Time hasn’t been kind to the Giants

I googled “SF Giants” and here is a sample of some of the headlines of stories that popped up, and it’s not just local media crushing the team:

“Giants search for positives after 0-6 road trip,” MLB.com.

“The back of the Giants’ rotation is going exactly as expected,” JustBaseball.com

“The SF Giants have never cast a smaller shadow,” Defector.com

“The Giants are a horrible team to watch, and hopefully the rookies can save them,” The New York Times.

“Buster Posey’s ‘unforgivable’ $313.5 million decision is catastrophe for Giants,” Sporting News.

Oof.

And the issues from the first 10 games are the same after game No. 34 — can’t hit, can’t score runs and, on the rare occasion they actually have a lead, they can’t hold on to it. That’s no way to go about being a winning baseball franchise. It’s gotten so bad, Posey and Co. called up two of the team’s biggest prospects, Bryce Eldridge and Jesus Rodriguez ahead of Monday’s series opener with the Padres.

Given the team’s track record over the last decade, is anyone really that confident these call-ups will be a success? I’m not. Eldridge has been hyped for the last several years, but I remember the hype for Marco Luciano, Luis Matos and Heliot Ramos. The first two flamed out and Ramos is just a guy, apparently.

Plus, asking a pair of rookies to be saviors is, again, another bad look for a team that simply doesn’t seem to care if it wins or loses. It seems the ownership group is simply satisfied with a mostly sold out Oracle Park and those fans consuming multiple hundreds of dollars worth of overpriced drinks, gross overpriced food and overpriced souvenirs.

I wonder if they still have panda and giraffe hats in the team store?

This team is horrible. The Giants scored nine runs — nine! — during a six-game road losing streak and there are no signs that things will get better. The Giants better hope Eldridge and Rodriguez show something quickly or it’s going to be a very long summer.

***

When it comes to track and field, there are so many events — times two for boys and girls — that sometimes results slip through the cracks.

The first day of the Peninsula Athletic League track and field championships last Thursday was mostly about qualifying for this weekend’s finals. But there were a handful of finals conducted Thursday.

And I missed one of them.

The Carlmont boys’ relay team of Nathan Kron, Daniel Choy, Landon Schaefer and Simon Gehrke gave the Scots a sweep of the 4x800 titles, with the Lady Scots winning the event in record time.

Their male counterparts posted a new personal-best time of 8:06.45, finishing easily ahead of second-place Menlo-Atherton, which posted a time of 8:15.41.

The second day of the PAL championships is Saturday at Sequoia High School. Field events begin at 10 a.m. and track events start at 11 a.m.

***

With the California Interscholastic Federation implementing regional and state championships in many sports, it means that many seasons have been moved up. So while the two big sports of the spring — baseball and softball — are in the final weeks of the regular season, most other sports are already ramping up for CCS action.

The CCS boys’ golf qualifying tournament tees off at Laguna Seca Golf Ranch in Monterey Tuesday, with the championship round scheduled for next Tuesday.

Boys’ CCS tennis also kicks off this week with the team tournament begin Wednesday and concludes next Friday, May 15. That will be followed by the individual singles and doubles tournament, which begins Monday, May 18, and concludes Wednesday, May 20.

The CCS swimming and diving championships also begin this week, with diving kicking off Wednesday, girls’ preliminaries are Thursday, boys’ qualifying is Friday and the CCS swim championships are scheduled for Saturday at Independence High School in San Jose, with racing beginning at 1:30 p.m.

Boys’ volleyball, which the PAL wrapped up this past Friday, begins CCS play next Monday, May 11, and finishes next Saturday, with the finals being played at St. Francis High School in Mountain View.

CCS lacrosse tournaments begin next Tuesday, with boys’ championship matches at Menlo-Atherton, while Carlmont will host the girls’ championship matches — both next Saturday.

The CCS badminton championships are next Saturday, May 16, as well, also at Independence High School.

The CCS track and field championships begin next Saturday with the trials at Gilroy High School, and the finals the following week, May 23, at the same venue.

That leaves just baseball and softball, which don’t begin CCS play until Saturday, May 23.

Man, hard to believe the 2025-26 high school sports calendar is in its final weeks.

Nathan Mollat has been covering high school sports in San Mateo County for the San Mateo Daily Journal since 2001. He can be reached by email: nathan@smdailyjournal.com.