Wine & The World Series: Game Seven

Well, here we go. Game Seven. This is as far as we’re going to get this season, the maximum number of games allowed. By the end of the day, the new World Series Champions will be decided. For one, there will be elation and celebration. For another, heartbreak and wait until next year. 

When the Giants started out in March, our hopes and baseball dreams were to win the World Series. When we were the best team in baseball in early June, we assumed we’d cruise in and dominate. When we were on a miserable and awful 10-week skid, we might never have imagined we’d recover. When we did recover, our hopes and dreams began anew. This is what we hoped for, this chance to take it all. We’ve just got to seize it.

Elimination games. Winner-take-all games. The Giants have been here before. Just a few weeks ago in Pittsburgh, for example. But before that, in 2012. First against the Reds, then against the Cardinals. Six elimination games in total, the Giants picked by experts to lose in each and every one. The Giants are picked to lose again here, but that’s a story those in the clubhouse have heard before. In 2012, then again this season in Pittsburgh, Washington and St. Louis. These men are tried and tested and ready for this challenge.

This has been an extraordinary season. A beautiful season. This year, we’ve seen Brandon Crawford’s brilliance at shortstop, and Pablo Sandoval’s at third. We saw Joe Panik transform from untested rookie into future superstar. We’ve seen Hunter Pence giving every ounce of effort in just about every single game of the season. We saw Juan Perez go from bench player to getting one of the biggest World Series hits, just a short time after learning of the tragic death of a close friend. We’ve seen Buster Posey play MVP-worthy baseball, at catcher and at first base. We’ve seen the Giants battle and struggle and come back better than ever before.

Let’s do this October Together one last time, Giants.

We’ve also seen history being made, highlights that will live in Giants’ memories forever. Tim Lincecum’s second career no-hitter. Madison Bumgarner’s stunning and record-setting post-season performance. And, maybe most memorable, we saw Travis Ishikawa, a career journeyman first baseman who was on the brink of retirement just a few months ago, re-emerge as a playoff left fielder who sent this team into this World Series with an epic blast into the right-center field seats.

During the game, I’ll be turning to a stunning, estate-grown wine (much like the Giants’ largely homegrown team). One that is from one of the most remote, beautiful and breathtaking countries of the world, New Zealand. It’s called Mt. Beautiful, and is grown in the shadow of that peak in the North Canterbury region of the South Island. It’s decadent and bracing, crisp and bright. Mt. Beautiful is a good way to describe this Giants season, and it’s why I’m turning to this tonight.

If the Giants are celebrating tonight, it will be with Mumm Napa Giants Brut Prestige. This collaboration was born out of Giants manager Bruce Bochy’s desire to celebrate with something more upscale than is usually found in baseball’s post-season clubhouses.

After the game, I’ll be drinking something else. At the end of the regular season, Hunter Pence told the hometown crowd a story about a team meeting on the first day of Spring Training. “I’m going to challenge each and every one of you, [with] every fiber of your being to see yourself as a World Series Champion,” he recounted saying to his teammates. Then he told the fans, “You’re with us, and you’re sharing that vision.” This is the game where that vision has a chance to become reality. And I believe in these Giants. I believe they will complete their vision.

History will be again made tonight. When it’s over, I will be sipping the wine of World Series champions, Mumm Napa Brut Prestige. With every fiber of my being, I believe the Giants will be, too.