Anywhere else in America what happened in San Francisco's baseball park this weekend probably seemed irrelevant. As part of the team's season-long celebration of 50 years here by the Bay, many great outfielders came to the park yesterday to appear before the game.
The last one to arrive and run onto the field was the greatest hitter of all time, Barry Bonds. The Giants' fans, who have seen and heard it all, knowing full well that the rest of the country won't recognize how great a player Bonds actually was until far into the future, rose and roared.
Cheers are often called "deafening" by sport writers, who employ cliches faster than a baseball used to fly off Bonds' bat into McCovey Cove. Yesterday's roar was literally deafening.
Wearing a big smile, Bonds basked in the moment. For a while, the magic was back for this town's loyal baseball fans, who have fallen on very hard times. There's little doubt the effect Bonds' surprise appearance had on the team of young players who started yesterday with 18 more losses than wins.
The arch-rival Dodgers were in town; they are fighting for the division championship.
The Dodgers were up by one run going into the bottom of the 10th inning when the young Giants somehow came back and to score twice and win the game by a run.
Today, the Dodgers again led by one run into the bottom of the ninth inning when the Giants again came back to score twice and win by a run. The team be going nowhere this season, but this weekend was a reminder of the winning Giants tradition that walked out of the door when Barry Bonds played his last game.
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