Today's SF Chronicle has an article by Henry Schulman that states that the Giants have, apparently, no real competition in the National League West. Not so fast there, Hank. Yes, the Giants are playing really well - and in addition, the doggers are slipping back (8.5 is this morning's deficit), the Roxies are reverting to sub-.500 ball and the Puds and snakes seem pretty hopeless. But let's not forget a couple of things. 1) It is early June, 2/3 of a baseball season remain. 2) The doggers, at least, are loaded with talent. They may be a bunch of preening, overpaid superstars with no commitment to anything but themselves and they may represent a city with no moral center, unlike the Giants, but they have loads of baseball talent. LOADS. 3) Who might like to try extra hard to knock the 1st place, best-record-in-baseball Giants down a peg? Everyone. 4) Standings change, sometimes rapidly. Ask the 1964 Phillies, and finally, 5) The best record in baseball doesn't put a team in the world series. Ask the 2000 Giants.
The Giants are playing great. The unpredictable injury factor aside, their enemy is complacency. It is always best to be in first place, then it is another team's problem to catch up. Bruce Bochy knows this, obviously, and will do everything he can to remind the team that they have to win all season long. There is, contrary to Mr. Schulman's assertion, plenty of competition.
1 comment:
Baseball writers have to have something to write about and if it has a tinge of controversy or a semi-bold assertion is made, all the better. You can pull these columns from the archives and update the team names and numbers and not have to say much else.
"The BLANK have the rest of the BLANK lapped already, esp. since BLANK is hot and BLANK is not . . . yadda yadda yadda."
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