Chris Haft - This Is Our Time!: The 2010 World Series Champions San Francisco Giants. The Inside Story: Improbable. Wild. Unforgettable.

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Table of Contents

Introduction

Above and Beyond

One Seamless Motion

In the supposedly impossible our greatest triumphs lie. In the absurd, the deepest truth suddenly flashes you with all the rudeness and grandeur of any naked statue. And in a white five-inch sphere, you can see the entire beauty and lunacy of lifeespecially a sphere thrown, caught and hit in San Francisco in 2010. Wherever and whenever you are now, theres a tale that will still be told to children, grandchildren and strangers on the street by those who were there. There will be laughter, knowing smiles, unforgotten private joy at the outrageous edgy madness of it all. It was a legendary party, and you can still go back and join the free characters who were there. We will take you.

But first well take you further back: to New York, to 1954, via grainy footage of a man running, gracefully but almost desperately, towards a wall looming at him. Suddenly, he throws up a gloved hand and makes an impossibly elegant capture of another tiny white sphere, then in one seamless motion, he turns to hurl it back from where it came, in one of the most fluid instances of human motion ever seen.

That man was Willie Mays, the sphere came off the bat of Vic Wertz and the setting was the World Series against Clevelandthe last year the Giants would be baseballs world champions for longer than the lifetime of many. It was a moment that still replays endlessly in memory, like a dream of loves highest orgasmic instant.

Fifty-six years later, Willie Mays sits in a chair facing a million faithful believersthe largest gathering San Francisco has ever seenwhile a man who isnt the Pope says he feels like he is and blesses the crowd in Mays own name. Mays watches with an unfathomable expression as a man right in front of him reaches deep into his pants, ripping out in one swift motion a red thong for the million to see. Crowds of men and women in false beards go wild. That, too, is mere moments after an accidental Zen master gives a brief, poignant lesson on impermanence.

Its as surreal as any stoners dreamand yet its transcendent, with a depth of spirit and accomplishment few ever attain. Its one of the best testaments to the power of human cohesion: to placing group over self, to the grace of equanimity under pressure, to believing in yourself when the world does not. Its irrefutable evidence of how vastly different individuals can create unity by most fully being their wildest selves. Its the San Francisco Giants of 2010, world champions at last, the kind of improbable team that comes along once in a generation to make even the uncaring suddenly emotional. Its the perfect tonic for a difficult time.

It still is. We will indeed take you there.

Temple of a Million Misfits

From within their cathedrals, synagogues and mosques, the high priests of this planets faith traditions would not, for the most part, agree to place baseball in the same divine category as their own religions. And the men who make their living with that little white sphere are not saints by any meanstheyre as flawed and crazed as the rest of usbut the sacred is where you find it. And since you can find plenty of wisdom in the story of the 2010 Giants, even if the players didnt plan to place it there, who has the right to deny the sacredness of this saga? And if it culminates in a perfect but accidental social protest against a messy age, which also happens to be the most fun party a wild citys ever seen, doesnt that make it even more sacred? Its certainly as easy to see grace within that combination as it is to see Mother Marys face in a tortilla.

Jon Miller is not the Pope: Lets get that straight. Hes only a Hall of Fame baseball announcer, capable of spinning excitement out of the ordinary, finding stories in between pitches, calling forth voices with the mastery of a cartoon voice-over actor. Still, he had that papal feeling, addressing a million gathered believers at the Bearded Church of the Rally Thong, otherwise known as the Giants 2010 victory celebration.

This must be what its like to be the Pope, Miller said to the mass. To go out at St. Peters in the balcony, and you look out, and theres hundreds of thousands of people. He paused for a moment to gaze upon the congregation before his voice boomed out again to the local heavens.

So Id just like to bless you all in the name of Mays and McCovey, Will Clark, Kruk and Kuip, Lincecum, Cain and Wilson. Amen.

Who better than Miller to give the blessing at the first World Championship parade in San Franciscos history? Who better to place the moment in the context of the others who had previously walked the path, the legends of the Giants rich faith? Born and raised in the Bay Area, Miller had given magic to the Giants airwaves for 13 years by 2010as well as to other national and regional broadcasts for longer than the lifespan of most current players. Hed seen the power and glory of baseball, forever and ever, amen. For a man of that cloth, this moment was the divine pinnacle.

Mike Krukow is not a minister any more than Jon Miller is the Pope. Well, actually he is: Hes a mail-order minister who specifically got his license to perform a wedding ceremony at the Giants hallowed stadium for two Giants fans who had met and found their blessed union there. But primarily hes a Giants announcer filled with vivid storiessome of them publishableand reverence for the game, long after his own major league pitching career has faded into history. When the Great Spirit said to him, Grab some pine, meat! and forced him to ride that bench into retirement, he did not lose an ounce of his faith. He took another seat in the templein the broadcast booth alongside his old teammate Duane Kuiper, becoming the Kruk and Kuip so respectfully mentioned by Miller on that holy day.

It wasnt the Bible Krukow referred to when his own turn came at the Bearded Church pulpit, but it was a holy book nonethelessfrom his perspective and that of the mass congregation. It was a moment of higher love and community.

Everybody here today... you are not standing alone. You are standing with the person who taught you the great story of the San Francisco Giants. Krukow looked resplendent in the faiths traditional colors of orange and black, a beret perched on his head that would do the citys beat poets proud. They taught you right! They taught you, you had to be loyal. You had to love your team! He passionately gave the congregation credit for their part, along with identifying their duty. You have but one responsibility, and you owe it to the person who taught you the Good Book of the San Francisco Giants. You need to pass this story on! Keep this love alive!!! Its an oral tradition, this faith, as well as a written one.

As for the other broadcast voices carrying the Giants faith across the air daily, Duane Kuiper hadnt been crucified. Jesus, no! (And young Dave Flemming hadnt yet had time to be.) So why did Kuiper use the celebratory pulpit to talk about 28 years of torture? In the best of all Giants years, why did he make that a theme all year, slowly turning it into a positive mantra? No one died for the sins of the Dodgers. At least not directly. Hopefully. Really, you never know about these things. In any case, his sermons theme was simple: We have overcome. Or as he phrased it, The torture is... OVER!!! The team has risen.

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