Giants Lose Buster Posey

I'm opening the blinds for just a few moments to share some thoughts on Buster Posey's injury:

For starters, there is no official report yet on how long he'll be out. Some reports have said it's season ending, which is certainly a possibility. We know there's a leg fracture. The biggest question will be in regards to ligament damage in his knee. But judging from the tone of Bochy's voice on KNBR this morning, Posey will be out for a long time.
----
Brian Murphy put it as well as anyone: "I'm 43, married, a father, have a job, a mortgage -- and I still can't fully process my emotions on Buster's injury."

I second that. Did anyone else find it about 10 times harder to get out of bed this morning? Did anyone else extinguish their allotted number of "sighs" for the day in about 30 minutes?

I can't stop thinking about Buster -- the shock, anger, frustration, unfairness of it all -- and yet, I'm having an incredibly hard time figuring out what to say. There almost isn't anything to say. Maybe what says it best is the absence of words -- the blank, empty gazes on the Muni this morning. People in Giants gear on the N-Judah, staring silently at the ground, going 20 seconds without blinking.

Silence may be the best way to describe it.


I've never heard a ballpark fall so eerily silent, particularly juxtaposed with the tumultuous celebration after a 4 run comeback in the bottom of the 9th.

The only thing I can compare it to was the injury to Jahvid Best injury at the Cal-Oregon State football game in 2010. The quickness from which the crowd went from screaming to dead silence was just painfully similar.
----
But Posey's injury goes beyond this one game. It goes beyond baseball. It goes beyond the season really. In his recap of the injury Grant Brisbee shared this incredibly true insight: Giants fans are in love with Buster Posey.

No, really. They are.

Giants fans are a loving bunch. They love everyone. Get a big hit? Here's a standing ovation. Make a great throw? Here's a clever nickname Film a Giants-themed YouTube video? Here's a Fist Pump. Cody Ross, Mike Fontenot, Keenan Cahill. 'Lil Jon. We love them all.

But Buster Posey is on a completely different level. He represents something more. He represents that which is most sacred.

Think about it: Buster Posey is the World Series Championship.

Tim Lincecum may be the biggest star. Brian Wilson is the hot player right now. But they've both been around for a while compared to Posey. Lincecum came up in '07, when the Giants were terrible. They were both here in '08, when we were terrible.

But Posey? He came up to the big leagues, turned this team around and delivered a World Championship. In the minds of Giants fans, he was the missing link, the missing ingredient to the only thing we ever wanted.

At least in our minds, he is the great white hope. And seeing that great hope writhing in pain does something psychologically to a fan base. Seeing Buster go down is seeing this team go down. The keystone to this team, the one player who impacts pitching, offense and defense has just been removed. The whole building crumbles.
----
Who would have thought, after all of that, a 4 run game-tying rally in the bottom of the 9th would ruin the Giants' season?

Of course, the season is far from over. And as irreplaceable as Buster Posey is, the Giants can still win games without him. The pitching will need to continue it's brilliance and the offense will have to pick up the slack. But those two things were true before Wednesday night. The offense simply has a lot more slack to pick up now. But if Pablo can come back swining and Huff and Ross can get going, they still have a fighting chance. This team has always had to scrap, and that's only more true now. We're still in this thing.
----
Can we blame Scott Cousins? I don't think so. The photo below illustrates perfectly just how much of the plate was available for Cousins to slide and tag home on the right side. Instead he chose to launch himself right at Posey, who was on the left side of the plate:

Now of course everyone is saying it was a clean play, Cousins had no time to decide, it was hard-nosed baseball, etc. etc. But here's why I think it wasn't a dirty play:

Cousins is tagging at third on an extremely shallow fly ball to one of the best arms in the National League in Nate Shierholtz. He had to figure that the throw had a very, very good chance of beating him to home plate (which it did). His only chance, then, was to break up the play. He did what he had to do, assuming Posey would be catching the ball a second before he arrived at home. He had to assume if the ball beat him home and he tried to slide around to the right, Posey would have laid the tag down and the inning is over. With Sheirholtz's arm, Cousins thought he had to break up Posey's catch to have a chance. He was right and he scored.
----
The prayer now is that Posey can successfully rehab from the injury, regardless of how much time he misses. If this one play on a sac-fly in May changes the course of his career -- that will be truly devastating.

Look at a guy like Ray Fosse. In 1970, Ray Fosse was a hot-shot young catcher in Cleveland with all the makings of a superstar. In the first half of 1970 he hit .313, 16 HR and 45 RBI. Then came the All-Star Game. Pete Rose, known for his extremely aggressive style of play, destroyed Fosse at home to score the winning run. Fosse separated shoulder, and many say was never the same from that point on.

You have to figure if anyone is going to come back from this, it's Posey. He's one of the most determined and hard-working athletes I've ever seen. He's young, strong and pissed off. I'd bet the house he rehabs the hell of that leg and comes back stronger than before. You just have to pray nothing holds him back.
----
In any event, a truly unforgettable game to witness in person. I only wish it was because of the 4 run comeback.