Giants baseball - fun and frustrating

It is fun to be a Giant and a Giant fan. Fun, but frustrating as well, as this story alludes to. Who would have thought we would have been cheering .500 so soon after hoisting the pennant? But that's what it means to be a Giants fan.

from Giants Extra:
Dominant Bumgarner takes no-hitter into the seventh as Giants blank Padres - Giants Extra:

“I mean, it’s just fun to be a Giant,” Romo said. “It’s just really fun to be a Giant.” 

Especially now. It’s not easy to stand at .500 after 26 games when you’ve mixed in an eight-game losing streak. Having a legitimate ace certainly helps – especially one that already has come out on the winning side twice against the Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw. 

“Conviction, brute force, pitching finesse – he can kind of do it all and it’s impressive,” Romo said. “Now he’s finding his stride. I think that’s what’s going on with us as a team in general. We’re all finding our ways to contribute and it’s fun right now.” 

Casey McGehee remains on the other side of the glass, though. The third baseman committed a throwing error to start the game, he stunted two rallies with disastrous at-bats and the murmurs of dissatisfaction from the sellout crowd have bloomed into throaty boos."

'via Blog this'

It's fun because you get to watch excellence on a nightly basis in the form of Bumgarner dominating opponents and making it seem routine. It's fun watching Brandon Crawford perform magic with his glove every night and make it look routine. It's fun watching Buster Posey grow from rookie to regular to star and perhaps eventually to legend. It's fun watching the uniquely talented Hunter Pence perform at an all-star caliber level and do it in a manner that is certain not no to make any past or future Tom Emansky video tapes. It's fun watching Romo throw slider after slider by batters who know it's coming and still can't hit it.

At the same time, it's fun watching Lincecum transition from power to finesse and frustrating to watch him struggle with it at times, sometimes from one start to the next, careening from excellence to frustration like a drunk driving home at 3 AM.

It is frustrating watching McGehee melt down on a nightly basis and last night was a microcosm of his brief stint with the Giants. The first inning error was on Belt, who seems to waver in and out of his own private morass with the bat and more recently, with the glove as well. Both look lost at times on the field. McGehee looks almost as if he's playing scared or tight. Gripping the bat too tight and the ball too tight is a sure recipe for disaster. If anyone was a candidate for a slump-buster it's Casey McGehee.

But that is Giants baseball. Fun and Frustrating. Many times, on the same night.