For a minute there, I actually thought it wouldn't be that bad. In the 7th inning, everyone in the bar was singing “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” and the atmosphere was friendly and jubilant. Even when Sandoval caught the final foul and people poured out onto Mission Street, everyone seemed like they just wanted to spray Champagne on each other and honk their horns. And then a 4th of July mortar blew up in a crowd at the intersection of 19th and Mission.
Someone started ghost riding their Oldsmobile, then the cops came, then the shit hit the fan. The first round of SFPD officers was so pitifully outnumbered that they just turned around and left as one caught a beer bottle straight to the helmet. Someone lit a Royals effigy on fire and people started piling anything flammable on top of it.
A couch somehow made its way into the street and it didn't last long. After most of the cushioning burned out, someone dropped a firecracker in the middle and blew the entire thing to pieces. One guy's leg was cut open from a shattered Champagne bottle and a hot bottle of beer blew up in someone's hand when he tried to pick it up.
A brand new Cadillac SRX started honking its way through the crowd with the doors open and people piled on everywhere. The driver got out at one point and could barely stand he was so drunk. He drove in circles between 19th and 20th for the better part of an hour while riot cops 100' away stood and watched. Fights broke out and people tagged the sides of buildings and houses. Cop car windows were smashed. The circling helicopters seemed to egg everyone on.
Across town, SF Gate reported that there were fires, fireworks, and lots of cops in riot gear at Third and King.
In the midst of all of this, there were people just out to have a good time and celebrate their home team. Families were sitting on their front steps with their kids watching the madness unfold. Not everyone in San Francisco will have a burning trashcan selfie as their profile picture in the morning but the ones who do will unfortunately set more of a standard than the rest of the crowd. The few people explaining to photographers that, "These people don't represent our neighborhood" were vastly outnumbered by the ones chanting, "Lets go ri-ot!"
