SF Giants invite more high schoolers than ever to play at Oracle Park

The Giants have expanded a program that allows high school teams to earn the right to host a game at the ballpark during their spring season, spokesperson Shana Daum told SFGATE in a phone call last week. This year’s total of nine high school games is likely the most the Giants have ever hosted in a single season. High school baseball games at Oracle Park are nothing new. San Francisco’s primary high school sports league, the Academic Athletic Association, has hosted its league championship game there since the ballpark opened in 2000, Daum said. That game typically takes place in May and is held after a weekday Giants game ends. The city’s oldest high school sports rivals have also held an annual game at the stadium for about that long. Catholic schools St. Ignatius and Sacred Heart Cathedral hold a multisport competition for the Bruce-Mahoney Trophy, and the first baseball game of each season counts for the trophy and is played at Oracle Park. In recent years, the Bruce-Mahoney game has been folded into the Dante Benedetti Baseball Classic, named after the legendary former University of San Francisco baseball coach. Originally a once-a-year game for USF to play at the stadium, the classic is now a high school triple-header that benefits the Dante’s Boys Foundation, which focuses its efforts on youth sports. This year’s Classic takes place on April 18. The weekend prior, the Giants are slated to host five games across two days. In order for high schools to participate, the Giants ask them to sell 1,000 tickets to upcoming Giants games. With that purchase of a Giants game ticket comes a ticket to a high school game, a setup Daum said is similar to what the vast majority of MLB teams do with their home stadiums. Daum said the work to find participating schools starts in the fall, when high school baseball schedules are being worked out. Schools first have to be interested in doing this and show they can get to 1,000 tickets, and then they have to match up with an opponent that either is in their league or makes sense as a non-league matchup. There are also logistics on the Giants’ side to work out. The high school baseball season goes from early February until mid-May, but the Giants don’t usually start their regular season until late March and only prepare their field for the season in the weeks prior to Opening Day. The availability of the ballpark is also contingent on the team’s MLB schedule to begin the year. This year’s road trip in mid-April opened up the two weekends for high school games. In the past few years, the Giants held one day of games like this at Oracle Park. But Daum said the team increased the number of high school game days this year because it’s been a success and the interest is high. The team wants to keep doing this on an annual basis.