Giants’ World Series Trophy comes to San Luis Obispo… Again

This Giants fan called himself a “torture survivor.” He got his picture taken with the trophy last Thursday. By Owen Main

I wasn’t exactly thrilled at the prospect. For the second time in three years the Giants had won the World Series and so for the second time in three years, the Giants’ World Series trophy came to town.

The last time I did this, the trophy was in the center of Farmer’s Market — on a table outside on a street corner. This time, the line was just as long — snaking around the block with some fans waiting up to two hours to get a chance to get their picture taken with the ultimate prize.

Two years ago I had some brethren around. Other Dodger fans roamed downtown on a Thursday night, showing their pride with t-shirts or hats, letting people know that the Dodgers still had the key foothold on fansmanship in the city and county. I didn’t get booed for my Dodgers hat last time either, Giants fans instead choosing to celebrate their first championship on the West coast with a class that made me super-depressed.

The Dodgers responded to the Giants’ title by imploding in 2010-11.

This year was different, though. I saw one other LA hat, and it was all-black and hard to read. I saw hardly any blue throughout Farmer’s Market. I felt like I had entered some Twilight Zone in which the blue San Luis Obispo skies I had always known growing up turned black and orange. It was like the apocalypse of San Luis Obispo baseball fansmanship.

I rounded the corner onto Higuera and was met with a chorus of boos — Giants fans not just content to be excited about their second title in three years. Person after person I talked to agreed that San Luis Obispo had become a Giants town.

The funny thing was, the last trophy presentation was more depressing for me. Before their first title three years ago, I always had a HUGELY long stretch of West Coast title-less years to hold over my Giants friends. As the Giants won their first title, the writing was on the wall for what happened soon after with the Dodgers. The fact that Giants fans handled their celebration with a little more joy and a little less hate had me seething inside.

Getting booed was not pleasant, but in a way it recharged my fansmanship in the same way that it killed it two years ago. Despite the Dodgers fans in SLO county disappearing into the woodwork, the Dodgers are on the upswing — loaded with a level of talent that should allow them to more-than-compete in the division. Giants fans are once again complaining about the amount of money the Dodgers are spending and all seems to becoming right with the world.

All, except the fact that the Giants have the trophy. That is never right. Whether you’re in San Francisco, Los Angeles, or San Luis Obispo.

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