# The Rockies wanted a pitcher who would reach the majors quickly. They could have thought Lincecum was that pitcher.

this makes me lol irl because yeah that worked out very well for them!

I love reading the old draft threads.

We should send him a “Thank you for being an ineffective weenie” arrangement from FTD.

I just received one of these from my boss.

I admit that i’m pessimistic to the core but i’m also a student of schopenhauer and nietzsche so i’m entitled to be a chronic whiner

67M: I see that your avatar is Charlie Brown. I can’t help but notice the irony in that. But to be fair, I’ll allow you this: if the A’s were a Peanuts character, who would they be, and why?

Grant: Violet. Nobody cares or pays attention to her, but for some reason she’s a total jerk to Charlie Brown.

That there is what you call an indian blog burn

Grant: Nailed it.

•We’re not Cubs fans. That’s just a level of torture I’d like to not even think about. But damned if we’re not giving them a run for their money.
•And we’re not Indians fans. I liken Indians fans to Sisyphus coming down the mountain. He doesn’t even bother entertaining optimism anymore. If things start looking up, he doesn’t raise his hopes—-he knows that rock is coming right back down the hill. In order to avoid suicide as an answer, one must imagine Sisyphus happy.
That should be on Cleveland’s license plate.
•We don’t wear that pessimistic moniker as well as Philly fans…but we’d like to think we could….

This franchise has seen plenty of championship success…in New York. With so much amazing history tied to this organization, I think as a fan I want to see competitive teams that don’t flat-out embarrass the tradition that’s spanned from coast-to-coast.
However, there is a certain degree of pathetic pride taken in debating with Cubs/Indians fans about who is actually further from winning the next championship, and pointing to the post-Bonds offense as kind of a trump card. “If our best pitchers throw slightly better than their ERA and limit the opponent to 2 runs, we probably lose. You ever hear of a World Series game being won with 0 runs? I could blindly pick someone from your lineup and immediately slot him at 3rd or 4th for the Giants, and improve the offense.”

oh, and god bless the baseball gods for bringing us Tim Lincecum.
that is surely worthy of some kind of rawhide sacrifice on the mound of Doubleday Field.

This a great post, because it’s important to remind ourselves just how lucky we are to be able to watch this guy pitch for the Giants—-much like how lucky we were to watch Bonds play 15-odd years wearing the French Vanilla.

Listening to the late innings of last night’s game, I was getting seriously stoked. It felt like a lot more than just a regular season game, it felt like an EVENT: the Giants fans at the Coliseum getting louder and louder every jam that Timmy got out of, Jon Miller’s voice rising on every strike he threw in the 8th and 9th, the excitement building as it became clear the he was going to pitch a complete game…Brian Murphy really hit the nail on the head this morning by comparing Lincecum to late 90’s Pedro Martinez. That’s exactly who he’s like, and that’s exactly how it feels watching his starts. They’re a big, big deal.

I’m not a pessimistic whiner.

/sips wine
/nibbles on cheese

We should acknowledge our good fortune, at times. And Timmy is, indeed, at the top of that list, currently.

Other good fortune, of varying degrees: Matt Cain, Sergio Romo, Panda.

And from the past: Bonds, Mays, Marichal. Oh, and did I mention Barry Bonds? Because Barry Bonds was awesome. Yep. I think I should mention Barry Bonds.

Gotta love the Pinot gray from that really bad year. You know, the 2002 strike year.

Brian’s on XM in the next few minutes, on “Inside Pitch” with Jeff Joyce.

I like to think I am usually positive about things. I do have my bad moments, of course, but in general I usually am optimistic.

Case in point: my post in last nite’s recap thread.

i save my optimistic anti-whining for my inner solilioilioquys
i am guilty as hell of complaining and whining, so here are some things i am thankful for…

1. competitive games that i care to watch all the way through. that hasnt happened in a long time
2. i can honestly say that i dont know much about college players and the mlb draft, but i was very very excited by predraft reports that we were getting lincecum. and, we did get him. kind of the same way i felt about the niners and michael crabtree.
3. pablo is so goddamned fun to watch, even when he strikes out he is endearing.
4. i actually watch barry zito pitch now. i actually watch aaron rowand’s at bats…inconceivable to consider before the season started
5. just saying “the giants are the wildcard leader” is life affirming
6. i love the fact the will clark is part of the organization again
7. our minor leagues are full of exciting players that i look forward to seeing and cheering for

besides that, everything sucks and it is brian sabean’s fault

It is just the way my brain is wired.

I get angry at Giants players when they fail. It doesn’t matter if it is their fault or not. I get angry anyway. I want this team to win more than a lot of other things in my life that should have more importance.

It is kind of silly to be honest. I offer no excuses.

That the O’s could have drafted Lincecum really stings. I suppose the silver lining is that it likely hastened the departure of the front office staff that was responsible. Grant noted that if the Giants had drafted Albert Pujols earlier, they wouldn’t have Lincecum now. But even if the Orioles had taken Lincecum, they’d still have Wieters. And given the history of prospects, one can say that a Cy Young winner in the hand is better than an MVP candidate in the bush.

i am asbsolutely a pessimistic whiner, until first pitch when i become a brainless tub of fan goo. once the game ends, i’m back to being a pessimistic whiner. rinse and repeat.

At the beginning of a gameday thread?

I just like having fun games to watch.

Last night at the game there was a guy sitting in the front row of my section with a green shirt on and a Dodger’s hat. He was equally booed by both A’s and Giants fans. From the back I thought it was an A’s shirt he was wearing, but when he got up I saw that it was a Dale Earnhardt Jr. t-shirt. The guy was getting heckled all night. It was great. For the first time I felt some real solidarity with the A’s fans.

was there a lot of hype about pujols before he broke onto the scene? didn’t he kind of show up out of relative anonymity?

Anyone else watching the US-Spain match right now? OMGWTFFIFA!

It’s funny they have to steal stuff from San Francisco and paint it call it their own

But reading this gives me warm fuzzies inside

Back when the Giants were good, I was optimistic and looked on the bright side of things. Even when they did something seemingly crazy, like the Matt Williams trade, I took a wait-and-see attitude. As soon as the Giants beat the Braves in the 2002 NLDS, I predicted the Giants would win the World Series. Too bad tragedy struck and the World Series was cancelled halfway through Game Six.

When they started sucking, I became the pessimistic whiner you describe. Some might call this a wild personality swing – I call it realism. With a touch of bitterness added in.

Now that they’re doing okay again, I’m finding it hard to shake the pessimism. For this season, at least. I’m very optimistic about the future, provided Sabean doesn’t screw it all up (see, there’s the pessimism creeping in again!).

(damn, or is “An optimist is a pessimist who is not in full possession of the facts”?)

I don’t like to think of myself as a pessimistic whiner. I am a bitterness artist™.

cuz then the warriors wouldn’t suck so much amirite?

I remember most of the Giants’ fanbase being almost irrationally optimistic from 1997 (Dustiny!) until a certain game in October of 2002. After that, it’s going to be whining and pessimism until the Giants finally, you know….

I don’t think I’m either with regards to the Giants. Generally in life I feel like most everything is outside of my control anyway, and when it comes to baseball it definitely is, so I just accept whatever the case is and feel good or bad according to the circumstance. What is is, and all that. No point hoping, no point whining. Just enjoy what’s good and endure what’s bad.

The tone really changed after 2002. I wonder why? The Giants fans will never be happy until they win a championship, perhaps even two. I know I feel like I had my dog ran over by a drunken Angles team that had just stolen my car when they lost in ‘02, and it’s likely going to take a World Series win just to neutralize that feeling. The complete mishandling of the roster as Bonds (03-08) was here and then phased out also contributes to the whining.

My wife and I first got together in late 2001, so 2002 was her first experience real experience of my Giants fandom. She was into basketball when she was younger, but had never really watched baseball.

Anyway, I was so moody during and after Game Six and the fallout thereof that, when the next season started, she told me, “I’m sorry, but I kind of hope the Giants don’t make the playoffs this year.”

Whee!

/this is obviously a fictional story, that World Series never happened, etc.

and even as the game ended i still was jazzed i got to go to a world series game AND that our team was going to be a force.

2003 was a blast because of how well we played all year.

2004 was great because of what bonds was able to accomplish.

2005 i was ok with because i thought it would be great that we finally get a high draft pick (that turned into timmy!)

2006 was a joke, but even though we pretty much sucked i was also stoked we had 3 first round draft picks thanks to this crappy season (which gave us madbum, timmy 2, and a project still in the works)

2007 was the road to 755 and the all star game.

2008 was the road to repair without bonds, timmy became the best pitcher in the NL, AND we finally got some of the best deals for tickets since the Big Phone opened.

2009 is great because we have the panda, timmy, a new zito, cain taking his game to the next level, and we are staying competitive.

so i’d basically say i’m an optimist (and am really good at overlooking the negative).

we still have an amazing stadium, a strong cash flow, prospects in the low minors everyone wants, a pair of aces in our rotation, a fun team, and all the wine and cheese we want. who wouldn’t want to be a giants fan?

so pessimistic whining is already second-nature to me.

We put on a show of jaded ironic pessimism because we can’t fess up to the fact that deep down we are slobbering fanboys/girls with an irrational conviction that this is the year the Giants win it all.

Not me, mind you. But I have this friend.