Baseball and the Transcending of Generations

Baseball is a game that transcends generations, brings people of all socio-economcic classes together for the love of the game, the love of community, and the love of being a part of something. Baseball is my #2 sport - basketball is the game I love most for its artistry, competitive nature, and upbringing as an above average sized individual who could shoot and jump a little bit (in my day). But the San Francisco Giants are my team - a team my dad exposed me to at the age of about 7, with the rise of th Will Clark-era Giants during the hey-days of Candlestick Park. I grew up hearing stories about the greats of my father's ear - Mays, Marichail, McCovey, Cepeda. My father use to attend games at Candlestick with his grandmother who lived in Oakland at the time. Then as a teenager and young adult, he traveled with the Gong brothers - who ran a couple Chinese markets in my dad's native Fresno, California - to carry goods purchased in San Francisco's Chinatown in order to take back to the stores in the heart of the Central Valley. These trips would consist of purchasing goods in bulk, carrying them to the awaiting vans owned by the Gong family, then attending the Giants game at the 'Stick if they were playing at home. Watching the likes of Giants greats as well as Koufax, Musial, and Clemente turned my dad on to the game of baseball much like Griffey, Frank Thomas, Will Clark, and Dave Stewart did in my day. Though the salaries were higher, top players moved around much more frequently, and ticket prices never stopped rising, the game was still the game and as it did in the 50s and 60s, the game brings together regions of people across racial, familial, and socio-economic barriers - which even today is a rare occurrence in today's still fragmented society.

Baseball games with my father are events I vividly remember to this day, even as I head toward the start of my 4th decade of life - the two-game September '97 series against the Dodgers where Bonds hit a titanic 2-run homer into the upper deck in Candlestick, bringing 56,000+ Giant fans to their feet in unison to cheer for a team nobody gave any hope toward at season's start. My dad saw Brian Johnson follow-up Bonds' heroics the following day, hitting the game-winning home-run in the 11th to take the two-game set and tie the division going into the final two weeks of the campaign. Then there's my 10th birthday, when dad took me and seven friends to the Giants-Dodgers game and Darryl Strawberry of all players tossed a baseball to me during batting practice, following up this act later with an upper-deck home-run to right that still hasn't landed. Luckily, Kevin Bass hit a game-winning single in the 11th to win the game and send us kids home happy.

I've been to over 100 Giants games in my life, of which many required my father to leave work after a long day to drive us over Highway 17 to the 85 to the 280 before crossing the 380 to 101 because "you never know what 101 is going to be like." We had a lot of fun on those rides, talking baseball, school, life. Conversations with my dad that started with baseball were probably some of the best times I've had with him because it led to other great stories and harsh realities - about growing up in Fresno with nine brothers and sisters, the hardships of growing up with little money, the relationship and close bond he had with my Uncle Mark, his experiences working at the age of 14 to help put food on the table, and his unconditional love for his own parents. So when the option came up to drive to San Francisco and spend the World Series-clinching game 5 with friends or go home to watch with dad, I went home to watch the game with the old man. We talked about how shocking it was that of all Giants teams and all the great players that came and went, this group of all groups pulled off the victory. But it was more special because we got to see them win together, share the moment together, and reminisce a little about the great players who never won and the cold, windy nights we shared watching the likes of Clark, Williams, Bonds, Kent, and others at the 'Stick. Nobody can forget those cold, windy nights, and a repeat won't either.