Two years ago, when the Giants won their first World Series after 52 years in San Francisco, I wrote this post about what it felt like finally to see my team win the whole chicken enchilada after so many years. Amazingly, just two years later, they’ve done it again! As a baseball fan, this has been an amazing season, and the best part has been being able to share it with Annie.

My family has been going to Spring Training every year since I was ten years old, and this year Anne had more fun than anyone. She not only sat in her seat all three hours at each game (gorging on “popcorns” and lemonade), but got a kick out of clapping along with the crowd after every Giants hit.

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Rocking her Giants’ cap at Spring Training.

Annie’s love of baseball didn’t stop there, though. Every year I order the baseball TV package and watch EVERY. SINGLE. GAME. Annie quickly got used to the Giants being on our TV, and took in most of them with me. She was a great baseball buddy. She did the rally clap, cheered on her favorite player,  Buster Posey, and even started to do this during the playoffs:

On screen: Pablo Sandoval hits a home run of Justin Verlander.

Me: “Wooooo!”

Annie: “What happened, Dada?”

Me: “Pablo!”

Annie: “What did he do?”

Me: “He hit a home run!!”

Annie: “Oh!”

Do I think Annie knew what was going on exactly? No. But her asking those questions was still freakin’ adorable.

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Why yes this is a gratuitous photo of Angel Pagan at Dodger Stadium that I took with my iPhone.

Annie is too little to have enjoyed the season to the fullest, but it was an incredible one. We saw Matt Cain throw a perfect game, three Giants lead the National League to victory in the All-Star game, and the Giants out-duel the Dodgers to win the West. Then, in the playoffs, the Giants had to win three games in a row to avoid elimination in both the Division Series and Championship Series, and somehow did it. Luckily, the World Series was less stressful and finished in a four game sweep!

You want to know how incredible this season was? Today I wore my Giants T-shirt in public here in Southern California, and a dude yelled out, “Nice shirt!” without irony. Later, a woman said, “Go Giants!” This is a major change from the usual dirty looks and snide comments I get when I wear my Giants T-shirts in the land of Dodgers. Hopefully the goodwill continues, because I plan to wear my soon to be acquired 2012 World Champions T-shirt A LOT!

As Annie gets older I hope she still enjoys baseball with her old man, and I especially hope she gets to experience a season as incredible as this one… I wish that for her even if she ends up a Dodgers’ fan, but if the Giants keep playing like this that seems rather unlikely!