Seven (looking like eight right now; OK, pretty much done now, Wilson and Kline made certain of that, darn Moises, why he go and get himself thrown out, we could have used him hitting in the 7th instead of Finley and darn, Bonds up to tie and he flies out to deep center, in past years it would have been tied game...) losing streak aside and 4 games back (4.5 if, or rather, after, this loss), the Giants are not much worse than they were before when they were starting their win streak and 3.5 games back. The baseball gods giveth, the baseball gods taketh away. And again the Giants end up about .500, about 3-4 games out of first place and the wild card.
That's part of the beauty of the baseball season, it's a long-distance stroll, sometimes languid, sometimes very dynamic, sometimes a sprint, always interesting in its own way, kind of like how every snowflake is different, every season is different, and yet very much the same. I enjoy the pace, its lack of hurridness, the unfolding of each game, a mini-drama each of its own, one of the original reality games. But in the background you hear the beat-beat-beat, faint at first, pretty faint most of the year, but then, if you are lucky, you hear the beat loud and clear and you are in a pennant chase, and you live and die on each pitch until you either make the playoffs or is shut out again, with the refrain of "wait until next year."
And to use another analogy, it is very much like the 6 blind men and their description of an elephant. I can understand the frustration with playing .500 ball when we have a good offense and good pitching staff, it seems like it should get better but it doesn't. Then there are those who have seen the season as half empty from the beginning, bemoaning Sabean and/or Alou, depending on the situation, but always bemoaning. Others live and die with every game, flying when we win, down in the dumps when we lose.
Me, I am like the Watcher from Marvel Comics (except that this Watcher is a Giants fan, not an impassioned observer :^). Sure, I don't like losing and I get a good feeling when the Giants win and sometimes I fly or go down. But I mainly like to watch each game, each its own entity, and enjoy the ephemeral joy of a win or the sting of a loss, and then move on. But getting too caught up in the ups and downs, it is a little like investing in the stock market, to use another analogy. If you followed a stock from high to low and back again, living and dying on every little blip up and down, that's a sure way to an ulcer and other health problems.
Same with baseball. Just look at the past two weeks as a great example of what I'm talking about. The Giants stormed from 3.5 games to take the lead, lead!, of the NL West, with a nifty 5 game winning streak. Now they are on the verge of an 8 game losing streak and the team is in freefall, amazing because the Giants picked up some good pieces in the Hillenbrand/Chulk for Accardo deal, it wasn't like Accardo was setting the world on fire - in fact, he WAS setting our games on fire, with an ERA of 7 or 8 the past two months - so their play should have been a positive for the team, but you get Alou out with another injury, then Bonds getting hurt and missing a game, and suddently we have lost a whole bunch of games.
And STILL we are only 4 to 4.5 games away from 1st place. It's kind of like a dog chasing its tail, after all that running and panting, you find yourself exactly where you were before, only very tired. And not so necessary to do, we were 3.5 games back before, we're now 4-4.5 games back, nothing has really happened between then and now, other than another 2 weeks of baseball is gone.
And that is the kicker, another two weeks are gone. The time for me to get worried is when the Dusty rule is at hand: as long as you are not more games back than weeks left to play, all you have to do is gain one game per week in the standings to make your way back to the top of the division. I find that helpful because it breaks a gigantic task - winning the NL West - and reducing it to individual tasks that are now broken up to a simple rule and doesn't seem so onerous as needing to win a zillion in a row or ELSE!
So I watch and get frustrated but I know from the ups and downs of life, let alone baseball, that things tend to even out over time and, if not, then good if we are winning, bad if we are losing, but not until we are looking like we are out of it for good. And the way things are going this season, this probably will not be settled until late September again, the way it has been under Sabean's reign as Giants GM, something I enjoy because after living through the 70's, I'll take competitive anytime over abject mediocrity and the feeling that the pennant race is over before it began.
Go Giants!
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