While going through my daily routine of combing through baseball stories and headlines today, there were two stories that really caught my attention. The first one, which comes from the New York Times' website, details how a particular segment of fans in New York are being shut out from the NLCS and World Series because of the Cablevision dispute with Fox. The other story comes from ESPNNewYork.com, which is a writer's reminiscence about becoming a baseball fan in New York during the game's golden age. The most striking thing about each story though, are who those fans are. They are San Francisco Giants fans, but more appropriately, they are New York Giants fans at heart, people who never quit on their team despite the heartbreaking move 3,000 miles west 52 years ago.
I find it remarkable that there are still people around New York City who have never given up their allegiance to the baseball Giants. Even in spite of the unconscionable decision that then-Giants owner Horace Stoneham decided to make in 1958, these fans have never given up on their loyalty to their team. I even thought about how difficult it must have been to continue to follow the team despite being 3,000 miles and three times zones away. Both articles describe how a broadcaster by the name of Les Keiter would recreate Giants games for listeners in New York for the three years after the team left, but once the Mets came into existence in 1962, that was no longer necessary.
Over the last 52 years, there were plenty of opportunities for them to jump off the bandwagon. They stuck with their team after losing the 1962 World Series to the despicibale New York Yankees. These few and dedicated fans still stuck with the Giants, even after the Mets came to town (although I have a sneaking suspicion that they likely have adopted the Mets as their other favorite team). Even with waning interest, they hung with them through a nasty 23 year dry spell between 1963 and 1986, that saw the team make the postseason just once, and even then, they were no match for the eventual World Champion Pittsburgh Pirates in 1971.
These fans likely had to watch their Giants whenever they came to town to play the Mets, or if time allowed, they could have made the trip south to Philadelphia. It really is remarkable that they managed to stick with their team through all these years, especially when the majority of that time, technology was very limited for them to keep up with their team. During the 1960s and 1970s, the only way these people could have kept up with Mays, McCovey and Marichal if they weren't on national television was to follow the box scores in the morning paper (which wouldn't be present if the game started on the West Coast until two days later), or by picking up copies of The Sporting News. Fortunately for these dedicated few, technology started to cooperate with them over the course of the last 15 years, especially with the advent of the internet, the expansion of cable television and the MLB extra innings package being offered in homes and bars everywhere. Could this be their reward for sticking with their team after all these years? While it might be nice, I'm sure the reward they're looking for is for the Giants to get just two more wins in this year's World Series, which will be their first title since they still called the Polo Grounds home over a half a century ago.
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