SF Giants in game 7. Yikes.

The last time the Giants won a game 7 was in 1921. In New York. I wasn’t there.

But I was there when the SF version of the Giants lost game 7 to the NY Yankees at Candlestick Park in 1962. And by being there, I mean 50 miles a way in Santa Clara, CA with a transistor radio hidden in my shirt and an earphone hidden from my 5th grade teacher on my right side.

Slugger Willie McCovey came up in the bottom of the 9th to face Yankees starter Ralph Terry. Felipe Alou stood on third base, Willie Mays on second after hitting a two-out double. The table was set for a dramatic Giants’ win.

The first pitch to McCovey, by his recollection, was a fastball down the middle. He crushed it over the right field wall, foul. The second pitch was slightly inside, but basically a no-nonsense fastball. McCovey crushed that as well, but right at Bobby Richardson. If the ball had been two feet higher, it would have driven in the two runs for a walk-off win.

The Yankees won the game 1-0 and the series. I lost one dollar in a bet with Mike Ireland, the last time I ever gambled on baseball. This all happened 50 years ago. I’m almost over it. Almost.

A win tonight over the St. Louis Cardinals in the NLCS would definitely help.

• • •

It’s the top of the 6th inning. Anyone who thinks this game is over has not been paying attention to the St. Louis Cardinals during the last three or four decades.

• • •

Okay. It would appear that the Giants won the pennant with a 9-0 seventh game win. But I refuse to overlook the Cardinals capacity to come back and win. Or protest the last inning, since it probably should have been postponed due to rain.

If the score holds up tomorrow, I’ll believe.
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