Half Full Today

The Giants are only two games under .500, but it’s been a season of swells and dips. They get going for a few games, only to be followed by a series or two or three, usually against mediocre opponents (I guess that would be pretty much the entire NL according to my Red Sox and Yankee fan buddies) where the ugliness comes out.

How many times this season have you been ready to write them off? And how many times did you have that sudden hope, for the division, for the wild card, for excitement in late September and on into October? It’s not quite as bad as last year, when they stunk, were way under .500, and yet, pathetically, they were not mathematically eliminated for the longest time.

This season, they still have a real shot at making the playoffs, and chances are we’ll still be able to say that in mid-September. But who knows? They lost two to the faltering Braves. I just about gave up. Then they took a big lead last night, only to be holding on with Fatmando reminding us of why every team he’s ever played on boos him mercilessly. But they won the game, so the glass is half full again, right?

A few losses, we throw in the towel. A couple of wins and we’re still in the hunt. The Giants are experienced, the starting pitching looks pretty good, the team health is better than it has been all season, BARRY IS HITTING, and so we think, “how can this team not make the playoffs against this crappy competition?” Then they’ll lose two games to the Nats, or the Pirates, or the Rockies, and we’re in the dumper again.

Michael Corleone had it right: “Just when I thought that I was out they pull me back in.”

OK, I’m in. But better check with me in a couple of days.