Wednesday, October 29, 2008

The Inevitable Forestalled—For the Time Being

The Tampa Bay Rays did not win the 2008 World Series. Now we won’t have to worry for 11 months about some upstart claiming a ring before the Giants. Let me be the first to say: Hurrah.

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.

2 comments:

  1. "I'm gonna take it evermore." That's a good one.

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  2. Thing 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.

    Hey! A new word that shouldn't be so new! Combination of Giants and futility! Yay etymologist me!

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