that was the season that wasn’t

Yesterday was the end of the San Francisco Giants 2013 season. What a disaster compared to the 2012 season when they came back from the brink more than once to win it all. Basically the same team with nothing like the same performance. Why? Maybe it was hubris and overconfidence after the World Series win. Maybe it was sloppiness because of that. Maybe it was several players participating in the World Baseball Classic in the spring. General Manager Brian Sabean said much of the problem was due to lack of depth in the face of injuries to key players. I don’t know, but I’m disappointed, and yes, a tad sad.

I should be pleased that the Athletics won the AL West, but honestly, I don’t much care. I used to be an equal-opportunity Bay Area baseball fan. No more. Maybe it’s the screwing up the Coliseum for baseball with the construction of Mt. Davis when the Raiders returned to Oakland. Maybe it’s the fact, after having switched from satellite to cable a couple of years ago, that we don’t get the sports channel that carries the A’s, and the fact that we can barely get the signal for the A’s radio station. Or maybe I’m just a National League kind of guy. Bottom line, I just haven’t been paying attention to the Athletics.

So why, then, the Giants horrible season? Maybe the explanation above is sufficient, or maybe it’s something more sinister.

I think back to 2011, after the World Series win of 2010, and the travails the Giants had that year including the season-ending collision at home plate for Buster Posey. A Bay Area columnist wrote a very funny piece about the devil collecting on the deal that allowed them to win in 2010, à la the classic musical Damn Yankees.

So maybe it’s the same thing this year? I don’t believe in such things, of course, but it makes as much sense as any of my explanations above.

And Dodger fans, please stop gloating. Point taken. As the great Susan Russell has said, baseball will teach you humility.