The San Francisco Giants have been my baseball team for 55 years and that is never going to change.

The men on this incredible team are not just ball players, they are actual people too!

Here are some things to think about next time you decide it’s your “job” to make public your frustration or unhappiness with a player’s performance by means of  harsh negative comments.

Players are people with families. Players are people so they are not perfect. Players take their jobs seriously and try to do them the best they can. Players feel bad when they make a mistake. Players hear what is being said about them and negative comments are harmful and hurtful to them and to their families.  No team win’s the Championship every year, that would be boring.

If you feel you can do the job better than why aren’t you? 

I think sometimes there are those that forget that. They have feelings, hopes and dreams just as every person does.  They are doing a job and they are doing it to the best of their ability.  They are not going out on the field and trying to give a poor performance, they are trying to do their job as well as possible.  They want to win, they want to hit well, pitch well, field the ball well.  If they don’t manage to do that they are just as upset about it as any fan could possibly be.  So lighten up people, if you call yourself a fan don’t make things worse for a player who is already feeling bad.  Why would you kick somebody when they are down? Especially if that somebody is a member of a ball team you claim to be a fan of.

I waited 54 years for that first trophy and the second was the cherry on top.  Obviously I have known this baseball team long before they were ever World Champions and I think that is now having an effect on my attitude.  Not towards my team but towards my lack of tolerance for negativity from other’s that call themselves fans.

Oh, I can hear the growling now!  I expect it because most of the fan’s I am seeing and hearing think it is perfectly except able to share what they believe to be informed opinions whether they are negative or not.  True everybody is entitled to their opinion but to me being a  fan of any team means that you are going to root for them win or lose.  I believe in loving the players as people not viewing them as someone paid to entertain me.

When our team struggles there are far too many “fans” that throw their hands up in the air and say “well that’s it, the Giants stink”.  If a player has a bit of trouble with his pitching “let’s get rid of him” is their answer.  If a player is struggling at the plate they are obviously “in a slump” and should be benched.  A player commits an error “hang him” it’s all the talk of folks who either think they are smarter or more informed than those who manage the team.  Along with that it is  likely they lack the loyalty it takes to be a fan of a team that can’t guarantee a trophy every year.  No team, player or person is perfect all the time.  That’s just a fact of life.

I do not claim to know it all when it comes to baseball and it makes absolutely no difference in defining me as a fan.  Thank goodness I am not the one who makes the decision when it is time to “give up” on a player and I have seen many of my favorite Giants removed from the team over the years and it has never been pleasant.  I get over it, I move along and new players come and I learn to love them.  There are players on the current active roster that I just can’t imagine losing and if and when that happens I will probably not deal with it very well.  But that’s life and it’s going to happen year after year as it has in the past.

Until the day they are striped of the Giants uniform I will stand by them through their successful outings as well as their unsuccessful ones.  That’s my job as a fan and I do it voluntarily.  I don’t like to lose games and it frustrates me when we play poorly but it does not give me cause to attack them. Nobody is forced to be a SF Giants fan, it’s a choice you make and if you make that choice it is your job to support the players, their coaches, managers and owners.

After all let’s not forget that the San Francisco Giants are known for their incredible fan base and I truly believe the guys when they say they “are grateful” and that it “means a lot to them to have that support”. So let’s live up to that, let’s support them. a

Some games made you feel less than pleased? You felt frustrated? You were disappointed by a player or player’s performance? You were angry?

That’s your right and you are entitled to your feelings but how do you think the player’s themselves feel after such a game? They too have strong feelings about the game and their performances. I consider those feelings to be important- more important than a disgruntled fans right to rant.

“This is the group that’s going to be out there,” Bochy

“I knew out of my hand that it wasn’t right,” said Lincecum, who was caught on a television replay screaming in dismay as Freeman connected.

Said Lincecum, who found his equilibrium after issuing leadoff walks in the first three innings, “Every outing I know I can take some positives from it and not lean on the negatives so much.”

Lincecum  about three leadoff walks in the first three innings. “That’ll hurt you,” he said. “It’s just timing. You go up there and work on it between innings with your warm-up pitches, but it’s frustrating when you can’t repeat it. Then you’re grinding.”

“We always look forward to going home,” Lincecum said. “We’ll hit the reset button.”

“It says a lot about how he gutted it out,” Bochy said of Lincecum. “He kept us in the game.”

“ I feel terrible.We are human and we make mistakes.Things happen for a reason. But in my heart, I feel terrible, bad” Andres Torres  

“I’ve lost a few balls like that,” said Torres, clearly upset with himself.  “I have no clue, to be honest. But it was terrible,” Torres said when asked to explain the misplay.  “What happened out there?” he said, furrowing his brow. “I don’t know.”.

Bochy stuck by Torres, who now leads the Majors with five errors in left field. He made one in all of 2010

“He’s a gifted defender and had a couple of off nights. He came in the dugout and apologized. He was pretty upset with himself. But this is the group that is going to be out there, and we’re going to stand behind him.”  Bochy defending Torres.

SergioRomo “It’s baseball. You can only control certain things,” Romo said. “Went out there and tried my best.”

…to my wonderful wife for all she does for our twins! -Buster

Chad Gaudin ‏@ChadGaudin57 23 Apr
apparently my son wanted to say to y’all this morning “Greet mlsdawwwpspwwwqwpuQojhu”. & i want to say sorry for that tweet & the confusion

Nick Noonan ‏@Noonan_21 15 Apr
So pumped to be part of a great team with amazing fans !! Thanks for the support and warm welcome to SF… Lets gooooo!!!!

George Kontos ‏@G_Kontos 19 May
Time to get home and start over! “But it ain’t about how hard you hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward;….

POSTGAME NOTES: Bochy stands by his left fielder; A tranquil Dunning debut

http://blogs.mercurynews.com/giants/2013/06/16/postgame-notes-bochy-stands-by-his-left-fielder-a-tranquil-dunning-debut/