By the time the Giants' World Series celebration parade reached Civic Center Plaza, which had become a teeming, cheering mass of fans dressed in orange and black by the noon hour, every one of the team's players, coaches and executives had been bathed in the glow they brought to their city, orange confetti and cheers raining on their heads the whole way on a brilliant sunny day.
Not since the Giants moved to town in 1958, welcomed with a parade on the same route down Market Street, had the city -- aka, The City -- enjoyed such a celebration of baseball and its Giants, and they painted the town orange just like you knew they would, with an estimated one million people along the parade route and awaiting the team at the steps of City Hall.
Still just two days removed from their thrilling Game 5 victory in Texas, clinching the franchise's first World Series title since it moved to San Francisco 52 years earlier, the Giants were the toast of the town, right up to the steps of City Hall, where Mayor Gavin Newsom had a declaration.
"The torture is over!" Newsom said to cheers, all fans knowing the reference to the 2010 Giants' nail-biting ways.
Newsom presented Giants managing general partner Bill Neukom with the key to the city, declared it "San Francisco Giants Day" in San Francisco and kicked off an hour-long celebration for a team that mixed tremendous homegrown talent with a band of misfits to concoct a World Series team more than a half-century in the making.
"It is in every sense a great day to be a Giants fan, ain't it?" Neukom said. "Ain't it? We, like you, are elated to find ourselves standing on the summit of baseball."
General manager Brian Sabean, whose scouting and player development departments built the homegrown foundation and who made bold moves all the way into August to augment the club, said this day was coming to the Giants faithful, and it finally arrived.
"Without overstating the obvious, we deserved this -- Northern California deserved this, San Francisco deserved this, the organization did and the fans did," Sabean said.
Wednesday's celebration was the icing on the cake -- orange, of course -- to a wild October run and one night in November in which pitching icon Tim Lincecum and World Series MVP Edgar Renteria pushed the Giants into the history books with a 3-1 victory over Texas at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, clinching the franchise's first title since 1954, when it was in New York.
Wednesday's parade followed the same route up Montgomery and down Market to City Hall that the 1958 team's parade did, with Giants legend and Hall of Famer Willie Mays, who was there in '58, and Newsom leading the way underneath an orange banner that said "World Series Champions" on one side and "Congratulations, Giants" on the other. Neukom and other club officials followed in classic cars, with Bochy and wife Kim riding in a classic orange Thunderbird, carrying the World Series trophy along the route.
The players were on motorized cable cars, two at a time, and each had a chance to dangle out those famous open sides and wave to the throngs of people lining the sidewalks for the parade. Cody Ross, the National League Championship Series MVP with five homers in the postseason, and Aaron Rowand led the parade of faux cable cars through the streets toward City Hall, with orange confetti falling from the sky like autumn snow.
By the time they arrived in their chairs facing the crowd of thousands that had gathered at City Hall, it was clear they all were dazed by the affection hurled at them by their fans.
After all, this was really about them -- the fans who waited so long, stayed so loyal and got so loud down the stretch and into the postseason.
"What this 2010 Giants team accomplished pays tribute to more than 90 million of us who passed through the turnstiles of Seals Stadium, of Candlestick Park and of AT&T Park in the past 53 years," said Larry Baer, a fourth-generation San Franciscan and the team's president and chief operating officer.
It was the fans who really underwent the torture of tight ballgames and cruel endings, and it was the fans who reaped the rapture that was evident throughout downtown San Francisco on Wednesday.
"They wanted to win as bad for you as they did for themselves," Bochy told the crowd. "Now, we want to apologize a little bit for the torture. Believe me, if you're getting gray hairs, don't feel like you're the only one."
Bochy said his closer -- Wilson, he of the mysteriously black facial hair that spurred the "Fear the Beard" slogan -- might be able to help him regain his youthful pate.
But Newsom had other ideas for Wilson.
"This town needs a new mayor soon," said Newsom, who won election Tuesday as Lieutenant Governor of California. "I just have three words: Fear the Beard."
Said Wilson: "I'd like to thank the mayor for allowing me to try and take the reins. I don't think I'm up for that job."
Indeed, the celebration had its San Francisco flavor, with the cast from Beach Blanket Babylon -- including front woman Tammy Nelson, who had people talking around the country after she performed "God Bless America" at a playoff game with the same city skyline on top of her head -- and Journey lead singer Steve Perry on the podium as "Don't Stop Believin'," the team's rally song, started the festivities.
And Newsom brought a real San Francisco element to the table when, inspired by backup catcher Eli Whiteside's Deadhead Giants T-shirt, quoted the late, great Jerry Garcia.
"He said, 'You don't want to be the best of the best, you want to be the only one who does what you do' -- and that's our San Francisco Giants in 2010," Newsom said.
Certainly, this is the only team that had a first baseman wearing a red rally thong, and at his turn at the podium, Aubrey Huff did his best "Zoolander" imitation, reached into his pants and grabbed the rally thong to wave to the crowd.
"This thing nailed it," Huff said. "World champions. The rally thong's going to the Hall of Fame, or maybe I'll just wear it again in Spring Training."
Predictably, Buster Posey was a bit more distinguished with his comments, though no less passionate.
"San Francisco Giants. World Series champions. Let's enjoy this today, tomorrow, for a week, maybe even for a month and then let's get back to work and make another run at it," Posey said.
The celebration hit high gear at the end with the introduction of three of the team's homegrown pitching stars -- Lincecum, Wilson and Matt Cain.
"You guys are etched in history," Wilson told the crowd. "You started this in Spring Training and had our backs from Day 1."
Lincecum was even more awestruck by the outpouring of support, which showed up not only at AT&T Park but also on the road during the playoffs.
"Just to see the black and orange out there everywhere it was so awesome and made it so much more comfortable for us to play," Lincecum said. "All I can say is thank you and go San Francisco."
Said Cain: "You guys have waited so long for this, and we brought it home for you guys."
And it's hard to think otherwise, even for the most cynical observer. This was a team that got it -- their fans had waited a very long time for 11 victories in the postseason, and they went 11-4 to claim the World Series trophy they dropped off at City Hall on Wednesday.
In reality, the entire Giants family -- about a million there and millions more watching at home -- was engaged in a big, orange hug Wednesday.
"This 2010 team, to a man back in August, they plugged into you, and you fueled and energized this group all the way through a crazy month of September, into what was an epic month of October and what is one glorious day in November," Giants broadcaster and former pitcher Mike Krukow said.
A glorious day indeed. Nothing was more bright than the orange river and lake of humanity except the sun itself, which provided its own warmth to the celebration.
And perhaps never before had Tony Bennett's final line in "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" fit so well for a team that did the improbable, with a cast of thousands helping along the way, as it played to finish off the celebration, the way it's played to finish off Giants games.
When I come home to you, San Francisco,
Your golden sun will shine for me!
