The GIANTS: a Love/Hate/OK I'm back Relationship

As you can tell, I use to really Love the Giants. More than that; I loved Basedball period. As a 12 year old kid, I can remember endless hours in the summer playing "3 flies up". This game was great because I'm not sure who the winner was. If you were at bat, you got to hit the ball until one guy caught 3 flyballs. We also played line ball. Since all of us were RH power hitters, we would draw a line between 2nd and Shortstop (making anything up the middle a foul ball) and of course anything that landed in the outfield on that side of the "Line" was out. Sort of like the Home Run Derby at the allstar game. It was 2 against 2. You had an infielder and an outfielder. You get the Idea.





Growing up was tumultuous. My mom died when I was 11. FRICKEN 11. That was 1967. 6TH GRADE. I dealt with death the way everybody did back in the 60's. I lived in denial. Remember nobody went to a shrink in the 60's. It meant you were mentally sick. So what happened to a lot of people growing up in the 60's? They grew up mentally sick. (needing a shrink) But it was a different time in America in the 60's. You couldn't be divorced in the 60's. Or you were pubically labeled.





50 years later, through the wonders of facebook and Classmates.com I've had some of my best friends from my youth contact me. The same guys I played "3 Flys Up" with. They said: "Dude after your mom died; you just went away mentally".





In spring of 1968 three Giants did a promotional instructional in the Manteca California. (Population 11,000). A developer that built a new housing tract hired the three Giants for publicity. Every 11 and 12 year old in that town was there. I remember my friends and I riding our "Sting ray" Bicycles to the event. Out of these big black cadillacs stepped: Willie McCovey, Bob Barton and Hal Lanier. Most of the crowd flocked around Willie McCovey for the obvious reason, stretch was the Albert Puholz of the 60s and secondly, I think it was because Manteca had never seen a Black Man except on TV.





Personally, my hero was Hal Lanier. We was the Giant shortstop and that was my position. In fact, because Hal Lanier's number was 22, that became my favorite number to this day. You can write to me at Subzer022@yahoo.com and check out my videos at Rocketeer22 on You tube.





My best friend during highschool and junior high was a kid named Ricky Thompson. Rick was there that day and snapped a picture of me with Hal Lanier. It's in a sacred shrine of Baseball memorabilia. Now I really felt physically tied to the Giants.





One night in June 1968, I remember walking to my dad's restaurant after a little league night game. I felt pretty good because I got a double that night. My L.L. Team THE GIANTS went undefeated in 1968. (but I digress) That night I remember listening to the Giants tied in the ninth on the radio. Herman Franks brought out this young kid from Pheonix for his first MLB at bat. A young "Bobby Bonds" stepped into the batter's box. I'm not sure if it was the first pitch or not but Bonds lofted this ball into the bleachers. That was thrilling.





My Birthday cake that year was a special "candlestick park" cake.





Yes I Loved the Giants. I never missed a game. Baseball was my life and the Giants were MY TEAM. In fact the first book I ever checked out of the Library was "My Giants" written by Russ Hodges. Inspite of my mom's death just 6 months ealier, I had something to submerge my life into. I mean; that's what you did in the 60s.





I LOVED THE SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS.