At the Old Ball Game

San Jose Municipal Stadium, now called Excite Ballpark, is one of the oldest minor league ballparks in the U.S. and Canada and also one of the most charming. Construction began on the old-fashioned concrete structure as A WPA project in 1941. The San Francisco Seals played the first game here in 1942.

The stadium has been home to many different teams through the years, but the San Jose Giants have been here since 1988, one of the longest running major-minor league affiliations in baseball. There have been many changes to the original configuration of the ballpark, including a large video scoreboard, but there’s no escaping the historic atmosphere inside the stadium.

Old pennants and quotes, all painted on the stadium walls.

The walls are covered with amazing baseball murals, quotations from baseball legends, old minor league pennants and local advertising, all hand-painted by Tony Lima. It’s like being in a baseball history museum. There are a couple of food and drink booths inside under the stands, but a huge area outside on the third base side of the stadium has many more concessions, including the small, but well-stocked team store.

Gigante's Alley wraps around the stadium leading to the team store and Turkey Mike's.

Nearly half of Gigante’s Alley, named for the team’s tall ape-like mascot, is taken up by Turkey Mike’s BBQ with a large picnic area looking out on left field. I stopped at the garlic fries booth first for a quick snack and was going to get some BBQ later, but they shut down around the fifth inning before I had a chance to get back.

The seating bowl, with Turkey Mike's BBQ beyond third base.

Except for the modern scoreboard and some seatback chairs, your first look at the playing field and grandstand is like a step back in time. Most of the seats are metal bleachers, all with excellent views of the playing field. At one time there must have been a spectacular outfield backdrop with the Sierra Azul mountains, but now a number of ugly buildings and new construction are in the way.

Unfortunately, to get the mountain view and maybe to keep the sun out of the players’ eyes, the seating bowl faces south, directly exposing fans to the sun all day. A very small overhang provided shade for the top row of bleachers on the first base side, and every single shady space was taken for this afternoon’s 1 p.m. start. The temperature was 82° at first pitch and rose to almost 90° later in the game.

Obstructed view of mountains in the outfield.

My seat in the next-to-last row started to get some shade halfway through the game, but was not fully covered until about 3 o’clock. I don’t know why the game was being played in the afternoon instead of the evening, when the sun would not be a problem. At least the tickets were cheap, $5, because of a special midweek promotion.

I also got a good deal at the team store, thanks to the lucky number in my $2 program. The prize was a $20 voucher. I needed a new minor league passport book, which I get stamped to validate each of the stadiums I visit. I started checking several stadiums ago, but none of the team stores had the books for sale, until I got to the San Jose Giants.

My lucky number, 1770, wins.

This is my third book — each one has pages for 32 validations — and I haven’t paid full price for any of them. I found the first one in at the Gwinnett Braves store during the International League championship series in 2016. Everything was 50 percent off in an end-of-season sale. The second one came to me at Louisville Slugger Field, where the new operator at the team store opened the packaging of one of the books and grilled me on what was inside and how the stamping worked. As a thank you, she gave me the opened book for nothing. I bought a couple of other things in the San Jose Dugout Store, but I like to think my $20 coupon went towards the passport book.

My other purchases were a souvenir pin commemorating 75 years of baseball at Municipal Stadium, and a “beer batter” cap. A beer batter is designated from the visiting team for each home game. He has to listen to the Andrews Sisters singing “Beer Barrel Polka” after each pitch during his at bat. If the beer batter strikes out, beer is free for 15 minutes. There was no free beer today.

A hand-painted ad on the stadium wall.
Sometimes I find the penguins, sometimes they find me.

It was a fast game, just 2 hours and 19 minutes, hardly enough time to soak up all the historic atmosphere. The visiting Inland Empire 66ers (Low-A L.A. Angels) scored first in the top of the third, but the Giants answered with two runs in the bottom half to take the lead. The 66ers tied it up in the fourth, but solo home runs from Jimmy Glowenke and Marco Luciano put the home team ahead for good. Final: San Jose Giants 4, Inland Empire 66ers 3.