Dear Baseball Gods,

I don't know why I'm writing this.  I suppose it's because I've been so busy with the start of the school year that I haven't been able to post very much on the MCC and I can't keep up with the deluge of posts after...after...what happened last night. 

So I am directing this plea to you. 

I don't even really believe in you.  But I'm getting closer.  I suppose I went from being a baseball atheist to being a baseball agnostic.  I used to role my eyes at any mention of you.  I used to not believe in silly things like jinxes and the other superstitions in baseball.  But I'm getting closer. 

I don't know how many of you there are or what your purposes are.  Is there a god of walks?  And, if so, why haven't you smote Kevin Youkilis, yet, for blasphemy?  How dare that mortal get the nickname "The Greek God of Walks?"  Is it because Boston, for whatever reason, is your new favorite city? 

Anyway, I just want to know why you guys hate San Francisco.  People talk about the Cubs all of the time.  And, sure, they haven't won the world series in a long time.  And Cleveland has a longer streak than us, as well.  But there isn't a team out there (and definitely not a city) that has had more baseball related pain than San Francisco. 

Not only has it been 51 years without a championship in SF, but it's been 55 years since a championship for the Giants franchise.  Long numbers to be sure.  But consider the ways that we have failed to win a championship and suddenly it becomes clear; San Francisco is paying for something. 

I can't for the life of me figure out what it would be, though.  It couldn't just be subjective, could it?  You guys don't like fog?  You're from the midwest?  One of you is a Dodger fan? 

Whatever the reason, I submit to you that we have paid.  We've paid ten fold.  We haven't just paid with McCovey's line drive and the Cards' 87 comeback and the 93 season and 2000 and Game 6 and Cruz' Jr's dropped fly ball and Finley's grand slam. 

We've also paid with the great teams of the 60's not quite being great enough in a time when only one team from each team went to the playoffs.  We've paid with having to attend games at Candlestick Park.  We've paid with the hypocritical treatment of Barry Bonds.  We've paid with being singled out for our cheering of the best player in the game for the past generation.  We've paid with Armando Benitez.   

Don't think for a minute that you can distract us from how you've been treating us.  We won't be satisfied with a no-hitter or a couple of cycles or a triple play or a cy-young season or an all-time home-run record; not when we keep getting royally screwed. 

This last job might be the most outrageous of them all.  You built up our hopes in a season that was meant to be about developing, only to crush them so monumentally.  How could our feelings be crushed in a season that was meant to be about reaching .500?   All while delaying the devlopment process of this current team.  That's instensely and creatively cruel.  

So I submit that we deserve a special end to this season.  We've paid for it, many times over.  We deserve to have a season like the 06 Cardinals or the 69 Mets.  I'll forgive you if you crush our hopes now, only to have them reborn in a blazing glory during a spectacular and miraculous end of the season.  I'll forgive you if we get to say "2009 Champion, San Francisco Giants"

Otherwise, I'm going to become a baseball Satanist.

Sincerely,

thehavenot