The Rangers, The Giants, and The Dangers of Winning...

My only trip to the Gorgeous ballpark by the bay in SanFran
was in 2000.  It was PacBell park then.  Today it's AT&T.
Next year... who knows.  Carrier Pigeon Park?  

As we began the Fall Classic last night in San Francisco, a fittingly wonderful atmosphere for an autumn ballgame, it was easy to look around and see all the great things about baseball.  Two great teams, two great fan-bases, with a chance to make history.  So much to get excited about!  Could it be putting me into baseball-recovery mode?  Hmmm, seems like I've said this before.  Yes, as I’ve admitted in numerous past blogs, for one reason or another baseball has lost me in recent years.  The season’s too long, the lack of a salary cap favors larger market teams, and the league has basically done Squadoosh to punish admitted past-Steroid users.  (Need an example?  Mark Maguire is a hitting coach in St Louis after a smug, calculated “confession” that was both egotistical and somehow also “whoa is me.”  Seriously, he made it sound like he was a victim!  After ten years of lying, he knew he had to perform a little lip service to make some money again.  So he hired a P.R. firm to handle his “apology.”  And it worked!  Ugh… my sheer disgust at his lame press-conference this past spring probably cost me six months of baseball.  Y'know, like how after watching Super-Size Me, you couldn't look at a McDonalds sign for a while?  Like that.)  But if I had to be honest about it, I’d guess that the real reason I’ve been so down on baseball the last few years is because the Mets have been, in a word, garbage (please to be pronouncing this ala a French accent with the liquid second G, gAR-baGE.)  And really, when that is the case, no matter who your team is, the baseball season inevitably turns into a long, excruciating, slow-motion-speed-walk to nowhere.

In August the Giants were forming up, the Rockies forming out

I felt it from the fans in Denver as they began to sense their Rockies slipping out of the pennant race in early August.  Two weeks later the Dodgers fans had already entered their acceptance period, and the Mets… forgetaboutit…. seems like it has been accepted since May.  The one certainty in the Major League season every year is that by the last third of the schedule, close to two-thirds of the league’s fanbases have already checked out.  Why?  Because our culture has become obsessed with championships; banners and trophies and as many of them as you can carry.  It’s not about the game anymore, it’s about the standings, and sadly, virtue is not its own reward.  So when your team is looking like a good triple-A team in late July and that sneaking feeling starts sinking in, you realize that the dream of attaining the ultimate prize is not happening.  So why not find something else to do, right?

With Tim Tebow now waiving Towels in Denver
Gator fans have had a rude awakening

I’m not proud of this attitude mind you.  I think it is rather despicable actually, but I also have to think that it is the inevitable result of winning.  That thrilling taste of the promised-land in every sports context always must be followed at some point with disappointment.  I first noticed it in myself in 2007 when the Florida Gators lost a game midway though the college football season, and my immediate thought was, “well this year is out.”  Who cares about an SEC Championship or a Bowl Game?  It’s National Championship or bust.  What a terrible attitude to have!  I’m ashamed of it.  It certainly is an awful example to set for the impressionable youngsters of this country (Cue that Whitney Houston song from the 80's) but time and time again we set this example.  It's not about overall achievement anymore, most sports fans simply ask, “What have you done for me lately?”  (Which oddly, is a Janet Jackson song from the 80's.  Coincidence?  I think not.  Okay, that's why I never made the debate team :)

With Derek Roland at Yankee stadium.  I've only been to the
Death Star twice.  First in 1997 and then pictured here in 2007.
I guess I'm due to visit the new one in 2017 :)

I’ve lived in New York for the last ten years and if the city has taught me anything, it is that every year pretty-much every Yankee fan expects a World Championship.  I’ve never seen anything like it!  Anything short of that is a failed season.  In the last ten years the  Evil Empire has won 973 regular season games.  973!  That’s an incredible average of 97.3 wins a season.  But with the exception of last fall when they finally played a great World Series and brought home the hardware, most Yankee fans consider it a lost decade.  One out of Ten is not enough.  Any other fan base would be doing coordinated cartwheels!  Is it just possible that a great many Yankee fans don't enjoy the post season as much as they fear their eventual disappointment.  And maybe that is a completely natural attitude to have when your team has won Twenty-Seven Championships and been to the playoffs Forty-NINE times.  Their team is so good that the only thing that can possibly be note-worthy is when they fail.  It's not their fault, it's human nature.  After all, philosophically, we only know what we know.  But whatever the reason may be, it appears that only the win-starved fan-bases can truly appreciate their team’s success. So really, Cubs fans should count themselves lucky; they will never become jaded! See, there is some good baseball news on Chicago’s north side.  You just have to know where to find it.  But then again the Cubs know that; they've been selling it for 101 years.  (Uh-oh better cue up Billy Joel's 80's ditty, "Wooah, oh-oh-Oh... For the Longest Tiiiime."  Sorry Pops, couldn't resist!     

Will it be the Rangers or the Giants taking the big prize?

So as our Underdog Heroes, the Texas Rangers, go into game two tonight in San Francisco, keep in mind that before this year, in their fifty-year history, the Rangers had only been to the post season three times.  Their all-time post-season record: 1-9.  Until this year they had never even won a playoff game at home!  Those fans don’t know the meaning of being jaded, right?  And that is a beautiful thing.  It makes me happy that baseball can make people feel this way.  Texas girls Catia, Kristen Beth, and Miss Oristano know what I’m talking about.  So does Mr Golden Gate himself, Joel Blum.    

It should be also noted that the Giants aren’t exactly perennial favorites either.  Since moving to San Francisco in 1958, these guys have only reached the playoffs eight times, and have never won the Championship.  (Really, the only reason the Underdogs list them as Evil is because of Barry Bonds, but don’t worry, that stigma should wear off in about fifteen or twenty years.)  Basically, either way this shakes out, one of these two teams is walking out of this World Series forever changed.  And their fans will celebrate an elation that can only come from decades of hopeful anticipation.    Indeed, one of those two fan bases will finally be a winner!  Whether or not that is a good thing, is anyone’s guess.

Rangers vs Giants.  A brilliant Underdog Match Up!

Enjoy the World Series.

And Happy Halloween!!!  :)

Thanks for reading!

Underdogs OUT