I haven’t always been a Giants fan.  I played baseball as a kid and worshipped the Milwaukee Braves.  Mostly because they drove the Dodgers crazy and the Dodgers were my folk’s favorite team.  My mom listened to them on her little black and silver transistor radio.  She hung on every Vin Scully word.

When the Dodgers moved to LA in the fifties, we got to see Eddie Matthews, Warren Spahn, Lew Burdette, Joe Adcock, and Hank Aaron in person.  Eddie Matthews, the soft-spoken third baseman with the big bat, was my favorite.  He drove the Dodgers nuts, but when we went to watch him play at the LA Coliseum he usually struck out.

Don Zimmer, rest his soul, was the worst.  He was not known as a home run hitter but in 1958, when the Dodgers moved to LA, he had the left field fence figured out.  The coliseum was a football stadium for the LA Rams, but home to the LA Dodgers for the few years it took to build them a baseball stadium.  They erected a 50 foot fence in left field to prevent rampant home runs, but Zimmer had its number.  He hit, what would have been routine fly balls in any other park, that flew over the left field fence.  He hit 17 home runs that first year, the most he hit in his major league career.

Back to the Giants.  Last night Dinard Spann and Matt Moore woke up the Giants defensively and we had a Panik Attack.  Moore came darn close to a no hitter, the giants bats made noise, and Denard Span showed serious speed.  Serious D.  He ran nearly 100 feet and reached a speed of over 20 mph to track down what would have been an extra base hit into the left-center gap in the third inning.  He made another in the ninth.  He was flying.  Joe Panik’s swing looks back and what a swing it is.  One piece, built for contact, and he can certainly take it deep when it matters.  IT MATTERS NOW!!!

So, my dear Giants, I have been patient, though disappointed, since the All-Star break.  Last night you showed your stuff, which you’ve kept carefully  under wraps.  Don’t be bashful, play Giant’s baseball?  Ball contact, speed, hits when it matters.  It’s almost September.  It’s time to go.