Tonight’s 49er-Raven Game
Happy Thanksgiving, Flappers. There’s a lot of things that I’m thankful for–most notably the soon-to-be 9 year old who woke me up at 4am because of “a noise” (I’m like, “ok……AND?”). Now I’m bleary eyed and she’s sleeping peacefully just a few feet away from me as I type this. But she’s perfect in every imperfect way and I love her more than anything in my life and there isn’t a close 2nd. I hope all of you appreciate the things in your life to be thankful for today…….
I’ve gone back and forth on how this Niner game is going to shake down. I started out the week thinking there was no way we could win with the short week and the travel. Now I think we can win. For starters, the time change really only affects us if it’s a 10am start and that’s not an issue here with the game kickoff at 5:20pm. Secondly, the Ravens are dealing with the same turnaround so EVERYONE’S body is going to be a little tight and *un-recovered* from last Sunday’s game. And once I heard that Ray Lewis has turf toe I started to believe that we just might pull this thing off. I’ve never had that injury but I’ve known people who have had it and they would just shake their head and say “dude, you have no idea how much this hurts.” Good. I’ve got no problem celebrating another player’s temporary pain especially when it might translate into an advantage for the Niners. I’m assuming Lewis will try to go because that’s just who that dude is, but he won’t be able to go hard in any direction and will be reduced to being an on-field cheerleader.
If I were the Niners, I would come out throwing. Everyone expects us to run the ball, not make any mistakes and push the ball slowly up the field. But I trust Smith at this point in the year. I want to see lots of play -action, maybe some roll outs and throws on the run. Throw in some defensive take-a-ways which you KNOW Flacko will give you, and I am now seeing a Niner victory that looks something like 23-10.
I’ve accepted the possibility that I *kool-aded* myself into coming up with that score. But you know what? Who cares. It’s a great day to be hopeful. Even more so, appreciate what you have. And what we know we have is a 9-1 record. It’s been a long time since it felt this good to be a 49er fan.
And there’s not a more perfect day on the calendar to say this and, more importantly, believe this: Who’s got it better than us? Noooooooooooobody!!!!
Today, I am applying that to every aspect of my life and will remind myself of that the next time I get awakened at 4am by a quiet voice that whispers urgently, “Daddy, I heard a noise!”
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
Come on……. somebody has got to grouse about something! You all can’t like your relatives. NO black sheep around? How about a brother you hate or better yet a step mother you can’t stand.
Great post Craig . . . wishing you, Katie, and the rest of your family the best on this Thanksgiving day. Same wishes extended to all Flappers here. I’m very grateful for my health, Giant Flapper community that Craig put together (but only made viable by each and everyone of you whom post here), and most important, my Mom, Step-dad, relatives, and friends . . . Happy Thanksgiving 🙂
Twin, you posted this yesterday, but didn’t see it until this morning . . . “I appreciate that you let me know how your PC is doing, Steve. Craig has mentioned his often and we had a false alarm about a possible hard drive failure, turns out it was just a cable. Stix had probems, and I had his sent back here. There was nothing wrong with it but I replaced it anyway. Shipped that back and now he says this one won’t boot. I’m going to just get him something else after I get this back but I have to send him the money to send it back. Other than that I don’t hear anything, hope the others are enjoying them. I’m not looking for thank you’s, already got those. I just like to hear so if there are problems I can try to help. I don’t even remember who got them anymore.”
Well, you’re going to hear it again Twin . . . A big thank you! By the by, I always used free utilities, going back to my first personal computer in 1994, but not to the extent I do now. I’m not saying that you can totally get away from paying for utilities, but since I got this computer, I’ve experimented with not buying any software, if it is available online free (e.g., CNET). Again, my experience has been that if you do “maintenance” at least once a week with these utilities, e.g., registry, privacy sweep, pc and startup optimization, junk files removal, shortcut fixes, disk scan, disk defragmentation, etc., your computer will run like a charm. Twin has helped out in this area and it’s much appreciated.
Happy Thanksiving. I’m doing nothing and having no one over to help me do nothing this year. Zeke and I will watch the game, I’m having a nice juicy burger for dinner..
As to the game- let’s get this straight, Ray Lewis should be demonstrating his leadership skills in the prison yard, not in free society. We’ve recenty seen Villalona presumed guilty of murder because he paid off the family of his alleged victim- this in a country with a corrupt legal system where he could very well have been paying to get bogus witnesses to go away and bogus charges dropped.
Let’s compare that to inspirational leader of men Ray Lewis. He and two friends got into a bar fight in 2000 that resulted in the stabbing deaths of two men. He and his pals were originally charged with murder and aggravated assault.His attorneys got the murder charge dropped against him ( some key evidence, the CLOTHES he was wearing that night, disappeared ) in exchange for his testimony against his friends. His charges were reduced to misdemeanors and he got probabtion and a chump change fine from the NFL. He later made settlements with both families of the murdered men. In the end no one was ever convicted of the murders..
I bet Zeke will get a nice treat or two.
What to make of SF not offering arb to Ross? Bring him back for less bucks, or a sign they are after bigger fish (willingham/beltran)? I recall seeing on blogosphere last year complaints about Sabes not securing ross to longer contract… glad he didn’t.
Fangraphs column on extra WC was interesting. His take is less teams would be sellers at trade deadline with extra spot opened up that would require less Ws, so fewer players available meaning inflated prices for same, which adds more significance to what you do off season. I’d love to keep both guys SF picked up last year, when a lot of talented players changed teams.
Snarkk is right on in the POTD. I’m around a lot of middle school age kids and get out to HS games too, and I hope kids this age don’t look at the current (non) product that is supposed to be at highest level and think this is the way the game is supposed to be played.
Btw, the Snarkk story about his extended family in Texas and their visits here is one of the coolest things i’ve ever read, here or anywhere else. And I’m thankful for all the interesting stuff I read here all the time. Enjoy.
I wouldn’t mind Ross back at reduced dollars, but probably not going to happen. Perhaps, one million less than what he was making this year, with incentives to what he would have wanted in arbitration. Again, probably not going to happen. You guys in the SF bay area have a better sense of what will go down. Twin is right about the Rockies – they are interested in him if the price is right.
Tip of the cap to ya, Willie. Thanks. Yes, we all have things for which to be thankful…
“What to make of SF not offering arb to Ross? ”
Well, despite his disappointing year, he was making 6M, and probably going to get 8 or so in arb. He’s now free to shop his services, I guess he will get the 6 he was making- from somebody. The Rocks were said to have been interested, he probably go 25-90 there. BTW, Willingham was offered arb by the A’s.
Right now the OF is Huff or Belt, Melky, and Nate; with Torres probably returning as the 4h OFer. That wold look a stronger with Nate joing Torres and Beltran in the fold.
The game: obviously the negative is the short week and travel. On the other hand, these guys love Jimbo and will be psyched to help him beat his brother.The teams are very close defensively- Ravens have the edge against the pass, SF against the run. On paper our huge edge is QB play- this is the game they really want a “game manager”, not a gun slinger. Alex has 4 INT and 4 fumbles to Flacco’s 8 and 8. In a game that figures to be close, not making mistakes would be the diff. 17-14 49ers.
Happy Thanksgiving Flappers! (look, i can use capitals!).
Thanks Craig for making it happen. Thanks twin for making it through another year. Thanks snarkk (I love “the snarkkettes” btw. great label!), nipper, chuck, blade, james and willie d (great to meet you, though we didn’ get to chat much). thanks sanddawg, paulinasia, Sarge, Ghead, pawlieK (fabulous prose!), TedSpe (just flat hilarious), and all the rest of you knuckleheads!
The twins are busy vacuuming and cleaning (Craig, as great as a small child is, one who can help around the house and is willing to do so is also a great thing), Mrs. W is at work making her usual fabulous meal. My niece is here and my step-father and his wife are coming. So i’m signing off for the rest of the day.
Go Niners!
LOL.. thanks, Eric, but I’d feel better if you said that on January 1, 2012.. seriously, nice to see you have family, especially children, bustling about today. You want to loan me a vacuumer once a week? Happy Thanksgiving..
Ewisco–sounds like a great day planned, enjoy.
WillieD–I was actually one of the few who cautioned against high expectations for Ross. I was ok with the 1 year deal but not surprised at all by his underwhelming season. I don’t want Ross back next year and I just hope he doesn’t kills someone at some point in his career with his *soft hands* bat tosses into the stands………
Any of you shop at Ross?
OK, just one more bitch today- why are people fucking up a perfectly fine first name? Michael has been one of the HOF first names since “Thor” went out of style…LaMichael? Jermichael? Look, I understand “LaHerman” but leave my name alone..
Yeah, the Spaniards did it with my name too . . . Esteban.
Bitch away Twin!
Unfortunately, whether one likes Ross or not, he was their third most productive regular by both OBP and OPS. They had much bigger problems offensively than Cody- Huff, Torres, losses of Posey and Fruckie, the reserve catchers, Rowand, Tejada/Cabrera/Crawdaddy,Burrell…
And he did miss nearly 5 weeks with injury. I’m not arguing that he ( and nearly every other player offensively) wasn’t disappointing, just he’d be way down the list . I would welcome him back as the 4th or fifth OFer but at a reduced rate that I seriously doubt he’d go for.
Well, it would be tough to get rid of Huff especially since he’s coming into an *up* year, or at least so we hope. The rest of those guys are mostly gone. Ross should be too. With no more changes, I’d be down with an OF of Belt, Melk and Nate with Torres the #4. I’d prefer Vungo over Ross, with less pressure he’s probably got more upside than Ross……..
Huff should be working hard on his fitness, still Sabean usually gets rid of guys he thinks are below par.
Well, the best case, IMO, has Torres and Nate as the reserve OFers..
Flav, I know exactly what you mean about the early wake up. My daughter does the same thing. Like you said it doesn’t matter. I remember when my wife was pregnant we had friends with babies on the way at the same time. We would all talk about what the sex would be. One couple really wanted a boy. I really didn’t care what the sex was. It is cliche but we just wanted a healthy child. Now she’s been with us for 5 years and I realize that having a daughter is one of the most amazing things to ever happen to me. A friend once told me that having a daughter is like nothing else. She’s the only female in your life that you will truly love unconditionally.
I’m thankful for many things this year. Family, friends and Flappers. Most of all I am thankful that this California boy will be moving back to the sunshine state.
Happy Thanksgiving to all of you and your families.
that’s awesome, Dirt. Welcome back. I’m assuming we can count on you to join the next *Flappalooza* that we have in 2012?
I couldn’t agree more with your feelings except I will say that I never wanted a boy. So I guess I got what I wanted though I found out that having a girl who is athletic is a huge bonus. I never got into all the guns and violence that so many boys are conditioned towards as kids. Settle down, fuckers. lol. I’ll probably change my tune as asses start getting handed out in 5-7 years or so. But for now, I enjoy every second I have with her.
She came running with me today, we went over to the college. She stayed at the track and watched some locals playing football. There was a little girl, maybe 5, who was weeping quietly on the sidelines and of COURSE Katie goes over to try to fix it. By the end of my run those two were best friends. Katie is sensitive, sometimes too sensitive for me, but she has a heart of gold and I can’t believe I am raising someone like her. Ha, in a lot of ways she is raising me–there’s nothing like a 2nd chance in life and if you get it, don’t fuck it up. Anyway, Happy Thanksgiving to you guys, I am out for a while…….
dirtman, sorry to have left you off the list! As a californian. often transplanted across the country, I know how great it is when you get to come back. and whatever comes, I ain’t moving again!!
Sorry, but these half time shows are fucking lame. OK, I give up, who is the bald headed guy that is bouncing around (personally, I think it’s Letterman’s band leader or his little brother)????? And why should I care?
Pffffft!
BLEEP those lame shows. BOO HISS!
Man oh man, I love reading the stories here.
It was a weird ass year for me. I could call the Giants World Champs for the year. I could call myself married (again), tornados, fires, earthquake, hurricane, floods and the longest mosquito season I’ve ever seen. Yet, I’m thankful to still have a house, that my wife and I are still laughing, animals are still here, the Niners are playing well and the Giants are still your 2010 World Champions.
And, thanks to you all for making a weird ass year easier to deal with.
Cheers to Flav and the Flap nation.
OK, the REAL game is on now . . . Cain against Abel.
Just want to pop in and thankfully wish all Flappers a warm holiday today and throughout the festive weeks ahead into Christmas and New Year’s. While ya’ll might be chowing on your meals and/or watching the evening’s football entertainment, it’s now Friday morning “over here”… Yesterday, a bloke from the UK who works at my school poked his head into my office and said “You’re welcome”. Huh? Oh, I get it. That was really the only reference to Thanksgiving Day that I heard, since obviously it’s not a holiday in Vietnam and also because I don’t see a whole lot of Americans day by day. So, for all of you surrounded by loved ones, be thankful for that, and for those of us who at least have memories and well-wishes from said loved ones, well, I’ll take that too. I did have some nice bbq chicken last night… close enough. Peace to all.
Happy Holidays to you as well, Paul.
Bullshit call . . . if that isn’t an interception, I don’t know what the fuck is.
Too many mistakes in that series . . .Receiver wasted time not going out of bounds and Crabtree should have blocked that pass to prevent the interception (knowing he had no chance to catch it). Instead of 3 points – zip, nada, sum zero . . . sigh.
That was edwards.
He sucks! BLEEP!
thanks chuck
Must be 8 or 9 sacks . . . I lost count at 6 or was it 7.
Fabulous meal but a bit of indigestion with that niner game. chop block? really? since when has the running back been unable to go low on the pass rusher to get him off his feet?
As for Ross, I wouldn’t mind him back but not at 6-8 mil. Huff on a pretty short leash (i’m pretending that there’s lots of people to replace him with!).
Happy Thanksgiving everyone