At least I was in the safe confines of my house…and much got destroyed that evening. Must have been a rough scene post game in the lot.

You’re spot on…still unbelievable.

I was sitting there in the south endzone upper deck watching it unfold almost in slow motion. Unbelievable to this day.

You would have to bring up Preston Riley. One of the worst days in my youth.

My brothers and I burned his card after the game.

I wonder how many nights Preston wakes up screaming.

We should be extremely worried about Sabean returning. Sad to say…it’s almost a lock. The Bay Area is blessed with an abundance of dual income wealthy households…hence a stable drawing audience regardless of championships. Just being competitive is good enough. The Bay Area also has been spared the wrath of the economy. There is enough disposable income obviously to draw 30,000 a game with an average team. The yard will sell itself…because, unlike most who post on this site…it’s mainly an event. Winning is secondary. As long as the seats remain filled…Mediocrity is en vogue.

Maybe the Rocks will fold up shop and give us a shot.

Baer has a monster ego. He reminds me of younger Bud Selig when Selig led the coup to wrest control of the Seattle out of bankruptcy and move them to Milwaukee. They both developed a knack for using other people money to reach the positions of power they both now enjoy and lord over folks. They are almost two peas in a pod, except Selig marketed used cars, and Baer came out of the communications media business.

The Giants of the last couple of years almost resemble the Brewers of years past when they were in the American League (Explain please how the Commissioner’s team is the only team to ever switch leagues by the way) Some old baseball cards picked up off the scrap heap of other teams, but go-along and get-along guys, the team floating under and over .500 periodically, and basically providing a nice little income for Selig and family, enabling Bud to be a big fish in a little pond.

Tiring of that after 20 years, he engineered the coup against Faye Vincent in a secret owners meeting, and finagled his way into getting appointed temporary commissioner for life by the other owners.

Baer really is a fan boy. He loves going to games, sitting and standing in the owners section always looking around to make sure people recognize him. Its impossible to believe, despite his protestations to the contrary, that he as team president, does not have extreme input into player acquisitions.

It wouldn’t surprise me one bit to find that both Selig and Baer lobbied the other partners to appoint Neukom as the new MGP. It was the last vestige of Bonds to be wiped out. I do know that Sabean was distraught when Baker was let go, as I recall that he and Baker collaborated on all player transactions almost as equals and that Magowan felt that he was being left out of the loop.

Its only speculation really. Who knows. All I know is that the Giants front office/ownership is nowhere close to being prepared to go balls out, head to head against the teams in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Boston, and battle them for championships.

It wouldn’t surprise me one bit that as Selig’s retirement nears, that we don’t hear the name of Baer getting floated around for Commish. Selig solidified his hold on the commissioner’s throne and his $14Million salary by locking up all the tv contracts and other mass media and making the other owners stupendously wealthy. Baer is in that same mold and has the happy-happy, joy-joy persona that plays well to tv viewers and the general public.

Truth be told, I don’t give a fuck who the Commissioner is. Commissioners are never ball players, and are therefore extraneous to the game itself. Commissioners are about, and conduct the business of, baseball owners and are employed primarily to generate large media contracts for owners, lie about their profits, and wage war against Player Agents and the Players Union.

Front offices and Management, and the Commissioner’s office have managed to strip away so much of the fun and escapism of baseball.

I blame it all on Charlie Commisky, Ban Johnson, and Kenisaw Mountain Landis

You’re right. We don’t get that every day. But maybe once before I die would be nice. Seasons like this are particularly maddening to me. It is like starving for 40 days and 40 nights, you stumble upon a steak house and just as you start to enter, they slam the door in your face to go on vacation.

It just that this franchise has so much unrealized potential and that it rests in the wrong hands in terms of taking it to the next level. The Moribitos did as good a job as they could do and got three playoffs against the Cowboys in the early 70s (I can still see Preston Riley muff that 4th quarter onside kick, that was recovered by the Cowboys and kept the Niners out of Superbowl VI.

The Giants need new blood and about another $25 – $40 million a year in payroll to do the things we all want. A complete house cleaning and streamlined front office with real baseball guys in charge who are not afraid of new knowledge blended with old knowledge and not afraid to accept sunk costs like the above-mentioned and go on from there.

In my opinion the way to do this is grab as many high OPS guys in the offseason as you can and keep discarding players until you get the ones who actually perform. Yeah its expensive, but its how you win championships, and if its not championships your pursuing at 100% get the fuck out of the way and let somebody who is run things.

It’s not just throwing money at the problem, though I believe that it can be done (see Huizenga in ’97) at a ruinous price.
Creating a culture of winning doesn’t make it so (see the Raiders of late).
Money and a winning culture seems to do well for the Yankees but not so well for the Braves.
Giving the team every opportunity to get to the post season doesn’t assure championships (see the Braves and the Bills).
You probably need to have all of these ingredients and luck in abundance to win championships, the arrival of a genius like Walsh, a star or two or three.
And the frustrating thing is that the Giants have so very few of these things. They have a couple of stars. This season they had some unforeseen luck. They have no genius. They have the embryo of a winning culture. They have no team leader. Their coach is sleep inducing dull and an ex-Padre to boot. The general manager may as well be in the employ of the Dodgers. Larry Baer really seems only to care about filling the seats and making a buck. The new managing general partner doesn’t inspire confidence with his soft talk and bow tie. It’s hard to find a scrap of hope.
After several seasons of sickening failure it is clear that there should be some changes. The first and biggest change was McGowan. I think the next will be Sabean, and possibly Baer will be drawn back from the day to day operations he seems to want to continue to dick around with (You stick with marketing Larry, it’s what you do best. When we want your baseball opinion we’ll tell it to you). There is a good chance Bochy will stay because he is perceived as having done a lot with very little, and that isn’t entirely wrong. When it comes to managers we are all back seat drivers and will yell about whoever has the job. But even Bochy may get the boot. Isn’t it pretty to think so.

But a winning franchise, an Eddie D, is as rare a Lincacum. A Steinbrenner or an Al Davis are rare and few and far between. If it was easy, if it was common, it wouldn’t be worth it.
I remember walking in the city on a Sunday morning years ago, wondering why there was so little traffic, then suddenly hearing the sound of thousands of people, in their houses, in bars, all screaming and shouting all around and all at once. Montana had just completed a pass in the end zone.
We don’t get that every day.

You have to look at his comments in the context of what the Giants actually do, not what we hope we hear. Again let me repeat what he said. He didn’t say getting to the playoffs was a good thing. What he said was this, paraphrased:

” Despite a lot of people criticizing them for being unable to win the big one except that one time, the Atlanta Braves being able to win 14 division titles was perhaps the greatest achievement in professional sports”

And than he goes on to talk about their pitching staff. blah blah blah.

And this is where you, and I part company. You would rather have 14 seasons of being competitive and bullshit yourself into thinking thats a dynasty. I would rather win a world series and slam champagne all over my teammates and hold up finger and say “I’m number one, and you’re not and fuck your 14 consecutive second-places.

That was Eddie D’s motto. He hired himself the smartest guy to ever coach an NFL franchise and was never satisfied with his 14 or whatever consecutive NFL West playoff appearances. Every year he was committed to not winning the division or making the playoffs or even winning the NFC title game. His stated and practiced goal was to win the fucking superbowl every fucking year and take no fucking prisoners in the process. And he spent whatever it took and treated every single one of his players like royalty…not chattel the point where every single free-agent in the NFL would have sold their first born into slavery to play with the 49ers.

There is only one winner at the end of the season. Nobody gives a fuck about 14 times an also-ran. Its like coming in second in a presidential election. Nobody gives a fuck and certainly posterity does not. If being good also-rans is your thing the 1960s Giants were your team. Great players and “meaningful” games every September with future HOFers Marichal, Mays McCovey Perry and Cepeda. And if thats good enough for you thats fine and good for you. Thats entertainment.

But I’m more of the Vince Lombardi school, because winning is the only thing, it is everything. If you’re satisfied paying top dollar for 2nd drawer than there is nothing wrong with that. Its personal opinion and preference. Frankly, I’ve been around too long and am too fucking competitive to be satisfied with “meaningful” and “exciting” and “almost” horseshit.

The Giants have all the resources necessary to win a championship. Market. Stadium. Fan Base. Favorable Media. And they can barely play above .500 ball in the face of one of the great pitching staffs in recent memory.

Eddie DeBartolo is getting enshrined into the 49er HOF tomorrow and will be honored at Candlestick on Sunday. He is in town. Perhaps Mr. Neukom and Mr. Sabean might want to take some advice from Eddie D on what it takes to be a winner. Because right now the only fucking place these two are going to end up is in Wikipedia in some vague reference to baseball suits.

I am fucking sick to shit of people making fucking excuses for these losing suckbags. Have fucking fun striving to be an also-ran.