Savoring a Giant Championship

I rarely listen to the radio when I'm in the car, but this morning I made an exception. I turned on KNBR from San Francisco, because I knew they'd be talking about the Giants, and even though it was election day, the Giants were all I really wanted to think about.

The timing was perfect - they were replaying the 9th inning, so I got to hear Duane Kuiper and Mike Krukow call the end of the game. Classic stuff.

The rest of it wasn't particularly deep or meaningful, but it didn't matter - at that point, all I really wanted to do was savor the win. They played recordings of interviews with players like Tim Lincecum and Brian Wilson. They played an interview with Brian Sabean. They talked about what it was like on the late night plane coming home from Texas last night. They talked about tomorrow's parade. It was all wonderful.

As sports analysts do, on sites like SI.com and ESPN.com, the experts are already talking about what the Rangers and the Giants will have to do to repeat their success next year. And you know what? At this point, I don't even care.

This was a very special season that will never be repeated. It was the story of great pitchers and not-so-great hitters who always seemed to come through when it mattered the most. It was the story of a city and a group of fans that fell in love with a team over the course of a season. Giants fans are very lucky to have Duane Kuiper, Mike Krukow and Jon Miller as their announcers - because even when the games are a lost cause, they make things entertaining, and without trying they manage to create a community around a team. Some of the most fun moments watching "Kruk and Kuip" are when the games get out of hand, one way or another - because they work to find things in the crowd that are interesting and fun, whether it be someone with a panda hat on their head, or a kid at his first game with his glove ("wear a glove, get a ball"), or even the lonely Dodgers fan who is just ASKING to have his face erased on the telestrator.

As long as we keep this group of pitchers around, we're going to be competitive. But you know what? Whatever happens from here on out matters less than what just happened. We've got our championship. No one can ever take it away from us.