Game 3 of the 2010 World Series will be played tonight. And as a life long Giants fan I'm filled with a reserved excitement. I say reserved because we've been here before, as recently as 2002. That series ended in heartbreak, just as so many Giant seasons preceding it. So you can understand my trepidation. We Giants fans have endured our share of disappointment, only surpassed by that of the Chicago Cubs fans (my business partner Ben's team, maybe that's why we're business partners). And oh sure, the Indians have not won a Championship since 1949, but they haven't had as many opportunities for disappointment as the Giants have had over the years.
As I mentioned, I've been a lifelong Giants fan. My earliest memories are 
from about the 1974 season. I was about 7 years old. My first favorite player on the Giants was Bobby Murcer, having been traded to the Giants from the Yankees for Bobby Bonds (Barry's father, for those who don't know), during the off season.
Those were not good times for the Giants. Willie Mays, Juan Marichal, and Willie McCovey were gone. Instead we were left with the aforementioned Murcer, Von Joshua, Chris Spiers, Gary Matthews, and some young pitchers, John Montefuso and Ed Halicki, who would show some promise (each pitching a no-hitter early in their careers), but never measuring up to their potential. Our claim to fame back then was that we had Randy Moffitt, Billy Jean King's brother-in-law on our team. Whoopeeee!
But beyond that the Giants played in the same division as the Big Red Machine and the vaunted Dodgers of Garvey, Lopes, Russell, and Cey fame. There was just no way they stood a chance against those teams filled with would be Hall of Fame players. So we as Giants fans were relegated to aspiring to a third place finish every season, 20 games out by mid-July 
(remember, this was before the Wild Card). With one exception, 1978. That year the Giants at least made it interesting, with a young Jack Clark (my next favorite player. I used to rub dirt on my pants before each at bat as a little leaguer just like Jack used to), Bill Madlock, a returning aged, yet resurgent Willie McCovey, Mike Ivie, and Vida Blue leading the way. They ended up winning 86 games that year and finishing in, you guessed it, third, six games out. But they made it interesting. It was my first taste of a pennant chase. And I wanted more.
But alas, these were the Giants. In the subsequent seasons they floundered, not even making it interesting. Until 1982. Jack Clark was still with the team, but now we had a rag tag bunch of guys assembled through free agency, (Joe Morgan, Reggie Smith, Milt May) and a few minor league call ups, notably rookie Chili Davis. We still had no-hit, no field Johnny LeMaster at shortstop, who was so despised by Giant fans at one point in his career that he actually wore a uniform with "Boo" stitched across the back of his jersey (Johnny Boo). That was a fun season as well, going down to the final weekend in a series against the Dodgers. Again the Giants fell short BUT we did enjoy the spectacle of Joe Morgan blasting a late inning home run in the final game of the season to knock the Dodgers out of playoff contention. Such was life as a Giant fan back then. Our little world was relegated to spoiling the season for other teams.
Then more drought. Jack Clark was shipped to the Cardinals in 1985 for David Green (Giants fans, remember him?) who was supposed the next great five tool player in Major League Baseball. But as you can tell from your never having heard of David Green, he didn't pan out. Instead Jack Clark went on to lead the Cardinals to the World Series that year. Oh, and in 1984, Darrell Evans, long time Giants third basemen, was part of that great Detroit Tigers team that went on to win the Series. And that illustrates another running theme of the San Francisco Giants of the 70's and 80's. Players who were groomed in our system would invariably go on to have great success with other teams.
In the late 80's the Giants finally started to build a team of young exciting players under the tutelage of Roger Craig. The phrase "Humm Baby" started rippling through the Bay Area like a California shaker. Will "The Thrill" Clark, 
Jeffrey Leonard, Robby Thompson, Rick Reuschel, and Caveman Don Robinson led the team to it's first NL West title in 16 years. It looked like this might be the year. They took a 3-2 lead in the NLCS against the St. Louis Cardinals on the back of Jeffrey Leonard's (the only player on the losing team to win the NLCS MVP) 4, one flap down, home runs. But, as you might guess by now, disaster once again reared it's ugly head. This time in the form of a mis-judged Jose Oquendo line drive to Candy Maldonado out in right field in Game 6. The flood gated opened, and the Giants couldn't get them closed. The Cardinals went on to the World Series having beat the Giants in 7 games. "Candy F'ing Maldonado" was the refrain that held up through the off season for Giants fans.
1989. THIS Giants team was one that had expectations upon it. Will Clark was now a seasoned veteran player and one of the most feared hitters in the game. Kevin Mitchell, who was acquired in a trade during the 1987 season, put up the best season at the plate ANY Giant player had since Willie Mays. Mitchell would go on to win the NL MVP award in 1989. Matt Williams was a promising, albeit struggling, young third basemen. And the chant of "Uuuuuuuu-Riiiiibay" that you hear in the stands now for Juan Uribe. Well that was originated by Giants fans of the late 80's in honor of our little plucky shortstop Jose Uribe. We even had a bit of tear jerking drama as Dave Dravecky, fighting cancer which required removal of part of the ulnar muscle in his pitching arm, came back to pitch for the Giants that season (side note: I took off work that day and went to that game). Sadly, Dravecky's arm could not hold up, snapping in a ugly moment on the hill up in Montreal a couple of weeks later. Dravecky would later have the arm amputated.
The Giants of 1989 were a fun bunch to watch. They won the NL West handily that year, then met the Cubs in the NLCS. Will Clark and Mark Grace both put on hitting clinics in that series, but it was The Thrill coming through in Game 6 with a game winning RBI single off Mitch Williams to propel the Giants, and we fans, to the our first World Series in 27 years. The town was electric. And we were going to face our cross bay rivals, the Oakland A's.
I don't think ANY Giants fan, deep down in their hearts, truly thought we were going to beat the A's that year. Sure, the Dodgers had done it the previous year. But that was a fluke. That A's team was LOADED! Canseco, McGwire, Dave Henderson, Carney Lansford, Dave Parker, Dave Stewart, Bob Welch and Eck. They were monsters. Only an act of God could come to the Giants rescue. And lo and behold....
You couldn't have written a more cornball script. Two California teams squaring off in one of the biggest sporting events, with all the world watching, and then, what tha!!! Shake, rattle and roll. An earthquake hits. And not just any old earthquake. A big F'ing, hold on for dear life, type of earthquake. I was getting ready to watch Game 3 in my high rise apartment, 10 floors above ground when it hit. I, being a native Californian had lived through many an earthquake in my life, but this one, well, it was the only time in my life I thought I was going to die. My building swayed and bounced and cracked like I thought no building could. Luckily it was a brand new building fitted with all the modern anti-earthquake stuff. So 
after everything settled down, I got my bearings, got my priorities straight and tried to find out where the game was on (the electricity in our building having been shut down). Only, there was no game. And there would be no 
game for a while. This was devastation on a mass scale. And it put the Giants eventual loss to the A's, a sweep, in perspective. Sports are entertainment, not life and death.
So, the next few years would see a Giants team that was competitive, but we just couldn't get over the hump. We needed something. Something big, to get us to the promised land. And in 1993 we got it. The something BIG was the two-time MVP, the prodigal son returning to his roots, to play in the shadow of his father and God father. Barry Bonds was coming to the Giants!!!!
That 1993 season was probably the most memorable season I've ever experienced as a Giant fan. Finally we had a big gun in our arsenal again. And they kicked ass! The Giants proceeded to roll through the National League season like a runaway freight train. At one point they opened up a 10 game lead on the second place Braves. We were in like Flynn man! This was our year. And then the Braves got Fred McGriff. And everything seemed to change. The Giants continued to play well, but the Braves played out of their F'ing minds. Unbelievably the Giants ended up falling behind the Braves at one point in late September. They caught up, and the season boiled down to the final game, against the dreaded Dodgers. Rookie Solomon Torres was on the hill that day, and you can guess the rest. 103 wins, and we didn't make the playoffs. What the F!!!!!
1994 and 1995 were strike shortened years and Giants fans didn't have too much to cheer about, except maybe Matt Williams chase of the home run record which was cut short by the strike.
1996 was one of the worst seasons in Giants history. However, Barry Bonds, surrounded by what amounted to little more than a AAA squad around him had one of the best seasons of his, or anyone's career, becoming only the second player to hit 40 home runs and steal 40 bases (42 and 40 respectively), driving in 129 runs, scoring 122 runs, and hitting .308. with Mark Carreon and Glen Allen Hill as his "protection". (Matt Williams got injured mid way through the season).
With the bad taste of the '96 season behind us Giants fans wanted the Giants brass to do something to turn this team around. But wait! You're trading Matt Williams?!!! For who?!!! Who the hell is Jeff Kent? He's not of Matt Williams caliber!!! Boy were we wrong. Coupled with the acquisition of J.T. Snow, the 
Giants had revamped their lineup and given Barry Bonds some hitters around him. Led by Shawn Estes (19-5) and our closer Rod Beck, the pitching staff was much better now too. They won the NL West again, but unfortunately ran into a buzz saw that was the "upstart" Florida Marlins in the NLCS. The use of the word "upstart" to describe that 1997 Marlins team was a joke, how a team comprised of virtually all high dollar free agent acquisitions could be construed as "upstarts" is beyond me. But they kicked our ass, so...
1998 was another solid season for Bonds, Kent, and the gang, but we lost out in a one game wild card playoff game to of all teams...the Cubs. For once the Cubs got to dish out some heartbreak on another teams fans.
Barry Bonds single handedly made the next few seasons interesting as his chase of the record books started to mount.
The 2000 season brought us Pac Bell Park. Finally, a stadium worthy of the city hosting it. 40 years of, excuse my language, shit hole Candlestick Park over and done (except for 49ers games). Yeah we had some great memories Candlestick, but your charm lied not in your beauty, but in how much OTHER teams hated playing there. My 26 years of wearing Long Johns under my jeans, a heavy winter coat, and sometimes ski gloves to view night games in July was over. Thank God!
Pac Bell Park was, and still is, one of the prettiest stadiums in Major League Baseball (another side note: I got to play a couple of games on the field myself, it gives one a whole new appreciation or the balls Bonds hit). And offers the unique aspect of home runs hit out to right field getting "moist", and the spectacle of kayakers jockeying for position to get one of Barry Bonds blasts in the bay. Resplendent with McCovey Cove out in right field and the address of 24 Willie Mays Plaza, the stadium truly captures the essence of one of baseball's treasured franchises.
The 2000 season itself, the inaugural for Pac Bell Park, was another good one. The Giants won the NL West easily. But then their bats went silent in the divisional series against the Mets.
2001, a season for the record books. They played it tight with the Diamondbacks for the entire season, falling 2 games back in the end. But this was Bond's season. 'Roids or not, the dude put up one of the greatest seasons ever and put Mark McGwire where he belongs in the annals of baseball history. Yeah, you could hit home runs Mark, but you were no Barry Bonds. 73 home runs later the only question was not IF Bonds could break Hank Aaron's record, but when.
2002. Ahhhhhh 2002. Another monster season for Bonds. This time he 
showed the world he was not only a great slugger, but a great hitter, leading the league with a .370 average and 198 walks and still cranking out 46 home runs. We were a Wild Card team that year. But hey, it's the playoffs man. We'll take it. And the Giants did take it, all the way to the World Series. This would be Bonds' first. And he put all the criticism of his prior anemic playoff performances to bed, mounting one of the greatest World Series hitting displays in history (.471 BA, 4 HR's, 6 RBI, and 13 walks). But Barry doesn't pitch. And Barry doesn't make the on field decisions.
The Giants went into Game 6 with a 3-2 series lead on the Angels. They jumped out to a 5-0 lead going into the 7th inning. Russ Ortiz was cruising. It looked like they were finally going to do it. Then, one runner on. Another runner on. Out comes Dusty. "Leave him in Dusty! Let him try to get out of this" was my comment to the T.V. as he promptly gave Ortiz the hook and the infamous "game ball". Then Felix Rodriguez. Felix Rodriguez!!! All that can be said was that by the time the inning was over that 5-0 lead had been shrunk to 5-3, and we Giants fans could feel the momentum slipping away. That sickly feeling in our stomach, the one that all Giants fans are intimately familiar with, returned. "No, come on guys! Not this time! Not again!" Yes, again. Game 6 was the killer. Now the series was tied.
Game 7, and Dusty decides to go with Livan Hernandez to start. Giants fans knew we were doomed. Livan Hernandez was not a good pitcher at this time in his career. And this exemplified the downside to Dusty Baker. His loyalty to certain players on his teams. Livan was scheduled to go in Game 7 and Dusty was not going to change his mind.
First inning of Game 7. Hernandez IMMEDIATELY gets in trouble with a base hit and a hit batsmen. He luckily got out of the inning unscathed with a fortuitous line drive double play that ended the threat. I was screaming at the T.V. "get him out of there Dusty! We dodged a bullet. Don't tempt fate!" But oh, Dusty knew better. And fate, well, she can be a bitch sometimes. 4 Angel runs later Dusty finally decided that Livan "didn't have it". Really Dusty?!!! You couldn't have surmised that after the first inning like the rest of us? Kirk Reuter (who SHOULD have been the starter for Game 7) proceeded to shut the Angels down for 4 plus innings, but alas it was too little too late. Another opportunity lost.
Dusty ended up leaving after that season. The Giants brought in Felipe Alou, a blast from the past. And Felipe did a nice job, getting the Giants back in the playoffs in 2003 with a 100 win season and another NL West title. But again they met up with the Marlins in the division playoff series. Now THAT Marlins team was a bunch of upstarts. A very young, but talented team that took it to the Giants.
With Bonds entering his 40's and no new stud on the horizon we Giants fans knew times were going to be tough for the next several seasons. And they were. The only remarkable event coming when Bonds surpassed Hank Aaron as the all time home run leader. However, as with all things Giants, even this feat was tainted with negativity. The allegations of Bonds steroid use had many baseball fans dismissing the achievement. It was a bittersweet moment for Giants fans, and it marked the end of an era. One of the best eras San Francisco Giants fans had ever seen.
Which brings us to this year's team.
When the season started I didn't expect this team to do too much. 85 wins maybe. They had great pitching, but they didn't have the hitting. You still gotta score runs to win. But somehow, someway, they scratched, and kicked, and pitched, and got some timely hits, and won the NL West. And yet, I still thought, "well this is great, anything else from here on out is gravy". And with a few lucky breaks and some great pitching they beat the Braves. "Wow! That was cool. But Phildelphia is just too damn good."
Holy S! They beat the Phillies!
And now here we are. Up 2-0 on the Rangers. Our boys have put up 20 runs in two games. Which is about a normal week's worth of scoring for this team. I'm cautiously optimistic. If you've read ANY of this diary you'd understand why.
So, I'll watch game 3 tonight with my dad. Just like I watched Game 6 of the 2002 Series with him. And hopefully fate will shine brightly on our beloved Giants. And even if they do win Game 3 tonight, my optimism will still be guarded. Because, after all, I AM A GIANTS FAN!!!!
Go Giants!!!!!!!!!!!
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