SF Giants are Champions; Pinoy Connection

SF Giants are Champions
Thanks to a ‘Freak’ who is part Pinoy

The wait for this championship moment was definitely an excruciating one, to be sure. The Giants moved to San Francisco from New York in 1958. Their counterparts of sorts, the Brooklyn Dodgers moved to Los Angeles the same year, and the intent of Major League bigwigs was to expand interest in baseball nationwide and what a better way than to introduce a west coast “rivalry”.

And natural rivals they were. There has long been a “one upmanship” contests of sorts between L.A. and San Fran ( “please don’t call us Frisco!!). In fact one could even say that residents of the two cities often deride each other publicly (e.g. “Beat L.A.”)

But insofar as major league baseball is concerned the L.A. Dodgers have had the upper hand. They began winning World Series championships since 1965 with a pitcher by the name of Sandy Koufax leading an outstanding staff. Later they also had Fernando Valenzuela, Kirk Gibson and other greats. The Giants on the other hand meandered along over the decades.

San Francisco is where I spent my first few years of life in the US and for this reason it is where I developed my “team loyalties”. I was a fan of the Giants in baseball, of the 49ers in football and the Golden State Warriors in basketball. And speaking of the Warriors, in the 1974-75 season, I managed to get me a couple of annual passes as one of the editors of Philippine News. This gave me free access to games at the Alameda Coliseum where they played. And that was the one year that they won the NBA championship thanks to Rick Barry and a few guys named Joe.

But back to baseball. The moment I think that I truly fell in love with the Giants was that one late afternoon in August of 1974 when, driving from L.A. to SFO in my old 1965 Ford Fairlane I was listening to a baseball game between the Giants and the Dodgers narrated by the venerable Vin Scully. It was the first game ever for a new rookie Giants pitcher by the name of John Montefusco. That game stuck in my mind because Montefusco ( he was nicknamed “The Count” in reference to the count of Montecristo) came to bat in the 9th inning I think and the bases were loaded. Few people gave him a chance to ever hit the ball and drive anyone in. The whole stadium erupted when not only did he hit the ball, he delivered a grand slam home run and won the game. From then on “The Count” became a Giants favorite and is regarded as one of the legends of the game in that city.

The Giants also had several big name players including Willie Mays, Willie McCovey and Bobby Bonds. Later Bobby’s son, and Willie Mays’ godson, Barry Bonds became the team’s stalwart thru the 1990’s.

Though I moved to the Los Angeles area in 1978 and lived there for 33 or so years, I kept my team loyalties anchored in my San Francisco roots. Needless to say I got ribbed by officemates during the bad years when the Giants did not fare well and the Dodgers won world championships. I thought the tide finally turned in 1989 when two Bay Area teams, the Giants and the Oakland A’s faced each other in the World Series. Well, would you believe it? Before they could hurl the first pitch the big San Francisco earthquake of 1989 happened. The stadium was vacated and the series postponed by a week or so and they had to play the game at the Oakland Coliseum. The Giants were swept 4-0. More humiliation.

Then again in 2002 the Giants were in the World Series versus the Anaheim Angels. I thought they would get the deal done by game 6 since they were leading 3 games to 2. But the resilient Angels managed to win the next two games. Bummer!

Over the past 2 years my interest in the Giants were revived with the arrival of Tim Lincecum. This very thin, long haired pitcher proved to be a phenom. He won two back-to-back Cy Young awards in 2008 and 2009, as the National League’s best pitcher. If I’m not mistaken this is the first time ever that a rookie accomplished this feat. He got the nickname “The Freak” because it is almost unbelievable that a guy so thin could hurl a baseball so fast and so wickedly that he has become the league’s strikeout leader.

And then I find out that his mother is Filipina, a 2nd generation Pinay, Rebecca de Asis, whose father was born in Hawaii and moved to Washington state. One of his ancestors, a grandmother, named Alberta Alcoy, came from Cebu City. So for the past year, like many Filipino Americans in the area I checked the schedule out to see when he’s pitching and make it a point to catch his game on TV. I saw both of the two World Series games he pitched, the 1st and the 5th games, the latter to clinch the title for the once hapless Giants.
After 52 years they finally won a championship as a west coast team to add to the 5 that they had won while still in New York.

And yes, I join all the Pinoys in the US who proudly claim Tim Lincecum as one of our own. By the way he does have a great sense of humor as well. Asked if he had met Manny Pacquiao and compares his accomplishments to that of the world boxing champion, he said, “ I can’t possibly beat Manny Pacquiao even with a bat in my hand.”
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