Settle Down, Giants Fans

THE SPORTS BOTTOM - October 9, 2010

Playoff baseball is upon us. Wow, what an exciting time of the year! Sure, baseball can be kind of boring to watch, more of a social event at the stadium rather than a sporting event. At least in San Francisco, anyways.

But lo and behold baseball has The City in its claws right now because San Francisco’s beloved Giants shocked the world and won the National League West Division. 

One thing you have to understand is that San Francisco isn’t the best sports city in the country. There’s just too many other things to do here and it’s a very transient community within The City. I wasn’t living here when the 49ers were winning their five Super Bowls. I’m sure The City rallied behind them because their games became events.

San Francisco loves an event. Bring the eyes of the nation to one particular place and San Francisco will be there en masse, roaring with approval and being seen where it’s cool to be seen. Right now that scene-to-be-seen is at the ball park. San Francisco is very proud of it’s “new” ball park, and AT&T Park, situated right along San Francisco Bay, while not being cheap, is a GREAT place to see a ball game.

The City was flying high with Giants Fever as Game Two approached in SF. And why not? The Giants seemed invincible after Game One. Sure we have no offense and our bullpen can be suspect, but damn, no one can touch our starting pitching. I mean, we kept Barry Freakin’ Zito off the playoff roster because our rotation was already so strong!

And Timmy Lincecum did not disappoint in Game One. A two-hit shutout, 14 strikeouts. FOURTEEN! It was incredible to watch. The kid was en fuego. The City roared it’s approval every time an Atlanta Brave struck out. And after the Giants scored a run we all knew the game was over. Timmy was not going to disappoint.

And he didn’t. The Giants took Game One 1-0 and all of San Francisco seemed to be screaming and hollering and toasting our victorious Giants. There seemed no way in hell the Braves had a chance against our Orange and Black. No way in hell.

Matty Cain was pitching Game Two, and since he bears a striking resemblance to Ralph Malph from Happy Days, we were ready to holler, “I still got it!” after all of his strike outs.

Bottom of the first inning, Pat Burrell cranks a three-run home run, Giants up 3-0. The score eventually gets to 4-0 and Cain is happily rolling along, even hitting an RBI single himself to boot. The Giants couldn’t fail. The City was already making plans on where to watch the clinching game on Sunday while still being able to see the Blue Angels perform (another event taking place the same weekend).

Braves get a run. Isn’t that cute. Cain keeps rolling along.

Suddenly Cain started to falter. Suddenly the Braves started getting base runners. Suddenly we didn’t seem so invincible. Cain got yanked and suddenly our “suspect bullpen” was in the game. Uh oh. 

Giants closer Brian Wilson came into the game in the eighth inning. Uh oh. Braves rallied to tie the score in the top of the ninth. Uh oh. Giants couldn’t rally and the Braves got a home run in the eleventh inning to win the game. Oh shit.

Wait a minute. What just happened? I barely had time to step out on the patio for a smoke and get a beer at the bar and now we lost? This wasn’t supposed to happen. This isn’t physically possible.

Game Three is in Atlanta on Sunday. Now our beloved Giants need to win Sunday or face elimination the next day. 

Over-confidence can be a bad thing. While we were deliriously waving our Rally Rags and orange pompoms and deciding where we were gonna watch the next game, somebody forgot to tell the Braves to Fear the Beard. See you in Atlanta.