Who do you think Brian Wilson was more excited to hang with in tonight’s episode, Barack Obama or Carlos Beltran? He didn’t have a picture of Beltran in his garment bag, so I guess I’ll give it to the President, but by a slim margin.
This week’s episode had a lot more going on in it than last week’s, but as I’ve suggested (or complained), I don’t think that the Giants need to have a particularly noteworthy week for The Franchise to eke out an interesting episode, but still, I’ll take it.
We started in DC where the team went to meet the President, who good-naturedly joked around with the team, especially Wilson (“I fear it,” he said, in regards to the beard.) It’s the kind of photo-op procedure every president goes through with every World Series team, but still, it’s cute to see the team members all fidgety in their suits and whatnot. As always, I was happy to hear Obama reference the White Sox (the only team the President said he’d cheer for above the Giants.) Although I have to be honest, if the Giants made the World Series, I’d probably root against them because unless it’s your team, repeats are boring. Unless they’re playing the Yankees or Red Sox, though, in which case it’s Giants all the way. Yes, I’m a flyover country fan, an East Coast baseball hater.
While we were in DC, the episode paused to focus on second baseman Emmanuel Burriss, who was raised in Washington. Burriss lost his best friend and former teammate, DeLoren Young, when he was shot after leaving a nightclub. After hitting his one and only major league home run, Burriss took the ball back home and buried it at Young’s gravesite. I don’t know anything about Burriss beyond what I saw today but I liked him, especially that he had his dad sit with him during his interview.
After visiting the President, the team headed to Philadelphia, where the Giants beat the Phillies in last year’s NLCS. The series was possibly a preview of the postseason, but that seemed less important than the buzz over whether the Giants would acquire Carlos Beltran from the Mets. The players all seemed starstruck, noting with awe that if he came to the team, they’d automatically have a new best player.