math and baseball

Went out with the geeks for a group outing yesterday. After a week of hanging out in the same institute and dorm, 4 of us discovered we were all big baseball fans and decided to go and watch a game in San Francisco on Saturday. Asked around if others were interested and about 10 other people came along. They weren't interested in the baseball but more keen on sightseeing in San Francisco.

Organizing a trip with almost 15 people wasn't fun especially as a lot of them had no clue of how to go into San Francisco and what to do. One of the baseball fans decided to be the tour guide and he took everyone on a walking tour of San Francisco's touristy sights. Cameras were whipped out all the time and it was a bit awkward travelling in a big group, doing headcounts, asking what to do next, etc. Since a bunch of us were going to the baseball game later in the evening and I don't have a cellphone anymore I had to stick with them. Managed to sneak away for a while to City Lights and bumped into Darius and David, 2 physicists from MIT who I knew while in Boston. It was quite bizarre running into them in San Francisco, having not met in Boston for almost a year.

Ended up walking all the way up to the Ghirardelli chocolate factory where I had a sinful sundae. One of the baseball fans, Nathan, told me how he had finished 2 vermonsters. At Ben and Jerry's icecream a vermonster consists of all 42 scoops of icecream and all possible toppings in one huge bucket. It costs 42$ and if any one person can finish it, he doesn't have to pay for it. Nathan used to play semi-professional rugby for a few years and after a 6 hour session, went with his entire team to the store and finished off a vermonster. Apparently, he didn't struggle while finishing it.

The game was pretty ordinary but the baseball park is beautiful. It's on the south side of the city and overlooks the Berkeley and Oakland hills over the bay. Watching the sunset and the hills light up with a game in front was pretty enchanting. Spent most of the time yakking about math gossip and cheering the occasional hit and trying to boo Barry Bonds. The baseball world might boo him for his steroids but San Francisco still loves him. He didn't hit a home run over into the bay but pulled a foul ball over. The lone kayaker in the waters promptly jumped in to fetch it.