This year’s Giants sit one win away from the first World Series title in San Francisco history. Other teams have been this close, but none in my memory have attracted quite the same explosion of excitement, support, and all around bandwaggonery. I think it’s because this team, more than any other, reflects the city of San Francisco itself.
First, you have the team’s biggest star, Tim Lincecum. Aside from his two Cy Young awards and his boyish features, Lincecum has charmed the city with his Filipino heritage and his offseason citation for possession of marijuana. Right away, you’ve got the support of Daly City AND the Haight. I don’t know if there are Filipino hippies, but if so, Lincecum is their poster boy.
The bullpen is full of Latinos with beards, capturing the fancy of the Mission. It’s also got white guys with dyed, ironic beards, capturing the fancy of the more gentrified parts of the Mission. Black-bearded closer Brian Wilson has brought out a leather-clad gimp called “The Machine” in one TV interview, and displayed an S&M mask at the end of another. Couple that with Aubrey Huff’s affinity for a bedazzled “rally thong,” and suddenly the Folsom Street Fair has a rooting interest in a sporting event for the first time.
There’s more. Matt Cain’s shaggy haircut portends a future where he ends up on Menwholooklikeoldlesbians.com. Madison Bumgarner’s last name sounds like an Oscar Wilde euphemism for secret homosexual activity. There are two players named Sanchez, representing one of SF’s prettiest streets, and one of its dirtiest sexual perversions. Barry Zito has been an inspiration to hundreds of overpaid white dudes who live in the Marina, play acoustic guitar, and are generally kind of worthless.
More controversially, the Giants’ roster is nearly free of African-Americans - just like San Francisco in 2010. Darren Ford is with the team, but he’s stuck on the end of the bench. In other words, he’s been forced out of the prime real estate in the starting lineup. What happened to their former African-American players? Raj Davis was an occasional center fielder a few years ago - but he had to move to Oakland.
