Retro on the Brain
I tried to get jazzed up about a “lincecum long term deal” thread but I just couldn’t make it happen. I had a revenue-sharing thing goin’ but it fizzled. I’ve got a little Big Game on the Brain but not enough to write about it here…..
I’ll tell you, I could get stuck in those old box scores from the 70’s and 80’s for hours. The names of those players, not just Giants but the player from other teams too, are burned into my memories of reading the old box scores back when the Green was just green because it was a cool, quirky look not because it was a retro marketing angle the way it is today. Free agency just hadn’t taken over the way it has the last 10-15 years or so. Back then, it wasn’t just a player’s stats I was connecting to but also his team and the countless battles I would live and die with as I listened to the games on my digital clock radio. Sometimes I’d be lucky enough to find the game televised on KTVU where Gary Park’s sweet tan was the staple of the pre-game show……
So right now, in the middle of freaking November with nothing Giants-related or relevant on the hot stove, I am more inclined to pour over the box scores from ’78 than I am to read the latest updates at mlbtraderumors.com. Today’s retro-game was one that I attended. I remember it clearly, my dad too me to this game. Sunday Giants/Dodgers game 5/28/78. Sutton vs The Count. I swear to God, it seemed like Sutton pitched about 88% of the Dodger/Giant games in the 70’s. Anyway, we had pretty bad seats, waaaaaay out in right field as high as the steps would go (San Dawg would have loved those seats 🙂 ) When the teams got announced (or maybe it was his first at bat I can’t remember) and the announcer said”…Don Sutton” a loud, long boo began. I decided to top that by yelling out “Kill Sutton!”. I think I might have even yelled it twice. My dad was less than cool with this break from the socially accepted booing that everyone else was doing. He gave me a look that said “I kill YOU” if you don’t STFU. I remember feeling terribly embarrassed for many reasons.
The game was amazing. Mike Ivie hit a pinch hit grand slam to help them win it. The fans went insane that day, it sounded like there were 500,000 people screaming when he hit that home run. Great day. Here were the starting line ups:
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
I don’t remember this one game in particular, great line-ups though. I’m looking forward to seeing the box scores, as a kid (and I guess now as well), the box score was all I needed to have the game in my head.
Years ago, when Joe Boxer first came out, I thought they were going to do Box Score Boxers and what a great idea that would be. You know like get a set of boxers with each game of the 1927 series printed on them, or something.
Not sure if anyone replied to ed yesterday on why there would be more interleague games with the new alignment of the two leagues. This is my best guess. Baseball, unlike football is scheduled for two, three and four games series. With the odd number of teams in each league and without interleague play through the whole year, one team from each league would be sitting on their thumbs each series throughout the season. So with the Astro move I expect those odd teams out from each league will play each other. With that, there would be at least one interleague game each week (if not more).
Also with this type of scheduling I imagine that NL teams will start a hybrid type DH. A player that is mostly used for pinch hitting but who could also DH in an AL park and sometimes play in the field if needed (the Giants should bring back Ishi, Rent or DeRosa for this role). This scheduling would probably make an easier transition for the NL to adopt the DH rule without Bud having to say a fucking thing. At least this would make our own little Beeper happy, me not so much.
I remember this game. I was hanging out by the pool listening to it on the radio. My friend Doug was supposed to go this game. He was, and still is, a huge Dodger fan and a close friend. It was going to be the first MLB game he ever attended, but somehow it fell through. (Flav—this was the guy who dropped me off at Green Hills that you met briefly) I think it may have actually sold out and they drove up there and couldn’t get tickets. I remember starting to give him shit about the Ivie homer, but then he said he wasn’t able to go to the game so I went easy on him. Great game though—–one of the high points of the 70’s for sure.
Well, I was two days shy of my 7th month on this earth for this game. It would be another ten years before I had any real interest in baseball. But it sure sounds like it would have been great to have been there.
One of many games I saw in the bleachers. $2.00? Cheapest ticket in town. I wish they had put those erector set seats out there about 25 years earlier . . . Yeah, that game was packed, don’t know if it was a sellout though.
That was truly the era of major hatred towards the Dodgers. Maybe the zenith. The Penguin and Garvey. Reggie Smith. Lasorda. No Davey Lopes that day? I guess he was getting a day off?
I loved Larry Herndon and Whitfield in the OF. Those guys were fast enough to make up for Clark in RF . . . Vic Harris at SS? I’m drawing a blank there.
Chuck drawing a blank? BLEEP!
I got a Vic Harris autograph back in the day. It’s on a napkin along with Altobelli and I think Evans and another random guy. Harris couldn’t hit at all, as I recall…..
Altobelli…..I believe he drove an expensive Jaguar sedan.
Well, in ’72 for Texas he hit .140 .192 OBP .369 OPS. He must have just had a few ABs, right? No, he actually had 186 at bats. Probably fair to say he was instrumental in their 100 losses… He hit less than .200 in 4 of his 8 seasons. So I’d say that Craig’s recollection is correct..
It was right about that time that I had earned enough money to buy a little 1971 Datsun pickup. Got a camper shell at the old wrecking yard off of Holly St in San Carlos. Found some old home stereo speakers at a garage sale that I put into the back, busted out the windows between the cab and the back, put some shag carpeting and pillows in it, and had myself a party truck . . .
Went to a ton of games in that little truck.
Party animal!
My buddy had an old PG&E suburban that we put living room stereo speakers in. Callled it the concert-mobile. Thank god cars can’t talk.
Ahh, I almost traded for an old forest service 1963 Chevy Suburban 4×4 a buddy had. He wanted to trade it for my ’71 landcruiser with a blown engine. He wanted to drop a 327 chevy into it. I did too, but I didn’t have the scratch. Still pissed I didn’t keep that thing.
Stay pissed, Chuck…… it suits you.
Damn. 3 people here were *at* this game? Amazing.
It is a trip looking at those starting lineups. Wow. Larry Fucking Herndon. Hadn’t thought of him in decades. This RGOTD stuff is great
I was at the game, as I was there for dozens of games every year from ’74 on. I don’t have recollections from most of them anymore. Just one big game- I think we won, a lefty pitched, a big guy won it with a walk-off HR. Somebody else drove home..
It was me. I was the designated drunk driver.
BURP!
Did we encounter some wild and wooly babes on the way home?
Wolly, yes. There was a stray goat you took a liking to. . . .
Don’t forget an AL game is coming to a park near you somewhere. It’s only a matter of time. All this inter-league play will cross-pollinate the game. You Nineteen Century types will be left in the dust by an ever changing game. Specialization marches forward.
No, it’s just another attempt by Slug Selig to leave his imprint on the game.
I mean other than the ASG disaster and the cancelling of the 1994 World Series.
Oh, and the whole steroid era…
Vic Harris sounds like the manager at a Midas Muffler…
Yeah- my first reaction to the lineup card was also…..Vic Harris??
he could easily be doing that today
Notwithstanding Vic, whom I do not remember at all, the 1978 team scored 613 runs, 33 more than the 2011 squad. Enough of a difference to win the division this past season…
Baer should have a promotion Saturday where the top 5 or top 10 most obscure Giants are feted at ATT. Fan online voting where from a list of 25 or 30 selected candidates, you vote for the top 5 Giants you don’t recognize. If a few are equally fuzzy, vote in order of name wackiness, or whatever criteria you want. I would guess the mid-late 70s Giants would have many nominees. The most obscure player, i.e., winner, gets a plaque on the Wall right next to Marvin Benard’s…
I loved Gary Parks, the highlight of his broadcasts was hearing him talk about his favorite restaurants in whatever city they were in…he was an essential part of my childhood…
Giant thinking of his tummy…….yummy!
What is your major malfunction, Nippy?
Wasn’t he the inaugural winner of the George Hamilton Cocoa Butter Classic ? Contrary to uban myth, Zonker got the Bronze Medal, hence the confusion..
Gary Park was a smooth guy, with a calming sense of humor. Perfect for the 70’s to early ’80s Giants, because they sucked so badly. He’d come on with that smooth, tanned look, and you’d feel good, even though you knew your team was about to get crushed…
PARK ate well.
The best all-time obscure Giant was catcher John Bacobelli.The fans would get all fired up when the PA announcer would annouce his name as a PH.Now batting John Bacobelliiiiiiii.
Do you have a correct spelling for him or a year he played? No such guy with that spelling…
Yeah my bad Twin, Its John Boccobella.And he played on the 74 team. Manager was Altobelli I believe!
P
Ok, I know what you’re all thinking- this Boccobella dude would be an upgrade on Whitey, even at 70 YO. Well, he only hit .138 at 33 YO, so sorry, no go…
splash reports that panda had lasik on left eye.
Discount from Dr. Hyver, or does he only work on Niners?…
Whither Mackey Sasser? At least we traded him before he forgot how to throw the ball back to the pitcher.
Weird. I look at his stats, and he had 2 games (4 PAs) with the Giants??? Why do I remember him so well? I know we traded him for Caveman, but that’s about it. He had a couple good years with the Mets, then he had the throwing issue.
Boccobella? Good name for bocce balla.
Johnny Boccabella was a team mate of Boots Day.
One game against the Expos I still remember is a Mike Jorgensen walk off against Gary Lavelle. It was just so wrong . . . .
That 1978 Dodger team was an SOB of a team, a load. Won 95, went to the WS, lost to the Yanks 4-2. . Looked at Baseball Reference. #1 in runs in the NL at 727. Yeager and Ferguson were catching, primarily, Oates was a real part-timer. I can’t remember which catcher I “hated” more, Yeager or Ferguson, probably Ferguson. Scioscia came later to get his share of Giants fan loathing. Pitching was good — Sutton, Hooton, Tommy John, Rhoden, a bit of a young Bob Welch, even very young Dave Stewart and Rick Sutcliffe had a cup o’ coffee. Hough and Forster leading the Pen. Garvey and Cey both had OPS near .850 that season. Pricks. Just seeing that line-up gets me PO’d still, ‘cuz the Giants had no answer to it for a decade…
Snarkk is still PISSED!
Link to the right if you’d like to comment on the death of the Oklahoma State coaches..
Lee Oakland Lacy was a cool player, good hitter who had problems in the field wherever he played, wound up the OF eventually. Went to the pirates a few years later….after a Pit-SF game I actually talked to his sister, Veronica, outside the Stick.
Mad Dog, unfortunately, just did not like the Stick..too bad, because that guy could really hit ( short time in SF produced like lowest numbers of his career I think), spraying line drives all over the yard. I did the same double take on Vic Harris.
Ivie PH-GS was a memorable game, all the more so vs. league leading LA.
Walt Hazzard was a beast, east coast guy who came out to UCLA and showed everyone how it was done, and got Wooden’s big run started. I was fortunate enough to play for coaches in HS who dug the full court press, and learned through 3 years of running it. You score you press, top two guards in the 2-2-1 getting right up in people’s faces and herding toward the sideline where the double is coming at half court. Steal the ball and score, press again.
Even tougher was the diamond 1-2-1-1 with tall guy on ball and top two guards in full deny…you had to work hard on D to make these work, something brand new to me that became really exciting. I was a lot better defender than offensive player…my game high was 4 pts (in 3 yrs!).
To this day 40 years later, my teams do it; it’s fun to play and exciting to watch. And you get kids enthused about the benefits of hard work at the defensive end.
some dude at work today who think he’s a huge Giants fan because he has some World Series shwag, came up to me today and said “name 10 Giants catchers in the last 20 years and you’ve got to do it in under a minute”. I did it in about 30 seconds. Even dropped Terry Kennedy on him……
Good job, BF. The Giants have never really had a true, standout catcher in SF. Buster looks like he’s it, but who knows now with the injury recovery, and whether he’ll play there much longer. I thought about all the catchers I could name. I’m sure I’m forgetting a ton, probably more of ’em recent: Westrum, Haller, Dietz, Hill, Tamargo, Sadek, Rader, Chris Arnold, yeah BoccaBelllllllla, Milt May, Melvin, Manwaring, Kennedy, Mirabelli, Santiago, Prshitski, Torealba, Matheny, Molina, Haaaaaaaad, Panda, Eli, Stewart, Sanchez, Buster. Took me about 4 minutes to spin the cranial hard drive there. Of all those, in descending order I’d take Buster, Santiago, Haller, Bengielena, Manwaring and Matheny…
Phuck, how could I forget Brenly? I’ll put him ahead of Manwaring…
Remember when Sabes was basically renting a guy for a year or two? Wasn’t Brent Mayne in that group?
I’d put Dietz in there among the elite. Might have been the only one to actually hit .300.
Just got off the phone with my sister and brother in law and thank god they live near my parents cause they had to evacuate their home in Reno last night at 1am they had no power and the smoke from 70mph winds only made it worse.Myreal hero besides my sister,was my niece who was leaving a late night viewing of the new twilight movie and noticed the fire and called my sister
of the new twilight movie and noticed the fire raging in the hills and called my sister
I wasn’t there but heard this game on the radio. Felt like you were in the crowd, which sounded like the loudest Giants crowd ever.
Roster moves.
Villalona back to the 40 — that’s interesting. Ford and Joaquin off. Eli?
http://blogs.mercurynews.com/extrabaggs/2011/11/18/giants-add-angel-villalona-to-40-man-roster-designate-darren-ford-waldis-joaquin/
Nothing escapes Snarkk!
Whiteside is arb eliible, his status will be dealt with when he’s tendered or non-tendered. I don’t believe that that process begins until the first part of January. It’s not the same at all as with Ford and Joaquin..it is also different than for arbitration for their players who became free agents.
Whiteside…….yawn…hey how about some FOOTBALL!
Interested to see if Cal can offer Furd a contest tonite. Luck hammered their ass last year; if Cal can’t stop run or run the ball themselves they are in trouble. Gotta wonder about Tedford, who hasn’t been able to recruit a decent QB in a while, or coach one into respectability. Needs a bigger better RB too.
Lot of upsets in this rivalry, but I can’t see one myself here… possible wet field by game time ins’t going to help the DBs much.
What happened to afternoon college football on the West Coast?
Go after Ryan Doumit. Hard nose player,switchitter with pop,extra plusses can play Of/1B.DO NOT NEED TO SEE ANOTHER YEAR OF THE “ANEMIC BATS OF WHITEY AND STEWART”, Doumit would give the skipper even more options for the LU.I personally want an experienced bat at backup catcher and don’t feel even Hector Sanchez is ready!Get off your ass Sabean and aggressively. go after Doumit!!!
oops….
Doumit just signed with minn the other day.
Yes, 1 year, $3 million. I too, said a few months ago I thought he’d be a good backup/safety valve for Buster. Oh, well…
I hear that Sabes and Bochy are hooked on Vera’s Ambrosia Salad, boys. Vera’s driving a tough bargain. If Eli doesn’t have a new contract by Wednesday night, no jello for the Thanksiving table.
Where’s the meatloaf?
This is for Thanksgiving, Nip. Even I don’t eat meatloaf for Thanksiving.
sniff…..
If he gets a million, Vera will add this to the table:
How about a Woody Allen turkey TV dinner? Looked good in one of his old films.
This was the year I met McCovey, Blue, Montefusco, Alto because I interviewed Terry Whitfield, former Syracuse Chief, wearing a Giants hat.
USC’s got it going pretty good against Oregon at the moment. 21-7 at the half.
Without any allegiance to either school, I usually just root for the dog in the Fairly Large Game. But I’d like to see Stanford get a nice bowl game, so I’m with them tonight. And Luck needs two big games or he could lose the Heisman..
Not many comments here about Villalona, an interesting move. Wonder if they really think he’s still a potential. Seemed to have the right (yet still developing) skills a few years ago…. Oh, and catchers… Brian Johnson is still my favorite one-hit wonder. Will always remember sitting in Pierce Street Annex on Fillmore (may it rest in peace) watching his homer against the Dogs in September ’97… Later, a girlfriend at the time lusted after Bobby Estalella (she called him Bobby I-wanna-lay-ya, would’ve dumped me for him in a second)…
One of the guys added with Angel was Hector Correa, the pitcher obtained for Ronnie Paulino. He had a real nice year at San Jose and Richmond.
As far as Villalona, why the hell not? The guy was one of the top rated power prospects by Baseball America, considered a legit 4, like Bengie 😉
Oklahoma pulled to 38-37 with 51 seconds left. Coach Stoopid decides to go for two ( miss it and shot at title is gone.) Motion penalty saves the dumb ass and they kick to go to OT..
Jesus, they couldn’t stop Baylor in regulation..
Crazy stuff in college football today. Who’da thought that Arkansas would be back in the championship hunt?