My love of baseball extends to big time rooting for the San Francisco Giants, the World Series champions of 2010 and 2012. But the 2013 season has been full of disappointment and, of course, too many losses for the Giants. As a zealous fan I can’t bring myself to say the Giants will be unable to win their next 39 games, but unless they do something close to that, they will not make the playoffs. Truth is they may fall short of being a 500 ball club—an even number of wins and losses.
Prior to the championship 2010 season, I was accustomed to Giants losing the big ones. I was a fan with limited expectations. But after winning it all in 2010, the joy of beating the other teams became infectious. The following year was a disappointment but forgotten after another crown in 2012.
Okay, the trend is acceptable: win it all every other year. But is this realistic? Key players are aging, especially on the pitching side. We lack home run hitters. Most significantly, other teams have improved dramatically. The Giants are one great hitter away from awesome, but to get this one star might require losing an existing one. To hope that an existing young player will have a breakout season next year is simply that, hope. And we all know “ hope springs eternal” as in the renewed enthusiasm of fans who pray that the dismal showing of 2013 will be reversed the following Spring when pitches catch the outside corner, tricky hop grounders are snagged and line drives find the gap and roll to the wall.
Of course, there is the 105-year drought of the Chicago Cubs who haven’t won a World Series since 1908—they’re already out of it for this season. Think of all their springs past and those to come—tempers the angst in me.
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