Fifty-six years to win a game. I don’t even have the patience to let my nail polish dry properly, much less wait around for a lifetime to see a sports team make history. But bless those Giants fans, many of them sure did.
Why is it such an important day in the Bay Area today? Today, November 1, 2010 , the Giants won the World Series for the first time since 1954, their first time in representing our City by the Bay. Rally ‘round the dugout, boys! You sure done good.
Am I a baseball fan? Nope. I don’t follow much of any sport. But as an Englishman who has come to call the Bay Area his home observed on the blog Left Coast Voices, “there is something magical when a city gets behind its team.” People far and wide and all across the country have gotten behind the underdogs, and carried these small Giants to victory against the spittin’ and sparrin’ Texas Rangers.
A die-hard baseballer that I know posted this on Facebook last week: “ I understand his frustration at being overlooked in his loyalty by legions of “new money” fans, but there is nothing like a community bonding together over something, anything. And the Bay Area is a community unto itself, that is ferocious in its diversity and its bonds.
Like everyone else across the country, in a time that has left our bank accounts as empty as our Twittering hearts and minds, a glimmer of an American moment has taken shape tonight. Politics, races and creeds were forgotten, and a tradition was shared by parent and child alike as generations came together. As the closer, Black Beard Wilson, stepped to the mound and threw the last out, it was like a wish for better times ahead whistled across the home plate.
Here’s to victory, big and small. Here’s to victory for us all..!
