If You Boo Tim Lincecum, You = Loser

Struggling with his command recently, The Freak has surrendered 15 walks in his last three starts (he only gave up 10 in his first seven) and his ERA has crept up to 3.00. Gasp.

Some fans out there can't stand a tiny scratch on their luxury cars and have taken to booing him. To me, there are two schools of thought to booing. The first school is summed up nicely by Barry Zito whenever someone asks him about his dark period, and he states that he understands the frustration and that fans boo because they want to win. "I would boo too," Barry humbly explains.

Let's call this type of booing Customer Feedback. We pay to get in, we want to see a quality product. The players should be thanking us for caring enough to register our feelings of disappointment regarding their performance.

The problem with the Customer Feedback Booing is that it sounds the same as the second school: We-Hate-You Booing. The school that reserves booing for Tommy Lasorda and Satan. There is no way to distinguish the two. Zito actually received We-Hate-You booing when he initially struggled in San Francisco. He either didn't know it, or is being diplomatic. For years we watched him shine accross the bay. And although the exorbitant contract was not his doing, he had no good history with the Giants that we could recall and remember that we actually liked him. So we booed.

Lincecum, of course, is not hated. He has two Cy Young awards. Sometimes, he is the only reason the Giants have any presence in the national media. Dig deeper, Giants fans. You will see your frustration lies where it always has lied: The inability of this team to score and the inability of the front office to do anything about it for the past four seasons. Yet the boos come. Boos not directed at the problem do not solve the problem. You want to boo? Go to Sabean's office and boo outside the door.

Remember the beginning of '09, when Lincecum struggled with command and we all panicked? This is the same, except it's happening at the end of May rather than the beginning of April. People will start swinging and missing soon enough, and we will love him outwardly the way we always love him inwardly. Booing now is simply misdirected at best.

Besides, we know Lincecum is an amazing, once -in-a-generation kind of star. He's our ace. Don't you want to know if your ace can roll with the punches? Get out of messes? Bounce back from a back week or two? Leave a couple of scratches on this car. It'll give him character.