Giants Fever Slams Bay Area

The Bay Area is buzzing with excitement this morning after the San Francisco Giants won Game 7 of the National League Championship Series in the pouring rain Monday night to advance to the World Series.

At the Sports Basement store on Bryant Street in San Francisco, fans have been calling all morning inquiring about Giants apparel.

"There has been a super high demand, and the phone calls have been off the chain," store manager Abe Galvan said. Galvan said Sports Basement, which has five Bay Area locations, will get one large shipment of the official National League Champions T-shirts that will be distributed evenly to the stores.

The shirts are expected to go on sale tonight, or as late as Wednesday morning, and Galvan said they are sure to sell out.

The Giants Dugout Store at AT&T Park began selling championship T-shirts and hats on Monday night, and a store manager there said they flew off the shelves. The store will be restocked daily, he said.

Second baseman Marco Scutaro made the final out of the National League Championship Series on Monday night during a downpour, sending the Giants to the World Series for the second time in three years. Scutaro, whom the Giants picked up in a trade with the Colorado Rockies on July 28, had a 14-for-28 hitting performance in the series and was named NLCS Most Valuable Player with a .500 average and four RBIs against the St. Louis Cardinals.

"He deserved the MVP for sure," said Adrian Hernandez, a Giants fan and San Francisco native. Hernandez, 60, said he has been going to Giants games since the days of Willie Mays and Willie McCovey.

He said the 2010 championship team was great, but that he thinks this year's club is better.

"They have that spark in them," Hernandez said. "I think they are going to win in six games."

In the National League Division Series against the Cincinnati Reds, the Giants came back from a 0-2 series deficit to win 3-2, winning three straight games on the road, a feat never before accomplished by a National League club.

Then, after splitting the first two games with St. Louis in the NLCS at home, the Cardinals took games 3 and 4 to take a commanding 3-1 series lead with another game to play in St. Louis.

The Giants turned it on for games 5 through 7, outscoring the Cardinals 20-1, derailing the reigning World Series champions and clinching a berth in the World Series against the American League champion Detroit Tigers.

Despite having the game in hand in the ninth inning, the Giants had to battle a downpour as they recorded the final three outs.

Scutaro battled the wet turf and raindrops to snag a lazy Matt Holliday popup for the final out.

With the National League's 8-0 win over the American League in the All-Star Game in July, the Giants have home-field advantage in the Fall Classic.

The Giants and Tigers played major roles in the contest. Matt Cain won the game for the National League, while the Tigers' ace Justin Verlander got the loss.

Melky Cabrera of the Giants won the game's Most Valuable Player.

Cabrera was eligible to return to the team after serving a 50-game suspension for testing positive for testosterone but the Giants announced prior to its postseason run he wouldn't be activated.

Cabrera or not, 60-year-old San Francisco resident Francisco Santos said the Giants have the World Series in the bag.

"The are going to win in four games," Santos said. "It's going to be a sweep."

As of 11 a.m., there were about 8,000 tickets remaining on StubHub.com for Game 1 of the World Series on Wednesday night. Tickets start at $382.

First pitch is at 5:07 p.m. with Barry Zito pitching for the Giants against Verlander for the Tigers.

- Bay City News

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