Summing up the year

Nothing crystalized the year better for me than Mark Sweeney, who hasn't homered since July 1 in San Diego and has gone 2 for 17 in September. He's finished 2006 with a .331 OBP and a .384 slugging average. Now, that's not as horrible as Jose Vizcaino but it's hardly worth 251 ABs this year. That's 30 more than he's ever had -- and it's only the second time he's had over 200 ABs. And it's clear that the somewhat decent numbers for the last 2 years don't mean much any more. This guy is done as anything other than an emergency fill-in; he'll be 37 in a few weeks. So aren't there other alternatives with these two very winnable games on the line? Despite the Giants charging $55 for good seats, $20 for parking and $8 for beer, apparently not.

On Friday night, with the tying run on 3rd and the winning run on first, Sweeney took a called strike three to end the game. Then, after the Fox announcers had worked themselves into schoolgirl frenzy over Greg Maddux until he was finally out of the game, Sweeney struck out with 2 outs in the 8th in today's game. Can we please use someone else Sunday???????

Whatever the Giants are paying him, it's too much. Am I bitter? Do you even need to ask?