You don't really want to go to it, but you end up showing up anyway. Once you get there, things start happening for you immediately. Everyone is happy to see you. You shake hands, you slap backs, you grab a drink. Unexpectedly, you realize you are having a great time. People talk with you enthusiastically. Everyone laughs at your jokes. Hell, for this one night, you are the star of the party. And then, just when things are starting to slow down, you look across the room and see the girl (or guy, this is a non-gender specific vision). Your eyes meet. You are drawn to each other like a magnet. It's like stars and fireworks and everything.

You never forget that party. Eventually, the details blur a little, but every time you think of it, you get a warm feeling that stays with you for the rest of your life.

That party was the 1997 season for the San Francisco Giants.

Now let's visualize another party. This one you are looking forward to, and when you get there, you attack the party scene with vigor. Again, things start great. You are laughing, talking, having a great time, and all the while, you are really pounding down the Budweiser. Then things start to get confusing. You trip over a coffee table and land flat on the couch. No problem; you laugh and pretend it was all on purpose, but it sure is hard to get up off the sofa, and you falter a bit. The party starts to fade in and out. At one point, you are crawling on the floor in the laundry room, convinced that a used sheet of Bounce is really your deadened tongue. Finally, at the end of the party, things pick up. You are in the back seat of a convertible with some friends, racing down the freeway at about 95 miles per hour with the wind hard in your face. You laugh with the joy of the speed. Then you pass out. You wake up on a park bench in Modesto, your hair dyed green and "Disco Rules" tattooed on your butt.

Try as you might, you never forget that party either. In fact, you can't seem to get rid of a single painful detail. As for the tattoo....

That party was the 1998 season for the San Francisco Giants.

It is a far cry from the miserable days of 1995 and 1996, when the Giants were playing baseball for no compelling reason. 1998 was undeniably a crazy ride, both for the team and its fans, but it was a memorable ride nonetheless. It will be hard to forget the ups and the downs, the frustrating drift in the middle and the wild rush to the finish. For the second straight year, the team's last game was a meaningful one, and that is an unusual state of affairs in recent Giants' history.

But it really wasn't our favorite party.

(By the way, the party which would act as a metaphor for the Giants' 1996 season would have involved getting mugged as you got out of the car, then having seven members of the opposite sex throw drinks in your face. Definitely one to forget as soon as possible.)

How About A Little Perspective Here?

Sure, the 1998 season ended in a disappointing way. In failing to supplant the Cubs as the wild-card winner after previously falling over a dozen games behind the resurgent Padres in the NL West, the Giants seemingly ended up accomplishing nothing, and doing it in the very public forum of a one-game playoff loss. However, in the context of the Giants' tortured history during the division era starting in 1969, this year was a very positive experience, and the last two years combined exist in the rarefied air of unique achievement. Let's explore that for a moment.

First off, 89 wins is a very good total for the Giants. Since 1969, they have exceed this only six times:

		

1993                    103 wins
1989                     92 wins
1969, 1971, 1987, 1989   90 wins
1978, 1998               89 wins
		

More amazingly, though, is the fact that the combined total of 179 wins in 1997 and 1998 is the best consecutive season win total for the Giants since divisional play started. Not since 1967-68 have the Giants done so well in back-to-back seasons. And, of course, the Giants hadn't even had consecutive winning seasons since the end of a five-year run from 1986-1990.

Even the playoff loss, while disappointing, was historic in nature, being only the eighth such in major league history and the first to decide a wild card title. By charging back from a deficit of five games with 10 games left to pass one team and tie another, the Giants may well have set a new baseball standard for late season comebacks and showed great courage and character in the process.

The Giants did reach some individual milestones. Jeff Kent set several RBI records and a team home run record for second basemen and had a wonderful year despite a serious injury. Barry Bonds did all sorts of interesting things, including becoming the first player in history to hit 400 home runs and steal 400 bases, setting a National League record by getting on base 15 consecutive times, and becoming the first player in nearly 50 years to be intentionally walked with the bases loaded. Robb Nen finished with an incredible 1.52 ERA in 78 games as the Giants' closer. The team turned its first triple play since 1980 (and had two turned against it as well).

So, from a purely analytical standpoint, there was a lot to be happy about with the results of 1998. But not from an emotional standpoint. The abrupt end to the year left the team and the fans saddened and empty.

A Crazy Ride

The 1998 season had an incredible number of twists and turns, but really three main phases. The first phase lasted through an 11-game winning streak and ended with the Giants in first place with an excellent 41-24 record. The second phase lasted through the end of July, during which time the Giants plummeted out of the division race, down to near .500, and made some mystifying and disheartening trades right at the trade deadline. The last phase was a wild stretch in which the Giants fell out of the wild card race several times, climbed back into it each time, took some of the most horrifying losses in recent franchise history, and were still in position to make the playoffs until the final out of the season. It is that stretch that most will remember from 1998, but much that was interesting happened earlier.

Up, Up, Up

The Giants started well, and were 8-5 going into their first game with a likely division rival (we will overlook series with Arizona earlier in the month in which the expansion team got their first franchise victory).

Key Game #1 -- The Padres shelled Mark Gardner in the first (a recurring theme for him in the first half of the season) and were up 5-0 before the Giants knew what hit them. However, the Giants posted a four-run first and a seven-run fifth to compensate for two Greg Vaughn home runs and overwhelm the Padres 13-7. Even a 1-0 loss (thanks to another Vaughn homer) the next day did not immediately dispel the belief that the Giants could play with the Padres, who, as it quickly proved, were the clear class of the division.

It did look, however, that the Giants could not play with the Brewers. The Giants lost their first four games against the American League refugees (dropping them two games under .500 for the only time of the season) before finally beating them on April 25. Then, the next day:

Key Games #2 and #3 -- Jeff Juden hated the Giants. The Giants hated Jeff Juden. So, falling behind 6-0 in the third to the motley Brewers with Juden on the mound was particularly galling, especially when Juden drilled Brian Johnson in the hand, sending Johnson into a injury-plagued spiral that effectively ruined his year. However, the Giants pulled back into the game and won it in the bottom of the ninth on home runs by Stan Javier and pinch-hitter Charlie Hayes. The 8-7 win was particularly satisfying because it denied Juden the victory.

Then, the next night, the Giants fell behind the Pirates 5-0 before again scoring two runs in the bottom of the ninth to come back and win it 6-5.

Coming back from big deficits was a trademark theme of the Giants early in the year. In 1997 many of those early deficits turned into blowout losses; this seemed a nice turn of events. In fact, perhaps the most memorable comeback came in Florida on May 6, after the Giants had narrowly averted being swept in a four game series with the Braves (and the last game of that series was pretty memorable in its own right, as the Giants nearly blew a 9-2 lead in part due to a brutal home run call on a Michael Tucker foul ball before hanging on to win 12-8). Having won the first two games with the Marlins, they sent Kirk Rueter to the mound for the final game...

Key Game #4 -- and Rueter was very shaky. The Marlins were horrible this year, but they soon found themselves up 9-3. However, aided by a number of walks, the Giants scored a couple of runs, and then Brent Mayne hit a stunning and dramatic grand slam to complete a six-run seventh and tie the game. The Giants went on to win 10-9, sweeping the series and starting the Giants on their way towards winning all nine games against the Marlins in 1998.

But the glow of this one didn't last long. The very next day...

Key Game #5 -- In an ugly harbinger of things to come, the Giants lost a heartbreaker against the Cubs in Chicago. Despite turning their first triple play in nearly twenty years, and despite coming back to tie the game in late innings, and despite taking a 4-3 lead in the top of the 14th inning, the Giants couldn't win it. Jim Poole came in with two on and one out in the bottom of the 14th and promptly gave up the game-winning hit to Mark Grace. This was a loss the Giants would rue before the year was over.

The Giants continued to drift, slowly improving their record but also slowly falling behind the red hot Padres. By late May, much attention was starting to be paid attention to Mark McGwire's home run chase, and the Giants arrived in St. Louis eager to keep Big Mac under control. However, they didn't pay enough attention to the rest of the Cardinals, who put two tough losses on them to start the series. However, the next game was a classic, and clearly the Best Game of the Year.

Key Game #6 -- The Giants were down 4-2 with two outs and two strikes in the top of the ninth when Barry Bonds hit a two-run homer off Juan Acevedo to tie it. In the tenth, McGwire came up with the bases loaded and two outs. Robb Nen struck him out. All very exciting, but the 12th inning went beyond all of that. After Jeff Kent hit a two-run home run in the top of that inning, McGwire faced the exact same situation as Bonds (two outs, two strikes, one on) and he matched Bonds' feat by hitting a home run off the badly tiring Nen to tie it once again. Jim Poole, the goat in so many Giants games over the prior year, came in and put up his best performance as a Giant by tossing four scoreless innings. The Giants finally put it away in the 17th inning with three runs, aided in large part by a throwing error by Kent Mercker, to win 9-6.

A few days later, the Giants were playing Arizona.

Best Individual At Bat -- Not your obvious choice, but when the Giants, having battled back from a 7-2 deficit to get to within an 8-6 score in the bottom of the ninth, sent Barry Bonds to the plate with the bases loaded and two outs, Diamondbacks manager Buck Showalter didn't hesitate. He had Gregg Olson intentionally walk Bonds to make the score 8-7 and move the winning run into scoring position. It was the first time in five decades that the strategy had been employed, and it worked as Brent Mayne lined out to right to end the game. The legend of Barry Bonds grew another notch with this one.

It was a strange way to lose a game, but it was the last one the Giants lost for a while. They proceeded to win their next 11 games, which pushed them to a season high 17 games over .500 and, on June 6, finally put them into first place over the Padres. Hershiser during this span completed an excellent May in which he went 6-0 and won Pitcher of the Month honors in the NL. Even 1997 ace Shawn Estes, who had been very shaky early in the season, looked to be getting it together. The Giants swept a thrilling three-game series from longtime nemesis St. Louis, including one game in which the Giants, down 4-1 going into the eighth, tied the game in the top of the ninth and then, after three innings of pitching by Rich Rodriguez, finally won it 5-4 in the 14th, the third long extra-inning game between the teams in a two-week period. The next day, they came back from another big first inning deficit to win 6-5.

The Giants entered interleague play against the Mariners, and though they won the first two games, the second win was a costly one.

Key Game #7 -- While the 7-6 final score and the eleventh straight win should have provided some excitement to the fans, it did not. In the game, Alex Rodriguez rolled over Jeff Kent's knee on a double play attempt, knocking him out of action for a month.

The Giants had not had a key injury to that point, and they did not respond well to this one. They played beanball wars with the Mariners the next day, and Orel Hershiser was drilled with a line drive in the middle of the game, and, with distractions on all sides, they lost, snapping the eleven-game streak, starting a five-game losing streak and effectively ending the first phase of the season.

A Long Slow Goodbye

The worst team for the Giants to face right then was the Padres, and here they came, for seven games in 10 days. It was a disastrous stretch for the team, and they lost three in a row in San Diego, with the first loss knocking them back into second place. The Giants ended up occupying the top spot for only six days and the Padres, in the midst of their own 11-game winning streak, quickly raced ahead. The Giants caught their breath against the Rockies, but then San Diego came into 3Com on June 18 for a four-game series that looked like it might make or break the Giants' season.

Key Game #8 -- The Padres were playing extremely well, but in the first game of that series, Mark Gardner was every bit their match, and he delivered a 6-3 lead into the eighth inning despite the inevitable Greg Vaughn home run. However, that lead did not survive the inning. With two on and nobody out, Tony Gwynn was induced to hit into a double play. Ken Caminiti was next and...

Bob Brenly Memorial Moment -- he grounded to Bill Mueller at third. Mueller made a clean pickup. He had plenty of time to throw out the gimpy Caminiti. And he blew it, throwing a wild short-hop throw that fill-in first baseman Charlie Hayes couldn't handle. A run scored, and Greg Vaughn then hit another home run, this time off the usually solid Steve Reed, to tie the game. The Giants went on to lose it 7-6 in the ninth.

The Giants eventually lost three out of four in that series. If they had won the first game, things might turned out differently, or at least the inevitable may have delayed for a while longer. As it stood, however, the Padres had effectively eliminated the Giants and won the NL West after this series was completed.

The Giants now entered the remainder of their interleague schedule, starting with four games against Oakland. Each team won the two games in the other teams' park, though the Giants did have the most impressive moment in the series thanks to a nine-run inning on June 22. On June 28, Mark Gardner took the mound against the big bats of Texas.

Best Pitched Game -- The Giant's starters threw several nice complete games in 1998, but the best outing by a starter was this one against a hot Rangers' lineup. Supported by a J.T. Snow grand slam, Gardner went all the way to win 7-0, allowing only three hits and no walks while striking out five. It was one of two complete game shutouts he threw in 1998 and, not long after this, Gardner transformed himself into the Giants' most effective starter in the second half.

Coupled with a series win against the Dodgers (including Hershiser's first start against his former team), the Giants went 8-5 after the San Diego debacle leading into the All-Star Break, and it seemed like they might be set to make another run at first place. To make matters seem even brighter, Jeff Kent was finally set to return after the break. Of course, it didn't work that way. The Giants fell apart after the break, getting hammered 11-2 in the first game against Colorado, after which Shawn Estes went down to a shoulder injury for most of the rest of the season. That score proved to be an omen; the Giants went 2-11 to start the second half of the season, tumbling all the way down to six games over .500 by the end of this stretch. Nearly every game was an ugly one, with the second game against Colorado a very representative example.

Key Game #9 -- On July 11, Hershiser took the mound against the Rockies and battled into a 4-2 lead. However, the team was sleepwalking behind him. The Giants made numerous baserunning mistakes in the game, taking themselves out of several rallies that could have extended the lead. This proved costly in the seventh as the Rockies, aided by a Rey Sanchez throwing error (on the heels of two baserunning mistakes of his own), scored three off of Hershiser and won the game 5-4.

The final game of the stretch was a listless 8-1 loss to the Cards. After the game, General Manager Brian Sabean delivered an even more brutal piece of news: he had made two trades that cost the Giants their hottest reliever in Steve Reed and several prospects in exchange for the suspect talents of Shawon Dunston, Jose Mesa, Alvin Morman, and Joe Carter. It seemed like the roof had caved in on the season; not even a huge 12-2 victory the day after the trade (with the suddenly red-hot Jeff Kent contributing a grand slam, another home run and seven RBIs overall) could assuage the pain. Joe Carter quickly disappointed, and less than a week later after another bad loss (12-6 to the Expos), the Giants traded Darryl Hamilton and more prospects for Ellis Burks, seemingly to replace Carter in the starting lineup. This was a more logical trade, but nothing seemed to indicate that it would make a significant difference in the Giants' stretch run quest for their only real remaining goal, a wild card berth.

"This Season Is Over! No, Wait ..."

After going 16-26 during the second phase of the season, the Giants logged a 32-23 record from July 31 on (counting the last playoff loss against the Cubs). The reason for the improvement seems obvious on the surface; the Giants started hammering the ball. Jeff Kent and Barry Bonds stayed hot for all of August and September, and Burks, Marvin Bernard (in place of Hamilton), and even Joe Carter (after a rough start) also hit very well. After averaging 4.7 runs per game with a .265 batting average in the 108 games before the Burks trade, the Giants averaged 6.1 runs and a .290 average over the last 55 games of the season. More impressively, they scored double figures in runs eight times in the last 55 games after doing it only seven times in all the games before. Even though the pitching (and especially the bullpen) fell off quite a bit in this stretch, the team won many games in this stretch by simply beating the opposition into submission.

But surface impressions don't begin to do justice to the nature of this period. The Giants careened from game to game in this stretch, winning critical games and then losing even more critical games, often back to back. For each big comeback they pulled off in the first half of the season, they now gave one back and then some in these last two months. As they staggered through August and early September, both the Cubs and the Mets beat them head-to-head and passed them in the wild card standings, costing the Giants the inside track on something they had only just begun to admit they wanted. The team looked for all the world like Sylvester Stallone in the fight at the end of the first Rocky movie; they were pounded mercilessly by horrifying loss after horrifying loss until it seemed as though they could never stay in the race, let alone remain standing. They would land a punch or two to hang on, then take even more punishment. But in the final round, they started dealing serious damage of their own, and against all odds, were still standing at the final bell.

It started well enough, though, as the Giants visited the Phillies for four games right after the Burks trade and swept them all.

Key Game #10 -- In the third game of the series on August 2, the Giants scored early and often. Bonds was magnificent, going 4-for-4 with a home run, but it was his stolen base in the fourth inning, at which point the team was already up 7-0, that raised the ire of the Phillies. His next time up, Ricky Bottalico was brought in for the sole purpose of plunking Bonds, at which point Bonds charged the mound and was tossed out of the game, which eventually led to a three-game suspension. The Phils' Alex Arias charged the mound and got thrown out of the game after being hit by Rueter in a later inning (Rueter was not ejected), and the Giants eventually laid a 15-2 beating on their host.

The ugliness continued the next day in a game the Giants also won to complete the sweep. The criticism over the stolen base seemed baseless; the Phils had rallied from big deficits in both of the previous games, and it hardly seemed reasonable for the Phils to ask the Giants to assume it wasn't going to happen again. However, the whole episode fit perfectly into the craziness that followed.

After the Phils series, the Giants visited the wild-card-contending Mets for three games. This was a wild series, with the Giants winning the middle game despite hitting into a triple play, but the other two games were more memorable.

Key Games #11 and 12 -- In the first game, the Giants lost an early 4-0 lead, then came back in the ninth to score two runs and tie the game at 6-6. The newly acquired Jose Mesa come in to pitch the tenth and, after loading the bases with nobody out, got two force-outs at home before he walked Lenny Harris, forcing in the winning run.

Two days later, the Giants lost an early 2-0 lead behind Orel Hershiser, who left trailing 4-2. Alvin Morman, showing the form that he would employ to good effect for the Giants' opponents for the rest of the season, quickly gave up solo home runs to Tony Phillips and John Olerud to stretch the deficit to 6-2. However, the Giants scored six runs in the eighth inning for an 8-6 lead, with home runs by Kent and Hayes accounting for most of the damage. Unfortunately, Robb Nen didn't have it this day. After allowing the tying run to score, he left in the ninth with the bases loaded and nobody out, and Mesa walked Luis Lopez to force in the winning run for the second time in the series.

Coupled with the very slow start of Joe Carter, the first set of trades was looking like it was going to hurt the team more than help it. But to give Mesa his due, soon after this series he settled down considerably and was possibly the Giants' most effective reliever down the stretch.

The ensuing homestand started badly, as the Giants were swept in three by the Braves and lost two out of three to the other wild-card contender, the Cubs. Fortunately, the Marlins came to town and lost three straight to the Giants, and after the team split two with the Braves in Atlanta, the Giants seemed back on track heading into Chicago. They had gone 10-8 since the Burks trade, and had not fallen apart after the rough series with the Mets. (Not falling apart was often the Giants' best trait over the last two months of the season.)

After losing the first game to the Cubs, the Giants were looking for a split of the two-game set on August 21.

Key Game #13 -- Behind Orel Hershiser, who had been unable to match his early season success later into the summer, the Giants fell behind 4-1. But they rallied, mostly due to Hayes' two-run double in the eighth, to take a 5-4 lead. Unfortunately, Nen once again couldn't hold the lead as the Cubs scored two in the ninth (the last on a hit by Jose Hernandez) to win 6-5.

The first official eulogy was written about the Giants after this game, and why not? They had lost a total of six out of eight to the Cubs and Mets over the previous three weeks and were now behind both teams in the wild card standings. But, as happened several times before, the Giants were saved by a series against Florida. During the sweep, Barry Bonds became the first player in major league history to hit 400 home runs and steal 400 bases in a career. Just as importantly, the Giants, by taking the season series from the Marlins with a 9-0 record, recorded the first season sweep of a team in their franchise history.

And, thanks to the Marlins, the Giants were back on their feet. Following the losses to the Cubs, they won 12 of their next 18 over the likes of the Mets, Phils, Expos, Dodgers, and even the Padres, and were right back in the wild card hunt with a chance to gain ground on the Cubs and Mets going into a three-game series at home against the Rockies starting September 11.

Key Game #14 -- This was a tough one. The Giants were down early after another shaky start by Hershiser, but they rallied for four in the fifth and two in the sixth to take a 6-4 lead despite wasting many of their eventual 15 hits. Julian Tavarez, one day after an embarrassing outburst in a game against the Padres, put two men on with one out in the eighth, and ...

Atlee Hammaker Memorial Award -- Alvin Morman came in to face former Giant Darryl Hamilton. Hamilton had hit only one home run all year with the Giants, but then he had never had the chance to face Morman, who promptly served up a fat one which Hamilton hit out to give the Rockies a 7-6 lead. After the damage was done, Morman then proceeded to calmly get the next two outs.

Key Game #14 (continued) -- In the ninth, a potential Giant rally was cut short when Rey Sanchez sacrifice-bunted into a double play. The team lost 7-6 and failed to gain ground on the Cubs and Mets, who had both lost earlier in the day.

The Giants bats were lifeless the next day as the team wasted eight brilliant shutout innings from Gardner to lose 1-0 in the ninth. Yet again, the Giants were on the ropes and things looked even bleaker late in the last game of the Colorado series.

Key Game #15 -- Russ Ortiz pitched fairly well, but once again the bats were quiet as the Rockies held a 3-1 lead going into the bottom of the eighth. The Giants got two runners on and the Rockies brought in Chuck McElroy to face Barry Bonds. McElroy merely owned Bonds, having previously held him to a 1-for-29 lifetime mark, but Bonds broke that skid in this game by hitting a three run homer which lifted the team to a much needed 4-3 win.

Next, the Giants traveled to Arizona.

Worst Starting Pitching Performance -- Shawn Estes had been very poor in his two previous starts since returning from the disabled list, but he reached a new low against the lowly Diamondbacks, giving up seven runs on eight hits and two walks in a mere 1-2/3 innings. Former starter Danny Darwin also pitched poorly, giving up five runs on three hits in just one-third of an inning. The Giants dropped another embarrassing game by a 14-2 score and lost still more ground in the Wild Card race.

But as bad as that game was, the next game was the true low point of the Giants' 1998 season.

Key Game #16 -- Shawon Dunston hit a three run home run in the Giants' six run fourth, giving a 6-0 lead to Kirk Rueter. However, Rueter, who fought through injury problems for the whole last month of the season, gave up a home run to Matt Williams and eventually left with just a 6-4 lead. The bullpen gave up the rest of the lead, while the batters, after the six run fourth, got no further hits until the 11th inning. In the bottom of the 11th, Travis Lee drove in the winning run for Arizona in a 7-6 win, the most painful and damaging of all the blown leads for the Giants in 1998.

The Giants barely held on to win the next day and salvage one game from the series, but after an off-day on which the Cubs won, the Giants found themselves five games behind the Cubs and four behind the Mets with just 10 games to go. Both the Cubs and Mets were winning seemingly every day in dramatic and exciting fashion, while the Giants were struggling just to hold any lead they happened to build. Everyone once again wrote them off at this point, and with good reason. They looked completely dead.

And then the Giants put on the most incredible of stretch drive performances. They won eight of the next nine games, taking two of three from the Dodgers, including an 18-4 pasting on September 19, then sweeping four in a row from the Pirates. Meanwhile, both the Mets and Cubs, who had been so hot just the week before, began to flounder. The Giants made up ground quickly while nobody was watching them, until...

Key Game #17 -- The Giants' 4-1 victory behind Mark Gardner on September 23 was noteworthy for Barry Bonds' fourth career sacrifice bunt, but the day stood out because of the happenings in Milwaukee, where the Cubs took a 7-5 lead into the bottom of the ninth before the Brewers loaded the bases with two outs. While Giants fans watched on the big screen between innings at 3Com, Brant Brown of the Cubs settled under a fly ball in right field... and dropped it. Three runs scored to give the Brewers a shocking 8-7 win, and the Giants completed their victory to pull to within 1.5 games of the Cubs. Suddenly, they really were back into the wild card race.

The Mets also lost (and in fact would not win again in 1998), and the Giants kept on winning. On the final Friday of the season, they beat the Rockies in Colorado to pull into a three-way tie with the Cubs and Mets. The Giants won again on Saturday to keep pace with the Cubs, and then on the final day of the regular season, the Giants and the Cubs played nearly simultaneously, with both trying to win the final playoff spot outright.

Key Game #18 -- The final games of a season have been torturous for the Giants in recent history, and this game proved no less so as the Giants blew a 7-0 lead. With Joe Carter providing a two-run homer, the Giants raced out to an early big lead, but Kirk Rueter could not last out the fifth as the Rockies came back to score six runs. Vinny Castillo then hit a two-run home run in the seventh to give the Rockies the lead before Jeff Kent hit a dramatic home run in the eighth to tie it once again. The Cubs were in extra innings with Houston and, just before the bottom of the ninth in Colorado, the Astros scored a run to win that game 4-3. Less than a minute later, Robb Nen gave up a leadoff home run to Neifi Perez to win the game for the Rockies by a 9-8 score.

It was an upsetting loss, but not all was doom and gloom. The Giants had just completed one of the most amazing comebacks in baseball history, making up five games in ten days on two teams, and now they were headed to Chicago for a one game playoff, winner take all for a playoff berth.

And, of course, they lost 5-3.

It Hurts So Good

Baseball is a long grind each and every year, and the investment a dedicated fan must make to follow a team is not a small one. It is frustrating to follow a bad team for six months, but when a team competes all year and then misses the postseason on the last day (or even the day after the last day) of the season, there is a different type of feeling, one of an opportunity lost or even one of having paid too high a price for the seemingly insignificant payback that was received.

The Giants pushed that feeling even harder this year. To be frank, they really did not play all that well for most of the season, and they were not nearly fun enough to watch for long stretches of it. The Giants were in a position to compete with the Padres but quickly folded in that race, and they then frittered away the lead in the wild card race before losing even more ground in a series of frustrating and really embarrassing losses in the final month of the season. Unlike 1997 when the team rose to meet every challenge during the stretch drive, this team fell down at nearly every critical moment. They were a decent team that seemed to underachieve every time the chips were down.

Until the last 10 games of the season, that is. And it is that incredible drive, which left most Giant fans stunned and breathless in its wake, on which the perception of this season has to turn. Sure, there were many lost opportunities in the year, but the team provided a memorable final push to achieve a comeback of reasonably historic proportions, and their name will always be in the record books for getting into that one-game playoff, one of just a handful of such games in the long history of baseball. So often, it has been the Giants who were run down and passed by some other team; Giants fans can and should take some measure of satisfaction in the fact that their team was the hunter this year. And a hunter that, for a moment at least, caught and stood proudly over its prey.

The fact that the prey then leapt to its feet and gobbled the hunter up whole is, frankly, best left out of this visual image.

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