5 Songs That Got Me Through Yesterday's Giants' Loss

Amanda Stupi is a KQED News Interactive producer. She sits next to me at work and her intrinsic Giants' fervor is really starting to frighten me...JB

Let's face it -- last night hurt.

Giants' fans, including me, went into last night's game hoping to clinch their first World Series appearance since 2002. No fan of the team worth her salt would actually expect a win, but I, along with lots of other folks, was optimistically wondering how to get home amid the mayhem of a post-game celebration. Would parties spilling out onto the street allow for bike riding? Would Caltrains adjust their schedule to wait for the post-game ceremonies to end? And how could us fans not hope, believe, feel-in-our-bones, a win, given the number of miracles that this ball club has performed this October?

But rather than wallow in the loss, and stew in disappointment until Saturday's game, I compiled a list of songs that rekindled my spirits and got me ready for Saturday. Or as the Giants' marketing team would say, they put a little magic back inside.

5 Songs That Got Me Through the Giants' Loss

1) Before you can move on, you must first find acceptance. You have realize that the third inning wasn't just some sick joke. So my first song is  Ain't No Sunshine When She's Gone by Bill Withers. Cause last night was anything but sunny.

2) Now that you've accepted that last night did indeed really happen, let's get a little angry and put some competitive fire back in the belly. Song number two: You Don't Own Me, the Blow Monkeys' version.

3) I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For -- because we haven't. Keep your eyes on the prize, folks.

4) I know some may think Britney Spears and baseball mutually exclusive, but her song Stronger puts yesterday in the rear view mirror and quite frankly, that's what the Giants need to do.

5) Let's remember -- baseball, with all its nailbiting, gut- wrenching moments and disappointments, is beautiful. Big Time Timmy Jim said it best in yesterday's pregame Facebook post: "This is what we dream of." A song  capturing that sentiment?  Centerfield by John Fogerty.

6) I know this is a list of five but the postseason calls for a bonus, especially when it's No Sleep Till Brooklyn by the Beastie Boys. No, the Yankees aren't technically in Brooklyn, nor have they even qualified (yet) for the World Series... but their presence looms large, and the thought of Giants' and A's fans uniting against the Yankees is pretty exciting. More importantly, the song gets you pumped. Bring it, Philly.

These songs lifted my post-loss funk... just a little.

Any songs do it for you?

Related:

On The California Report Magazine tonight at 4:30 p.m.:

The San Francisco Giants have never won the World Series but Bay Area fans are swept up in the belief that this might finally be their year. The team moved from New York to San Francisco in 1958, bringing Willie Mays with them. But before the legendary outfielder reached the big leagues, Mays played in the Negro League. And one of the players he played against was remarkable for different reasons. Toni Stone was the first woman to play professional baseball in the Negro Leagues. She was living in Oakland when she signed with the Indianapolis Clowns in 1953. Stone's story is chronicled in the new book “Curveball”. Scott Shafer talked with author Martha Ackmann about Toni Stone and what she was up against as an African American woman playing pro baseball in the era of Jim Crow.

Listen live here or at the archive afterward.