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groug, you ignorant slut.
Yesterday, he wrote "I don't care if the Dodgers celebrate the division at AT&T Park". As a purveyor of terrible thoughts and ideas, game recognized game, of course, but I couldn't help but be enraged down to my DNA by such a notion. If you're a Giants fan like me, then the thought of the Los Angeles Dodgers clinching at AT&T Park is literally the worst case scenario of a baseball season. Division, wild card game, NL pennant, it matters not. The Dodgers should only be clenching when they play at AT&T Park.
This is baseball fandom we're talking about here, groug. There are few rules. You labeled not wanting to watch your team's greatest rival celebrate on your team's field a "bad thought"? No, groug, if you're a fan of the Giants, then this is a bad thought:
@hankschulman What do you think the Giants could get for Buster Posey in the offseason since they can't financially compete with LA dynasty?
— Bryan Murphy (@Every6thDay) August 26, 2012
But more to the point, here's exactly why the Dodgers clinching at AT&T Park is a big deal:
It's not about the team that clinches
As I mentioned, the Dodgers clinching at AT&T is literally the worst case scenario for the end of a season. And the thing is, given the Dodgers' unlimited resources and peerless pitching, this is very likely about to become the status quo. Last night was the fear everyone in Giantsdom has had since Magic Johnson, Richie Rich, and the Monopoly Guy bought LA finally realized: the Dodgers would beat out the Giants for the playoffs every year.
Oh sure, the Dodgers have won very little after reaching the postseason, but that's because of the crapshoot nature of the postseason and because the St. Louis Cardinals. You can point to that and laugh all you want and claim it's a reason why there's not as big of a sting as there could be watching the Dodgers clinch, but you won't be able to keep saying that year after the year when the Dodgers are in the playoffs for the sixth straight season, the seventh, the twelfth, clinching as often and awesomely as possible if not simply against the Giants then at AT&T Park.
And that matters because the Wild Card then becomes the Giants' only option. But the Nationals aren't going to employ Matt Williams forever, the Cubs are just getting started, the Pirates are in the middle of their peak, the Mets have arms upon arms, and the St. Louis Cardinals.
The Giants played shorthanded, one-legged, eye-patched, and with only a residue of serviceable talent in the pitching department. It's fine to marvel at how much they did with so very little, but next week remember that the Dodgers were and shall continue to be the better team with no end in sight. And then there's this:
Bochy says the unthinkable about Madison Bumgarner: "I think the pitches caught up with him."
— Andrew Baggarly (@extrabaggs) September 30, 2015
A reminder that it could all be over and that it ended with the Dodgers of all teams clinching at AT&T Park.
If the Dodgers do something jackassish, it'll just be a reason to hate them more
In fact, they did do something jackassish: they pantsed Madison Bumgarner in front of the world. That's a good reason to care about where the Dodgers celebrated. The Giants put their only good pitcher on the mound against the best pitcher on the planet and he fared as well as Ryan Vogelsong would have.
Of course, they did it in the most casually jackassish way a group could jackass, and that's by simply being better than the Giants by a wide margin. Otherwise, Adrian Gonzalez and Don Mattingly had kind words to say about the team they just knocked out.
You, me, and all the other Giants fans are far more likely to run into jackassish Dodgers fans for a solid eight months and longer when the Dodgers win the World Series this season, and that's because the Dodgers clinched at AT&T Park.
The reason why your Jeremy Affeldt 3-ring .gif or saying "3 in 5" won't work in counteracting the fans' jackassishness is because the currency of Los Angeles is based on a singular thought: "What have you done lately?" And "lately", for the record, means "within the past 4 hours". Any accomplishment that's not within 4 hours of that question being asked is meaningless, and those proffering such accomplishments are pathetic losers.
Emboldening fans of your team's biggest rival is also a pretty good reason to not want to watch another team clinch at AT&T Park.
Disrespecting the field is not a real thing
I believe it is safe to say that the vast majority of us find ballpark marriage proposals to be one of the worst elements of attending a baseball game. They are thought to be trite and very unromantic and even disrespectful towards the person who's been asked the question. The vast majority of these marriage proposals happen on the stadium video board. Therefore, it is possible to use the video board to disseminate something disrespectful.
One final message. pic.twitter.com/OQwwCwx3kn
— John Shea (@JohnSheaHey) September 30, 2015
Like we're supposed to stand and applaud Steve Finley or something...
Like we're supposed to call him Mister Lasorda or some shit...
Like we're supposed to pretend Paul Lo Duca never happened...
It's not like I'm going to watch
We live in the information age. Good luck filtering out all the tweets, MLB Network replays, CSN Bay Area replays, replays from your co-workers, old hookups texting at 3AM with "lol u" followed by the Vine of Kershaw striking out Jarrett Parker followed
In short, that was a terrible game and a terrible end to a terribly lost season and you should feel terrible for your terrible opinion of a terrible thing.