Today was a big one for San Francisco for sure. So many of our friends ditched work and school to hit the parade in the city. What a party! I’m not so great with the big crowds myself, so I was happy just to check in on the live feed from time to time. It was a thrill nonetheless to see everyone going nuts. As a Red Sox Nation native, the atmosphere here throughout the series had a familiar blend of hope and disbelief, but without a certain bitterness.
The games were great, but my favorites for personal reasons were #4 and #5. Four, because it happened on Halloween night, and I’ll never forget trick or treating through our neighborhood, where every house had the game on and it seemed every other pumpkin glowed with a Giants logo or message. Parents were tracking the game on their phones and peering into windows to check out the action. The runs in the 7th and 8th filled the streets with cheers – it was like watching the game with the whole town. Game 5 was just plain awesome. Lincecum and Lee! Rentaria! A great game, and when it ended, Honey and I ran outside to cheer and listen to the hollers coming from all the houses and the restaurants nearby. People in the streets were honking and yelling long after the game ended, and it was fantastic. I think our kids will remember this one for a long time.
Maybe you saw the piece in the Onion last week about the series – it was titled “Nation Disappointed By Great World Series Matchup,” and it had me laughing. It’s hard to pick a favorite line, since it summed up a certain World Series attitude so nicely, but here’s one I particularly liked:
“The Tim Lincecum versus Cliff Lee thing could be really riveting to watch, and I suppose seeing the managers use gritty, methodical small ball to manufacture runs could be entertaining if you like that sort of thing,” 27-year-old Los Angeles resident Mike Lester said. “But I don’t want well-played World Series baseball that keeps me on the edge of my seat the entire time. I want the teams I expected, and the players I expected playing bitterly to the outcome I expected.”
(Here’s a link to the piece itself in the Onion, October 27 Issue 4643.) Next I’d love to see a sendup of the insane baseball statistics – “Huff is only the second first baseman in NLCS playoff history with three consecutive at-bats in the second game with his shoelaces triple-tied.” Seriously, it’s ridiculous.
I sure am glad there isn’t a real life version of those kinds of statistics. Let’s just consider the Thanksgiving play by play for a moment. “And with that turkey hitting the table at 20.7 minutes past the posted dinner start, Foley maintained an average of just .75 HAR (hosts above replacement), and despite a decent performance in the final course, there’s a good chance she won’t get picked up for the following holiday season.” Not pretty.