Farewell, Freak

The venerated and celebrated pitching star of the Greatest Era in San Francisco Giants History has a new gig. If you missed it, Tim Lincecum has "agreed to a deal" with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Cataclysmic news, to be sure, mitigated by its inevitability. The math was not good in San Francisco, and perhaps his looming presence had as much to do with the Cain/Peavy recent resurgence as, well, Righetti voodoo, random variation, or country boy cussedness. I'll go with looming presence. The specter of a Tim-signing put a little extra giddy-up in the Matt & Jake pre-game prep. He wasn't going to be a super-reliever, even though we've all seen him do that, and do it brilliantly, and even though most of us probably think that's what he should do, he wanted to start.

And the Angels granted him his wish.

I'm gonna miss you, Tim. You were grand. Never to be forgotten.

--M.C.


p.s. I can only wish the lad well. Except against the Giants, of course. Perhaps he'll whip the Dodgers in one of those Freeway Series, help out his old mates.