Cause They're Free...Free Falling....
Another day, another loss…
We heard part of the game driving home from work and hoped to watch it at the gym only to discover that they were showing "Stargate Something-or-Other" instead. It wasn't until we were driving home from the gym and heard someone on KNBR talk about phone lines being lit up with angry callers that we knew they had lost.
All things considering, we were kind of glad we missed out this game. Nothing like watching a game in which runners were on base every inning without any of them scoring to bring the pain (seriously, how hard is it to friggin’ hit a fly ball into the outfield to score at least one run?). And nothing like yet another lame-ass pitcher suddenly discovering their inner Clemens to raise the blood pressure.
This road trip, the road trip we thought would be more about the beginning of a glorious playoff run, is actually proving two completely different things about this team. First of all, they really are the even-steven team: win five in a row, lose five in a row. It's pretty uncanny actually. The second thing is that this team truly does play down to it's opponents and nothing proves it more than the motley collection of pitchers who have handcuffed the Gints this road trip. If the Giants were ever to face Clemens or Pedro, we're actually pretty sure they'd hit them. It's only the Kip Wells and Pedro Astacio's who worry us. Hell, if we were signed to a major league contract for a day and faced the Giants for a game with our blazing 45 MPH fastball and patented whiffle ball curve, we're pretty sure we could throw a three hitter.
And you know what? Frankly, we don't really care that much that they lost. We're over it, really. Seriously. For real this time.
Last Wednesday's game, the Benitez blow up, felt like some sort of climax, of some sort of wave cresting and building and then crashing. People were into the season and into the team-- there was a buzz in the air, that sense of anticipation that something magical was about to happen. But it didn't. It reminded us of Game 6 or the Jose Cruz Jr. game in '03, the sort of game that made it feel like it was all over even though technically the team was still alive and could win. We knew it in our heads, we knew it in our guts, and we even knew it in our hearts
On KNBR, the callers calling in to voice their anger had a dint of desperation in their voices, like they were going through two stages of mourning at once-- anger and bargaining—and were trying to talk themselves into believing that one trade, one roster move, one lineup change could make a difference.
On Brian Sabean’s radio show, he and Ralph Barbieri get into it and both sound like they're about to come to blows. But elsewhere, it was different. Grant on McCovey Chronicles posted cat pictures and decided to have a game thread that wasn't about baseball. And we went out and bought our first fantasy football guide.
Sure, the Giants could rally again and probably will. We foresee at least another winning streak and all this doom and gloom pass by again, but we just don't think we'll be so eager to believe it'll mean anything. Once bitten, twice shy, or so they say.
We hate baseball.