In a promotion that worked way beyond anyone could have thought, the Giants held '80s night for last Friday night's game against the A's. They played 80's music, they busted out their old orange uni tops, they played old commercials, and they even made it cold and foggy at AT&T just to give it that old Candlestick feeling.
And then they took it to another level. They busted out Crazy Crab. The Crab Revolution will be televised.
He came out of nowhere, he chest bumped Lou Seal, he chest bumped the A's Elephant, he ran around the bases. The crowd went nuts. Well, at least those who know who Crazy Crab was as rumor had it not everyone knew who he was, but everyone thought it was funny when the Crab suddenly ran out of nowhere to tackle the A's mascot during a tricycle race. But whatever. It was inspiring.
And no, the Giants did not credit the Crab insurgents for their startling turn of face in bringing back the Crab-- they had blown off all earlier calls for the return of the Crab, but our connection with the Crustacean Liberation Coalition sent us a secret video-taped message letting us know how excited they were. Their mission was accomplished. And we would like to add that considering of one of the CLC co-founders is someone deeply involved in the netroots movement, we are happy that the netroots actually won something.
But despite the Crab, and the 80s cheese, and the orange unis-- something so inspiring that Barry Bonds saw fit to steal a base-- a whole other kind of flashback was the story of the day. No, not an "I Love the 80's" kind of a flashback, but a more recent and much more troublesome kind of flashback, the complete choking suckiness of Armando Benitez. After blowing several games and being booed by the hometown faithful, after whining to the press and making Felipe come out to his defense, Armando came into a big, huge, playoff atmosphere type game and promptly gave up two runs to blow a 3-2 lead. That is not good. Not good at all, Armando. Not good at all.
On McCovey Chronicle's, the question is raised: Does Crazy Crab throw right-handed or left-handed?