The Video: Giants Win it All

Took me a few hours, but I put together another Giants video-- this time one commemorating our magical World Series title. Because Dailymotion has now joined YouTube as a bunch of Nazis that won't let me keep my video up due to content, I'm now trying Vimeo. If you cannot see the video below, click here. I promise you, you will love it!

We win it all! from Dan Pera on Vimeo.

Reader Submission #3: Finally, it's starting to sink in

The following is a reader submission to The Dodgerhater by avid Giants fan and Dodgerhater reader Julian Perez. I thought it was appropriate to get other perspectives on what this World Series means to people.



Finally it's starting to sink in

Julian Perez


Wow! I’ve waited just about 25 years for a World Series championship to come home to the best city in the world, and it has finally happened. Now that the parade has taken place, it is finally sinking in that the San Francisco Giants are the 2010 World Series Champs! It still feels weird saying that.

I was initially in shock after watching Brian Wilson record the final out of game 5. I dropped to my knees, screaming toward the sky and shaking uncontrollably. Unfortunately I was not with anyone else to share the utter euphoria I felt, but I am sure that the rest of the Orange & Black nation was feeling the same way. The first person I called was my brother, who was in tears over the win.

Many Giants fans have been suffering since the team moved here in ’58 and I can only imagine how they must have felt. I spoke to a guy at Game 2 of the World Series who had been at the series in ’61, 89, and ’02 and felt the same heartbreak at the conclusion of each. To this day I still have never seen fully seen the final out of the 2002 World Series. I walked out of the room as soon as Kenny Lofton made contact and flip the channel anytime highlights of that series are on. But when Nelson Cruz struck swung and missed on that final pitch, it felt like a new beginning. A 54 year weight had been lifted off everyone’s shoulders. The demons have been banished. The scars left by things like Willie McCovey’s line drive and Dusty Baker giving Russ Ortiz the game ball in the six inning of Game 6 have been magically healed.

People outside of the Bay Area (and maybe Boston, Cleveland and Chicago) have no idea what this wait has been like! The last time the Giants won the series, my parents were 2 and 5 respectively. I keep hearing East Coast fans saying that we don’t know how to handle ourselves and that we’re acting like idiots out here. You know what I say to that?

“You guys wait 54 years and then let us know how it feels you spoiled douche bags.”

I am also getting sick and tired of the media completely hating on this band of “misfits” that screwed up television ratings for Fox. I don’t think the teams were as responsible as the consistently biased, horrible commentators. Maybe it was the fact that the games didn’t start till 8 o’clock on the Eastern Time Zone. I couldn’t believe the fact that ESPN, the self proclaimed “Worldwide Leader in Sports” dedicated two slots of 30 second highlights the day after the win. It just proves that those executives are wearing blue and white pinstripes.

I even read an article on Deadspin.com the next day saying that San Francisco fans “don’t even know how to properly celebrate” because 5 people were arrested the night of game 5. Uh, last time I checked, when Boston won in 2004 there were riots in the streets and cars flipped over. That same year there were even worse riots in New York when the Yankees lost to the Sox in the ALCS. Wednesday’s celebration proved all those haters wrong! We know how to party, have fun, come together as one, and celebrate a world goddamn championship!

I would also like to congratulate and apologize to Bruce Bochy and Brian Sabean. Those of you who read this blog as avidly as I do may remember I wrote an article ripping Sabean a new one for not getting a big bat after the trade deadline. Never in a million years did I think we would get to the playoffs--- let alone the World Series with the team we had at the deadline. Even during the waiver period, I was cursing the likes of Cody Ross and his 7 RBI’s over the last six weeks of the season.

I can admit when I’m wrong. Not only was I wrong, but I now have a whole new faith in Sabean and the entire front office of the Giants. They have put this team in a position to pitch their way back to the playoffs for years to come. Lincecum, Cain, and Bumgarner are all signed through at least next year and Jonathan Sanchez is arbitration eligible. It also makes me feel pretty good (and shitty at the same time) to know that a former CY Young winner is our #5 starter.

That being said, it is now time to wipe off the champagne, sleep off the hangovers from the amazing parade, and start thinking about the upcoming 2011 season.

This will not be close to the same team next year. Playoff hero Edgar Renteria will likely not be re-signed and Juan Uribe could likely be signed by another team after a career year. The Giants have said that re-signing Aubrey Huff is their #1 priority which is great, but where does he play next year? Do you put Pablo at 3rd again? Do they call up a guy like Brandon Belt to take over at first, or maybe give Ishikawa one more chance while having Huff in the outfield? What about Pat Burrell? It is hard to see him coming back.

Burrell most likely got his last hit as a Giant in the NLCS (0-13 in World Series). How about a guy like Jayson Werth hitting in the middle of the lineup with Buster and Huff?! A guy can dream can’t he? Either way it is obvious that a bat will be at the top of the list for the Giants during free-agency, but don’t be surprised if Jonathan Sanchez is pitching in a different uniform in 2011. There are talks of Dan Runzler being turned into a starter and the farm is packed with pitching talent. So it seems like the logical thing would be to trade Sanchez rather then pay him $5.5 million in arbitration next year for 8 BB a game.

Regardless of what the Giants do this off-season, we will always have this incredible, magical, and at many times torturous season in our minds and hearts forever. No person or team can ever take away the fact that the Giants are champions. Now it’s their turn to chase us for a crown! The wait is over and it was worth it! Black and Orange forever!!

P.S.: My friend, a hardcore Yankees fan, made a bet with me at the beginning of the playoffs that if the Giants won the whole thing that he would get Buster Posey’s number (28) tattooed on his leg. He has since told me that he intends to do it because it was a “man’s, man’s bet” so there will soon be pictures to follow.

November 1, 2010: The wait is over

I still can't believe it. We did it. We won. WE WON THE WORLD SERIES!

I know it happened. I saw it happen. I celebrated after it happened. I hugged strangers and bummed cigarettes while partying like it was 1954. And it still seems so surreal-- so improbable; so impossible.

How did this happen?? Of all the years and all the teams we've called San Francisco Giants, this was the collection of guys to do it. It almost seems like an accident... as if this story was originally written as a fictional novel, then turned into a Hollywood drama complete with a witty and heart-warming screenplay.

It might as well be a heart-warming, witty Hollywood drama, because that's exactly what it was.

The cast was a vibrant quilt of A-list talents and eccentric contributers, B-list supporting actors, capable character actors and extras. The director drove everyone crazy, and if half this movie's investors had their way, the producer of this championship would've been fired two years ago.

You really couldn't script it better. Everything from the beginning of the season straight through to Brian Wilson's final pitch was dramatic, fun, frustrating, torturous, and damned exhilarating.

They beat the two-time defending NL Champion Phillies including Roy Halladay twice. They beat the supposedly invincible Cliff Lee in the World Series twice. They held an incredible Texas lineup to a paltry .190 BA in the 5 game series, just days after the Rangers hit .281 against the $200+MM New York Yankees.

Their lineup had no national stars. No one on the team hit 30 homers or drove in 90 RBIs. There was no Barry Bonds or Jeff Kent. There was just a cast of characters worth more playing together than as separate parts.






What this championship means to long-suffering Giants fans is wholly indescribable. We've seen our share of Superbowls, and they were incredible, but this is something else entirely. To wait this long, and root this hard without tasting the sweetness of a title makes it that more incredible. As Tom Petty said, "The waiting is the hardest part."

There wasn't a Giants fan out there on the night of November 1st that didn't get chills, have their eyes well up with tears, hug a stranger, laugh hysterically, or scream the same unintelligible slogans over and over again.

I'm a fairly young guy, so I know I am lucky to have experienced this so early in life. After the dust settled following the game, I began to think about what this title meant to different people. I thought about the old guys who can now die in peace. I thought about those who were taken from us too early, who literally lived and died with the San Francisco Giants and who weren't around to see it. I think of my dad and his friends, who were born in 1955 or 1956, who have known nothing but frustration for over 50 years.

I also think of the players like Aubrey Huff, who never played on a winning team. A guy who played nearly 1,500 games in semi-obscurity before getting to hoist that trophy. I think of equipment manager Mike Murphy, who's been with the team for God knows how long. That guy's been washing uniforms, picking up jocks, and riding the highs and the lows of professional baseball his entire adult life. It's as special to him as anyone.

I think of our young guns like Buster, Bum, Timmy, and Cainer, who now know what it takes to get there, and get it done. You think they won't be motivated to get back there and capture that same lightning in a bottle?

I think of Edgar Renteria, one of the most maligned Giants players since Edgardo Alfonzo-- a guy who was added to the NLDS roster as an afterthought, simply because there was no other backup shortstop. He earned all $16MM of that contract in one postseason, and he potentially bookended his career with championships. Simply incredible.

As you finally get to enjoy the long-fabled "Parade Down Market Street" we've all dreamed about, I urge you to really soak it up. Enjoy every second of it. Take as many pictures as your memory card will allow. You never know if you'll ever get to see it again.

One day, you can tell your grandchildren that you were there and you got to see it, and we both know you will never forget this.

We're almost there: It's ours to lose

This just keeps getting better and better.

Before it's all said and done, it's about to get sweeter than any of us could have imagined back in April.

Back in April, Rowand started over Torres, Posey was in Fresno, Wellemeyer was our 5th starter, Burrell was DH'ing in St. Petersburg, and Madison Bumgarner was... a concern to say the least.

Remember? He had a terrible Spring, was throwing 85, and everyone was freaking out! Some people thought he was injured. Some thought we were dumb not to trade him while his stock as a prospect was high. More thought he had gone all Rick Ankiel on us and would never recover.

I was one of those freaking out... thinking he'd been rushed; thinking he'd need more seasoning and time to iron out his mechanical problems. I feared the worst. I prayed to God I didn't see anything at the bottom of my screen mentioning Madison and the most feared words in the Baseball Language: Dr. James Andrews.

Thank God none of that ever happened. Sure enough, after a couple months in Fresno, slowly but surely, Bumgarner came back around. His velocity increased back to respectability, and his stock slowly began to rise again.

Bumgarner's was not quite the odyssey of an Aubrey Huff or a Rick Ankiel, but within the framework of one season, it mirrors the Giants' season as a whole. It is quite possible that if you were to choose just one Giant's season that best represented the "hero cycle" that is the 2010 San Francisco Giants, it would be Madison Bumgarner.

As it turned out, in one of the biggest games of our lifetimes, this 21 year-old country boy with ice water in his veins shut down one of the best lineups assembled in the last 20 years. He threw mostly fastballs that varied in speed from 89-94, and kept professional hitters off balance all night. He can barely buy a beer, and he made Vladimir Guerrero, who drove in 115 runs in '10, look like a confused old lady.

Bumgarner, who I refer to as "The Carolina Kid", seems like he has "it". We said that about Timmy in '07. Remember?

His demeanor and mentality lead me to believe he would be an excellent military sniper. One of the most skilled jobs in all the world, a sniper must be silent, patient, alert, steady, and strong. You can't blink. You can't make a sound, and if you so much as shake an iota, your shot misses by 10 feet. Madison Bumgarner has a steady trigger finger.

As it were, The Carolina Kid and his steady trigger finger, at all of 21 years old, has led our beloved baseball team to within one win of a World Series title.