I went to SD on business about 8 years ago. Middle of January, but what I liked was you could access the left field corner (behind the fence behind the foul pole) via the team store in the ground floor of the Western Metal building. Also, I grabbed lunch and was able to sit on a bench behind the CF fence where the old sandbox used to be. The area behind CF was a public park that was only closed off during games. They also used to show road games on a big screen in that park.