It's Entirely My Fault!

I had a bit of a realization here.

You see, I have a long history of bad luck. I don't just mean the usual Murphy's Law type stuff, where you can't seem to hit a green light out of five on your way to work one morning. I'm the guy who, the one time he doesn't get to the airport two hours early, nearly misses his 7:AM flight to Mineapolis after the security station has had a catastrophic failure for the first time in over a decade. I'm also the guy who, in a dry year like last winter, had to go to a funeral in California...at the same time that we got the only major winter storm of the season. Well, not only was it the only one, but by far the majority of precipitation was heading straight for my route home.

Coincidence?

This is a short list, of course, and it would seem that I inherit this trait from my Mother's side. Ironically, this is the same side which hails from Nebraska.

I think there's also a parallel between my existence on this earth and officiating in the WAC, Big West, and Big Sky.

Aside from my near bloodlust for my beloved Wolf Pack, I am also an avid Giants fan.

Starting to make sense now?

A couple of days ago I began to notice patterns here, between certain current leadership trends (and I mean trends in the most literal sense of the word) here, and certain leadership trends in San Francisco from, oh, let's say 1993 through 2002. Enough with allusions here, I'm talking about Dusty Baker (to whom my comerade on this site snidely refers as "the best manager the Angels ever had").

Dusty had some great seasons with the Giants, no argument there. But when it came down to the postseason, well, that's another story.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/managers/bakerdu01.shtml

For anyone who cares, for reference's sake, here's a quickie guide to his regular seasons in SF. It has long pained me to watch him in the postseason, though. I've ruined many fine hats in the process, in fact. 2000 was particularly painful, losing to the Mets in 4 games in the division series. I knew going into that series that game two was going to be the key to advancing since the Mets were a damn fine team, especially late in the season, and winning at Shea was a daydream at best. Of course you can't "believe" that when you're in the big leagues, but that's a fact, and they had to get game two in order to ensure a game five back home in the event of a collapse in New York. Of course, with the pitching staff he had, how could he lose, right? I mean, take away Robb Nen, Felix Rodriguez, and Livan Hernandez when he still knew how to pitch, and you still had Shawn Estes, young Russ Ortiz, Kirk Reuter, and Mark Gardner with Fultz, Henry, and Embree in the bullpen. Plain and simple: Baker didn't play to his strengths, especially in a game two which was to be far more important.

Then there's the 2002 World Series. But since that should be much more fresh in people's minds (and more cliche, too) I won't say much, except: WHY, FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT'S HOLY, DIDN'T YOU PUT IN ROBB NEN WHEN YOU TOOK OUT ORTIZ!!! IT WAS THE 8TH INNING! IT WAS IN ANAHEIM! HE DIDN'T HAVE TO HIT!!! HE DIDN'T HAVE TO HIT!

Cough cough; okay, I'm over it.

Then there's the matter of Baker's comments before the 2002 postseason was even done. Something to the effect of kinda considering the then open Seattle job. Great motivation there, that was.

So there are certainly parallels to be drawn here. Just compare this post with some of our others. It makes sense to me, anyway.

In addition, special thanks to the Sagebrush for plugging our humble site. I must point out, however, one correction: this site wasn't created by a supposed fan, it was created by two supposed fans.

I would also, if I may be allowed to indulge, reply to one opinion expressed by Mr. Oxarart...

Ault's main duty is the offense. Ken Wilson - the defense.

I beg to differ, sir; Ault's main duty is the team. Why have an offensive coordinator in Chris Klenakis if he's doing the work of both positions himself? Well, he may well be taking on both duties, relatively speaking, but since he is squarely in the head spot here then ultimately the successes and failures in all three phases do, in fact, rest on his shoulders.

Even G. W. Bush owned up to the Katrina debacle.