Staying Strong With The Orange And Black

Hi faithful readers!

 Last week, I told you about how I remained a fan of my hometown baseball team, the San Francisco Giants. I remember the lean years from 1979-1982 when the Giants were not playing very good baseball. I remember the 1982 season when the Atlanta Braves, Los Angeles Dodgers and Giants were battling it out for the National League West title. The Giants were eliminated during the last weekend of the season and the Braves and Dodgers were tied. That Sunday, future Hall of Famer Joe Morgan made Braves fans and myself very happy by hitting a three run home run off of Dodger reliever Terry Forester to eliminate the Dodgers and give the National League West title to the Atlanta Braves who were waiting in the visiting clubhouse in San Diego to see if they had to go to L.A. for a playoff or win the west even though they had lost to the Padres. As the years went by and the giants began stockpiling talent such as Will Clark, Robby Thompson, Matt Williams and Kevin Mitchell who the Giants acquired in a trade from San Diego in 1987 under the field leadership of Roger Craig became west champions and National League Champions in 1987. I was attending the University of Southern Mississippi (the Alma mater of Giants great Jim Davenport) when the Giants and St. Louis Cardinals were in a battle for the National League championship. The series was tied and I was watching the game in my room and earlier that day, bought a bottle of cheap champagne (I was a college student, I could not afford the real stuff!) to watch what I thought would be the clincher. I instructed my roommate that if the Giants won, to pour the champagne over my head. Atlee Hammaker got rocked in the second inning for four runs and the Cardinals won game seven by the score of 6-0. Giants outfielder Jeff Leonard with four home runs was voted series MVP even though the Giants lost the series. Instead of having the champagne poured over my head, I drank the whole bottle while I cried. In 1989, I finally saw my childhood dream World Series, the Oakland A's taking on the Giants. I thought that the Orange and Black had a real good chance of winning the series but, mother nature had other ideas. I was standing in the DJ booth of the sports bar and dance club I was a DJ for and I saw the pre-game show and saw Joe Morgan interviewing Willie Mays and I saw the shaking and suddenly the ABC slate came up. I found out it was an earthquake. Being from San Francisco and living through small earthquakes I thought it was nothing. I found out later that it was a massive earthquake that  hit the city hard, a section of the Bay Bridge was gone and many people lost their lives. After the delay, the A's go on to sweep the Giants in four games. Years later I became Public Address Announcer and Fill-In Play-By-Play announcer for the Greenville Bluesmen who were members of the old Texas-Louisiana League. While I worked for the team,I met some former Giant greats such as Bob Lacy who managed the Greenville Bluesmen baseball team in the old Texas-Louisiana League Orlando Cepeda's son Malcom played first base for the Bluesmen. He and I were friends while he was here, Mark Carreon, who I met when he played for the Jackson Ms. Diamondkats in the same  league. One of my biggest thrills as a Giants fan was meeting Vida Blue! He and Bob Lacy were teammates and friends and Bob asked Vida to make a public appearance for the team. Bob introduced me to Vida and I was very excited to meet him. Vida and Bob came by the Radio station I worked at and interviewed him and Bob on the morning show I did. I asked Vida if he could autograph a old Giants cap I had. He looked at and asked me "where did you get this from?" I told him I got it from cap day in 1978. He looked at me with a surprised look on his face and said "you still have this after all of these years?" I told him yes and he signed the bill of the old stretched out black and orange cap. Vida also signed a Texas-Louisiana league baseball and all of the baseball cards I have of him. I think he was amazed on how much of a fan I was of him. I went home and told my mother that I met Vida Blue and she got excited because she too was a fan of his. Next week, I will write about how my dream of the orange and black winning a World Series finally came true.
Thanks for reading!