Allow me to indulge myself for a few hundred words and a half dozen pictures, and then I’ll get right back to documenting the various ways sports manifest themselves across our great country.  I’ve been a Niners fan since my eyeballs developed, and over my 24 years have been lucky enough to see them play three times (twice in San Diego, and once at the Stick for Jerry Rice’s last game in that stadium, as a Seahawk).  On this trip, however, my wife and I took a little extra time to visit each of the team’s homes, past present and future, tracing the steps of the greatest sports franchise on Earth.

We went in reverse order, since we were coming from the South.  It’s fairly well-known at this point that the organization and the city of San Francisco don’t get along all that well at this point.  That’s why, when a deal for a new stadium fell through, the team decided to move to Santa Clara, where their headquarters are.  Ground has technically been broken on the new stadium site, but all that’s there now is this pile of rafters, and a whole lot of grass at the end of Hotel Row.  We visited the HQ as well; it was closed to the public, but I’m pretty sure I saw Patrick Willis’ SUV.  It was the one with pieces of running back all over the grill.

Next we stopped at historic “Monster Park,” which was closed for the offseason and which we didn’t spend too much time outside of.  If you’ve ever been there when it’s fenced off, you know that there are about two dozen drug dealers eying you and your camera suspiciously as you drive by.  A cool note about the stadium name: the city actually recently passed legislation forbidding the Niners from selling sponsorship/naming rights (did I mention they don’t get along?), so this summer when their contract ends, Monster Park will officially be renamed Candlestick Park (and Bill Walsh Field), before they move to AOLTimeWarnerMericaMart Field in Santa Clara in 2012.

Our final stop was a really cool one, and I recommend it next time you’re in the Bay: Kezar Stadium, original home of the team, located on the Southeast corner of Golden Gate Park.  Since the team moved out it’s been downsized slightly (though apparently it didn’t used to hold that many more people than it does now) and it’s now open to the public.  That means, yes, that I went down and tossed my Joe Montana ball around with my wife, on the same plot of land that the old Niners used to.  I won about as many games there today as they did over those decades, unfortunately, but who’s keeping track?