Because that's what fans do....

This weekend was by far the best weekend of my life.

A lot of S’s in my weekend.

My weekend contained: Super Mario Kart live on the Streets of San Francisco, my friend June’s boyfriend Sean, my Sister, a Sista, Seagram's 7 Swigged Straight out of the bottle by my mother, the Simpson’s arcade game, the Simpson’s Season premiere, Strawberry cake, and most significantly Sports.

(Also not fitting the alliteration Credit Card Roulette, Pork Chops, the Dirty Bird, and Burn Before Reading).

This weekend, I got to go see my two favorite sports teams, the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland Raiders with two of my favorite people in the world my Dad and my best friend Adam.

If you can’t tell where this is going, this blog is going to be me doing my best impression of Bill Simmons before Boston started winning every damn sport there ever was. But as this is my writing, its going to be about the Bay Area.

Yes, this was pretty much a perfect weekend. Except for one thing.

My two favorite sports teams lost in possibly the most painful way ever.

The Giants game was what the weekend was scheduled around. Ever since I was a kid, going to Giants games have been a bonding experience my dad and me. When I was young we’d brave the cold at Candlestick Point whenever he got tickets and I’d watch Will Clark and Glenallen Hill hit dingers. I have fond memories of Matt Williams starting a fight after swinging on an 3-0 pitch making it the 2nd year in a row that there was a bench clearing brawl at “Til There’s a Cure Day”. Then, once Pac Bell/SBC/AT &T Park opened, he got season tickets and there was nothing I looked forward to more than watching games, heckling visiting batters and stuffing my face with Shaboygen Brats, Krispy Kremes, and root beer or once I turned 21, over-priced cups of Gordon Biersch. I even went to Game 4 of the 2002 World Series, an exciting win before the epic collapse.

So why was this Giants loss so painful?

The Giants lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers, 2-1. Matt Cain pitched a good game, but he was given terrible run support. As someone who grew up during the Barry Bonds Era (and I support him 100 % but that’s another blog), zero run support was never in our vocabulary. As long as Bonds was in the lineup, we knew that run support was coming. Say what you want about steroids, watching a player like Barry Bonds was an exciting experience that we in the Bay Area are lucky to have experienced. Seeing the Giants as a limp offensive team is like seeing Muhammed Ali get knocked out by Larry Holmes, sad and confusing.

That wasn’t the saddest thing though.

It was sad because it didn’t feel like a Giants game. I felt like I was at a Dodgers Game.

The crowd was 1 Dodgers fan for every 2 Giants fans but they were cheering like it was a 5 -1 Dodgers to Giants fan ratio. I was bombarded with chants of “Let’s Go Dodgers” and it made me sick. When I heard this I would boo and eventually a weak “Beat LA” chant would get going, but it was ineffective. The Dodger’s fans dominated the crowd and it was disgusting because they came into our house and they got away with it.

Afterwards, my dad has a simple but sad explanation for it:

“The team hasn’t been performing, and the fans are deflated and less enthusiastic because of it.”

That may be true. But c’mon Bay Area, where is the swagger? No matter how the team is performing, that is your team! You have got to go hard for your team when you are in the stadium. ESPECIALLY WHEN IT'S A RIVAL GAME!!!!! It’s just a point of pride.

This was not the issue at the Raiders game. Say what you want about the Raider Nation. You will never be able to criticize them for being a meek crowd. The Raider’s fans were going nuts throughout the entire game, and it was awesome.

No, what happened this week was the same thing that happened last week. The Raider’s lost, and they lost in the most heartbreaking way because they made me think they were going to win.

The Raiders defense was absolutely dominant...for 3 quarters.

They chewed up the clock, played the field position game, and were able to make up for their lack of any semblance of a passing game....for 3 quarters.

They made me think that they had corrected mistakes of the week before and there was some chance that they could be better this year.

Then the 4th quarter started...and it just all went to hell.

The defense caved

They let LT run like he was LT.

And the offense still sucked.

And they lost 18-28.

As we filed out of the Stadium, I let out a deep sigh, and looked so noticably sad, that a couple I don’t know came up to me.

Man: “Man, you took that hard.”

Me: “I made the classic mistake, I thought it might be different this time”

Man: “Don’t worry brotha, it will get better. It was nice having Lane Kiffin as our coach”.

As this guy correctly predicted, Al Davis did the Al Davis thing, and he fired Lane Kiffin today. And I am just sick. Al Davis is singlehandedly fucking up the team and I think it trickles down.

The cycle goes like this:

Al Davis is old. Super old. And he wants to “Just Win, Baby” before he dies. Understandable. He also has dated ideas about how the game is played, again understandable because he is old as fuck.

So he spends too much money on one-dimensional players and the team sucks. The team then gets high draft picks, who have potential, but he doesn’t let them develop and they burn out. He then pressures everyone, starters, coaches, waterboys, and no one wants to play for the organization. So we continue to suck.

As we were walking out, buzzed from over-priced stadium beer, providing analysis of the Raider's situation to each other in a manner similar to the previous paragraph only in a more spiteful and profane manner. Adam said something a little bit inspiring.

“The Raider Nation will never die.”

This served as a stunning counterpoint to my experience at the Giants game. Both of these games were rivalry games, which despite the futility of both teams should have mattered. It did for the Raiders, it didn’t for the Giants. And it was disheartening.

It doesn’t matter though. No matter how bad these teams get. I will still be there, stuffing my face, over-paying, and most of all enjoying my team with the ones I love.

Because that is what fans do.