Perhaps it was the intense weekend of driving around in 100 degree heat while looking for an apartment this weekend in LA, but I had a bizarrely vivid dream last night about the San Francisco Giants. As some of you may know, the Giants lost their starting catcher, Mike Matheny, to concussions a little earlier this season. His future is cloudy in more ways than one.
Last night, I had an exceptionally vivid dream about the Giants’ catcher situation. I dreamed that Eliezer Alfonso, their backup catcher had also been injured, but that they had brought in three veterans to work the plate. The three men:
The starter was Mike “Spanky” LaValliere, the former Pittsburgh Pirate. I even calculated in my dream an age for Spanky — 41 — based on a made up age of 24 in 1989 (where did I get that?). Apparently, I can do arithmetic word problems while dreaming, but I can’t get it through my skull that this guy retired 11 years ago.
Backing up Spanky was Kirt Manwaring, seen here colliding with my childhood favorite Mark Grace. Unlike LaValliere, Manwaring was actually the Giants’ catcher once upon a time. Of course, that, too, was most recently in 1995. Check out the look on Manwaring’s face — he’s saying, “HA HA, Grace! You may be married to the cute pilot chick from Northern Exposure, but look what I’ve got… the BALL!”
The final member of the catching triumverate was Benito Santiago. Santiago actually signed with the Mets this year, at the age of 41, though I guess he’s more like 35 in steroid years. Santiago played for the Giants for a while a couple of years ago, and actually played quite well (again, I’m guessing it was the ‘roids). I was least surprised that he showed up in my dreams, though given his horribly grizzled face, I would have expected him to appear as some sort of Carribean pirate or Latin American kidnapper-for-hire. Either way, he’d be wearing sport sunglasses.
All of this would be a wonderful extension of Giants general manager Brian Sabean’s “Remember When?” ballclub building strategy. So I say, go for it, Giants! Make my dreams come true!