Thank you, 2009 Giants

I've always considered myself to be an intelligent fan. One who understands just how hard it is to win a championship—and how much harder it is to win it again. I believe this understanding is due in large part to the fact that I chose my teams at an early age and have never remotely considered switching allegiances. I'm a person whose opinion of “bandwagon” fans has ranged from curiosity to outright vehemence. Back in the day, I even co-wrote a song called “Pseudofans” that was meant to include a Jim Carrey sample proclaiming said fans were “pathetic losers.”

But for me, the biggest reason to stay loyal to your teams is because of the journey. If one switches their rooting interests around based on who's good at that particular moment, they miss the joy of seeing the maturation of their team from also-rans to champions. Victory after repeated defeat is magnified ten-fold. It is for this reason that this post is dedicated to the 2009 San Francisco Giants. They won't win the World Series this year—and they might not ever win it. But they've given me something great nonetheless. Hope. Hope that someday my Giants will rise up and break the 3rd longest (and least recognized) drought in World Series history. The 2002 team almost made up for the 1989 team's humiliation, and perhaps someday another team will come along to erase both of their failures. Until that time, I will enjoy the growth of the San Francisco Giants. I will celebrate them not for their mediocrity; a championship is still the only thing that counts. But I will carefully track their progress and applaud excellence when I see it.

To that end: Thank you, Dave Righetti, for all the work you've done with the pitching staff. The team jumped from 17th to 2nd in ERA, led all of MLB in Shut-Outs with 18 (5 more than the next team) and Complete Games with 11. They also gave up 90 less runs in '09 versus '08. The team had increase in wins of 16, but only managed to score 17 more runs. Thank you, staff, for carrying the team.

Individual Thanks to:

Tim Lincecum—in his follow-up to last year's Cy Young winning campaign, he arguably had a better year, again leading the league in strikeouts and tying with teammate Matt Cain for the league lead in CG (4).

Speaking of Cain, the game's active leader in lowest run support finally had some things fall his way as he made the All-Star team for the first time and combined with Lincecum to form one of the best pitching duos in the game.

Randy Johnson—his 2009 season was looked upon by many as a last-ditch attempt to reach 300 wins. In actuality, Johnson was very competitive—amassing 8 wins before the All-Star break and the injury that cut deeply into his season. But even while hurt, Johnson took on a mentor role for the young pitching staff and did much to dispel the notion that he was nothing more than a self-serving a-hole.

Jonathan Sanchez—one of Johnson's pet projects started slow, but quickly developed into yet another fine young Giants pitcher. But for me, he'll always be best known for throwing the first Giants no-no in a generation during the one game this year I got to watch with my dad and my brother (cue Field of Dreams music now).

Barry Zito—his second half started to remind us that he actually was a great pitcher at one time. Still relatively young, Zito might actually start to make his contract look a little less absurd.

Brian Wilson—he won't make anyone forget Robb Nen with 7 blown saves, but the 38 he cashed in were impressive nonetheless.

Brad Penny—released by Boston after the trade deadline, Penny signed with Giants and paid immediate dividends. In 6 games, he was 4-1 with a 2.59 ERA and the only reason that ERA was so high was because in that one loss, Penny gave up 7 ER in 2-2/3 innings. In short, he was a huge pickup for the Giants' playoff push.

Joe Martinez, Madison Bumgarner, and Ryan Sadowski—the Giants pitching staff looks to be getting only stronger.

On the offensive side:

Thanks to Eugenio Velez—in August, he gave the Giants a sparkplug at the top of the order and played stellar defense. It's no coincidence that when his average dropped 33 points for the month of September, the Giants' offense sputtered and the losses came a little more frequently.

Aaron Rowand—he played every game like it was his last and continues to be a great leader in the clubhouse.

Bengie Molina—not your proto-typical clean-up hitter, but a good RBI man nonetheless.

Freddy Sanchez—the trade deadline deal paid immediate dividends, but a nagging injury prevented the former All-Star from having the desired impact.

Juan Uribe—despite being a part-time player, Uribe hit 16 homeruns (one of only 4 Giants in double digits). He played so well, Bochy was forced to find room for him. Unfortunately, Ryan Garko's lack of production made that decision all too easy.

Pablo “Kung Fu Panda” Sandoval—in only his first full season, Pandoval was 2nd in the league in BA (.330) with 25 HR and 90 RBI. Just think what he'll do when he learns how to hit (he only walked 52 times). But what's most impressive is that Panda has arguably already become the most beloved Giant since Mays. As great as Bonds was (and we did see him do some frickin' ridiculous things), he was never embraced—mostly by his own doing—like Sandoval has been. Panda masks are everywhere in the City, and if he continues to develop, MLB would be very foolish indeed not to cash in on the incredible good will this ambidextrous, overweight, free-swinging anomaly seems to effortlessly generate.


Management:

Brian Sabean—the architect of this team built a formidable pitching staff from top to bottom. For the first time in recent memory, the Giants' pitching could be considered the best in the league—and for a while they actually were. The onus is on him now to bring in the bats to complement what's already there without disrupting team chemistry. Not an easy task for sure, but the man who once traded Matt Williams for Jeff Kent and other crucial pieces of the '97 playoff run seems up to the task.

Bruce Bochy—I was not a fan of the hire initially, but this year the biggest (literally, not figuratively) head in the game proved to contain some shrewd managerial skills. Now, if he can just have some more bats to plug into the order...

Kruk and Kuip:

I love these guys and miss them calling the game. Both incredibly knowledgable and personable, each has their own quirks. Krukow is always talking to the “kids at home” to point out how to do something and has the goofiest laugh I've ever heard. Kuiper is usually the straight man, but his homerun call (“He hits it high. He hit it deep. It is OUTTA HERE!!!”) always gives me chills. But most impressively, both Mike Krukow and Duane Kuiper walk the fine line between blatant homerism and myopian foolishness. No one has any doubt who these guys are rooting for as they're calling the game, but neither hesitates in the slightest to give either praise or criticism to any player, be he Giant or not.

Final Word:

The Winter Meetings are coming. Like many of my fellow Giants fans, I appreciate all the hard work the team has done to this point. But now the real work begins. Expectations will only be higher for 2010.

Why Our Logo Rocks

As we rapidly approach the NBA season, my attention naturally turns to the defending champs. I saw this on "Forum Blue and Gold" (my new favorite Lakers site) and thought it was worth sharing. Just a little commentary on the Lakers team logo. Enjoy.

"Then the Lakers moved to Los Angeles where their nickname made no sense. Some half-wit designed a logo with streaky lines and a swooping watery ‘R’ and then kicked back to wait for the Jazz to move to Utah so that people would forget how nonsensical the Laker name was by comparison. Objectively, this logo is lame. But the longer they use it, unchanged with only minor alterations, the more vastly superior it becomes.

When I look at the Lakers logo, it says: “This is our logo. We’re the Lakers. What’s that in our logo? It’s a basketball. Why? Because we’re the basketball team from Los Angeles. What’s our mascot? What do you mean? You think we’re concerned that our team name has no obvious personification, and we’re going to have some kind of Steeley McBeam debacle? Please. Our mascot is Kobe Bryant’s middle finger. What’s that? You’ve noticed that some idiot named Bob Short decided that one of our primary colors should be purple? You think that’s kind of (lame)? Let me refer you to our mascot. We’re the Lakers. (Screw) you.”

How Good Is the Giants' Pitching This Year?

My new favorite Giants stat for this year: Their pitching staff is on pace to give up 162 less runs this year--a full run less per game. They'll almost certainly have a winning record and come close to making the playoffs. Their offense however will probably only score a couple more runs than last year's 90-loss team.

The Mamba Turns 31

Can't believe I didn't see this earlier, but here's a great list of Kobe Bryant moments to celebrate the Mamba turning the big 3-1. There's also links to videos showing things like all of Kobe's 81 in 3 minutes. And yes, the Ben Wallace dunk from his rookie year.

Just To Clarify...

So I started to simply reply to one of Grind-Core Boy's comments about his mighty Phil's and their chances against the Giants should they meet in the postseason, but then my thoughts seemed to mutate a little. I'll include the comments here and continue. That being said, in reference to my recent post "Brad Penny: Act One," you'll notice I said "if" we get any clutch hitting. That's a big "if". Heck, some games any hits are hard to come by. More than team since the early Shaq/Kobe Lakers, this Giants team can make you swing from chest-thumping proud to crying shame misery. To quote the great Al Pacino "Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in."

But on a more positive note, the Seahawks were 4-0 in the preseason and looked pretty sharp under new coach Jim Mora Jr. and I can't wait to see what Aaron Curry can do. Okay, I'm psyched about their entire linebacking core and expect relative (division champs and entertaining football) greatness from them this year. Houshmandzadeh should be a very nice pickup and if Hasselbeck stays healthy, they should score a crap-load of points. Who knows? Maybe there's even still life in Edgerrin James' legs. Regardless, I'll be sporting my Lofa Tatupu (is there a funner name to say in all of sports?)jersey and yelling at the TV in no time.

And of course, basketball's just around the corner. There was this little gem from the O.C. Register's Janis Carr:

"All I can say is thank goodness for Ron Artest. He quickly has become the eyes and ears of Lakers fans via Twitter.

He reported Thursday that he arrived at the gym early, early in the morning for a hard workout, but once inside, he discovered he wasn’t alone.

'3rd workout done. Let me tell why I LOVE KOBE “JELLY BEAN”BRYANT! I Get to the gym at 6:45,the Black Mamba gets there at 5:30! Go Lakers!!!'

Apparently Bryant, too, is eager for the season. Aren’t we all?"

I'd say so, and isn't it great to see the reigning Finals MVP continuing to stay hungry for that one-for-the-thumb? I can't wait for this season to start.

Lincecum's Tough Luck

I just want to say how much it sucks that Tim Lincecum has now pitched 7 GAMES in which he has given up 2 or less earned runs and not gotten a win. I love my team's pitching, but the offense has got to step up. Colorado had already lost and there just won't be that many more chances to cash in. If nothing else, maybe the offense will be guilted into scoring runs. In order to preserve a long-term Lincecum Giant tenure, they better do something soon and far more consistently.

Brad Penny: Act One

Brad Penny made his first start for the Giants tonight and it was a good one. After a tough loss to the Phils last night when Hamels was just a bit better than J. Sanchez, Penny picked up his teammates in a huge way. Every game is practically a "must-win" down the stretch for this team, what with Colorado playing great ball, but the Giants' pitching is just so tough. If they do make it to the playoffs and get any kind of clutch hitting at all, they could be so dangerous. It's possible that the opposition could face Lincecum 3 TIMES in a given series. Cain's been great this year too and Sanchez is obviously capable of having no-hit stuff on any given night. Johnson will probably make it back and Penny's been clutch throughout his career. But most encouraging (and pleasantly surprising), Barry Zito has been arguably one of the best pitchers in the NL since the All-Star break. He's definitely been the most dominant Giant--even lowering his ERA by more than a run. However a post-season rotation would go, there wouldn't be a bum in the bunch and the bullpen would be freakishly deep.