I had a scary realization the other day, the 2002 game 6 was on classic sports, my father and I watched roughly 10 seconds of it before we realized we were torturing ourselves. I commented how terrible that day was. My fathers reply was shit, I thought that was finally it, I still haven’t seen them get a ring…My dad’s 50. This organization has been truly that inept that this much time has passed? We wasted the best player of our generations prime and are now wasting the best pitching staff in team history by giving them no offense. For god’s sake, how is it possible that we can only assemble half a team all the time? All signs out of SF early on point to no real changes to come either… Please, PLEASE Mr. Neukom, sell the Giants to Mark Cuban so this team can finally be run competently with a front office that’s as passionate as it’s great fan base.

And except for Pablo Sandoval, one of the most irritating and annoying Giants teams in my memory.

Steaming pile of shit on the field, in the dugout, and in the front office.

Today, somewhere in the world, a kid is discovering baseball. This kid will soon begin to follow the sport at the Major League level, find a team or teams to cheer for, find some players that he will worship, put pennants on his wall, collect baseball cards, join Little League and begin a lifetime affair with the great, true American pastime.

Over 40 years ago, I came home from school in late March, went into my room and sifted through my fledgling shoebox full of baseball cards. I had started reading the “Green Sheet” each morning at breakfast and knew the lineup of the San Francisco Giants by heart. Despite my parents orders to go to bed and go to sleep, I had a small transister radio with an earpiece under my mattress which I would turn on and listen to Russ and Lon announce the games on the radio. Back then, the Giants were on TV (black and white) only when they travelled to Los Angeles. There was absolutely nothing more exciting to me than to sit with my dad in front of that small TV on a Friday night and finally get to see the “real Giants” on the tube. As I looked at my cards I noticed something on my pillow. There were two tickets. Two tickets to see the Giants play the Dodgers at Candlestick Park. To this day, I can remember how I felt. I ran out of my room and gave my dad probably the biggest hug of my life.

A few weeks later we drove to Candlestick Park. I had travelled by it many times on the Bayshore Freeway when my dad would take me to his office in San Francisco from our home in San Mateo. Now, we drove up and the anticipation was amazing. I had my glove. We got out of the car and I heard the New Orleans style dixieland music. The smell of cigars, popcorn and cooking hot dogs was everywhere. We walked up the ramps of that barren concrete park and I saw people from walks of life that I had been sheltered from. We came to the top and suddenly it was like I had been transported beyond Earth. There through the opening was the greenest grass I ever saw. We walked down the aisle to our seats between home and first base. Willie Mays, Willie Mac, Jose Pagan, Jim Davenport……all on the field warming up. The Dodgers were out on the field as well. I hadn’t developed what would eventually become a pathological hatred of them and their city. I was too enthralled with the moment.

Fast forward over 45 years. I have been a devoted fan since. I went to the Stick with my dad throughout the 60’s. Went with my pals in the 70’s until I moved away. Would come back in the 80’s and 90’s. Went to see the Giants in Chicago, St. Louis, Colorado, San Diego, Minneapolis. Oh, did I forget to tell you of the two years I lived in LA? Hardly missed a game let alone a series at the Latrine when the Giants came to town. Got spit on, beer poured on me, threatened. I cold cocked a Dodger fan before a game even started when I caught him wiping his snot on my Giants jersey and was thrown out of the park.

I started a “Giants hotline” as a joke when I lived in Wisconsin in the 80’s, using my answering machine to give a synopsis of the prior days game and had strangers calling to hear it. I held a party in my Madison, Wisconsin apartment for the 1989 World Series, only to listen in horror all the misinformation about the Bay Bridge having “collapsed” and then calling friends to see if they were alive.

I took my aging dad to the Stick in 1999 for the final series at the Park and saw him cry in the parking lot after the game as a long era in our lives closed.

I can’t tell you how many hours of my life I’ve watched the Giants on TV, in front of a computer or listening on the radio. I demanded that my Little League teams be the Giants. I guess I did what a lot of men do after their wild fantasy of being a major league ballplayer long passes…..we live vicariously with the team of our childhood.

But, you know what Mr. Neukum? I’m done.

The Giants and baseball have worn me out. I’ve lost my passion and loyalty. Maybe free agency started it. Maybe seeing ex-Dodgers play for the Giants and ex-Giants play for the Dodgers began a slow erosion of the kind of loyalty fans and kids had 40 years ago. But more than that, I’ve lost my passion because I’ve spent too many days of my life watching futility. Some fans count the years in New York when they compare us to other franchises. I don’t. I hate New York Mr. Neukom. I love San Francisco. And in the 51 years the Giants have been in San Francisco……all but 6 years of my 57 on earth…they haven’t won the ring. Not once. That is unacceptable for a franchise in one of the most beautiful areas in the world. Can you explain it Mr. Neukom? No, you can’t.

I am not the type of fan who is satisfied with a “playoff contender”. I wanted to see the Ring.

You sir are a part of an ownership group who accepts mediocracy and has no accountability in your soul. Fill the seats, get the revenue, “build the business”….that’s what counts. The fact that you would extend the contract of two incompetent men, Brian Sabean and Bruce Bochy speaks volumes. I’ll let others fill in the specifics about Mr. Sabean’s record of failure. Yes, failure. As for Bruce Bochy, he’d manage to fail if you gave him the NL All Star team for his starting 9. A mediocre manager at best who was gladly let go from his prior job.

I’m sure this offseason you’ll authorize some trades and free agent signings. I’m sure the majority of the fan base will quickly forget the past and like the child of an alcoholic parent, they’ll once again hope that all is good and pure.

Not me. I’m done.

No, I’m not jumping ship to root for some other team. I’m not telling my son to not root for whatever team he wants. I’m simply worn out from watching year after year of mediocracy. I’ll just watch some Little League games now, spend more time outdoors rather than glued to the tube on a beautiful summer afternoon watching Andres Torres as our platooning lead off. The light went out Mr. Neukom…it was dimming but you pulled the plug.

So, that kid that is suddenly discovering what I did so many years ago may turn out to be a Giant fan. That first experience at a ball park will be forever etched into his memory. But we all grow up and grow old. We appreciate little things perhaps more than we ever did. I just wanted to see a team this year that didn’t have Edgar Renteria flaying around, Fred Lewis living up to his non-potential, Aaron Rowand playing despite his horrific performance after the break, a broken down Freddie Sanchez, a pathetic Ryan Garko, a complaining, whining Benjie Molina and certainly not wanting to see Bruce Bochy scratching his chin in bewilderment.

I could have lived with “the kids” developing. But when Buster Posey sat, Rowand started and the “kids” basically watched the last games of a season lost, I sat with them on that virtual bench. I was in complete awe of the fact that Bochy trotted out his same veteran based lineup for a totally meaningless game. For what? FOR WHAT?

I have nothing else to say Sir. I have nothing left.

Candlestickmike

The Giants announced that Brian Saitano and Bruce Thunderdome have been given 2 year contracts with a club option for a third.

I am sure that John may or may not have something to write/say/opine. If he still has the energy/interest/heart to even give a shit anymore.

But as for the missing strawberries, I think its time to off these fuckers and get with a franchise that actually is concerned and dedicated to winning baseball, and not operating a fucking amusement park on the waterfront.

Hate to say I told you so. But did anybody realistically believe that Bill Goerring Gate’s mouthorgan who made millions fucking taxpayers and consumers alike, was interested in trying to compete against the Moreno’s, Henry’s, Steinbrenners, MacCourts, Loria’s of this world on an even playing field?

Shitbirds like that only compete when they have all the cards in their favor, and in MLB, like any competitive sport that douches like that have clue zero about, guys like the Yankees, Angels, Red Sox, Dodgers, et al are not going to let that happen. Fuckers can’t even compete with the Twins anymore.

As for lefty-lefty righty-righty stuff, well, I see this is in Bochy’s favor, too. From a relievers end, their splits in any given year will always be too small a sample (since they just don’t accrue enough innings) to make a conclusion from – unless their whole career shows the opposite splits of what Bochy’s playing, it’s a good move by him because he’ll be right more times than not. From a hitter’s end, looking at their career stats is the best way to see what kind of platoon split they have rather than the season stats, though hitters over the course of the season will get enough PA’s (assuming it’s a starter) to make a decent conclusion. I dunno, I’m sure sometimes Bochy is making a bad decision on this stuff but I think more times than not when he gets criticized about it, it really is a defensible decision. He’s also a huge step up from Alou in this regard…

I personally like the way Bochy uses the bullpen, I think he does a great job of not getting too caught up in the modern bullpen structure and instead gets his best pitchers in the game in the most leveraged situations. That’s exactly what we want, so overall I actually like most of his in game decisions (except the ones where he pinch hits a lesser player over a better player, but that’s really just a product of the kind of thinking that created the terrible lineups he made in the first place).

“Small ball”, generally, is a losing strategy, so I don’t much care for it. Not making outs is how you win games, and until we start doing that better, it doesn’t matter what different strategies we’re trying, we just aren’t going to be a good offense or get the runs we need to make the playoffs.

Would a comanager be like a bench coach…?

Seriously, typical of the old foolers, although Vinnie the Elder, hadn’t been too bad in Atlanta, in 03 and back for one year with Colorado in 04 where he posted up a not too awful .867 OPS, the fact that Colorado chose not to resign him should have been the tip off. Bochy and Towers could not resist, even after a .150 point drop-off from the year before, where the fall-off had been about .150 points from the year before that as well. The fall-off was monumentally bad after that sinking to .722, (from his .867 with Colorado), with Washington who chose to say goodbye before the aforementioned .579 before going south of the border permanently from San Diego.

Besides, anytime Sabean says he respects somebody’s baseball acumen (and actually means it) run, do not walk, in the opposite direction.

Just sayin back