Editor’s note: I’m traveling to Not Los Angeles over the next week or so, which means I’ll have limited time to work on longer features. I will make it up to you in a week or two, when there will be thousands and thousands of dumb hot stove rumors, I promise.
Until then, enjoy some quick posts about happier times.
The Giants were in the World Series, and I had imposter syndrome. More so. I was so sure that everything was going to crash, that the curtains would fall and the Giants would be there, shivering in their underwear, as the rest of the student body laughed at them. The franchise was oh-for-San-Francisco, and they managed to get there in the most painful way possible. The 1993 Giants and 2016 Cubs won the same number of regular season games, do you know that? That’s before you even get to the postseason humiliation.
That brings us to the butterflies of the first inning of Game 1 in the 2010 World Series. THE VERY FIRST INNING.
Also, we’re looking back at this date in Giants postseason history, but this first one still makes me sob at night.
2010 - Giants 11, Rangers 7 (Game 1)
THROW THE BALL. THROW THE BALL.
The Giants were already down, they were going to lose, and this was going to be replayed for the rest of our lives. It was going to be one of the most memorable World Series flubs of all time. A real mental muff. A total boner. Couldn’t even throw the ball.
I wrote about this in-depth last year, so I’m not going to belabor the point. But I thought the Giants were going to lose the game and the series in the 20 seconds following that play. What in tarnation ...
Turns out it’s an amusing footnote! That’s what happens when the team wins. Everything else is really, really funny.
Freddy Sanchez was a danged hero. Again.
Can’t express how much fun it was to watch Freddy Sanchez, and I still miss him. The big hit that everyone remembers, though, was Juan Uribe.
If anyone can find a video that wasn’t recorded on a Teddy Ruxpin, that would be swell, but you get the idea. That was the moment when the Giants weren’t going to lose Game 1, which meant they might actually win. Like, win win.
And let’s not forget the last great moment of Travis Ishikawa’s Giants career.
Thanks, pal. You gave us so much more than the typical prospect.
This was the start of it all. Imagine telling yourself how spoiled you would be after that Lincecum play. You wouldn’t be able to process it.
2012 - Giants 2, Tigers 0 (Game 3)
The Giants scored four runs in 18 innings against the Tigers, which isn’t good. But it’s a heckuva lot better than scoring no runs, which is what the Tigers did. I still don’t know how it happened.
Ryan Vogelsong had, perhaps, his vogelsongiest game for the Giants. He never gave in. Grind, grind, grind. Corner, corner, corner. Grind, grind, grind. Let the other team get themselves out.
This might be one of the most defining moments of that World Series:
Miguel Cabrera is an inner-circle, first-ballot Hall of Famer. Vogelsong is, too. In here ...
[places hand on your head]
... and in here ...
[places hand over your heart]
But, no, seriously, Cabrera is a titan and he should have hit the ball 480 feet. Instead, Vogelsong got in his kitchen, and it was a harmless pop up that he’ll think about forever. And to think, that was only the second-biggest regret of Cabrera’s this whole postseason.
2014 - Off day
Good. We deserved a break.
It all goes back to Lincecum for me, though. If the Rangers win that game, do they win the Series? If they do, what moves to the Giants make in desperation the next year? Is there a Marco Scutaro? Is there a Michael Morse? Does it rain donuts? WHAT CHANGES, MAN? WHAT CHANGES?
As is, the Giants won, and it was magnificent. Still can’t believe it. Still can’t believe Lincecum didn’t throw the ball. THROW THE BALL.
To be continued