from torture to rapture
It isn’t just this moment itself, its the way the heart-wrenching miseries of the past were instantly and finally absolved.
After the Giants won the NLCS against the Phillies, my brother and I talked about how it was like to grow up as Giants fans. We went through all the years - 1989, 1993, 1997, 2000, 2002, 2003 - and remembered all of the anger and frustration we went through; our bashed walls and strangled stuffed animals tell the tale. And for sure, those disappointing years were still all-too recent in our memories. We didn’t know what to expect to happen against the Rangers, and even though my brother owns every Bill James Baseball Prospectus and is a straight-up statistician scholar, he had only one observation that he felt was relevant to the situation:
“Another AL West team? Shit.” It was obvious that our wounds still hadn’t quite healed, and this Rangers team seemed like a variant of the same viral strain that has plagued us for decades.
And while every year was painful, the most excruciating was definitely the Giants’ most recent World Series disappointment in 2002. It used to be taboo to mention the experience: a terrible and horrendous memory for all Giants fans who had since then sworn the year as a black hole in their collective consciousness. The trauma narrative tells of how the Giants led 5-0 into the bottom of the 7th-inning, with only eight outs to go, only to see that World Championship elude their grasp. To this day, we all revere the legendary Robb Nen for sacrificing his arm and his career in his attempt for glory, only to tragically fall short.
But today, tonight, tomorrow, and for years to come, we’ll all appreciate the way this year’s special team of Giants - this incredible collection of mavericks and abjects that bewildered the whole baseball world - helped us not to simply forget the grief of the past, but finally let it go.
In its stead, we graciously welcome this awesomely unforgettable moment into our hearts:
Let’s get weird.
