To your left, there's a thingie called the Giants Fan Confidence Poll. If you could zoom in on the image, you'd find something like this:
It's pretty easy to fall into old habits, even after a World Series victory. From November through March, all Giants fans could do was bask in their smug, smug sense of self-satisfaction. All it took was 528 errors against the Dodgers and the first low-scoring loss against the Padres to feel right at home, bemoaning or whining about something Giants-related. It was like riding a bike.
Note: this simile works if the bike represents being cynical, winning a championship represents getting really drunk and waking up in a wheat field with a bike but no clothes, and being able to ride a bike out of the wheat field represents just how familiar it was to become cynical again. It's a new year.
Have I mentioned the 2000 Giants yet? Only seven times? Good, so it's a fresh comparison.
| Gm# | Date | Tm | Opp | R | RA | W-L | GB | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Monday, Apr 3 | boxscore | SFG | @ | FLA | L | 4 | 6 | 0-1 | 1.0 |
| 2 | Tuesday, Apr 4 | boxscore | SFG | @ | FLA | W | 3 | 0 | 1-1 | 1.0 |
| 3 | Wednesday, Apr 5 | boxscore | SFG | @ | FLA | W | 11 | 9 | 2-1 | 0.5 |
| 4 | Thursday, Apr 6 | boxscore | SFG | @ | FLA | L | 4 | 5 | 2-2 | 1.5 |
| 5 | Friday, Apr 7 | boxscore | SFG | @ | ATL | W | 6 | 2 | 3-2 | 0.5 |
| 6 | Saturday, Apr 8 | boxscore | SFG | @ | ATL | L | 5 | 7 | 3-3 | 1.5 |
| 7 | Sunday, Apr 9 | boxscore | SFG | @ | ATL | L | 3 | 9 | 3-4 | 2.5 |
| 8 | Tuesday, Apr 11 | boxscore | SFG | LAD | L | 5 | 6 | 3-5 | 3.0 | |
| 9 | Wednesday, Apr 12 | boxscore | SFG | LAD | L | 5 | 6 | 3-6 | 3.0 | |
| 10 | Thursday, Apr 13 | boxscore | SFG | LAD | L | 7 | 11 | 3-7 | 4.0 | |
| 11 | Friday, Apr 14 | boxscore | SFG | ARI | L | 1 | 3 | 3-8 | 5.0 | |
| 12 | Saturday, Apr 15 | boxscore | SFG | ARI | L | 4 | 7 | 3-9 | 6.0 |
The entire offseason, I told anyone who would listen that the Giants were going to be good. After their seventh straight loss, right before martial law was declared in the Bay Area, my confidence wavered. Maybe I wasn't such a brilliant baseball analyst after all.
Turns out, that was ridiculous. I was right and still brilliant, and the Giants rallied to win the most games in the major leagues. It was a different team, of course -- with possibly the best middle of the order since Mays and McCovey -- but it the feeling was similar. It was a skeptical despair.
So I'm still pretty confident. You know, considering. I'm pretty thrilled that I'm not a Red Sox or a Rays fan, at least. It's possible that the Giants could keep on pace for 54 wins, but only in the same way that it's possible that Miguel Tejada will continue to hit .200.
Wait a sec...