It’s no secret that I’m a big San Francisco Giants fan. Having played Little League ball with Giants manager Bruce Bochy and staying in touch after seeing him playing minor league ball one day back in 1980, I’ve pulled for every team he’s been with since. He managed the San Diego Padres for 13 years and I was there sitting in great seats watching him play in Atlanta, then New York in 1999 when they upset the Braves, only to lose in the World Series in four games to the loaded New York Yankees. That season the Padres payroll was around 35 million. The Yankees spent 200 million. Still, it was exciting as hell to watch and Boch made all of that possible for a small-time baseball guy like me.
Then, 5 years ago, after his team won the NL West Division only to get bounced early from the playoffs in San Diego, he asked then Vice President of Operations Sandy Alderson, who had just arrived in San Diego, for an extension. Alderson, who I don’t care for much anyway because he’s a “Moneyballer”, an executive that doesn’t put that much emphasis on managing and more on studying numbers, flat turned Bochy down. I remember talking to him on the phone the day after that happened and he was pretty upset. He had one year existing on his contract with the Padres but wanted to extend the contract as soon as possible to make sure he had some future considerations without waiting till the next season started. Bochy then did a very smart thing. He asked the cocky Alderson for permission to talk to other teams. The cocky Alderson complied. 48 hours later there was a press conference in San Francisco. The Giants Brian Sabean, who had been on the hot seat for a while there, filled his vacant manager’s spot in San Francisco with Bochy, the player’s manager, to come in and take care of a sensitive situation. They had just finished a disappointing year and also had a cancer in the clubhouse by the name of Barry Bonds. The deal was, and I’m speculating just a bit here because Boch never told me this, was Bonds would be there one year and then leave. That would have been my deal for sure. Boch put up with the distractions, the clubhouse with no leadership, where their one great player was all about himself and his records and his pursuit of the home run record, and did the best he could to rebuild the team and the clubhouse the way he wanted.
Fast forward to 2010 when the Giants had a roster full of youth, pitching, and free agents like Cody Ross and Mike Fontenot and Aubrey Huff. Their pitching was second to none in the National League. Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain, Johnny Sanchez, and Barry Zito were tough. The Giants won the division on the last day of the season with a 1-0 win over San Diego, who at one time had a 10 game lead in the West. The winning run that last game was scored by Johnny Sanchez, a Giants pitcher who isn’t a Giant anymore, but when he was teamed with Dave Righetti, had some of the most outstanding numbers in baseball each year. This team in 2010 did not hit the ball particularly well and averaged only 4.2 runs per game. In early August, in addition to some weekly numbers I would send Boch, I calculated how many games the Giants needed to win in EACH series till the end of the season. I told him that he would need to win 92 games to beat the Padres. The 1-0 nothing game over the Padres on the last day of the regular season was their 92nd win! The fact was that the Giants were doing just what they needed to do to get to the playoffs.
Fast forward to the 2010 Playoffs where they were matched up and had to beat the only team in the league with pitching that could compare to theirs. They beat the Braves with some great pitching and timely hitting and a hot free agent outfielder named Cody Ross. Then they had one more team to beat to go to the Series and ended up beating the Phillies in 6 games. I was at the 6th game in Philly when Juan Uribe “fisted” a ball into the right field stands and almost got my butt kicked in one of the stadium bathrooms because I was wearing a Uribe jersey! I actually left that game at the end of the 7th inning because it was getting late and I had to do my radio show the next morning in Columbia, Maryland. I also didn’t want to get my butt kicked. I pulled over on Route 95 and celebrated when the final out was made to send them to the Series about 30 miles south of the stadium. Hell, I might have been in Delaware by then. Either way, it felt pretty damn good.
My next stop was going to be Arlington/Dallas, Texas where the heavily favored Texas Rangers would play games 3, 4, and 5 if needed against the Giants. I stayed close to the stadium but hung out with Boch and his family and friends in the Ritz Carlton with the team and their biggest fans the entire time. It was great. I gave Boch a ride to the ballpark every day (he likes to drive in a regular car instead of the team bus) because he gets there so early. The rest is history. I told him to tell the guys that they weren’t going back to San Francisco and he was thinking the same way. They won it all the night of the 5th game and finally a great baseball player, coach, and manager had his ring.
This year is a bit like Déjà Vu to me. It’s a similar story. The only difference was the Giants were close or in the lead of the division the entire season. The Rockies had no pitching and a lot of injuries. The Padres were pretty bad all season long because of their youth movement, and the Dodgers NEVER played the way they were expected the entire season. The Dodgers were sold for 2.15 million dollars earlier this season. Then a blockbuster trade was made which led all the so called “experts” to proclaim that it was just a matter of time till the Los Angeles Dodgers ousted the Giants and won the NL West division. That never materialzed. The Dodgers had no chemistry, no real coaching in my opinion, and a group of highly paid players who weren’t well…. playing. To be fair, they had some big injuries during the season too. The Giants, on the other hand, added a couple of not so well known players who did more than was expected of them. Marco Scutaro, who I’ve always loved because of his incredibly w/k ratio numbers, was exactly what the Giants needed. For the first time in years, the Giants hitters were getting on base and scoring more runs. Their pitching was not as good as in previous years, but was still good enough to win enough games to win the division. They wrapped up the West with almost two weeks left in the season.
Fast forward to present. Here we are again. I was getting tweets, texts, and calls from all kinds of people last night. I’m so superstitious ( I still coach baseball) that I wore the same pair of sweat pants three days in a row, sent Boch similar texts each day, and never went to see a game in San Francisco because I’ve never seen them play at home. I had his jersey draped over one of my chairs. (When I wore it one game they lost) I went hatless and will continue to do so until they lose (if they lose). I have his Sue Burns memorial jersey hung on a door handle in the TV room. I de-jinxed all the beat writers for the Giants constantly on twitter and even texts to me refused to talk about “what if”. Hey, baseball is a game without a clock. Like Yogi says, “It ain’t over till it’s over!” He’s right. Now I plan for hopefully another Déjà vu moment. I’m booked to get into Detroit on Friday, see my buddy Boch, his family, and his players, then hopefully drive him to the ballpark every day, put nothing but positive thoughts in his head, and make sure he gets enough sleep. (He needs his sleep) That’s my job, and hopefully when it’s all said and done, the San Francisco Giants and their great manager, coaches, team and fans, will be celebrating again after their 4th win of the series……….