Giants Win the NL West! How the Giants Made me a Better Dad

World's Greatest Giants Fan!

On Sunday the SF Giants ended my seasons long torture and finally put the Padres down like the broken dogs they truly are to win the NL West pennant for the first time since too damn long ago. I hope Barry Bonds saw it from his Giant House, on top of a Giant pile of money and wept Giant tears! Ironically enough this team reminds me of the cursed Angels team that beat my Gigantes the last time they went to the World Series (I hope Dusty Baker feels guilty forever and gets pelted with Don Robinson bobbleheads whenever he visits ATT Park).

My favorite Giants memory is oddly enough not on the field. No foul balls or homeruns caught yet (seriously, I've been to like 60 games and not even 1) fun encounters with players  and none compares. My favorite Giants memory revolves around my daughter and my dad.

It was the last season the Giants played at Candlestick and my mom and dad and I decided to take my daughter to her first Giants game. She was so little back then and was quite a trooper. It was a typical freezing night game but it was after the last out was recorded in my program that my memory kicks into extra innings.

We were walking across the maze that was the 'Stick's parking lot with my dad holding my fast asleep little daughter in his arms. It was chillier than the $6 beers and more dark than a public place should be at that hour when it happened. My dad didn't see the small chain hanging at shin level that connected two pylons that were used to direct traffic. To this day I have no idea why that parking lot was strewn with tripwires; it's a parking lot, not a vietnamese jungle.

My dad hit that hazard at full tilt and as he started to trip and fall with my daughter in his arms time slowed to a 162 game grind. I reached out to him as he twisted to protect my daughter. He teetered over the edge as I caught up to him and he managed to stay upright. In that split second I saw what it truly meant to be a father.

Up to that point I was floundering as a dad and didn't truly understand the depth of raising a child but seeing my dad willingly sacrifice himself without a moments hesitation or thought truly drove the gravity of fatherhood into my brain and that moment wouldn't have happened if it weren't for my dad's bravery, our devotion to our team and Candlestick Park's ridiculously stupid parking lot.

Thanks for 35 yrs of ups, downs, homers and K's SF Giants. And thank you for opening my eyes to how truly important the world's greatest Giant's fan is to me.