Will Lincecum save Giants after the pounding?

By Art Spander

SAN FRANCISCO — It’s all set up for Timmy.  All he has to do is show he still can pitch. Because the fourth and fifth starters in the Giants' rotation haven’t been able to thus far. So if little Tim Lincecum can show he’s a scintilla of what he used to be when he showcases Friday down in the desert, he very well could be the man to get his once (and former?) team out of the wilderness.

Life is timing. And that includes baseball. Who knows whether Lincecum, unsigned after hip surgery last year, still has enough to get batters out in the majors? But over the past two games, Wednesday in Cincinnati and Thursday night in San Francisco, the guys who took the mound for the Giants certainly didn’t. Suddenly there’s a sense of desperation at AT&T, a feeling of “OK, after Mad Bum, Cueto and Samardzija, what can we do?”

As capably demonstrated Thursday night on the banks of McCovey Cove, nothing. Except hope that Timmy still has something from his glory days of Cy Young Awards and that the Giants re-sign him.

On Wednesday at Cincy, Jake Peavy, the No. 4 starter, gave up three home runs in one inning. Then on Thursday night, the Gigantes (hey, it was Cinco de Mayo and that was the name on the uniform) were embarrassed by the Colorado Rockies, 17-7, giving up 13 runs in the fifth.

Yes, that’s been Matt Cain’s obstacle of an inning of late, but never was it as bad as on Thursday when, having been pounded for eight runs and 10 hits, he didn’t even wait for manager Bruce Bochy to take the ball but in a case of virtual surrender reached out and gave it to Bochy.

“We have to find a way to help the rotation like we should,” said Cain, certainly not willing to concede his place. “This is not easy. It’s frustrating.”

Cain had a 2-0 count on Colorado’s Nelson Arenado, with one on and two out in the first. A changeup got out over the plate, and Arenado, one of the game’s better hitters, hit it over the left field fence for his 12th home run of the year. The Rockies, just like that, were up 2-0.

“The biggest thing is to keep trusting myself,” said Cain, who threw a perfect game four years ago, before undergoing surgery in 2014. “My location was good, but the balls were just a little higher than we wanted.”

One game out of 162 can be ignored — in the World Series championship year of 2014, the Dodgers scored 14 in a late-season game against San Francisco — but when two-fifths of your staff are ineffective, you’re in trouble. And maybe in the market for replacements.

“We discussed Timmy,” Bochy said before the game, hardly contemplating what would happen during the game. “(General manager) Bobby Evans can say more about that than me. Timmy still is loved here. There are going to be a lot of teams there watching him. I can’t tell you what is going to happen.”

If the Giants don’t get help by Peavy and or Cain improving — as unlikely as that appears 30 games into the season — San Francisco signing Lincecum or trading for a top-line pitcher is a huge worry. Already the bullpen is a mess, and Vin Mazzaro, just brought up from Triple A, was a disaster after relieving Cain, allowing seven earned runs in a third of an inning.

Bochy was not so quick to dismiss Cain or Peavy. It’s the manager’s nature to keep on a level and never belittle his athletes, although thinking of the 12-run inning by the Mets and the 11-run inning by the Rockies, the manager shook his head. “It’s hit us twice in a week,” he said.

Knowing there may not be anyone better than Peavy or Cain, Bochy said that each of the pitchers, at times, has shown he still deserves to be part of the rotation.

“We just couldn’t get out of that inning,” said Bochy. “I thought our guys had good at bats this game, but the pitching just wasn’t there. Matt’s stuff was fine. It was his execution. He made a few mistakes.”

The question might be whether continuing to send out Peavy and Cain is a mistake. Then again, there may be no other option. Unless Tim Lincecum comes through in his glorified tryout and the Giants subsequently add him to the roster.

“We know our guys,” said Bochy. “We stand behind them. We know they’ll get better.”

They couldn’t get worse.

Lincecum leaves no-hitter without regret

By Art Spander

SAN FRANCISCO — A no-hitter? So? If there is an unwritten rule about yanking a pitcher who hasn’t allowed a hit sometime from mid-game on, well, it hasn’t been stated or tweeted to Bruce Bochy.

He manages not by tradition but by perception.

Sure, the boys (and girls) in the press box at AT&T Park on Wednesday afternoon had their questions, as undoubtedly did many in the sellout crowd of 41,186.

What the heck, little Timmy might not have been at his best, but through five he hadn’t permitted a hit by the Chicago Cubs. Shouldn’t Lincecum at least have had the chance to continue?

The answer, if not directly, was no. So Lincecum, who had the comfort of knowing there was a no-hitter from 2013 on his resume, and also on a day that ended with a 5-0 San Francisco Giants victory, had thrown 96 pitches in those five innings — and had developed a small blister — was content to leave.

Unlike current Giants broadcaster and former pitcher Mike Krukow, who in 1983 departed the mound under similar circumstances against the Cincinnati Reds.

Although Kruk had not allowed a hit through six — he had given up an unearned run on four walks — he was visited by then-Giants manager Frank Robinson, a rather demanding sort.

“You’re done,” Robinson told Krukow.

“But, but,” stammered Krukow.

“You’re done,” repeated Robinson.

Bochy was considerably more tactful and Lincecum more accepting.

“There was no chance he was going to finish,” said Bochy of Lincecum. Not when Tim had thrown nearly 100 pitches — 30 in the oh-what-might-have-happened first inning — and the game still had at least four innings to play.

“He worked so hard. It was time.”

Lincecum shrugged his consent.

“I think it’s easy,” said Lincecum of being relieved, “because I know what our bullpen is capable of.”

That would be to continue the shutout, if not the no-hitter, which was broken up with one out in the seventh by Cubs catcher John Baker, a local kid who graduated from De La Salle High in Concord and played ball at Cal.

George Kontos got the victory, because he was pitching for the Giants when they finally scored a couple of runs off Chicago’s Edwin Jackson in the sixth.

The Giants took two out of three from the Cubs, winning Tuesday and Wednesday on shutouts and extending a string of scoreless innings, by San Francisco and against Chicago, to 20.

One is reminded about the comment by the late football coach John McKay who, while at USC, told a young journalist, “Defense wins, because if the other team doesn’t score it’s impossible to lose.”

Over the last two days by the Bay, the Cubs didn’t score. 

They came close. A smash down by the line by Starlin Castro with two on was grabbed by third baseman Pablo Sandoval, who threw out Castro, and then immediately after that a line drive to right by Nate Schierholtz went just foul.

“Pablo kept everything where he it had to be,” said Lincecum. “Zero runs.”

Sandoval, who was hitting something like .161 not too long ago, had two singles Wednesday and raised his average to .246. Not All-Star stuff yet, but no longer embarrassing.

When he brought home Angel Pagan in the sixth, Sandoval had recorded an RBI for the eighth straight game, six of which were Giants victories.

“He’s in such a good zone right now,” Bochy said of Sandoval.

The Giants were 3-0 against the Twins at AT&T, then 2-1 against the Cubs. “This win made for a real nice home stand,” said a very satisfied Bochy.

San Francisco, on the road starting Thursday night at St. Louis, has the best record in baseball. At the moment. The status is fluid. Only a week ago it was the team across the Bay, the Oakland A’s, who had the best mark. Then they lost five in a row.

What could happen to the Giants out there in Middle America is unknown, but they do have a team earned run average of 3.03, second in the National League to the Atlanta Braves.

And they also have the reassurance of knowing that the motorized scooter stolen from outfielder Hunter Pence has been returned.

“We,” quipped Bochy, “can all sleep tonight.”

Zzz, zzz, zzz.

Lincecum of old finds “Momen-TIM”

By Art Spander

SAN FRANCISCO — One word, cobbled together, pasted on the locker behind his head. “Momen-TIM.” That’s what the Giants had, Tim Lincecum waking up echoes and the home crowd reminding us of the way it used to be and perhaps still is.

Lincecum hadn’t had a start like this since last season. In his previous game, five days earlier, Lincecum made it only four innings against the Pirates, allowed eight hits, struck out only four.

There were questions, legitimate ones.

But on Monday night, with the weather gloriously warm, Tim Lincecum gave the answers. And the usual sellout crowd at AT&T Park, as Lincecum left for a reliever in the eighth, gave Tim an ovation that shook the stadium and shook Tim to his shoes.

“It was special in this park,” he said of the cheering. So was his performance, 7 2/3 innings, two hits, 11 strikeouts, which helped the Giants beat the Atlanta Braves, 4-2.

In 2013 Lincecum did pitch a no-hitter, but he had a 10-14 record with a 4.37 earned run average. What he didn’t have, said the experts, was the fastball, which once enabled him to win two National League Cy Young Awards. Nor by the end of September as a free agent did he have a contract.

Lincecum had lost something on his pitches but not anything from his popularity, as was proven again Monday night by the crowd response. So the Giants re-signed him, for big money, for major league money, $35 million for two years.

Nerve-wracking. Damned if they didn’t. Tim in a Mariners uniform? Horrors. Whacked if they did. Those first seven starts this season of 2014, Lincecum never made it out of the sixth inning and had an ERA of 5.55.

Then came Monday night. Then came the rhythm. Then came the domination, Tim striking out the side in the third and sixth.

And thanks to recent call-up Tyler Colvin, who homered with nobody on in the second and tripled with two on in the seventh, the Giants got their runs.

Eight wins in the last 11 games for the first-place Giants, 11 wins in their last 18 games. They have their troubles, true. Brandon Belt, the first baseman, will undergo surgery on his broken thumb and miss six weeks. Down in Los Angeles, Yasiel Puig is smacking them into the seats at Dodger Stadium. It’s going to be a race, going to be a struggle, but if Lincecum works as efficiently as he did Monday night the Giants will be very much in that race.

“I’m happy for Tim,” said Giants manager Bruce Bochy. “He came off a rough start successfully. It was vintage Timmy. He had his slider and his secondary pitches working, his fastball, his changeup. He had a good look about him all night.”

When you’re hot, they say, you’re hot. The Giants can do little wrong these days.

B.J. Upton, who had two of the Braves’ three hits — the third was a home run in the ninth by Freddie Freeman off Javier Lopez — doubled with one out in the seventh of a 1-1 game. Upton then apparently stole third. But Bochy asked for a TV review, and Upton was called out.

“It was that close,” said Bochy. “I had to wait. It was such a tough call.”

The call Giants management made last October was no less difficult. Do you give a man whose future is questionable a contract basically constructed upon his past? The Giants did. Lincecum was grateful. For the moment, the Giants are grateful.

“The key was to be aggressive,” said Lincecum of his game, “not go into many deep counts and don’t let the big guys hurt me.”

Lincecum threw 113 pitches, had all those strikeouts and only one big guy, Upton, hurt him, although since just a run scored the hurt was minor.

“The slider was working early,” said Lincecum. “I wanted to finish my pitches. I was driving my leg through. My game is relying on it.”

Colvin was the guy signed as a minor league free agent in February. He was brought up from Fresno on Saturday, and had a walk and an out against the Dodgers last weekend. Then, starting in left field Monday, boom, boom.

“Yes, this was the highlight of my career,” said Colvin, 28, who had been with the Rockies and Cubs. “To be part of a winning ball club and get a hit to help them to a win is a real good feeling.”

Lincecum has that feeling because he kept the Braves from getting hits. “I was able to keep my pitches down,” he said. “That really means a lot.”

It meant the Giants had what they needed, Moment-TIM.

Lincecum finally finds Momen-TIM

By Art Spander
 
SAN FRANCISCO — The sign is small but poignant, pasted on the door of the small cabinet where Tim Lincecum keeps items above his locker. It’s in two different colors for obvious emphasis, but here we’ll depict it in lower case and capitals, “momenTIM.”
  
That’s what he’s been searching for, trying to regain the style and domination that won two Cy Young Awards, that helped the Giants win two World Series — even if he was a reliever in the second one, 2012.
   
That’s what his ball club was hoping for, waiting for.
  
And on a Tuesday night at AT&T Park that may have been a breakthrough but at the least was the sort of performance he has produced in his best of times — the best of Tims, if you will — Lincecum woke up more than a few echoes as well as the 196th straight sellout crowd, 41,981.
  
After giving up a first-inning home run to dead center by Edwin Encarnacion that surely brought thoughts of “Here we go again,” Lincecum gave up only one more hit and no more runs, San Francisco defeating the Toronto Blue Jays, 2-1.
   
Lincecum had lost his last three starts, had, in order, been responsible for allowing six earned runs against the Rockies, then four earned runs against the Rockies, then last week five earned runs against the Athletics.
 
More than a hint had been offered about Lincecum taking his unpredictability — well, he was predictable for his failings — and his $20 million salary to the bullpen as, yikes, a middle-inning reliever.
  
He wasn’t thinking that way. Neither was Giants manager Bruce Bochy, publicly, although Bochy refused to confirm or deny that Lincecum would make what would be his next regular start, Sunday at Arizona. The way balls fly out of Chase Field in Phoenix, well, San Francisco probably would be better using Chad Gaudin.
   
Desperate times — and the Giants had dropped five of their previous seven — demand desperate measures. But after Tuesday night, with Lincecum retiring 14 in a row at one stretch, striking out six and walking only one, there is considerably less desperation around Willie Mays Plaza.
 
“We needed that,” Bochy said of Lincecum’s pitching. Did they ever. A team with a collective earned run average of 4.15 (after Tuesday night) and not much of an offense had to find something in which to believe. They think they’ve found it.
 
“That’s the Timmy we know,” contended Bochy. Well, the Timmy we knew back yonder, the Timmy who didn’t get crushed by a three- or four-running inning, the Timmy who got the ball over the plate.
 
“His pitches were crisper,” said Bochy, who as he addressed the media appeared more relaxed than before the game. “He had great stuff. This is something he can build. Even when he had bad games, he had good stuff. Last year he was out of rhythm. That hasn’t been the problem this year.”
  
Whatever the problem was or is, Lincecum, after the fine way he pitched, still had only a 4-5 record with a somewhat astronomical 4.75 ERA.  Of course, it was 5.12 before his brilliance against the Blue Jays.
  
“This should do a lot for his confidence,” said the manager. “This game, that’s more our style, good pitching and good defense. We got it done.”
  
Indeed. For a second straight game, the Giants — who, with more than 40 errors for the season, have been mishandling grounders and throws like the Bad News Bears — didn’t make a single error. Physical or mental.
   
Lincecum was pleased but not much more. One game doesn’t atone for what had preceded it, although as Bochy reminded this is the direction the pitcher and the ball club want to head.
 
“It feels good,” confided Lincecum, “but I’m not jumping up and down. (Wednesday) is another day for work.”
  
Since his last start, seven days earlier, Lincecum said he worked and worked, attempting to make certain his fastball, the key to his repertoire, found the edges of the plate, strikes that were virtually unhittable and not pitches that either were down the middle or wide.
  
“I worked my fastball to both sides of the plate,” said Lincecum. “That was the big thing. That opened things for my other pitches. I was hitting my spots more often, more consistently.”
  
What Andres Torres, the Giants left fielder, hit was a two-run home in the second that turned out to be all the runs San Francisco would score and would need. Torres also made a couple of excellent catches off deep balls in the fourth, one against the fence in the corner.
  
“Not easy plays to make,” said Lincecum. But plays that are made when good pitches are made and all the pieces fit together almost perfectly. “The rhythm was there, and I was mechanically sound. That makes just throwing the pitches the only factor.”
   
If the factor that matters most.

The Sports Xchange: Lincecum, Giants shut down Braves

By Art Spander
The Sports Xchange

SAN FRANCISCO — The game is not that complex. If a team pitches and hits better than the one it's playing, it's going to win. Which is exactly what the San Francisco Giants did for three games against the Atlanta Braves.

Not only did the Giants make it three in a row after dropping the Thursday series opener, but they outscored the Braves 23-4 over the final three games. San Francisco cruised to a 5-1 win Sunday afternoon.

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2013 The Sports Xchange

The waiting ends for Tim Lincecum

By Art Spander
 
GLENDALE, Ariz. –- It was baseball with a history, out here in the suburbs of Phoenix, Giants vs. Dodgers. An exhibition, but for Tim Lincecum, seeking reassurance, more like an exhibit, of himself.

He had to show us, show baseball, that he wouldn’t be the same as last year.
   
Tim had been the man for the Giants, two Cy Young Awards, a World Series win. Then things went haywire in 2012, until the postseason when, as a reliever, he came through. Still, he had to be a starter, not a reliever, not at $20 million per.
    
Giants against Dodgers, Lincecum against his fears. His first start of spring training on Tuesday. More acutely, the first time he would face live batters, even in practice. A rainout prevented even that bit of normal preparation.
   
He was waiting. Giants Nation was waiting.
   
Lincecum threw 38 pitches in 1 1/3 innings, as stiff a workout as allowed in his situation. Though he would be charged with three runs in a game that would end tied, 8-8, after San Francisco got consecutive two-run homers in the ninth from Brock Bond and Brett Pill, Timmy was not at all displeased.
   
On the contrary. The doubts have fled.
   
No worries about mechanics. No thoughts about what had been, only what is.
   
“It wasn’t a question of whether I was going to throw strikes,”  said Lincecum, who at times last season could not. “It was a question of how I was going to throw those strikes. I didn’t feel out of whack.”
    
Camelback Ranch, the complex that serves as home for the Dodgers — “Whole new team. Whole new 'Tude” — and Chicago White Sox, has a beautiful stadium of rust-colored steel that blends perfectly with the desert. It seemed a proper place for a renaissance, if only partly filled — attendance, 5,019, and of that total numerous Giants fans.
    
The afternoon began long before the first pitch with a recording over the public address system of the Eagles’ “Hotel California,” hardly inappropriate with the state’s two National League powers about to face each other. Then, came one of the Giants’ AT&T Park anthems, Journey and “Don’t Stop Believing.”
    
Which, through his season of 2012, when Lincecum was 10-15 with a 5.18 earned run average, he never did. He had lost too much weight, which observers said led to him losing his fastball and all those games.
  
For 2013, he gained pounds and trimmed his shoulder-length locks. Hard to know if the hair style had any effect, but Lincecum was effective.
 
“I missed only a couple pitches high,” said Lincecum. “I was thinking about a spot and hitting it, My timing was good.”
  
He will be 29 in June, an age when a pitcher should be at his best, still youthfully strong but also well experienced. His No. 1 place in the rotation has been ceded, unintentionally, to Matt Cain, who emphasized his brilliance with a perfect game. Add Madison Bumgarner, Ryan Vogelsong and the comeback of Barry Zito, and Lincecum may have to battle for a start.
   
Unless he’s back to 2008 or 2009, and those Cys.
  
“It was really good to have the atmosphere of being in a game again,” said Lincecum. “It was nice to face hitters again. I was kind of locked in. Other than the slider to (Jeremy) Moore (resulting in a two-run double in the second, Lincecum’s last pitch) I wasn’t too bad.”
   
For manager Bruce Bochy, still laughing about playing a second straight tie — it was 9-9 against the White Sox at Scottsdale on Monday — “wasn’t too bad” is an understatement. Bochy was more than satisfied.
  
“I thought Timmy did real well,” said Bochy. “He had good rhythm with his pitches and threw strikes. He looked very comfortable, and I thought he had good stuff.”
   
A former catcher, Bochy offers a keen eye on pitching, one of the reasons the Giants’ staff has been so strong — and one of the reasons San Francisco has won the World Series twice the last three years. He and general manager Brian Sabean fully understand that pitching dominates a game.
  
“What I saw,” Bochy said of Lincecum’s performance, “was a consistent delivery and good rhythm. Last year, he got out of sync. He knows it. He fought hard to get it back.”
   
Last year, with fans and teammates watching nervously and expecting the worst, which too often came, Lincecum would do well for three or four, or maybe five, innings, and then, bam. A walk, a double, a single, another double. So quickly it would come apart, and there would come Bochy taking the ball to hand to a reliever.
    
“Today was different,” said Bochy. “He looked very consistent.”
   
What the manager nearly said, but did not, was that Tim Lincecum looked very much as we expected Tim Lincecum to look: a great pitcher.

SF Examiner: Time for Timmy to just pitch

By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

It has to end sometime, doesn’t it, this Tim Lincecum agony? There have been pitchers who mysteriously lost their accuracy or their speed, Steve Blass back in the ’70s, Rick Ankiel not so long ago, but they didn’t win two Cy Young Awards. Then again ...

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2012 SF Newspaper Company

SF Examiner: Tim Lincecum 'stopped worrying,' found success

By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

What’s to worry? Tim Lincecum wasn’t going winless this season. You mean you thought that was possible? Oh, ye of little faith. And of first-inning jitters. True, he’s not where he would hope to be, but neither is he where he was.

“Baby steps,” was Lincecum’s observation. For Giants fans, it was more like, “Oh, baby, what a step.”

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2012 SF Newspaper Company

RealClearSports: Halladay Outduels Struggling Lincecum

By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

SAN FRANCISCO — He gave up five runs, yet his ERA fell. Not much. It still is embarrassingly high, 10.54, but maybe Tim Lincecum has regained some of that edge with the slider and some of that swagger in his manner.

The possibility was enticing. Lincecum, the San Francisco Giants' two-time Cy Young Award winner, against Roy Halladay of the Phillies, also twice a winner of the Cy Young, if once in the American League.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2012

SF Examiner: Keys to World Series title no secret for San Francisco Giants

By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

The Giants are going to be in the World Series. And then, just as in 2002, they’ll lose to the Los Angeles Angels.

That’s the prediction from Sports Illustrated, which is rarely correct in such a thing, but why be concerned about accuracy, unless it’s with Tim Lincecum’s fastball.

Albert Pujols, the new Angel, is on the front of SI’s baseball issue...

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2012 SF Newspaper Company

SF Examiner: S.F. Giants refocused after disappointing 2011

By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

They’re just a baseball team this year, the Giants, not the champions, not the club with the attention, baggage and impossibility of doing what nobody had done for more than a decade — repeat.

“I don’t think any of us knew what was coming,” Tim Lincecum said. He meant about the season of 2011, disappointing mainly because understandably it couldn’t match the season of 2010, the championship season.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2012 SF Newspaper Company

SF Examiner: Snakebitten from the start, San Francisco Giants had few high points

By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

What happened to the Giants? The better question is, what didn’t happen to the Giants?

From Opening Day, when they were beaten by the Los Angeles Dodgers and Clayton Kershaw — and Buster Posey was still healthy — there was a sense this year might be as frustrating as last year was elating.



Read the full story here.

Copyright 2011 SF Newspaper Company

SF Examiner: Giants enter season with great expectations

By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

Another season, but for the Giants, not another season. A season in which they are no longer misfits but winners. A season in which they are no longer unappreciated, but admired. A season to follow the season of them all.

Opening Day has arrived, a first game on the last day of March against the Dodgers in Los Angeles, the Dodgers, who for decades drew envy and enmity from fans of the Giants. Until 2010.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2011 SF Newspaper Company

SF Examiner: San Francisco Giants' Tim Lincecum has what it takes to be 'cool'

By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

It wasn’t an escape. Not according to Tim Lincecum, although some might view it exactly as that. He simply headed north, back to the state of Washington and away from the state of hysteria in which, metaphorically, he had found himself.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2011 SF Newspaper Company

RealClearSports: Lincecum Never Runs From Media

By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- For the modern athlete there is always another notebook or microphone to confront, always another question to answer.

"Yes, I understand," said Tim Lincecum with a touch of sarcasm. "They have asked about every grain of rice, every grain of salt.''

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2011

SF Examiner: Spring brings new challenges for champions

By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

And so it starts again. The best season in San Francisco Giants history must be relegated to history. It is February, and baseball returns, as always bringing its pleasures and its questions.

What happens in the year after? Does Buster Posey improve, or is there such a thing as the dreaded sophomore jinx? Does Aubrey Huff take his thong and enthusiasm to another level? How does being named “one of the 25 Coolest Athletes of All Time” — ALL TIME — by GQ magazine affect Tim Lincecum?

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2011 SF Newspaper Company

RealClearSports: At Last, Giants Fans Take to the Streets

By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

SAN FRANCISCO -- They're taking over the streets today. Classic San Francisco. Not for gay rights, however. Or to legalize marijuana - that measure on the California ballot failed to pass Tuesday night.

Or to get the troops out of Afghanistan.

It's to celebrate the Giants' first World Series triumph in San Francisco. It's to celebrate success.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2010

SF Examiner: After 52 years in SF, Giants reach pinnacle

By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

ARLINGTON, TEXAS — Some day became this moment. Disappointment became delight. The agony is over now for San Francisco. The Giants have won the World Series.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2010 SF Newspaper Company

SF Examiner: A surprising offensive outburst on a magical night

By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

SAN FRANCISCO — Those were the Giants? That was Cliff Lee? One thing’s for certain, that was a fifth inning, as wild and exhilarating as imaginable.

This wasn’t a game, it was a statement. It was a revelation. It was enough to make you think San Francisco’s time finally is about to arrive.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2010 SF Newspaper Company

SF Examiner: The Franchise shows his worth

By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

It was a game that had the Atlanta Braves reaching for pitches, and the media reaching for comparisons. If it wasn’t the finest game Tim Linececum ever has pitched for the Giants, it no question was the most important he ever pitched.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2010 SF Newspaper Company