*Steam Rolling to 14-2*, A Panda Cycle and A Final Thought on The Force Out of Bow Tie
On the morning of September 12th I made a casual reference to winning the Wild Card by going 14-2 the rest of the way. It wasn’t really a prediction, just a foggy thought as my morning coffee kicked in. Well, the Giants are making this a lot easier than I thought. They’ve won 4 in a row since that blog post (5 in a row total) and now we only have to go 10-2 the rest of the way to get to 90 wins. Will that be enough for the WC? Maybe. After they lay waste to the Mets they have 6 on the road and then finish against the Fillies. Will Bumpkin Manuel be resting his guys that series? We can only pray he doesn’t. But finishing the season strong with 90 wins would be a great accomplishment considering all of the adversity the team went through this season. May our Baseball-God sent Mascot, The Sun Dressed Chick, shepherd us through the valley of darkness and the tyranny of evil losses and gift us the 14-2 record that I asked for. She is 5-0 since being installed as The Flap Mascot…….
When Panda put his head down and turned 2nd towards 3rd base, I relinquished all thoughts of the Bow Tie Force Out for about 2 seconds. There are few things more exhilarating in baseball (for me) than watching Panda put his head down and look for another gear as he rounds 2nd and heads for 3rd. Great call by Kuip on that play. Miller’s call was a little underwhelming…….
I did some light googling on who the Giants 32 main investors are as well as who is on this 10 person Executive Committee and I came up empty. I’m sure it’s out there and if any of you can find the list I’d appreciate it. It’s obvious now that the organization will be run and directed by a Board of Directors and that is the 10 person committee. My assumption is that Baer wasn’t even one of the 32 main investors. Assuming that, Baer’s role will be to simply bring requests to the board and have them vote on it. What qualifies these 10 mysterious people to be voting on baseball decisions? And what qualifies Baer to present these decisions to this group? Baer is a salesman so that probably will work in his favor. And maybe he will just take what Sabean wants to do and present that to them. But this all feels very disconnected to me. It was probably hard enough to get one guy (Neukom) to sign off on major financial decisions, what will it be like to get 10 people to sign off on it? Do they have weighted votes based on their ownership stake? Do the “lower 32” have any say in this? Or is it just the “lower 22” since I am assuming the 10 executive committee people are part of the Main 32. Lots of assumptions going on right now and that’s tough to do with so many hazy generalities to deal with……..
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
Flav. magic number is now 10 and 2 baby. The Panda hat dude looks like Joaquin Phoenix. Did he switch careers again?
rollin rollin rollin. he took down mrs. m-d-r for that?
My 7th grader son asked for a Panda hat for Christmas…my response, “No FUCKING Way!”
Well put Flav on the caption!
Nukes is going to be a hard act to follow. Knapp makes a pretty good case why this is a step backward, in the wrong direction, after a tremendous leap foward from Magowan years. What more did they want the guy to do?
After reading all the fluke comments from philly/ny fans, the best thing I saw all off season was from a blogger on fangraphs. He said words to the affect that, while not an SF fan, he thought it was pretty cool that a team that had been roundly castigated for years of bad moves and contracts had the last laugh on everyone 2010.
The vote is already done and the award has been handed out, but I don’t see anyone playing more inspired baseball than Sandoval. He’s been diving all over the field, throwing guys out and saving runs, while continuing his assault on mlb pitching. With enough ABs, he’d be tied for 6th with Starlin Castro in avg. at .308.
By contrast, you don’t need a fork to know that Vogs is damn near done.
and imagine4 his numbers if he had not missed so many games and took a while to get his strength back…30 homers and 100 rbis no problem..might be a good time to give him the longer deal and buy out some free agent years, but who is in charge???
Sorry, but 8 k’s in 5.1 innings is hardly done. He pitched on the road admirably, everyone knows he’s better at home. And the win for him was sweet seeing as how he’s gotten fucked out of more than a few this season…
Is that dude getting panda tea baggery?
My sens eis that teh Giants ownership will not make public who is in that executive committee..but there is some big dicks being swubng around. Didn’t the original story say that Neukom is also selling all his shares, I think that is telling in how much he got dicked over that he just wants out…I dont like these developments one bit.
One thing Baer is good at and that is being a lackey, so he will be perfect for the Executive Committee…
I don’t know how many read this, but this is from Bill
Dear Giants Fan,
As you have undoubtedly heard in media reports, today I announced my intention to retire at the end of this year. I will be succeeded by current President and Chief Operating Officer Larry Baer, who will become Chief Executive Officer. I will serve as Chairman Emeritus during the 2012 year.
I want to thank you for your support and commitment throughout my tenure. It has been an amazing journey, which began for me when I was a youngster living in San Mateo Park next door to Charlie Graham Jr., the general manager of the San Francisco Seals. It was his daughter, Tina, who rounded up the boys next door to play baseball with her. It is where my passion for this extraordinary game began, and I’ve been hooked ever since. Never in my dreams did I think I would become a member of the Giants ownership group in 1994 and then managing general partner and CEO in 2008.
In many ways, the Giants are a community asset in the same way a museum or symphony are part of the fabric of a city. Those of us who are fortunate to work for an organization as special as the Giants are in fact “stewards” of an entity that belongs to the broader community – to each of you. It has been a privilege to lead the organization and to work with a talented group of individuals who have dedicated their lives to stewarding this civic treasure.
Together, we have accomplished a number of objectives – returning to winning baseball, instituting professional managements systems, integrating the business and the baseball operations, creating strong attendance and revenue momentum, and, of course the ultimate objective of bringing a World Championship to San Francisco. In sum, the state of the Giants is stronger than ever.
The Giants front office is one of the best in baseball and under Larry’s leadership it will certainly continue to deliver on our commitment to winning. While I may be retiring from my day-to-day duties, I remain a passionate and committed fan who looks forward to watching the Giants contend for the title year in and year out.
It has truly been an honor to stand shoulder to shoulder with you to root for our favorite team. I thank you for sharing your passion and, most importantly, your generosity. As active members of the community, we have asked many of you to assist us and you have always been there to support the work of our Giants Community Fund initiatives and all of our community programs. We have the best fans in baseball, and I can’t think of a team that is more connected to its fans.
All the best,
Bill Neukom
Managing General Partner and Chief Executive Officer
He sent one to you too?
I thought I was the only one to get this!!!
A step backwards indeed. I actually saw light at the end of the tunnel with bow tie’s decisions. It felt like we had an intelligent pro-fan, pro-team guy at the top. Leave it to the shareholders to spoil my fun.
heading into the penultimate week of the season I look forward to Panda and Beltrán putting their heads down and pounding the ball to the point the whole team joins in.
go Giants!
http://www.stanfordalumni.org/news/magazine/2011/julaug/features/neukom.html
So Baer will mainly to do the bidding for the executive committee, not unlike MLB itself in which Selig is there to serve at the owners’ beck and call. I wonder if this has always been the arrangement since ’93. Did Magowan need approval from the committee when he signed Zito, or was he somehow able to railroad that outrageous contract through without proper consent? No matter how this shakes out, it’s very disturbing to lose someone who represented a strong, classy voice on behalf of ownership while successfully executing a clear plan that resulted in a championship.
Great to see the Giants aren’t going down without a fight. All they can do is keep winning and hope for the best from the worst, since help is needed this weekend from the Pads and Mets.
Panda hats for all Flappers! It should be a requirement.
Where else would you bring your organization to the mountain top and be summarily dimissed in so short a time thereafter?
Larry Baer is THE MAN! Little will change. He knows how to schmooze and build consensus.
Mac, Baer’s role is different from Magowan’s and Neuk’s- they did not need consent to make decisions. So this is either an out and out power grab from the Burns girls or Neukom did something serious enough that the group has taken over decision making. Baer will simply be the front man for the girls.
OK, so this will be a radical change from the Magowan and Bow Tie regimes. Or maybe not, if the Burns chicks are indeed the ones calling the shots, they’ll just be doing so under the cloak of an executive committee.
Baer is more like a politician.
BF – Here is the link to the current list of principal owners. It doesn’t say who the 10 executive committee members are.
http://sanfrancisco.giants.mlb.com/team/front_office.jsp?c_id=sf
thanks Clown, that’s awesome.
The best thing on that list is calling Mike Murphy “Miquel Murphy.”
In 1998 there were 23 shareholders. These were the shareholders with more than 3% holdings (again, these are 1998 numbers so how valid it is today, I don’t know).
— Harmon Burns, executive vice president of Franklin Resources, 32 percent
— Peter Magowan, 15
— Charles B. Johnson, chairman and CEO of Franklin Resources, 13
— David Jenkins, music producer, 10
— Allan G. Byer, owner of Byers California, and son Alex, 7
— William Neukom, Microsoft general counsel, 5
— KTVU, Giants flagship TV station, 4
Personally, I don’t see too much that changes. There is a difference between “do their bidding” and submitting a major baseball proposal, e.g., trade or free agent signing that requires approval from ownership. That’s why Bochy, Sabean, and Baer were hired, i.e., to run the team and make all the day-to-day baseball decisions.
Most people have a boss and I think the executive committee/ownership group just wants to be kept in the loop about major baseball decisions. This has always been the case, but I think Neukom may have taken advantage of a situation where he felt that it wouldn’t be a problem and/or there was a “failure to communicate” between him and the Executive Committee. No doubt the catalyst was reading about one of these major decisions via the newspaper vs. getting the news from Neukom. I don’t think it’s necessary to vilify anyone regarding this issue . . . I think they all want the same thing – to win another World Series, but as I indicated earlier, there may have been a problem in communication between all parties.
Back to the game: Besides the pitching, this has been 3 guys fueling the September run:
Ross .289 .347 .925 3-7
Sandoval .302 .347 .928 3-10
Beltran .442 .500 1.384 4-10
Assists to Pill and DeRosa.
I would have thought Sandoval’s BA would have been higher. I guess it just “feels” higher
Well, the games on the field always redeem things, don’t they? Last night was a classic example. Pablo gave everyone a lift with that performance, and took minds momentarily off the front-office goings-ons.
Anyone else see Beltran’s comments in the merc about potentially re-signing with SF? Interesting stuff. Maybe he can put a bug in Reyes’ ear. Unlikely to see payroll rise to such a level but that sure would be a nice LU
I said earlier that the Giants going to the post season wasn’t a case of the math (technically not eliminated) and the magic. while we all knew that they had this kind of run in them, they had showed NO signs of going on one. But it’s starting to look good now. They seem to have recovered their flair. They’ll need to make a great come-back in a game to really get the full-blown magic going. But whether it’s too late or not is the biggest question. The great part is that, ultimately win or lose, it’s should be an exciting ride to the finish. And that’s the great part of September baseball. Having a shot.
I’ll have a shot to toast that thought.
Since the local media is too lazy or scared to do a run down on who the Giants owners are, I took the principal partners list and did a little investigating of my own. CNSBA is owned 1/3 by the Giants, so all the sports scribes guys that want a gig on TV may not be too inclined to dig into who the Giants really are, and who are the real power brokers on the owner’s list.
http://sanfrancisco.giants.mlb.com/team/front_office.jsp?c_id=sf
There’s a clear pattern to the owners list. Most are typically in a money generating or acquiring business (venture capital, investments), or Silicon Valley high tech, or real estate investments/development. I think that is interesting in terms of the supposed future plans of the Giants to possibly develop the land across from ATT into an arena. They have people inside that know how to get money, have big money and political contacts, and know how to develop big time real estate projects. Interesting also, if you Google these folks, a lot of them generate a published list required by the gov’t of their political contributions. Many of them give to the MLB PAC (yes, MLB has a political arm whose probable mission #1 is to keep the anti-trust exemption intact), and to lots of politicos. Definitely well connected, these folks I also cannot find anywhere a list of which ones are on the Exec Committee. Here’s a few owners to start. Links are there if you’re so inclined. I’ll drop in more later…
Allan Byer
Women’s clothing manufacturer, real estate
Collects memorabilia/baseballs
Alex Byer
Son of Allan
See PAJA Investments
Tori Burns
Daughter of Harmon & Sue Burns
Franklin Templeton Investments heiress
Trina Dean
Daughter of Harmon & Sue Burns
Franklin Templeton Investments heiress
William Chang
Chairman and CEO
Westlake International Group
http://www.dcunited.com/club/ownership
On Giants Exec Committee. Owns DC United soccer club in the MLS. He is Chairman and CEO of The Westlake International Group, an international investment holding company with operations in China, Japan, Mexico and the United States. In 1985 he was appointed as commissioner to the San Francisco Social Service Commission; in 1986 as commissioner of the San Francisco Port Commission; in 1987 to the San Francisco Planning Design Committee; in 1988 to the Mayor’s Financial Advisory Committee; and in 1989 to the Port Strategic Planning Committee.
George Drysdale
Chairman and CEO, Marsman-Drysdale Group
http://www.apboconference.com/speaker_drysdale_george.html
George Marsman Drysdale is Chairman and CEO of the Marsman Drysdale Group, a diversified Philippine-based holding and management company with interests in the agribusiness, food processing, communications, tourism and investment management industries. The Group’s current operating interests primarily include tropical fruit and vegetable plantations (banana, mango and asparagus) for export throughout Asia and the Middle East, branded fruit and juice processing, medical equipment distribution, and corporate travel and tour services
Daniel Geller Trust
http://www.jweekly.com/article/full/17993/dan-geller-giant-in-the-jewish-community-dies-at-79/
Phillip Halperin
Private equity, investments
http://silvergiving.org/philip-halperin-2
Executive Committee members, able to confirm 3 of them, might have to guess at the other 7:
Jeff(rey) Mallett
William H.C. Chang
Charles Johnson
Charles Johnson? Franklin Templeton?
Ahhhh. . . .
I’m not at all sanguine about the burn’s girls running the show.
“Sanguine”? Seal loves that word.
So did Soph . . .
Lasorda likes his with clam sauce.
My sister has a great recipe for sanguine. A light, dry, young, high acid, unoaked, inexpensive wine, usually Gallo red wine, sliced orange, lemon, lime, apple, peach, melon, berries, pineapple, grape and mango, honey, orange juice and a touch of brandy. Just thinking about it makes me throw up.
Ted, did she serve that with payola?
I think I was one of the first to use it on the splash. but neither soph nor seal am i.
Seal used it( constantly ) after I did, to annoy me. Ruined a perfectly fine word.
mrbill, yes, payolas and ford pinto beans
More Giants partners:
Nancy House & John Scully
http://tinyurl.com/3egkztn
David Jenkins
Son of founder of Publix supermarket chain (in Southeast US)
http://www.theledger.com/article/20101101/NEWS/11015076
Duane Kurisu
Hawaiian businessman, owns Hawaiian winter baseball league
http://tinyurl.com/4x9jyce
Charles B. Johnson
Chairman, Franklin Resources (San Mateo)
(Harmon Burns connection)
2010 Forbes 212th (world) and 65th (USA) richest person
http://people.forbes.com/profile/charles-b-johnson/34996
Arthur H. Kern
Director and former president of Yahoo
http://www.bizjournals.com/eastbay/stories/2002/09/16/daily2.html
Joined the Yahoo! board in January 1996, shortly before Yahoo! became a publicly traded company. Outsiders believe that most of Kern’s wealth and success is linked to his affiliation with Yang. Kern has made some $113 mn by exercising Yahoo! stock options and then selling the related shares.
KNBR and KTVU
Arthur Rock
Long time investment banker, Silicon Valley venture capitalist
One of the founding investors of Intel and Apple
http://www.bizjournals.com/eastbay/stories/2002/09/16/daily2.html
Peter Magowan
We know who he is…
Mets take am early 2-0 lead on braves
Double it…
excellent
9-2 Mets….
Were you at Belmont Park 33 yrs ago today? We won’t see that again.
Damn right you’ll never see it again. Wouldn’t have missed it for anything. The race itself was a little anti-climactic, though.
Thank you, Terry Collins, for going all Knut Rockne on your Mets yesterday. “Meet the Mets, greet the Mets…”
Paulie, you just knew that talk would produce!.
Belt belts one! BLEEP! [that’s for Nipper]
I see Miley Cyrus will be pitching for AZ tonight. Aiight!
The reports of Cody Ross’ demise were apparently somewhat exaggerated.
I wonder if Bumgarner’s shutdown inning % will be dinged as a result of the error. What an incredibly fucking stupid statistic.
How the hell do you rule that a hit? The official score keeping this year has been atrocious.
Even more atrocious than our inept offense.
Obviously Denny wasn’t out getting that operation to relieve his shitty outlook on life…
stream’s back on (for those checking)
Bum was due. Nice oppo drive.
Helping yourself out, way to go Bum
I was silently concurring w/ Kruk. I’ve said it here before: I saw Bumgarner hit a grand slam in Binghamton.
Oooooops. We CANNOT afford to lose Ross.
Now that he’s getting regular playing time it would appear that Belt is more relaxed and getting his power-stroke back. One could only imagine the kinda year that kid would have playing regularly in Denver or in one of the bandbox venues like Cincinnati or Chicago. Nice to see Huff and Ross contributing too. Maybe Cody wants to stay a Giant and retain his current salary level. Negotiations could get interesting. Huff must be pretty happy for his two year deal. Maybe he won’t party so hearty this winter and will hit the ground running.
Belt is now on pace for 25-30 HRs for an entire season. If he lays off the up and in/away pitches, he’ll have a fine season for them next year.
Appears that Bumgarner’s taking no chances on not getting sufficient run support in the Box of Rox.
Phils just tied Cards in bottom of 9th.
Only Yahoo feed here. What happened with Cody?
hammie strain
Ouch.
Right hamstring pull.
Ouch. Ouch. Those things can be nasty. Thanx Bill and Bozo.
well, the team is saying strain instead of pull, so I am hoping it is not mere semantics, that it is less severe; puh-leez
Crawfish makes em pay for that outside strike to Belt and Stewbaby a payback for hitting him.
Now Stewart gets his career second tater. Ohmygawd. A laugher. Seems like now they’re doing their damndest to make up for August. Keep that train a rollin.
SD up on AZ 2-0 bottom of the 1st.
Yeah. Make em sweat. Reminding me a bit of my B-Day present one year ago tonight when the Gigantes put it to the LaBumbos and never looked back.
Pretty adumbrated Colorado lineup with their 3 best hitters hors de combat; but nevertheless Bumgarner has pitched one whale of a game. That countryboy just keeps getting better and better as he approaches, what is it, age 22. Nice and economical pitch count with fewer than a hundred in 7 full. Man, what a rotation! Wonder if the Fillies are looking over their back shoulders.
Well, there’s nobody nervous yet…still think the division gives them the best shot, because they play AZ 3.
Yup, and although the Mets gave some help tonight, counting on both Atl and StL to screw up enough for us just doesn’t seem like a good bet.
I just got connected 2 mins ago to the Giants’ game…. ‘How sweet it is’.!
I see the planets are aligning to something we all have been hoping for….
Braves taking a beating… D-Backs losing because they are hearing footsteps……
I’m hoping I have the popcorn ready for a 9/23 showdown…………
I see Huff is doing a good job in completing the 4 Horsemen of Offense… (Huff/Pablo/Ross/Beltran).
Cards had one more decent reliever than the Fillies and scored a pair in the top of the 11th. One out already for the Ps in the bottom of the inning. Cards must be hungry. Phils may be a bit lackadaisical.
Waldis has sure had a roller coaster ride- from hot relief prospect, released, Caimed by White Sox, refused assignment, became FA, resigned by Giants, and back up…all that in a year.
Nice job by Waldis pulling himself outta his two-runner jam. He pitched a couple clean innings the other night. Could be he’s a keeper for 2012. Certainly a better relief option than Zits, anyway. Also, neither Edlefsen nor Runzler have done much to prove themselves ready. Some team might eye Runzler as a trade option.
Well!!! Speak of the Devil. He did get the first batter. Bet he makes as much per pitch as i live on for five years.
He probably doesn’t eat as well as you do stix.
Based on other recent events, this may be true for the entire roster.
Zito. Why’d it have to be Zito?
9 and 2, go Giants.
Down with what was it, a 3-9 W-L. record, Bumgarner has been on a second half roll and with tonight’s excellent start has evened his record at 12-12. Kudos, props and congratulations to the Ace from Carolina. Knowing this kid’s grit, moxie and determination it would surprise me not if he finishes the season with a winning record. Damn well betcha the Fillies are looking in their rearview mirror. Ditto the Braves and the Snakes.
The Phillies are 45 games over .500. Not sure they’d see anything in their rearview mirror if they looked into it.
They may be sweating a potential foe in the playoffs. Llncecum, Vogelsong, Cain and Bumgarner now at #’s 5, 6, 8 and 12 in league ERA. None too shabby. That’s an awresome foursome. Any team wanna face em?
Nobody is sweating the Giants yet, least of all the Phillies. Cut another 2 or three off before they go to AZ, there might be some interest from the Braves, Cards, and, of course AZ. Philly is just thinking of resting up,
Just take it one game at a time. The big issues will sort itself out soon enough.
“With Six You Get Eggroll.”
Atlanta has some fairly major problems. Hanson out, Jurggins barely back to a shadow of himself, Uggla’s not hitting, McCann’s not hitting, Prado’s not hitting. Lowe threw in a fucking PEARL tonight. This is not a team that’s fine tuning anything for the playoffs. They could completely fall out of this. Just keep winning, baby. 90 wins gets us at least a tie of the wild card…….
and that’s just a guess obviously, but I’m rollin’ with the 14-2 thing and the Sun Dressed Goddess as long as the baseball Gods will let me…….
You think you got it tough- I have 16-0
The Room B subject is baseball tragedies- I’ve chosen AL umpire Cal Drummond from the 60’s- who died of a brain hemorrhage caused by being hit by a foul ball…
The story is from HistoricBaseball.com
if this streak is really the sign that the giants are going to roll into the post season, torres will step in for ross and ignite his season. if that happens, katie, please bar the door.
Ewisco— half my family is from the bumpin hills of Virginia. My dad came to Ca in the 60’s after he left the military but he sounds exactly the same today as he did in the 1940’s. He used to always say “kitty bah the doh'” in an unbelievable savage of the English language. I never knew what he meant. But that’s how he always said it. And we took notice when he said it.
you notice i asked nicely though.
and a lot of folks settled in ca after they left the military. the Eichler houses that are so popular today were built cheap, on slabs, for the military folks that were flocking to the bay area.
on a baseball note, top of the ninth, still 2-0 pads. the vigil continues.
ballgame. pads 2-0. 6 back. wow.
Is it just me, but I’m unable to see the “Sun Dressed Chick.”
But, Flav, please don’t change a goddamn thing. I haven’t been able to see her since our winning streak started. So for the love of Christ, please don’t change a goddamn thing.
Funny, I see the dude w/ the Panda hat, but no can do with the sun dressed chick.
No problem, I’ll just ask our friend Loo to look up her skirt twice.
i can’t see her either. i thought it was a work related block but it doesn’t show at home either. needless to say, don’t fuck with it.
Regardless what happens these last two weeks, I’m thankful and proud.
I’m a goddamn SF Giants fan.