As a kid in the bay area you go to the park and watch your favorite ball players play with a passion and love for the game. You may watch them hit a dinger into the bay or hit the ball of the wall for a double and get in one or 2 RBI's, or better yet hit the ball for a triple and seeing those guys on base run home for that peice of glory of a win or catching up to tie the game. Before the Giants moved to Pac Bell/ATT Park they played at Candlestick Park when they moved from New York. One of my first games there was when I was really young maybe 8 or 9 years old and this was at the time when guys like Matt Williams, Will Clark were knocking ball after ball out of the park and hitting well .300 during the regular season. I saw Matt Williams hit a couple homeruns out and that night turned me onto the game and I started reading about the old-time ball players like Willie Mays, Babe Ruth, Lou Gherig. My father was a huge Giants fan in the days of Mays, Willie McCovy, Orlando Cepeda and Pitching great Juan Marichal. He'd tell me stories about how as a kid in Los Gatos just less then a 45 min. drive to SF his grandfather would give him a few bux and a bus ticket to head up and watch the games live at the park. You can't do that kind of thing anymore but in the sixties it was common for kids my dads age at the time to do that. He'd tell me how Mays can hit the ball and how graceful he was in the outfield. I was just mesmerized by it.
In my Generation as a kid in the 90's it was all about the big names in baseball like Bsrry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Ken Griffey Jr. Rickey Henderson and pitchers like Roger Clemens, Randy Johnson and Greg Maddux. It was a great time to be a baseball fan but at the same time you questioned a lot of the guys for steriods and all that crap that went on. In San Francisco i'd go to the park and watch Bonds knock it out 500 miles and just loved the way those guys played and seeing fireworks at the end of the victories wins.
During this season I went to probably 3 games at ATT Park but those were the most fun games i've been to since they first moved there back 1999-2000 and seeing them come back from a 10-3 defecit even though they lost it was one of the most thrilling games I ever witnessed but nothing compared going to a playoff game when they faced the Philadelphia Phillies and won 3-0 to notch up their place in the National League Championship Series. It was my fist playoff game ever and it was the second for my dad since 1964 when he was nearly 15 years old. Can you imagine that 46 years without seeing the Giants live at a playoff game, man I couldn't imagine what it was life for him. When the Giants went to the World Series my dad went to the second game of the series where they won 9-0 and although I couldn't be there with him I felt like I was because of how much this meant to him. It all erupted when they won the seies last night 3-1 in 5 games in Texas. That was one of the biggest highs I ever had not only as a fan but sitting there and jumping and hugging my dad was a big thing for me. I got to share that moment with him and I wouldn't have wanted it any other way.
Thank you dad for having share that with and will be something i'll always remember till the day I die, all those games you took me to and all the times we played catch together this all came full circle the moment that strike out by Brian Willson. You're the best man and I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I hope all the fathers and sons of San Francisco got to have that same moment. This is for all you guys and Thank You Giants for the momemerable season in my life.
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