the san francisco giants and me: the 1980s, part 1

Continuing the theme of creating my own decades, this will cover 1984 through 1992, although this post won’t get further than the first year.

1984 was a pivotal year for me. I got my first season tickets that year. The All-Star game was returning to Candlestick Park, so I bought a partial plan so I would have rights to attend the midsummer classic. It was a bad year to go to lots of games, as the team was in the midst of yet another set of poor seasons. On June 6, I played hooky from work once again and went to a Wednesday afternoon game with a friend. The Braves were in town, and the Giants were in last place, having lost their last five games and nine of their last ten, compiling a record for the season of 17-34.

The weather was awful … it didn’t rain, but it always threatened, and the air was damp with misty drizzle all afternoon long, leaving everything, seats, walkways, people, slick and slippery. The announced crowd was 7,635 … I doubt they all made it to the game. Atlanta pitcher Pete Falcone was having problems … he walked four of the first seven Giants he faced … but as the locals came to bat in the bottom of the third, they were already behind, 2-0. Ah, but then came a rare rally. With one out, Al Oliver and Hac Man Leonard sandwiched singles around yet another walk to load the bases, at which point Bob Brenly hit the first grand slam of his career to put the Giants on top.

Starting pitcher Jeff Robinson held the Braves off for 8 innings, and going into the 9th, the Giants still held a 4-3 lead. In came Greg “Moon Man” Minton. Moonie was a former All-Star who was gradually fading (although, in fairness, he pitched for six more seasons and recovered his old skills with the Angels late in his career). He gave up a leadoff single, then got two groundballs (his specialty), leaving one more out for a win, with the potential tying run at second. Manager Frank Robinson brought in Gary Lavelle to pitch to a lefty … Joe Torre countered by pinch-hitting Bob Watson, who was in his last season. Watson doubled to tie the game.

On they went to the 11th inning. Lavelle was still pitching. With two outs and the bases empty, Alex Trevino reached base on an error by Brad Wellman. No problem … the batter was pitcher Steve Bedrosian, Torre had already used up most (all?) of his bench, so he let Bedrosian bat. Bedrosian spent 14 years in the big leagues, and only managed 15 hits in all that time, all of them singles. His career average when he retired was .098.

He singled.

Now it was first and second, two outs, with Dale Murphy at the plate. Murphy had been the league MVP the previous two seasons, and lefty-hitting Chris Chambliss was in the on-deck circle. Frank Robinson ordered an intentional walk, loading the bases.

Lavelle proceeded to walk Chambliss, bringing home the go-ahead run. In the bottom of the inning, the Giants could manage nothing more than a one-out walk … in retrospect, the most interesting thing about the bottom of the 11th was the identity of the two pinch-hitters Robinson called on, a couple of guys named Duane Kuiper and Dusty Baker.

The game ended on a Chili Davis strikeout. It had lasted almost 3 1/2 hours, and it had drizzled for at least 3 of those hours. Those fans who had stuck around began to trudge unhappily to the exits … as I recall, a few of them had garbage bags over their heads with the eyes and mouth cut out, because they were ashamed to be Giants fans. As the players walked sadly to the clubhouse, a fan in the upper deck above the Giants dugout leaned over the railing and started spewing a stream of epithets at the team. It was a bad year, it had been a bad day, we were all damp and miserable, and he was just venting for the sake of us all. To make his point even stronger, the guy tried to climb onto the railing. He didn’t remember that it was slick from the constant drizzle. Over the railing he fell, landing in the lower deck. He was dead.

Later that year I went to Europe for the first time and got a picture of what life was like outside my little world. We were also a couple of years into our life as a computer household … I found that I didn’t miss baseball while I was away, but I missed my computer. A month after we returned from vacation, I walked off the job and ended my decade as a factory worker.