Electoral Victory of Young, Inexperienced Man Brings Joy to S.F.

Voters spurn Arizonan to elect city’s favored candidate

By Joe Eskenazi

Looking back, we San Franciscans were wrong to be nervous. We thought a doggedly conservative electorate would go with the more experienced candidate from Arizona. We thought our man would be perceived as too young for the job. We thought it might be a painstakingly close election – but it wasn’t. In fact, it was a landslide – Tim Lincecum has won the National League Cy Young Award!

With 100 percent of the precincts – sorry, Baseball Writers Association of America voters – reporting, Lincecum garnered 23 first-place votes, seven second-place tallies and a third-place vote, easily beating Brandon Webb of Arizona (4-15-8) and Johann Santana of the New York Mets (4-8-11). It’s worth noting that the BBWAA has appropriated San Francisco’s embrace of ranked-choice voting, too.

The voters realized what San Franciscans have known all along – Lincecum is a transformative figure whose skill belies his youth and inexperience. And, while he can be expected to savor the moment, soon he must focus on the gargantuan task of bringing change to a moribund franchise plagued by mounting losses and saddled with bad debt.

For longtime San Francisco Giants fans who had been fearing “The Marichal Effect” would keep their man from winning the election, the sun shone brightly in the city today, indeed. Yes, we can – finish fourth in the National League West!