Early 4th of July at Petco Park

There's nothing more 4th of July than a baseball game with fireworks, so much so that the Padres scheduled two firework games on the 3rd and 4th. I chose the game on the 3rd because Greg Maddux, one of the greatest pitchers ever, was scheduled to start for the Padres.

To get to Petco without paying exorbitant parking fees, the first step is to park at San Diego's other sports stadium: Qualcomm.
Then you hop on the express trolley to Petco. The express trolley still stops at all the stops, but it does mean you don't have to transfer trolleys twice.

The trolleys criss-cross over the Rio San Diego, which, although it runs down the center of Mission Valley, is largely invisible from everywhere except the trolley.
When you get to Petco Park, you will learn that it is actually run by Muffy.
Her buddies are all there,
She has a litter-box in the outfield,
And there is a big grassy hill for her to sit on and watch the game.
I had a great seat, field level, about 9 rows directly behind home plate. Actually, these seats were not quite as excellent as their location suggests, as there was (1) a protective and very visible net between me and the field and (2) there was very little height difference between my row and the row in front of me. As you can see from this shot (Kouzmanoff!!), the result was almost as much view of mesh and heads as there was view of the field.
Like most living legends, Maddux's best years are behind him, and so he sucked it up, giving up 6 runs in 6 1/3 innings. Here he is, about to give up a run.
Soon it got dark, and the pictures became more atmospheric, but blurry.
And then it was time for fireworks.