Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Brian Wilson: Blackbeard and Blue Bastard

I wish I didn't care... I honestly do. I wish I didn't form attachments to players and memories and things like that, but unfortunately, that's just the way I operate. Some people are able to be far more rational and detached when it comes to sports, and sometimes I envy them for that.

For me, the news that Brian Wilson chose to sign with the Dodgers of his own volition was really disturbing.

Boo this man!
For me, it felt like a personal attack, as if he himself was trying to get back at me by doing what I would hate and despise the most. Obviously, my reaction proves that I'm either way too sensitive, obsessed with hating the Dodgers, mentally ill, or a little bit of all three.

Regardless, it was just horrible news to most Giants fans.

This was a dude we embraced and celebrated, even though towards the end, he was getting too weird to defend. He was a big part of two of the biggest highlights of my life as a Giants fan-- getting both outs via strikeout to beat both the Phillies in the NLCS and the Rangers in the World Series back in '10. There are also pictures of me celebrating from that November night in 2010 with the piss-poor dyed black imitation rally beard I'd grown for the playoff run indelibly grown onto my face.

These types of memories for people simply can't be erased, and remain so etched in peoples' minds, that even though he's basically been gone for two seasons, it's still upsetting to see him signing with LA.

I wish there was some sort of loyalty in sports today in the era of free agency and everything else, but you rarely see it. As many people pointed out, the Giants didn't owe Wilson anything, and he didn't owe the Giants anything. It's a business, someone offered him a job, he took it... bla bla bla, cliche, cliche, cliche.

I get that players and teams shouldn't give a damn about each other, but how about the fans? Without fans, there is no fame and fortune. God, would it have really been so hard to become a real Pirate in Pittsburgh with your stupid beard and a a chance to part of their first winning season since 1992? Of course not. He had to be in LA.

In the end, it's all business and what's best for the player. I get all that. I just wish it hadn't have gone down this way.

Maybe it's convenience because he lives in LA, maybe it's because he yearns to be back in the spotlight, and maybe it's because the Dodgers are the hottest team in baseball (BARF), but he just made the call that made this season just a little more unbearable for me.

The chances of him being anywhere near to his '09/'10 form are slim to none... few players have even attempted to come back from a second Tommy John surgery, and even fewer Giants have been good after leaving San Francisco and joining the Blue Bastards (Schmidt, Boo-ribe, etc.). It's just the imagined principle of the thing that gets me-- and yes it's imagined, because apparently there are no principles in baseball anymore.

Or so I'm told. Just ask Wilson's new BFF Puig about playing with principle.

As inconsequential as the move may be in the grand scheme of things, it just feels like an unnecessary poke in the ribs; ribs already sore from being punched repeatedly throughout this abysmal championship defense of 2013.

I'll get over it soon enough. After a good two hours of Twitter rants earlier, I'm now able to accept the fact that him pitching in a Giants uniform is just a distant relic of the past-- something I'll be able to look back on in 20 years and remember more fondly than not, because he won't amount to anything close to substantial in Los Angeles.

Because after all, Los Angeles is a place made of little to no substance, and never will be-- especially on the baseball field.

Beat LA.

12 comments:

  1. Just like that feeling you get when you see your ex update her fb photo with her new bf... kinda like that. F Heem.

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  2. Did LA just sign him as a f*u to the giants and their fans? Because I think you are right, his days of awesomness are over. Honestly, now I hope they are, unless he gets traded... again..

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  3. Feel the exact same way. EXACT.

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  4. But just think how you die-hard Giant fans will feel when the Giants tramp the Dodgers...espicially when they beat their new closer in doing so!!
    Aahhhh... Revenge is a dish best served, COLD!!!

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  5. I sent a txt to my sweetie, also a life-long Giants fan, when I heard the news: "Another ex-Giant to BOOOO when the Dodgers come to town" to which she responded, "F**k Wilson * F**k the Dodgers!" Couldn't have said it better myself (although I will always appreciate what he accomplished as a Giant).

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  6. Let him go...we popped his cherry and then some, we had a good time, rode him til he had little left - let the dodgers have leftovers. At this point in his career, he's got to know he's got little to nothing left as a baller, so he has to do the next to best thing for himself which is to break in to show biz to get a reality show.

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  7. First off, I highly doubt he gets booed in SF as he is one of the 10 most popular players of all time on the Giants. He served his time well and will live in Giants legend forever.

    LA is a move based on career opportunity than baseball. This smells like Baron Davis migrating south to pursue a stage career, which I have no doubt B-Weezy will dominate at.

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  8. "For me, it felt like a personal attack, as if he himself was trying to get back at me by doing what I would hate and despise the most."

    I heard the only reason it took Brian Wilson so long to sign with the Dodgers is because he was concerned about how you would feel. Can't blame the guy for upgrading.

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  9. I think the dodgers signing brian wilson was a trojan horse ploy by the fu--ing giants to destroy the dodgers chances of winning the nat west title this year. put him on our team and watch him self destruct along with taking every 8th inning lead down with him way to go giants you as-- holes

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