So I was rewarded for allowing extra time and getting there early by having to sit on the side of a planter by the gate for almost half an hour. Then, the ticket booth opened 10 or so minutes early, but they still wouldn’t let me in through the gate, which is just as well because it turns out the guy sold me a ticket for the prior day’s game. So I went back to the ticket booth, which was open but no one was there because the ticket guy had gone looking for me.

The main complaint I have with the park though requires replacement of the whole park. That’s the fact that the sun sets over center field because the park was built backwards. I guess the park wasn’t built with night games in mind in the ‘20s or whenever it was first built, but still. Instead of a 7:05 start time, start times are scheduled for 7:30. The game I went, they didn’t have the first pitch until 7:55 or so. That means even though my game breezed along and was finished in well under three hours, it was still after 10:30 by the time I left (and I had a two-hour drive after that). I have a feeling my experience with that wasn’t atypical. Consider who lives in Bakersfield — agricultural workers, oil workers, and the like, a lot of people who have to be up early for work and aren’t likely to want to stay out until 11 or later to take their kids to a baseball game (especially for a losing team) when they have to be up at 5 a.m. If they were to build a park with the batter’s eye facing east and with a shade structure and ceiling fans over the stands, then start the games at 7, or maybe even at 6, more people might find it worthwhile to go to the game and still be able to get home in time for bed at a reasonable hour.