Through the looking glass.

Slogging through a week that started with the unthinkable that grew into the untenable was frigging ponderous last week. Demons grinning like the Cheshire cat tormented the Yard like the Mad Hatter laughing through the haze of the looking glass. While the Tea Party was shaking up the election process nationally, California was at Starbucks having their iced Americano with two pumps of vanilla. While the McCourt’s fight for the right to mismanage the Dodgers, the Giants exorcised 56 years of torture and torment to deliver San Francisco their first baseball title since moving west for the 1958 season. Nothing ever happens until the Yard gets poked in the eye and we did not see any of this coming.

With those Yard reflux moments already in the intestinal queue, Jerry Brown danced across the television screen kissing his wife of five years. We were not sure which was more of a shock that the state of California had voted in Brown for another term or that he was married? Meg Whitman’s housekeeper derailed her $141 million effort. Proposition 19 received 67,000 more positive votes than Meg. Apparently, more Californians wanted to able to legally smoke weed rather than have Meg Whitman govern them. Maybe they figured Jerry was going to win and at least a few blunts on the backside was a minor victory.

And before the Pepcid AC could be cracked from the foil, Barbara Boxer smiled from the podium and declared her victory prior to Carly Fiorino conceded. With all of the woes in this state and the load that is Boxer it was amazing to hear her first proclamation to be “I just won my 11th consecutive election!” We guess that kept her BCS title hopes alive. She showed us that she will continue her agenda of soaking up the gloss of being a US Senator without any of those pesky legislative issues getting in the way.

The Giants winning the World Series is to be congratulated and we are about done with that. Some of my oldest friends, Bruin fans and Yard loyalists are the Sojka boys. We spend Saturday afternoons in the fall at the Rose Bowl together lamenting UCLA football. We went to elementary school and played on the same baseball teams. We hate the Trojans together. They are Yard fans even under the relentless assault of all things Giant. Their father Red was die-hard New York Giant fan who grew up with baseball in the east when the Dodgers, Giants and Yankees dominated New York. He moved west and passed the DNA on to the boys. The Yard congratulates their team, their devotion and the spirit and the memory of Red as the Giants bring home the prize that the west coast version had never earned during his life.

It is our somber hope that the usual book tours, salary demands, and championship malcontent permeate the Giants championship off season. The Giants are saluted and will quickly be forgotten as covered in our bylaws. Brian Sabean is a great GM but good luck protecting Posey in the line-up with free agents Huff and Burrell looking for increased salaries and Renteria retiring. The Giants still owe Barry Zito $18 million a year for another three years and he did not make the playoff roster. This is not some bitter diatribe based on an in-state rival winning their first thing ever. No it is much more than that.

The rivalry between the Giants and the Dodgers will rise to a new level in the years ahead. The Giants finally grounded their vitriol with success. It is good for the Giants and it will hopefully awaken the Dodgers. Being the perennial, tortured team by the bay is a rallying cry. Being the incumbent perennial champion requires a more consistent revenue stream and fan support. The Giant fans are a fickle bunch and getting to the top is easier than staying there. The Dodgers make more money than any team west of Manhattan and they will figure it out. Hopefully without the McCourt’s but one can only hope for so much after this past week.

The last point we have for Giant fan is that the NBA season started before Brian Wilson of the man beard did his witch move to signify the end of the Giants season. The Lakers opening the NBA season 8-0 is the way and the light. The Lakers will win another title this season. The Yard has heard from all Giant fans about the championship and the cascades of abuse that have reigned down from our bully pulpit over the years. We accept our fate. In all of our years, we have never have heard from a single Warrior fan. Same area, where are the fans? Is a team named the Warriors a bit pretentious for that squad? Is using Warrior and fan in the same sentence grammatically correct? Are we getting whistled for un-sportsman like conduct after the Giants big win?

The Miami Heat got all of the off season hype. ESPN has a Miami Heat micro site. USA Today has a Heat thermometer in each edition that they have a game. Miami is off to a 5-3 losing to Utah at home last night. The Miami defense gave up a 22 point second quarter lead and surrendered 74 points in the second half. Paul Milsap scored a career high 46 points for the Jazz. Freaking Paul Milsap? Lebron, D-Wade and Chris Bosh are trying to figure out how to play together. They will eventually but the Heat does not have a true center or point guard in the starting lineup. Chris Bosh looks to be the weak link. He was the man in Toronto for a team that was way off the radar and it was easy to pile up stats. The Heat’s leading rebounder does not even start. This is a team built for the regular season to fill seats and play exciting basketball. The NBA playoffs are about pounding the ball inside and having a deep bench. The Heat will probably not even make it out of the east to face the Lakers in the Finals.

Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.
Sir Winston Churchill, Hansard, November 11, 1947