A Giants Fan’s Elation on their 2010 World Series Championship

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Photo taken from Google Images

The San Francisco Giants are the 2010 World Series Champions, the champions of the baseball world. They are the champions for the first time since 1954, and for the first time in San Francisco. Nothing can ever take this away from them. Wow!!! I cannot think of anything that more that can express my feelings of joy and relief. It will take months before the smile comes off my face. Maybe, by Spring Training, but I seriously doubt it. Opening Day, perhaps?!

I have gone through such a wide array of emotions in the last twenty-four hours. I have wept tears of absolute utter joy, and danced under a champagne shower. I have waited for this since I was a thirteen year old boy in 1978. Now, the years of hope and frustration have been washed away by a river of pure joy.

I have seen better Giants teams than the 2010 Giants, but not one with more heart. This is a team that truly relished the absolute joy of winning– together, as a team. This is also the team that so-called experts said wasn’t good enough. “They won’t get past the Braves, the Phillies, the Rangers.” Well, the Giants certainly proved them all wrong. I do take great joy in this, as well.

Giants manager Bruce Bochy once referred to this team during the post-season as a “team of misfits and cast-offs.” I absolutely love the characterization of this team. This is a team without a superstar, and they never needed one. I think that the city of San Francisco and Giants fans embraced this team, because San Francisco, while a spectacular city, is a city of underdogs, misfits and cast-offs. And San Francisco does take pride in this.

The five game World Series against the Teas Rangers was spectacular!! The Giants pitching was fantastic!! The Giants pitching shut down the two most offensive teams in baseball, the Phillies and the Rangers. Giants pitching, lead by Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain and Madison Bumgarner, totally stifled the big bats of the Rangers: Josh Hamilton, Vlad Guerrero, and Nelson Cruz. I also did enjoy the television shots of Nolan Ryan looking so profoundly unhappy, like he was eating something unpleasant, along with the former President, George W. Bush. This is a former President, who in eight years, so disliked San Francisco that he never visited here, the first President in over one hundred years not to come to San Francisco.

I just knew that if the Giants could keep the game tied going into the middle innings that the Giants had a great chance to win the game, and the Series. That is exactly what good pitching will do for you. That is exactly how it was for the Giant for their whole play-off run. Bruce Bochy out-managed Bobby Cox, Charlie Manuel, and Ron Washington. Bochy was absolutely brilliant getting every advantage that the Giants needed to win. Bochy got the best match-ups for his hitters and his pitchers.

One of the things that I absolutely love about this team is that all season long, day-by-day, there were different heroes every game. The fifth game of the World Series was no different. To me, the heroes were Tim Lincecum who threw eight innings of one run ball and Edgar Renteria, who hit the three run home run to eventually win the game. There is some speculation that Renteria may retire, and this is a great way to end one’s career. Renteria’s career started in 1997, capped by getting the Series-winning hit in extra innings while with the Florida Marlins. One thing that I absolutely loved was that Aubrey Huff put down a beautiful sacrifice bunt in the seventh inning to help the game-winning rally. Huff not only had never put down a bunt this year, but he had never put one down in his whole major league career. Amazing!! It looked absolutely text book, like the kind of bunt you would have gotten from Brett Butler. It was just a beautifully-executed bunt, and it was an integral part of the Series-winning rally.

I watched the game at my neighbor, Diane’s house where we jumped up and down when Renteria hit a three run home run, and when Brian Wilson struck out the last hitter of the game, Nelson Cruz. We ran outside splashed champagne on ourselves, and howled at the moon.

I receive a call from one of my childhood friends, Lincoln Mitchell, who had introduced me to baseball. He was calling from out of the country (Georgia), and had been watching it on Armed Forces Television. Lincoln conferenced in his brother, Jonathan, and we babbled at each other, talking about the game, the Series, and our years of fan-dom.

After that I returned calls to friends who knew of my passion for the Giants and how long I had waited for this magical moment. Then, I headed into San Francisco to join in the revelry. San Francisco was a mad house, totally insane, especially at Powell and Market Streets, where the police lined the streets.

Another one of my childhood friends, John Maschino, was in town visiting from San Diego. John and I had the bizarre pleasure of watching Jonathan Sanchez throw the first no-hitter in thirty-three years for the Giants, a year ago July, while we had both muttered that we weren’t thrilled about seeing Sanchez pitch. We were able to get together and walk around downtown San Francisco. Finally, we were able to find a liquor store to get a bottle of champagne. I couldn’t help, but laugh to myself as a cop car drove by, the police officer leaned out the window to make sure that the champagne bottle was still closed. We waited until the police drove off to open the bottle, toast each other, and pour it on each other. It was a long time coming. John, Lincoln and I had also gone to Game 5 of the 1989 NLCS when the Giants won their first pennant in twenty-seven years.

The subway BART ride back to the East Bay was filled with fun and frivolity, as the BART car passengers sang and cheered. Several of the younger fans asked me how long I had been waiting for this. I choked up and replied, “since I was thirteen years old in 1978.

I have reflected about all the Giants teams and players that I’ve seen, and all the history. Believe me, when I started writing this blog in March and April, I never in my absolute wildest dreams ever expected that this team, the 2010 Giants would win the World Series Championship. I am so glad that my years of faith, devotion and hope have finally paid off. And, I get my one last true dream to become a reality. I get to see to parade come down Market Street to Civic Center celebrating a World Series Championship.