San Francisco, CA--The Walt Whitman Bridge or the Golden Gate Bridge? Though you can't see either from AT&T Park, nestled on the east side of the city, home to over 800,000, the two structures were at the center of a drunken tirade spanning (pun intended) several innings during Game 3 of the NLCS.Damon Fullerton, a rabid Giants fan from Daly City, CA, is considered by most in AT&T Park's section 234, where the computer programmer has season tickets down the left field line, to be somewhat of a loud mouth.
"We're all Giants' fans, so we tolerate Damon," said Debbie McGeckrin, also a season ticket holder two rows behind Fullerton. "He's knows his stuff, but he really likes to get under the skin of the opposing team's fans with stats ... on all subjects. Sometimes he has some really good zingers. He's a Northeast baseball fan that happened to be born in San Fransisco."
Yesterday, the atmosphere of the second round of the MLB playoffs put Fullerton into a rare mood and his fellow Giants' supporters were loving it.
"Hey, section 234, did you know that Philadelphia's Walt Whitman Bridge is the 46th longest suspension bridge in the world," shouted a standing Fullerton, so the handful of earshot Phillies fans could hear. "Pretty impressive, right? Well, maybe, until you realize that the Golden Gate Bridge is the 9th longest. Sucks to be you Philly."
The surrounding crowd, fired up after just taking a 2-0 lead in the game, gave a big round of applause to this factoid thrown at them, unsolicited, by the beer-toting man draped in orange and performing the sprinkler dance. The cheering seemed to encourage Fullerton, as you could see the gears were slowly moving inside his baseball-capped head.
"Hey, section 234," again yelled the father of two, this time getting a 'hey what' in return from the all-the-sudden attentive fans. "Did you know that the City of Brotherly Shove's Ben Franklin Bridge is the 57th longest in the world? They can really build 'em out there, huh? Oh, but wait, this just in: the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge is the 37th longest. Wow, sorry again Filth-adelphia."
Again, most of the nearby sections cheered, and, when the clapping and whistling died down, a response was issued.
"Hey, buddy!" shouted Frank Cohen, 44, a mechanical engineer for Boeing in Delaware County, PA, wearing a Ryan Howard jersey while following his Fightin's on the road. "The Golden Gate Bridge has 68,000 tons of Bethlehem Steel. That's Bethlehem, PA, you asshole! That's Phillies' country. Sprinkler on that."
Fullerton, who had no immediate comeback and appeared to be in a state of disbelief over this fact, was bright red with embarrassment, quickly sat down and vented his steam by finishing off several Anchor Steam beers. Three innings later, he was ready with a rebuttal.
"Hey, to that Philly guy who said that stuff about my bridge that's mine. You don't know anything at all you don't know," slurred Fullerton, unable to stand without the support of a nearby fan's shoulder. "What'd they do? They send it by boat across the country on a train? What'd they do? Answer me wherever you are. They get a boat and drive through the Panamanian Canal? Canal. Can Al help me sit down?"
The stumbling Giant fan was on to something. The steel for the iconic bridge was, in fact, shipped from the east coast, south through the Panama Canal and to San Francisco. Only at a baseball game!
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