How Sweep It Is

How about that, Giants fans?

Could anyone, even the most optimistic of diehards, expected a clean sweep of our biggest rivals?

I would have been content with two out of three, really. A second consecutive series victory against the Dodgers in a continued attempt to climb out of the hole we’d dug ourselves against division opponents this year.

But what a momentum swing that the Giants have had since the All Star Break. They went 20-8 in the month of July, losing only one series (to Colorado, back when the Giants were mired in their seven-game losing streak) and split one (against Florida last week). They had two series sweeps (of Milwaukee and Arizona, but hey, a sweep’s a sweep), three if you count LA even though it continued into August and four if you count that bad call by the ump in the last game of the New York Mets’ series at home.

But numbers alone don’t capture the buzz in the Bay Area right now. People are calling into talk radio shows, saying they haven’t been this excited about the Giants–let alone any Bay Area team, for that matter–in years. And the excitement at the ballpark for this weekend series was so palpable. I went to the game on Friday, and I’d never heard a louder crowd during pregame player introductions. Sure there were Dodger fans there, but they were few and far between compared to the loads of orange and black clad people that came out. And it wasn’t the usual mixed crowd of corporate suits-and-ties and casual fans; no, it was the diehards, the Croix de Candlestick types, the oldtimers and young fanatics like me. It’s hard to explain that kind of atmosphere unless you’ve been in it before, unless you’ve been in an arena with thousands upon thousands of other fans all screaming for one team, one athlete, one cause. All standing with baited breath, hands clasped in the top of the ninth, watching their bullpen cling on for a victory against their biggest rivals. There’s really nothing like that environment, and it’s why AT&T Park will always be home to me.

I’m really getting excited about our chances this season; any San Francisco fan who said they weren’t is either a huge pessimist or is in denial, not wanting to jinx the team. I’m definitely a little bit of the latter; I say the word “playoffs” with my fingers crossed behind my back and a silent prayer in my head. You have to do that if you live and die with your team like I do. And I know, it’s only August 2; there’s so much of the season left, so much time for anything to happen, good or bad. Teams have built a hot streak late in the game and ridden it far into the postseason (a la Colorado a few years back), and have also held a huge lead in their division, only to royally collapse in on themselves. I don’t want to get too hopeful to the point that if the Giants don’t make the postseason, I’ll be hugely disappointed. But like I said in my last entry, it’s like when Duane Kuiper asked last year, “Folks, do you believe?” And I do. As much as I want to be reserved and logical and be conservative about this upcoming road trip against Colorado and Atlanta, part of me feels like I did seven years ago as a thirteen-year-old, a new Giants fan who was optimistic to a fault and giddy with hope of having her team make the World Series for the second year in a row. And I can’t just silence that little kid voice inside of me, as much as I want to be cautiously optimistic.

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…on a bit of an aside, lately I’ve had people questioning why I care so much about sports (baseball in particular), more so than usual I guess.

It first came up when I was driving back from the Giants game with my mom on Friday, who has a mild interest in baseball but more for my sake than her own. She spent most of the game with her head buried in her book, refusing to look up at all the excitement going on around us.

“Why do you care so much about this team? What have they ever done for you? Sports doesn’t mean anything in real life,” she said, or words to that effect.

I tried to explain to her about how sports makes me feel; about how it can unify people from different backgrounds, about feeling like you were apart of a cause greater than just you as an individual, but I don’t think she really cared for those explanations.

Then again yesterday, I was driving back from dinner with my friend when I checked my phone and saw the game was in the ninth inning with Brian Wilson coming in for us. I said I was going to put the game on, but my friend was pretty vocal in her opposition because she didn’t want to have to listen to it.

She relented once I explained that it was the very end of the game and it’d probably be over pretty soon, and even got a little intrigued when I told her this series sweep (or winning three games in a row, as I told her) was the first against our big rivals at home since 2004.

But going back to my whole point about why baseball means so much to me. It’s really hard for me to explain it to someone who isn’t already a sports fan, because most of the time they just think it’s frivolous. And yeah, I guess I can understand why people would think paying to watch grown men hit a small ball around a yard would be silly. But like I said, it’s so much more than that; it’s about this feeling of unity, about how sports is one of the few venues that can bring people together like nothing else can, regardless of your background.

This column that I wrote about it for my college paper is the best way I can articulate why I love baseball. I’ve posted this a few times before, so forgive me for the overexposure; however it’s really the only I’ve been able to string words together about it in a close to eloquent manner.

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Well, let’s hope for two split series in Colorado and Atlanta this week. Anything more would be great, but again, I’m keeping my optimism in check.