Giants fans bid melancholy adieu to a losing season on Fan Appreciation weekend
The last time the San Francisco Giants played the St. Louis Cardinals this late in the season it was 2014, and they were playing for the National League Pennant. The Giants have only made it to the postseason twice in the 10 years since that glorious World Series season of 2014, but the ballpark was still packed on Sunday for the final game of the season and the culmination of Fan Appreciation Weekend.
"If I could only go to two games a season, it would be opening day and the last day," said Suzanne Moore, of Belmont, who attends 60 home games a season. "It's not so much for fan appreciation as to show my appreciation to the players for keeping me entertained and giving me something to do for six months."
Several seasons ago, Fan Appreciation Day became Fan Appreciation Weekend, which started Friday night. But Sunday's game had much more on the line than the others because the Giants were fighting to finish the season at 81-81, .500 exactly. A final record of 81-81 is better than last year's 79-83 and on par with the 81-81 of 2022.
Which is why Jonathan and Lisa Burns and their son Samuel, 12, held a family meeting to decide which selection of Giants Aloha shirts to wear. Either they all had to wear the same one or all wear different, so they went with different in hopes that players would notice their loyalty 20 rows up.
"Every game is an experience no matter what happens," said Jonathan, "But at the last game you get a chance to say goodbye to players who might not be here next year."
Last season's finale was memorable because the stadium said goodbye to shortstop Brandon Crawford after 14 seasons. But the most memorable Fan Appreciation Day, it was agreed by most fans, was after the 1999 season when a "Tell It Goodbye" ceremony was held at Candlestick Park. At the end of the game a helicopter picked up home plate and flew off with it the way a seagull picks up a french fry.
Dennis and Sharon Gonyar of Vacaville were there to see it. They can only afford a few games a season, but they make sure one of them is the last game.
"It's how I tell the Giants that I appreciate them being here," said Dennis, who had on four layers of Giants jerseys and jackets while Sharon only had two - three if you counted her hair color, which is the shade of the Giants' Saturday jerseys. "It's supposed to be red," she said with a laugh.
They've been fans since 1979, when Sharon dropped her gardening tools and ran into the house to call a local radio station and won two tickets. That was a long time ago, but not as long, it seemed to them, as the last World Series season of 2014.
"We got used to going to the playoffs every year and winning the whole thing every other year," said Dennis, recalling the championship runs of 2010, 2012 and 2014.
It was supposed to happen in 2016, too, and the Giants made the playoffs but lost, ruining their every other year streak. The new tradition is that the final game of the regular season is the final game, period.
"It's always a sad day," said Moore, who was in the same seat on the upper deck that she was in on a wet Saturday night when the Giants came back from a four run deficit to beat the Royals in the 2014 World Series.
"We were dancing in the rain," she said while working on a sunburn, and filling in the names on her scorebook for the last time this year.
By the seventh inning stretch the Giants were behind 6-0 and were on their way to an 80-82 record, one more win than last year. But no one left early. There were 32,348, still there singing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame."
"It's a long time until spring training," said Moore.
Reach Sam Whiting:
This story was originally published September 29, 2024, 7:06 PM.
