It was here in the Big Apple 60 years ago that Chuck Dressen, manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, declared in a statement that some English teachers defended on the grounds a team is a collective noun, “The Giants is dead.” The New York Giants weren’t — coming back from a 13½-game August deficit to force a playoff with the Dodgers, which resulted in the “Shot Heard ’Round the World,” by Bobby Thomson. The San Francisco Giants are. Not that anyone back here cares. Read More

Imagine the Giants as a fighter. Early in the bout for 2011, they took a potential knockout blow when Buster Posey went down. They absorbed a stiff uppercut when Pablo Sandoval went on the disabled list. But they kept punching, scoring enough late-inning victories to keep themselves ahead on points. It was a solid right to the midsection when Freddy Sanchez went down. They took the worst of a counter-punch exchange when the Barry Zito-Jonathan Sanchez disabled list dance began. Read More

If Giants manager Bruce Bochy wants to extend his team’s season beyond the 34 regular-season games remaining, he needs to remind himself that he should play his best players, not those making the most money. And that should start with Brandon Belt, who absolutely should be in the lineup every day, either at first base or left field. Read More

The Giants have taken their tortuous season to a level that only the best Hollywood screenwriters could describe. The sputtering, suddenly comeback-free, post-Carlos Beltran Giants take the field this afternoon against the Astros in Houston in clear danger of losing contact with the Arizona Diamondbacks, which would classify as a genuine disaster. Earlier this week, manager Bruce Bochy tried to calm the masses by reminding everybody that this is August, and that there’s plenty of baseball left to play. Read More