San Francisco Giants Update: Brandon Belt Is Pretty Damn Good

Brandon Belt of the San Francisco Giants was all of six months old the last time the repellent Los Angeles Dodgers won the World Series. Yet for some reason, he’s decided that they’re the team that he loves to torment.

He clobbered the first home run of his career in Los Angeles in the second game of the season, and last night he homered in his first at bat and then drove in the winning runs on an opposite-field double in the seventh.

I can only imagine how this will all look on what is currently the the best show on television. They’ll start by showing us a brief excerpt of Brandon’s bus trip from Fresno. I’m sure we’ll get a kick watching him sitting on the back of a Greyhound, flipping through the pages of the latest Maxim and waiting for the camera to move to the window to get a shot of all the passing livestock and hay bales. 

You see, Belt knows he’s the real deal. He was tremendous last year in the minors, hitting .352 with 23 home runs. The Giants knew that he was going to be a force in the regular season, but they wanted to wait things out, since that worked out so well with Buster Posey last year.

But when Cody Ross was injured during spring training, they were forced to insert Belt into the opening-day roster. It was then that Belt learned the hard way how difficult it is to perform with the pressure of starting for the defending world champions, instead of slipping quietly under the radar and torching the opposition.  

But the Giants knew what had to be done. Brandon had to go back to Fresno so he could close up the gap in his swing. He did, to the tune of seven home runs and a 1.024 OPS. It was only a matter of time before San Francisco would have its best first baseman since the Thrill was patrolling the right corner of the infield in the early nineties.

But alas, fate struck again in the cruelest fashion. Belt fractured his wrist in a game against the St. Louis Cardinals, and the wait began again.

Well, it’s over.

This kid is ready.

Last night, when the Dodgers inexplicably walked Cody Ross to load the bases with Belt on deck, I knew that Brandon would make them pay.

In my minds’ eye, I saw a 460-foot moon shot going out to McCovey Cove. As it was, I was pretty happy with the resulting liner lashed down the third-base chalk line.

Giants baseball has just become a lot more interesting.