hey batter, batter, batter

I have no idea if they say that or not.  It's hard to hear from 5 stories up.  Which is where I watched Sunday's Giants v Phillies baseball match from.  Mind you, the guy next to me was certain he could see well enough to dispute the ref's calls.

Baseball is even more boring than Cricket.  Basically it's a bunch of guys standing arount watching two guys playing piggy in the middle with a guy from the other team.  At least for the first three innings.  I'm told that it was so dull cos both teams are really good with great pitchers and to the unsuspecting (ignorant??) individual it would seem boring. 

Things heated up in the 4th.  A dropped ball, loaded bases (more than once) and a few runs on the board. Exciting stuff (:P).  The bat slipped (?) from the hands of one Phillies's batsman and hit the pitcher - much booing ensued as the pitcher (Lincegum) pulled a hollywood.  The back stop (catcher? My baseball lingo is failing me) chased down a Giant who had strayed a little too far from third. A few more runs; the Wilson came on to pitch; and the Giants won.

My day had started with a walk down to pier 45 to see a statue and live music that Mum had recommended.  Neither were to be found so I walked down and saw a sub and a navy ship built by Rosie the riveter.  I resisted the urge to tell the man in the navy uniform that his boat had holes in it.  Just as well as I soon after read that it was supposed to be that way.

A side trip to get coffee afforded me the funniest part of the holiday so far.  A homeless guy (sadly there are a lot of them around) had set himself up on the footpath with a couple of bushy branches that he held up and hid behind before jumping out at passers by.  The squeals and starts were hilarious.  There are, sadly, lots of homeless people in the city.  Today I say one very clean cut young man with a sign saying 'homeless Iraqi war vet'.  I'm not exactly a fan of the war in Iraq, but I don't understand how people can go from being soldiers to being homeless. Am I missing something here?  (*Gets off soapbox*)

Then it was a nice walk along Embarcado past all the piers to the baseball game.

I'd had a couple of tips from a local about places to eat so after the game I headed to the cheesecake factory on top of Macy's.  The service was mediocre but the food made up for it.  I know how much my sister appreciates my detailed food descriptions (:p) so here goes.  One chocolate tuxedo cream cheesecake is made up of a choc brownie base topped with choc cheescake topped with vanilla marscapone mousse marbled with chocolate topped with chocolate topped with cream.  It was amazingly yummy!  Only problem was that I could not eat it all.

After popping back to the hotel for the wine evening, I headed for his other tip - Lefty O'Doul's irish pub.  Lefty was a baseball player so it seemed appropriate.  The food was ok - a roast; the whisky was excellent (Glenlivet); and the piano player was very entertaining. I had a nice chat with a chap from New Zealand who I just happened to be sitting next to and a fellow from Nottingham who told be stories of jousting and tunnels under Nottingham.