Monday, February 14, 2011

2010 San Francisco Giants: Torture Never Felt So Good.

In honor of pitchers and catchers reporting, I wanted to re-post what I had written on my other blog about the end of the last baseball season. In particular, I wanted to re-post about my love affair with the San Francisco Giants through the years.

San Francisco Giants: Torture Never Felt So Good

My love affair with the San Francisco Giants began in 1987. I fell into Giants hysteria in the middle of the NLCS. I knew nothing of baseball at the time, being an immigrant from Philippines who moved to San Francisco in 1985, but with the Giants in the playoffs for the first time since 1971, I remember the City of San Francisco being in a tizzy over Giants and playoff fever.

The 1987 Hum Baby Giants captured the hearts and imagination of Giants fans everywhere and their loss in 7 games to the St. Louis Cardinals fanned the flames of my own sports obsession for years to come. Getting wrapped up in the playoff fever just in time for the heartbreak symbolizes my relationship with this proud franchise. Heartbreak followed year in and year out with this team.

1988 was the year the Giants were supposed to repeat, but pitching injuries and a lack of protection to Will Clark that year, plus a magical season by the L.A. Dodgers proved to be the Giants demise. 1988 will be forever immortalized with the Kirk Gibson home run in the World Series. That home run also became the symbol of my intense dislike for the Boys in Blue. 1988 is also the year I fell in love with the Giants. If I didn't watch a game on TV, I tried to listen to it on the radio. On road trips to L.A. that summer, I would have my AM/FM walkman in the car, and I would spend the entire drive trying to find a good enough signal to listen to Giants games.

1989 was the "I Feel Good" year, and the Giants rode a healthy pitching staff, the Pacific Sock Exchange of Will Clark, Kevin Mitchel and Matt Williams, and a late acquisition of Steve "Bedrock" Bedrosian as their long awaited closer to the NL West title and the National League pennant over the Chicago Cubs. 1989, however, will always be remembered for the earthquake during the World Series. The Giants ended up getting swept by their cross-Bay rivals, Oakland A's, in a World Series that no one remembers.

The following years were my high school years. Baseball morphed into bonding moments in the Fall and the Spring during Cross Country and Track season. Summer brought out the use of the Walkman to listen to games during family road trips. Getting my license meant getting a chance to drive around and listening to talk radio during the summer, which meant listening to more Giants talk. In the meantime, the Giants regressed back to a team that could only score with a home run, but lacking the pitching to prevent other teams from scoring runs. There were failed ballot measures for publicly funded baseball stadiums in downtown SF and Santa Clara, and there were talks of the Giants being sold and moving to St. Petersburg Florida. In the 1992 off-season, the team was effectively sold to a Florida group, but the sale wasn't approved by Major League Baseball. What followed was a move that changed the franchise.

In between the 1992 and 1993 season, the Giants were sold to a group led by Peter Macgowan and bunch of local San Francisco business owners. This enabled the Giants to remain in San Francisco. Their first order of business was to sign the biggest free agent at the time, one Barry Lamar Bonds. Being the son of the former Giant great, Bobby Bonds, and the godson of the greatest baseball player of all time, Willie Mays, the pairing of the Giants and Barry Bonds seemed like a match made in baseball heaven. It is the story of a local boy returning to his roots and playing for his dad's and godfather's team.

1993 was a magical season that ended in heartbreak. Behind an MVP season by Barry Bonds, some resurgent pitching by 20 game winners John Burket and Bill Swift, and new manager Dusty Baker, the Giants won 103 games, led the NL West for most of the season only to lose in the last game of the season to the hated Dodgers. They missed the playoffs by one game. The wild-card era of baseball began because of this team failing to make the playoffs. To make matters worse for me, I had just started college... in Los Angeles. I heard nothing but Dodger talk the rest of the year. Los Angeles is not a good place to be if you are a Giants fan.

The next few years brought the strike, a couple of last place finishes, and more Barry Bonds. Will Clark left after the 1993 season. My sister was so distraught, I remember seeing her write somewhere that she was now a Rangers fan. I think it was more that she stopped being a baseball fan. Before the 1997 season, the final member of the late 80s/early 90s Giants resurgence left the team as Matt Williams was traded away.

That trade, however, revitalized the team. In the next 8 seasons from 1997-2004, the Giants became a perennial playoff contender. They made the playoffs 4 times (once as a Wild Card) and finishing 2nd the other 4 years. One of the non playoff years ended with a loss versus the Cubs in a one game playoff for the Wild Card. And then there was 2002...

2002: the year that will live in infamy. The Giants made the World Series in 2002. The Giants led the Angels in the World Series 3 games to 2 in 2002. The Giants were up 5-0 in Game 6 of the World Series in 2002. The Giants were 6 outs away to winning their first World Series in San Francisco and their first World Series since 1954 in 2002. Then it all went to hell.

I sat in my living room as the Angels got hit after hit to rally and take the lead. I sat in my living room as my roommate from Bakersfield rooted for the Angels because "he wanted to see a Game 7." I sat in my living room as my best friend called me from San Diego and started chanting "Here we go, Angels!" at a bar along with countless other "fans."

When the smoke cleared, there was a Halloween party in Hermosa Beach to go to, and I didn't want to go. My roommate wanted to go, and he needed me to go so that I could drive him, but I didn't want to. Eventually I went, and it was the worst party every. I hated every minute of it. It is tough being a Giants fan living in Southern California.

Game 7 was a blur. I barely even remember what happened in that game. Game 6 sucked all the life out of me, and it looked like it did the same to the team. Every Giants fan I talked to afterwards felt the same way. We all knew that Game 6 was the chance and the team blew it. At that point, I was seriously thinking that I would never see the Giants win the World Series.

The years that followed had the Giants lose in the first round after having the best record in the National League, get eliminated in the second to the last game of the season on a grand slam by the Dodgers after blowing a 9th inning lead, and then diving into mediocrity around an aging lineup still centered around Barry Bonds. As the last seasons of Barry Bonds trudged along, the Giants placed a renewed emphasis on their minor league system and in developing young players, particularly pitching talent. However, starting from a bare cupboard, this policy would take years to develop.

It took about 5. Matt Cain debuted with the Giants in 2005. Brian Wilson debuted in 2006. Tim Lincecum was drafted in 2006 and debuted in 2007. Madison Bumgarner was drafted in 2007 and debuted in 2009. Buster Posey was drafted in 2008 and debuted in 2009. Posey got a full call-up from the minors in May of 2010. Bumgarner got his full call-up from the minors in June of 2010. These five players became the cornerstone for the franchise's success in 2010. Along the way, the Giants filled their roster with a combination of immense youthful talent and veteran experience.

2010 exorcised all of the demons of my Giants fandom. They were the team that national pundits didn't believe in. They were the gutty, punchless team that scraped their way through the National League Division Series and the National League Championship Series to get to the World Series. The incredible pitching only seemed to get better. The scrappy team provided more than enough punch. The team that failed to inspire the national pundits captured the hearts of The City. And relief finally washed over this Giants fan.

Thank you for a wonderful season, San Francisco Giants. Torture never felt so good.

No comments:

Post a Comment