Torture: Part I
The motto for the San Francisco Giants this season has been, "Giants baseball: torture." Duane Kuiper coined the term back in April, and it has caught on as this most unusual season has continued into the playoffs. Kuiper has taken to regularly reciting it during the post-game shows on the radio, particularly after harrowing losses (or, for that matter, wins). KNBR replays the original soundbite ad nauseum as a part of their commercials for Giants-related programs. Fans are selling t-shirts and carrying signs emblazoned with the slogan. Newspaper editors throughout the bay area are utilizing it in headlines. There's even a Facebook page dedicated to the term. While the slogan is the motto and rallying cry for this particular team and this particular season, it is also acknowledges the entire history of disappointment and misfortune that Giants fans have endured since the team moved to San Francisco.
Baseball, more than any sport, seems to encourage fans to wallow in misery at their teams' various failures, droughts, and disappointments. The Boston Red Sox fans became a cultural institution unto themselves due to their team's 86 year championship drought (with some people making entire careers out of bitching about it). And with the Red Sox and White Sox both winning long-awaited championships in recent years, the Giants, whose last World Series title was in 1954, four years before they moved from New York to San Francisco, have now played longer without a championship than all but two MLB teams (the Cubs, who last won in 1908, and the Indians, who last won in 1948). In the last couple years, Giants fans have received increasing amounts of attention for our painful experiences rooting for this team.*
While I could probably write several entries worth of material on all the disappointments I've experienced as a Giants fan, either first-hand or through the re-telling of events that occurred before I was born, it'd be easier for me to just quickly list them (in no particular order): the 1960s Giants finishing in second place five years in a row and never winning a World Series despite featuring five future Hall-of-Famers on the team; the 1962 Giants, in the only World Series that those great 60s teams reached, literally losing the championship by about two feet when Willie McCovey, with runners on second and third, hit a line drive directly at the Yankees second baseman in the ninth inning of game 7 to end the game and series (which inspired these two Peanuts strips that perfectly encapsulate the torturous experience of being a baseball fan); the 1989 World Series, and the first World Series game at Candlestick in 27 years, being interrupted by the worst earthquake to hit the Bay Area in decades (two of the defining moments of my early childhood converging in horrifying fashion); the Giants getting swept by the A's in that Series; the entirety of the 1985 and 1992 seasons; almost moving to Toronto; almost moving to St. Petersburg; Juan Marichal as a Dodger; Willie Mays as a Met; letting Will Clark leave as a free agent; getting swept out of the 1997 NLDS on a grand slam by Devon White (seriously); losing the wild card lead on the last day of the season in 1998 when Robb Nen gave up a home run in the ninth inning to Neifi Perez (seriously!); BALCO; innumerable bad trades (Orlando Cepeda for Ray Sadecki, Bobby Bonds for Bobby Murcer, Joe Nathan and Francisco Liriano for A.J. Pierzynski, etc.); Matt Williams losing his chance to break Roger Maris' single season home run record due to the strike in 1994; the Giants losing the 2002 World Series when they were eight outs away from victory in game 6**; Jose Cruz Jr. dropping an easy fly ball in a playoff game***; Candy Maldonado dropping an easy fly ball in a playoff game; J.T. Snow getting thrown out at home to end the 2003 NLDS; the 2000 Giants losing to the Mets in the NLDS despite winning more games than any other team in the National League that season; and the most painful of all, for me, missing the playoffs in 1993 despite winning 103 games that season.****
These are just the things that I can remember off the top of my head. It's far from a comprehensive list of all the slings and arrows we Giants fans have suffered, but it covers all the most significant incidents and accurately presents the overall picture of what we've experienced. That isn't to say that there haven't been triumphant moments and good memories. And I'm not trying to say that the Giants fans have suffered worse than any other fans (though I think I've made the case that we've suffered worse than most). But the fact of the matter is, rooting for this team has become a torturous experience over the years. That's why even when I'm excited about the Giants, I'm also worried about what misfortune will next befall us. That's why even when I'm being cautiously optimistic, I'm also waiting for the other shoe to drop. But maybe someday, and that day could be soon, we won't have to worry anymore. Maybe the Giants will win the World Series. But they'll probably torture us some more between now and then.
In "Torture: Part II", I will discuss the 2010 Giants, the latest team to try to overcome the Giants' sordid history, and look at why the team that has been bestowed with the "Torture" motto has become one of my favorite Giants teams of all time.
*Cubs fans don't seem to get the same sympathy, primarily because they are a bunch of assholes. Indians fans, on the other hand, don't get as much attention for their suferring because Cleveland sports fans always seem to have bigger problems to worry about.
**For most Giants fans, particularly those in my age group, this is the most painful incident in Giants history. At the time, I was inconsolably upset to the point that it left me in a bad mood for weeks. When I got to school the day after game 7, my friend Doug, who is not a sports fan, said something about how I should be happy for the Angels fans who had never seen their team win the World Series. I was so mad that I almost punched him. In fact, I may have punched him. I don't remember.
But for some reason, thinking about this Series doesn't cause me as much pain as it once did and doesn't bother me as much as it seems to bother most other Giants fans. I think this can primarily be attributed to the way the BALCO scandal diminished my opinion of so many of the players on that team. I remember wondering a couple years ago if I would have been embarrassed had the Giants actually won in 2002 because so many of their players were cheating. Ultimately I decided that I would much rather have the World Series victory, steroids or no (besides, some of the Angels players must have been juicing. Scott Spiezio dropped off the face of the earth after MLB introduced PED testing), but the very fact that I had to think about it demonstrates how far that team has fallen in my esteem. Losing the 2002 Series still hurts, but not much as it once did and not as much as it still does for others.
***October 3rd is apparently a bad day for the Giants to play the Marlins in game 3 of a Division Series, as Devon White's home run in 1997 and Jose Cruz Jr.'s drop in 2003 occurred on October 3 in game 3 of each respective series.
****While the 2002 World Series seems to be the most significant source of suffering for the majority of Giants fans, the failures of the 1993 team have always caused me greater pain. That team is still the most talented team I've ever personally witnessed in my entire life. They had two twenty game winning pitchers (the Giants' last two twenty game winners, in fact) in Bill Swift and John Burkett. They had a good bullpen anchored by Rod Beck, back when he still had a fastball to go with his gut and attitude and goofy hair. They had an amazing lineup that featured Will Clark, Barry Bonds, and Matt Williams in the heart of the order (it would be the only team that featured those three players as Clark left as a free agent following the season). Robby Thompson had the best season of his career. It was Dusty Baker's first season as manager. I still have my team program from that season somewhere, with Bonds, Clark, and Williams on the cover.
By all rights this team should have won the World Series. But because the Braves somehow were in the National League West (how is Atlanta considered to be in the West?) and because the wild-card wouldn't be introduced until the following season, the Giants didn't even make the playoffs. I think only one other team in baseball history has ever won more games without making the post-season. No other San Francisco Giants team ever won more games (the 1962 also won 103, and the 1904 and 1905 New York Giants won 106 and 105 games, respectively). But somehow, the Giants missed out on the playoffs when Salomon Fucking Torres blew it during the last game of the season against the Dodgers (which just makes it that much worse).
The 1993 season is the reason why I hate the Braves more than any other sports team besides the Dodgers (more than the Dallas Cowboys, more than the Los Angeles Lakers, more than Stanford). It's the reason why I actively root against Fred McGriff making the Hall of Fame. It's the reason why I actually rooted for the Yankees during the 1996 World Series (I mostly rooted for the 1999 World Series to be canceled). It's the reason why I want to punch somebody in the fucking throat any time they do the 'tomahawk chop'. It's the reason why I gleefully considered the Giants victory over the Braves in the 2002 NLDS to be a measure of revenge and why I hope I can do the same for this year's NLDS. It's the reason why, when attending a Giants-Pirates game at ATT/Pac Bell/Whatever-it-was-that-season Ballpark a few years ago with my mom, I noticed that Salomon Fucking Torres was warming up in the visitor's bullpen, about 30 feet from where we were seated, and I immediately began contemplating trying to throw something at him.
The 1993 season haunts me the way Bill Buckner used to haunt Red Sox fans, the way Steve Bartman haunts Cubs fans, the way Jose Mesa haunts Indians fans. Between the disappointment of missing the playoffs that season, the pain of watching my first and only all-time favorite player (Will Clark) leave the team after that season, and the disgust of watching the World Series get cancelled the following season because of the players strike, I actually stopped following baseball for two full years. I will never get over the fact that the Giants missed the playoffs that season. Unless, perhaps, the Giants beat the Braves on the way to a World Series title this season. But even then, I'm not sure I'll completely get over it.
Baseball, more than any sport, seems to encourage fans to wallow in misery at their teams' various failures, droughts, and disappointments. The Boston Red Sox fans became a cultural institution unto themselves due to their team's 86 year championship drought (with some people making entire careers out of bitching about it). And with the Red Sox and White Sox both winning long-awaited championships in recent years, the Giants, whose last World Series title was in 1954, four years before they moved from New York to San Francisco, have now played longer without a championship than all but two MLB teams (the Cubs, who last won in 1908, and the Indians, who last won in 1948). In the last couple years, Giants fans have received increasing amounts of attention for our painful experiences rooting for this team.*
While I could probably write several entries worth of material on all the disappointments I've experienced as a Giants fan, either first-hand or through the re-telling of events that occurred before I was born, it'd be easier for me to just quickly list them (in no particular order): the 1960s Giants finishing in second place five years in a row and never winning a World Series despite featuring five future Hall-of-Famers on the team; the 1962 Giants, in the only World Series that those great 60s teams reached, literally losing the championship by about two feet when Willie McCovey, with runners on second and third, hit a line drive directly at the Yankees second baseman in the ninth inning of game 7 to end the game and series (which inspired these two Peanuts strips that perfectly encapsulate the torturous experience of being a baseball fan); the 1989 World Series, and the first World Series game at Candlestick in 27 years, being interrupted by the worst earthquake to hit the Bay Area in decades (two of the defining moments of my early childhood converging in horrifying fashion); the Giants getting swept by the A's in that Series; the entirety of the 1985 and 1992 seasons; almost moving to Toronto; almost moving to St. Petersburg; Juan Marichal as a Dodger; Willie Mays as a Met; letting Will Clark leave as a free agent; getting swept out of the 1997 NLDS on a grand slam by Devon White (seriously); losing the wild card lead on the last day of the season in 1998 when Robb Nen gave up a home run in the ninth inning to Neifi Perez (seriously!); BALCO; innumerable bad trades (Orlando Cepeda for Ray Sadecki, Bobby Bonds for Bobby Murcer, Joe Nathan and Francisco Liriano for A.J. Pierzynski, etc.); Matt Williams losing his chance to break Roger Maris' single season home run record due to the strike in 1994; the Giants losing the 2002 World Series when they were eight outs away from victory in game 6**; Jose Cruz Jr. dropping an easy fly ball in a playoff game***; Candy Maldonado dropping an easy fly ball in a playoff game; J.T. Snow getting thrown out at home to end the 2003 NLDS; the 2000 Giants losing to the Mets in the NLDS despite winning more games than any other team in the National League that season; and the most painful of all, for me, missing the playoffs in 1993 despite winning 103 games that season.****
These are just the things that I can remember off the top of my head. It's far from a comprehensive list of all the slings and arrows we Giants fans have suffered, but it covers all the most significant incidents and accurately presents the overall picture of what we've experienced. That isn't to say that there haven't been triumphant moments and good memories. And I'm not trying to say that the Giants fans have suffered worse than any other fans (though I think I've made the case that we've suffered worse than most). But the fact of the matter is, rooting for this team has become a torturous experience over the years. That's why even when I'm excited about the Giants, I'm also worried about what misfortune will next befall us. That's why even when I'm being cautiously optimistic, I'm also waiting for the other shoe to drop. But maybe someday, and that day could be soon, we won't have to worry anymore. Maybe the Giants will win the World Series. But they'll probably torture us some more between now and then.
In "Torture: Part II", I will discuss the 2010 Giants, the latest team to try to overcome the Giants' sordid history, and look at why the team that has been bestowed with the "Torture" motto has become one of my favorite Giants teams of all time.
*Cubs fans don't seem to get the same sympathy, primarily because they are a bunch of assholes. Indians fans, on the other hand, don't get as much attention for their suferring because Cleveland sports fans always seem to have bigger problems to worry about.
**For most Giants fans, particularly those in my age group, this is the most painful incident in Giants history. At the time, I was inconsolably upset to the point that it left me in a bad mood for weeks. When I got to school the day after game 7, my friend Doug, who is not a sports fan, said something about how I should be happy for the Angels fans who had never seen their team win the World Series. I was so mad that I almost punched him. In fact, I may have punched him. I don't remember.
But for some reason, thinking about this Series doesn't cause me as much pain as it once did and doesn't bother me as much as it seems to bother most other Giants fans. I think this can primarily be attributed to the way the BALCO scandal diminished my opinion of so many of the players on that team. I remember wondering a couple years ago if I would have been embarrassed had the Giants actually won in 2002 because so many of their players were cheating. Ultimately I decided that I would much rather have the World Series victory, steroids or no (besides, some of the Angels players must have been juicing. Scott Spiezio dropped off the face of the earth after MLB introduced PED testing), but the very fact that I had to think about it demonstrates how far that team has fallen in my esteem. Losing the 2002 Series still hurts, but not much as it once did and not as much as it still does for others.
***October 3rd is apparently a bad day for the Giants to play the Marlins in game 3 of a Division Series, as Devon White's home run in 1997 and Jose Cruz Jr.'s drop in 2003 occurred on October 3 in game 3 of each respective series.
****While the 2002 World Series seems to be the most significant source of suffering for the majority of Giants fans, the failures of the 1993 team have always caused me greater pain. That team is still the most talented team I've ever personally witnessed in my entire life. They had two twenty game winning pitchers (the Giants' last two twenty game winners, in fact) in Bill Swift and John Burkett. They had a good bullpen anchored by Rod Beck, back when he still had a fastball to go with his gut and attitude and goofy hair. They had an amazing lineup that featured Will Clark, Barry Bonds, and Matt Williams in the heart of the order (it would be the only team that featured those three players as Clark left as a free agent following the season). Robby Thompson had the best season of his career. It was Dusty Baker's first season as manager. I still have my team program from that season somewhere, with Bonds, Clark, and Williams on the cover.
By all rights this team should have won the World Series. But because the Braves somehow were in the National League West (how is Atlanta considered to be in the West?) and because the wild-card wouldn't be introduced until the following season, the Giants didn't even make the playoffs. I think only one other team in baseball history has ever won more games without making the post-season. No other San Francisco Giants team ever won more games (the 1962 also won 103, and the 1904 and 1905 New York Giants won 106 and 105 games, respectively). But somehow, the Giants missed out on the playoffs when Salomon Fucking Torres blew it during the last game of the season against the Dodgers (which just makes it that much worse).
The 1993 season is the reason why I hate the Braves more than any other sports team besides the Dodgers (more than the Dallas Cowboys, more than the Los Angeles Lakers, more than Stanford). It's the reason why I actively root against Fred McGriff making the Hall of Fame. It's the reason why I actually rooted for the Yankees during the 1996 World Series (I mostly rooted for the 1999 World Series to be canceled). It's the reason why I want to punch somebody in the fucking throat any time they do the 'tomahawk chop'. It's the reason why I gleefully considered the Giants victory over the Braves in the 2002 NLDS to be a measure of revenge and why I hope I can do the same for this year's NLDS. It's the reason why, when attending a Giants-Pirates game at ATT/Pac Bell/Whatever-it-was-that-season Ballpark a few years ago with my mom, I noticed that Salomon Fucking Torres was warming up in the visitor's bullpen, about 30 feet from where we were seated, and I immediately began contemplating trying to throw something at him.
The 1993 season haunts me the way Bill Buckner used to haunt Red Sox fans, the way Steve Bartman haunts Cubs fans, the way Jose Mesa haunts Indians fans. Between the disappointment of missing the playoffs that season, the pain of watching my first and only all-time favorite player (Will Clark) leave the team after that season, and the disgust of watching the World Series get cancelled the following season because of the players strike, I actually stopped following baseball for two full years. I will never get over the fact that the Giants missed the playoffs that season. Unless, perhaps, the Giants beat the Braves on the way to a World Series title this season. But even then, I'm not sure I'll completely get over it.
posted by Carlos Animals at 5:28 PM
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