With the Giants coming into town and Barry Bonds finishing up his career as a Giant, combined with the boredom of my day job, my imagination took off today and you readers will pay the price.

In the fall of 1953 Leo Durocher's career was going nowhere. His team had finished 8th in a ten team league, and he was feeling the heat. He had the best player in baseball coming back from the Korean War and he knew he needed to deliver the goods.

On a blustery fall night he entered McSorley's to have a drink alone when a beautiful dame sat next to him. Her name was Alyssa and eyes were black where no color penetrated whatsoever. She was easy to talk to and seemed to know more about baseball then any dame he'd ever met. As they drank he became more open about his hopes and fears for the future. The night was winding down when she pulled him close and whispered into his ear that she could help him in his endeavors to get back on top, but the price would be steep.

He was very drunk by this time and wasn't sure what she meant. To erase any doubt she said it again. Without her intervention, Willie Mays would never play for the Giants again. At 1st Leo gave an unsettled laugh, but after staring into those eyes he knew this was no laughing matter. Without Willie, the Giants would be nothing, he started to panic but she calmed him down with a touch of her hot hand. She wasn't a devil but a baseball daemon, and she showed him her power. All activity in the bar had ceased, except for theirs. He was a desperate man, who couldn't bear the thought of not having Willie for next season. With a deep sigh he grudgingly agreed to her price.

The next morning he remembered the previous evening, but he had been so drunk he felt he must have imagined the crazy parts of it. As time passed and he prepared for the next season his memory of the evening faded until he hardly thought of it at all. It came to pass that Willie Mays came back unscathed from the Korean War and joined the Giants in 1954 and led them to the World Championship with the greatest season any Giant had ever had upto that point in history. It was his 1st World Championship and as the celebration continued into the winter he felt it would only be the 1st of many.

Then on the one-year anniversary that he met Alyssa she came to his home when he was alone, and demanded the price he agreed to one year ago. He was horrified that it hadn't been a dream and refuted the idea that she was instrumental in Willie playing for the Giants and so he refused to pay the price that he had agreed to. The black eyes flashed and she denounced him and told from this time forward no Giant team would ever win another world championship and that all her favors would instead focus on their hated rivals, the Brooklyn Dodgers. He scoffed and slammed the door in her face.

Leo should have known better. A broken promise to any woman will cause a rift; a broken promise to a femal baseball daemon split asunder the baseball world for the next ½ century.

In 1955 she quickly showed Leo the depth of her power and broke the spell that had bewitched the Boys of Summer so they were able to win their 1st World Championship.

That was only the beginning. Her wrath has not waned, since the day that Leo refused to acknowledge the deal; she has teased the Giants forever and a day.

She set it up so that they would follow the Dodgers to California but they would end up in an unforgiving bay where it is cold and damp, while the Dodgers played in sunny Southern California with the beautiful people.

She saw to it that the Giants would have bountiful talent, but always play second fiddle. She found out that she loved to tease and so no one has been teased more then the Giants.

The Dodgers got Dodger Stadium, which was the best place to watch baseball while the Giants got Candlestick Park, the worse place to watch baseball.

When Willie McCovey hit the ball as hard as any man has ever hit a baseball, all it did was drill a hole in Bobby Richardson's glove.

Juan Marichal was the greatest pitcher in baseball during his time, except for a guy name Sandy Koufax so he was often an after thought season after season.

Willie Mays was the greatest player in baseball, but since 1954 all he could do was lead his team to almost victory. As great as he was, it is hard to defeat a baseball daemon.

Bobby Bonds was so talented they thought they had another Willie Mays, and he teased the Giant fans with his talent until it turned out he was only made of moissanite and the diamond talent that glittered was only a mirage.

She gave their hated rivals moment after moment. Six World Championships starting with that 1st one in 1955. Eleven times have they appeared in the World Series. Sometimes even a daemon has limits. In 1988 she overindulged her favorites, which left her weak for several years. The only thing she could do for a while was to send them a gift from the heavens, packaged as a HOF catcher, when they spurned her gift, and sent it away her anger was great, and she turned her back on them. They are now paying the same price as the Giants did for all those years.

Once she got her strength back she came up with the greatest tease ever to be perpetrated upon a franchise. She brought the best player in baseball home to where his Dad had starred. However no matter what Barry did he couldn't get the Giants into a World Series.  He became inflamed with jealousy over the fawning of McGwire and Sosa, and went outside his god given talents, which took his game to levels never seen on a baseball diamond. Finally the big head Bonds takes his team to the 2002 World Series. In 1962 they came as close as you can come, but they fell short. They would again be second best in 2002 and again they came oh so close. This time they were done in by a Rally Monkey. You see she made sure that Dusty Bakers managerial ineptitude would offset Barry Bonds greatness. Dusty Baker in all his swagger went out to the mound to replace his pitcher and then tell the dugout to save the ball. This time she really had them. Not one Giant fan thought this wasn't going to be the moment. And then Scott Spiezio hit the second greatest home run in California history, and broke the back of the spineless Giants. Year after year Barry Bonds would be the best player in baseball just as Willie Mays had been in his time. And year after year someone else would end up World Champions. When a daemon's plan works, it is heaven like unless you happen to be a Giant fan.

She is not done, not this vengeful god. 2007 will see the end of Barry Bonds as a Giant, and while he gave Giant fans plenty to cheer about, he wasn't' able to deliver the final payment. Neither were Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Juan Marichal, Orlando Cepeda, The Alou Brothers, and countless other great Giants.

In 2008 Barry Bonds will take his shtick somewhere else and wherever he ends up in 2008, Giant fans will watch Barry Bonds win his First World Series. It is already written.

Oh and the man who started it all. Just look up the 1969 pennant race and you'll see that she never forgave him. If you think this is a bunch of hooey, then you tell me why the Giants can't win a world championship.

Pittsburgh (63-87) vs. LA Dodgers (79-71) 7:10pm

Lineups:

Pittsburgh

Chris Duffy CF .249/.315/.332
Jack Wilson SS .273/.315/.372
Freddy S?nchez 3B .341/.377/.473
Jason Bay LF .284/.392/.540
Xavier Nady 1B .303/.365/.413
Ronny Paulino C .321/.372/.407
Jos? Bautista RF .238/.340/.416
Jos? Castillo 2B .259/.306/.396
Ian Snell P .060/.096/.080

LA Dodgers

Rafael Furcal SS .297/.364/.439
Kenny Lofton CF .302/.363/.399
Nomar Garciaparra 1B .305/.371/.507
Jeff Kent 2B .288/.375/.485
J.D. Drew RF .276/.385/.474
Russell Martin C .286/.355/.442
Marlon Anderson LF .274/.331/.423
Wilson Betemit 3B .246/.301/.458
Hong-Chih Kuo P .000/.000/.000

Pitching Matchup:

Ian Snell	vs	Hong-Chih Kuo
13	W	1
10	L	4
4.78	ERA	4.25
175.0	IP	42.1
8.18	K/9	10.48
3.5	BB/9	6.2
1.44	HR/9	0.43

Much as been made of the fact that the Pirates are over .500 since the All Star Break. As Charlie from Bucs Dugout points out, there's not much difference between the team in the first and second halves, it's just that their winning all of their one run games instead of losing them. Good time for the Dodgers to break off a little run.

Arizona and San Diego are about to get underway, while the Phillies have just defeated the Cubs. Best case scenario is that the Padres drop 1.5 back and the Phillies remain two back, while the worst case scenario sees the Padres retaking first place by half a game, and the Phillies sit just one game away.

The magic number over the Phillies is 11.

LA Dodgers (73-64) vs. Milwaukee (63-75) 5:05pm

Lineups:

LA Dodgers

Rafael Furcal SS .289/.360/.410
Kenny Lofton CF .307/.364/.402
Nomar Garciaparra 1B .310/.379/.504
Jeff Kent 2B .277/.365/.477
Andre Ethier LF .331/.379/.520
Matt Kemp RF .268/.309/.480
Julio Lugo 3B .236/.314/.292
Russell Martin C .293/.363/.445
Mark Hendrickson P .000/.056/.000

Milwaukee

Brady Clark CF .270/.363/.338
Tony Graffanino 2B .289/.365/.415
Prince Fielder 1B .275/.345/.482
Bill Hall SS .265/.340/.555
Corey Hart RF .275/.316/.409
Kevin Mench LF .202/.230/.266
David Bell 3B .237/.294/.325
Damian Miller C .252/.324/.394
Doug Davis P .055/.071/.055

Pitching Matchup:

Mark Hendrickson	vs	Doug Davis
1	W	9
6	L	9
4.99	ERA	5.18
61.1	IP	170.1
4.86	K/9	6.72
3.54	BB/9	4.66
0.88	HR/9	0.9

Mark Hendrickson gets what is likely his last chance against Doug "The Guy Who Killed My Fantasy Team" Davis. Davis had 208 strikeouts last year. Pretty sure he's not going to reach that number this year.

Also of note is J.D. Drew's absence from the lineup the day after he took the team lead in on base percentage.

The magic number is still 22 over Florida and Philadelphia. It will still be 22 after tonights game if the Dodgers lose since Philadelphia got rained out.

Player	Value Added	VA/PA	Change
Nomar Garciaparra	19.746	.056	.000
Andre Ethier	14.198	.052	1.177
J.D. Drew	11.537	.029	.749
Olmedo Saenz	7.579	.045	2.033
Jeff Kent	6.911	.025	.000
Russell Martin	5.161	.018	1.683
Cody Ross	4.364	.312	.000
Matt Kemp	3.164	.024	.000
Rafael Furcal	2.925	.006	2.580
Jason Repko	2.542	.026	-.905
Wilson Betemit	2.494	.119	N/A
Bill Mueller	1.534	.012	.000
Kenny Lofton	1.093	.003	2.452
Jose Cruz	.864	.003	1.144
Dioner Navarro	.569	.007	.000
Willy Aybar	.397	.003	.000
Oscar Robles	-1.195	-.037	.000
Julio Lugo	-1.196	-.066	N/A
Sandy Alomar	-1.691	-.027	.000
James Loney	-1.906	-.031	2.494
Toby Hall	-2.034	-.081	-.611
Ricky Ledee	-2.283	-.043	-1.589
Joel Guzman	-2.444	-.106	.000
Ramon Martinez	-2.844	-.017	-1.161
Cesar Izturis	-4.168	-.032	.636

These numbers do not include today's game.

After two and a half weeks where nothing could go right for the Dodgers, everything clicked at the same time. The Dodgers managed to go on this win streak with a balanced attack: no player contributed over 2.5 runs above average this week, while every regular except Julio Lugo was above average. No real room for analysis here: when the Dodgers lineup is able to consistently put people on base, the lack of power really isn't an issue.

More information about linear weights can be found here.