With the Giants heading to Anaheim today, and because I’m a mean person, we’re asking Giants fans to reflect on the 2002 World Series.
Good morning, baseball fans!
The San Francisco Giants are heading to Anaheim today to take on the Los Angeles Angels in a three-game series. So far this year, we’ve asked Giants fans to reflect on their favorite memories of the three World Series that the team has won. So it only seems fair to also reflect on 2002.
I don’t know about the rest of you, but I still cannot help but get angry about the 2002 World Series every time the Giants play the Angels. Specifically Game 6.
Let me set the scene.
I was 17 years old and at a marching band competition somewhere in Northern California. One of my classmates’ parents had lugged along one of those old boxy televisions with an antenna so we could connect it to the generator and watch the game. Unfortunately, the game started right around the time we had to go to the awards ceremony.
During the ceremony, the award announcements were interspersed with updates every time the Giants scored a run. It was great! Spirits were high. The Giants had a 5-0 lead by the time we were leaving. For those of us on the girls’ bus, that’s all we knew for another couple of hours. Our driver did not have the game on and it was 2002 so we were pretty much cut off from information at that point.
Then we got back to our high school and as we got off the bus, we saw the faces of the boys coming off of their bus and the faces of our parents waiting to pick us up. It looked like we were arriving at a funeral. And in a sense, it kind of was. At least for the 2002 Giants season.
I was young and optimistic still, so I didn’t understand why everyone seemed to think that was it, that they couldn’t win Game 7. But they were right, it turned out. I watched the final game with my despondent father the next day. It was, perhaps, the first true sports pain I had known in my life at that point.
Also, if I ever see another rally monkey, it’s on sight.
What are your thoughts on the 2002 World Series now?