San Jose Municipal Stadium

San Jose Giants, California League

8/10

The main entrance is not quite behind home plate.

An overcast, moist evening for the opening game of a weekend series v. Lake Elsinore.

The stands empty quickly after a win, with those remaining waiting for fireworks.

I pulled into San Jose after taking a long, meandering route through the Napa Valley from Stockton and fighting a small amount of rush hour traffic, which given my track record in the Bay Area, was not too bad.  Municipal Stadium is located in a more industrial part of town, not far from Spartan Stadium, where the San Jose State football team plays. Parking was in a empty lot down the block with a run down paved jogging track. Because it was fireworks night, this cost 15 dollars, which having paid 5 to park right outside the one in Stockton, seemed insane. This park is another WPA ballpark from the early forties, which hasn't seen a whole ton of work since it opened. There are a ton of outbuildings, especially on the third base side, which are mostly for more food. The facility reminds me of Vancouver, if anything, although there's no roof whatsoever here. It's old and cramped, but still adequate for this level.

The atmosphere here was good. It was a Friday night, which helped out because it was also overcast and moist, and while it never did rain, it started off at a cool 59F and only got worse. The game was a series opener against Lake Elsinore, which saw the Giants plate 4 in the first three innings and the Storm peck away inning by inning, until the Giants used some late offence to win a good game, 6-4.

The food was also neat here. As mentioned earlier, outbuildings housed all kinds of options, including my eventual choice, some wood-fired pizza. Usually this sort of food village is a bit of a mess, but this was well laid out, like with Maryvale. I'd give it a plus.

Overall, a good option with a bit more character than some of it's newer competition in the Cal League. A good 8. I'll be back here in a few years.


Linescore
2016-05-06
                                              123  456   789   R H E
Lake Elsinore Storm(SD)           010  010   110  4 11 1
San Jose Giants(SF)                103  000   02x  6  6  2
Temp: 59F Time: 2:59  Att: 3,084