Now the
next part of the blog about the San Francisco Giants I will be discussing the
events and star players for the period of the 2000’s. I will be specifically be talking about the
2000, 2001, 2002, and 2007 seasons. The Giants really dominated baseball in the
very early 2000’s, up to the 2003 season. After the 2003 season, the Giants
really struggled up to the 2010 season, due to injuries to key guys such as
Barry Bonds and Jason Schmidt.
The
2000 season was the first season where the Giants were at the new ballpark;
Pacific Bell Park. This stadium was absolutely gorgeous, as it was considered
one of the nicest ballparks in the MLB. Every home game in the 2000 season was
basically sold out. This support led the Giants to winning their second
division title in four years. The key guys in this season were Jeff Kent; who
won the MVP award, and Barry Bonds, of course. Manager Dusty Baker won his
third NL manager of the Year award.
The
2001 season was truly the season about Barry Bonds. Even though the team didn’t
capture any titles or anything, Bonds truly made history this year. The homerun
single season record currently was Mark McGwire’s 70 homeruns in one season.
Bonds chased this record and eventually broke it. Bonds had 39 homeruns at the
All-Star break, which was unbelievable for any player at the time. Bonds that
year clubbed 73 homeruns, making him the all-time leader for most runs in a
single season. I remember watching this chase as a little kid, as I absolutely
loved watching Barry Bonds play. He truly deserved this record as it felt like
every game he was either hitting a home run or he was getting intentionally
walked so that pitchers would not pitch to him. Watching him get in the minds
of pitchers was something truly to watch. This was just the beginning to Bonds’
chase of a homerun record. 2007 was the ultimate prize for Bonds, as I will
discuss later. Track all 73 of the homeruns by clicking on this link.
The
2002 season was the season that I as a kid remember the most vividly. This was
a remarkable season for the Giants, as I watched them make the playoffs as the
Wild Card team and plow through the top teams such as the Atlanta Braves and
St. Louis Cardinals to make it to the World Series to battle the Anaheim
Angels. This was the first season where both contenders in the World Series
were the Wild Card teams and what a series it was! This series shattered
numerous offensive records in a classic seven game series. The teams split
games one and two and then split games three and four, making the series
notched up at two going into game five. Game five was all San Francisco as they
crushed the Angels by a score of 16-4. I remember as a child watching every
game, as my tensions and emotions were building up as every game was gut
wrenching and hard to watch. As a child I had never been into something as much
as I was into this series. I watched every game from my grandma’s house and I
would be screaming and shouting at the TV as my grandma would be yelling at me
and telling me to tone it down because I was being too loud. As a Giants fan, I
just couldn’t help myself because I never got to witness such an event as a
World Series on TV. I thought the Giants had this series in the bag; until
games six and seven rolled around. It was game six and it was the seventh
inning and the Giants were up 5-0. My emotions could not be controlled at this
point as I thought we were going to celebrate another championship in our
storied career. Then Scott Spezio hit a three-run homerun in the seventh to cut
the lead to 5-3 going into the eighth inning. I was still confident about my
team. Then the Angels collected three runs in the eighth inning to take the 6-5
lead. Then my heart sunk as the Angels took game six. The Angels had the
momentum in their favor as game seven was in Anaheim. John Lackey shut the
Giants down in game seven as I watched the Angels celebrate on the TV as my
team was weeping with tears. I started crying at my grandma’s house as this day
was probably one of the saddest days as a child. I did not talk to anyone for
the next month as I was so devastated. It felt like the whole world hated me.
When a team has angels on their side, anything is possible. 
The
2007 season was a losing season for the Giants. The only positive thing that
came out of this season was the ultimate home run chase with Barry Bonds. The
all-time current homerun leader in baseball was Hank Aaron with 755 career
homeruns, a remarkable number of homeruns. The setting was August 7, 2007, one
week from my birthday. The Giants welcomed the Washington Nationals into San
Francisco for a dark cloudy night in San Francisco. May I mention I recorded
and taped this game. The pitcher for the Nationals was Mike Bacsik. Tensions
were rising at AT & T Park as every time Barry came to bat, it was all over
MLB Network, Sports Center and just about any sports channel you can think of.
No one exactly knew when Bonds was going to hit it, which game he was going to
hit it, or even no one even knew if the pitcher was even going to pitch to
Bonds; until it happened. It was the fifth inning and Bacsik threw Bonds a
fastball right down the middle of the plate and Bonds crushed it into right
center field. As soon as he hit it, he knew it, the fans knew, Bacsik knew it,
just about anyone who knows baseball knew that Bonds just accomplished the
greatest feat in baseball; the homerun record. Bonds stood alone that night as
the new homerun king of baseball. He finished his tremendous baseball career
with 762 homeruns. This record will be very hard to beat nowadays. My parents
still make fun of me to this day as they tell me that Bonds is a cheater and didn’t
deserve to win anything and he wasn’t that big when he played for Pittsburgh.
The only thing I tell them back is: He hasn’t been proven guilty and that who’s
the homerun champ. Follow Bonds’ homerun milestones here.
Bonds' 756
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