Why, it’s baseball season, my boy!

San Jose’s Giants at home at Municipal Stadium, on Father’s Day in 2007.

And another baseball season is underway.

When it comes to the nation’s pastime, I count my self among the lucky. Fortunate in many ways. Grew up a fan one a storied franchise that moved west and became a fan of another underdog team that came west once and again, to take three world championships in back to back to back fashion, long before the term “three-peat” became the darling of sportscasters.

Along the way, I have enjoyed some wonderful experiences. In the late 60’s, I saw several games from the third deck, third base side at Candlestick Park as the fog rolled in; long before a marketing genius came up with the Croix de Candlestick. And in those years saw Hall of Fame players in their prime doing the San Francisco name proud. Mays, McCovey, Marichal, Perry and more. Games with my father and grandfather. And later, during a memorable summer of 1976, watched a game from the radio broadcast booth with Lon Simmons and Al Michaels doing the call and Rich Schmale as the engineer. Even though I now favor another team across the Bay, I still have memories of good times at AT&T Park as well.

But when the Athletics came to Oakland 50 years ago, there was something about this team that got my attention. Yes, there were the green and gold uniforms and all of Charlie Finley’s attempts to get folks into seats at the Coliseum. While I don’t recall my first game there, there have been plenty of memorable moments since. Such as taking in a game with my dad and his mother from box seats that the Western Pacific Railroad had given to my dad’s company as a good customer on the subsidiary railroad (Sacramento Northern) getting shipments of steel at their West Pittsburg plant. Or a set of three games on a homestead where I took in a full Friday, Saturday and Sunday of baseball. And then there was a memorable home game in 1973, last of the season, before another World Series championship.

Watched some great players here too, but the memory of winning the games that lead up to the streak of 20 in 2002, including watching the 20th win from the A’s corporate box. Ironic that I also was among the extras in that appeared in 2011’s “Moneyball”, sitting in a whole bunch of places during a night of shooting. I even have my big on-screen moment for all of 20 seconds, appearing next to Jonah Hill in one shot of the 20th win game.

My moment of on-screen fame, just to the right of Jonah Hill, with my wife Michele on my right.

I’ve sat all around the Oakland Coliseum. Diamond Level seats right behind home plate on a Easter Sunday night as the A’s played the Baltimore Orioles and Cal Ripken. The field seat boxes on both the first and third base sides of the field, the open box suites at the end of the suites in both right and left field, the bleachers before and after Mount Davis, and in both the Eastside and Westside Clubs. Many of those games thanks to a generous friend.

But over the years, I count myself fortunate to have enjoyed Major League Baseball in a variety of locations. Baltimore’s Camden Yard (with fantastic crab cake sandwiches), Seattle’s Safeco Field (complete with an Ichiro walk-off home run against the Yankees) and a few games at Edison Field in Anaheim.

Crab cakes and beer in Baltimore. Who knew?

But it doesn’t stop there. Out here in the west, we have the California League as the Class A teams of MLB franchises. Seen a few games at most of the Northern and Southern California fields, and have visited a few when there was no game being played. San Jose’s Giants win the culinary title with Turkey Mike’s BBQ. And when baseball came back to Sacramento as the Rivercats of the Pacific Coast League Class AAA teams of both the A’s and Giants, see a few games there, too!

Yes, I even played on a few teams in my younger years including one that could have been the team of Charles Schulz’s crew as we won one game all season long, on a walkout walk of all things. I was good at pulling the ball for long hits but never amounted to much overall. But I did go pro in a sense, with the 2006 season. I was actually employed by Major League Baseball, doing tech support for the early days of their MLB.com products.

You can see why it’s more than just a game to me. Plenty of good times with family and friends to recall.

Sure, give me a cold beer and a hotdog (or more of those crab cake sandwiches from Baltimore) at the ball park any day or night and I’m all set.

This guy knows what he’s talking about!

“Play ball!”