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A little after 1 p.m. Monday, Belinda Gallardo boarded a city bus at South 12th Avenue and East Valencia Road with her 5-year-old grandson, Abel.

They rode to Olive Garden, ate and jumped on another bus headed toward Tucson Electric Park.

When the two stepped off the bus and began walking from East Ajo Road into the stadium, a car stopped and told them not to bother walking.

The Sidewinders' final day at TEP was supposed to be a double-header — the completion of Saturday night's rain-suspended game beginning at 3:30 p.m., followed by a seven-inning finale.

Less than three hours before the first game, the Sidewinders announced they had forfeited the first game. It came at the advice of the parent Arizona Diamondbacks, who didn't want to tax possible call-ups with two games in one day.

They decided to play only one game, at 6 p.m.

Gallardo didn't find out until she arrived at 3:40 p.m. She was let into the ballpark and sat in a field level seat with her grandson for more than two hours waiting for the game to begin.

It was an inauspicious start to an odd evening — likely Tucson's last as a Triple-A city.

"We'll go buy a hat and catch a couple innings and then leave," said Gallardo, who traces her baseball love to the Toros and Hi Corbett Field. "He has to go to school tomorrow."

About 10 rows in front of Gallardo, between home plate and the home dugout on the third base line, Sheryl Saul tried not to be emotional.

The 56-year-old has a weekend season pass and couldn't believe she was watching her last Sidewinders game at TEP.

"I'm trying to stay highly focused and enthusiastic about the game itself," she said, but she seemed distracted.

Saul, whose first Toros game came in 1982, wore gold Sidewinders earrings and green ribbons in her hair. A clear plastic bag in the seat to her right held green pom-poms and a giveaway Toros hat — appropriate, considering the day's earlier announcement that a Golden Baseball League team of the same name will play at Hi Corbett Field in 2009.

Saul was looking forward to a beer later, her last at the ballpark. "I'm going to enjoy every ounce of it," she said.

Her friend, Delores Marden, sat to her left. At 75, she was attending her first — and last — Sidewinders game. Marden was shocked the stadium is so big.

"And attractive," she said.

Eric Cordas, an Army captain, donned a Toros jersey and Sidewinders mesh hat. He lives on base at Fort Huachuca and tries to drive to TEP as often as he can.

There was no way he was missing Monday night, as painful as it might be — kind of like a funeral.

"It's the end of an era," he said. "There's a lot of disappointment."

His girlfriend, Dee Smith, tapped her own shoulder.

"You can put your head here, big guy," she said.

When Monday's game ended on a Phil Avlas foul pop to first, most of the 6,033 fans in attendance gave the Sidewinders a standing ovation — likely the team's final send-off on its way to Reno, Nev.

Saul plans to go to Toros games next year, but they won't be the same.

"I can't say, 'Oooh, I saw that player on the Diamondbacks,' " Saul said. "I can't say, 'I saw him grow up.' "