Today might well be the last post of 2010, and what better way to end the greatest year in Giants history than by introducing the 1st Annual Marmol Awards. The awards are named after our favorite non-Giant, and will be held annually around this time. Next year my plan is for them to be completely democratic. But much like my mailbag, this year's version will just be me making some stuff up. That said, please do share your opinion by voting in the poll to the right. Happy New Year! Go Giants!
Game of the Year: NLDS Game 3
To me, as a long-suffering Giants fan, this game was the game. After blowing Game 2 and after Hinske's homerun in Game 3, with Sanchez (and thus the Giants) down to his last strike in the 9th, this felt like 2000, 2002, 2003 all over again. It was over. We had blown it. And then....a miracle. It was the first time I felt like this season might be different somehow.
Giant of the Year: Buster Posey
This is tough, actually. I could see a case for Brian Wilson. Or Waldis Joaquin. But Posey has to be the winner. Everything he did...it's just so...he's so...he didn't just handle the pitchers well, he made us question our collective sexual orientation. Even women. Because they were left thinking..."do I really want this 'man' I'm with? After all, if I can't have Posey, I might as well date women so I don't have to compare them unfavorably to Posey." This is what keeps me up at night: that my wife will start thinking this way.
Pitcher of the Year: Brian Wilson
Timmy was fantastic assuming you were vacationing on Mars in August. Cain was fantastic, but we can't well give him an award, can we? Better he be in the background, in the shadows, overlooked, underappreciated...yes, yes. What was incredible about Wilson is that at some point in the season he just decided to stop giving everyone a heart attack everytime he pitched and start dominating. Down the stretch and in the postseason, he was unreal. He saved the clinching game of the Division, the NLDS, the NLCS, and the World Series. He didn't allow an earned run in the postseason. And he was the face of the team, scary as that sounds. He also had, I've heard, too much awesome in his footwear.
Bad Guy of the Year: Cliff Lee
This was going to Mat Latos hands down until he and the Padres became irrelevent and no longer interesting. Cliff Lee didn't do anything wrong. It's more that he existed. It's more that the media talked up his invincibility and smugly talked about how he gave the Giants no chance as opposed to the NLCS when the Giants had, well, no chance. He represented the tired media story of Yankees, Yankees, Yankees followed by TeamThatBeatYankees. Being the underdog against the Phillies was obvious. But the odds given to the Rangers by ESPN and the like was silly and a little insulting. On paper, the Giants were a better team. Pitching beats hitting every time. Home field advantage. Vlad playing right field. C'mon.
Non-Giant of the Year: Carlos Marmol
That one was easy. He saved THREE games against the Padres in the final week of the season, and as it turns out, we won the division by two games. Give that man a ring and pour some champagne on his head.
Homerun of the Year: Edgar Renteria vs. Texas, Game 5 of WS
This one is tougher than you might think. Uribe's homerun in Game 6 of the NLCS was not only a series clincher as well, but that was a VERY loseable series at that point. We weren't coming back home, the Phillies were playing tough, and we only had a one game lead. Renteria, on the other hand, won Game 5 for us, but we still had two more chances if we'd lost and we would have been at home. But Renteria's homerun just transcends. It was a moment nobody will ever forget, except Pat Burrell who missed it because he was in the clubhouse at that moment breaking objects with his bat.
BEAT LA Moment of the Year: Uribe Homerun vs. Broxton
This was tough. Burrell's homerun off Broxton turned what looked like a sure loss into a win. Bochy calling out Mattingly and then the Giants rallying to win was awesome. But down 4-0 in the 7th inning in LA in early September, the homerun barrage that ensued was so unlikely and so inspiring that it tops all else. Posey went deep. Then Renteria. Then Burrell. Then, in the 9th, with one on, Uribe takes Broxton out to left center to give the Giants the lead. You notice how a lot of the Giants' best comebacks were on the road and how nobody ever mentions the bottom of the 9th in those games? Like the game was over after the Giants took the lead in the top half? See: "Pitcher of the Year."
Next year we'll expand to more categories. Maybe "lefty specialist of the year." Maybe "least exciting game of the year." Hopefully, "World Series walk-off homerun of the year." It'll be a close race between Adrian Beltre and Brandon Belt. I can dream. Because dreams come true. See: "Giants: 2010 World Series Champions."
Would a true Giants fan write "NLCS Game 3" when he meant NLDS Game 3? I say no.
ReplyDeleteFirst off, I think I have to give Non-Giant of the Year to Brooks Conrad. Yes, that Padres series probably wouldn't have been possible without Marmol, but you also have to credit the Cubbies' starters holding them to 5 runs in four games. Meanwhile, Brooks Conrad has sold more Fathead posters in San Francisco than Aaron Rowand ever will.
ReplyDeleteAnd while that NLDS Game 3 win was certainly a surprising one, there are more aspects of that game that I would like to forget than probably Conrad himself. Like Bobby Cox making Bochy look like a rookie Little League manager in that 8th inning, and the fact that Jonathan Sanchez is the worst player in baseball to give a bunt sign to. No, I think I'll have to go with the NLCS Game 4 (because I got to feel it in person). I was convinced we had lost that game two different times. But in the end, I wound up spilling my beer all over myself while getting hugged and kissed by a complete [male] stranger. That was some magic inside.
Lastly, Aubrey Huff deserves some sort of award for his bunt.
Tom, Tom, Tom. I'm still mad about you yelling out the score of game 1 of the 1997 NLDS when I had specifically spent the day avoiding hearing about it so I could watch the game on tape at home after school. But no. You just had to walk into Jacket and yell out "Giants 1, Marlins 0! Top 7!" And then they just had to go and blow it.
ReplyDeleteBut thanks for catching the typo... :)