George Watkins: Don't stop believing, hold on to that feelin

[tater1977]

George Watkins: Don't stop believing, hold on to that feeling

http://www.thecalifornian.com/article/2 ... ck_check=1

Every so often I go to YouTube, enter “Giants, Don’t Stop Believing’’ and wait for the list of videos to pop up.

It doesn’t matter which one is selected — Ashkon, Steve Perry rocking AT&T or home videos with Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing’’ thumping and bumping in the background either at the game, in a bar or who knows where.

My favorite is the video “Fear the Bird.’’ It shows family and friends partying it up in Giants gear after a Thanksgiving Day feast in 2010 to the tune of “Don’t Stop Believing.’’ That is how you should celebrate the holidays.

Those videos are a reminder of years of tears, games of pain and seasons without reasons.

I have a disc with the Ashkon version of “Don’t Stop Believing” in my car and slip it in first thing most every day. So if you’re sitting in the left field bleachers at AT&T Tuesday, Wednesday and/or Thursday — I have tickets to all three games — and they cue that song, I’ll be the one leading the chorus.

Four years later and I still can’t stop believing it really happened. The 2012 season was terrific, but I’m still celebrating like it’s 2010.

Torture was the Giants battle cry of 2010, but that was nothing compared to being on death row for nearly 35 years.

There was a time — three to be exact — when many of us thought we’d never see the Giants again. “Wait’ll next year’’ became “Will there be a next year?’’ The Giants were headed to Toronto in the late 1970s, to Arizona in the 1980s and Florida in 1992.

And once we got over that, along came 2002. But it was what happened in 2003 that sticks out the most.

The Cubs were playing the Marlins and were five outs away from their first trip to the World Series since 1945. Two words: Steve Bartman. He took the rap, but the Cubs blew the game. They also blew a lead and lost Game 7.

In one of those two games, some Marlin fan held up a sign directed at Cubs fans that read, “Not In Your Lifetime.’’

Four words I could not get out of my head. If it could happen to Cubs fans, it could happen to me.

Of course, that was just a year after the nightmare of 2002 and we all know what happened to the Giants in Game 6 of the World Series that October.

That sign might as well have read, “Not in Your Lifetime, Watkins.’’

But where once Giants fans were in baseball purgatory, we are now in baseball paradise. The transformation is every bit as unlikely as the 2010 World Series.

“This is the team that won the World Series?!’’ Don’t know who said it, but it certainly summed up the history of the S.F. Giants

But look at us now.

The team, the park, the sellout crowds, the frivolity, the access — by car, boat, train, bus and BART — and a couple of World Series trophies usually on display in the club level (it’s a little pricey, but everyone should sit there at least once) of AT&T make Candlestick Park seem like Guantanamo Bay by comparison.

I usually take a lap around AT&T ballpark when I first get to the game. Once I followed these two old-timers (three, if you count me), who appeared to be from out of town. As they stared out at the bay from the arcade section in right field the sun was shining, the wind was still, a ferry boat was pulling into the ballpark dock and there were a couple of kayakers floating and soaking up the rays in McCovey Cove.

One guy looked at the other and solemnly said, “Wrigley Field doesn’t have that.’’

So here we go again. Year No. 15 at McCovey Cove begins Tuesday and already we’ve just about seen it all: The all-time and single-season home run record, a no-hitter, a perfect game, a three-home run World Series barrage, a Game 7 NLCS victory, a Cy Young Award winner, a Rookie of the Year and MVP, a bottom of the 10th game-winning, inside-the-park home run, the raising of two World Series flags, panda hats, giraffes, horse faces, milkmen, a beard to fear and who knows what else.

What’s not to believe.

George Watkins is a sports writer for The Salinas Californian. He can be reached at gwatkins@thecalifornian.com or 754-4264. He’s on Twitter at watkins_salnews.

[annie89509]

I can relate to everything he wrote there ... fellow Baseball and Giants fan ... He was especially spot-on about the 2002 heart-break. This guy is younger, though ... death hold for 35 years????... 45 years, for me!!! Who cares about the Cubbies and the Red Sox (who now has 3 after 86 (?) yrs. without 1)...hah!

When Mays and McCovey were introduced at the victory day celebration, 2010, tears streamed down my face just watching the 2 most famous Giants on my TV set ...wondering what must be going through their minds just then. Probably thank god they lived to see the day S.F. finally brought home a championship. Taking in and remembering all the statements from past Giant players was a highlight... everyone of them so happy for the city and its fans.

oops...getting a little misty-eye

[tater1977]

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