By design, Giants create their own good karma
When it comes to team effort, luck, forgiveness, timing, family unity, ghosts from the past and intelligent design, the Giants are your one-stop shopping center.
Barry Bonds sought out Michael Morse on Thursday in the Giants’ clubhouse and told him to get his front foot down. Morse went to the cage and worked on it. Then he hit a fairly important home run, as in: Hello, World Series.
What was Bonds doing in the clubhouse? Well, the Giants welcomed him back to the fold last spring as a dropin instructor. He earned cred with the players, enough so that when he dropped that tip on Morse on Thursday, Morse listened.
Who invited Bonds back last spring, setting the stage for Barry to be around to throw out the first ball Wednesday, and to drop the nugget o’ wisdom on Morse? I’m not sure, but the Bonds homecoming, potentially touchy and controversial, had to have had the blessing of team president Larry Baer and skipper Bruce Bochy.
Luck? Marco Scutaro, his season wrecked with a bad back, gets an accidental assist for the Giants being in the Series. His back woes led to the arrival of Joe Panik. And Scutaro’s accidental skulling of Brandon Belt with a throw in batting practice July 21 put Belt out of action and created a need for another lefty first baseman. Enter the long-lost Travis Ishikawa, called up from Fresno eight days later.
Intelligent design? Thirdbase coach Tim Flannery is a smart baseball guy. But when he began coaching under Bochy with the Padres, Flannery had a habit: With runners on first and third and less than two outs, he would instruct the runner on third to retreat to the bag on a groundball to first base.
Flannery did that one game, and when he returned to the dugout, Bochy said, “You know, there’s another way to do that.”
Fast forward to Wednesday, Brandon Crawford on third. Flannery tells him on a groundball to first base to edge down the line. Be ready to get back, but if the first baseman throws to second, break for home. And thus did it come to pass.