We attended all three games at Petco this week while were on vacation in San Diego.  It was our first time there and it is truly a beautiful and convenient park.  The seats all seemed to have great sightlines and the common/concession areas were very convenient and spacious.  We stayed downtown and were able to walk to every game as well as go to restaurants and bars in the vicinity of the stadium which was very cool.  It was especially cool to have a drink at the Marriott Bar overlooking the park before the game and see the A's taking batting practice way, way down below.  

That said, I was so happy to be back at the Coliseum last night and today (and not simply because it's always nicer to be at your home team's park).  The Petco experience was just so...frenetic!  The music was loud and the graphics were garish.  There were loud, long intro songs for every.single.player at every.single.at.bat.  Furthermore, every single event had its own music theme and graphic (every strikeout, every walk, etc., etc.).  The Friar mascot was everywhere on the field and on the jumbotron at all times!  The "Pad Squad" was always running around between innings riling people up and giving things away.  It was overwhelming!  I know this is the trend (and it is fun to some degree) and is seen as necessary by many to increase participation (and thus profits) but I truly hope that when the A's get their new stadium that they will keep their more laid-back attitude (and keep the focus on the game as opposed to the spectacle).

I am wondering about others' experiences at other ballparks and if perhaps this the new norm and something that I am simply not used to.  I have to admit that I have been to very few other "modern" stadiums (just AT&T and Comerica) so perhaps I am behind the times and that this is something I will have to get used to in the future.

As a perhaps unrelated post script...I read recently about somebody posting about how laid-back the Padres fans are and I have to admit that our experiences there these past few days were the opposite of that!  I realize that the sample size was small (just three games) but it did make a big impression on us.  At all three games we encountered obnoxious fans (perhaps since they felt threatened that their stadium was filled with a good 1/3 A's fans??)  For example, at Wednesday's game, two Padres fans actually got mad at us for cheering for the A's. The people in front of us (who had recently moved there to escape the heat so those weren't their actual seats) said "Can you believe that we have to sit here and deal with this?? (sidelong glances at us for simply standing and clapping for Payton's two-run homer).  We shouldn't have to deal with this crap here!!"

That said, I loved Petco Park itself but thought that they didn't need to do so much promotion to allow people to simply enjoy the game of baseball!

P.S.  While we were there we did a lot of walking around downtown at all times of day just because we were there.  On Wednesday in the late afternoon I looked up at someone walking next to us who was talking loudly on a cellphone.  It was Huston Street!  He was heavily engrossed in his conversation or else I might have at least said hello (so much so that he almost wandered in front of a taxicab while crossing the street!).  Later we crossed paths with Bobby Crosby as he crossed the street to enter the stadium.  Very cool experiences because of having a downtown stadium.

Sorry to make this a diary since it is really just a simple question.  (Related point which also serves to make my diary long enough...it would be a great addition to this site/the SB Nation site model to have a permanent/sticky "Questions" thread where people can post quick questions without cluttering up the diaries or risk having their questions get lost in the game threads or other diaries).

On to my question...I recently bid on an A's ticket/merchandise package at a silent auction.  My husband and I along with another couple were going to enjoy a game in GREAT seats w/o kids for once.  Unfortunately we realized after we won the auction that the tickets are for Father's Day so we can't in good conscience leave our kids for that day.

Now really, my question...can we trade in these tickets at the ticket office for another date or must we sell them ourselves and repurchase equivalent tickets?  Not sure if it matters, but these are season tickets (just not OUR season tickets).

Thanks for reading through all of this and for your answers

My 12 year old son subscribes to both SI and SI For Kids but what he really wants to subscribe to is a magazine just about baseball.  He is a die-hard A's fan but also wants to know about the rest of the league.  Can you suggest something that he can subscribe to?  He's not necessarily looking for a baseball magazine geared just towards kids but rather a good baseball magazine geared towards real fans.

I was hoping to make it to all three games this weekend but it looks like I won't be able to make it on Sunday.  Not only am I upset at missing one of the last games of the season...I REALLY wanted a Bobby Kielty Troll Doll!!  If anyone is going to the game and can get an extra giveaway, I would love to trade for it.  Here's what I have to offer (my family of 5 has gone to a lot of giveaway days this season so I have some extras...):

• Kotsay Bobblehead (in box)
  
• Crosby Bobblehead (in box)
  
• Kendall Bobblehead (in box)
  
• Zito Figurine (in box)
  
• 2 tickets to Thursday's game vs. the Angels (sect 204, row 12).
• Email me if you're interested!

Count me among the now-ex-lurkers.  I sat at the game on Eck-Day-Saturday in section 325 looking longingly at all of you ANers and wishing I could go say hi, but how could I since I hadn't even registered yet?!  I've been reading AN all season long (um, almost obsessively one might say) and often felt that I didn't have enough to add to register but seeing all of you today at AN day changed my mind because I want to be a part of the next one!

Brief background:  I grew up a California Angels fan (Wait!  Don't count me out just yet!) and living in the OC with my mom taking my brother and I to many, many Angels games in the mid-'70's where we had a blast learning baseball and watching Nolan Ryan and Frank Tanana pitch but rarely saw an actual win.  We moved up to Northern California in '77 and began going to the Coliseum where we first went just to see baseball again but were soon won over by the A's.  Fast forward to today and I now have a husband and three sons (ages 11, 9, and 7) who bleed green and gold (OK, hubby still maintains his childhood Detroit Tigers allegiance to some degree).

On to my question....we are all HUGE A's fans now living in Pleasanton but are somewhat Coliseum newbies even though we go to progressively more and more A's games each season.  For the most part we buy tickets online or walk-up at the game on the spur of the moment ("The game's not on TV?!?  OK then!  We're going!").  We're slowly figuring out some of the secrets (kids in the kid's club=player signatures and photos ops (I'll post pics later)), but what are others?  Where are the good/best seats (both in terms of game and value)?  Where do you not want to sit (e.g. rows 1 and 2 on the second and third decks)?  Good food/concession secrets?  Parking secrets?  Other insider tips?  I think I've learned that season tickets are the way to go in the future (not this year as we have one of those discount cards we bought at Little League that is servicing us pretty well for now).  Anything else??  

Thank you for the advice and I'm glad and honored to join all of you.  This is an amazing site due both to the great leadership and the awesome participation of everyone else.