The Lunatic Fringe

I was there.  Were you?

That’s the question people will be asking tomorrow.  That was simply a historic game for baseball, and even moreso for the San Francisco Giants.  Matt Cain was the best in baseball.  For one night, and maybe now for far longer.

Being at this game, sitting in the bleachers with friends, was amazing.  We gave Carl Schafer crap all night.  We cheered the home runs.  And with two out in the fourth, that was when I noticed.  I had to double-check the MLB app to double-check on the walks.  And at that point, it was sitting on it, trying not to jinx it.

It was an hour of stopping people from jinxing it.  It was a game all on its own.  But we knew it.  The last three innings were stress and worry and anxiety all in its own.  Sitting in Section 141 gave us a perfect view of that Gregor Blanco catch.

Oh, and it was my 35th birthday.  Hell of a party.  Thanks, Matt.

You can get the recaps from other people.  Here’s what you really need to know about this game.

• Cain’s 14 strikeouts is tied for the most in Perfect Game history with some guy named Sandy Koufax.

• The 10 runs scored by the Giants are the most run support in the history of Perfect Games.  Yes.  Read that again.  Matt Cain got all-time record run support.  That is six years of karma getting cashed in on one jackpot, folks.  Petco Park alone represents half of that karma alone.

• Matt Cain’s 125 pitches is the most ever in a Perfect Game.  HORSE.

• I didn’t get to see Willie Mays’ catch.  I don’t need to tell you which one.  No catch I have or will ever see will be more amazing than Blanco’s.

• I swear I could hear Duane Kuiper calling that catch in the deafening bleachers.

• That was one of the loudest crowds I’ve seen.  In 2010, NLCS Game 4 and World Series Game 2 matched it.  I don’t think even Game 5 in the 2002 World Series matched that.

• Seeing a game like this is all about who you see it with.  I was with a longtime friend, who I was best man for, with whom I’d seen home runs, clinching games, and two different World Series.  I was with a few other friends seeing a game with them for the first time ever.  And even more.  That made the experience for me.

I hope you got to see this one with someone you love.

• If Matt Cain had struck out the side in the 9th, he would have had the highest Game Score ever in a 9-inning game.  As it was, he ended up tied for second best, outdone only by Kerry Wood’s 20 strikeout game.

• McCovey Chronicles has ‘Game Threads’, monster posts which are all about comments posted as the game is going on.  Once a thread breaks 1,000 comments, they usually start a new thread, and most games have 2-3 threads.  Today, when they started a new thread, one group of readers/posters refused to leave the first thread to avoid the jinx.  That’s hardcore fandom in the new century.

• When I was arranging this game, I was thankful for home-printing those full-sheet tickets from Stubhub, making it easier to make plans with nearly a dozen different people.  After this game, I’m cursing them because they just look so tacky next to ‘real tickets’  Still getting framed.

This was an incredible night.  Enjoy it Giants fans, because this is a special time.