fifth inning, Rich Aurilia hit a fly ball to left field, and once Gonzalez made the catch for the out, Edgardo Alfonzo scored. This play was cheered WILDLY by the Diamondbacks fans. Note to you, guys: When the opposing team scores a run, usually it's a bad thing. In this case, it was. Your team went from trailing 2-1 to trailing 3-1. However, it's not always a bad thing when your opponent scores a run, even in a very close game: 2) In the bottom of the ninth on Saturday, the D-Backs were down by two runs but threatening. Raul Mondesi had doubled and with one out, Junior Spivey singled him to third. The next batter, Danny Bautista, hit a grounder to shortstop. Spivey was forced at second, but Mondesi scored. This play too was cheered WILDLY by the Diamondbacks fans. Note to you, guys: Yes, it's great when your team scores and everything, but the situation for your team had not gotten better. It had gotten significantly WORSE. Never mind that the score was now 2-1 instead of 2-0: Not only had the Giants recorded another out, but also, the tying run had not advanced on the play. Mondesi's scoring was an insignificant event in terms of the outcome of the game. I was cheering wildly too; my team was one out closer to winning. Shouldn't D-Backs fans have stopped to wonder why I was cheering the play?

People will boo Barry Bonds whenever they can. For cryin' out loud, people, his father just died, you jerks. Can't you go easy on him right now? You are pathological. Do you go to funerals and boo the family dressed in black too? That's simply embarrassing behavior. If you booed Barry Bonds this week, you are a world-class asshole.