Joe Posnanski, on our loveable Giants
by Hobbes2d on Oct 3, 2010 11:32 PM PDT
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PrintSAN FRANCISCO — Here’s the thing that makes these San Francisco Giants different: They’re lovable. These Giants won the National League West title on Sunday with a 3-0 victory over San Diego, and it had been seven years, going back to 2003, since the Giants made the postseason. But a LOVABLE Giants team in the postseason? For that, you have to go back a long time… a long, long time.
"Somebody GIVE ME A HUG!" Giants reliever Sergio Romo shouted in the clubhouse as champagne splattered all around him. "Why am I standing all alone here? SOMEBODY ON MY TEAM GIVE ME A HUG!"
For all those years in the 1990s, in the early 2000s, the Giants were all about one man standing all alone… one brilliant, moody, thrilling, haunted, indomitable and often ticked-off man named Barry Bonds. He was so good at playing baseball, so preposterously good, that the San Francisco fans had to try and embrace him. They tried hard. He was the Charlie Parker of baseball, the Billie Holliday of baseball, the Marlon Brando of baseball, a pure genius, a force of nature, and San Francisco was awed by his magnificence. It is worth noting that for four years in a row, Barry Bonds’ on-base percentages were .515, .582, .529 and .609 — these happen to be four of the top nine in baseball since 1900. Yes, awe was the only viable response to Bonds’ genius as a baseball player, and so awe was what the Giants were about for the last couple of decades.
But this Giants team… no, this team isn’t about awe. This is a "somebody give me a hug" kind of team. Their best hitter, Aubrey Huff, has been on five different teams the last five seasons. Their closer, Brian Wilson, wears a tuxedo-black beard. Their ace, the pitching dude, Tim Lincecum, was asked on Sunday if he had thought about pitching on Monday — had the Giants lost the game, he would have had to pitch the one-game playoff for the division title. His response: Yeah, he thought about it. And because he thought about it, he didn’t have to think about it anymore. And that way he could enjoy the game. There’s a brilliant logic to it, if you think about it (but don’t think about it too much).....
http://joeposnanski.si.com/2010/10/03/these-lovable-giants/?eref=sihp
Couldn't agree more Joe, couldn't agree more. I love this team so much, they have been so much fun to watch this year.
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I WILL HUG YOU SERGIO ROMO
Supporting San Francisco Dugout since 2005 and Manny Burriss since 2006. Bringing you all your California League and New York-Penn League needs since 2009.
by BaronVonCurrentEvents on Oct 3, 2010 11:33 PM PDT reply actions 1 recs
Why hasn't anyone made the Romosexual shirts?
I’ll wear one on Friday if someone expedites it….
Proud of both my adopted son, Baggs, and my ward, Ryan LOLlis.
I love Poz
“He was the Charlie Parker of baseball, the Billie Holliday of baseball, the Marlon Brando of baseball, a pure genius, a force of nature, and San Francisco was awed by his magnificence.”
This is, without question, the best sentence I have ever read about Barry Bonds. Also good to know that he also notices how different public affection is for this team; the whole Bay Area seems like a 15 year old girl in terms of how big their crush is on the Giants. They never seemed to feel like that with a Bonds team.
Joe Pos is great. Before the game he said “did anyone else notice that the boos for David Eckstein were grittier than the boos for anyone else?” He also said when the Giants took a 2-0 lead, “sorry, I just don’t see two runs in the Padres lineup.” My favorite though was, “the Giants just had Rob Schneider address the crowd. SF just went down two notches in my book!”
Buster Posey: Let's enjoy him before he goes to the Yankees.
That is one thing I'm not looking forward to
People talking about how “likable” this team is compared to those Bonds teams. When they simply mean how nice it is that Bonds isn’t on the 2010 team.
"Too much awesome on my feet."-Brian Wilson
"Time for the laser show, boys!"- Aubrey Huff
Nah
I think you’re reading too much into that. This team is likable, period. Great guys and great comraderie.
Buster Posey: Let's enjoy him before he goes to the Yankees.
i agree
our team is full of baby-faced guys, fatties, cast-offs, and bearded weirdos who all seem to be having fun… if I were a fan of a non-playoff team I know I’d be rooting for this collection over anyone else.
First ever adoptee: Steven Michael Decker, our 2012 San Francisco Giants Manager/starting catcher.
Dodgers fans eat their young.
I think it refers to Kent too
Kent was a great player, but I never had any desire to have a beer with the guy.
Proudly adopted Aubrey Huff. You can't beat that!
i was all set to counter your "beer" defense,
but then i wrote somewhere in the middle of my diatribe:
drink-a-beer-abilibuddy appeal
and decided i’ll just stop here.
...Dr. Vader will see you now.
Agree
It does seem to be a thinly velied shot at Bonds. Because the truth is, at least in my recollection, those 1997-2003 teams were plenty likeable. I remember really liking those teams, especially the 1997 crew. But a popular way to take away from his contributions on the field is to imply that he somehow hurt the team off it.
Look at Baggs’ most recent post. I love reading Baggs but it seemed an especially gratuitous shot at Bonds on a day when the focus really should have been on this year’s team.
Reply Fail
Meant to agree with 49er16. Sorry, still kind of new to posting here.
Agreed.
I thought it was horseshit from Baggs to take a great day in Giants history and use it to paint another bad Barry Lamar Bonds picture in his postgame blog. It’s obvious that most of the media is sensitive and want to use any chance to attack Barry when they can because he was a surly fellow to them. I mean I may be in the minority on this one, but I just saw no reason at all to attack Barry on a great day.
by BustaTheRippa on Oct 5, 2010 11:52 AM PDT up reply actions
I generally have that feeling whenever a media member takes a shot at Bonds. It’s usually completely unnecessary and out of the blue, and just takes away from whatever subject they’re talking about.
by Missing Barry on Oct 5, 2010 11:54 AM PDT up reply actions
Minority or not . . .
. . . is hard to say, but for sure you are not alone.
Sabean delenda est!
Professional baseball analyst since 1980.
Whetehr it is fueled by likabilityor awe, i couldn’t give a crap how a team gets to the WS which i think this team has a shot at doing. I didn’t care whether or not i wanted to have lunch with anyone on the 2001 team.
Q: Did you ever make an offer for Vladimir Guerrero?
Sabean: In a word: No. If we had signed Guerrero or [Gary] Sheffield, we would have been without [Long list of replacement level vets]—obviously not being able to field a competitive team, especially from an experience standpoint, given our level of spending.
Likability is important to me
Seeing the enjoying their moment yesterday meant a lot more to me because there are so many likable guys and great stories.
I’ve enjoyed previous Giants’ teams, but this one has meant more to me because they seem like so much fun, have had so many different contributions and have showed so much heart.
Proudly adopted Aubrey Huff. You can't beat that!
It's not the looks, it's the personality!
Obviously any links in the above post are probably NSFW
The baseball gods do not always punish the wicked but they will not just allow people to spit in their faces -- Joe Posnanski
I wish I would stop cheating. fuck. this is jctgamer's fault -- jponry
I'm going to side with Goofus on this one..
If this were a team of mercenaries say like the Yankees, it would not be as much fun. You would expect those guys to win. The 2010 Giants not so much.
Part of the Magic ™ of this team is that the cast of characters is very likeable. You could not write a much better script than the 2010 Giants.
I have have always been a Giants fan. I liked some teams better than others, and I always want the Giants to win. These guys are fun to root for, and easy to like.
Adopted Son: !Matt Downs I'll miss you my son.
Well, I’ve never really had the same opinions as many others here on the likability of everyone on our team, but I will say what I like about this team: homegrown players. Lincecum, Cain, Sanchez, Bumgarner, Wilson, Pablo, Posey, Torres (I consider him homegrown even though he isn’t), Romo – that’s a very large portion of the core of our team, and they’re all guys that came up with us. It’s so much easier to root for guys who have that connection with your team.
by Missing Barry on Oct 4, 2010 1:53 PM PDT up reply actions
Totally agree. though I have to say I find a lot of the outsiders to be pretty likeable, too, especially Huff, Burrell and Uribe.
My Bucardo is better than yours.
A hot August weekday, before a small crowd, when the only thing at stake is the tissue-thin difference between a thing done well and a thing done ill. Insofar as the clutch hitter is not a sportswriter's myth, it is a vulgarity, like a writer who writes only for money.
Cody Ross, Mike Fontenot, Ramon Ramirez and Javier Lopez
all seemed to be good guys who fit in real well right away too.
I’ll also give a shout out to Derosa and Rowand. Both of them weren’t able to contribute (for different reasons), but both never stopped supporting their teammates or whined about their situations.
Proudly adopted Aubrey Huff. You can't beat that!
Quite true, though i just can’t feel any likability about Rowand. This is in part due to an overwhelming, unexplained hatred that I had for that White Sox team (maybe it was explained: AJ poisons all). Also, it seemed clear to me through the late summer of ’07 that we were going to make a hard run at Rowand that winter and it just filled me with a crushing feel of impending dread. Three years later I now know that my dreadometer was functioning at peak efficiency.
But on the positive side, my dislike of Rowand DOES make the rise of Andres Torres even more delightful!
My Bucardo is better than yours.
A hot August weekday, before a small crowd, when the only thing at stake is the tissue-thin difference between a thing done well and a thing done ill. Insofar as the clutch hitter is not a sportswriter's myth, it is a vulgarity, like a writer who writes only for money.
I told this story before
Earlier in the season, my son and I got to go down on the field for BP as a season-ticket holder perk.
Before we hit the field, they told us, “Remember, these guys are trying to get ready for a game, so don’t yell out to them or try to get autographs and stuff.”
As we were walking to our spot, Rowand was waiting his turn to go in the cage and rubbing down his bat. I remember thinking, “Man, he’s having a terrible season, and is now a bench player…big contract or not, I’ll bet he hates everything and everyone right now.”
As we passed by, one of the people in our little group said “Good luck tonight, Aaron.” I totally expected Rowand to just keep his head down and pretend to not hear him. Instead, he looked up to see who said it, made eye contact with the guy and, in the most sincere way imaginable, said “Hey, thanks a lot…I really appreciate it.”
The whole exchange lasted all of 10 seconds, but I was totally impressed with Rowand’s attitutde. He didn’t “big time” the guy or act like what he was doing was all super important. If it’s any indication of what he’s been like as a teammate, I’m sure he’s well-liked in the clubhouse.
Proudly adopted Aubrey Huff. You can't beat that!
Yeah, that kind of stuff does go a long way. I remember being at the Sundance Film Festival years ago and telling William Forsythe how much I enjoyed him in Raising Arizona and he basically responded by telling me to go fuck myself. And I have to say, I haven’t really enjoyed him in anything since then.
My Bucardo is better than yours.
A hot August weekday, before a small crowd, when the only thing at stake is the tissue-thin difference between a thing done well and a thing done ill. Insofar as the clutch hitter is not a sportswriter's myth, it is a vulgarity, like a writer who writes only for money.
The antithesis of all this is exactly what made people hate Bonds.
Maybe that is why I don’t care what kind of guy hits .290 with 25 hr or leads the league in k’s 3 years running.
The homegrown thing is a different issue. I hadn’t considerered that. And i guess that does make it more satisfying. But the Bonds experience has caused me to remove character from on field performance, possibly forever. Not because my hopes for humanity amongst ball pllayers were dashed but because i realized that I am entertained by the competition on the field and in the standings and that is what i look for in baseball. I don’t look for humanism or somehow finding an angle by which i can relate with the characters on the stage. I’ve got life, books and movies for that. I find baseball more fulfilling when the players on the stage seem superhuman and if they are superhuman performers and robotic characters, i don’t give a crap.
Q: Did you ever make an offer for Vladimir Guerrero?
Sabean: In a word: No. If we had signed Guerrero or [Gary] Sheffield, we would have been without [Long list of replacement level vets]—obviously not being able to field a competitive team, especially from an experience standpoint, given our level of spending.
Yeah, I agree with both of those things. Homegrown players are more intrinsically “mine”; and I’m entertained by the ability more than the players. To me it’s the old “should my enjoyment of The Brothers Karamazov be affected by the fact that Doesteyevsky was a despicable person” argument. Or Picasso’s character vs. his paintings. Being neither their child, brother, nor lover, I find their work is the only thing that matters to me.
However, there are two other caveats that apply to this team: the long-shot underdog (a la Torres) and the lovable oddball (a la Huff). But on the whole, I remember the love-ins at the clinching games in 2000 and 1997 and 1987 (all of which i attended) being pretty darn sweet and thinking those teams were awfully lovable as well.
My Bucardo is better than yours.
A hot August weekday, before a small crowd, when the only thing at stake is the tissue-thin difference between a thing done well and a thing done ill. Insofar as the clutch hitter is not a sportswriter's myth, it is a vulgarity, like a writer who writes only for money.
Mel Gibson
I don’t think I could see one his movies now and not think about what a lunatic he is.
Whether it’s sports, entertainment or just everyday life, I think it’s just part of my nature to enjoy seeing nice people succeed at whatever they’re doing.
Proudly adopted Aubrey Huff. You can't beat that!
The “outsider” I like the most is probably Freddy Sanchez. Yep, I said it. I like Affeldt, as well. Not a big fan of anyone else (not that I necessarily dislike them or anything, well besides Zito). Uribe would probably be next on my list.
by Missing Barry on Oct 4, 2010 7:31 PM PDT up reply actions
Actually, I take that back, by Sanchez I meant DeRosa.
by Missing Barry on Oct 4, 2010 7:32 PM PDT up reply actions
I dislike Zito because he sucks, but even then I don’t think or have any reason to think he’s a dick.
His general hippie douchyness. Some specific examples, from his wikipedia page:
“He carries pink satin pillows on the road, collects stuffed animals (such as a good luck teddy bear, with which he used to travel)”
“He plays guitar, surfs, practices yoga, and follows Zen. He has done yoga poses in the outfield, and meditates before games. In 2001, Zito espoused a universal life force that he credited with his midseason turnaround.”
There are plenty of other examples I’ve read through the years, nothing coming to the top of my head, but I just really, really don’t like him. Dude’s an idiot.
by Missing Barry on Oct 6, 2010 8:15 AM PDT up reply actions
Come again?
Do you want to make a guess at what percentage of the world’s population does yoga or follows Buddhism? Or plays for hobby fun at some sport or athletic activity? Or plays a musical instrument? Or has light-hearted good-luck tokens? Or even does all of those? Let’s just say the answer is significantly bigger than “one”.
There is nothing in this world that anyone is obliged to like, but citing those things as reasons seems itself rather strange.
That “idiot” is substantially involved with charitable causes, to which he gives nontrivial amounts of both time and money. The world could use a few more such “idiots”.
Sabean delenda est!
Professional baseball analyst since 1980.
I love me some 2010 Giants, but I gotta say something...
For all those years in the 1990s, in the early 2000s, the Giants were all about one man standing all alone… one brilliant, moody, thrilling, haunted, indomitable and often ticked-off man named Barry Bonds. He was so good at playing baseball, so preposterously good, that the San Francisco fans had to try and embrace him. They tried hard. He was the Charlie Parker of baseball, the Billie Holliday of baseball, the Marlon Brando of baseball, a pure genius, a force of nature, and San Francisco was awed by his magnificence. It is worth noting that for four years in a row, Barry Bonds’ on-base percentages were .515, .582, .529 and .609 — these happen to be four of the top nine in baseball since 1900. Yes, awe was the only viable response to Bonds’ genius as a baseball player, and so awe was what the Giants were about for the last couple of decades.
Great paragraph, but ultimately it misses the mark. Awe is not the only viable response to Barry Bonds.
I love my boy Barry Bonds because he told the Yankees to stuff their money up their big apple so that he could wear the uniform of the team that his father and godfather wore: the uniform of the team that he and I both dreamed of wearing when we were little boys. Barry actually got to do it and God bless him for it.
I love Barry because he’s a huge part of the reason that baseball survived in San Francisco after it almost moved to Tampa freaking Bay at the hands of Mike freaking Piazza’s dad.
I love Barry because he helped build the Giants build the most beautiful ballpark in baseball without sponging off the taxpayers, unlike the other thug owners in MLB. God, did that piss them off. Barry’s greatness gave lie to their perfectly good scam. Sosa and McGwire saved the scam, so they were loved. Barry and the Giants proved it wasn’t necessary.
I love Barry because he did everything he could humanly do not just to be the best player, but to bring a World Championship home to his team, to my team, to our team.
I love Barry because of how far he got into other teams’ and fans’ brain spaces. I love Barry for the time at Dodger Stadium when first got 4 IBBs, and the vulgar Dodger fans around me were heckling him all night. He ignored them until the 7th, and then just by snapping his head around at them and back a couple of times, he drove them so spit-dribbling crazy that two or three Dodger fans around me were ejected from the park. I love Barry Bonds because he could get Dodger fans ejected from their home turf just by looking at them.
I love Barry because he hated the Dodgers.
I love Barry because he owned the Padres.
I love Barry because while he was wearing Black and Orange, the best player in baseball was once again a Giant, and the Universe was a better place for it.
I love Barry because he’s my boy!
Proud father of Barry Bonds.
by Sabertooth on Oct 4, 2010 11:28 PM PDT reply actions 4 recs
This so much.
Supporting San Francisco Dugout since 2005 and Manny Burriss since 2006. Bringing you all your California League and New York-Penn League needs since 2009.
by BaronVonCurrentEvents on Oct 5, 2010 1:38 PM PDT up reply actions
Just to be (kind of) a dick...
I love Barry because he did everything he could humanly do not just to be the best player, but to bring a World Championship home to his team, to my team, to our team.
Couldn’t/shouldn’t that have included running out grounders and fly balls?
Proudly adopted Aubrey Huff. You can't beat that!
Wouldn't that depend . . .
. . . to at least some extent on his physical condition? Or even the risk? I am making some analogy with the practice of running into outfield walls, which not a few great hitters have said they wouldn’t do because having their team lose their services for some time would be more costly than a very occasional missed out. I do not assert that that was what Bonds had in mind when not going all out on obviously routine outs (which, certainly, can occasionally turn into an unanticipated adventure), but I wonder how many times, over his entire career, running hard on a routine-looking out that he didn’t run hard on would have produced any different outcome (since routine plays that go non-routine—as by, for instance, a wild throw—usually do so so drastically that running hard isn’t the difference). Not any definitive disposition, but some thoughts to entertain.
Sabean delenda est!
Professional baseball analyst since 1980.
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