San Francisco Giants
An Ode to the Dedicated Giants Fan
By MATT WONG, MOP Squad Sports Staff Writer
Oct 4, 2004 - 4:07:00 AM

Dustin Mohr turned the season around with this catch against Chicago

The pain is so extreme. The glory brings tears. Die-hard baseball fans are irrational and to the average population, psychotic. This time of year brings the best and worst of both worlds. As a San Francisco Giant fan, you’re near tears. The team had finally clicked. The starting rotation was on a roll. Their lineup scored runs in bunches and competed with the Cardinals, Phillies and Rockies all season for most runs scored in the National League. The Giants made us believe that the post-season was all but certain.

Brett Tomko threw the best game of his life, in what seemed to be the most important of his late blooming career. We did just enough to get a lead. But it all unraveled. Our biggest weaknesses exploited in Hollywood with everything on the line. Defensive replacement Cody Ransom made a crucial error, which was sandwiched in between horrible bullpen pitching, and inability to throw strikes. As Steve Finley’s bomb left RF Michael Tucker almost at a stand still, the dreams of post-season baseball at SBC Park disappeared faster then my money at the bar following the game.

Baseball fans find the “its only a game” comment offensive. They also find the “Games don’t count until September” comment to be down right repulsive. That get-a-way Sunday loss in April was just as important as the nightmare 9th inning of October 2nd.

But why must we get so emotionally involved? As I watched the Giants-Dodger series this weekend, I didn’t want to throw off karma by going to the bathroom, getting food or even changing the channel during commercial breaks. When your team loses the big game, its not your day that’s ruined, its not your week that’s ruined, its your year. Baseball fans watch at least 100 of their team’s games. It’s so much time, effort and emotion.

Noah Lowry looks like the second coming of Tom Glavine

Society expects us to just pick up our lives and move on after a big loss. But the truth is that a weekend of baseball like this as a San Francisco Giants baseball fan can be just as difficult to cope with as losing a relative. We try to stay busy. We try to put up a façade that nothing is wrong. You get people calling you, asking if you’re okay, apologizing to you as if it was their fault. You don’t know what to say, you know they’re being loyal, but it’s just too hard right now.

You continue to stay loyal to your team, even when you force yourself to go out and have a good time. Going to the trendy college bar in Tucson. I wear the Giants hat out as if to say, “I’m behind them 110%”. People come up to me, tell me that we’re still going to do it, that it says a lot to wear the hat on a day like this”. It means a lot to think you’re not alone, that people are fighting with you for the cause. It makes it all seem worth it, temporarily anyway.

For Giants fans, we’re all in mourning. We had a great team this year, a team that never gave up, a team that had obvious flaws but did everything to hide them. This team had a bunch of guys that would jump off the Golden Gate Bridge for each other. Not to mention the greatest baseball player who ever lived. We should be proud, and happy that we pack the seats at SBC day in and day out, and proud of our team that acts and plays, as all baseball teams should. I am proud of the 2004 San Francisco Giants, and you should be too. This team is going to be even better next year. Noah Lowry will be around all season, Jessie Foppert will be back from injury and management always does what it needs to do to produce a winner. 12 meaningless games in 8 years is something not many other franchises can say. We will have our time of glory, because every true fan deserves it.

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