We love all you Giants

A lot of the stories being published right now would have you believe the last fifty years of fandom for supporters of the San Francisco Giants have been like a prison sentence. Don't get me wrong. It feels great to say "World Champion San Francisco Giants". It will certainly shut up some of the A's fans who actually put more effort into being Giant haters. But my memories of the Giants aren't about pain and misery. We got to root for some great teams and some astounding players over the last half century.

Of course we love Mays and McCovey and Marichal, but we also love Gaylord Perry, the forgotten man of the retired SF uniforms. He was like a precursor to Barry Bonds. Yes, he was cheating, but he was cheating for us, and that made a difference.

We also love the guys we got late in their careers who still produced for us. We love Harvey Kuenn and Joe Morgan and Rick Reuschel. We love the kids we traded away too early. We love Gary Mathews and Gary Maddox and George Foster and especially Orlando Cepeda.

We love Jose Pagan and Jose Uribe, Manny Trillo and Tito Fuentes.

We love all three Alou brothers.

We love the great nicknames. Ollie "Downtown" Brown. "Fireball" Frank Linzy. John the Count, Will the Thrill, Sudden Sam.

We love Jeff "Old Penitentiary Face" Leonard.

We love the guys we had at third. Jimmy Davenport and Jim Ray Hart. Matt Williams.

We love our second basemen. Hal Lanier, Tito Fuentes, Joe Morgan, Robby Thompson, Jeff Kent.

We even love the guys we hated. Poor Ray Sadecki, whose tombstone should read "The Bum We Got When We Gave Away Orlando Cepeda". Johnnie LeMaster, the shortstop who had the misfortune of taking the job after local boy and All-Star Chris Speier was traded away. LeMaster, who had the word "BOO" on his back for one home game back in the 1970s. We love Candy Maldanado, whose bad play in right cost us the NLCS so many years ago.

We even love Barry Bonds, a very unlovable guy. While it feels like a bad marriage now, I have to admit a screamed like a banshee at several home runs that found their way into McCovey Cove.

Thanks to all the guys who wore the uniform, who had on the cap the the big orange "SF" on it these past fifty years. It feels great now that this new team of kids and castoffs have brought home the big trophy, but we won't forget all the great guys and great memories that came before.

Live blogging the bottom of the eighth and the top of the ninth.

The deep back story: My first love of a sports team is the San Francisco Giants. I don't live and die with the team any more, and the post-Barry Bonds era feels like a hangover. But this scrappy young team has fought hard all year, and against the odds, they are in the World Series, so I'm learning their names now, more than a little ashamed I didn't follow their progress more closely.

As an old baseball nerd, this team reminds me of the 1969 Mets. Nobody gave them a chance to even beat the Braves to make it to the World Series, but they swept the Braves 3-0 and bullied the Orioles 4-1 to become World Champs only six years after they were all time chumps. Their line-up was full of Ed Kranepools, Ron Swobodas and Cleon Joneses, but after their alleged ace, 26 year old Jerry Koosman, they had some kids with arms you had to like, like 24 year old Tom Seaver, and a couple of 22 year olds named Nolan Ryan and Tug McGraw.

The recent back story: The first game was supposed to be ace vs. ace, but the Giants won an insane game, 11-7. The Giants put up six runs in the fifth, the most runs scored in an inning of a a World Series since 1937. The bad news was the Giants used a lot of pitchers as did the Rangers.

The second game was a big question mark, but C.J. Wilson and Matt Cain came up big. Wilson gave up two runs in six innings for the Rangers, while Cain held the Rangers scoreless for a strong 7 2/3 innings. The Ranger bullpen betrayed them in the bottom of the eighth and the Giants put up seven with nobody on and two outs. This is fucking unbelievable. A record stands for 73 years and then it is broken the next night. 9-0 and the Rangers have three outs to redeem themselves.

8:06 Guillermo Mota vs. Nelson Cruz. On the second pitch, Cruz grounds out to third. One out.

8:06 Guillermo Mota vs. Ian Kinsler. One ball, one strike, fouls one off, 1-2. Outside for 2-2. Low for full count. Posey goes to change gloves. Lines out to Schierholtz in center right. One more out!

8:09 Guillermo Mota vs. David Murphy. First pitch ball. Second pitch a strike looking. Ball for 2-1, Swing and a miss, 2-2. Outside for full count. C'mon. Willie, get this guy! Fouled off, do it again. Fouled off again. Walks on a ball in the dirt.

8:12 Guillermo Mota vs. pinch hitter Jeff Francouer. Murphy takes second on the first pitch a strike. Second pitch ball. Third pitch, fly to right. Schierholtz has it!

GIANTS WIN!!!!!!

I hate to celebrate early.

Celebrating early, bad, BAD, BADDD!!!!!!!

But I believe these kids are going to do it. The Rangers are going to have a hard time forgetting how badly they were outplayed in these two games.

Since the Series has been best of seven, teams have come back from 0-2 deficits before. The New York Yankees did it twice in 1956 and 1958. The Brooklyn Dodgers did it in 1955 and the Los Angeles Dodgers did it in 1965.

Let me say it out loud. These Rangers aren't the glory day Yankees or the glory day Dodgers.

Two games away. This is a great feeling. This really could be the year.