Prior to Game 6 of the 2012 NLCS, Metallica's James Hetfield took the microphone and addressed the crowd at AT&T Park.
"San Francisco -- are you as excited as I am today? Are you ready to kick some Cardinals ass? This is do-or-die for us friends and San Franciscans do not die easy, right?
"We're going to show the world how we do it; how the San Francisco Giants fans do it here. Are you with me? Are you with me? San Francisco -- let's play ball."
On Thursday morning, Ryan Vogelsong talked about that moment.
"I don't think I throw like that in the first inning if he doesn't say that," Vogelsong said on KNBR 680. "I'm down there warming up and I feel really good. And I know I feel really good. And I'm trying to back myself down in the bullpen because I'm like 'save some bullets.' But I want to get the edge off so that I can throw strikes.
"Well, then at the end of my warmup, he does that. And now I'm just getting ready to fly off the mound. I'm walking down and I look at Rags (pitching coach Dave Righetti) and I'm like, 'I gotta calm myself down.' That's the first time I've ever been on a major league field where I had to tell myself to calm down; back it off, you know?
"That totally set the stage for the night for me. But it just so happened that that's as locked in as I've ever been."
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Vogelsong's stat line: 7 innings, 1 run, 4 hits, 1 walk, 9 strikeouts.
And most importantly -- the win.
On Monday, the Giants announced that Ryan Vogelsong will officially retire as a Giant.
There will be some kind of ceremony before the game this Sunday against the Diamondbacks.
"I got a little bit of the scoop but I'm not gonna be the one to spill the beans," Vogelsong said. "You're gonna have to get that out of somebody else."
