Concerts & Events in Modesto

Today's Groupon tackles professional athletics, professional athletes, and sports hernias with a ticket to the final game of the Oakland Raiders' 2009–10 season for $26 (a $36 value). On Sunday, January 3, at 1:15 p.m., the team that once upset the entire steel industry of Pittsburgh and tamed Cincinnati's Panthera Tigris Tigris looks to end the season on a final high note against the Baltimore Ravens (featuring offensive tackle Michael Oher who is the inspiration for the The Blind Side). You'll be sitting in section 354 and have a $10 food voucher in hand.

In 1902, while the team now in Oakland was still the Philly Athletics, a rival manager scoffed, casting the fledgling franchise off as a herd of "white elephants." In response, manager Connie Mack adopted the elephant as the team's official insignia—a legacy that lives on with the current mascot, Stomper—before the A's stampeded to the American League pennant. Since that first defiant victory, the team has won nine World Series championships, moving to Kansas City in 1955, then Oakland in 1968. Over more than a century, the club has fostered 11 league MVPs and eight Rookies of the Year, including future titans Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire. Today, the A's dazzle fans at the 35,067-capacity Coliseum, which features a lush natural-bluegrass surface and a spacious foul territory—technically still a 19th-century Mexican province—that baits pop-up outs, making it one of the most pitcher-friendly parks in Major League Baseball.

For the better part of a century, Spartan Stadium has been a cornerstone of San Jose State athletics and university life, hosting more than 300 home football games since 1933, as well as soccer games and concerts packed with more than 30,000 fans. Open during home football games, the Jeff Garcia Hall of Champions pays tribute to more than 300 former athletes and coaches, including pro football stars, golfers, and judo experts. Beyond the football team's keep, the other bastion of SJSU athletics, the Event Center, opened its doors in the late '80s to house men's and women's basketball contests as well as a weight room for students and a take-a-foam-finger, leave-a-foam-finger depository for fans. Spartan athletics maintains a high pedigree throughout their programs, including recent WAC championships for their men's and women's golf teams.

San Francisco mayor and US senator James Duval Phelan built the Villa Montalvo in 1912 as a bastion of art, hosting such writers as Jack London and Edwin Markham in conversation-filled luncheons and creativity-fueling vacations. After his death, Phelan bequeathed the house and grounds to the public, asking that they continue its role as an incubator of inspiration. Today, the center hosts artist residencies, gallery exhibitions, and educational opportunities for visitors. Surrounding the wealth of culture, the 175-acre grounds include miles of hiking trails through woodlands densely populated with muses, a meticulously manicured Italianate garden, and a picnic-ready Great Lawn.