August 02, 2004
Not Worth It
Games like last night’s Giants-Cardinals tilt are the reason why I haven’t been writing much this summer. Well, that and the incredible volume of work I have to do, plus preparing for the new baby… lots of stuff.
But back to the Giants. I have to admit, I’ve been watching most of this year’s Giants games in fast-forward on my TiVo. It was nice to see the park in HD last night on ESPN (and can someone tell Fox Sports Net to get it together and work with their corporate cousin, DirecTV, to get the local HD games on the satellite?). But the game itself stunk. A couple of missed opportunities, but generally the Giants offense was lifeless.
Schmidt is fun to watch, but the Giants’ at-bats are painful. And then my finger goes to the remote when the bullpen comes in. It’s no longer a question of if they’ll blow it — just a question of how. Will it be blowing an 8-run lead but ekeing out an 8-7 win? Will it be blowing a win for the starter? Or will it be taking a 2-1 disadvantage and putting it so far out of reach that the team’s anemic offense can never hope to catch up?
A team with only a couple of decent starters, a decrepit bullpen, and a line-up that more often than not counteracts its rare offensive successes with a lack of clutch hitting and a plethora of double-plays. That’s the 2004 Giants — or at least, that’s been them for 80% of this season. They are not just mediocre, they’re deadly dull. And honestly, were it not for Schmidt and Bonds I would probably stop watching them entirely.
When watching your lifelong favorite baseball team starts to feel like homework, you’re in bad shape. I’d prefer laughable LeMaster-level losing to this. And I’d certainly prefer that Sabean treat the next two years as go-for-broke, trying to win with Barry before he retires. We all know that the Giants after Barry leaves are going to suck. I’m willing to pay that price. But diddling around like this in the hope of sneaking in to a Wild Card? Please. Even if the Giants tripped over the Padres’ dead body and won the Wild Card, they’d get creamed in the playoffs. This is an awful, unwatchable team. Make it stop.
