Ordinarily I hate that song. Both on general principals--I dislike Journey passionately--and the fact that it's way overused for sports teams. The concept is...well...to keep the faithful believing that the Home Team (whoever they may be) will in fact to all the way to become the next champions.

Of course, my Giants, or rather fellow Giants fans, chose this song.

Ugh.

SOOOOOOOOOO many others could have been chosen. Instead, we have this bit of insipid guitar chords and wailing.

And yet...the Giants are going on to the next round! I told you they would. Well, I always knew they would. And now we have Philly...and I think we'll beat them, too. Yeah, I said it. So there.

On the flip side, my brother, the Oakland A's fan, is openly rooting against the Giants as he's wont to do. The boy loves disturbing the manure pile. And since his parents and older sister openly root for the Giants, he has to go the opposite way. There's always one in every family.

I remember as a child I would ask, nay, demand of my mom that we see a game at Candlestick Park when the Dodgers came into town. You see, the Giants and the Dodgers have been bitter rivals since their days in New York and Brooklyn, respectively. They carried that out to the West Coast in 1958, with the Giants coming to San Francisco--Baghdad By The Bay--and 'Dem Bums' going down south to Los Angeles--that cesspool of smog and superficiality. In the 1980s, the manager for the Dodgers was one Tommy Lasorda, a man who pitched for the Dodgers (and who was average by all accounts) but who perhaps was their most legendary manager. He would rant and rave to make sure his players got what was right...in all honesty, if he was your manager, you loved him. We Giants fans, well, we hated him...his blood ran Dodger Blue.

I had to go every summer to a game when the Good Guys would beat up on the Dodgers, just so I could boo Lasorda. Of course, we'll ignore the fact that the Dodgers always seemed to play well against the Giants, especially in Candlestick Park--a fact that seems counterintuitive, seeing as how the 'Stick was a hellhole of a baseball stadium, both as a player and as a fan. No matter, I wanted to go and root the Giants on and revile the Dodgers...and my mother loved that. So she would take us...she and I (and my dad, on the rarities that he could come with us) decked out in Orange And Black...and there was Matt, sitting next to us, sometimes in his A's Green and Gold, sometimes not...rooting for the Dodgers. Dammit.

No matter...my prediction for the NLCS: Giants over Phillies in 7 games. Mark it.