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The weak and frail mind...

By Grant Brisbee

Optimism only works with hand shoes and horse grenades. Consider Optimism Day permanently retired until the next time I run out of ideas for a post.

The glow of winning gave way to the my-god-the-reactor-is-melting-and-now-I'm-glowing glow of losing. The Giants are still just two games back of the wild card, so panic is obviously premature. But at the risk of getting too Woodersonian, it would have been a lot cooler if they did win. The back-to-back home runs were the only thing I knew about the game before sitting down to watch a recording. I watched the rest of the game, and it disturbed me. Shook my subconscious to the core. Why? I have no idea, but I dreamt this:

Giants are going into the ninth inning against the Diamondbacks at Mays Field. The score is tied, and I'm following the game on GameCast.

After turning away for one second, I come back to find the Giants had lost in the 14th inning after giving up seven runs in the top half. I was devastated, especially since Schmidt and the Giants had lost to the Braves just one day before. I wanted to find out which kerosene jug in the bullpen was responsible, so I clicked on the box score.

It was A. Trebeck in his first major league appearance. Trebeck was the player to be named in the Accardo/Hillenbrand deal, and had made the jump straight from A-ball. I was livid that Trebeck was the first pitcher the Giants had rushed straight from A-ball, as there were about four others who I had been pushing for the Giants to promote.

In Augusta, Trebeck had an ERA of 7.88, and a K/BB ratio of 109/13 in 92 innings.

Exercises and discussion:
  1. Though it isn't spelled exactly like Alex Trebek, the reference is clearly there. Especially considering the pitcher came from Canada. Is the extra "c" a metaphor for the Giants' mediocrity, or is my subconscious too lazy to spell-check my dreams?
  2. Trebeck had outstanding peripherals, but a lousy ERA. Discuss the possible meaning of this seemingly illogical pairing.
  3. Also, in the past week my posts have now referenced both Trebek and Pat Sajak. Who would win in a fight?
  4. If winning makes Grant force optimism upon his readers, does losing make Grant go on irrelevant tangents peppered with a bunch of self-referential blather?
  5. What in the name of Bonds did the dream mean? Not one aspect of the recounting was embellished.
I've done the dream bit before, but I'll keep bringing the vivid ones to your attention. I don't like that Trebeck, and I don't want him to sully this team. And, heck, it beats talking about a wild Jason Schmidt, or the continued and perplexing ineffectiveness of Jack Taschner. Hopefully the first game of the Braves series will turn out much like the first game of the recent Reds series, which was just the prelude to a series win.

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