Welcome to the hardest decision you’ll ever have to make.
Good morning, baseball fans!
We are so close to regular season San Francisco Giants baseball that I can practically smell the freshly cut grass and garlic fries. My brain is happy. Which means that naturally, I have chosen violence for today’s question.
The Giants have won the World Series thrice since moving to San Francisco. Three generations of my family were born after that, and were fully grown adults before we saw the first one. Then we got two more in the span of five years. It’s still wild to think about.
Today, I’m forcing you all to pick a favorite. That’s right, no rankings. No “well this one had this, but this one had that, I can’t choose!” No. You have to choose!
Which is hard as hell. Obviously 2010 was huge. It was the first. I cried. You cried. Our parents cried. Hard to beat on pure emotion alone. The joy, the celebrations that lasted until the team’s plane touched down back in San Francisco the next morning, the parade. Top notch nostalgia right there.
A lot of people kind of brush over 2012 because they swept the Detroit Tigers. However, they had their backs against the wall for the rest of the playoffs which made the sweep that much more enjoyable for me.
But you cannot discount 2014 and the legend that is and will always be Madison Bumgarner. On paper, there was no way that team should have won the World Series. That rotation was Bumgarner, duct tape and a prayer. And Bumgarner said “Hold the duct tape,” before walking out from the bullpen to get the job done in Game 7. You know, after carrying the team to even get that far to begin with.
Am I being reductive? Absolutely. But in 30 years, when someone asks me about that series, that is what I will always remember first.
So now, I have to do the thing that I am forcing you all to do and choose.
I’m going to probably be the odd one out on this, but I’m going to have to pick 2012. The question wasn’t “best” but “favorite.” And I loved the 2012 World Series.
After having had to spend the 2010 World Series alone and deathly ill, I had my dad visit during the 2012 NLCS. They won every game after he got there, so I told him he had to stay until they stopped winning. And they never stopped winning.
That was the first time a favorite team of mine had ever won a championship (while I was not near-death on my couch and unable to celebrate with anything heartier than a feeble “yay!”.)
I wrapped a Giants flag around my shoulders and ran through the neighborhood. We played Ashkon as loud as we could and danced around my apartment. It was absolutely one of the happier days of my life.
So now it’s your turn to decide.
Which World Series Championship was your favorite?