I DON'T CARE IF WE EVER GET BACK!

It’s root, root, root for the Giants……if they don’t win it’s a shame……

BUT, wait, they won today, so it’s not a shame!!! It was absolutely wonderful at the ball park and the atmosphere was electric. To quote the now trite credit card advertisement:

Two Giants playoff tickets                            $215.00

Parking near the ball park                                40.00

Two beers and a bag of peanuts                      22.50

Watching your team take a 2-1 lead in the NLCS  -   Priceless!

There is something special about this rag tag bunch of misfits. They all seem to have come together at the right time in the right organization. There’s The Freak, Tim Lincecum; the fabulous rookie catcher with the totally hick name, Buster Posey; the boy who aspired to be a rodeo clown, Cody Ross; Pat “The Bat” Burrell, cut by another team; Aubrey “Huff Daddy” Huff who says he is wearing his lucky red thong underwear for every game; Pablo Sandoval, the slumping Kung Fu Panda; and what can anyone say about Brian Wilson of “Fear the Beard” fame? There are many, many more but these are a few personalities that come to mind right now. They have all endeared themselves to the thousands of fans who love them and cheer for them every game.

We arrived at AT&T Park about 11:15 AM and parked at Pier 30. We discovered this great place to park earlier this year. It’s easy to get out of and at $20 was a bargain – saving us $5 to $10 over the other lots. But, this is a playoff game and, of course, they doubled the price to $40. What the hell, it’s only money.

Knowing the concession prices inside the ball park are outrageous, we had lunch at a little place outside the park. It was the best bargain of the day – two sandwiches with fries and two drinks was only $23.00. As we ate and watched people up and down the Embarcadero, it appeared the entire city was clothed in orange and black!  You could literally feel the excitement in the air.

We were each handed an orange sign that read, “It’s Torture (and we love it)”, the phrase coined by Giant’s announcer Duane Kuiper as he described the close games and near misses that have been common place this year.  Once inside the park everyone received an orange Rally Rag to wave frantically.

Our seats were okay, but not being season ticket holders (or having a fortune to spend) we were relegated to the outfield, upper deck seats. We both had a little trouble picking up the ball off of the bat and were in the sun the entire afternoon. BUT you don’t go to a playoff game to get a better view of the game. You go to be a part of something far bigger than a baseball game. There were 43,000 people, screaming, chanting and high-fiving each other who shared a camaraderie with 25 baseball players and each other that you just don’t get from watching on TV.

The player introductions just before the first pitch

Matt Cain pitched a great game. The batters managed to squeeze out 3 runs with sheer determination and just a few hits. Javier Lopez and Brian Wilson pitched the last two innings respectively and kept the drama to a minimum. Once again Cody Ross was the unlikely hero just like he’s done this entire series.

Matt Cain winding up in the first inning

Brian Wilson (Fear the Beard) getting warm in the bullpen

It was an incredible experience and once again, my sweetie, pulled off a great surprise with our last minute playoff experience. As we were slowly making our way out of the park, Lou commented, “Well, this day cost about $300 and it was worth every penny of it.”  I squeezed his hand and thought, “Amen.”

The scoreboard showing the final score of Giants 3, Phillies 0

Between getting out of parking lots, ball game traffic and normal commute traffic we finally made it back to Sacramento about 7:30 PM. We have almost no food in the house and I have no idea when I’m going to pack for our cruise next week (I work Wed and Thurs then go into my dad’s from Fri-Sun). Today was supposed to be the grocery shopping and packing day, BUT we had far better things to do. Every now and then candy bars for dinner are okay.

I wish that I had a better way with words to describe the magic that seemed to permeate the air at the playoff game today. As we all slowly filed out of the park down the seemingly endless ramps that go down and around, down and around, down and around, the crowd would spontaneously start shouting, “Let’s Go Giants! Let’s Go Giants! Let’s Go Giants!” Oddly enough, it never seemed to get old even after the 25^th time someone revived the chant.

LET’S GO GIANTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!