I answered a few questions for Athletics Nation here, and one of them had to do with the niche that Giants fans had carved for themselves. The Cubs fans are the “lovable losers”, the Dodgers fans have the whole thing where they arrive with two outs in the top of the fifth and leave before the bottom of the fifth starts, and the Red Sox fans are now the “lovable losers that you want to punch in the face now that they’ve won something.” What are the Giants, then? I gave some lame answer about wine and cheese, but I have a better answer now.
Giants fans are a bunch of pessimistic whiners.
Oh, I’m fully aware that I’m at least a corporal in the pessimistic whiner army. I whine and, uh, pessimize with the best of them. When a hitting prospect comes up, I assume he’s going to flame out. When a pitching prospect comes up, I assume he’s going to walk five hitters for every nine innings he pitches. I assume that every free agent will stink, and that every trade will come back to hurt the Giants. And I don’t assume that the Giants will lose in a painfully unforgettable way when they reach the playoffs—I know it.
We’re still whining about a trade from seven years ago, even though the best part of the trade hasn’t done anything other than tease the Twins. Well, it might be a little disingenuous to suggest that Lirano was the “best part” of the trade. There was also that guy. You know, the one with the hat? The uh, what do you call him, uh, oh, the closer who needs to pitch at his current level for a couple more years to have a shot at the Hall of Fame, who was a likable and homegrown player, and who probably would have won a World Series with the Giants in 2004 if he were the closer.
See. That just came naturally. I thought I was clicking the spell-check button, but it turns out I just unconsciously typed a bunch of pessimistic whining. It’s our thing.
Tripon
Posted: June 25, 2009 at 05:48 PM |
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What a complete load. Red Sox fans were never lovable.
fixed
Not having produced a home grown hitter since Bill Mueller makes the assumption that everyone is going to suck pretty knee jerk; much more so than other franchises, IMO. Prospects = 'guys that we hope will do well, but realistically they're probably the next Todd Linden and/or traded for Shea Hillenbrand'. I mean, check out the love that Panda, a.k.a. Fat Ichiro, Pablo Sandoval, generates on sites like McCovey Chron; there are frequent, serious posts about whether Pablo is going to be our Albert Pujols. Pablo Sandoval does not equal Pujols (obviously), but even marginal success is enough to send the faithful into a tizzy.
Also, getting gut-punched two playoffs in a row and never winning with Barry - even though the entire roster during those years was geared to winning w/ Barry - got pretty soul-defeating. And the AJ/Hillenbrand trades didn't help. I will say this though - if any of the hitters coming up through the system - Posey, Villalona, Crawford, etc. - have a positive improvement a la Sandoval it will go a long, long way toward fixing that attitude. (That, and if Sabean doesn't trade Cain for Uggla)
Well, isn't this just the opposite of pessimistic whining?
What was so awful about the Hillenbrand trade (apart from Hillenbrand)? It's not like either team got a great deal in that one - you got an adequate reliever who occasionally gets hurt (and that crapbomb Hillenbrand), and the Jays got an adequate reliever who occasionally gets hurt.
That niche is permanently reserved for fans of the Replace-Mets.
Has it been that long?
I guess Fred Lewis doesn't count even though his MLB OPS+ is over 100 (barely)
He goes 0-22 this summer and it's all doom and gloom again. "I can't believe I bought into Fat Ichiro - he is teh suck!"
I would call them uninformed hippies.
It's not like we fluked with horrible players. We've done it twice in 3 years, and as we speak we're bidding for a third. We have the best record in the American League, with three All-Star Game contenders (not including pitching).
I could see how we might be annoying to a Yankee fan, that's a rivalry, but to anyone else, why?
And Fenway was always packed, even before 2004.
If ANYONE deserves the flukey newbie treatment, it would be Tampa Bay, not one of the oldest teams in the game.
Like any championship team you have picked up a massive bandwagon following that makes you easy to hate. But yours seems even bigger because the Red Sox were always sort of a "cool" team to like, I think. Plus, you beat my team in the 2004 World Series and you're easy to make fun of because your roster is full of ultra-white names (Youkilis, Pedroia, Wakefield, Papelbon, Buccholz, Masterson, Varitek etc.).
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