Mary Ann and Skip Granger, Super Fans
Living in the San Francisco Bay Area for over fifty years, Mary Ann and I enjoyed being avid San Francisco Giants fans. We were also SF 49er fans and had great season ticket seats for both. We bought founder’s season tickets for the Giants when they relocated from Candlestick Park to AT & T Park (now Oracle) stadium downtown. If we had thought about it more, a perfect location out of the sun and rain should not have been the only considerations. Our seats were far down toward the field with no rail by the steps, a potential problem as we aged.
We attended both Giants and ‘Niners games at Candlestick Park before it was torn down. What a frigid place that could be! But we enjoyed those great football years with Super Bowl stars like Joe Montana, Jerry Rice, and Steve Young.
Suddenly in 2010, the Giants suffered a dry spell and couldn’t seem to win a game. We wanted to opt out of attending these games, but we couldn’t sell a ticket! We only attended fifty-eight of the eighty-four games that season. The Giants’ fortune was soon to change. By the All Star Break in mid-season 2010, Buster Posey came up, and the Giants were back in true form. Friends who had given us a firm “no” were suddenly calling to see if they could buy our tickets.
Finally, we decided to sell our seat license (with the help of our son Trey), but priced it outlandishly high. With the Giants not being a contender for the World Series that year (2014), we planned a trip to Las Vegas instead. The Giants’ fortune reversed, and after winning the division, they went on to play in their third world series in five years. Within fifteen minutes of the division win, we sold our seats on Stubhub for Game 1 for $1,675 each and our bleacher seats for $1,075 each. Another person claimed our seat license for an astronomical price…alcohol must have been involved…and likely a divorce ensued. But, the check cleared!
My most interesting ticket story occurred at a wine event. I had my Giants tickets sticking out of my blazer handkerchief pocket, hoping to sell them. No takers. As I was leavin
g, the valet asked if I would sell them to him; I offered them to him at face value. After collecting some money from other valets, he bought them. The following evening, I asked the fellow across the aisle, who had missed only three games in seven years, about the valet. He told me the kid had brought a cute date, caught a fly ball and gave it to her — a fun night! They watched the entire game, which turned out to be a PERFECT GAME, pitched by Matt Cain. I knew the valet would like to thank me, but contacting him was impossible. If you don’t know what a perfect game is, check it out. They are extremely rare.
GO GIANTS!
