At season's end, the San Diego Padres were the victims of their own penurious success and the San Francisco Giants had shown that one team's refuse is another team's rescued recyclable.
For most of the year, many Giants fans were champing for the club to trade away a front line pitcher to bring in a power hitter to bolster an anemic offense. The middle of the batting order was bogged down with the statuesque Pablo Sandoval and Bengie Molina, and looked to get only slower if star-in-waiting Buster Posey could be squeezed into the mix. The San Diego Padres, the overwhelming favorite to finish in the cellar with one of baseball's lowest payrolls, were steamrolling over the competition and cruising along at the top of the standings. Radio talk shows were filled with callers clamoring for the firing of Giants manager Bruce Bochy and general manager Brian Sabean.
The reality was that both teams were paper thin on talent, unable to absorb another key injury or drop in performance by any key starter.
The Giants decided to tinker, not going for a big name to please the fans but to find role players to fill niches. They got their needed big bat, Posey, into the lineup by bidding adios to the ever popular and steady Molina. They strengthened their bullpen to guard against a starting rotation meltdown. They traded for castoff hitters to give them a second chance.
The Padres decided to hold their breath and pray.
The anticipated starting pitching meltdowns came: for the Giants in August, for the Padres in September. The Giants survived theirs and put together a September run for the ages. The Padres could not stop a 10-game skid and staggered just short of the finish line, out of hits, out of luck, and out of the playoffs. So much for the folks who wanted to send Bochy and Sabean packing.
Come hell or high water, when the Atlanta Braves and Giants hook up this evening in the playoffs, let's crack open a cold one and enjoy what we do have in front: one of the most pitching challenged teams in the majors facing one of the most blessed in all of baseball. Familiar faces and revitalized retreads. The teasing torture of closer Brian Wilson putting two on in the ninth just to keep it interesting. Tony Bennett's voice echoing through the stadium about a captured heart.
In the 30 years I have been covering sports, I have never called for a coach or manager to be fired for athletic failure. People who have such knee-jerk responses have never really learned the important things about winning that sports teaches real athletes and coaches. To win, you cannot worry about who you don't have but only about who you do have, and you get far better results out of trying to figure how to help them produce rather than pointing fingers at their failures.
Look past the statistics and forget the panicked frenzy of last summer. The Giants are playing because they looked inward and they reached outward.
Enjoy the moment – however long it lasts.
Pride Run
Thursday (October 7) is the final day to register for East Bay Front Runners and Walkers sixth annual Pride Run, which this year will benefit the Pacific Center in Berkeley, Midway Shelter in Alameda, and Students Run Oakland.
The event Saturday, October 9, around Oakland's Lake Merritt, will offer 10-kilometer and 5-kilometer runs as well as a 5-kilometer walk. Organizers said they expect between 150 and 200 participants. Registration is $20. For more information, visit www.active.com or www.eastbayfrontrunners.org.
Cheer SF tryouts
Cheer San Francisco is holding three clinics for potential squad members leading up to its annual tryouts.
Two tryout clinics will be held from noon to 3 p.m. this Saturday and Sunday, October 9-10, at Justin Herman Plaza at the end of Market Street. A third clinic will be held Tuesday, October 12, 7 to 9 p.m., at Head Over Heels Gymnastics, 4701 Doyle Street, Building F, in Emeryville. Tryouts for the 2010-11 squad will be held at Head Over Heels on Saturday, October 16, from noon to 6 p.m.
For more information about Cheer SF and events in which it participates, visit www.cheersf.org.
Manchester gets rugby's Bingham Cup 2012
The International Gay Rugby Association Board announced last week that its members had selected Manchester to host the 2012 Bingham Cup, the world championship of gay rugby.
A bid evaluation committee had recommended 7-1 that rival bidder Sydney be chosen, but Manchester beat Sydney in the final membership vote, 34-28.
"Rugby will be coming home to the north of England, the place where it was born and grew into the superior football code we know today," said Alex Fallis, IGRAB chairman. "It was there that rugby football became the game for everyone, and that spirit of inclusiveness will guide Manchester 2012."
Fallis said the Manchester bid was "the perfect combination of destination, venue, profile, support and tradition. Names like Gareth Thomas, Nigel Owen, and Ben Cohen will draw focus on this tournament that will be difficult to match."
The first Bingham Cup was held in San Francisco in 2002 to commemorate Mark Bingham, a gay championship rugby player who was one of the passengers who died fighting the hijackers of Flight 93 on 9/11. Host San Francisco Fog beat London King's Cross Steelers 27-5 in the final.
For more information on SF Fog's men's and women's teams, visit www.sffog.org.