Baseball and I go way back. When I think of childhood, one of the first memories that pop up is travelling to go see my brothers play baseball. Little league, American Legion, middle school, high school, if there was a baseball, we were there.
I look back on those days and think to myself that I didn’t appreciate watching my brothers play enough. Yea I was in elementary school when they were playing, but still, if I could relive watching their games, I would.
Baseball to me doesn’t just end with watching my brothers play. We went to minor and major league games, and even went to spring training in Arizona a couple of times. Yea, I’m from the south where football is like a religion, but football isn’t everything to me, baseball is. My dad loved it, his dad loved it, and that genuine love for the game has been passed down to my brothers and I. I may not love the game as much as those guys do, but I’m pretty dang close.
Of course it wasn’t always that way. I wasn’t a super fan growing up, but I knew who the players were like Ichiro Suzuki (LEGEND, I love that man), Mark McGuire and a few others. It wasn’t until middle school, when I was in 7th grade, that I truly fell in love. It all started with my ankle injury. I had made a blog post about breaking my ankle in April of 2010, and even though that absolutely sucked, it brought me to a game that I have loved ever since.
An Eastbay magazine cover. That’s what got me interested. This guy with shoulder length brown hair had the most interesting pitching approach I had ever seen. It was Tim Lincecum. How could a guy that is 5’11 get that long of a stride to throw the ball? It was the weirdest, yet most fascinating thing I had ever seen. This is where the obsession began. I just had to watch him play to see how on earth he did it, which meant I had to watch the Giants play. When I was sitting at home on the couch with nothing to do with a broken ankle, I watched the San Francisco Giants. The timing is key here. This was the summer of 2010. If you are an avid baseball fan with a good memory, you know what happened that year.
I remember staying up ridiculously late to watch them play. They were a west coast team, so that meant what was 7 PM Pacific time was 9 PM my time. I’d sit at the foot of the TV just watching the game. I was obsessed. I was obsessed with Tim Lincecum, and I eventually was obsessed with everyone on the team: Juan Uribe, Freddy Sanchez, Pablo Sandoval, and Buster Posey (he didn’t end up playing until Bengie Molina got traded to the Texas Rangers halfway through the year). That was Buster’s rookie year, and that was the year he went on to win the Rookie of the Year.
I look back on that summer with a big smile on my face. I was enthralled with the game and wanted my Mom to record all the Giants games when I missed one. I even have journal entries explaining what happened in the games I was watching. I won’t forget when I went to summer camp and I came back my Tim Lincecum jersey was at the house. I was so excited! I had become a die hard Giant’s fan that summer. THAT SUMMER. I truly became a fan of the game and understood why my brothers and my Dad loved it so much.
In the next couple of months, 2010 became an even better year because that the Giants came out and won the World Series. How crazy is that that I had just become a fan a few months prior and they win the World Series?! Most fanbases have to wait years until their team can come up with a World Series title. It almost felt like a present to me from the Giants with them winning that World Series. Yes, they came back to win in 2012 and 2014, but that 2010 World Series will always hold a special place in my heart. I had a rough year with a broken ankle and the Giants were there for me during that summer when I felt like I couldn’t do anything.
I still hold a special place in my heart for the Giants even though they’ve had a rough couple of years. Not going to lie, it’s been hard to watch them. I still love them, but it’s been hard getting excited for them. They are still my team, but I’m just gonna go watch the exciting things that are happening in the league because not only am I a fan of the Giants, I’m a fan of so many other players in the league and really enjoy keeping up with everyone.
With it being the 10 year anniversary of becoming a Giants fan, I thought I’d share a glimpse and look back on that time and how I came to love baseball. It’s really special to me, and it’s crazy to think that it was 10 years ago. I could go on and on about all my baseball memories that maybe I can share in the future. Speaking of baseball, I’m so happy it’s coming back this month! Baseball, I have missed you so much! Thanks for stopping by and reading this nostalgic post <3 Hope you have a great 4th of July weekend!