It has been a considerable time since the Bay Area had reason to be excited about something sports-related, at least a team or event that wasn't drawing disdain from everyone outside the Bay Area.
The San Francisco Giants are that event or team, now with the second-best record in the National League, and suddenly an offense that is offensive. Or maybe isn't offensive.
Either way, just this week, the Boys in Black won games with scores of 7-0, 10-0, 13-0 and 9-0. You'd swear they were the Baltimore Ravens.
It appears to be a new day in San Francisco baseball, that magnificent someday, the combination of young talent and winning that the A's fans are always seeing and the Giants fans across the Bay are always daydreaming about.
Saturday's Independence Day trouncing of former Giant Russ Ortiz couldn't have symbolized the moment any better. The old days are on hold. The Giants have it all right now, the flashy stadium and the flashy play, too. Oakland is so over, as the kids say. The A's are in last place and somehow fading.
A week ago, fans sat in a bar and grill inside Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum watching the U.S. soccer team on one TV, while the A's-Rockies game went ignored on another. The game was going on in the stadium, on the other side of a corridor, but that could wait.
That's how bad it's gotten in Oakland: A mostly empty stadium on a sunny Sunday in June. And people who did show up were missing the first pitch for soccer. Soccer!
(It was, in full disclosure, the Confederations Cup final, the U.S. staggering to that painful 3-2 loss to Brazil, but still ... soccer. In unrelated disclosure, one of the A's rookie pitchers, Brett Anderson, is my cousin. No one in our family has ever gotten his ERA down to 5.45. We're all very proud.)
Anyway, only two of the Giants' four shutouts included Tim Lincecum, though you'd think someone's at least considered starting him every other night and maybe closing with him on Saturdays and weekdays that start with "T."
A Cy Young winner is a nice centerpiece, but you can't make a decent stew with potatoes alone. Thus enters the beef of Pablo Sandoval, a nondiscriminating hitter who seems to appreciate all pitches equally. In his big body, you can't help but see a perennial All-Star.
Travis Ishikawa and Nate Schierholtz have both shown the promise of tomorrow. Ryan Sadowski is up now and throwing well. This minor league system that was supposedly gutted for the Barry Bonds era is producing a bounty.
Question: When was the last time the Giants and Triple-A Grizzlies were both over .500 in July? Answer: You were in grade school.
It's exciting. The talk about Matt Cain is suddenly not the back-of-the-funeral whispers of what he could be if he got any runs, it's just of his consistency.
Whether any of this means a postseason spot this year is far from being determined. Trading for another bat would seem like a good idea, unless the last week isn't a fluke and this team can put up serious runs on a consistent basis. Sometimes you just have a good week, and that could very well be the case.
The Giants have the misfortune of playing in the seemingly unstoppable Dodgers' division, so a wild-card berth seems to be the most easily acceptable invite to the party. The idea of facing Lincecum, Cain and Randy Johnson (no matter how old he is) in a three-game series is the kind of thing that increases painkiller sales around the league.
It's early for that kind of talk, but never too early to dream. It's about time. The Bay Area teams have been sleeping for a while.
A few rules are needed to help foster a feeling of community. We encourage a free and open exchange of ideas in a climate of mutual respect, but any post that violates someone's right to use and enjoy fresnobee.com is prohibited. Before you post, please read the terms of use and obey these simple guidelines.
Here are the ground rules:
Contents of this site are © Copyright The Fresno Bee. All rights reserved.
E-Mail
Print
@Nyx.CommentBody@