OT - World Champs!

[Butch Crain]

My Uncle Mike and Tia Cuca first took me to Candlestick Park to see the Giants when I was 4 years old – 50 years ago.

Saw the Cepedas, Willie Mays AND McCovey, Juan Marichal, Gaylord Perry play there. Hall of Famers - that never won the big one for the City.

Got my hands on a Willie Mays homerun in the bleacher seats when I was 11 (’67 - saw the Dead and the Airplane there on the back of a flatbed in Golden Gate Park that summer). Got mugged by the other kids in the process and went home with nothing but a ‘Stick windburn.

Still have the Candlestick cap I got in ’95 when a family friend gave my cousin Dante (Mike’s & Cuca’s son) and me dugout seats. Typical SF weather – in the 60’s, foggy, actually started raining – no rainouts in SF. Dante must have sensed I was about to go for the umbrella in my backpack and let me, a forester that had spent a career in the elements, know that REAL Giants fans suffered the weather. Zipped up my jacket, pulled up my collar, went and bought the cap.

Like a lot of other Giants fans, mostly laid low during the Bonds era.

A lifetime is a long time for a fan to wait for their team to show their stuff. Can’t imagine what it’s like for the folks that went to the park year in and year out or for all those great players from the past.

Congrats to the world’s greatest town!