In the oddest Giants season in recent memory, add to the list of curiosities: “The Day Buster Stood Still.”
File it right there with “Bumgarner’s Guide to Dirt Biking in Colorado” and “The Case of the Missing Left Fielder” among the bizarre storylines to dot a star-crossed 2017 campaign.
Feels like this Buster-didn’t-move thing might have seized everyone’s imaginations more than any of them, however.
Why is this the story that Giants fans are obsessing on? Why has this story divided friendships, homes and season ticket plans? Let’s lob a few theories out there:
— FIRST OFF, EVERYONE LOVES A BRAWL: Pacifists, beware. The bloodthirsty animal inside the human beast is alive and well. That much is evident by the buzz still coursing around the Bay after Hunter Strickland squared off with Bryce Harper for “Seven Seconds of Fury” at AT&T Park. Most every baseball “brawl” in this era of regulated pugilism is mostly a series of shoves. But, as I was just saying to my good friends Rougned Odor and Jose Bautista, occasionally ballplayers square off, Gentleman Jim Corbett vs. John L Sullivan-style, and we see hand-to-hand combat. The ensuing ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ from everyone watching slo-mo replays lets you know that, for as evolved as the human beast has become over thousands of years, we still love us a good playground spat. It’s brain stem stuff.
— THE GIANTS’ LOUSY SEASON HAS EVERYONE ON EDGE: Strickland probably thought he was just settling a machismo score when he fired 98 mph off of Harper’s hip, but what he was unwittingly doing was opening a vein for Giants fans to bleed 2017 angst. The ensuing brawl, and Posey’s lack of action, has all of us psychoanalyzing the team’s chemistry, dysfunction and, oh by the way, their utter lack of an outfield. An argument that can begin: “Why did Strickland choose then to hit Harper?” or “Why didn’t Buster defend his pitcher?” soon becomes, “Why is this bullpen so unreliable?” or “How can the Giants come home and get shut out in two of four games?” or “How did Bobby Evans think this outfield was big league stuff?” It’s like getting into an argument with your spouse about doing the dishes, when we all know all along the fight is about something else entirely.
— BUSTER POSEY, FOR ALL HIS ACCOLADES, STILL HASN’T CONNECTED WITH ALL THE MASSES: After spending four hours today reading texts, fielding calls and taking the pulse of Giants fans, there is the odd conclusion to be drawn that some Giants fans haven’t jibed with Posey’s very low-key style of leadership. Never mind that he’s brought them three World Series titles. Some fans, it seems, need more theatre from their leader; some fans want more Hunter Pence-like histrionics from the catcher, and less studied resolve. Go figure. I’d submit that, by standing at the plate and not moving, all Buster was doing was letting you know what he really thought about Strickland’s choice of venue and choice of method for settling his scores. He may have also been telling you what he thinks about Strickland’s lack of a secondary pitch.
— HUNTER STRICKAND, FOR ALL HIS VELOCITY, STILL HASN’T CONNECTED WITH ALL THE MASSES: This one may be the most forceful argument yet. Last year’s second half bullpen collapse, combined with this year’s underwhelming bullpen start to the season, has everyone re-evaluating how much they miss the “Core Four”. Strickland has been a burr in some fans’ saddles since the 2014 postseason, when his roiling game emotions resulted in fireworks with Harper and Nationals, and Sal Perez and the Royals, too. Roiling game emotions are easier to digest when you’re part of a lockdown bullpen, not part of one of the worst records in baseball. That he chose the 8th inning of a game in which the Giants were down, 2-0, to put a runner on base only reminds us all of how this bullpen works to destroy fans’ confidence, not build it.
In the end, my annoyance lays more with Strickland than anything else. As a frustrated Giants fan, I’m looking for outs from my pitchers, not half-baked Chuck Norris imitations.