Opening Day 2012 @ AT&T Park

I always feel better on Opening Day. The world seems brighter & fresher with a new season ahead. It’s a clean slate for a summer full of great plays, good games, & exciting new things to see. Win or lose, the 162 games weave a story of the season that can’t be predicted at that first pitch, no matter how much someone thinks they know the ins and outs of every team.

How many times has a team rallied towards the end of the season to overtake the favorites and get into the playoffs? What about those unforeseen injuries that can dash a team’s hopes at any time during the year, derailing  dreams they had of the post-season? And what about late season acquisitions or emerging heroes who step up to the plate when least expected or when their team needs it the most? We’ve all seen it, and as baseball analyst Marty Lurie says, “It’s baseball. Anything can happen.”

This fan is ready!

Even as a kid, Opening Day was something special. Back then, it meant that school would be out soon and I’d have a summer of bare feet, sunny skies, fresh fruit picked off our trees, and baseball played in the yard or street while the game blasted on all the neighbors’ radios.  And usually, I’d fall once more for my father’s joke: “They’re not serving beer at Candlestick this season!” “Why?” I’d ask, not really caring but it sounded serious. “Well, because the Giants lost the opener,” Dad would reply. *Groan* It took a few years before I caught on to his silliness.

As an adult, I’ve always considered Opening Day as a national holiday. Recently, over 102,000 people signed a petition through We The People, a website where anyone can bring up an issue of national importance and if there are enough petitioners, the White House must respond. Unfortunately, the White House doesn’t have the power to make holidays, only Congress does, and they responded thus: https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/declare-major-league-baseball-opening-day-national-holiday/3XNmgfBb

But maybe we don’t need national recognition. There are enough baseball fans out there who celebrate in their own way. My Giants windsock is hanging in front of the house. I’m wearing my team colors today (orange and black) and baseball earrings with my 2012 World Series Champs necklace. My friends and I have been in contact via a variety of means, wishing each other well on this special day. Most of us are looking at the schedule to see which games we’ll be going to in the next few months.

One of my favorite Opening Day stories happened many years ago, when the Giants were still playing at Candlestick Park and I made sure I was there at the first pitch every year. I came back to work the next day to this phone message from my friend and colleague, Stu, from San Diego. ‘Hi Carolyn, It’s Stu. I wanted to talk to you about . . . (pause) . . . . Oh, wait. It’s Opening Day. You’re not there. I’ll call you tomorrow.” Stu and my other friends, know me well!

Since I’ve been celebrating this day for many years, maybe I don’t need a national holiday. And for everyone else who is honoring our great national pastime today: here’s to hope, summer,  good times, and a great season.

Play ball!!

Let’s start with some terminology. ‘Oz’ in this context isn’t a mysterious, mythological place, although that’s debatable. It’s an Aussie term for Australia. And it’s a clue to an important pronunciation tip. To say ‘Australia’ correctly, swap the ‘S’ out for a ‘Z’, pronounce the second ‘A’ as a short vowel rather than a long one, say it kinda fast and run the syllables together, and mumble.  That’s your first lesson in learning ‘Strine, the language DownUnder. Now you should be able to properly pronounce their nickname – don’t call them ‘Aussssies’ with a hissing ‘S’ sound, but rather say ‘Ozzies’ with a well-mumbled ‘Z’, then you’ll be right, mate!

How do I know this? I spent an enlightening 3+ years living there, and have been back often to visit. So I’m almost a native. But I really missed baseball and good hot dogs while there, so here are my impressions of baseball and sports in Australia in honor of the Dodgers and Diamondbacks opening their season in Sydney.

I lived and worked in Melbourne in the early 90’s, before the Internet and email. Remember those days? Every week I got a package from home with 7 days worth of the SF Chronicle Sporting Green and the Sunday comics. That helped me follow the team and league standings. The box scores were often in the local weekend paper, but there were no game details. It was hard to keep up.

I had a passing interest in Australian sports – somewhat for cricket and more for Aussie Rules Football, or Footy. I thought cricket was a difficult game to ‘get’ even though many countries play it, but if you’re raised on baseball, it doesn’t make a lot of sense. They have what are called test matches that last up to 5 days. And you thought 9 innings was long? The young women in my office loved these matches, but they were there for the sun, the beer and the guys. When they returned to work, sunburned and hung over, I never heard about good plays or who won, just what happened off the field. Definitely not Gamer Babes.

My footy team – the St.Kilda Saints

Footy is more interesting. I describe it as a combination of soccer, rugby, and the Christians vs. the lions. There’s lots of running up and down the oval field, kicking each other, shoving, bumping, and resultant injuries that were listed every Monday on the front page of the newspaper.  Heaven for an orthopedic surgeon!

But neither of these sports can compare to baseball, so I started following the Melbourne Monarchs, the local team named after butterflies. Pretty intimidating. They were eventually kicked out of the league for some infraction and were replaced by the Melbourne Bushrangers, a much more menacing image.

An Aussie baseball game is very much like a minor league game in the States, with activities for the kids between innings to keep them occupied and engaged. The announcers keep up a patter as if they’re describing the game on radio even though up to 3500 fans are there, watching in person.

One of my favorite calls came one evening while sitting with Tom, an American friend (Mets fan) who was living there, and some ex-pats from the mid-west that I’d recently become friends with. They moved to Melbourne as teachers in the 80’s and decided to stay. The Australian Baseball League was the only way they could satisfy their yearning for the game. The pitch hit the bat with a loud CRACK and sailed high in the air towards the outfield. “And it’s a HIT!” the announcer exclaimed, but then said “Oh, but it’s caught by the right fielder. And that’s out number one.”

My friends and I rolled our eyes. That wasn’t a hit, it was a fly ball out to the right fielder. But why quibble? At least we were watching live baseball.

This weekend, the Dodgers and Diamondbacks will square off for a 2-game series at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG). The stadium holds 80,000 people and they hope to fill it.  It will be interesting to see if the fans get a running commentary throughout the game, or if they’ve become more knowledgeable over the years.

Will this series have any lasting effect on Australian baseball? After all, there’s stiff competition with cricket, footy, rugby and horse racing. But the Land DownUnder has produced 31 major league players over the years, including catcher David Nilsson of the Milwaukee Brewers and Tampa Bay All Star pitcher Grant Balfour. So who knows – if MLB likes what it sees, there may be more games in Sydney or Melbourne in upcoming years. That would be quite the fan road trip! And you can count me in – after all, I already speak the language.

This time of year, a certain type of creature flocks to the desert like the swallows to Capistrano. And much like the birds, they’re going for a feeding – but this one is to feed the heart and soul of a baseball fan.

Spring Training is the transition from No Baseball Season to Baseball Season (see March 3 blog). It gives fans a chance to see how the veterans look after the long winter hibernation, and to check out the up-and-coming youngsters trying to make the team.

Last year the Giants veterans looked tired after 2 World Series rings in 3 years, and an intense post-season followed by more than a few aches and pains.  Add to that the World Baseball Classic before the season started — a  number of players participated to represent their countries, thus shortening the winter rest. The result: a tired team. The fans weren’t feeling very chipper either.

But baseball is a game of hope, which springs eternal once the pre-season starts. The Giants draw large crowds to Scottsdale Stadium in Arizona, with a representative showing of their fan base: kids in families with wise parents who know that everything isn’t learned in the classroom, working people who love the game enough to use hard-earned vacation time, contingents of retired folks who have grown up with the team and now have more time – and money – to enjoy all aspects of it, and all those single – and married – ladies just waiting for a close encounter of the baseball kind with one of the players. It’s a known fact that putting a guy in a uniform will make a gal’s heart beat faster, and baseball uniforms are no exception. Ah, the allure of the game.

Gregor meets the fans before a game.

The kids who attend are usually hoping for some sort of player contact – and I must admit, more than a few of us who would be considered closer to the middle of our lives are looking for the same.  That could be an autograph or picture while hanging out near the dugout during batting and fielding practice. A quick conversation and actual eye-to-eye contact with one of the guys is a thrill to be discussed for months. Or it can be waiting for a sighting of

Pitcher George Kontos signs autographs on the way to the bus.

one of the players going in and out of the clubhouse on their way to and from work. Yes, baseball is a game, but to these guys, it’s their job. Hard to remember that sometimes.

I was with a small but hardy crowd waiting for the players to board a bus to Mesa for a game with the Cubs.  Pitchers George Kontos and Brett Bochy (the boss’s son) stopped to sign and chat.

‘Bam-Bam’ Meulens meets some fans.

Hensley ‘Bam Bam’ Meulens, Giants hitting coach who recently became a US citizen, carefully wrote ‘Bam Bam’ under each autograph, prompting one of the kids to say, ‘Thank you Mr. Bam Bam.’

Buster driving away.

There was plenty of hollering of player names and jockeying for position for autographs. Some of the players took a side door and jumped into their cars, giving fans a chance to see the kinds of wheels they drive. Giants players must have gotten a bargain on double cab trucks, which many of them drive. We saw Buster Posey drive away in his, protective tinted windows and all, and rumor has it that a similar white truck belongs to Matt Cain.

Tim Lincecum signs for the fans, surrounded by a respectful silence.(photo by J. WInston)

An amazing thing happened when Tim Lincecum came out to board the bus, sporting earphones to block out any distractions.  The crowd suddenly hushed, and he stopped to sign autographs in a silent cloud of respect and adulation. People obviously love our Timmy.

Once Tim boarded the bus, the shouting of player names picked up again as the new team fire-ball, Michael Morse, got to know some of the Giants fan base. There’s more to say about him later, so stay tuned.

But in the meantime, plan a trip to the desert next year. Take your kids to the School of Baseball; treat your grandma to an experience you’ll both treasure forever; form a group of your closest friends for baseball, beer, and buddy time; and enjoy the start of Baseball Season. You won’t be sorry!

There’s more to come about Spring Training, including a shocking truth about Cubs fans and an encounter with a former Giants nemesis. So come back soon.

I don’t believe in 4 seasons. For me, there are only 2: Baseball and No Baseball.

There is an overlap with the usual 4 that most people subscribe to. Baseball season starts in late Winter when pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training and ends in mid Fall. No Baseball season starts in mid Fall when the World Series is over. Some fans ignore that last month and go right into No Baseball if their team isn’t in the playoffs, or if a hated rival is. With only 2 seasons to work with, I’m either talking stats and cheering for my team, or spending too many dreary hours dissecting what went wrong during Baseball.

As a Giants fan, I’ve had many long No Baseball seasons and a disproportionate number of seemingly long Baseball seasons. In 1985, the team lost 100 of their 162 games, a dismal record to say the least. Two years later, the team turned it around and won the division. Go figure – that’s baseball for you.

In 2010, everything changed. An exciting team had a nail-biting finish that tortured the fans, but ended well. San Francisco had finally won a World Series and the exhilaration of Baseball season carried us through the first part of No Baseball season. I used my time well: a trip to Antarctica, proudly sporting my Giants stocking cap in every picture; re-watching playoff and World Series games multiple times; scouring eBay for ornaments for my baseball themed Christmas tree; and making Santa hats for my favorite bobble-heads. But in January, the yearning for the sound of a ball hitting a glove, the smell of ballpark food, and the energy of the crowd was overwhelming.  I couldn’t wait to get back to the park.

The 2011 season wasn’t very good. Plagued with injuries, including that devastating ankle injury to future MVP Buster Posey, the team literally limped along. In spite of the torture of watching the champions play a less than average season, I still made it to 45 of the 81 home games. A new record, even if Baseball that year was quite challenging.

No Baseball season 2011 was a long one. There was nothing to do but ponder what happened, set up my baseball tree, and hope that 2012 would be another good year.

And it was! Baseball 2012 ended with a second championship and a new ring, followed by another seemingly long No Baseball season although the actually time between the last game and Opening Day was shorter.

But everyone was tired by the time Baseball 2013 started. The players appeared to be exhausted and so did the fans. The team finished poorly overall, but ended in a flurry of excitement on the last weekend. No Baseball season 2013-14 was a time of reflection and renewal. I spent my time relaxing, reliving past successes, and rearranging my growing collection of bobble-heads. I also did some of my regular pre-season conditioning, including the occasional trip to Costco for the unmistakable smell and taste of a hot dog.

Now, with Baseball 2014 finally here, I can say I’m rested and ready for another good year. Players have reported to camp. and Spring Training games have started. No Baseball season is finally over. Bring it on, boys — I’m ready!!