Giants fans should be mad. But why are they absolutely livid?
The San Francisco Giants are cooked.
Not officially, of course. They’re three games back in the wild-card loss column with 11 games to play as of this writing. There are still permutations that get them into the postseason. I’m old enough to remember when a much worse loss in Arizona put the Giants four games back of the wild card with 11 games to play, but the Giants won nine of their next 10, and they forced a one-game playoff. In which Mark Gardner grooved an 0-2 fastball to Gary Gaetti. Not that I still think about these things.
It’s still possible that you’ll care about Giants baseball on the final day of the season.
It’s possible that Logan Webb will throw a no-hitter in his final start of the season. It’s possible that Shohei Ohtani signs with the Giants over the winter. It’s possible that Wednesday’s Powerball numbers will be 22, 24, 25, 28, 44, 55, and you’ll win and give me $10 million as a thanks for reminding you to play. Heck, lots of things are possible. Lightning strikes might have turned ammonia, methane and water vapor into amino acids. Then a trillion quadrillion other things happened over 4.5 billion years and now we have Martin Scorsese and microwavable popcorn. Think big!
In a much more down-to-earth sense, the Giants are cooked.
Alex Cobb probably won’t pitch again this season, and any thoughts of the Giants advancing even a single round of the postseason hinged on the Giants having two reliable starting pitchers who could flummox an opponent on any given night. Now they would likely have just one of those pitchers, in Webb. Except they’re 14-17 in his starts this season. This is all funny math, and none of it adds up. They’re cooked, and they weren’t thrown into a scorching hot wok and done in a few seconds. They’re more like a pork shoulder cooked sous vide for 36 hours. They were cooked low and slow, and now they’re falling apart before your eyes. The 2023 Giants just fall right off the bone. Cooked.
However, there’s something about this team that I can’t put my finger on, and I’m going to need your help with it. This is less me coming up with a hot take or a grand theory, and more looking for an answer I’m not sure I’ll find.
Why are people so incredibly angry about this team?
I’m not saying it’s right or wrong to be angry about the 2023 Giants. I’m not here to berate you for overreacting, and I’m not here to spray kerosene on the anger. It’s just that I’ve followed a lot of teams that are cooked. I’ve followed Giants teams in the ’80s that were cooked before Huey Lewis sang the National Anthem on Opening Day. I’ve covered Giants teams that never had a chance, and teams that screwed up their best chance at the worst possible moment. I followed the Golden State Warriors when they went 16 seasons without an All-Star. I followed the San Francisco 49ers when fans were desperate for David Carr for some reason. And while I’m not going to suggest this is the angriest fan base I’ve been immersed with, it’s close. It’s probably on the Mount Rushmore of scowling fans and livid tweets.
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