My dad was Louis Mintz.  Family man, librarian at the NY Public Library for over 40 years, father, Giants Fan.  Not a day goes by when I don’t think of him.  He was always upbeat with an infectious smile that stayed with him even as cancer ravaged his body.  Nobody ever said a bad word about him, the testament to his greatness.  He loved my mom, loved his 3 boys, and worshipped the ground of his 3 granddaughters (his girlies, my daughters) and his grandson.
          Then there were the Giants.  His love of the NY Giants somehow continued when the orange and black moved to San Francisco.  I, wanting to be like him, started following the SF Giants in 1969.  Up until 2010, I claimed it was the only wrong thing my father ever did.  That all changed of course when Nelson Cruz swung and missed on a Brian Wilson pitch on November 1, 2010.  It was the most compelling moment of my sports life as a fan.  Forty-two years I waited, forty-two years!!  In one night, all the hurt and pain was suddenly gone.  Then viola!! The Giants stun the baseball world by winning it all again in 2012. Two World Championships in 3 years!! UNBELIEVABLE!! My only remorse is that “Sweet Lou” wasn’t around to savor it with me as he passed in 2003.  I wish we could have talked about it, laughed about it and reminisced about it.  When the World Series Trophy Tour stopped in Manhattan in January 2011 & again in January 2013, he surely would have treasured the moments as I did with my wife and my daughters.  To think he would have met and shook hands with his idol Willie Mays.  What a story that would have been!!

          I became associated with the New York Giants because of my love and admiration for this man.  Growing up I would hear him say things that would just pop out of the air for no apparent rhyme or reason.  There would be the names that he would spew.  Alvin “Blacky” Dark, Monte I“rrrrrrrrr”vin, whom he called at times the “Orange Cutie” (evidently Monte Irvin’s nickname) Bobby Thomson, “The Flying Scot”, Sal “The Barber” Maglie, Bill “The Cricket” Rigney, and just plain “Willie”, no need for any other name as I knew who he meant. Then there were the little sayings, The old “PG’s”, “The June Swoon”, and as Frankie Frisch would say, “Oh those bases on balls”. Occasionally he would sing the Giants theme song, “We’re calling all fans, all you Giants ballfans, come watch the home-team going places, round those bases”. He in fact once wrote a letter to the SF Giants asking them for the recording, unfortunately to no avail.  Then there was his mimicking Mel Ott’s leg lift, and Hoyt Wilhelm’s grip, legendary!
          Dad would often tell me how the fans had to leave the stadium through the center field gate which meant walking on the field.  He told me that he was once spiked by Johnny Beradino near the second base bag.  He would also see doubleheaders often going from the Polo Grounds to Yankee Stadium (or the other way around, not sure) via the Macombs Dam Bridge to see both the football and baseball Giants on the same Sunday afternoon. 
          My dad left me and his family way too early.  When the Giants finally won in 2010, I planted a little World Series Flag by his grave.  It still waves proudly there today along with the newly implanted 2012 flag.  I needed him to know his impact on me and how “we” finally did it.  I miss the many times, even as an adult when he would say to me after I was forlorn over a loss, “What are you worried about?  Do they worry about you?” Although I am now somehow middle aged, I still hope I can be half the man he was.  There were the Giants from the Polo Grounds, the Giants in San Francisco, and all the legendary players that donned the Giants uniform in both places.  For my money though, my dad, Louis Mintz, was the greatest Giant of them all!   Happy Father’s Day to you all!