International Giants Day

SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS: 2010 NATIONAL LEAGUE WEST CHAMPS!!!!

So much to say!

The immature part of me wants to focus on how we beat Mat Latos. Hey, you know that guy who hit a triple off you, Latos-ter? You know, our pitcher? Lifelong Giant.

But now is not the time to be petty. Today is International Giants Day, where we spend one day thinking non-tortured thoughts about how happy we are about our NL West champion Giants. They were 6.5 games back entering September. They finished 2 games in front. And we knew they had it the wholllllllllllllle time. Ahem.

Non-Tortured Thoughts

Great crowds all weekend. The Padres main blogger admittted it was the loudest crowd he'd experienced since the 98 Padres when they would play Enter the Sandman or Hells Bells or some other song heavily associated with death and Trevor Hoffman would run (slowly) out of the bullpen and blow hitters away with his 86mph fastball and his 47 mph changeup.

Favorite moment as somebody who was there for the clinch was when a Giants player bartered with a fan in the 9th inning, exchanging a baseball for the fan's "rally towel."

Can I say Marmol one more time? Please? Ok, I'll just whisper it. Marmol

Got two great texts this weekend. One said: "Marmol!" which made me laugh and made me feel good about the possibility that my idiotic ramblings are catching on out there. Second was far less mature, but still funny: "F#@# San Diego. All they do is listen to Stone Temple Pilots and talk about who has the biggest yacht." Which made me wonder: Do they do that simultaneously??

plus equals ?????

I gotta give some respect to the Padres, which, I admit, I'm only doing beause we beat them. They were a true underdog team, their best player was a hometown hero, they were suposed to finish last and they were in first all year, and holy crap did they beat the living hell out of us all season. Well, again, not really "beat the living hell out of us". More like tickle us and then poke us in the eye and then run away giggling. Ok, sorry, this was supposed to be "respect the padres" hour. Ummmm...many salutations to Mike Adams and the proud planet of Zorgordon? I am so bad at this.

Aubrey Huff has played more games without making the playoffs than every other active big leaguer except for Randy Winn (who is a good guy but, well, let's just say some of the teams he was on WOULD have made the playoffs except he was on them) and Michael Young who just made it for the first time too. How cool must he feel right now? And Buster Posey! He had never made the playoffs either, except for last year when he went to the little league world series! That joke never gets old.

Our bullpen is solid and the clincher was a great example. First we brought in Santiago Casilla who throws 98mph and then every 14th pitch will throw something other than a fastball just because the pitching coach tells him he has to.

Then in came Ramon Ramirez who has an ERA of .68, and who the Red Sox traded to us mid-season because apparently you get a prize if you finish 3rd in the AL East. Then in came Javier Lopez to face Adrian Gonzalez. Javy has given up 2 hits all season to lefties, and is still preparing, even now, to strike out Jason Giambi in the playoffs. YOu know. Just in case.

In the 8th, we brought in Sergio Romo, who I admit I would hate if he wasn't a Giant. He throws those goofy frisbee pitches that start out 8 inches off the plate and then half the time come back around and the other half end up in the dugout. After striking out Yorvit Torreabla to end the inning, Romo yelled at Yorvit (possibly he yelled "You have a funnier name than myself!"). That might have seemed mean, but Giants fans know that Yorvit has been yelling at us all season. Every time Mike Adams struck out Aaron Rowand, there was Yorvit, pumping his fist, and screaming like a crazy man. Every time David Eckstein scored on a catcher's interference call, Yorvit was chest bumping him, screaming like a crazy man. If you can't take it, don't dish it out.

And then the 9th. Does this picture say it all?

Giants Baseball: It's inside the magic box, Daddy!

Tomorrow we will discuss the playoffs.

Today, it's International Giants Day, and I'm loving it.

There were many times when things looked bleak. There were times when it looked certain that Andres Torres woudl spend the offseason beating himself in the chest as punishment for being a "bad Andres" and Aubrey Huff would go fishing and Buster Posey would volunteer at youth group and Pablo Sandoval would eat himself into a stupor. Yes, there were those times.

But then we won.

Craziness.

Today's Poll Question

What did you do when we clinched?

A) Wait, what? We won? Are you serious? You're not kidding? Now what am I going to do with my plane ticket to San Diego for tonight's one-game playoff?

B) I struck out Will Venable, did my hand thingy to honor my dad and then Buster Posey was jumping on my head.

C) I was watching on,....wait, are you Brian Wilson?

D) Cried. Cried like a baby. And I'm proud of it.