(By e.Chang)

The Week That Was:

Won 1, lost 1 against the Padres.

Won 2, lost 2 against the Diamondbacks.

Won 1 against the Rockies.

The Week That Will Be:

Tue: home against the Rockies.

Wed: home against the Rocikes.

Thu: at Los Angeles against the Dodgers.

Fri: at Los Angeles against the Dodgers.

Sat: at Los Angeles against the Dodgers.

Sun: at Los Angeles against the Dodgers.

Mon: OFF.

65-79 for the season; 19.5 games out of 1st place, 0.5 games out of 4th.

It is done. It's been over for weeks, months even, but when the Bums beat the D-backs last night, the Giants were officially, mathematically eliminated from the playoffs. The bar hasn't closed, but the the bell for last call has rung. Better make it a double.

*****

In most soccer playing countries, there is this thing called "relegation." There are multiple professional soccer leagues in a country (England, for example, has the Premier League, Championship League, League 1 and League 2) and the teams that finish at the bottom of each league get relegated, or moved down to the league below them, and the top finishers of the lower leagues move up to the bigger leagues. The financial hit that relegated teams take is massive. Players depart en masse. But most of all, it's humiliating. This system creates crazed panic and heart palpitations for those teams at the bottom. Those teams play to not be the Biggest Loser (™). It's fantastic.

The American sports leagues don't have relegation, but the Giants should start playing as if the MLB did. Believe it or not, but the remainder of this season has historical implications for our local Nine.

*****

The Florida Marlins came into existence in 1993. Maddeningly, four years later, those Johnny-Come-Lately parvenus won the World Series. And they beat the Giants in the playoffs to get there.

Immediately after winning the World Series, the Marlins' gutless owner gutted his team and threw it in the gutter by trading away all the players that won the trophy. He did it for money. It was a disgrace. The following year, the Marlins predictably finished in last place in their division, becoming the first baseball team to ever do so the year after winning the World Series.

Citizens, our San Francisco Giants, one year after having won the World Series, with 18 games left to play in this season, are currently sitting in LAST PLACE.

And last I checked, the Giants still have Lincecum, Cain, Bumgarner, Zito, Posey, Sandoval, Belt, Romo and all the rest of the gang that brought it all home last year. Which makes this WORSE than what happened in Florida. There was no firesale. There was no shredding of the team like Arthur Andersen accountants with the S.E.C. at the door. This isn't a disgrace--it's just inexplicable.

The Giants are in a relegation battle with history. Our team can not sit alongside the Marlins and become the second team in baseball history--the first REAL team-- to finish in last place after winning the World Series. With the Dodgers in first place and maybe the favorite to win it all this year, it would just be too much. It can not happen. It will not happen.

It might happen.