Moments Of Giants Glory: What Alzheimer’s Couldn’t Steal
SAN FRANCISCO — Every now and again, when I’m feeling a little down, I go to Baseball-Reference.com and look up the San Francisco Giants’ box score from July 29, 2012. It’s an odd choice for a Giants fan. The Los Angeles Dodgers won, 4-0, completing a weekend sweep in which they outscored the Giants by 19-3 and tied them for the lead in the National League West.
The Giants went on to win the World Series that year, but that’s not why I remember the July 29 game. I remember that afternoon because my mom, in the throes of Alzheimer’s, left the house she shared with my dad in the Noe Valley neighborhood, walked four or so miles and somehow ended up at AT&T Park. Then she went inside and watched her team.
It took a while for me to believe this. When Mom told me she had gone to the park — my dad barely watches baseball, so the Giants have always been a thing between me and Mom — I assumed it was an old memory misplaced on a new day. But it turned out that Sunday game did overlap with the hours she had been out, and a month or so later my dad got a credit card bill with the charge for the ticket.
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