In the wee hours of the French autumn, the Giants win a title

Wake up - the Giants are 2010 NL West Champs

SAN FRANCISCO - The San Francisco Giants, a team for which we still own a third of a season ticket plan despite being many years removed from the Bay Area, won the NL West division title on the last day of the baseball season last night. Actually, it was this morning in France. They'll go on to play the Braves in the first round of the playoffs, with games typically starting at around 3AM local time. I guess we can watch the last few innings of the games over breakfast.

Following one's favorite American sports teams is a bit of challenge here in France. The papers, TV and radios are filled with chatter about OM - Olympique Marseille, which as best as I can figure is pretty close to being "France's Team" along the lines of what the Dallas Cowboys used to be in US. Cycling, rugby, tennis, golf and motor sports are all big here, too. American sports get very little play, and if sports bars were to show anything non-French, it would be mostly UK or other Europeans sports (if in fact there were sports bars here, which there are not).

In these connected days there are, of course, plenty of ways to get the American sports scores and highlights. I've got a bunch of handy apps already loaded on my iPhone to deliver updates. I log on to ESPN.com every day (although curiously the banner ads are in French - yes, Mr. Schmidt, I know your creepy Google knows where I am.). And, you can even watch the games live on the Internet. But there's something about watching a game at 2AM huddled around a computer monitor and a jerky streaming feed that takes a bit of the fun out of it. Alas, I am content with tucking the iPhone under my pillow, harkening back nostalgically to the nights when I would sneak a transistor radio into bed as a kid to listen to the Yaz, Lynn, Fisk and Rice-led Red Sox play their West Coast games, Ned Martin, Ken Coleman and Jim Woods on the call.

Unlike news, which can be served up in dose of headlines and sound bites, sports is something you need to watch live, in real-time to get the full effect - especially during the playoffs.

Home of the Giants

It's been a while since the Giants made the playoffs and even longer still since they went to the World Series (losing to the Angels in 2002, a series whose turning point came when Manager Dusty Baker famously gave starting pitcher Russ Ortiz the game ball when he took him out in the 7th inning of Game 6 leading by 5 runs, only to have the Angels stage a comeback to tie the series and inevitably swing the momentum to win Game 7). Despite already having moved to the islands we actually saw three game in that World Series, and the playoff atmosphere at AT&T Park (then called PacBell) was unbelievable, especially from our seats in the front row (it's even more intense in my hometown Fenway Park when the Sox are in the post season or anytime they are playing the Yankees).

2002 World Series. Yes, those are our seats! (and yes, that's Savannah)

We'll miss being able to watch the Giants in the playoffs this season. Or any team for that matter. No doubt we'll probably lose a bit of sleep trying to experience some of the games as the iPhone chirps out updates from under my pillow.