© Darren Yamashita-USA TODAY Sports
It was just a few weeks ago that the Jock Blog came at you with a searingly hot take:
After four games and four losses against the rival Dodgers, your loyal scribe humbly submits an edit to KNBR digital. Let’s call today’s Jock Blog:
“Are the Giants legit . . . except when they play the Dodgers?”
As our Monday-Wednesday-Friday Murph/Mac correspondent likes to say: Ownage is ownage.
I wrestled with sending out a Jock Blog conceding the West to the Dodgers. I mean, let’s be real. Most of us are beyond pleased, stunned and delighted that the Giants are 30-20 after 50 games, and can’t expect a miracle run. I’d wager about *none* of us had them at 30-20 after 50 games in our preseason 50-game predictions.
(That’s a popular parlor game from my youth: What Will Your Favorite Team Be After 50 Games? Winner got a free sarsaparilla.)
And when Bill Plaschke of the LA Times asked in the preseason: “Are the Dodgers The Best Team Of All Time?”, I knew he was ratcheting up some Plaschke-esque hyperbole, but I also knew it wasn’t truly a ludicrous question. I mean, a more accurate question would be, “Are The Dodgers The Best Team Of All Time, Of All Teams That Only Aim For Three True Outcomes?”
Seriously. Seeing the Giants and Dodgers play a 4-3 game Thursday night that totaled five home runs? Somewhere, Maury Wills wept.
But the heck with that. I am officially *not* conceding the NL West to the Dodgers.
I do this partly of out true belief in competition and magic, partly out of huge annoyance at the Dodgers fans I had to deal with last week at Oracle Park, and partly because I made a bet with ESPN’s Howard Bryant that the Giants could wedge themselves ahead of either the Dodgers or Padres by season’s end.
The stakes are a dinner at Boulevard.
In the name of foie gras and exquisite pork chops, Gabe, play Buster Posey more!
I made the bet with Howard out of foolish pride, but why not? He had declared the Padres-Dodgers rivalry the premier attraction in baseball, and at the time, the Giants were in first place and had handled the sorry Padres five out of nine. So I had some moral ground to stand on.
But the last four games vs. LA have been disheartening, I concede. Dodger pitching has dominated the Giants. Trevor Bauer is jamming swords into sheaths. Max Muncy is apparently Ron Cey in disguise. So it will be a Sean Hjelle-sized order to catch these guys over 162.
Farhan Zaidi has proved pretty good, though, sports fans. He has gifted us Kevin Gausman and Donny Barrels and given Tyler Rogers his shot at glory. The Giants will not go quietly — unless Farhan sees the trade deadline to stock up for the long-awaited “2022-And-Beyond” game plan he pitched to Larry Baer back in 2018 at the Beverly Hilton. At that point, I will be out somewhere around $350-$400 at Boulevard.
But until then, let’s stop crying in our orange-and-black towels. Go play these guys in a game of baseball, grind through some at-bats, make a few plays in the field, savvily deploy the bullpen and realize that the Dodgers put their fake-World-Series pants one leg at a time, just like the Giants do. It’s just that when the Dodgers put their pants on, they win MVPs and Cy Youngs.
Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Was it over when Bobby Thomson stepped in the box in the 9th inning of Oct. 3, 1951? Was it over when Rod Beck faced a bases-loaded situation in 1997?
I write this to you on the very anniversary of Mike Ivie’s 1978 pinch-hit grand slam off Don Sutton, for the love Lon Simmons!
If none of this romantic blather works out, at the least I’ll get that lovely sourdough at Boulevard. Just on my dime, is all.
