Thanks For Your Support Fair Weather Fans! Now You Can Move On and Let The Die Hard's Back In!

Fair Weather Fan:

A fan of a sports team who only shows support when the team is doing well. During hard times they usually bandwagon other teams. They basically have no real loyalty to the team, but still manage to get better seats than you at the game. Strangely they mysteriously vanish at the first sign of trouble.

 How'd you like them Giants? You win a World Series title and now you can only win one game outta four against the Dodgers in your 2011 regular season debut. Well, this is exactly what it means to be a Giants fan. From start to finish, this is the kinda baseball that the Giants play. It's not always pretty and every game is not a winning game, but it's played day in and day out with heart. I give you the example of Aubrey Huff. That guy is 34 and taking one (well.... three, four, five...) for the team because the Boss is out on the DL. His teammates even made fun of him at batting practice before the game on Sunday with a chalk outline of his less-than-graceful right field catches. Honestly, Huff looked like the bad news bears out there making belly flopping catches that I couldn't help but giggle at because who wouldn't laugh at those attempts? But Huff is out there, making a fool of himself just to support his team at whatever the cost.

This is what Giants baseball can look like. This is the team that won the World Series title and had a huge parade last November with millions in attendance, but now it's a new season with some early hurdles to overcome. With that being said, all I can hear is the tick-tock of the fictional clock over the heads of those bandwagoners thinking about how much they can re-sell their tickets for if the G-Men keep playing this way. Don't get me wrong, our pitching was good throughout the four game series, even Zito came through after being in a car accident a few nights before his start, but everyone always looks at the win/loss ratio and right now, it ain't looking too good.

As a long time fan, it's been nice to hear the buzz around town and see so many more Giants t-shirts and paraphanalia out there, but if you are a fan and have gone through year after year, game after game with the team, you honestly want all of those "supporters" to just fall off the face of the planet. Call me a hater, it's fine, cause maybe that's what I am, but I have seriously put in some decent time and energy with the Giants and have sat through games where people have arrived mid-way through and then leave in the 7th inning to get home and all I think is, why'd you show up? Where's your heart?

I know, we're only four games in, but how many of those millions that showed up at the parade or even any of the WS games are singing the praises of our team? Do they even know who is on the DL or who will be pitching agains the Padres tomorrow? There are always room for newbies, and I'm proud to say I brought in a new Giants fan last year who really took to the game and the team. I was proud of him as he rode the Giants wave, even through Lincecum's bad months and Barry Zito's "I have to close my eyes and hold my breath" kinda outings, but how many other 2010 fans could talk about the 2010 Giants prior to September? Just curious.......

Hey, my arms are open wide to the fans who can take the losses with the wins, the belly flops with the homeruns and I hope you will hang on no matter what the ride will bring you. If you can rally then you'll get "it" and maybe even appreciate "it" and realize it's not always about the big win, parade or gimmicks. Just sayin'.