April 11, 2000: After 40 seasons at the much-despised Candlestick
Park, the San Francisco Giants open Pacific Bell Park. Close to downtown, in the China Basin section of the city, it is hailed as one of the best baseball-specific stadiums ever built.
Unfortunately, they open the new one the same way they closed the old one,
losing to their hated rivals: The Los Angeles Dodgers beat them, 6-5. The Giants get home runs from Barry Bonds (no surprise), J.T.
Snow (not much of a surprise) and Doug Mirabelli (a big surprise). But the
biggest surprise of all is that Kevin Elster, once a good-field-no-hit
shortstop for the Mets, not only hits the ballpark’s 1st homer, he hits 3
homers for the Dodgers. In the rest of his career, he hit 85. The winning pitcher is Chan Ho Park; the losing pitcher, Kirk Reuter.
To me, it looks nice, but it also looks like they only built half of it. Being built on San Francisco Bay limited their space, much like an old-time ballpark jammed into a city block. It's got a huge glove with a ball in it, a huge Coca-Cola bottle, and a scoreboard with an old-time analog clock on top.
The section of the Bay adjacent to the park is named McCovey Cove, in honor of the one of the early San Francisco heroes of the Giants, Willie McCovey. Any home run hit into the Cove is called a "Splash Hit." Bonds has more than half of them, but then...
The park is at 3rd & King Streets, in the China Basin section of San Francisco. The address of the park is 24 Willie Mays Plaza, in honor of the Giants' greatest player ever and his uniform number. There are 6 statues outside: Of early Giants players, all Hall-of-Famers, Mays (surrounded by 24 palm trees), McCovey, Juan Marichal, Orlando Cepeda and Gaylord Perry; and a seal, representing the city's former Pacific Coast League team, the San Francisco Seals, named for Seal Rock in San Francisco Bay. (The Giants' mascot is Lou Seal.)
With phone companies getting bought out by bigger ones as quickly as banks and tech companies, Pac Bell Park became SBC Park in 2004, AT&T Park in 2006, ad Oracle Park in 2019. Since it opened, the Giants have been in 4 World
Series, winning 3 of them. In contrast, while they played at Candlestick, the
Giants were in 2 World Series, losing both.
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April 11, 2000 was a Tuesday. Actress Milly Alcock was born. These other games were played in Major League Baseball:
* The Detroit Tigers opened their brand-new Comerica Park, beating the Seattle Mariners, 5-2. Unlike its predecessor, Tiger Stadium, Comerica proved to be a pitcher's park. The 1st home run in it wasn't hit until its 4th game, by Juan González, a suspected steroid user.
* The Boston Red Sox beat the Minnesota Twins, 13-4 at Fenway Park in Boston.
* The Chicago White Sox beat the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, 13-6 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida.
* The Montreal Expos beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 7-3 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh.
* The Kansas City Royals beat the Baltimore Orioles, 7-5 at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City. Brian Johnson may have been the Royals' catcher, but, like the man of the same name who sang lead for rock band AC/DC, he shook them all night long, with a home run in the bottom of the 12th inning.
* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Houston Astros, 10-6 at Enron Field in Houston. This retractable-roof stadium had opened just 7 days earlier. After the 2001 collapse of Enron, it became Minute Maid Park, and in 2025 became Daikin Park.
* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Colorado Rockies, 10-3 at Coors Field in Denver. Ken Griffey Jr. went 2-for-5 with a home run and 5 RBIs.
* The San Diego Padres beat the Arizona Diamondbacks, 3-2 at Qualcomm Stadium (formerly San Diego Stadium and Jack Murphy Stadium). Ed Sprague tied the game with a home run in the bottom of the 9th inning, and led off the bottom of the 13th with a home run. Tony Gwynn did not play.
* The Anaheim Angels beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 5-4 at Edison International Field of Anaheim (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim).
* The Cleveland Indians beat the Oakland Athletics, 5-1 at the Oakland Coliseum (then known as the Network Associates Coliseum).
* The New York Yankees and the Texas Rangers were rained out at Yankee Stadium. The game was made up on August 21. The Yankees won, 12-3. Orlando "El Duque" Hernández was the winning pitcher. Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada and Glenallen Hill hit home runs.
* The New York Mets and the Philadelphia Phillies had the day off, as the Phillies had the day before as their home opener at Veterans Stadium, with this day off in case of a rainout.
* Same with the Atlanta Braves and the Chicago Cubs, as the day before was the Cubs' home opener at Wrigley Field.
* Same with the Florida Marlins and the Milwaukee Brewers, as the day before was the Brewers' home opener at Milwaukee County Stadium.
Football was out of season. The NHL was between the end of its regular season and the start of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. There were 6 games in the NBA:
* The New Jersey Nets lost to the Chicago Bulls, 100-93 at the United Center in Chicago.
* The Dallas Mavericks beat the Portland Trail Blazers, 92-81 at the Reunion Arena in Dallas.
* The Houston Rockets beat the Denver Nuggets, 103-93 at the Pepsi Center (now the Ball Arena) in Denver.
* The Phoenix Suns beat the Los Angeles Clippers, 95-88 at the Staples Center (now the Crypto.com Arena) in Los Angeles.
* The Golden State Warriors beat the Vancouver Grizzlies, 109-97 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena (then known as The Arena in Oakland).
* And the San Antonio Spurs beat the Sacramento Kings, 98-92 in overtime at the ARCO Arena in Sacramento.
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