Last night was, as I predicted, a great night to be in the ballpark. Hunter Pence's launched a three-run moonshot to give Bumgarner some much needed breathing room early on. The guy has power, not to mention that crazy hunger to win games. He has a unique approach to baseball and life...we're lucky to have him around. He's going to hit 25 homers this season.
I don't know about you, but all the hoopla over this weekend made me queasy. It just got sappy, and boring. Even Crawford wrote that the flag ceremony "took a long time." He was ready to play. And anything that knocks a ballplayer out of their normal routine is not going to have a positive outcome on their performance.
The crowd on Sunday got the game they paid for...ticket prices were in the silly range, but apparently they can sell the crappy replica ring for a hundred bucks on Ebay. But who in their right mind is going to buy it?
Speaking of which, the Giants are really rolling out a ton of terrible giveaways. It's a crapfest. Magnets and snowglobes...charm necklaces and sombreros. Keep those sellouts coming, Mario...even if you have to give the tickets away for eight bucks and hand over a gnome to boot.
But back to what I really meant to write about...the great thing about baseball is no matter how many games you've been to, you haven't seen it all. If the franchise needs to learn anything it's that you don't have to manufacture and package the magic...it's built into the game.
Last year, a Wednesday night, Giants vs. Astros. Nobody really cares, right?
And that's the perfect game. You just never know when it's coming. The beauty of baseball.
(photo by Marko Realmonte, April 8, 2013)