Producer Max Jacobs with the World Series trophy

How Giants baseball drew a family together

From: KALW
Length: 05:28

At KALW News, we're still celebrating the San Francisco Giants' 2010 World Series victory. As part of it, we created an hour-long documentary all about the team, the torture of being a Giants fan and, of course, the indescribable sweetness of a World Series win. In putting it together, we spoke with fans all around the Bay Area to get their best Giants fan stories – like SF Weekly’s Joe Eskenazi, San Francisco District 6 Supervisor Chris Daly, hip hop artist DaVinci, KALW’s morning announcer Joe Burke, Hall of Fame broadcaster Jon Miller and singer/songwriter Ashkon. Here's one from KALW's own Max Jacobs, on what the Giants victory has meant for him and his family. Read the full description.

Piece Audio

Playing: How Giants baseball drew a family together
From: KALW

Max_trophy_0_small At KALW News, we're still celebrating the San Francisco Giants' 2010 World Series victory. As part of it, we created an hour-long documentary all about the team, the torture of being a Giants fan and, of course, the indescribable sweetness of a World Series win. In putting it together, we spoke with fans all around the Bay Area to get their best Giants fan stories – like SF Weekly’s Joe Eskenazi, San Francisco District 6 Supervisor Chris Daly, hip hop artist DaVinci, KALW’s morning announcer Joe Burke, Hall of Fame broadcaster Jon Miller and singer/songwriter Ashkon. Here's one from KALW's own Max Jacobs, on what the Giants victory has meant for him and his family.

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Piece Description

Broadcast History

KALW 91.7FM:
March 29, 2011

Transcript

MAX JACOBS: It was the spring of 2005, and my college history professor and I had been talking baseball all semester. Every week, I’d show up early for class and we’d analyze the latest Giants news.

“That guy’s a whale. I called it from the beginning,” he would say about Armando Benitez, the struggling Giants closer at the time.

“He’ll bounce back,” I’d counter. “He just needs to get healthy.”

“Naw, he’s fat and overpaid. Good luck trying to trade him.”

I really enjoyed those pre-class talks, and I thought my professor had too. So I felt almost betrayed one day when I heard him say this:

“Baseball is just a silly game. That’s all it is. It’s not worth all this fuss.”

I guess when you really think about it, baseball is just a stupid game. Player salaries are exorbitant, steroid scandals come by the dozens, team owners extort taxpayers for unnecessary and wasteful stadiums. Compared...
Read the full transcript