Thousands of fans in the ball park boo batters like Cody Ross or Aubrey Huff -- sort of shouting, "C'mon! It's not that hard! Let's go! You can do it! Get a hit!" Then, after the game, they write and talk about how Huff, Ross and the rest just don't get it.
That's a great deal like what people are telling me. I've been unemployed more often in the last four years than in the previous 30 years combined. The five months that I've been out of work this stretch is the biggest professional slump that I've ever been in. Sort of like the 2011 Giants being in the biggest slump the club's been in since 2009.
"C'mon! Get out there! Don't feel sorry for yourself! You've got talent! You can find a job job! You just have to work at it! You can do it!"
Giants like Ross, Huff and Aaron Rowand shuffle, heads down, back to the dugout after a horrendous at-bat in the middle of the team's epic fall from first place to the point where stringing together back-to-back victories seems impossible. It doesn't do them any good to have fans shouting at them or berating them.
I've actually gone to bat, looked foolish trying to hit what seemed to be hittable pitches and had people shout at me. Then, I've gone right out and misplayed an easy grounder. I wasn't thinking about the botched at-bat when I booted the grounder. Honest.
It's my guess that it's no more helpful to have 42,000 people boo and shout at the failed hitter who then flops in the field than it was to have a small crowd at a high school or college game express their disgust with my effort.
Folks who are frustrated by the Giants' increasing inability to win are beginning to step into an area that I've really been thinking about lately. It's an area people go whenever they, in the name of caring for me and helping me, tell me that I just need to be positive, to believe in myself, in order to get that job that has been eluding me.
Giants' analyst Mike Krukow, a former big league pitcher who should know better, talked this morning on the radio about how the Giants' body language is beginning to show the depths to which they've fallen. He talked about how the club has lost it's confidence and no longer believes it can get the key hits and that the lack of confidence carries over to shoddy defensive efforts.
My initial reaction was to conclude that Orlando Cabrera and Carlos Beltran have probably tried striding more purposefully, standing tall, shoulders back ... after a pop out to second base or a called strike three. At some point in their long careers, I'm sure somebody would've mentioned that their body language impacts their ability to make solid contact at the plate and that their plate appearance must be disconnected from their play on defense.
Right? They couldn't have lasted this long or played this well if they needed somebody to tell them that sort of thing.
Still, Krukow and others who know a great deal less about baseball than he does are worried that Huff's shoulders are slumped.
People in my life are worried that my body language and my mindset are at the root of my being unemployed. They feel that five months without landing a job, after 38 years of active effort in the workforce, has shaken my confidence to the point that I'm now my own worst enemy.
Huff had a particularly horrendous at-bat Thursday night in a 3-1 loss to the Houston Astros. He took a Henry Sosa fastball, straight as a string, over the inner-half of the plate for a strike. Then, he swung wildly at a breaking pitch that landed in the dirt ... maybe even on top of home plate.
He was out right then, even though Sosa had to throw another pitch to make it official.
Huff is self-aware. Every big leaguer has to know himself to become a big leaguer. He, more than any fan or analyst, knows he's so out of whack that he let pass a pitch he should've crushed and then flailed at a pitch that bounced before it reached him. Given his keen sense of self-awareness, Huff knows he's in a profound slump. So does Ross ... Rowand ... Cabrera ... Beltran, etc.
Given my keen sense of self-awareness, and increasing debt, I know that I've been out of work for five months and that I need to generate income more than I've ever needed to generate it. I'm 54 years old. It's a given that I should be working or be retired, cashing checks that resulted from wise investments. (I actually wound up living on limited cash from wise investments when the employment slump hit four years ago.)
I'm unclear how Giants' hitters are supposed to feel good about their stroke, their batting eye and their ability to hit when they're proving time and again that they're largely confused and lost with a bat in their hands.
Similarly, how does a fellow who has been unemployed for five months convince himself that all those jobs he hasn't gotten, those interviews that he hasn't received, don't mean anything and that he can turn it all around if he just believes he can? I'm actually going to increase my chances of generating income by standing taller and thinking more positive thoughts?
Now, if somebody finds a flaw in a batter's swing ... the batter can fix it. That makes sense. The flaw has a clear impact on a batter's inability to hit the ball hard.
When a friend pointed out that my resume and cover letters were archaic and that, "I see why you aren't getting job interviews, let alone jobs. Your resume is old-fashioned," it helped. I can modernize my resume. That can lead to my getting more interviews that can lead to getting a job.
Huff and the rest of the Giants aren't sitting around thinking negative thoughts. They lost last night, but they'll all be at the ball park today taking batting practice and doing the same things they do every day to prepare to hit the ball, catch it, throw it straight, etc. They'll do what they've done their entire professional lives.
When I got up this morning to drive my son to school, I knew I'd work at the job that I've done my entire adult life ... even though it's not a job today that results in income to pay bills. (Writing is my work.)
I knew I'd do the same things today that I've been doing to look for jobs that I've done for months. I'd write, like I do every single day. My confidence in my ability to generate income today isn't hindered by the fact I didn't generate much yesterday. (Ted Note: The work reflected here has generated some income, actually. I thank the readers who've found monetary value in the work.)
I don't think it actually helps the Giants or me to announce, with confidence, that today's our day! We know how things have been going. We're professional. We know what we've done and we know what we can do. The successes we had, on far different scales in radically different professions, weren't predicated on positive self-talk. We're all convinced that we're pretty good at our jobs.
It's going to help us if we express that confidence, supremely, to the world? How?
A friend insists that even writing like this is hurting my cause. I'm explaining that I'm not sure how body language, frame of mind and expressing positive thoughts will help me find a job. They insist that even thinking about failure and how I got to this point will keep employers from hiring me.
Yeah, I suppose that ... no, nope! It doesn't make sense.
Those who are Giants fans insist that the Giants need to shake the lethargy that has become apparent, even Krukow called for lineup changes, "Just to get a different look ... to change things up in the clubhouse."
That sounds like folks believe that if manager Bruce Bochy confidently produces a lineup with young slugger Brandon Belt in the lead-off spot and the struggling star Beltran batting second ... it will be Bochy showing the Giants how confident he is that the slump ends today. If the club unloads Rowand and fellow veteran Mark DeRosa to replace them with unproven minor league successes like infielder Brett Pill ... that it just might be what the club needs.
Pill hasn't played an inning in the big leagues. Ever. Belt would only bat first to start a game, after that the batting order doesn't mean anything. Krukow insists shaking things up would help.
That doesn't make sense.
It's the work that matters. It's about plugging along. Never giving up.
Sooner or later, one Giants' hitter is going to run into a pitch ... a pitcher's going hit somebody's bat with runners in scoring position ... and, then, the club will start to feel more confident. The added pressure of playing defense with runners on base will force the other team into a mistake. That'll make the Giants start walking more upright, with the cocksure appearance they've been lacking.
The same thing will happen to me. It always has. The law of averages lean in favor of the guy who keeps chipping away, who doesn't give in to what appears to be the reality of another negative outcome.
It has to work that way because ... for it to work any other way just doesn't make sense.
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