Aaron Rowland
Giants: Don’t give up on us yet
By A.J. Hayes
The San Francisco Giants may still be 10 games under .500 and play like a recreational softball team in their home yard, but after last weekend’s series win on the “road” in the 510, the club was whistling an optimistic ditty that sounded an awful lot like the old David Soul ‘70s hit, “Don’t Give up on Us Baby.”
Despite several tube socks full of calamities this season – several not involving Barry Zito - that left the Giants lugging a 36-46 season record at the schedule’s midway point, San Francisco somehow found themselves only five games out of first place in the National League West.
That fact, along with the Giants first two wins over the Oakland A’s since last May, had the clubhouse buzzing with excitement Sunday afternoon.
“We’ve had our struggles no doubt about that,” said Giants manager Bruce Bochy. “But nobody is out of the race for the division. We feel we’re still in this thing.”
San Francisco centerfielder Aaron Rowand, who had yet to scrub the lamp black from his face following Sunday’s 11-1 throttling of the white bucks gang, told me exclusively:
“This division is up for grabs, there’s no reason why we can’t jump in the mix and be a part of it. We’ve had some really good games and we had some really rough games. But were capable of being much better than we are now. Everyone in here truly believes that we have an opportunity to be in the mix when September comes around.”
There, two people officially affiliated with club orange and black went on the record with pennant race talk and weren’t whisked off by the guys in the CATS van.
With exactly half a baseball season still to go, the Giants – a club that was supposed to be season-long occupants of the National League West’s illegal basement apartment with jerry-rigged wiring -- think they have a shot at dousing themselves with cheap champagne and beer come October.
Now, before you start saying “bless their little hearts,” (save the patronizing for the 49ers), a scenario that sees the Giants reaching the post-season is – somewhat – possible. Not likely, but the Giants have a better shot at making the postseason than the current configuration of the A’s.
If Oakland resided in the NL West, it would be a different story.
Despite a fantastic start to the season, the Arizona Diamondbacks, the NL West leaders, have run head first into a glass wall. They’re still clinging to the division lead, but only because every other team has performed nearly twice as poorly as the Diamondbacks.
Quite frankly, the Giants – their ugly record and all – are the only club so far that has over-achieved their ’08 prescribed destination.
We’re not telling the Giants to begin printing postseason ducats quite yet, but they could maybe start looking at ticket color schemes. A nice golden hue to match the 50th Anniversary theme would work nicely.
If you look through all the Giants problems – namely their major-leage-worst 14-24 home record and le disaster Zito - the club has had some positive signs.
The slugging Rowand has become the first player of the post-Barry Bonds era to make a positive impact in the clubhouse. Starting pitchers Tim Lincecum and Jonathan Sanchez have been revelations. Veteran batters Benjie Molina, Rich Aurilia and Randy Winn have done better than expected. And youngsters John Bowker, Manny Burriss, Fred Lewis and closer Brian Wilson have found their major-league footing.
Considering the teams the Giants are up against, who can blame them for thinking, “why the hell, not.”
“Last year in Philadelphia we were five games back after the first week of September and we ended up coming back and getting into the playoffs,” said Rowand. “You never know what can happen in September if you can hang around.”
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Comments (1)
My best team of MLB is The San Francisco Giants . This why I always fallow their games especially whenever I have some time. I’m always trying not o miss any of their game and hear about the team’s news. But The San Francisco Giants tickets get more pricy especially when there are some hot games. But, if we’re really good fans we should try not to be mean when we’re talking about a favourite teams. It’s not only the Giants tickets that got pricy, but there are other major teams too, so the team needs our support and we should provide as much as we can.
Posted by Alicia | July 2, 2008 05:13 AM