One: Lima, Peru
Renel Brooks-Moon’s announcement over the PA system at Mission Creek Ballpark that the final game between the Milwaukee Brewers and “your” San Francisco Giants would take place in Lima, Peru was expected. The warm wet fog, so much a staple of Lima’s winter, suddenly showed up in San Francisco’s summer.
And under that dank, despondent cloud, the team’s leading tragedian, Barry Zito, will pitch for the Giants, who dropped the first two games to Milwaukee, producing a grand total of one run.
Two: A Clubhouse Cancer
Even before the deal that brought Jose Guillen to the Giants in August was done, the blogosphere grumbled, warning that “hothead” Guillen would bring negative karma into the Giants’ clubhouse, upsetting their delicate “chemistry.” Without explanation, more than one blog called him a “clubhouse cancer.”
I checked into it and found that Guillen’s image problems stemmed from a clash with Angels manager Mike Scioscia in 2003. Though nothing is known of the issue or what transpired between the two men, Angels sportswriters and bloggers unanimously found Guillen guilty of lacking the proper “respect for authority” (also Scioscia’s conclusion).
Three: The Cure for Clubhouse Cancer
In the Age of Free Agency, when teams change players more often than players change underwear, there is a sure-fire formula for good team “chemistry” in the clubhouse. Here it is:
In the first inning against pitcher Chris Narveson, Freddy Sanchez singles, Buster Posey doubles and Pat Burrell draws a walk. Jose Guillen comes to the plate. The run-starved crowd pleads — no, it beseeches; no, it implores, demands, begs only that Guillen get a hit. A bloop single would be more than fine for some, but for Guillen it’s not enough. He hits a grand slam home run into the left-field bleachers.
At first the crowd is stunned; then it erupts in the loudest and longest ovation of the season. Giants lead 4-0.
Four: Cultural Chemistry
Even our sport’s uncle, Bruce Jenkins of the Chron, worried about Guillen’s effect on clubhouse chemistry. As opaque as the others, he did manage to drag the specter of ethnicity in through the back door. New York Daily News sportswriter Andy Martin was much more forthright earlier this year: “The tricky culture clash between white and Latino ballplayers . . . underlies much of the discussion about clubhouse chemistry in baseball.” Martin often heard white players talking off the record about their Latino teammates through the lens of racial, class and cultural stereotypes.
Matt McCarthy, whose book “Odd Man Out” chronicles his season in the minor leagues, does not try to hide the cultural divide between white Americans and black Afro-Latinos behind a set of hopeless cliches. Showering separately, eating separately and never confronting the language barriers, McCarthy’s “team” recycles the old stereotypes and worse. He is even taught to “pitch by color”: fastballs to whites, curveballs to blacks.
Five: Section 311
Israel, a former Missionite who rules Section 311, has shaved. To give a metaphysical boost to the Giants? Huh? He’s ready for the homestand to end; his back is killing him from all the standing. While Narveson walks Huff, Posey and Burrell after two outs in the fifth, we talk about how chill things seem in the stands, an impressionist picnic instead of the raucus rave of the other night. It’s Sunday afternoon, no one’s drunk yet. Then we realize: Hey, bases are loaded and Guillen is at bat. He could hit two grand slams in the same game! Israel has seen two grand slams in the same game, but not by the same guy.
Six: The Hook
Guillen hits a single up the middle, driving home two more runs.
Through five innings, Barry Zito has given up just one hit. His “command,” his ability to put his changeup, slider and especially curveball where he wants, has been outstanding. Watching batters miss his curveball, “the hook,” is always a special delight. With two out in the sixth, Corey Hart hits a ground ball that gets by Uribe, who plays with move verve today but still seems to have a problem bending down for the ball. Up comes Ryan Braun. He works Zito to 3-2. In Braun’s previous two at-bats, Zito got him out on a slow changeup when Braun appeared to be looking for a curveball. This time he must have been expecting a changeup, because when he gets it, he hits a two-run homer.
And Zito gets the hook. He did his job, and he did it well.
Seven: A Stretch
We interrupt the game for an earlier highlight:
In the first inning, Cody Ross belted Chris Narveson’s third pitch over the wall in deep left field. Unfortunately for Ross, Ryan Braun leaped perfectly with his arm stretched well over the wall to make the catch. It was the best catch I’ve seen this year by someone not named Andres Torres. Check it out. Giant fans gave him a standing ovation.
Eight: The Truth and Nothing But
The other knock against Jose Guillen is that he says what he thinks. For example, he called out his teammates in Kansas City for being “babies” and “whiners,” which no one disputed. What made his comments controversial was that he made them at all, a sin in the church of MLB. “I’m just trying to speak the truth,” he told Kansas City reporters. “The truth is the truth. I’m not backing off what I said, that’s it.”
Didn’t anybody ever tell him that the truth can cause cancer?
Nine: Winners and Losers
The glass half full: The Giants lose the series but win the game, and because San Diego lost are back atop the Western Division. Colorado also lost. All five starting pitchers are now in a groove and the bullpen has been beyond magnificent.
The glass half empty: The Giants’ recent dependency on home runs was exposed by Milwaukee as a weakness, not a strength. Giant infielders, particularly Juan Uribe but also Freddy Sanchez and Aubrey Huff, appear to be playing through serious injuries.
