Just Awful

Zito started the second inning today by walking the bases full. He then needed 10 pitches to strike out catcher Chris Snyder, though apparently the umpire wasn't giving away any called strikes on the big curve, which hurts. Then Stephen Drew flew out to shallow right, and when Connor Jackson bluffed off third base to try and draw a throw, John "The Natural" Bowker fired in a rocket to the plate. Two down, and Brandon Webb (career .104 hitter) coming to the plate. Disaster averted.

Except not. Zito started the opposing pitcher off 2-0, and then, obliged to throw his 82 mph fastball over the plate, proceeded to watch Webb get just enough wood on a bloop single to right that scored a pair of runs. What a remarkably stupid chain of events. A nice little 38-pitch inning. Beautiful.

Brown does nothing for you

Yahoo's Tim Brown gleefully trashes the Giants following the opener, slagging Zito under the headline "Last Barry standing falls." How clever! It's funny because no team has signed Bonds yet, don't you know.

Unfortunately, he apparently watched the game.

Meantime, around him, the Giants had an interesting afternoon, including:

• A light collision involving rookie shortstop Brian Bocock and Roberts that left Roberts on his knees, his glove flung into left field.

• A dropped popup by second baseman Ray Durham, leading to a run.

• A couple wild pitches.

• A passed ball.

• Two missed cutoff men by center fielder Aaron Rowand.

• A man (OK, the rookie Bocock) getting picked off first in the eighth inning, in a five-run deficit.

• A few unnerving moments leading into the bottom of the eighth, in which the Giants appeared content to go it without a left fielder. (Which, come to think of it, would have been a suitable tribute to the man who was supposed to have been holding the franchise back.)

Afterward, Zito, the last Barry standing, was asked if he didn’t hunger for the days when he wasn’t so concerned with his stuff, when it was about standing on a mound and knowing exactly what was going to come out of his arm.

His eyes narrowed.

“I was me today,” he said.

And they were them.

They were them, Tim, I guess. Hopefully, next time, the team won't make it quite so easy for you to slack off.

The city and team, neither electrified or Diesel'd

Herb Caen said of the mood in San Francisco, on opening day of 1995: "I wouldn't say the whole town was electrified, or even Diesel'd, but all you had to say was ``How about that?'' and people knew what you meant."

The Giants went 67-77 in that strike distorted year, and based on Vegas predictions, that's about how many wins they should end up with this season, albeit in 18 more games. Even with the losses, that team as one of the G-men's most entertaining units, as it was a transitional point between our '93 club that broke our hearts, and the '97 team that went to the playoffs. We still had Robby Thompson up the middle and Matt Williams at the corner and we still believed in Shawn Estes and William Van Landingham. Bonds stole 31 bases.

They were built to lose, and they finished fourth, but every day Williams would barehand a ball, and with his sidearmed flick, fire it to first to catch a speedy runner, or Thompson, in his last full season, standing impossibly deep in the box, his heels almost at the third base dugout, would reach out and poke one over the green chain link at the 'Stick, you'd be listening to the call on the radio, or watching from the dollar seats, and you'd turn to your friend and say, "how about that?"

2008's team doesn't have a prayer to make the playoffs, or even a puncher's chance at a winning record, but there will be plenty of moments from men like Cain, Lincecum, Lowry, Sanchez and the gods willing Zito, worth remembering or putting in your pocket so as to say, years from now, it was in a 4-0 ballgame that Sanchez became Sanchez, and I could see it then.

It takes no creativity to follow a winner. You almost have to lie to yourself to believe you're rebuilding when you might be sinking.

And that's fun.