Is it possible to have too much of a good thing? When the Giants won the World Series in 2010, it changed my life as a fan forever. I had always been the underdog, the guy whose team never won. Now all of a sudden I was a winner! That moment was like a release valve for a pipe that had been clogged for 32 years. Before that, I had almost literally lived and died with each Giants’ win and loss. Since then I’ve had a much more… balanced… relationship to my fandom—the stakes just don’t seem as high. No matter what happens in the future, I’ll always have the memories of that great 2010 run.
Yet now here it is a scant two years later, and improbably—almost impossibly—the Giants are back the World Series! My mind is having trouble processing that. If the 2010 Giants were all about Fear the Beard, the 2012 team is about playing one more day for each other. They’ve had six wins in the current post-season where their backs were against the wall—win or go home. Talk about “sweet torture!” If the 2010 team was about Aubrey Huff’s rally thong, the 2012 team is about Hunter Pence’s pregame football-type hypefests. And if the 2010 team was about Brian Wilson’s beard, the 2012 team is about Brian Wilson’s even bigger beard (and his painted fingernails)! It’s about karma! And Pence’s broken bat triple-hit double. And the ultimate “player to be named later,” Marco Scutaro. (And—update post-game 1—Panda Power! And—update post-game 2—Mad Bum Power!)
I don’t want to get ahead of myself here, but 2012 is shaping up to be very 2010. The key difference for me as a fan—in addition to my more Zen-like approach to watching the games—is that I’m actually here in the States to witness it. Back in 2010, I was tooling around the Middle East for most of the postseason, unable to catch any of the games due to the time difference—and the general indifference to baseball in those countries. I made it back just in time for games 2-5 of the World Series, which of course was great. But getting to see this whole postseason unfold, in real time, has been a thrilling, once-of-a-kind experience.
Too much of a good thing? Let’s hope not.
2010 was a great run. I watched all the WS games (in the middle of the night because of the time difference!) and was thrilled with the team. Them being called a band of misfits made sense in so many (amusing) ways. But I honestly think I like the 2012 team a bit better. Yes, they were a fun bunch back in ’10, and I really liked guys like Huff and Burrel — two gritty veterans with a lot of personality. The ’12 team is more, hm, serious, I suppose. But I really liked the one-for-all/all-for-one approach. It really made them strong even though the pitching wasn’t as stabile as the last time. And how can one not love a guy like Pagan. Or Scutaro. I hope they’ll be able to keep them around (and Affeldt too of course). I doubt Scutaro will be able to match his numbers next year, but I’d be willing to give him a chance. It can’t be as bad a deal as Huffs, can it?
Anyway, good post!