Baseball + A Couple of Dogs

It's baseball season, so you know I now have to squeeze in my food adventures with watching baseball games. And when the weather's nice, it's hard to resist the temptation to just hangout watching a game as opposed to cooking in the kitchen. Sorry, but I be honest.

This weekend I went to an Oakland Athletics' game against the visiting Kansas City Royals. The Oakland team is my hometown team, but I still favor the San Francisco Giants across the bay. (And if you wonder why, it's because Oakland is in the same league as my ultimate favorite team, the New York Yankees, so you know I can't root for the A's.) I haven't been to a Giants game yet, but it's pretty easy to on a whim decide to go to an Oakland A's game. That's what I did on Saturday.

While it's easy getting great seats at the A's game, I have a hard time deciding what to eat. I feel like there are fewer options at McAfee Stadium than at AT&T Park in San Francisco. My friend David says Oakland has the "real baseball fan" food, so that's what I got.

The first thing I ate was the Big Chili Cheese Dog ($7.50). You can see it above, and yes, it was really big. The hot dog portion was a bit squishy and salty (which I kind of liked) and there was a big bun that I used to sop up the chili beans and sauce. It was actually pretty satisfying, but I didn't really get the cheese on top. It was real processed cheese and made it taste like I was eating nachos.

At about the 5th inning when the Athletics' starting pitcher was struggling against the Royals, I went to distract myself with a corn dog ($3.50). I know, I never eat fried foods but somehow the idea of a corn dog was appetizing at that moment. Corn dogs are the most oddest looking food; it's like a pistol or something. But I'm a big fan of cornmeal. This particular corn dog at the stadium was a bit chewy. The hot dog portion was squishy again. Somehow all the hot dogs in Oakland are soft and squishy with salt. It tasted good after I lathered it with ketchup.

I think for future games I may just bring in a Vietnamese sandwich from Oakland's Chinatown instead of buying something at the stadium. Unless any of you have any suggestions of something I may be missing? But I really didn't find many things tempting.

The food may not be great, but with the small crowds at the Oakland games, you really get some of the best seats in town. Look at these photos I shot from my field level seat on the first base side. I could have caught a few foul balls if I didn't have a camera in my hand. The nice weather was made better by the fact that the Athletics swept the Royals this weekend. It's no skin off my back, but at least the people around me were happy. I don't necessarily want to get an A's fan angry. ;-)