Tonight my friend Steven Rubio posted a blog article, titled “51 Years and Counting,” that echoes what I’ve been saying for years. I’d have to look through my three billion pages of EEEEEE! archives to see if I actually made Steven’s points in print, but I’ve uttering them out loud and typing them into e-mail for yonks, and I’m figuring that somewhere in the archives, the main point can be found, and it is this: as Steven says, “There are no San Francisco Giants fans with that memory [i.e., of their team winning a World Series], because their team has NEVER won it all. No fans in baseball today have a longer zero-title streak than Giants fans.” Steven, an even longer-time Giants fan than I am, may be even more fed up with the suffering than I am—which is pretty hard to fathom.
What I think gripes me most is that traditionally, those who have run the Giants—and not just during the Magowan years—find it acceptable that the San Francisco Giants have never won a World Series. Perhaps they think their fans find it acceptable, too. This here fan does not.
Oh, it’s not as though I shall issue an ultimatum (“Win a damn ring or I’ll kill this dog!”), switch my allegiance to some other team, or give up on baseball altogether, but my current mood can be summed up thus: I’m mad as hell, but I’m gonna take it evermore. That is, I don’t know how I’ll manifest my newfound failure to accept the status quo, because it’s not as though I have any control over the situation. I will, however, offer these words of advice to those who are in control of the Giants, and I’d love to believe that this is old news to them:
- Think great. Think champion. Think different.
- Give a crap about your fans. Win for them, not just for you.
- If your bottom-line goals involve not winning, get some new bottom-line goals.
Anything unreasonable about that? I thought not.
"I'm gonna take it evermore." That's a good one.
ReplyDeleteThing is, a big part of my sports celibacy is just not having to endure any of the "It's been a whole SEVENTEEN LONG LONG years since the Billywhackers have won a title!" kinds of remarks, because every single one of them is so exasperatingly meaningless compared to the Giantsility we have to suffer.
ReplyDeleteHey! A new word that shouldn't be so new! Combination of Giants and futility! Yay etymologist me!