Floating Over The Clouds

I am still in a giddy foggy place and despite the stupidest work week ever, I continually remind myself that my joy is not going to be taken away, subdued, or diminished. In these days following the SF Giants first World Series Win, I'm trying to find what it means beyond the hype. We are lingering in a shared feeling of elevated elation before time washes away this community spirit and will soon return us to our divided ways. It's something like Halloween when you can ring a strangers' doorbell and not only do they open it but they smile and give your kids candy. Do this a day later they will call the police. Hey, the door is still open and the candy is still sweet.

A sports victory is a reward for a long haul. In particular for baseball because its season is so long- 200 games (regular season, post season, preseason) with enough ups and downs that at its conclusion, exhausted, you are ready to let it go- only to begin again next year. There is a saying that April is the hardest month and for different reasons, i have found this to be true but because of baseball, April is always also a hopeful month of renewal.

We can get behind political campaigns and feel the promise of possibilities and change. In its best form, political campaigns involve many people (on both sides) as a unifying force but one that will always disappoint and frustrate. Its high point is a victory where in recognition, time does stop for one night (was there ever a better day for many of us when Obama won?) but the victory is only the acceptance of the audition. What will follow is a. the real hard work b. the realization of how heavy the chains are, how bitter the rhetoric, how murky the path to progress. Ah, but the short goals of sports are obtainable and irrefutable; once the gates have been reached, the path as linear as a board game, is complete. Clarity is present and there is no denying the winner. What is won is a connection, or a path to connect with people that on a normal day ignore each other. (after the immediate "Yarrrsgh!"s). A shared experience.

It is difficult enough to agree on what to eat for dinner, or where we are all going on a Friday night let alone finding some commonality with people around us. I remember sitting in a night class just days after getting married and wanting everyone to feel the happiness I was feeling; Put down your pencils- it's time for a celabratory musical number! Even if I was able to communicate this change to my classmates, chances are they would have passed on a musical number or anything more than a tidy, "that's nice". When a community grabs hold of their sports team, it opens up the possibility of a potential musical number (impromptu, sloppy, unrehearsed, stupid from the outside but feels good from the inside) that provides a link to something larger, than just your experience. It requires an investment of faith, and often a great leap of faith to believe.

When a team wins for the first time after many years of waiting (for San Francisco, its been since the arrival of the Giants from New York in 1958) the significance carries more resonance, for there will be many willing participants, that cross age, cultural, class lines. In my circle, this remora ride is for me, the joy it brings to my family- all those great Dempsey loyal Giant fans, my 90 year old Dad, to finally not have to hear my brother moan every year about Willie McCovey's game ending line drive in '62 - bury that memory brother!. It is for my friend John, who left in 2001 but in winning, the Giants help me think about him and how he would sincerely enjoy this (just this week, his brother and my friend Dennis gave me John's Giants jacket that his family had wanted to give him for his 40th birthday), for a neighborhood that grew to a million people, if only for a few short glorious weeks in October and November 2010.

The Giants won 103 games this year. In 1993 they won 103 games and did not even get into the playoffs. In '87 they led 3 games to 2 in the NLCS, one game away from getting to the World Series but lost the last 2 games to the Cardinals. In '89, earthquake interruptus, and the A's won 4-0. In 2002, the powerful Giants seemed to be on their way to the first World Series win; up 3-2 in games, 5-0 in the seventh inning of game six. We were headed to our friend Tina's house. I had a special bottle of Dr. Pepper that I was saving. But it was not to be. The series turned ugly for Giant fans. Maybe four years ago, at dinner, Tina told us that she had saved that bottle in her refrigerator, while fending off Gian Carlo, her son, our buddy, who has been wanting to drink it, since '02. Eight years later, after celebrating with my father, my first thoughts were -we got to go to Tina's house asap! They were waiting for us, bottle in a champagne bucket, glasses set around. Delicious!

Years from now, Dext and Big O, will you remember Huff Daddy? Cody Ross?
the Freak? Ooh Ooh Ree Bay? Brian Wilson? Torture? Ashkon/SfGiants? Panda and Posey? Javey Lopez? Fear the Beard? Our Big 4 starting pitchers? (Lincecum, Cain, Bumgarner, Sanchez) The Excellent broadcasting team (Jon Miller, Mike Krukow, Duane Kuiper, David Flemming)? The stories of Edgar Renteria, and Andres Torres? Freddie Sanchez, Bochy and Rags, Pat the Bat? I hope you will.

To Cleveland and Chicago (Cubs) fans, may your day happen soon.