! ! ! ! Can’t get any lower. Still I feel I’m sinking ! ! ! !
Outshined by Chris Cornell and Soundgarden. The theme song for your SF Giants 2026 team.
In a season full of pitching debacles and crushing losses, they managed to pull one out for the ages.
Yes, the biggest blown 9th inning league in the 125 year history of the team. They were 2,208-0 when leading by 6 or more in the 9th. Til today.
Up 9-3 in the top of the 9th, the team could not even get an out before Cincy tied it. Bivans came in and really had no clue. Not sure why whoever the interim manager even was didn’t pull him a little faster, but I think it was pretty obvious Bivens didn’t have it. He gave up the longest home run into the cove that I’ve ever seen. Then again, Smith came in and nuked the joint. And the rest was errors, walks and general rookie ball crap.
I guess the lockout is a blessing.
For Dolly . . .
Forty Niners Forever 
last night was pretty empty. 15,000?
they had nearly 40k today.
Must be due to the Snakes, i.e., they are still in the playoff hunt. Us? We’re at best, “spoilers.”
curious about tonight. Prolly half the crowd of today.
Come on Giants you can do it,Let’s lose 2!!
Yeah Snarkk, when the players are young and still learning, you bring ’em up, you send ’em down as needed, they learn, they come back up hopefully better. But the likes of Walker, and I’m including Bevins too, Brubaker, these aren’t youngsters and they’re not going to get any better. Bring ’em up again anyway, mostly the same results….
I looked at the AAA pitchers at the start of the year and none were younger than 25.
DIdn;t thik that was a good sign.
I looked at who owned the Giants. Same idiot who owned it last year. I didn’t think that was a good sign.
well, the owner didn’t put team together, the POBO and GM did. And the manager they hired put staff in, including 3b coach they had to let go. I’d hope there are some more changes to other coaches not named Wash that can’t seem to help anyone, but we’ll see.
1985 is one thing but Roger Craig and Al Rosen aren’t riding into town to bail this group out.
well as long as the crowds keep buying tickets etc they’ll have money to spend. 😏
If we had Flap nickname for Law I can’t remember it. black shoes at least are cool. somebody else had that nickname.
beede I think.
Doughy Fuck? Big Sweaty? It’s all that comes to mind…
Tyler Walker was Big Sweaty. Maybe Doughy Fuck too..
Hey this is Alleykat I was having issues logging in on WordPress, but I’m in with my real name Bob McMurry whatever..
So too of my favorite nicknames I helped created I believe?
Pitcher Chad Gaudin is “The Grouper”
Catcher Erik Kratz is “Krispy Kratz “
Yunior and Tugboat were fun to watch this weekend, as was the team’s aggressive baserunning. Devers and Eldridge tower over the other hitters, though Lee’s proved himself pretty solid. Gilbert’s turned into a helluva fourth OF (now we just need two more). A couple of guys in the pen should be back next year. Whitcomb’s reflexes are SLOW.
No game on a Sunday?
What the actual fuck?
So, your happy with the owner Willie. Gotcha.
Posey IS an owner and one of 6 on board. He’s also the guy who convinced others it was good move to extend Chapman with NTC, sign Adames and trade for Devers (who is fine).
I don’t think he had any intention of offering a long term contract to high priced FA SP. His decision and there’s some merit to it based on past fails to Giants (Cueto Shark etc.). But team was woefully short handed in rotation and pen and his inaction beyond bottom feeders to fix either doomed them.
Zero to do with Johnson pere or fils. Hiring an inexperienced ML manager with expensive contract while still paying off Melvin, whom Posey extended, hasn’t worked out very well either. Again, zero to do with a Johnson. Posey’s call all the way. So they’re stuck with him and Posey as well. Maybe both of them are still learning the job, the hard way.
Posey owns less than 1% of the team. No idea why you are being naive and obtuse and defend these clowns almost all the time.
So, zero to do with Johnson, eh? Same guy that said “If we have to go through that [luxury tax], we’ll go through that. But we also represent a group that hopefully our goal is to somewhat break even, which is somewhat a challenge in this business.”
That remark sparked heavy backlash from fans and media members who felt it signaled a lack of commitment to spending whatever it takes to win . . . Except for you Willie, i.e., you’re fine with this shit show.
I’m not and dollars to donuts, most Flappers are not either. Correct me if I am wrong, but please speak up, if any of you Flappers are alright with this 10 year fiasco?
Bottom line Posey had zero experience preparing for the job he has, unlike almost everyone else in charge of ML baseball team, and unfortunately it shows. He was a respected player, bought into ownership (and is one of only 6 on the board) and far as I know got the job in response to what befell Zaidi led Giants teams post 2021. Zaidi of course had been hired to GM job in LA by Andrew Friedman, who had spent 10 years with Rays org before coming to Dodgers.
He had never done anything with minor league player development, coaching etc. at any level ever before. He had never been in any other executive position either.
This is about how you run a baseball team and I think Posey is woefully inadequate at it due to lack of experience, learning as he goes. He’s made good small moves at margin like in picking up Gilbert and Tidwell in trades last year, signing/trading away Arraez and farm seems to be on way up.
Giants aversion to signing high priced FA SPs (options or not) goes back to Bobby Evans days. I get why Posey doesn’t like it, but his alternative moves were a fail. As was acquiring Bader to fix CF.
Greg J admitted he made a mistake in “breaking even” remark. but he never said anything about denying Posey spending $$, and Giants have spent tons since that happened especially with Devers contract they absorbed a year ago that basically refutes that. If you have evidence he told Posey he was prohibited from signing expensive pitchers please enlighten us.
Blade- I am totally disgusted with the Giants and the disfunction has been so wide spread that the blame should go around to all. What I hate most of all is that we have major ownership supporting the most corrupt administration in the history of the United States. I also hate that our ballpark has the Oracle name to it, for obvious reasons. I hate that the wonderful city of San Francisco(where I was born)and the area where I was mostly raised all the way down to San Jose is now so full of Fascist billionaires who want to destroy the constitution and the American way of life as we know it.
To quote John Stuart Mill “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
And to quote Jelly Roll “When fighting monsters make sure you don’t turn into one yourself.”
Not sorry for the politics or the rant.
Minasian’s comments about seeing some value in the current bullpen inspired me to check on the W-L difference between blowing a lead in the 9th vs. the 8th. All Minasian was doing with his parsing of the 9th inning stats was leaning heavily into the whole closer myth to buttress the case that there might be some talent in the pen that they can hold onto.
I downloaded the 2010-2025 play by play data from retrosheet. When a team blows a lead in the 8th, either by a tie or falling behind, they go on to lose 62% (rounded down) of the time; when they blow it in the 9th, they lose 66% of the time. The actual difference is a paltry 3.5 percent, despite the sudden death bottom of the 9th.
you mean to tell me Zack is a lyin fool who should be shitcanned now?
Well, deceitful might be more accurate. He knows full well that even with a good closer, some of those lousy 9th innings from the current crew would have been displaced onto other only slightly less important late innings. Good overall bullpen >>>> good closer. As for shitcanning him, gosh, poor Buster, betrayed by his fellow owners and staff alike.
amusing yesterday to hear Jeff Kent get emotionally nostalgic over former rich as hell owners Magowan and Sue Burns. Implicit criticism of the current investment fund and private equity and VC types raking it in, I suppose. But it’s a different world now. Same old dog eat dog, but the dogs are bigger.
I really believe these silly giveaways that they seem to do almost every home game are a big factor in keeping the attendance numbers up there. People love free shit…
mlb boxes say more than 68K attendance yesterday. A lot of season seats empty for the second game, perhaps. But you figure that per cap average has to be a hundred clear, doesn’t it? For every guy in the bleachers having a brat and a pbr there’s a guy closer to the plate spending that full hundred on a crab sandwich and a few ipas. $100 x 68,000. Good reliever for a couple of years.
Ramos with 3 run HR bottom 5, as Yanks lead BoSox 5-0.
Nor should you be sorry Winder. You not only stated what’s wrong with the Giants franchise, but also the SF Bay Area at large. Like you, I was born in San Francisco too. Spent my first 5 years in Bay View-Hunters Point, where my grandfather, an immigrant from Spain settled in 1920, shortly after landing at Ellis island. My Grandfather was a long shoreman and raised 6 kids, mostly as a single parent, due to my grandmother dying shortly after giving birth to their children.
My aunt Mary lived in the Sunset District, the other kids moved to the South Bay, with one in Napa Sonoma. All successful. Likewise all of their kids were too. However, like you said, the entire SF Bay Area has changed for the worst. I actually loved the Bay Area through the 1980s, and only left due to government job promotions beginning in 1990 (Monterey, Redding, and then, Denver).
Beyond economic and infrastructure strains, a profound cultural displacement has alienated long-term locals like you Winder and myself. The massive influx of high-earning tech workers and global transplants has dramatically transformed the area’s social fabric, shifting it from a deeply community-oriented, eclectic environment into a frenetic, transient corporate landscape. Multigenerational roots and tight-knit neighborhoods have gradually faded, if not become extinct. Give you an example – I was at a light at Fremont Ave. and Sunnyvale Saratoga Rd., with Fremont High School to my right . . . Around lunch time. Think back 30-40 years ago, it was all white and hispanic students crossing that street. Nope, today, the majority were Indian students. Hey, I could give 2 shits whether they were Indian, Chinese, Hispanic or Aliens from another planet – just trying to illustrate how most blue collar folks do NOT live there anymore, unless they already bought in the 60s, 70s, and 80s. Most of my childhood friends have left the area like I did.
Everyday expenses compound the pressure. Alongside these financial burdens, residents face severe quality-of-life challenges, including grueling daily traffic congestion caused by the geographic separation of affordable neighborhoods and major tech employment centers. Visible urban issues such as widespread homelessness, street cleanliness concerns, and underperforming public infrastructure have further fueled local dissatisfaction, driving many to seek relief in more affordable states.
Jelly Roll was right about “When fighting monsters make sure you don’t turn into one yourself.” When I settled my parent’s estate in Sunnyvale last year, I was asked a number of times if I would stay in Sunnyvale. What the fuck?!? Sheesh, the 2 months I was there, was pure torture . . . My sanity barely survived that amount of time there.
. . . and Winder, me too – I’m not sorry for the politics or rant.
The only key factor that has been consistent over the last decade+ of the descent of this Giants organization into repetitive crap play and failure in the win/loss department — is ownership.
Over its 3 general managers and their underlings, the 4 field managers and their various coaching staffs (including now Tony V), and literally hundreds of players on/off of the 40 man rosters — the key ownership has been virtually unchanged. Meaning, the managing owner since 2012 in the person of Greg Johnson, and before that for a bit, his father the billionaire fund manager and fascist Johnson, who apparently still owns the biggest chunk of the team at around 26% or so, per reports. That, along with the multiple smaller owners who each own just a piece of the ownership pie for vanity or passive investment in a sure thing. For whatever reason the passive owners are therer (can any Flapper name even a couple of these other owners?; I can’t), the major move/shaker appears to be (“break even”) Greg Johnson.
And, now the Giants organization is owned somewhere over 12% by 3 Venture/Private capital funds. The latest fund buying out a few of the no-name smaller owners (at a major gain, no doubt, with the franchise value estimate above $4 billion) is the fund run by the brother of Jared Kushner, our Dear Idiot’s son-in-law. Keeping the fascism theme going in house, looks like. And, of course, 30+ years in, we have still the nominal CEO, Larry “the PR flak” Baer, who works hard to stay obnoxious to most fans who can smell a fraud. Baer, who gets on KNBR once a month to talk about critical things like how tireless he worked to get the Giants to offer ballpark fans $6.80 Coors and $10.45 Corona bottles (Corona apparently is a “specialty” beer, ha ha) for ONE GAME upcoming v. Twins on this Sept 23. Be there or be square for that momentous, heartfelt beer boon to fans.
I posit the notion that if this “ownership group” really, actually truthfully wanted the Giants to be a consistently winning organization, they would have worked over the years to actually make it CONSISTENTLY WIN. There is no shortage of financial strength to have done so. Yet, here we are. A decade+ for a sports team this rich is a long time to suck. A long time to not develop hardly any meaningful farm talent. You have to either be clueless or careless to have that happen (hello, the decades-long reign of suck of Cohan and the Warriors who also had a loyal fan base). When I say careless, I mean despite lip service to the contrary, Ownership really does not care when it comes to player drafting, development, and to making playoffs, as long as the fans show up at or near 3 million per year and don’t bat an eye at $20+ beers and whatever the hell the parking costs now. And, they really, really don’t care when a major part of “the Giants” is the obvious focus on the “Giants Enterprises” commercial/residential Mission Rock real estate project, nor while they spend $millions to buy in late 2025 what looks like a vanity /community PR project like the SF’s Curran Theater. Can’t wait for the Giants player cameos in “The Nutcracker”.
As long as this ownership configuration owns the team, I doubt seriously that another WSeries appearance is going to happen. We’ve heard before the promise of “the wonder kids” in the lower minors, only to come up empty — now we’re waiting for the next batch while were treated to great play from warm bodies like Basabe, Furman, Whitcom and yes, the great Buddy Kennedy. Nobody can argue rationally that this 2026 season is NOT a complete ClusterF on the field. But, pretty good from the revenue angle.
The goal of this ownership is clearly ROI, not WOTF (wins on the field)…
You remember the movie, “All The President’s Men?” Catch phrase was “Follow the money.”
“Follow the money” means investigating financial transactions, funding sources, and spending patterns to uncover the true motivations, hidden beneficiaries, or corruption behind a crime, political scandal, or decision.
Yeah, nothing nefarious going on with the Giants insofar as crimes or political scandals, but you would have to be a fucking idiot or in a coma the last 10+ years to not realize that this organization’s goal is “clearly ROI, not WOTF.”
Good post snarkk.
Thanks blade for sharing. i only lived in Sunnyvale for close to 4 years in the early 70’s but I had the time of my life there. Nothing ever really stays the same but the whole Bay Area has changed so much that I don’t even recognize the place anymore. My Russian grandparents left Russia in 1916 and moved to France for a couple of years then to Phiily where my mom was born then to San Francisco where they both retired from the post office. We lived all over the city I was born in the Mission district.
Thanks snarkk
the ownership group includes more than 30 individual and as they say instructional investors and the bulk of them don’t give a shit about the game. Blaming them for the team’s record is like blaming capitalism for climate change. May be true, but wtf are you going to do about it?
I doubt it’s true, though (about the Giants, I mean). Buster has a huge budget and he’s obviously capable of making bold moves. But the paucity in the pen this year is just inexplicable. That glaring failure alone seems to make all of the other questionable aspects of the team even more suspicious — Vitello and his coaching staff, e.g. But I don’t see how you can lay it on absentee investors who own interests in a conglomerate that happens to be anchored on a sports franchise.
*institutional.
My time(s) in the Bay Area were all in The City, so I don’t really know much about the politics of rest of the area. I did work at Stanford for a couple of years so got to know a bit about the dealings down in Palo Alto. I used to think it strange that a team in a progressive bastion like SF would have right-wing owners AND a ballpark named after a company run by a right-wing oligarch… just doesn’t seem right. But it’s now been 22 years since I lived in SF, so I don’t know, I guess maybe it’s not as strange as it seemed. Agree that it sucks.
But also agree with Willie that Buster has indeed made mistakes. We don’t know how much the owners might have squashed other moves Posey would’ve made, but ignoring the bullpen and hiring Vitello were probably two bad moves by Buster himself. When you look back on it from the start of the season, we all knew the pitching was going to be bad but I don’t think too many of us were looking at a 100-loss season. Buster will learn, is learning, and I still believe in what he’s trying to do, but he kind of crapped the bed in a couple of ways this season….
Paul, the entire city has CHANGED. The process is actually a severe form of gentrification often called hyper-gentrification or tech-driven displacement. When wealthy tech workers replace lower- and middle-income residents on a massive scale, urban planners and sociologists use several specific terms to describe the shift, as the scale of change goes far beyond the typical housing market cycles. I was very close to my aunt that lived on the “Avenues” in Sunset district. She owned 3 Victorians, but was “forced” to sell one of them, as she was property rich, but cash poor. Particularly so, with the influx of rich tech bros and sisters that took over her neighborhood, as well as other districts. Consequently, she sold a Victorian in Haight Ashbury for $2 million. The developers immediately made repairs and revisions to the property, where they sold it as a duplex. They sold it for $5 million – $2.5 million for each unit.
Hyper-gentrification represents an extreme version of traditional gentrification where wealthy newcomers do not just upgrade older homes, but buy out entire neighborhoods and completely reshape the local economy. This causes prices to rise so rapidly that even upper-middle-income families find themselves priced out of the market alongside working-class residents.
This rapid economic shift leads directly to displacement, which is the forced removal of long-term residents who can no longer afford rising rents, high property taxes, or soaring home values. As these individuals and families move to more affordable outer suburbs or other states, the city loses its historical and cultural roots, permanently altering the fabric of the community.
Some critics and local writers also use the term “tech-colonization” to describe this phenomenon. This term highlights how a single industry can completely take over a city’s housing market, public spaces, and local culture. As a result, the retail, dining, and housing options in the city begin to cater almost exclusively to high-earning corporate employees rather than a diverse, multi-generational population.
Apropos of nothing, but seeing Kent and his retired number thing, and watching games over the past few weeks, but Devers/Eldridge seems to be a productive duo batting consecutively. Kind of reminded me of Bonds/Kent.
Charles Johnson was the primary owner at least as early as 2011. That’s when he fired Neukom. (Nominally, over the way N tied to divide WS bonuses.) Now he’s disabled somewhere while his son fronts an entirely different type of ownership group.
The world has changed. That’s true enough.
Damn, you guys were busy last night! Lots of good stuff. Having lived in and around the city most of my life, it is jarring how complete neighborhoods are simply vanishing. And the ones that aren’t disappearing are skyrocketing.
Lived in and around the city most of my life, but I haven’t lived there since I lived in the Haight in the late 80s. Way too much fun with all the comedy and music clubs. Sad that all those little venues like the I-Beam, Mabuhay, DV8, Holy Cow are all gone ,I think. Just endless shit to do back then.
My middle daughter went to SF State and graduated in 2015. Spent time living in the Sunset, by GG Park, and working at Lefty O’Douls for a while and she got sick what you guys are talking about. Google buses dragging in the broheim types, white privilege on parade every night, just wanton douchebaggery everywhere.
It drove her to Seattle after her 6 years there. Not much better up there, but the vibe in Seattle is like what she liked about SF when she started school there in 2011.
For what I do in the city it is fine. Go to the occasional restaurant, the occasional concert, go th China Beach, Presidio, Buena Vista for Irishes, etc.
All the bad press nationally has calmed down a bit, but here we go again with AI moving into town. More high paying jobs to drive up the already insane cost of living.