A Flag For San Francisco

Posted on April 14, 2011

The 2010 World Series Champion banner flies on a flagpole in right field before the game between the St. Louis Cardinals and San Francisco Giants at AT&T Park on April 9, 2011 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Brad Mangin)

 

I know I have worn this phrase out for months, but it is still hard to believe my team, the San Francisco Giants, won the World Series last week. As hard as this has been to get into my thick skull over the winter events of this past weekend made it all appear a little more real. After opening the 2011 season on the road the Giants were able to hold a weekend-long celebration with their home fans this past weekend, beginning with the home opener on Friday, April 8.

The home opener is always a great day, and one I usually get very excited for. This year was no different as I got up super early to make sure I was at the park by 9am. I love getting to the yard early, and since this promised to be an opening day unlike any other in San Francisco history I wanted to soak it all in. This day promised to have an emotional pre-game ceremony that would see the 2010 World Championship banner raised on the flag pole in right-center field. When Brian Wilson raised the banner the reality of the Giants incredible 2010 season began to sink in a little deeper.

Once the game started it was a huge relief. I can only take so much pre-game hoopla. Besides, I wanted to start shooting from my incredibly cool shooting position in the Lexus Dugout Club where I had shot several post season games last year. This spot is not really a photo position, but a camping chair in an aisle against the netting just to the first base side of home plate. The fans down there are nice, and thanks to some cool people with the Giants I was able to shoot this game from a very unique angle (see below).

We were in the middle of a strange weather pattern in the Bay Area last week, and thanks to some unusual high pressure or low pressure, we were blessed with some amazing clouds. This might not seem like a big deal to many of you out there, but here in California we do not get clouds like this. EVER. I love shooting clouds, so from my unique vantage point I kept shooting wide overalls of the ballpark making sure to take advantage of the dramatic skies above.

In typical Giants fashion this game was “torture.” Wilson blew a save in the 9th inning after getting squeezed by home plate umpire Bruce Dreckman. This made for some fun pictures of Wilson screaming at Dreckman as he left the game, and set up more dramatics for the home team as they tied the game with two outs in the bottom of the 9th and on it in the 12th. This was a long-ass day at the park, and by the time the game ended it was getting dark, and it was FREEZING cold. But, a win is a win and things could have been MUCH worse. The post game beer with Eric Risberg was VERY relaxing.

Game 2 of the series against the Cardinals was slated to start at 7:05pm on Saturday night, after a long ceremony that saw the Giants presented with their World Series rings. As an added bonus the Giants would be wearing – for one time only- special uniforms with their “GIANTS” logo across the front of their jerseys in gold instead of black. Since they were getting their rings and wearing special unis for the one and only time ever in San Francisco I just had to go out to the park to shoot some of the fun. I also couldn’t miss a chance at seeing Giants team photographer Andy Kuno in a tuxedo!

There was no chance of me being on the field for the ceremony, since it was a tight pool situation handled admirably by Risberg. I decided to try and shoot the ceremony from inside the Cardinals dugout on the first base side of the field. From there I was able to get a few acceptable frames to prove that I was there. The Giants did a great job with the ceremony (as usual) and the sellout crowd was all in their seats by 6pm to soak it all in.

I have been to my share of night games at the new ballpark in China Basin over the past 11 years, and I have never been as cold as I was on the field Saturday night. It was Candlestick Park freezing-ass cold. Luckily I was not planning on staying for the whole game. I just wanted to get some pictures of most of the Giants in action wearing the gold unis, and then I was getting the Hell out of there. By the 5th inning, after coming VERY closed to getting smoked by a Freddy Sanchez foul ball, I decided it was time to go.

The final game of the series on Sunday afternoon promised one more ceremony before the game. This one would honor Buster Posey. The Giants young catcher would be presented with his 2010 National league Rookie of the Year Award. As usual the Giants pulled out all the stops and brought back former Rookies of the Year including Willie Mays, Orlando Cepeda, Willie McCovey, Gary Matthews, and John Montefusco. I grew up a HUGE Montefusco fan, so this would be fun for me to try and get a good frame of The Count. I was happy to get a picture I liked of Posey hugging Montefusco (above) on the field, and that was pretty much the highlight of the day. The game sucked, the Giants trotted out their Sunday lineup, and there was no good action.

Looking back in the ceremony-packed weekend i am glad it is all over. It was nice for the club and their fans to be able to celebrate last year’s miraculous finish, but it is time to move on. Yes, my Giants really did win the World Series in 2010, and they have a flag flying above AT&T Park to prove it. Now they need to start winning some games in 2011.