October 16, 2014: The Travis Ishikawa Game

October 16, 2014, 10 years ago: Game 5 of the National League Championship Series is played at AT&T Park (now named Oracle Park). Joe Panik and Michael Morse hit home runs for the San Francisco Giants, but the St. Louis Cardinals get homers from Matt Adams and Tony Cruz, and the game goes to the bottom of the 9th tied.

The Giants get 2 men on against Michael Wacha, the MVP of the previous year's NLCS, and then Travis Ishikawa -- with considerably less pressure, as the Giants lead the Cards 3 games to 1 -- does what Bobby Thomson did, 63 years earlier and 2,910 miles to the east: He hits a home run that means, "The Giants win the Pennant! The Giants win the Pennant! And they're going crazy! They're going crazy!"

Of course, unlike the Giant Pennant wins of 1951 with Bobby Thomson, and 1962 in far less dramatic fashion, this one was not against the Dodgers, in either New York (Manhattan vs. Brooklyn) or California (San Francisco vs. Los Angeles). But it was still dramatic.

Isikawa's father was a 3rd-generation Japanese-American. His ancestry and this home run made him the 1st player of Asian descent to hit a walkoff home run in an MLB postseason game.

There was an NFL game that night: The New England Patriots beat the New York Jets, 27-25 at MetLife Stadium in the Meadowlands.

The American League Championship Series was decided the night before, when the Kansas City Royals completed a sweep of the Baltimore Orioles. The Giants went on to beat the Royals in a classic World Series Game 7, and secure their 3rd World Championship in 5 seasons.