How Sweep it is... My version of the events of the 2012 postseason...

September 22 2012 it began... the Giants clinched the National League Western Division title, their second in three years. The celebration began. This was about 11 days before the regular season would end and about 14 days until Game 1 of the National League Division Series (NLDS). This year due to the second wild card, the format was the lower seed would open at home and the higher seed would close out in their home ballpark, thus giving them the home field advantage.
National League Division Series (Best of five)
So there we were, October 6th 2012, AT&T park was buzzing, well at least up until Cain gave up a 2-run blast to Phillips, from what I heard on TV and on the radio, this hit took the crowd completely out of the game. The Giants were able to get some runs, but not enough and dropped the 1st game 5-2. (Reds Leads 1-0)
Game 2 on October 7th had a different feel, I truly felt that Bumgarner would get the job done, but he was not able to. the Giants got blown out 9-2 on their home field. The crowd was dead and most, if not all feared this would be the last time they would see their beloved Giants play in 2012. My perspective on this was that they would be back, I was at home with my wife and new born son, watching and listening, feeling confident that the Giants would turn it around and I would see another game at home. This would be tough as the next game was in Cincinnati and they were now down two games to none (Reds lead 2-0)
After a day off and a much needed pep talk to rally the team by Pence, the Giants faced the Reds at the Great American Ballpark on October 9th, this nail biter was started by Vogelsong and pitched great. The Giants fought tooth and nail to scratch out 1 run to tie it up in the 3rd inning. The Giants won this game in the 10th when Posey scored on an error by Rolen at 3rd and Romo closed it out and they lived to play another day. (Reds lead 2-1)
Game 4 was on October 10th, Pagan lead the game off with a Home Run, the Reds tied it up and after Blanco's 2 run blast the Giants never looked back. Zito started this game and was relieved by Lincecum who was now in the bull pen. The offense did come alive and the Giants won the game 8-3 to tie the series. (Series tied 2-2)
Game 5 was held on October 14th, for the Giants to get this far was a great accomplishment. Cain, who started game 1 and did not pitch as he normally does, was looking for redemption. The game was scoreless until the 5th inning when the Giants put up 6 runs on the board, capped of by a Grand Slam by Posey. But of course, these are the Giants and they would not let it go down without drama. The Reds scored twice in the bottom frame to make it 6-2. They added another in the 6th to make it 6-3, in the 9th inning they got even close at 6-4. Romo, now the closer for the Giants had an epic 12 pitch encounter with Bruce and popped him up for the second out. Then Romo struck out Rolen and the game and series was over. The unthinkable had happened. The Giants down 0-2, win 3 straight on the road and move on to the NLCS, all that was needed was an opponent. Would it be the Washington Nationals or the St. Louis Cardinals? The Giants would have to wait one more day to find out. (Giants win series 3-2)

National League Championship Series (Best of Seven)
Game 1 was on October 14th at AT&T park. Bumgarner got the start and the Giants were down 6-0 going into the bottom of the 4th. In that bottom frame the Giants were able to get 4 runs back, but it was not enough. The Cardinals held on. (STL leads 1-0)
Game 2 was held the next night on the 15th, Vogelsong who thrives on pitching in front of the home crowd, did not disappoint. He was on his game. In the top of the 1st inning Giants 2nd basemen Scutaro was taken out by a legal, but in my opinion late slide by Holliday. Scutaro stayed in and played a big part of this game and many more in the series. Pagan lead off the bottom of the 1st with a Home Run for the second time this post season. The Cardinals would tie the game in the second, but Vogelsong and the bullpen would not let them score anymore. With a 4 run 4th and a 2 run 8th inning the Giants evened the series with a 7-1 victory (Series tied 1-1)
Game 3 shifted to St. Louis on October 17th. Cain was on the bump again trying to get the Giants a lead int he series. Beltran who tweaked his knee was replaced by Carpenter who would hit a 2 run home run off of Cain. There was a rain delay and much frustration for the Giants as they had runners on all game, but could not get the hit they needed. Game 3 went to the birds. (STL leads 2-1)
Game 4 on the 18th would see the return of Lincecum to the Starting rotation. After his appearances in the NLDS he deserved this one. But it was not his night. They jumped on him early and the Giants offense was pressing. This game went to the birds as well and it did not look good for the Giants (STL leads 3-1)
Game 5 was played on October 19 with Zito getting the start. Before I left work, I was telling anyone who would listen that Ztio would shut down the Cards and the Giants would be playing back at home. No one believed me that day, but Zito proved them all wrong. In what had to have been his best outing in a Giants uniform threw a gem, 7.2 innings, no runs allowed and the Giants crawled back into this series, now on their way back home to the city by the bay (STL leads 3-2)
Game 6 was played in San Francisco on October 21st, remember that guy Vogelsong who uses the crowd to help him pitch better at home. Yeah, he got the start and the Giants were up 5-0 by the end of the second inning. Great defense and great pitching lead to the Giants winning this one 6-1, tying the series and forcing a winner take all Game 7 (Series tied 3-3)
Game 7 on the 22nd was a game started by Cain. The Giants were ready, they were up 7-0 by the 3rd inning. The baseball Gods were even having fun with this one. Pence hit a ball 3 times as hit bat broke and made contact with the ball. Later Berkman a Cardinal player on the DL said the hit was 'ilegal' I say Berkman is a sore loser. The Cardinals looked lost and in disbelief, the look on their faces showed the world that they had already lost this game, this series after Zito shut them down. In the 9th the rain came down and was pouring, the umps did not want to call this one since they were one out away. Remember in Game 2 when Holliday had that late slide, yeah, Cain plunked him and the baseball Gods once again made things right as Holliday popped up the man he took out (Scutaro) and the Giants were the National League Champions! The Giants won the pennant (Giants win series 4-3)
NLCS MVP: Marco Scutaro

World Series (Best of Seven)
Game 1 was played on October 24, 2012. The Detroit Tigers were coming off of a 4 game sweep of the New York Yankees, they were well rested and had their pitching rotation set up very well. The ace Verlander would face the Giants and Zito. Giants would go on to win this game 8-3 with the help of Panda, he went 4 for 4, with 3 Home Runs (2 off of the 'invinceable' Verlander) and a single. Zito pitched a great game and with Lincecum coming out of the pen to relieve him it was a solid game. For the first time this post season, the Giants were up. (SF leads 1-0)
Game 2 was played the next night on the 25th. Bumgarner corrected a mechanical flaw he had and dominated. Once again, I told anyone who would listen that he would toss 7 shut out innings. With the help of Blanco-Scutaro-Posey to get out Fielder at the plate, he did. The Giants scored on a ground out double play and on a sacrifice fly, it was enough and Romo got the save in a 2-0 ball game. (SF leads 2-0)
Game 3 was in Detroit on October 27th. This game was started by Vogelsong and he continued his post season dominance. This time the Giants got 2 runs early courtesy of Pence, Blanco and Crawford and the runs stood up. The Bullpen held up the 2 runs and shut out the Tigers in back to back games. Romo got the save in this on as well (SF leads 3-0)
Game 4, October 28th, Cain on the bump. Giants got on the board in the 2nd, going up 1-0. In the 3rd inning Cabrera; the AL triple crown winner hit an opposite field 2-run Home Run and the crowd went nuts. In the 6th Posey hit a 2-run Home Run of his own for the Giants to take the lead 3-2, only for Young to tie it in the bottom half with an opposite field solo blast. The game was getting tense. Affeldt and Casilla held the Tigers to zeros. The game went into extras. In the 10th, Theriot got a single, was sacrificed by Crawford, Pagan struck out and Scutaro singled Theriot home! Giants up 4-3. To the bottom of the 10th we go, Romo is in strikes out the first 2 batters and it all comes down to Cabrera, the possible AL MVP. Romo sets, here's the pitch, and we all got to see the called 3rd strike, I am sure Cabrera got to see it best and it was over... The Giants sweep the Tigers. An improbable run to the Championship. The celebration began and continued. (SF wins 4-0)
World Series MVP: Pablo Sandoval-Panda

My thoughts.....
When a team is not given a chance, they must create their own magic. In a season where the Giants were considered the front runners for the NL West division, they lost their closer Brian Wilson, had tough stretches, lost one of their most productive players to PED's and had to with stand a blockbuster trade from the rival Dodgers, the Giants did it. With no respect from the national media, the Giants had to always be the underdogs. Down 0-2 to the Reds in a best of 5 series, many gave up hope.. They Didn't, neither did I. Down 3-1 to the Cardinals, many gave up hope... They didn't, neither did I. An underdog in the World Series, a series that was said to be dominated by big bad Verlander and the imposing offense of the triple crown winner Cabrera, Prince and Young... Many continued to give up hope... They didn't, neither did I. The Giants Panda walked up to the big bully (Verlander) and punched him twice in the mouth and the Tigers turned into kittens, the Giants sweep.. Still no love or respect for the hometown nine. Still the media looks for excuses on why Detroit didn't hit... It was two reasons: 1) The Starting pitchers and 2) the Bullpen. The parade is on Halloween, it should be fun. I'll be sitting this one out as my PTO is being banked for my wife and son (The Rally Baby) but I'll be watching. This should be a lesson to people, if you are really a fan, you never give up... Cheer for them win or lose, so it makes the victories a lot sweeter. I can honestly say that I NEVER gave up hope... Can you honestly say that?
With great pitching, defense, timely hitting, the Rally Baby and his Rally Socks! (Worn since Game 5 of the NLCS) the Giants did it... My Giants are the world champions...
Congratulations to the 2012 World Series Champions.. The San Francisco Giants!!!!!!!!!!
Pitchers: 41- Jeremy Affeldt  40 Madison Bumgarner (MadBum) 18 Matt Cain (The Horse) 46 Santiago Casilla 70 George Kontos 55 Tim Lincecum (The Freak) 49 Javier Lopez 50 Jose Mijares 59 Guillermo Mota 54 Sergio Romo (That's what's up) 32 Ryan Vogelsong (Vogey) 75 Barry Zito (Zeets)
Catchers: 28 Buster Posey (MVPosey) 29 Hector Sanchez
Infielders: 13 Joaquin Arias 9 Brandon Belt (The Giraffe) 35 Brandon Crawford (John Stamos) 17 Aubrey Huff (Huff Daddy) 48 Pablo Sandoval (Kung Fu Panda) 19 Marco Scutaro (Blockbuster) 5 Ryan Theriot
Outfielders: 7 Gregor Blanco (The White Shark) 12 Xavier Nady 16 Angel Pagan (The Crazy Horse) 8 Hunter Pence (The Mantis)
15 Bruce Bochy!!!

#RallyBaby #RallySocks

Mommy and Javi (The Rally Baby)

Me and Javi, I waited 29 years for 1.. He gets one after a month of life!

Happy Family

Javi the Rally Baby ready to pop his cider bottle!

Champagne for the celebration!

2012 World Series Champions.. The San Francisco Giants!!

Mid-October

Here we are past the mid point of October. Today is Javier 3rd week of life. So much has changed in our lives since that day he came into it. It has been a great experience. My wife if doing really good with taking care of him during his first few weeks. I was able to get 9 days off of work to spend at the house with Mamma and Baby. There is so much to learn about the baby and so much that goes into being a parents that one really does not know, or even how to prepare for. But I guess that is where natural instincts come into play. At the 1 week mark of his life, he decided to pee on me, he celebrated week 3 by trying to do the same. He is such a bundle of joy, as well as poop and pee.
So, what else to talk about. Well, let's talk about the 49ers. I was able to wattch the Niners vs Jets game with Javi, like I planned. We also saw the Niners defeat the Bills. I missed the stinker of a game against the NY Giants, but caught last nights game against the Seahawks. As of today the Niners are a 5-2 team, the way I see it, they are a really good team that need to stick to their game plan. What is the game plan you ask? Gore! Gore! Gore!
Niners need to stick to running first, pass second and have the defense smack the opposing team in the mouth. Granted that the Niners have a much inproved receiving core this year with Moss, Mannigham and a much improved Crabtree. Another option is Davis, when they game plan to have him open they can do really big things. Another thing the Niners would need to do is to stop putting in Kapernick so much, it disrupts the game flow for Smith.
San Francisco Giants... Giants won the west, down 0-2 to the Reds in the NLDS, made history by being the first NL team to win 3 road games to move on to the next round. As of this writing the Giants are down 3-1 to the Cardinals in the NLCS. Barry Zito takes the bump to extend the season for the hometown nine. If they win today, they play another game in San Francisco. I have faith I will see them play again this year after today.
Now, just a qucik note that has always botherd me. Why is is when a team wins it's "We won" and when a team suffers a loss it's "They Lost"? You didn't play, you had nothing to do with it. Also, the definition of a fan has been stretched thin. For me, being a fan means that you stick with your team, win or lose. Ups and downs. Sure sometimes its tough, but supporting your team is crucial as a fan. I hate when 'fans' give up on their team, leave early or turn their backs on players. There are 3 Giants that I can say that I did not like and did not cheer for, but I expected them to win with the Giants. (Livan Hernandez, A.J. persynski and Armando Benitez), I'm talking to you three). But my expectation was good or bad, Giants all the way.
Which brings me to the unfair treatment of Tim Lincecum. Here you have a 2010 post season hero, 2 time Cy young award winner and because of 1 bad season, these 'fans' have have turned their backs on him and are saying that he is 'done' and to 'trade him'. Really? wow, I guess it is true. Everybody loves a star when he's on the top, but no one seems to come around when he starts to drop. I fully expect Timmy to bounce back next season and have a great year. S
Birthday's this month.. Frank the Tank, My sister and My God daughter

Together at last....

Well, today October 2012 begins and we have a new roommate.

So, on Thursday, September 27th at 4:50am my wife woke me up and told me that her water broke, we called the hospital and went over what was going on and they told us they would call us back. When they called us back, they instructed us to make it to the hospital to be seen at the labor and delivery triage room. We got there around 7am and we were escorted in. The triage room is set up where 2 patients can be seen at a time, we were the closest to the door and after being there for sometime we heard some alarms beeping and people rushing in. We were concerned as we did not know what was going on. Turns out that the other patient was having some complications and they had to spring into action to stabilize the situation. After about an hour or so, we were admitted and taken to our delivery room.

Since my wife's water broke and this was our first child, they told us that it would probably be a long delivery. The nurse explained that we had to use pitocin to help the labor process, this is something that my wife wanted to avoid. Our plan was to see how long she could last without pain medication through the labor, but with this news, we had to go to plan B. She asked for the pain meds through the IV. She was doing real well. By this point her Mother was in the room with us and we were just waiting. The contractions were strong and steady, but she was being real strong and moving forward. She even almost bit my thumb off. The pain was so much that she did not even want to eat. My Mom and Step Dad stopped by and visited. Time kept going on, so we waited.

After 8pm she decided she wanted the epidural, we went through the process and again she made it through with strength and courage. She was doing really well and moving forward. There was a slight problem with the shot, it caused her blood pressure to get really low and she felt a bit weak. She recovered from that and was monitored closely after. After midnight, which would now be Friday September 28;the day I predicted back in April that he would be born. She was almost fully dilated. The Doctor recommended that we wait about 45 minutes before pushing so she would not push for too long. So at around 2: 37 am, she started pushing and was doing great.

I was helping her by encouraging her to take deep breaths and to push as had as she could. She was amazing. Then, 30 minutes later at 3:12am I saw the most amazing thing ever, our son was born. This was just another moment in my life that made me realize that she was and always will be the love of my life.

They cleaned the baby and we were able to hold him, he practically never left our sight. After some recovery time we were taken to a shared post partum room, I didn't like the sharing portion, but we were told that we would have our private room as soon as they could get one. We finally got our private room and were able to share these first moments of our sons life, the first moments as parents together with no one in the room. Later, my Family and Friends visited and we were discharged on Saturday, September 29th. That ride home was something else. Every bump my wife would complain, my only defense was to remind her that it was not me it was the poor condition of the streets of San Francisco.

We got home and it felt great to have our son, Javier Heliodoro Narvaez at home with us. Now we move forward and start this great journey and help Javi be the best he can be.