the san francisco giants and me: the 1990s

When the Giants franchise as a San Francisco entity was saved, we breathed a sigh of relief.

When, before the papers were signed, much less dry, they signed free agent Barry Bonds, we shook our heads in happy disbelief. This kind of thing didn’t happen to the Giants. The best player in baseball, someone who could have played for any team on the planet, chose to play for the Giants. This may be a lesson for those who wonder why we still love Barry, when the rest of the world hates him. Who is their right mind would come to play with a team that hadn’t won a World Series championship since moving west 35 years earlier, would come to play in the most justifiably reviled ball park in the majors, would come to play for a team that had just lost 90 games? We didn’t blame players for steering clear of our team … they showed a lot of sense, to be honest.

So when Barry came over, with his reminders of his father and his endless talking about his godfather, who just happened to be the Greatest Giant of Them All ™, when he talked about growing up in the Giants clubhouse, when he turned on that smile which to this day is far more delightful than the haters will accept … well, it’s not often you can say a new era is upon us, but the signing of Barry Bonds, coupled with the team staying in San Francisco, changed the mentality of the fans, and this, as much as anything, meant that we loved Barry Bonds.

What followed was the now-legendary “Last Real Pennant Race,” where the Giants built a ten-game lead by late-July, only to see Atlanta go on a 40-11 run that gave them a four-game lead over San Francisco in mid-September. The Braves barely slowed down … they won nine of their last fourteen games … but the Giants were even hotter, winning eleven of twelve to even their record with Atlanta with four games to go. The Giants had four games in Los Angeles, the Braves finished at home against the Rockies. Neither team would lose … it went to the final day of the season, both teams having won 103 games at that point.

The Braves won their game, Giants first-year manager Dusty Baker chose rookie Salomon Torres to start vs. the Dodgers, he didn’t get out of the 4th inning, the Giants were crushed, 12-1, and the Braves went to the playoffs. I was at my in-laws’ house … we were celebrating my wife’s 40th birthday … I sat inside watching the game, and at one point I looked up and saw my wife and her dad through the window into the backyard. My father-in-law smiled at me … I thought that was a bit inappropriate, and I flipped him off, which hadn’t happened before, I assure you.

Of course, this being the Giants, they had losing records for the next three seasons. There were a couple of bright spots to come in the 90s, with 1997 being the best. There was Brian Johnson’s 12th-inning home run against the Dodgers at Candlestick that put the Giants in a tie for first with nine games to go, and then the clincher on the penultimate day of the season in front of 48,000+ at Candlestick, with Barry Bonds leading the cheers of ecstasy (you can find a wonderful photo of that day here … I don’t want to steal from the photographer, the picture is so much better than all the others from that day, so go to his website).

The final highlight of 1999, of course, was the last Giants game ever played at Candlestick, and I can post a photo here because I took a lot of them: