Where Were You When The Giants Won The Pennant?
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Neon Tommy is based in Los Angeles, but many of us are transplants from the Bay Area (and therefore hardcore San Francisco Giants fans). Like many Giants fans, Game 6 of the NLCS was a roller coaster for us. It's a game we'll remember for a long time.
Here are our stories from Saturday night:
Sara Ramsey (Staff Writer): I was standing with about 50 people in the bar of The Clement Hotel on Cannery Row in Monterey, CA when the Giants won the pennant.
Saturday was my best friend's wedding and I was a bridesmaid. The game started at 4:30 p.m. and the ceremony began at 5 p.m. All three of the bridesmaids and I spent the entire reception getting hand signals from our friends with score updates.
Bottom of the sixth, tied 2-2.
Top of the eight, Uribe home run!
After dinner and speeches, the couple’s first dance, and the bride’s dance with her father, the DJ started the party up. That was my queue to run.
In matching royal blue satin dresses and silver heels, the bridesmaids ran across the lobby of the hotel and made it to the bar just in the nick of time, bottom of the ninth.
It took me a second to regain composure but then I realized that all the people at the bar were also wedding guests (our apologies to the bride!).
We waited with bated breath as Brian Wilson went to work on the Phillies. With two on and two out, Ryan Howard had a chance but to no avail. Giants are going to the World Series!
Back at the wedding, the DJ proceeded to play “Don’t Stop Believing- The Giants 2010 Anthem.”
Michael Green (Staff Writer): I was having a family dinner at my aunt’s house in New York when the Giants won the pennant.
Unfortunately, the main cable provider for Long Island was in a contract dispute with Fox at the time and I could not watch the game on TV. So I found myself screaming silently at a muted computer in my sleeping baby cousin’s room when Brian Wilson struck out Ryan Howard at around midnight eastern time.
My family still has not forgiven me.
Patrick Crawley (Senior Sports Editor): I was at my buddy's wedding in a small town outside of Auburn, CA when the Giants won the pennant.
During dinner, my friend Steve and I kept sneaking away to the bar for updates. As soon as somebody from our table got up to get a drink, we'd tell them don't worry about it, we'll get it for you and we'd rush off to see who was winning. I must've had a beer an inning just to keep checking the score.
The biggest surprise came in the fifth inning when we walked in to find Madison Bumgarner on the mound. Bochy went with the rookie? What was he thinking? It worked out in the end though.
By the top of the ninth, dinner and toasts were over and everybody flooded into the bar. There must've been 40 people in there. It was really crowded. I remember the father of the bride got a spot front and center. He was grinning like a maniac when Brian Wilson closed it out. I was so nervous I was biting my knuckle to keep from yelling obscenities at the screen.
When the Giants won, I must've high fived two dozen people. We were all so excited. I even reached over the bar and gave the bartender a high five.
Best wedding ever.
Kate Rooney (Staff Writer): Brian Wilson had just walked Jimmy Rollins when I realized something was wrong. Very wrong. The problem wasn’t so much that the Phillies’ had the tying run at first base with one out in the bottom of the ninth, though the idea was indeed disturbing. No, the problem was that I had food poisoning and the intestinal gods chose to punish me mere moments before my Giants won the National League pennant.
I should issue a disclaimer. While I did grow up collecting Will Clark baseball cards, I’ve become something of a fair weather fan. I moved to Boston for college and forgot about the Giants amid Red Sox hysteria (I even wore full Sox regalia to AT&T Park twice this year…shhh…). But I will say this: I am the finest fair weather fan there ever was. Back in 2002, I abandoned all pretense of studying to watch the Giants in the World Series, and cried when they lost. This postseason, I have devoted myself to learning about the team and even purchased Giants apparel.
I was really looking forward to seeing Wilson get those final two outs, but when the intestinal gods smite you there’s not much you can do. I took a great deal of comfort in hearing the cheers of my friends through the bathroom door. And I realized that if the team’s pennant win can make me feel better in the throes of food poisoning, maybe I’m more than just a fair weather super fan. This time I’ll root for my home team not just in the World Series, but beyond.
However the boys from the Bay fare in the finals, two things are certain: I’ll never forget where I was when they clinched the pennant, and I’ll lay off the buffalo wings that put me there.
Dan Watson (Staff Writer): Sacramento sports fans don’t remember where they were when so-and-so won the pennant, or the championship, or, well, anything.
They remember when so-and-so (take a guess) lost it — that is, when the stars aligned for once in a millennia and there was something of significance to be lost.
And then there was Saturday.
The San Francisco Giants — yes, Sacramento reaches its empty hands to the Bay — won the pennant.
They won the pennant alright, and it’s not such a far cry they won’t win the whole thing. Although, Vegas has the Rangers as straight-up favorites (-135).
I’ll remember where I was when the Giants won the 2010 pennant: in front of my TV — waiting for it all to go wrong — then the floor — the torture building — then, quite suddenly, the ceiling. Thanks for the ulcers Brian “How hideous will my peculiarly dark beard get this next round?” Wilson.
You see, it means a little more when you’re from Sacramento.
Cowtown lives by the George Constanza theory: “We don’t want to be remembered, we want to be forgotten.”
But I remember. I remember where I was when Big Shot Rob ripped our hearts out. I was next to my uncle, aunts, friends, all donned in Lakers gear. I remember where I was when Tim Donaghy took the ring away. Hawaii. The whole trip, ruined.
I remember where I was when the Angels rallied from five down, beating the Giants in Game 6 of the 2002 World Series, before winning it all. Watching my friends wave Rally Monkeys triumphantly into the air.
I remember when the Sacramento Monarchs… actually I don’t remember them at all.
Someday I hope I remember 2010 as being the breakthrough.
Where were you when the Giants won the pennant?
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