Hooray Grizz fans showin' the 'Dogs love!

One small slice of the Grizzlies-Giants game last night in Fresno stood out to me. Not that multi-millionaire Barry Zito was done in by the Grizzlies, not that the Grizz signed a two-year development extension with the Giants and not that Barry Bonds' enormous head was not in left field for the first time in years.

Nope, it was the ol' applause-O-meter. OK, so Chukchansi Park wasn't really equipped with a tool to measure applauses, but my human ears detected that for Fresno City College and Fresno State pitcher Mark Gardner (also a former major leaguer and current Giants assistant) got by far the loudest ovation when he threw out the ceremonial first pitch.

I've gotta admit, it made me feel proud that the fans were knowledgeable enough to recognize Gardner for his great success story and his Fresno/Clovis roots. (It's just too bad for the Giants he didn't take the mound.)

I was sad to miss the Diamond 'Dogs 13-11 win over Cal Poly last night, but I couldn't pass up a chance to see a overflowing crowd in downtown Fresno. And while I don't plan to miss many more Fresno State baseball games for it, I do plan to make plenty more Grizz outings this year. With the new lateupdate.com promotion to win some free tickets, maybe I'll luck out and not have to shell out so much cash next time? (It was $20 a pop for the cheap seats.) But I guess I'll do what it takes...