Twelve Thoughts: Giants Among Elite, Sandy Alderson, Big Fall for Prospects

by Tom Krasovic

Filed under: Athletics, Cardinals, Diamondbacks, Giants, Mets, Orioles, Padres, Rays, Red Sox, Reds, NL West

The San Francisco Giants now belong among the elite franchises in baseball.

Maybe the Giants already were there, but the recent World Series trophy completes a franchise that had a lot else going for it -- a snazzy ballpark privately financed and integrated into a vibrant city, an avid fan base, a decent winning tradition dating to the 19th century and New York, and legends such as Willie Mays, Juan Marichal, Willie McCovey and Orlando Cepeda as part of both the franchise's past and present. Other nice touches are a West Coast address, ultracool road uniforms and bicycle valets at home games.

Further to the Giants' credit, there was far less woe-is-me droning from San Francisco over its World Series drought than what Big Media gave us, ad nauseum, from overly serious Boston and self-important "Red Sox Nation."

o. West Coat Bias needs to create a P.O. box.

I'm anticipating a flood of handwritten apologies from Giants fans. You're still celebrating, I know, so there's no rush. Over the last year, whenever I wrote anything nice about your manager Bruce Bochy, you let me know how misguided I was. Bochy was overly devoted to veterans, you said (stiffs like Edgar Renteria, Cody Ross, Pat Burrell). He failed to comprehend that John Bowker was better than Andres Torres. He and his boss, Brian Sabean, were dinosaurs.

Please include a return address. Thank you, WCB.

o. If Pat Dobson were alive, he'd raise a beer in honor of the Giants and friends "Sabes" and "Boch."

Dobson, a former Giants scout, died of leukemia in 2006 shortly after recommending that Sabean hire Bochy. Best known as one of four pitchers to win 20 games for the Baltimore Orioles in 1971, Dobson long scouted the National League West, came to admire Bochy's managerial skills and especially liked how Bochy ran his Padres pitching staffs. When the Padres' front office of Sandy Alderson and Kevin Towers blamed San Diego's playoff ouster in 2006 on Bochy, "Dobber" and the rival Giants were thrilled to hire him.

 

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Lars Anderson Garrett Atkins Willy Aybar Daric Barton