Tim Kawakami: On Manny and Warner: Giants were poker players, 49ers were geeky

* In fact, I think the 49ers are looking worse and shakier during the hunt for Warner than the Giants ever looked during the long months of the Manny Availability.

The Giants never sent a private plane to fly Manny to the Bay Area. The Giants never drove Manny around in a Range Rover limo. They never drove Manny past reporters… with Manny refusing to speak. The Giants never allowed themselves to look foolish.

You can be mad at the Giants for not being more serious about Manny–in fact, to add a wrinkle, I think Manny would’ve been much more likely to sign with the Giants (if the dollars were right) than Warner ever was about signing with the 49ers.

But the Giants made a call on this and they made it early: They were not going to get into a bidding war with the Dodgers for Manny, since the Dodgers had all the incentive and all the money.

The Giants stayed with that. They didn’t get impulsive. They also probably won’t get Manny, but I’m not so sure he was the wisest $40M investment for them, anyway. Would Manny have been the tipping point for a division-title run? I’m not sure. (Maybe next year, as I keep suggesting.)

The 49ers stayed away from the Warner talk, stayed away, stayed away… then, probably after Warner’s agent lured them into it, SUDDENLY the 49ers propelled themselves totally into it.