{"id":389789,"date":"2026-07-07T22:41:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T22:41:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/389789\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T22:41:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T22:41:14","slug":"never-16-the-sf-giants-ineptitude-clearly-has-a-limit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/389789\/","title":{"rendered":"Never 16 \u2014 the SF Giants’ ineptitude clearly has a limit"},"content":{"rendered":"

For a team that\u2019s so obsessed with public relations, it\u2019s ironic. But the Giants<\/a> have a marketing issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing Like It,\u201d the team\u2019s slogan for the last four years \u2014 seriously \u2014 has become an easy punchline<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This team<\/a> needs a new slogan.<\/p>\n

And I think I have it.<\/p>\n

Because while this roster has proven fundamentally incapable of doing anything worthwhile this year, they possess one point of shocking, hyper-specific competency.<\/p>\n

Put this team 15 games under .500, and they suddenly transform into the \u201927 Yankees.<\/p>\n

Since the start of June, the Giants have tumbled to that point a staggering seven times.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s an achievement in incompetence. It takes sustained effort to consistently hover at the exact same depth of misery.<\/p>\n

Yet, every single time the abyss of 16-under stares them in the face, they fend it off.<\/p>\n

They will go no further.<\/p>\n

Yes, they have, seven times, clawed their way back to the functionally identical, wholly unimpressive 14-under.<\/p>\n

And in that, a new slogan is born:<\/p>\n

Never 16!<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a battle cry for the terminally mediocre.<\/p>\n

Put it on a T-shirt. Print it on a rally towel. Slap it the left-field wall.<\/p>\n

Management keeps selling irrational hope. The fans keep buying garlic fries to mask the scent of decay.<\/p>\n

Perhaps leaning into a bit could cut some of this tension, this sadness.<\/p>\n

The absurdity started on June 2. The Giants sat at a miserable 23-38.<\/p>\n

But against the first-place Brewers, the Giants mustered a 1-0 win. Crisis temporarily averted.<\/p>\n

Then came June 13. A 28-43 record. The Cubs were the subsequent, unsuspecting victims of a 5-1 ambush.<\/p>\n

On June 21, the cross-bay Athletics fell 3-1. Survival of the fittest? Let\u2019s just go with survival.<\/p>\n

June 26\u2019s 15-under game saw the Braves get inexplicably blanked 5-0.<\/p>\n

Then on June 30 against the Diamondbacks? A 6-4 triumph.<\/p>\n

July 3 against the Rockies? Another 6-4 win to keep the grim reaper at bay.<\/p>\n

And finally, Monday. Sitting at a perfectly putrid 37-52, the Giants played what might have been their best game of the year, boat-racing the Blue Jays 10-1.<\/p>\n

Yes, seven times they approached the ledge. Seven times they decided that there was, in fact, an indignity too low.<\/p>\n

Who says this team doesn\u2019t have heart, passion, or a clutch gene?<\/p>\n

Imagine what this team could do if they could channel their 15-under energy into something other than the worst-possible application of stubborn self-preservation.<\/p>\n

And if we can\u2019t laugh about this, what\u2019s the point of sports?<\/p>\n

Otherwise, what do we have? A team that\u2019s already more than 20 games behind the NL West lead before the All-Star break?<\/p>\n

That would be an exercise in masochism.<\/p>\n

This, on the other hand, is art.<\/p>\n

Can they fend off the dreaded 16-under mark for the rest of the year?<\/p>\n

Probably not. Gravity always wins in the end.<\/p>\n

Eventually, the bullpen will combust in a critical moment. The bats will go silent when they desperately need a run.<\/p>\n

This team is a submarine with a screen door. They can always find new, creative ways to take on water.<\/p>\n

But in the meantime, let\u2019s time to embrace the joke of it all.<\/p>\n

Sure, it\u2019s a pathetic, invisible line in the dirt, but it\u2019s their line.<\/p>\n

They might be bad. They might be completely unwatchable at times. They\u2019re totally untrustworthy 100 percent of the time.<\/p>\n

But by God, they aren\u2019t 16 games under .500. Not now. And, if form continues, not ever.<\/p>\n

I guess there really is nothing like it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For a team that\u2019s so obsessed with public relations, it\u2019s ironic. But the Giants have a marketing issue.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":389790,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[23726,402,181,1334,101,4820,103,102,104,106,105,127,1326],"class_list":["post-389789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-giants-hq","tag-inside-sports","tag-latest-headlines","tag-mlb","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-giants","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news","tag-sports","tag-sports-columnists"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=389789"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389789\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/389790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=389789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=389789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=389789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}