Raiders 49, Chiefs 31

Subrata invited me along when his friend Steve put together a large group of people and bought tickets. I guess there were 23 of us all together, few of whom even Subrata knew. We had seats around mid-field, but very high up in the upper deck (row 23 or thereabouts). John was rather annoyed that he hadn't been able to get tickets with us, as he's a big football fan (mainly a Green Bay Packers booster) and this game has playoff implications, as the teams are in the same division.

We lunched at Hobees before heading out, and got to Oakland just before kickoff, fortunately. Tickets were $61.00 each! Yow! I could go to three baseball games in the Coliseum for that, and with much better seats! Well, the Raiders are doing well this year (7-1 going into this game), and the game was sold out, which has been a rarity for them in recent years, I understand.

It was an overcast but warm day, with the sun coming out occasionally. I mostly didn't need a jacket, but I put one on late in the game. I'm just enough of a football fan to have learned that the Raiders' colors are silver and black, so I wore a gray shirt and black jeans. Whoop-de-doo!

The game was never really in doubt: The Chiefs offense and Raiders defense were both somewhat bumbling, both committing many penalties, but the Raiders D held up better, mainly thanks to forcing several turnovers. Meanwhile, the Raiders offense committed no turnovers and drove down the field for seven touchdowns in fairly methodical fashion. The Chiefs' good passing attack managed to score, too, but they were simply outclassed as the Raiders won 49-31. Have any teams other than the Rams scored 49 points this season? That's an awful lot.

The most impressive play of the game was a Raider defensive lineman tipping a pass by Chiefs quarterback Elvis Grbak (one of the best names in pro sports, BTW), and watching his head follow the ball in the air as he plucked it away for an interception. The coolest play of a game was a touchdown pass by Raiders QB Rich Gannon which deflected off one receiver's hands right into the arms of another.

Here are a few photos from the stands:

	The Raiders lining up for a play. Yes, we were a long way up.
	Someone - I think the Raiders - executing a running play that didn't work so well.
	We had a pretty nice view of Alameda from our seats. We also had a pretty good view (with binoculars) of the cheerleaders.

What was it like being at a game? Well, it was loud, and the fans were more profane than at any baseball game I've been to. Apparently a fight broke out in the stands a few sections away from us (why? As far as we could tell, Raiders fans outnumbered Chiefs fans 200:1), and a woman in the same vicinity started flashing the crowd at one point (no, I didn't notice myself).

Just before halftime I went down to the bathroom and stood in line for a drink and a polish sausage. Just before I got to the front, the guy two people in front of me passed out. He was about six-foor-four and probably in his 20s, and fell backwards onto the concrete and stared wide-eyed upwards for maybe thirty seconds, his face very pale. People called over a Services guy who called a paramedic, though by the time they arrived the guy had sat up, was drinking some water he'd been given, and wanted to get back in line for his food or beer or whatever. They took him away to get looked at. I don't know what might have happened to him (I'm no doctor, after all), but it was strange and scary. It wouldn't have surprised me, from the look on his face, if he'd been dead when he hit the ground.

The game experience was not a lot different from watching it on TV. Football is a great game for television, because it's usually easy to see everything that's happening on the field at once, and replays fill in the rest. Unlike baseball where the field is just too spread out to see what sorts of strategies the teams are employing at times. It was a little harder to keep track of the ball, I found, from the stands today than on TV. Possibly because I'm just not a big football fan, I didn't get the same thrill I get from being at a live baseball game. And more to the point, not the same thrill as being at a Red Sox game; watching your own team is always more intense and exciting.

So it was a fun experience, but I don't feel a crying need to go to another game anytime soon. Especially not at those prices.

This weekend I continued my "book-a-week" reading pace (only 1/7th of Subrata's usual reading pace!) and finished Ken MacLeod's first novel, The Star Fraction. I was disappointed in this one, as I was in his latest book The Sky Road. Both are fairly low-tech and don't have the sense of wonder of his middle two books. But all four are fairly short, so if you're so inclined, I'd suggest you start at the beginning.

I also decided to start reading one of the science fiction magazines, to keep up a bit more with current SF and new authors. I decided to go for Analog, since I think it's more scientifically oriented than Asimov's and certainly more so than Fantasy & Science Fiction. Surprisingly, an issue of Analog is only $3.50, which seems like a good deal in this day and age. I've read about half of the latest issue, and I've found it enjoyable so far. I don't know whether I'll keep it up. I try not to pressure myself as much as I used to about reading things I think I "ought to" read, since I'm just too darned slow a reader to read things that I don't actually enjoy.