I’m Feeling Like I Want To Rage Right Now – Brian Wilson after winning the World Series
It has been just over a month since the Giants won San Francisco’s first ever World Series. Having lived through 5 Super Bowl victories and an NBA Championship this one seems the most special. Maybe when you take longer to love something it just becomes that more beautiful. Last week my son and I just sat outside the empty stadium on a sunny Sunny afternoon and stared at the stadium. We got a couple of hot dogs and sat on some rocks across from McCovey Cove, reading about all the teams from 1958-2000. There is a plaque for every team that existed before the team moved to AT&T Park (nee Pacific Bell Park). It all seemed so peaceful, but you could almost hear the cheers still echoing across the cove.
Willie Mays statue at 24 Willie Mays Plaza
On this day the park just glowed. We recalled all the great memories we shared . Not just for this year but years gone by as well. Reading about the great teams and players, we never would have imagined on Opening Day 2010 that this team would win it all. Well it really wasn’t the same team that won the World Series. That team in April was the core. It grew into the beautiful story it became in October (and November). Every month was something new. You cringed at the team’s obvious flaws. Like the beautiful girl with the gap-toothed smile and snorting laugh, it had character. You loved her with all those flaws. Some days you saw her potential. Some days she was clutzy and broke your heart when she didn’t look all that special. At the 2010 home opener, the Giants PR Department had the team enter the stadium through the centerfield fence like coming out from the corn in the movie “Field of Dreams”. Although my favorite movie, it was a bit corny to do this for the Giants. Little did we all know.
Statue of Orlando Cepeda
AT&T Park was a special place in 2010. It was a real Field of Dreams. It turned a city into believers. It made them wear fake beards and long haired wigs. It made grown men wear silly looking panda hats on their heads that were so hideous their dogs would want to attack them out of embarrassment.
Like the team, AT&T Park has it’s many flaws although it has widely been considered the most beautiful stadium in baseball. To me it just gets better with time. Like Wrigley in Chicago and Fenway in Boston, it is the stories that go with the park that give it it’s beauty marks. Many say the park was the park that Barry Bonds built just like Yankee stadium was the one that Ruth built.
Juan Marichal Statue on 3rd St.
Only 10 years old, AT&T Park does not have the memories of Juan Marichal and his crazy high leg kick or Gaylord Perry’s spitter, but in 2010 the team gave them more than enough memories. Timmy “the Freak” Lincecum with yoga-esque delivery wowed crowds and even gave them a month-long scare when he basically showed he was normal and lost 5 straight games. Overweight fan favorites, Pablo Sandoval and Bengie Molina (Little Money and Big Money) failed to perform to expectations and were subsequently relegated to part-time player and trade bait.
Key players, Renteria, Sanchez, DeRosa and Uribe all spent time on the disabled list, reminding us that this was just a fact of life. People get hurt. People miss work….and unfortunately people move on. Uribe and Renteria are already gone with Uribe heading to the rival Dodgers.
Willie Mac looking over McCovey Cove
The city has changed. When you wear your Giants cap these days, people give you a smile or a thumbs up. Permanent smiles are pasted on people’s faces and the sports talk radio shows still are filled more with talk about baseball than football, hockey or basketball.
A couple weeks ago I ran into a friend of my dads at the driving range. He was wearing his Giants cap. I hadn’t seen him in a couple years and the conversation revolved around my dad and then moved to baseball. At one point he asked me if I went out and partied or if I sat home and shed a tear when the Giants won. He knew I had shed the tear for my dad. It was my story. Long time fans celebrated peacefully for those who never got to see this day while younger fans partied into the night.
The beauty of a Championship is looking back and enjoying the journey. Even better is that the 2010 Giants had so many stories. If they had won in 2002, it would have been all about Barry Bonds and Jeff Kent. End of story. With 70 days til Spring Training San Francisco fans will have many stories to relive and keep them busy. If the Giants never win another World Series, this team gave us a lifetime’s worth in one season
“When you’re down on your luck, you gotta do it,” –
Andrew W.K.’s feel-good song Got to Do It
After my wife found she had cancer a couple years ago, Thanksgiving took a different meaning for me. I felt guilty that it took her illness for me to appreciate the holiday for what it is, but I do now take the time to remind myself and my kids about how thankful we should be at this time of year for what we have rather than next month when people start wishing for what they don’t have. Tonight I sat on my brother’s couch after dinner, half napping as the tryptophan kicked in. Fighting the lure of a nap, I picked up the recent Sports Illustrated and started to read an article about Jill Costello, a local girl from San Francisco with a big heart who graduated from the University of California at Berkeley this past Spring and as the coxswain for the women’s rowing team, led them to second place in the National Championships.
Jill Costello - former Cal rowing star
I had read briefly about Jill back in May in the local newspaper after I heard about her through the UCSF Medical Cancer newsletter that my wife gets. Jill had been diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer although she did not smoke.
Although I hadn’t kept up with her story, as I read through the article I felt myself tearing up. I knew what was coming. I looked over at my wife smiling and laughing with my family and felt truly blessed.
Thanksgiving is truly THE family holiday of the year. It isn’t long enough for most people to travel far away. It isn’t about presents or religion. It is about celebrating your place and those around you and being thankful for what you have. Sometimes hearing stories about the loss of others who really are special people reminds me of this.
I want to give a special thanks to my friend Donald Wilhelm who we lost this year. A good guy who inspired many and left us too soon. In the article in Sports Illustrated: The Courage of Jill Costello, we read a great story about another inspiring person who can teach us to appreciate what we have today. Although the article did not mention it, Jill lost her battle after graduation, but her strength inspired many to give more than you receive.
As her coach so succinctly put it at Jill’s funeral, “There are givers and there are takers, and you want to be more giver than taker. She never complained. She gave far more than she ever took. She was an inspiration to all of us. I hope when we face something as daunting as this, we can show some of the courage that she showed.”
The trouble with baseball is that it is not played the year round. – Gaylord Perry, ex-Giants pitcher and Hall of Famer
Me and Hall of Famer, Gaylord Perry
What a beautiful weekend it was in San Francisco. A great weekend to get out to play and watch sports. Many Sports weekends of my youth were spent with my dad at sporting events.
If you grew up in my generation in San Francisco and played sports or followed sports, there were three main sports you followed: football, basketball and baseball. We had a hockey team (the San Francisco Seals) but they weren’t followed by many. For me though, my dad took me to see the main sports. My fondest memories of my dad were days like this weekend. I remember my first baseball game and meeting the pitcher Gaylord Perry and my dad talking about his spitter. I also remember that the pitcher did not appreciate the connotation that he was noted as a cheater. We stayed after Warriors basketball games too so I could get Rick Barry’s autograph. We hung out after 49er games so I could get Steve Spurrier’s autograph.
A beautiful day this weekend, my son and I got out to see the 49ers with a nice victory over the Rams 23-20. The same seats I sat in many times with my dad. The same seats we high fived in and shared many Sundays. It was just too warm! This was summer baseball weather! Candlestick Park in November is supposed to be cold and extremely windy. Instead we sat there in short sleeved shirts looking to keep hydrated.
It was a great game and win, but I took note of how quiet it was. In the 70s, the Warriors brought a basketball championship to the Bay Area. In the 80s and 90s, the 49ers turned San Francisco into a football town, but now the Giants own this town and I noted to my seatmate (a baseball executive) that we are definitely a baseball town now.
It has been two weeks since the World Series ended, but the buzz is still there. At the 49ers game, many people were dressed in Giants Orange and Black, including me. A couple weeks back before World Series Game 2, I ran into Gaylord Perry outside of AT&T Park. I introduced him to my son I didn’t mention anything about his spitter. I just told my son he was the starting pitcher at the very first game I ever saw. I could see the relief on his face that I didn’t mention the thing he was most noted for, and he graciously signed my son’s autograph book.
Yep….only 90+ days left til Spring Training. I can’t wait..especially if we continue to have baseball weather and not football weather.
“The triumph of this team allows us to flash back and connect to our past, to experience the beauty of our memories and shared experiences with unbridled joy. This day is a blessed reminder of a dream fulfilled for all of us” – Larry Baer, Giants President speaking at the San Francisco City celebration of the Giants championship
Orange October
It has been over a week now since the Giants took the baseball world by surprise. In fact, for many die hard fans who have rooted for the team for at least more than a decade, it took them by surprise too. The shock is just wearing off.
Having had the chance to bask in the orange glow of San Francisco’s first World Series Championship, everyone who has closely followed the Giants is now realizing the true impact of the accomplishment is bigger than a stadium filled with 35 thousand fans during the dog days of summer.
The Giants parade was littered with converts (bandwagoners to those who sport Croix de Candlestick pins from the days of watching baseball in the ice cold winds of Candlestick Park. If you don’t know what a Croix is, good look it up). Converts who couldn’t name the whole starting lineup for the Giants. Converts who couldn’t tell you who are the 4 Giants greats with statues erected outside of AT&T Park. Converts who now own well over $100 worth of brand new Giants merchandise. Converts who know who Mark Zuckerberg is but not Bill Neukom, but that is okay. By the way, my 8 year old daughter can tell you all about the statues.
A parade of champions is not the same as a Christmas Day parade or a New Year’s Day parade. Most parades are for people on the side to watch the spectacle of the parade. A parade of Champions is different. It is for, in this case, the Giants, to see how wide an effect they had on people. For them to see beyond the walls of the stadium. For them to see how crazy they made people. A chance for them to see all the crazy people they converted into fans. Their biggest public audience…..over 1.5 million people (estimated) lined the mile and a half route, the same route taken by Willie Mays and the Giants when they first arrived from New York. This was not a parade for one team. This was a parade for 53 teams and 53 years of long-suffering. One can only imagine what will happen when Chicago and Cleveland win their next World Series.
During the stretch drive of the regular baseball season, my family and I sat in front of some elderly men and screaming high school girls. All the girls could talk about who was cuter, Buster Posey or Barry Zito. The men were questioning about having a rookie catcher was a mistake. My 8 year old daughter looked at me, ready to say something and I had to tell her that it was okay. “But they’re not REAL fans, Dad,” she said. I was proud of my daughter for her aptitude, but I was also glad to see more people enjoying the Giants. true, it was hard to listen to for a diehard fan during a pennant drive, but baseball can not live on die hard fans alone. If that were the case, AT&T Park would be empty.
San Francisco is a melting pot. Being a San Francisco “native” is such a novelty. Only 37% of the residents are even born in California and 35.5% aren’t even born in the US. What shocked me even more is that in my son’s class recently 19 boys signed up for lacrosse while only 11 signed up for baseball which indicates where “America’s past time” sits with the families living in San Francisco. There are few legacy Giants fans in San Francisco. These 2010 Giants had to earn new fans and recruit them through more than a history lesson. They needed to tell their own story. And they did it the San Francisco way. In many ways they represented the city and its crazy mix of citizens. If you didn’t like the story of the hero old guy, the star young pitcher, or the wacky reliever, there was a human interest story somewhere on the roster that you could relate to.
What was more important and maybe something we all could take a lesson or two from is that this was the right team to represent San Francisco and bring it it’s first World Series Championship. Like the 1981 49ers and the 1975 Warriors, each team that brought San Francisco its first championship in their respective sport was made up of underdogs. Each team did it as a team, with unsung heroes and a style that made them distinctive. The ’75 Warriors some consider to be the least talented team to win the NBA title, but they played like a team. The ’81 49ers showed the NFL that the “West Coast Offense” would bring a whole new schema to the game of football.
Winning builds community and that is what all these teams did. The Giants have written the latest chapter and the city still is awash in orange a week later. People feel guilty still talking baseball when football and basketball are being played. It’s okay. At least we’re talking. Some satirists joked that the Giants parade was much bigger than the Gay Pride parades in San Francisco. I think it just proved that San Francisco is a real baseball town. It proved that San Francisco has a way about doing things with style. Finally, it proved that teamwork breeds a great community atmosphere. Long time fans and bandwagoners partied equally hard, and partied together. In San Francisco we are known to be accepting of all types of people (except Dodger fans)..so welcome aboard the bandwagon.
It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone. ~A. Bartlett Giamatti, “The Green Fields of the Mind,” Yale Alumni Magazine, November 1977
For 53 years and 53 teams, baseball broke the hearts of San Franciscans, but tonight an improbable team ended years of frustration and enhanced the love of a sport and 25 guys who worked as one. As their management and the team tried to convey, the victory was for a city, for fans, for past players and for past generations. The atmosphere has been electric for the last month. You could feel how badly people wanted this one and perhaps needed it.
Torture was the word of the year to describe this team, but it really wasn’t one year. It was 53 years. A team of underdogs, a team of misfits, a team that nobody ever believed had a chance, was the team that everyone fell in love with. The team with a rich history of Hall of Famers had its most successful season with a bunch of no-names. In the future, many will not remember some of the names that helped to bring San Francisco it’s first baseball championship. As I mentioned previously, the City of San Francisco loves its champions, but more they love their champions who do it the right way. The 2010 San Francisco Giants did it the right way. There will be many who say they knew this team had it from day 1, but if they tell you that, they are liars. A team of misfits, discards from other teams, showed the world what teamwork is all about. They have said repeatedly this post-season that the most talented team doesn’t always win. It’s the team that plays the best that wins. As late as the beginning of August this team was in 4th place and 7 or 8 games out of 1st place, but the team showed how baseball is a parallel to life. You work hard, you keep grinding, and you never stop believing.
Nick and I Fear the Beard!
As a San Francisco native I am overwhelmed. There are hundreds of thousands and perhaps millions of natives who grew up in the same generation as me, who had moms or dads that introduced them to baseball at Candlestick Park or Seals Stadium and had to wait their whole lives. Everyone has their own unique story. There are many people like me who wish the dad that introduced them to the sport were here to enjoy and celebrate with them. Yes baseball is just a game, but it is America’s past time. It is like life itself. Unlike those in New York who have 27 Championships, this is San Francisco’s first. For those who have waited their whole lives for this day, it is a day to be savored. Hopefully it won’t be 53 years until another championship is won. Those who had seen things go wrong in the past know the heartache and how sweet this victory is. This will not be taken for granted. It will be cherished. It will be savored. The team itself reminded everyone of the history of the organization. It reminded those not old enough about the heartaches of the 3 previous attempts at the World Championship. It reminded me of the great history of San Francisco, and it reminded me of all the great things the City has to offer. The team helped me to teach my son about all the great history and people that built this City. My son saw Joe Montana, Bob Weir, Steve Perry, Danny Glover, and a slew of other celebrities from the area cheering for the team just like him. Somewhere around the 7th inning of Game 2 he started to grasp the gravity of the situation and understood the passion around the desire to win the whole thing. A World Series victory would be the beginning of a big healing process.
There is an old adage in baseball that as Spring Training begins, hope always springs eternal. No matter what I am always optimistic about the Giant’s chances. This year I wasn’t. I really felt this team didn’t have what it would take. It shows how life is so unpredictable, how what is perceived could also be deceiving. Baseball and life are unpredictable and just when you least expect it, it will serve you up a surprise.
Growing up watching Mays, Marichal, Perry, Cepeda, McCovey, Clark, Mitchell, Speier, Fuentes and all it is amazing this team has accomplished something that those other teams couldn’t. No heroes, just a bunch of blue collar ballplayers. Fortunately for me I was able to share a little bit with my own son and helped him to understand how unique an experience this is and how unique this team is. Attending the last game played at home and also participating in the Opening Ceremonies of Game 2 of the World Series was not only a unique experience, but it was the creation of a memory that he will keep forever. Having my son tell me, “I will never ever forget this day” was a highlight for me. I remember when my dad took me to see Ed Halicki’s no-hitter back in the late-70s as if it were yesterday. I know my son will be thinking the same even 30 years from now.
Carrying the US Flag
It is only fitting that Edgar Renteria, a player that is at the end of his career and contemplating retirement was the MVP of the series. He spent many months on the bench, has a torn muscle in his arm, yet was one of the many heroes in the end. Hard work, determination and a never say die attitude, were Edgar’s message to all. It’s one we should all learn to employ in life.
I am speechless to say the least. I am more choked up than anything else. The memory of all those who never got to see this day, but taught us to love this team, this City, and the game of baseball would be proud of the 2010 World Champion San Francisco Giants. They were not only a team of destiny, but true deserving champions in every sense of the word. A team of misfits who fit perfectly together.
As I write this, there is honking and hollering in the streets. The younger generations are celebrating in the bars and dancing in the streets, but I know there are many like me also sitting at home with not so dry eyes thinking of those who never got to see this but helped us to appreciate this moment. They taught us how to “love the laundry” (as Seinfeld calls it). Such a bittersweet time in San Francisco.
The much maligned announcer, Joe Buck, said it best….”America’s Most Beautiful City now owns Baseball’s Sweetest Accomplishment”.
“You close your eyes and take a deep breath in through your nostrils and savor it” – Duane Kuiper (former Giant 2nd Baseman and current radio broadcaster)
There's Nick Inside
Game 1 and 2 are over. The Giants were victorious in a game 1 that was labeled a pitcher’s duel and turned out to be a slugfest. A crazy day as I got stuck in a meeting as the first pitch was tossed. Others in the meeting had one eye on their iPhones and the other on the presentation. Coughing and mumbling occurred when the Giants went down 2-0 but smiles broke out as the game was tied at 2-2. it wasn’t a pretty victory, but at this time of year you take wins any way they will come. Game 2 was more traditional..at least from the Giants way of thinking. Something else went wrong for the Rangers.
“There’s __________ inside” is the tagline of the Giants marketing department. Nicknames and other terms were inserted. Magic, Freak, Panda, Orange and other fun terms were used over and over again. Recently the word Torture was added to reflect the closeness of the Giant’s style of victory, as in “There’s Torture Inside”.
As a long suffering Giants fan, I know those Cubs and Indians fans must be rooting for the Giants. There are those who might say that given the Rangers are in their first World Series ever while the Giants are in their 4th since they moved to San Francisco, the Rangers should be an underdog too. Well the experts were all picking the Rangers. This made the Giants the clear underdog. Not so fast! Don’t those people know about Particles and Magic? They are better than stats and scouting reports.
Now that Game 2 is over and the Giants have darkened the hopes of Rangers fans, there is an optimism that this team just might erase the ghosts of 1962, 1989 and 2002. Two of those series, ended on fateful mistakes and great plays while the other (1989) was marred by an Act of Mother nature which made baseball seem very small in the greater scheme of things.
One of the morning talk show hosts on the Giants flagship radio station calls it “particles”. The force by which all things come together and create destiny. Was it particles that interfered and suddenly gave the Braves a case of the dropsies? Was it particles that put a hole in the bat of Phillies slugger Ryan Howard when he had a chance to do something big? Was it particles in Game 2 of the World Series that caused the Rangers pitchers to lose the strike zone and allow 8 straight batters to reach base? I’m not sure, but the catch phrases are everywhere. From “Believe” (mantra sung to Don’t Stop Believin by ex-Journey lead singer Steve Perry who is a season ticket holder and attends games waving his towel) to “Torture” to “Magic” the team has captured the imagination of the City.
As a long time Giants fan who has been through all the ups and downs, seeing the baseball team I grew up watching on the brink of it’s first World Championship is a bit of an end game. And this time it feels right. I normally never count my chickens before they are hatched, but the particles just seem aligned now that I see it coming. San Francisco has won championships in basketball and football in my lifetime and if you look back at the first championships of those teams it makes perfect sense why this baseball team should be the first.
San Francisco has always been the City that does it with style, with a bit of a twist, and in a new way with a dash of the old. It’s businesses such as the Gap, Levi’s, Williams-Sonoma, Zynga, Twitter, etc. are model examples and their Championship teams are no different.
The 1974-75 Golden State Warriors won with the first black coach (Al Attles) who had a fading superstar (Rick Barry) that he taught to be a team player and a cast of young players (Keith Wilkes), local heroes (Phil Smith) and other outcasts both young and old. Attles was the first coach to use all the players on his bench such that I can still name them all by heart 35 years later. The team was a heavy underdog to the team many thought to be the next big powerhouse in the NBA, the Washington Bullets, a team led by Wes Unseld, Elvin Hayes, and Phil Chenier. The Warriors used team chemistry, smarts and a great defense to win that series 4-0 for their first and only championship.
The 1981 49er Championship team was made up of a young scatter-gunned armed QB named Joe Montana and 3 rookie DBs (including Ronnie Lott) coached by a man they call the Genius, Bill Walsh. Walsh would show the NFL the power of the short passing game. Very few can even tell you the names of the starting RBs for the 49ers that year (Lenvil Elliot and Earl Cooper). Walsh changed the way football would be played for the next 15 years. The 49ers beat their long time roadblock, Dallas, in the NFC Championship game with a famous play known only as “The Catch”. In the Super Bowl, the 49ers were again the underdog to another team making its mark, the Cincinnati Bengals. In fact, it has often been said the jeweler had to change the etching in the MVP trophy to remove Ken Anderson (QB of the Bengals) from the trophy and put on Joe Montana’s name. The 49ers went on to win the first of 5 Super Bowls with a 20-16 win.
Now to these Giants. Here we are again. Underdogs. Historic names have played for this franchise. McCovey, Mays, Marichal, Perry, Alou, Cepeda, Kent, Bonds…and yet no trophy. 52 years of futility (3rd longest in baseball). Some might say the Giants do have superstars as they have a 2-time reigning Cy Young winner on their squad. Yet in Game 1 it was the Rangers pitcher, Cliff Lee, who had never lost a post-season game that everyone was enamored with. The thunderous power of Texas (where everything is big) is supposed to overwhelm the Team of Misfit Boys, the Little Train that Could, the San Francisco Giants. I venture to guess if the Giants go on to win the World Series, there will be some tough decisions to pick the MVP. This team is truly a team and everyone will have contributed largely in their own way. No superstars. The pitcher who makes $18MM/year was even left off the playoff roster (Barry Zito). A team has no room for superstars. Maybe that is the message this team will send around baseball
Oh yes, particles or magic. Was it particles or magic that Joe Montana introduced the Giants starting lineup on National TV before Game 2? Was it particles or Magic that has all that crazy electronic trance music stopped between innings and put the 45,000 people into a happy calmness by singing Lights by Journey with Steve Perry conducting from his seat? Was it particles or magic that MLB told the Giants to leave RF Jose Guillen off the post-season roster because he is being investigated for drug -trafficking, forcing the Giants to use Cody Ross (the eventual NLCS MVP)? Maybe its the particles from the aroma (which was definitely present at a baseball game that made it smell like a rock concert) brought on by the old hippies attending the game: Neil Young (CSNY), Jonathan Cain (Journey), David Crosby (CSNY), Lars Ullrich (Metallica), or Bob Weir (Grateful Dead) that prevented Ian Kinsler’s 5th inning hit from going over the fence.
I’m not sure what it is, but I am living in the moment thinking it is destiny. It just feels right. As I sat there singing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” with my arm around my son right before the Giants would start their big rally in the 7th inning of Game 2, I remembered the NBA Basketball Championship I shared with my father, the Super Bowls with my dad, and the World Series championship we never got to have. I’ll share it with my son instead and it will be just as sweet. I know I’m not the only dad in San Francisco who feels this way.
“Is this Heaven? No, it’s Iowa.” – Field of Dreams
Giants Managing Partner, Bill Neukom
Doc Brown- Back to the Future
Many of my friends, knowing how big of a San Francisco Giants baseball fan I am have asked me what is going on with the Giants? They hadn’t focused on this baseball team that today is waiting on the eve of the franchise’s first trip to the World Series since 2002. It is only the team’s 4th trip to the Fall Classic since they moved to the West Coast. They have yet to win their first World Series in San Francisco. Ironically they are playing a team that is making it’s first trip ever to the World Series and facored to beat the Giants.
So who are these guys? They really are the “Team of Misfit Boys”. Everyone loves an underdog and there is nothing more lovable and underdog than this team. They’ve taken San Francisco by storm because there is something for everyone. People relate to this team on all levels. 75% of the starting lineup was not on the Opening day lineup. These guys might wake up tomorrow and realize that they are in over their heads, but maybe it isn’t coincidence that their owner bears a striking resemblance to the crazy inventor from Back to the Future. I guarantee you though. The Flux Capacitor has nothing to do with this team’s success.
Game 6 Hero Jeremy Affeldt
San Francisco is a full of transients and this team truly represents that image:
a 10 year veteran first baseman who wears a red good luck thong making his first trip to the post-season,
the leftfielder – a former first pick in the amateur draft who was released and passed over by all of baseball before the team he rooted for as a kid picked him up,
a second baseman who limps around after being born with a club foot,
a right fielder the team picked up by accident, and grew up wanting to be a rodeo clown
a pitcher nicknamed the Freak because of his long hair and skinny small build that scared 9 teams to pass him up despite his dominating college career,
a rookie catcher who seems more mature than everyone on his team,
a centerfielder who spent 10 years in the minors before being diagnosed with ADD
a 3rd baseman who is overweight yet smooth as a cat that they call him Panda,
a shortstop playing with a torn tendon in his left arm, and
the dominating closer who took all the lessons watching his dad battle cancer over 5 years as a teenager and harnessed it into the most interesting character in baseball that is so full of life and has everyone in San Francisco sporting fake beard.
Oh and the team has relegated its 3 highest paid players to the bench
You can’t blame this city over its excitement over this team. They represent the common man and act like us. You’ll find them at night shopping at the local Safeway, getting coffee and donuts at the local donut shop before a game, or even eating dinner in some of the nice restaurants in the hotter spots in town.
October baseball is rare and the city is hungry for it. Affectionately, Giants baseball is called torture (coined by Giants announcer Duane Kuiper) for the style of close games the team plays. Giants fans live and die by the team’s success and failures.
What are Giants fans saying today? Half of the diehards are saying to “Bring on the Torture”. The other half are saying, ” Delicious”…..I can’t even explain this. You just need to see the video from Giant’s reliever, Brian Wilson, to see what a nut he is:
So if you haven’t picked a side, vote for the underdog. Vote for the little guy. Vote for the crazy misfits who nobody believes will win (24 out of 30 ESPN experts are picking the Rangers). Vote for the Beard, the Panda, Smiles, the Water Buffalo, Bweez and the Freak. They’re playing for all of us underdogs.
It has been a while since I posted here. It doesn’t mean I haven’t been thinking about what to post. I’ve been thinking, but I’ve also been living. Right after my last post, my friend Donald passed after losing his battle with cancer. What do you say when the best fighter loses their fight? I told him once I felt guilty that since my wife was feeling okay that I felt like maybe it was time to move on. I respected people like him, Lance Armstrong and others who continue to raise awareness and also inspire others in such a public way. He told me there is no guilt and no shame.
I’ve always been taught not to forget your past. Don’t forget where you’ve come from. Remember the journey and all the people that helped you along the way. The cancer that my wife had and all the people who helped us won’t be forgotten. They are special people, but when the memory is an unplesant one, it is nice to not have to think about it. As it was my wife’s illness, I think I take her lead. She is moving on and I can tell would rather not talk about it if she can.
The problem is the disease still won’t go away. You can’t escape it. As I mentioned, right after my last post Donald, Wilhelm died, then my wife’s good friend found out she has breast cancer and two more relatives admitted that they have it as well.
So maybe we can’t move on. You can live, but you have to live with those memories and help inspire others. We don’t have to inspire others by helping them directly with their fight. You can help by showing them how to keep moving, keep breathing, keep smiling.
And as a message to Amy, the wife of Donald, you will find your way to move on. Do not feel as though you need to prolong his message. It will always be there……”don’t ever give up.”
Here you leave today and enter the world of yesterday, tomorrow and fantasy – bronze inscription above the tunnel entrance to Disneyland
The Happiest Place on Earth
Today my wife and I had a brief celebration. We quickly acknowledged the mark of the 2nd anniversary of her cancer surgery. We smiled, shared a kiss and went off to work and taking the kids to school. When she was first diagnosed I would see posts about cancerversaries. I asked what that meant. Was it the date from diagnosis? Then I was told it was the date from when you had your surgery. For the most part, most people are looking forward to their 5th cancerversary. It is when they are considered in full remission as there have been no sign of additional tumors. In a way it seems like a 5 year purgatory.
Two years might not seem like a long time ago but it does feel that way. We have somehow been able to mentally put cancer behind us as best we can. There are the daily pills, the monthly shots, the side effects, etc., but it all seems to be like raising a baby. You have some memories, but it seems so long ago and you have new challenges and some of the old memories get thrown out the door. Those sleepless nights, the mental anguish the weeks and days leading up to the visit to the hospital, and all the help and visits from friends the days after seem distant and mostly it is in our minds. That said, we are surrounded by reminders every day during our journey back to normalcy of where we have been and how fortunate we are.
We just got back from a family trip to Disneyland, the Happiest Place on Earth. In reality it isn’t always that way. The crying babies, the tantrums, the frustration of negotiating large crowds and the L.A. traffic are just some of the smoggiest problems that Los Angeles and the Magic Kingdom have to offer. In the end, it might not be the Happiest Place for All, but it is still magical.
My children noticed the large amounts of wheel chairs and ill children at Disneyland. The Make a Wish Foundation seemed to have a large presence this past week. Then it happened. As we rode on the the Grizzly Rapids ride at the California Adventure Park, we struck a conversation with a dad and his 3 sons who were riding in the same raft. The dad confided in me that the family had lost their mom to breast cancer at the beginning of the summer. This trip was a small way to distract his sons before the school year got started. The Happiest Place on Earth was suddenly transformed into a place of hope and faith. When I told them that my wife was a cancer survivor as well, he asked how long and did the quick math. I realized there that it had only been two years since my wife’s original surgery which took place 9/9/08.
After the ride was over, my 8-year old daughter was in a giddy mood. She laughed that both moms in both families were too scared to go on the ride (my wife chose to stay dry). It was my 10 year old son who nudged his sister and told her to be quiet. He had realized what was going on and was attempting to be considerate. My daughter suddenly realized the weight of the situation and actually teared up a little as the other family walked away. What really hit me wasn’t the heaviness of the encounter in such a beautiful setting but not only did my usually unaware children grasp the meaning, but their show of compassion for such a young age.
I tried to get a read from my kids later on in the day, but they seemed to move on. They had a great time running around and laughing at Disneyland, and I didn’t want to interrupt them. In their own way, they had moved on from cancer as well. Cancer had affected them , but in a good way. Having witnessed their grandfather’s death and their own mother’s struggle with cancer in their young lives has only given them a greater apreciation for living life to the fullest and taught them to put the past behind them while recognizing how precious their own lives may be.
We have three more years of purgatory, but I think in our minds, cancer is almost already behind us. We are learning to live with cancer with an enlightened point of view. Well 2 years down and the rest of our lives to go!
“Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.” ~ Winston Churchill
The other night I was driving home when my mother gave me a call. She was lonely and wanted to have dinner. This might sound trivial to some, but since my father passed,my mother has been a non-stop whirlwind of energy. A breast cancer survivor, she has traveled the world (South Africa, Egypt, Germany, China (2x), Japan, India, Hungary, South America, Morocco, Russia, Yugoslavia, Kenya, Maldives, Seychelles, etc.). We joke in my family that we need to put a tracer on my mother as you never know where she is and although I live within a mile of her home, getting her to find a date to babysit is not an easy task. Playing Mah-Jong with her friends, seeing the latest movies, morning tai-chi, and such I have always afraid my mother never really stopped to mourn my father’s death.
When I picked her up she wasn’t her cheery self. Her other two children were on vacation and my own family was on the East Coast visiting my in-laws. We always hear about Fathers and sons, Fathers and daughters, and Mothers and daughters, but “Momma’s boys” has always had a bad connotation. I wouldn’t call myself a Momma’s boy. We’ve always butted heads and being the eldest we graduated to a peer-to-peer relationship pretty quickly. It was like having 3 adults in the house and my 2 younger siblings were the kids.
Tonight was different. My mom seemed lonely and tired. She admitted that the cancer had given her the desire to do and see everything. She admitted that she missed her family. Most of all, she admitted that she was really missing my dad. I realized that she just wanted to talk and I let her (by all means, not a normal interaction for me and my mom) She talked all through dinner about what she missed. I just listened and teared up. Finally as we ate our fortune cookies, she apologized for talking all during dinner and asked me if I still missed my dad.
I had seen the above Nike commercial the day before. It reminded me of my nightly running and how I process thoughts and ideas each night to clear my head. According to the agency it is meant to reflect the community of survivors and people who follow Lance Armstong and encourage him on a daily basis through his trials and tribulations. When I processed my mother’s question, I told her that amazingly, I think that while I will always miss my dad, that I am finished mourning him. That said, I don’t think I ever have a run at night where some thought of my dad doesn’t enter and pass through my thoughts.
The question made me think about some of the thoughts rattling through my brain. I got to do so much with my dad, but there are so many things I didn’t do. So my mom and I came up with a plan of 5 experiences I’d like to have with my children that my dad and I had done separately but never together:
1. Go to China & Tibet (visit Tiananmen Square and the Great Wall)
2. Hike to and visit Machu Picchu
3. Visit and play the Old Course at St. Andrews (walk across the Swilcan Bridge)
4. Spend a month in France and Italy driving the countrysides and eating great food. We’ll throw in a few museums and major cities along the way.
5. Watch a game from the bleachers at Wrigley Field and have a beer afterwards
After coming up with the list, my mother was so excited. The list combined some things that I wished I had done with my father and I learned from my mom about some things my dad had said he would have wanted to share with his children. It was quite surprising to hear some of his thoughts that I had never heard before. This is not a crazy list and there are many things on the list that are much more grand, but they are personal to me and personal to my dad. My mom loved it and by the end she was so happy that she wants to come along!
I definitely need to listen to the voices in my head more often.
