Man, the Giants win the World Series tonight and ESPN is covering Indy-Houston like it was the Super Bowl.
I thought there was about a 5% chance that Highlight Express would lead with the football game.
Also, WOOOOOOOOOOO! Even here in the relatively quiet Outer Sunset, there were a lot of firecrackers and screaming…
Joe
Well, even though i didn’t get to watch the game, i was happy with the result. Good job, Giants.
I know it’s somewhat Scrooge-like, but am i the only person who gets mildly annoyed at all the bandwagon jumpers on the streets who probably didn’t watch a single game all year, but who dust their caps off when the team makes the World Series?
I almost feel like this is me. I haven’t lived in the Bay Area for eight years, and it’s ridiculously tough to follow West Coast baseball when you live in the ETZ. If you live in Michigan, Giants night games start at ten o’clock. Plus, I spent all or part of the last three summers between 2006 and 2009 outside of the US. I subscribed to MLB radio this year, but had a lot of technical problems with it and didn’t listen to many games.
So I feel like I haven’t been paying as much attention as I would have liked. But coincidentally visiting with my parents right now and I’m so excited to be here for it! It’s been fantastic being able to watch the games on TV at a normal time and see people in black and orange. I’m going to the parade on Wednesday!
If you can look at the crowd and point out to me which ones are the bandwagon-jumpers, I will join you in mocking them. I mean, they drew 3 million fans this year – it’s not like they were a secret in the Bay Area.
Dang, was I ever wrong about this series.
Congrats to the Giants! Superb pitching and hitting. Fantastic strategy by the Giants.
And Bengie Still gets a ring??
Well, clearly i can’t determine who they are individually. Nor was i singling out Giants fans in particular.
But can you really deny that this is a common phenomenon in the world of sports? Almost every team has its hometown bandwagon jumpers. I guess it’s possible that Green Bay, Wisconsin doesn’t, and maybe Montreal, with its fanatical Canadiens fans, is also something of an exception, but that’s about it.
I know a few San Franciscans who expressed a vague surprise to hear the the Giants made the playoffs, who raised an eyebrow when they won the Division Series, who started to get excited when they beat the Phillies in the NLCS, and who are now probably jumping about the streets of the city as if a Giants win was what they had been praying for all year.
And yet, if you had asked them a month ago, they would have told you that Brian Wilson was a member of the Beach Boys. And Buster Posey? Wasn’t he the leader of that organized crime syndicate that got taken down in New York?
I don’t really begrudge them, i guess. After all, sporting fandom is really about little else but irrational loyalties. I still reserve the right, as an actual baseball fan who watches and talks baseball all year long, to see them as the johnny-come-latelys that they are. Probably makes me a Sporting Scrooge, but i can live with that.
Nope, not until April 1.
And not again.
I’ve only been a fan for about 3 years, but I listened to / saw about 250 games in their entirety over the last two seasons, including every game this year, so I consider myself in the clear.
However, I lived in Atlanta in 1991. I was a college student from NJ, and was never a fan. I think the opening day game had like 4500 tickets sold. Of course, by the end of the season, they were the best in the division, and the seats were packed with “die-hard lifers.” That soured me on the Braves forever. I understand that they were terrible for a looooong time, but it still irked me.
Joe
Congatulations to the Giants and their fans.
Thanks to the Rangers for some exciting moments. Hopefully, this will be the beginning of a new direction for this franchise. They may have raised their expectations a little.
I did not have the pleasue of watching all of the games in the series. I just saw partial games and listened on the radio. Here are a few observations:
I suspected the Rangers were in trouble in Game 5 when Posey threw out Hamilton attempting to steal second. The TV replay showed the focus and intensity on Posey’s face when he fired that perfect rifle shot to second. That was a defining moment.
The Giants are so young. I like that. This should be a young man’s game. There are exceptions (Renteria), but I would rather watch younger players who may make some mistakes than older, overweight players that are playing largely on their reputation. But, that’s just my opinion.
The Ranger, other than Game 2, didn’t really embaress themselves. I can enjoy watching a team like that.
I’ve mentioned this before, but one difference between the team that won and the team that lost shows up in the Aubrey Huff sacrifice bunt. Bochy didn’t have any problem “taking the bat out of” Huff’s hands and Huff didn’t have any problem doing what was called for. Washington is much better at playing for one run than the previous Ranger managers have been. I use the phrase “taking the bat out of” because that was the excuse one of the former Ranger managers (I don’t remember who) used when asked why they didn’t bunt in a suitable situation. It irritated me at the time.
So what?
If the product is improved, it’s to be expected there will be more customers. Sometimes the casual customer can be made into a loyal customer.
So what?
I’m not making an economic argument here. And i’m talking about the distinction between fans of the game and fans of the team-that-happens-be-doing-great-right-now. You are welcome not to share this minor irritation, but i’m not especially interested in defending it with analytical references to the influence of playoff appearances on the long-term financial outlook of professional sports teams. I’m well aware of that stuff, and of the fact that some of these people might become actual fans rather than bandwagon riders. Still doesn’t change my admittedly somewhat irrational feelings on the subject.
So nice to see these teams enjoy such enormous success this year, a memorable season for most all the fans. Congrats to all the Giants and a heartfelt thanks to the Rangers for their unprecedented accomplishment. It was a special year.
I think the Giants’ attendance stats reflect pretty well that the team was supported by a big fan base the whole season. The average attendance for the park was ~37K just under the capacity of ~41K. That’s pretty impressive considering the length of the season.
Granted there were some games in the ~10K range but those are few.
Those were road games. I did a quick scan of their attendance and the smallest ones I saw were 26,000 versus the Pirates on a Monday, and 27,000 versus the Nationals on a Tuesday.