In my house, this is called lying:
…. “With Barry Bonds gone,” Magowan said, addressing the media throng, “this is clearly the beginning of a new era for the Giants.” He promised a “younger, faster, more energetic ballclub.”
I’m always amazed at the audacity of people in the public eye just flat-out lying, as if to say that the fact that they are saying something makes it true. You wanna know why Baer and Magowan and Sabean think that saying the team is younger means that it is? I’ll tell you why…. because it works. Because no one listens, no one reads, no one pays attention to anything other than the headlines anymore. If someone says it on TV, it’s true. If it’s written, anywhere, it’s a fact. Jose Canseco can say whatever he wants, because he’s on television, he wrote a book. Game of Shadows is completely factual, according to anyone and everyone. It’s a book, of course it’s true. That’s as much an indictment of us as a culture, as a country, as it is of the people in the mainstream media.
Meanwhile, in San Francisco, we have an owner who, in between ignoring the day to day mistakes of his general manager and staff, has conveniently forgotten who buttered his bread for the last fifteen years. In his latest “State of the Team,” press conference, Magowan comes off as small-time, petty, and quite frankly, unbelievably ungrateful. To say that his entire fortune is based upon the hard work and sacrifice of Barry Bonds might be a stretch, but it’s not much of a stretch.
…. The ballpark itself has been de-Bondsed. Gone are the huge cloth murals of Bonds and “756″ that hung from the lighting towers flanking the centerfield scoreboard. Gone is the Bonds career-home-run “scoreboard.” The leftfield fence now features a long green blank between the ads for Chevron and Bud Lite. Last season, that space was devoted to Bonds – first a mural of Bonds and three other Giants’ legends, and then a “Road to History” mural featuring a photo of Bonds and a highway sign with his name and team logo.
…. I asked team president Peter Magowan if management considered some kind of visible tribute to Bonds and his record. “No,” Magowan said, eloquently.
Historians will remember that towards the end of his career, Babe Ruth was lied to and discarded by the Yankees, but I wonder if it was a bad as this. Ruth needed to go because he wanted to be the manager, and had always been a sideshow, (like Bonds), and I seem to remember some bullshit between him and the existing manager (Miller Huggins?). It wasn’t until he was diagnosed with cancer that the Yankees realized they were shortchanging the fans by slamming the door on Ruth. How can Magowan sit there with a straight face and act like Bonds somehow fucked him and the Giants over? That is as much an affront to me as a fan as any lying about the direction the team is going. Wiping clean all traces of Bonds is a disgrace.
And, again, let’s point out that Roger Clemens is again being defended by members of Congress, while Bonds is still hunted and, of course, being colluded out of baseball. That virtually every member of the mainstream media is standing by and applauding while this is happening is another travesty. The number of sportswriters who have profited from Bonds’ efforts, who have profited at his expense is staggering. Not content to cash their new, bigger paychecks, they still spew vitriol and bile at him, even when he’s out of the spotlight.
I remember reading how Joe DiMaggio became a recluse, hiding from fans and sportswriters, until finally he spent all of his time and effort protecting his name and reputation, suing people who even thought about making money off his fame without him getting his due. Sadly, history is repeating itself. The destruction of Barry Bonds will go down as one of the biggest mistakes in baseball history. Bonds has been a tremendous player, one who dedicated himself to his craft, getting every last ounce of production out his talent; and this is like watching him be torn apart by hyenas. It makes me feel dirty.
And, to those of you who count yourself among my faithful readers, I have had enough. There is a distinct possibility I am going to start focusing on, and writing about a different team this season. Five years on the Giants, and during that time, I’ve been mostly critical of them, but at least there seemed to be some sense of competence and respect in the way they went about their business. I haven’t agreed with everything, but at least they appeared to be giving an honest effort. The way these last couple of year has gone, and the way they (Magowan and Sabean, in particular) have been acting, is, frankly, abhorrent to me. Most of you have noticed that all I ever write anymore is complaints and criticisms. Well, I’ve noticed, too. This team makes me mad, disappointed, and most importantly, uninterested.
I am not interested in being lied to. I am not interested in a team that has so little respect for its fans that they would think it’s OK to shit all over the greatest player in team history. I am not interested in an owner and general manager who think it’s OK to field a team of has-beens, misfits, and never-was, washed-up players; and then lie about it right to my face. When someone lies to your face, that means they think you are worthless. They think you aren’t worthy of their respect. They are telling you to go fuck yourself.
I am not interested in this absolute travesty. If I cannot get interested, well, then I’m gonna make some changes. That’s where I’m at.
UPDATE: Thanks for the kind words, guys. I ain’t going anywhere, but I am seriously thinking about covering the Yankees instead of the Giants. Nothing’s decided.
And, I’ll give you that MLB may have laid down the law about all the Bonds stuff, possibly as some way for Magowan and Sabean to avoid censure for their complicity in the Bonds situation. OK.
They still have been telling us that they are going younger and faster for about three seasons, now, while simultaneously signing guys like Aurilia. Horseshit.
The deal is this, Sabean’s plan is easy to figure out, if you just watch what he does. He values veterans with proven track records over youth and inexperience. He has taken this strategy to it’s absurd extreme, and, in doing so, has completely derailed this franchise. Magowan has watched him do it, and is either blind to it, or thinks it’ll eventually work. Bottom line; these guys have failed. They have done so by choosing a course of action that disregards conventional wisdom, collective wisdom, and conventional –and unconventional– statistical analysis. It’s as if they have gone out of their way to try and prove that Bill James is wrong.
He’s not. They are. It’s tough enough to root for a team going through a down swing. It’s much tougher when any reasonable person can see that the path that management has chosen is clearly the wrong path. Rooting for the Giants right now is like rooting for the New York Knicks; you love the franchise, but hate the idiots in charge.
33 Backtalkers
Unfortunately, I cannot disagree with even a word. I start coaching little league tomorrow. That may be the extent of my baseball.
Magowan has such an inferiority complex. He cannot stand that people know that Barry was the reason that the Giants could build the park, that people came to the games, and that they were over .500 any time during his tenure. He wants credit. How can anyone root for such an ass?
This rant is half unfair. The part about Bonds is to my mind unquestionably right, and this site has been outstanding in its accuracy and integrity about Bonds and the steroid brouhaha. The part about Sabean and Magowan is unjust. With Giants ticket sales precarious, and Bud Selig and L. A. Congressman Waxman looking for scapegoats, they are behaving like politicians. That’s deplorable but understandable. In fact, however, if Roberts, Durham, Vizquel, and Aurilia had not all had wretched years at the plate in 2007, way below PECOTA projections and hence Sabean’s legitimate expectations, the team would have had 85-90 wins–their Pythagorean win total was 77 (i.e., they lost a half-dozen extra games by a luck factor) even with four regulars who suddenly dropped 25% or more below legitimate expectations. They looked like a highly legitimate team. They have now started drafting position players, and they look to have strengthened their already strong pitching. I don’t think of this as incompetent overall, peculiarly mendacious, or contemptuous of fans. Is the team younger, faster, etc.? I guess that depends on who plays once the season starts, and who gets traded (for which one has to find interested trade partners) as the year progresses. No one of us, including John, and very likely including Bochy, Sabean, and Magowan, knows either of these things.
“The part about Sabean and Magowan is unjust.
Congressman Waxman looking for scapegoats, they are behaving like politicians. That’s deplorable but understandable.”
——————————————
Thats exactly the point. Those two fuckers are acting exactly like politicians.
THEY ARE FUCKING LYING. Directly. In your face. In my face. In everybody’s face. That is John’s point. When somebody blatantly lies to your face and expects to get away with it, like Magowan and Sabean do and have, and will continue to do so, it is time to spend one’s money elsewhere. And call them out for the chicken shit lying cocksucker weasels that they are.
I hope you decide to hang in there , John. We’ve got Cain and Lincecum starting 40% of our games, a beautiful ballpark, and great announcers. The pain of the next 2-3 years will just make the winning sweeter when it finally arrives.
Well John, from a purely selfish standpoint I hope your wandering eye wanders no further than across the Bay; I would love to have your insight and personal style follow the A’s. I’ll certainly miss the rants and anger, it shows a passion and interesting honesty to your takes regarding the Giants.
I was never much of a Bonds fan, but I’ve slowly come to appreciate everything he has done and everything he is going through, by reading your site. It makes me angry and it saddens me even more what is happening to the end of his career and mostly because of that used car salesmen. The greatest player of our generation reduced to this.
It’s so sad. It’s so unjust. It’s so unnecessary.
It also makes me dislike the Republicans even more since they are the ones justifying Clemens but not saying peep about Bonds. I personally think Congress should have more important things to do right now than chase down a few baseball players.
I guess when players are just considered merchandise, something to be used up and tossed aside it’s easy to Unbondify AT&T Park.
Anyway, don’t stop writing, whatever team gets your attention.
“Colluded out of baseball”?? Take a lesson from your own posting, John. Just because something is written doesn’t mean it’s true. He’ll be 44, he can’t play defense, and he brings an enormous amount of baggage with him.
But every team in baseball is conspiring to keep him our of the game?
Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.
There are several 40-something players in the game with jobs. None of them come anywhere close to being the caliber hitter that Bonds is. I understand NL teams not being interested. However, he wont need to play defense in the AL. This isn’t collusion in the sense that GMs are getting together and saying ‘I won’t sign him if you don’t.’ Bonds has been the scapegoat all along for things bigger than him. You don’t think the same people scoffing at Bonds wouldn’t jump at the chance to bring Clemens in for the same dollar?
“I understand NL teams not being interested”
- Well then right away you can’t call it collusion if half the league has a legitimate reason not to sign him. To say he’s a liability on defense is an understatement.
“This isn’t collusion in the sense that GMs are getting together and saying ‘I won’t sign him if you don’t.’”
- Well then what is it? Because that is EXACTLY what collusion is. If you want to ascertain that there’s a slight undercurrent of racism in clubs not signing Bonds that would sign Clemens, fine. But to suggest that all owners have conspired to keep him out of baseball is laughable at best.
He’ll be 44 (Moyer is 45 and a starting pitcher. SPs have MUCH higher rates of injury than outfielders. that’s just one example), he can’t play defense (8 Gold Gloves means you’re wrong. He obviously won’t play to that caliber, but he’ll certainly be a very good outfielder), and he (does) brings an enormous amount of baggage with him.
I am sure that front offices aren’t signing him intentionally. Bonds would take any contract. The Mariners could sign him to a one-year contract for league minimum. The guy just wants to play. And don’t you find it a little suspicious that the Giants weren’t willing to sign him for completely unknown reasons after 2007, and then all of a sudden he’s brought up on perjury charges? I’m sure with the dearth of truly reliable hitters (the list slopes off significantly past Ramirez and Texiera) this offseason there are many teams who could use Bonds, but they don’t want to deal with the admittedly large baggage.
While I tend to agree with a lot of what you say, John, I have to agree with Fishchum. We look at Bonds not being signed and say how can this guy, who’s going to probably be one of the top 20 players in the game this year, not be signed? But owners look at him and see an indicted man of 44 who’s a liability on defence. Who wants to bring that on for a huge load of cash (we all know Bonds isn’t looking for a quick $1 million ocntract or anything) and then have him dragged in front of a court and the media blizzard that will ensue? That’s quite a headache for a 44-year old DH.
fwiw
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3300362
Amen. I agree with everything you say about being lied to by the front office. Besides, if I want to see “a team of has-beens, misfits, and never-was, washed-up players,” I’d go to the Stick Sundays in the fall.
Best blog post ever?
Bravo John, for saying what a great many Giants fans feel. I’m trying with all my might to get interested in this year’s SF Giants team, but the more I try the more hollow I feel. They trot out dogshit and pretend it’s filet mignon. The craptacular owner extols the virtues of the GM, who is responsible for dragging the hull of this ball club alongside an iceberg and starting that slow sink to the bottom, by extending his contract, and now they turn over the Etch-a-Sketch and erase all evidence of the face of the franchise for the past fifteen years.
I’m not of a mind they should’ve brought Bonds back to play, but to petulantly and self righteously ignore one of the greatest players of all time is, as you pointed out, downright Ruthian.
Magowan, Sabean, Baer… they can go straight to hell as far as I’m concerned.
Johnny Rotten once asked a San Francisco crowd, “ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated?”; Giants fans in 2008 could very well ask the the same thing.
Did it ever occur to anyone that Selig and MLB may have requested that the Giants remove all visible references to Bonds at AT&T park because of their embarrassment over the entire BALCO scandal? It’s very possible that they were asked to do this as part of the so called “punishment” that handed down by Selig behind closed doors…you never know…
If that were the case, then the entire league can to fuck themselves.
I hear you John. Wherever you go or if you stick it out with the Minnows (I mean Giants), please don’t stop writing. You have an honesty to your posts and your views (I agree with just about all) that is refreshing in the world of ESPN. Magowan and Co. are fools.
I wouldn’t call it so much lying as being wrong. Like in marriage vows, you say “I promise to [this and that] till death do us part.” For the 50% of those for whom this doesn’t happen, they weren’t lying, it just didn’t end up going that way. I believe Magowan & Co. really did want the Giants to be younger, faster, better. It just didn’t happen.
Am I cutting them too much slack, maybe. The team is going to be awful. But I don’t think they outright lied and spit in our faces about it. Ignorance, not malice.
I appreciate all you’ve said. It is, sadly, too true. But don’t go. Sure, we’ll be bad. Real bad. For a few too many years. But we’ll climb out of the pit at some point. And you’ll be there, with your unique perspective and hell-fire intensity. And I’ll be reading. I hope.
I been angry too about this and agree with everything that was said. I won’t even buy tickets this year or for the forseeable future. I don’t even have much motivation to blog about the Giants this year.
Giants Management is weak. Its called moral equivalence. Its called a lack of comittment and when the shit hits the fan, they just lie and when they get caught lying, they shrug, and say lets move on. Which is what liars do when they get caught and get pinned down without a plausible excuse. “Can’t we all just get along and move on?”
No. If you knowingly and willfully utter and adhere to a falsehood that causes harm to innocent people, than you’re a fucking liar. Magowan and Sabean are fucking liars.
On top of being liars, they are beyond ingrates. They are backstabbing cunts. Its one thing to have a parting of the ways. To insolently trash the man who built your stadium, and conveyed to you celebrity status, is the mark of the lowest form of human being. I would expect no less extreme undignified behavior from such rodents as Magowan, Baer, and Sabean. A totally vacuous, empty phony little man is Peter Magowan. Enjoy your 100 loss season. Your 90 million dollar payroll. Your soon to come downward spiraling attendance. And the bitterness that follows the fleeting 15 minutes of fame that you once enjoyed. Do us all a favor Magowan. Sell your shares to Eddie DeBartolo.
Phew… good column. Please don’t stop – this is the best baseball column on the web.
What to say? Ruth is a good example, the story of his years after leaving the Yankees – a forgotten man. Perhaps the greatest player in baseball history, probably one of the most famous men in the world. “The House That Ruth Built”. Credited by many for saving the game after the Black Sox scandal. What more could you want?
Saw a projection of the last ten years for the Giants minus Bonds – highest win total? 87. Playoff appearances? Zero. Last homegrown player to make the All-Star team? Royce Clayton – drafted 1988. 20 years ago.
As re: Joe D, you know Koufax retired, yes, because he couldn’t get his arm through a doorway after a start, but also because he had had enough. And note – where is Hank? Where is Willy? Presumably the “two greatest living baseball players left alive” – national treasures. In hiding, or waiting for the phone to ring.
The Black Sox scandal happened because of the owners. There was NEVER any rule that Black players couldn’t play in the majors – but they couldn’t. I assume there’s no rule that women can’t – but there never has been. No woman? Ever could hold down a big league position? EVER?
The 1994 Strike – the owners fucking themselves – it was all about the Yankees being able to continue to screw the Royals out of revenues.
This has been said many times, but it bears repeating: the all time hit leader, the all time home run leader, the 2nd (I think 2nd) highest career batting average of all time – all banned or prospectively banned from Cooperstown.
It says something for the game that here we are and still love the game (I do). All of the above? Not the players…the ownership. Imagine if they weren’t a bunch of self-destructive idiots.
Long live the 12-6 curveball and the finely turned double play. Fuck the rest of the shit. I hope the game lives long enough for me to still be watching when I’m old and (grayer).
It’s hard to disagree with your comments on management when a team, strong on young , cheap, effective starting pitching, but weak on offense, commits $18 million a year on a single starter who, even before the signing, looked to be little more than a middle or end-of the rotation innings eater.
Though the point can be made that Zito was a marketing’s decision (Baer and Magowan), defending Sabean doesn’t really change the reality of things, does it?
But at the end of the day, for what it’s worth….
Go Giants.
(I need help)
Hi John,
Semi-longtime reader, mostly lurker, but I’ve always enjoyed your blog and urge you to keep on keepin’ on. Times are rough and the Giants suck, but the more voices the better and it would be shame to not hear yours anymore.
It’s been said that baseball must be The Greatest Game because for 140 years, the Majors have been able to survive, despite the people who play and run it.
I vote for John turning his analytical eye and writing skills to the A’s.
It seems to me that BB has become an Orwellian “unperson.” They are erasing him from the collective memory.
Let’s not overlook the fact that Bonds has not retired and could conceivably return to SF in another uniform. How ridiculous would it be to have tributes to one of the opposing team’s players all about your ball field? That said, the season following an announcement from Bonds that he is retired I expect nothing less than to see a prominent and appropriate acknowledgement of the man’s greatness in the ballpark.
JOHN: The YANKEES? Please, that would about make me ill and I would seriously never return here to read anything. If I want to know about the yankees, I’ll tune in to ESPN thank you very much.
You have said everything I said and wanted to say about this disgusting display. You have given words to everything I feel about this. When baseball is so close to your heart that it BECOMES your heart, being crushed like this is terribly painful. I am crushed by the blatant disrespect to me as a fan. Bonds vs. the management is a fight I don’t care to get into. But to lie to me, to dupe me, to call me a fool by thinking I won’t notice or care that management is pulling a incredibly half-assed CYA act, that’s unforgivable. It’s bullshit.
As a fan of this team and a fan of Bonds I knew I had to accept all that came with him, to take the good with the bad. The team refuses to do this now. You cannot just pretend the man never existed.
The blatant stupidity at work here is just staggering. It’s insulting to fans of the team.
I don’t know, this season could be fun….in a peverse sort of way. The validation of your rants as this team struggles to score 600 runs and losses over 100 might be satisfying if it leads to the needed change at GM.
There’s no way this team is anything but a lost cause this season, so might as well sit in the back row and make fun of their ineptitude. I will get angry if they do make a Sabean trade of young talent for a Crede or other mediocre veteran. Otherwise, we can party like its 1985, or worse.
A new GM that brings modern analytics to building a baseball team will make this season worthwhile. If the Giants/McGowan keep Sabean around and still look to blame Bonds, well then its time to dump the season tix.
I’m with you — my #1 hope is for a good season, but my #2 hope is for a train wreck season that will force ownership to make the changes they should have made three years ago. The worst outcome would be a mediocre season that lets ownership + management keep living in a dream world, where they believe the Giants will contend if they just sign another Dave Roberts or Rich Aurilia…
The Knicks comparison was beyond perfect…
Anyway, the stench surrounding this team is so awful I wouldn’t blame you for giving up — it’s one thing for a team to lose, it’s another for a team to lose games and its dignity at the same time. Anyway, hang in there, let’s hope there are some bright spots to be optimistic about, although I strongly suspect to see one of the worst offenses in the history of the game and a pitching staff driven to insanity due to a lack of run support.
Luckily for me I am a SF Giants and NY Knicks fan, it’s a great time for me, incompetent owners and awful gms for both squads.
[...] Ontario Ogdensburg, new York …http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/April2008/02/c9557.html??. Ingrate In my house, this is called lying: ??. ???With Barry Bonds gone,??? Magowan said, addressing the [...]
Good post. You make some great points that most people do not fully understand.
“The deal is this, Sabean’s plan is easy to figure out, if you just watch what he does. He values veterans with proven track records over youth and inexperience. He has taken this strategy to it’s absurd extreme, and, in doing so, has completely derailed this franchise. Magowan has watched him do it, and is either blind to it, or thinks it’ll eventually work. Bottom line; these guys have failed. They have done so by choosing a course of action that disregards conventional wisdom, collective wisdom, and conventional –and unconventional– statistical analysis. It’s as if they have gone out of their way to try and prove that Bill James is wrong.”
I like how you explained that. Very helpful. Thanks.