Reminded on the news this morning that today’s the official kickoff of the Giants season with their annual Fan Fest at AT&T Park, in its honor I wore my only bit of orange and black outerwear, an old Burberry shirt that has yet to make it to the rag bag. For once, it turned out I made the right decision, as riding to the galleries this morning on Muni, those handful of people not garbed in team colors were, shall we say, conspicuous.
Giants mania is hardly a local phenomenon, unless you wish to consider a fan radius of 500 miles local. Astonishing the numbers of people who traveled just that far to queue up for today’s event. For those very few of you who may be looking down your toffee noses about this sort of thing, I can only say you must not have watched even 30 seconds of either the Giants playoff or World Series performance. For those of us in San Francisco, the link goes much, much deeper, with the Giants players and the Giants organization deeply connected with what goes on here. Clearly, fan loyalty is reciprocated by at least an equivalent in kind factor. No greater expression of that mutuality of regard can be imagined than that of the Giants World Series victory parade. It was my privilege to watch it just around the corner from our galleries, and the photos we took I’m happy to reprise on our Facebook page. Click here to view the album.