Status: still writing, more to come

Lincecum

CHAPTER VII: Outside Looking In

College started a week later for me, and it was way harder and much more absorbing than I had thought. The first day was the biggest shocker, of course I didn't expect the teacher's to make us introduce ourselves and say what we did during the summer, but I didn't think they'd go full on since the first day. Nine days had passed and the team was back in San Francisco, and as much as I wanted, I could never get my schedule to work with Tim's so we could meet, but we were still talking. I had gotten an offer from Victoria's Secret to model some of their pieces for next season, which meant less time to meet with Tim. The Giants were doing great, they had gotten to the NLDS against the New York Mets, and won it in four games. They were into the NLCS against the Pittsburgh Pirates and had lost three games and won one. The whole city was going crazy; the Giants are the reigning World Champions, so the idea of winning two Championships in a row, was amazing in everyone’s mind. Lily was slowly becoming a baseball fan. She was watching every single game with me, and she would give me a full review of the game if I wasn’t able to watch.

Days passed and the Giants had come back from a 3-1 deficit and beat the Pirates; they were back in San Francisco to play the World Series against the Rangers, who had swept the Red Sox and were not going to go down easily. In one of my calls with Tim, he invited Lily, Jaden and I to attend the World Series’ games; we were all really busy, but neither of us wanted to turn down Tim's offer. The Giants won the first game in the Series. Tim's was the next starter on the rotation and was taking it really well, he said it was the best way to feel in a situation like that one, saying that thinking about it too much, may cause nerves to get the best of him.

His game plan definitely worked, he allowed one unearned run in four hits with no walks; the Giants won that night 4-1. Once again, I was unable to meet with him for longer than 20 minutes because the team was flying to Texas to continue the tied series. He had invited us to go, but I was in the middle of my finals, so I had to kindly decline the offer, Lily and Jaden on the other hand, jumped at the offer, packed their bags and took the first flight to Texas they could get their hands on, leaving me alone in the city to study. I would kill myself studying during the morning and then watch the games at night and sneak a little phone call with Tim if the game didn’t end so late.

The Giants lost two to the Rangers and won the the last one, and after what had seemed like years for me, they were finally coming home. Unfortunately, that didn’t mean I was going to be seeing more of Tim, but at least it meant I would get to go to the games.

The next game was on a Thursday night and Tim was starting. Lily had come back from Texas with the day planned, we were going to go to the game and then on a double date to a restaurant on Union Square called E&O.

On Thursday afternoon, I got dressed in a sleeveless white blouse, jeans and a coat to battle with the fall weather in the city. The game, didn’t go as we had hoped. The Giants lost the game to the Rangers 4-1 leaving the series tied 3-3, with Tim allowing two runs in seven hits with a walk; as I was on my way to meet him at the player’s parking lot, he called me and told me he was going to take a rain check because he was way too tired to go out, but I knew he was just way too mad and disappointed to be around people, so I had to do third wheel with Jaden and Lily.

After night came the morning of Friday, and I woke up especially early for my last final, I wore a simple sweater and jeans, with a pair of boots my brother John had given me as a present. I thought I did good in my exam, but I wasn't going to know for sure until tomorrow morning when they send out final grades.

Back at the apartment Lily was already choosing what to wear, while Jaden was in the shower. I decided to sleep in for another hour, then wake up, have lunch and get ready, and that's exactly what I did. It was the last game of the World Series, it was do or die for both teams. We arrived early for a little tailgating with a couple of friends from FIDM. But at five o'clock, it was time to walk to the park.

The game started out really good, batters from both teams getting robbed from hits and the pitchers getting out of 3-0 counts. It wasn't until the bottom of the fourth that the Giants scored their first two runs on a sacrifice fly from Angel Pagan. The Rangers then, scored three on the fifth, but the Giants tied it quickly in the bottom of the same inning; from there no more batters got on base, for neither team.

The top of the ninth inning came and Sergio Romo walked out of the dugout and got himself in all kinds of messes. He walked two and allowed two hits, fortunately, Buster was able to make the tag at the player coming home. After that breathtaking play, Bochy took him out and Wilson was up to try and get out of that stressing mess. And he did, three up, three down. As simple as that. The whole crowd at the park was screaming at the top of their lungs, random people started hugging and hi-fiving us, which made me realize that Giants fans were really like a family.

Lily and I were listening to the TV stream of the game while inside the stadium. First batter up was Buster, and he flied out to left field. Second batter up, Sandoval, he was down on an 0-2 count, but was walked at the end. Hunter was next and you could see him fidgeting a little while walking up to the plate. First pitch, strike. Second and third pitch, balls. You could hear the whole stadium screaming and shouting and rooting for Hunter, and Kruk and Kuip were talking about how amazing it would be if Hunter was able to drive Pablo home. Fourth pitch, and Hunter hit it, it was going long towards left field, but fell foul. Disappointment showed on everyone's faces, but we all quickly regained ourselves and went back to holding hands and clinching our teeth. Fifth pitch, fastball in, and he hit it the same way, he had hit the fourth one, only this time, it landed fair.

“And the Giants have won the pennant!”
♠ ♠ ♠
E&O: http://www.eosanfrancisco.com/
Isa's Outfit 1: http://www.polyvore.com/isabella_outside_looking_in/set?id=117650601
Isa's Outfit 2: http://www.polyvore.com/isabella_outside_looking_in/set?id=117663969
Isa's Outfit 3: http://www.polyvore.com/isabella_outside_looking_in/set?id=117664999