Well, the Giants won the World Series yesterday and so another baseball season comes to an end…in November.  Alas.

A San Francisco native who now lives in Tokyo, I was curious to read about the reaction of the city to this Championship. After all, this is the Giants first since moving to San Francisco since 1958. Judging from the accounts in the papers the celebrations were pretty tame; there were no riots, no vehicles were overturned or set on fire, there were no stabbings. This is San Francisco, after all and not Los Angeles.

Yet baseball celebrations are not what they used to be. Take 1962 for example, when the Giants defeated the Dodgers in game 3 of their playoff series to head to their first World Series since moving West. There were over 50,000 fans to greet the team at San Francisco International Airport as they arrived home from LA that night. The crowds spilled over onto the runway and not only the Giants charter but many other the flights had to be diverted. In fact, that used to be how fans would show their dedication – by going out to the airport sometimes in the middle of the night, in thousands, to greet the team as it returned home.  The broadcasters would even announce the flight details – numbers and times – so fans could plan their trip accordingly. It was incredibly exciting.  How different nowadays when fans opt instead to riot, loot and burn vehicles. 

But thankfully not in San Francisco this year.