The San Francisco Giants entered the play offs in the wild card position. This means their record wasn't quite good enough to earn a playoffs birth, yet there they were. My friend Chris has season tickets and though he sells off the regular season tickets, keeps the playoff tickets closer by. Sometimes as a season ticket holder he gets invited to special events like wine tastings, or player meet n greets. This time he got invited to help unfurl the American Flag. This flag is so big it takes up the entire outfield, and Chris had two tickets. This leads us to Tuesday. On Tuesdays, people work and go to school. They are not available to go to a baseball game at 1:05, ya know, unless they are just waiting to go to the hospital for cancer treatment. So before I could accept Chris's generous invitation, I had to clear it with my doctor. Unfortunately, It was a week where I was getting fluids each day for two hours. When I informed my nurse that I would not be available Tuesday as I was going to the playoffs game, and onto the field to unfurl the flag she couldn't say no and asked if he had any other tickets. She then told me to wear sunblock and drink plenty of water. So I got to go!
Chris met me at the train station, and then we walked to the stadium just a few blocks away. We had to arrive at a specified breezeway about two hours before the game to learn what to do, this flag was humongous! The people in charge of us explained that once we got onto the field what would happen, and how to walk quickly and release the flag slowly. If we fell, find a way and appropriate time to get up, we laughed at the possibility. Then we were all outfitted in matching shirts and lead out onto the field.
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| I'm on the field! |
As we started 'walking quickly and releasing the flag slowly,' someone began to run. Around mid center field, I lost my footing trying to keep the pace. I. Went. Down. It was like a weird dream, I was flat on my stomach, mid center field of AT&T park, yet I had no baseball in my hand. I couldn't get up, as large parachute type flag hovered just above my flattened self, I looked around to notice there were a few other people stuck under this huge flag too! I was not the only one who fell! We had to get out of from under the flag, so I started crawling toward the line of feet at the edge of the flag. Luckily, just before we had gotten onto the field I had been admiring Chris's orange and black sneakers, so I could easily identify him and popped up just around 'And the banner yet wave.' I had survived, and was there to wave the flag on cue, the show must go on after all.
After the song the first pitch was thrown out by three members of the 1989 Giants team. This was the team I knew like the back of my hand, they had also clinched the a spot in the NLCS as well. One of the players was none other than Dave Dravecky, pitcher, and fellow cancer survivor. Long time Giants fans will remember the devastation of Dave loosing his pitching arm to his tumor. I was sad to only get to see him on the jumbo tron, as we were leaving the field as he was throwing the pitch (with his remaining arm). Before we got to our seats, I asked every person working for the giants I cam across how I could meet Dave, showed them my vintage Dave Dravecky Day shirt I was wearing and explained my cancer treatment. Unfortunately, nothing came of it, but it doesn't hurt to try.
The rest of the game was like magic to watch. Steve Perry of Journey lead a singalong in the seventh inning, and the Giants went on to win in tenth inning.
Orange October finished with a bang. The third world series trophy in five years. The parade was on Halloween and shut down San Francisco. 2015 should be quiet though, it is an even year.
