The Year I Fell in Love with Baseball
First off, let me set the record straight: this time last year, I was a 100% bandwagoner baseball fan with both the A's and the Giants in the playoffs. I was definitely caught up in the excitement of Bay Area postseason baseball, with the small chance that the A's and Giants could meet in the World Series. I honestly did not pay attention to how the Giants and A's did up until the playoffs.
It was so exciting to watch the Giants beat the odds and win six elimination games in the NLDS and NLCS before sweeping the Tigers in the World Series. Some of the obvious highlights for the Giants in the playoffs include Posey's grand slam against Latos, Sandoval hitting homeruns off Verlander, Zito's game 5 against the Cardinals that.
I was pretty much oblivious to the fact that Verlander through 2012 was basically one of the best pitchers in the game, that Zito's contract with the Giants was one of most controversial at the time, that Zito was actually part of the A's during the beginning of Moneyball, that Posey actually suffered a devastating injury in 2011, and that Lincecum was not the pitcher he used to be. But one Bay Area baseball team won the World Series a year ago, and the second in three years, so who cared that I was a bandwagoner baseball fan?
Getting caught up in the excitement of Giants winning the World Series again, I kept up with sports news of the Giants in the immediate aftermath of the World Series, and somehow I kept checking baseball news for both A's and Giants everyday throughout the offseason and into spring training, even if I did not know too much about the players that were signed to extensions (Pagan, Scutaro) or new players that were signed or traded (Lowrie, that one Japanese shortstop that spent the entire 2013 season in Sacramento).
Full disclosure: I fully support both the A's and the Giants, and I don't understand why it seems like the majority of people in the Bay Area only support one or the other. Why not both?! They are in different leagues after all. MEH. Oh Well.
So, in order to start out the 2013 season intending to be a real Bay Area baseball fan, I printed out copies of the schedules for both A's and Giants and have practically watch/Gamecasted as many games as I could for the last six months. It has become a big part of my daily routine. It definitely factors into my gym schedule as I usually plan on making it to the gym by the time the Giants or A's start playing. I keep up with what moves the Giants and A's make to their roster and schedule on a daily basis thanks to SFGate, ContraCostaTimes, CSN Bay Area, etc. I've grown accustomed to the broadcast commentary of Glen/Ray and Kruk/Kuip.
I watched the highs and lows of the Giants/A's though 162 games, although in the case of the Giants it's been mostly lows: basically having no offense for most of the season and too many player injuries, no depth at certain positions...ALTHOUGH Tim Lincecum's no-hitter and Yusmeiro Petit almost perfecto have been the highest of highs. The A's have definitely been more highs than lows...the success of Latin Buddha Bartolo Colon although he is coming off a PEDs suspension, Josh freaking Donaldson who was def snubbed of an All-Star selection, Jarrod Parker being so dominant after a bad start to the season. No doubt me...I definitely can handle myself in a baseball conversation between baseball fanatics.
I've made it a priority to go to as many games as possible, although I've gone to more A's games to Giants games. Although O.Co Colisuem is definitely not my cup of tea, I love the atmosphere at the games and the dedicated fans. I wish more fans would go to regular season games but it is what it is.
Now that it's the postseason and I'm waiting until Friday to watch A's play the Tigers in the ALDS for the second year in a row, I've had some time to think about baseball this year and I've realized how much I love watching the game, especially for dominant pitching performances, awesome defensive plays, and players getting a hit at the crucial moments (not a characteristic of the Giants this season mehhh). My brother does not understand the need for me to watch/keep track of each game when there's 162 games in a season, but I don't know what I'm going to do when baseball season is over and I don't have a baseball game to watch as part of my daily routine. It's going to be so nerve-wracking to see how far the A's can go, even though supposed sports analysts once again view the A's as a team with no big stars and are always considered the underdogs. ESPN and their East Coast bias, UGH.
I've been learning and watching more basketball/football in the past year (obviously have so much free time not being in school right now haha, fingers crossed that I'm actually in med school by the end of next summer), but I still enjoy watching baseball so much more. I know my brother is just waiting for basketball season to start, even though I admit it's going to be exciting to see how well the GS Warriors can do this year building off last year, and my mom's boyfriend/companion/my surrogate stepfather figure is consumed with football now that we are a month into the season. But baseball remains MY sport. I don't see myself not being a baseball fan like ever again, haha.
And yes, some of you who read this might think this is weird/cheesy/dumb/whatever, but I don't care. This is my tumblr after all. But I felt a strong urge to write down my experiences of watching baseball on a daily basis since the start of this season, and explain how I've truly fallen in love with the sport. So there.
