Hey Dad. . . . they did it.

However, I am not fortunate enough to possess your level of eloquence.

My dad passed away a couple of weeks ago. I have run the gamut of emotions during the playoffs and world series; following peripherally while dealing with the stuff one has to when that sort of situation occurs. While the Giants were making their incredible run, I kept thinking to myself “Man, dad would be absolutely loving this”, and those thoughts kept making it crystal clear that he was really gone.

I used to silently curse him for making me a Giants fan. Watching season after season of our favorite baseball team either pissing me off or breaking my heart and wondering how the fuck he could set me up for continual disappointment…

Man, what an asshole I was.

Only know do I realize that he didn’t foist this fandom on me as much as share it with me. Those seasons hurt him as much and probably more than me.

Irony being what it is, the Giants finally reaching the summit when I couldn’t share the experience directly with my dad seems almost fitting. This will probably sound either harsh or petty (or not make any sense at all), but it is almost like one had to happen before the other could. I have no other way to explain it.

Congratulations to Grant and the rest of the mods. And to everyone else who I have had the pleasure of sharing the Giants with over the past couple of years. You guys are a special bunch of people.

This post said everything I wanted to say, but so much better than I could have said it. My Dad’s still here, but is getting up there in age. Even during the 80’s when money was tight, Dad always found enough to make the trip up to the ‘Stick a few times a year, but this represents so much more than just Giants baseball. It’s all the Little League practices, giving up weekends for months on end to drive me all over the Western half of the U.S. to play baseball. It’s as if this team winning the World Series encompasses every game of catch in the backyard, the hours spent in the cage or playing soft toss and the dreams a little boy still pretending he’s Will Clark and Greg Maddux is on the mound with a whiffle ball. The pain that comes when you realize it’s over and it’s time to hang it up, because try as you might you’re just not good enough and the father who gives you a soft place to land and reassures you that life will indeed go on with baseball. That it’s okay to still be a fan, even though you still think you could rake against their No. 5 starter.

Hey Dad….They did it, but so did you.

He was preceded by both my grandpas and my grandma, all diehard Giants fans.

Last night I took a moment to step out on the balcony, look up at the stars, and toast all of them. They may not have lived to see this day here on earth, but I like to think that somewhere up there, they all watched it, together, on a big screen, from the front row.

But she loved everything I loved, or did, or cared about, even if it was stupid. Many of my friends and cousins had very bad, or no, relationship with their moms, and spent a lot of their lives in sadness, therapy and who knows what else. I had someone whose sole concern in life was that I was healthy and happy. That’s not particularly realistic but that apparently is what mothers are supposed to do. She did it for some of my friends and relatives, particularly my wife, who never experienced unconditional, fanatical love. A few years ago I did the math and figured out that she clung to a minimum wage job while I was in college that paid her after taxes about exactly what she sent me every month so I could go to school. Only now do I realize what it means in life to have someone for whom you can truly, truly never do wrong. That wasn’t a license to kill knowing she would hide me, it was a constant motivation to make her proud. I’m not any better than that at anyone else, but I sure as hell tried.

She suffered for several years with all sorts of things and died before reaching her 70th birthday (in June) from side effects of treatment for a really early stage of cancer. So, I have been hit and miss here as I have travelled for various things and estate management and other real life crap. I had my first birthday without her during game 4, and MadBum gave me a better present than I could have asked for. Timmy outdid him yesterday. And all of these kids and scrap heap reclamation projects kept surprising me through a very shitty spring, summer, and fall, and you jerks argued and laughed with me about all of it. He Who Catches arrived to rule the world and turn my wife into a more rabid fan than I’ll ever be (to the point I have to close the front windows so the kids outside don’t hear the obscenity).

I can’t believe she’s not there to answer the phone this morning to talk about daily BS (she would have been worried about the junk last night but would have known I was safe) and say “wow, I saw the Giants, that’s fantastic, I’m so happy for you and your city”. So scream loud enough on Wednesday for her, and all the others mentioned in this thread, to hear you.

I lost my mother a few years ago to cancer. I know she would have loved this, and loved even more seeing how much my brother, dad and I are loving this. This next toast is for you, Mom.

Thank you for writing / posting this. I lost my Dad in ‘97. Put a NL Champion flag at his grave in 2002. Can’t wait to put the World Series Champion flag there.