Dead comes to life at Giants game
Like, wow, man, the San Francisco Giants are the grooviest team in the country.
Flashing back to the glory days of Haight-Ashbury, the Giants devoted Monday night to honoring a pioneering spirit.
It was Jerry Garcia Tribute Night, and the only things missing were tie-dyed Giants jerseys. And, of course, Garcia.
Monday marked the 15th anniversary of the death of Garcia, the leader of the Grateful Dead.
A limited number of fans received Garcia bobblehead dolls for the game against the Chicago Cubs.
Features included music from a Grateful Dead tribute band before the game, original Dead members Bob Weir and Phil Lesh singing the national anthem and former Dead drummer Mickey Hart leading 7,000 kazoo-playing fans in "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" for the seventh-inning stretch.
No announcement was needed to be made that "there is some bad acid going around" like at Woodstock. After all, Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream sponsored the night, so a family theme was maintained.
But the New York Daily News wondered why in the wake of the Barry Bonds era, "the Giants brass would (not) be wary of linking their team to anybody associated with banned substances."
Hallucinogenic drugs were performance enhancers for the Dead and many in their audiences.
In keeping with the Dead's tradition of marathon concerts, the game lasted 3 hours, 38 minutes before the Giants won in the 11th inning.
■ SPECIAL NIGHT GONE WRONG -- Just up the coast, a special night didn't go as well for the Seattle Mariners.
Monday was the team's Japanese Heritage Night, billed as "a fun-filled night of Japanese culture."
But hours before the game, the team fired Don Wakamatsu, Major League Baseball's first Japanese-American manager.
The only bigger blunders Monday would have been for the Mariners to trade Ichiro Suzuki, offer Japanese-Americans expenses-paid trips to camp or have a B-52 bomber do a fly-by before the game.
■ BAD HAIR DAYS -- Jimmy Johnson has won a national college championship and two Super Bowls, but he recently completed his toughest challenge.
The NFL commentator for Fox spent much of this summer as one of 20 castaways sent to Nicaragua to compete on the reality TV show "Survivor" that will air beginning Sept. 15 on CBS.
Johnson, 67, will be one of 10 players on an over-40 team that will compete against a group 30 and younger.
Johnson is a devoted follower of the show and twice before had tried to be a competitor. He credits his second tryout with saving his life.
"My first time, I got turned down," he told eonline.com. "The second time (for Gabon in 2008), I went through the whole process, and the 'Survivor' doctor says, 'Hey, you can't go: You've got (arterial) blockage.' I went to the cardiologist and had a stent the very next week."
His most daunting challenge now will be surviving without hair spray.
COMPILED BY JEFF WOLF
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
