Orange Friday Across The Bay
The curiosity that is inter-league play resumed last night with the Giants visiting the a’s. I was fortunate enough to catch the game at a local watering hole that apparently supports the a’s. Unbeknownst to me the male a’s fan likes to bedazzle his cell phone and talks a lot about something called territorial rights. The female a’s fan is superficially knowledgeable and likes white dudes with greasy hair on her team. The game itself had all the things Giants fans have come to expect in 2012. A Lincecum meltdown inning, Panda rolling around in the grass making plays, steals, a double, long droughts between runs scored and Santiago Casilla. The Giants gained ground in the NL West with the win last night and can continue to build steam towards the showdown next week against the hated ones with a series win.
Looking around me at the pub and into the stands on TV I saw people in yellow and people in orange pulling for their club and I thought hey this inter-league play thing isn’t so bad when there is a real local rivalry and the a’s and Giants have that with ’89 and the stadium issue and all. Then I thought about being from the bay area and choosing the Giants over the a’s. What made you choose the Giants? Just a preference for the NL? Family allegiance? Your cable package?
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
Weatherproof games: Blue Jays-Marlins, Indians-Astros and Cubs-Diamondbacks
Hot and dry is the theme for the first full summer weekend of 2012, as temperatures will be in the high 80s and low 90s for most of the 12 other ballparks hosting Saturday and Sunday games. Other than an expected thunderstorm that could interrupt Sunday’s Brewers-White Sox tilt for an hour or so, none of these other venues has any chance for rain for either weekend day, so leave your umbrella at home.
Growing up on the peninsula, it was just assumed that you hated the teams across the bay. No one taught me to hate the A’s or Raiders. It just happened.
I was a Giants fan before the As moved West. Then the World Champion teams with Catfish Hunter, Reggie Jackson, Rollie Fingers and the circus that was Charlie O caught my attention. But because they were playing great ball; not because they were from Oakland.
Always a Giants fan I had friends and family members become Oakland fans or rather fans of the Oakland Coliseum teams because they lived on that side of the bridge.
I stayed a fan of team members even when Reggie went to play for the evil empire. Or when Vida Blue became a Giant I didn’t dislike him because he had started with “that other Bay Area team”
Picked my Dad up from the airport last night. Some of you may remember the week I spent with him at UCSF in February when he had the spine infection which resulted in emergency surgery…This was the first time I had seen him since i left his bedside…He looked about ten years older, hunched over as he trudged thru the terminal to greet me…My dad used to stand six foot, but it seemed like I towered over him now…Anyway after the initial shock of seeing your father as “old” wore of, we headed to our local Twin Peaks to catch up over a couple midnight brews…I turned the game on my phone as we sat at the bar and traded glances between those lucious peaks and the game…When Belt tied the game, we both yelled (well I did) as those around us stared to figure out what the fuss was about…Those thougts of concern that I felt a few short hours ago had now passed and it felt like good times all over again.
Nice Wilco.
Very cool!
Great post Joe!
First off, nice job dirt. And good question.
Like chuck, growing up in San Francisco, whaddyagonnadoaboudit? But also, legacy. Until the eary ’70’s, who gave a shit about the A’s? And when you’re 6 or 7 years old, Christmas shopping in Union Square, walking around North Beach, going for Chinese food in the Richmond district or whatever and your moms or pops goes “Look, honey ! That’s Willie Mays!”. Well, that kinda thing just sticks with you
Love it!
The funny thing is the first game I ever went to was an A’s game. I was a six year old in 1984 and they played against the Orioles. I actually still like the A’s, perhaps don’t dislike is more accurate. In 1989, as a 6th grader I played my one and only season of little league baseball. This was the same year Kevin Mitchell would make his fantastic bare handed catch that would make an impressionable 11 year old a Giant’s fan for life. My coach would always yell at us, if he can catch that ball with his bare hand you can catch it with a glove. That would stick with me. Winning the NL pennant that year and the fact that everyone else in my house was an A’s fan also helped to solidify my Giant’s fandom. I’ve told this story before, forgive my repetition.
If someone could ever explain those cats who wear the split A’s/Giants hat to a game, I’d be grateful. Although, my best friend since I was in 8th grade is a diehard A’s fan, so that’s kinda the same thing, right? I never considered any other team to root for, follow, etc than the Giants. Tom (buddy) grew up in Palo Alto (as I did) so will have to ask him today how he became an A’s fan. He told me a long time ago but it’s been so many years I’ve forgotten.
He still has that framed dollar bill that I had to fork over to him after the Bay Bridge World series (our bet at the time) hanging in the entry way of his house……..
Probably seduced by the whole Sal Bando/Regge Jackson/Joe Rudi/Vida Blue era thing.
Weak.
As a kid, Jack Clark (from West Covina) rooted for the Giants because he “liked how they wore their uniforms.”
Lincecum didn’t have a meltdown inning last night-while he got in trouble, in fact he avoided a melt down inning. I’m hardly ready to declare him baaaaacccck, but beginning with the 3 straight K’s with the bases loaded in the first, Tim was as good as he’s ever been. Next up: Wednesday against the Dodgers, with a good possibility that the divsion lead will be on the line..
I mean it in the way that it is typical of Lincecum’s starts this year where one bad inning seems to be his undoing. 3 hits, not holding runners on, walking in a run, 34 pitches. I don’t consider that a vintage Lincecum inning. He got out of it with the Ks and the Giants won in the end so the end result was good for me.
The rivalry is with the Dodgers not the A’s. That’s the way it is. The AL seems more remote to me on the West Coast. The A’s and Angels never really developed a rivalry. Who cares about Seattle? But everyone hates LA. That always meant the Dodgers.
I’m not comparing it to LA which is obviously the bigger rivalry. When I roll into a bar and there are fans in orange and others in yellow talking smack, cheering and jeering I think there is something to the match up. Thanks for the comment Nipper.
Dad grew up in Concord a Giants fan likely because of his grandfather…Greatgranddad ran a wrecking ball company across the 101 from the stick…He passed when I was five but my favorite picture is one of the three of us in his backyard by his plum tree…Great Granddad sporting an original SF hat.
Good thread (I cannot see the author from my iPhone).
I grew up a Cards fan, but when the Air Force brought me to Sacto in 1977, I attended my first MLB game. Of course I had NL allegiances, but was just overwhelmed with the experience, the history of the club, and the passion of Giant fans. It was not long before I knew NorCal was my new permanent home, and it only felt natural to throw my allegiance to the Giants.
Went to the Sac River Cats/Fresno Grizzly ga
game last night. Left after 8 and score tied 1-1, and caught the final 2 innings of the Giant win on the drive home! Awesome come-back win.
Also, thanks to Blade, I was able to connect and meet Irish Kevin last night at the game. Thanks for the beer, Kev!
Go Giants!!!
I’ve told this story before . . . My grandfather took me daily to Candlestick Point, where sheep grazed and the dairy was located, while Candlestick Park was being constructed. Afterwards, we would attend games together, until he was no longer able to because of his age/poor health. He always had a transistor radio in his shirt pocket, with the single earphone in his ear. I would do the same thing when I went to the school near our house to shoot hoops or cut the lawn/pulled weeds.
Of course, we would ALWAYS watch the KTVU TV broadcasts . . . How many of you remember that initially, KTVU only televised the team’s “road” games against the Los Angeles Dodgers?
Also, how many of you remember that the Candlestick Park construction was mired in scandal and essentially was a swindle that was covered up by the “myopic” press at the time? See below . . .
http://foundsf.org/index.php?title=Candlestick_Swindle
My first baseball memory was going to a Giants-Padres game with both my parents…I was probably four, as my parents split up shortly after…Really my only memory holds true in a polaroid i have of myself and Steve fucking Garvey (it was on field photo day). Dad says it was my moms idea…In retrospect, maybe it wasn’t dad’s drinking that split them up 🙂
I asked my A’s-fan buddy (a few hours ago) how he got started following the A’s even though we are the same age and we both grew up in Palo Alto and this is the text I got back: “I was 4 years old when the A’s started their WS run. My mom turned me on to Jackson, Bando, Fingers, Blue and Hunter—-and by the time I was 7 it was a done deal.”
Now, this dude has religiously followed the team since then so he can’t be seen as being a fan only because they were winning world’s series’ when he started liking them. He lives in Berkeley now and still goes to about 10 A’s games a year and sits in fabulous seats just a few rows off the field. He loves how easy it is to walk up right before game time and purchase literally any ticket you want for cheap 🙂 🙂 🙂
So, basically…I was right.
Weak
But sticking with the A’s should count for a lot. I have a friend that is an A’s fan. He’s stayed loyal to the green and gold through these dire years for A’s fans. I don’t care what team a fan roots for, all I ask is that they stick with that team through the bad times, too. I have another friend that has 3 count’em 3 favorite NFL teams. I’ve given up trying to figure that one out.
Which is a little hypocrital of me to say, because as much as it can be said that I have a favorite NBA team, I follow the Kings and the Warriors about equally.
I remember when my ex-wife and I moved to Colorado in late 1997 and we immediately made friends with quite a few people, who were rabid Broncos fans. I recall the Broncos played the 49ers in the next to last game of the season and we were invited to a big football party, where my wife and I were the only ‘Niner fans. Or, so I thought . . .
While watching the game, the Broncos get a touchdown and my wife is cheering wildly for the Broncos, along with the other party goers. I look at her and say, “WTF?” She gives me the female version of the knowing dude nod and says, “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.”
I had the last laugh though, as the ‘Niners won the game, 34-17.
I think Monte Moore guaranteed I wasn’t going to be an A’s fan. Monte Moore vs. Lon Simmons. Not even close.
Zumie – have a good time at the Avett Bros. show. We see them at The Grove (outdoor at Woodlake Inn) tomorrow night.
Oh Yeah, Giants Orange and Black runs deep in my up bring.Born in SF(Childrens Hospital) my Grandmother,Granfather,Uncle and Aunt along with my parents all lived out inthe Sunset District,ALL huge Giant fans.My Uncle gave me an Autograph Willie Mays baseball which I still have(Stoked as a kid to get that bad boy) .
Moved down the Peninsula when I was 6 and pops took me to me to see the Stl Cardinals in 64.It was
Jesus got cut off.At work,told.this guy.im on the Flap blog,looked at me alittle strange,then I said it’s a Giants blog ,he said Blog on Go Giants and Bumgarner today! Nice!! Who the hell wants to work anyway on a Saturday?
tBack to my Giants 1st.game….Willie Mays and Willie McCovey both hit mammoth HR’s and Dandy Juan Marichal with his high leg kick and super command baffled the Cards all day as the Giants crushed them 8-0 on Marichal’s 4 hitter.
What was awesome was seeing how big McCovey was and he had speed back them before his knees went bad.He was also fun to watch between innings sidearming his throws around to the infielders(Davenport,LanierI think Fuentes) he was throwing lasers to them all it was quite imppressive.And when he was in the on deck circle,twirling 2 bats like they were toothpicks,i was thinking this pitcher is probably shitting his pants knowing he’s coming up to destroy him.
Damn right about Stretch there, Kat. If you’re a journeyman pitcher in those days making what $15-20K a year, or even Drysdale, especially Drysdale, you see Stretch in the on deck circle windmilling and warming up with that bat, and you’re thinking that the world is going to get a lot tougher in a minute. Later, they used to talk about not going to the can if Bonds were coming up so you wouldn’t miss his AB. Well, fine. But, he had nothing on McCovey. Same deal. You never wanted to miss any part of Stretch’s ABs at the game, on TV or on radio…
Like the way Hector is showing some vet confidence. Before the game last night he was talking like a seasoned catcher- diccussing some changes mentally and mechanical that Tim made, saying we’ll see the difference… at the very least he’s starting to look like a solid back up and confident handler.
like BF, i grew up on the peninsula and it never occurred to me to root for the a’s, even with all the world series stuff. didn’t go to many games as a kid, maybe 2 or 3 but it seemed like it was always against the reds (the big red machine) and they always got their ass handed to them. so i couldn’t figure out why people wanted to go to games! I remember listening to the radio while going to sleep and it was in 6th or 7th grade that i was listening and they had a great comeback against the cards. that really locked me in.
Blanco CF, Theriot 2B, Cabrera LF, Posey C, Pagan DH, Sandoval 3B, Belt 1B, Schierholtz RF, Crawford SS, (Bumgarner P)
BTW, great job, Dirt. It’s been what I hoped for- no one is trying to clone Craig, we’re seeing a new look everyday. Bravo to all..
Dirt, you posed a Good Question (by Menifee out of Free Question). I was raised a SF fan. Giants and Niners. Niners and Giants. Nothing else much mattered. The old man hated the Raiders and wouldn’t give the A’s the time of day. My parents had season tickets to the Niners, and then we’d hit some ballgames during the summer. I don’t recall the games too well, mostly listening to them at home on the radio. But I do recall attending “Bat Day” one year. Back when they still gave kids a regulation size bat. I got a Tito Fuentes model. It didn’t take long before I put a crack in that sucker.
Good job.
Good thread, Dirt. I liked the description of the female A’s fan.
The reason I started as a Giants fan was that they were the only game in town, so to speak. As a kid, I first began paying attention to MLB about ’64-’65 or so, the A’s weren’t even West yet. And growing up in the Central Valley, there was a natural attraction of anything Bay Area rather than LA. Plus, Willie Mays was the best player on the planet at the time…
I grew up in San Luis Obispo and then Woodland, but my grandparents lived in the Portola District, not far from Candlestick. SLO is equally between LA and SF, and when we were kids, it was only LA teams that were on the TV and radio, but having the grandparents in SF made my older brothers Giants fans and made me a Giant’s fan. My grandparents were hardcore Italians who paid absolutely no attention to things like pro sports, but my dad would take us to games when we went up to see them. To top things off, Bobby Bonds had a brother that worked in the athletic department at Cal Poly, so Bobby would occasionally come down to SLO to do clinics/autograph sessions. My brother claims that one time when I was too little to participate in one of the clinics, they still brought me along to Santa Rosa park where I played in the sandbox with Bobby’s kids—meaning of course Barry. Barry and I are almost exactly the same age, so its possible that is true. With all of that SFG indoctrination, I was hardly even aware of the A’s franchise. In Woodland, it seemed most people were Giants fans, but there was a significant group of A’s fans. I agree with Zum—I have no problem with A’s fans. I do have a problem with people who claim to like both teams or seem to hop back and forth based on the team’s fortunes.
Exactly. –the guy with the half A’s/half Giants hat. Hate that guy. Pawlie must look at him with a confused look on his face….
Yeah, I don’t get the bi-baseball fandom thing. In Chicago, you’re either Cubs or WSox. There is no “both”. I don’t dislke A’s fans, nor do I really dislike the A’s. I just really don’t care about them, never have, even when they were really good in the early ’70s with all the mustachioed guys. Football is a little different for me, since it’s not my favorite sport. Weird, because I was a big Raiders fan back in the late ’60s and the ’70s, and a pretty good fan of the Niners, too. Maybe with NFL and fewer games, you can actually be a fan of multiple teams. When Al committed treason and moved to LA, I left being a Raider fan forever. I do pay attention to them now, but not really as a fan. By the late ’70s, anyway, I had been intrigued by Montana and Bill Walsh and had already turned up the notch on my Niner fandom, so their first SB was really a revelation and cemented my total conversion to Niner fandom, and have not left it since…
Yeah, I was never a big 49er fan, albeit, I followed John Brodie, Gene Washington, Ted Kwalick, Cedric Harman, Jimmy Johnson, Forrest Blue, et. al., in the early 1970s. However, they could never get past Dallas . . . Until Montana and Walsh came along. In my mind, Eddie D. could do no wrong and I thought conspiracy when he had the team taken from him. Since then, I wish them well, but the magic was gone when they put that bitch sister and her idiot husband in charge.
My Giants’ experience started in the late 70’s (obviously) – my father would go down to the Polo Grounds by train with his brother as much as they could before they moved west. The thought of switching allegiances never occurred to him as the alternatives were the Yankees or the newly formed Mets. I was hooked right away even though they were horrible back then. I didn’t care, they were my team. The ’87 season & one flap down playoffs were the 1st time my dad I & could share the success of ‘our team’ & it was fun even though they didn’t get past the Cards that year. Then there were the exciting seasons of ’89, ’93 (damn Braves), ’00, ’03 (heart-breaker) & finally the promised land in ’10. A twist of fate had me living back with my parents that season watching just about every game I could with my dad & I’ll never forget that night they finally did it – we were both acting like kids after that final out, a memory I’ll always cherish. It’s amazing how baseball bonds a father & a son like nothing else. Somehow I was supposed to be there at that moment.
Outstanding post by you, as usual.
Thanks – by the way, this new format is awesome. No offense to you Flavor. I could never have done a thoughtful post per day for as long as you did, you deserve a lot of credit for what you created here. All of the posts from everyone else have been great, a real community effort of Giants’ fans. Really looking forward to Twin’s tomorrow. Also glad that this place won’t end anytime soon as it’s part of my daily decompression from real life.
Scuttlebutt over on the A’s chatter by Susan Slusser that McCarthy may not make the start tomorrow for the A’s; more shoulder issues. They’d need to call up somebody for an emergency start…
A few minutes back, I looked at Schulman’s game story for last night on the Giants. It had 102 comments on SFGate. Shea’s A’s game account on SFGate had 9 comments. Nine. No wonder the A’s want to move to San Jose…
9 comments? That’s a big day when the Rockies win. Ha.
Gawd, Blade. The Rocks are just sorry. What the hell happened?
Now, Tulo is out for two months on this groin thing? They bringing up the entire AAA an AA rosters yet?…
No cavalry coming to rescue them. Today was typical – they were leading 11-1 and almost lost it in the 5th inning. A complete joke of a team.
All the A’s fans are too busy trolling the Splash.
i’d like to get Susan Slusser and Kate Longworth on the g’s team. of course there’s another place i’d like to get kate but that’s a tale for a different blog.
No it isn’t
“Our coverage starts off tonight in New York….”
I hate FOX sports
This date in baseball, 1917: Ernie Shore of the Red Sox relieved Babe Ruth with nobody out and a runner on first. The runner was cut down stealing and then Shore proceeded to retire all 26 batters he faced in a 4-0 win over Washington. Ruth walked Eddie Foster to open the game and was ejected after arguing with umpire Brick Owens.
Not too shabby. Shit. I bet Shore couldn’t retire Josh Reddick. Son of a bitch.
“Brick” Owens?
They had great names in those days…
off to another good start.
Yeah, it has always been one or the other. All my friends were the same way, ALL of them being Giants fans. Those teams in the mid 60’s, when I first started caring, was just way larger than life. Mays, McCovey, Cepeda, Marichal, Perry, they were just epic characters. The A’s tried too hard. Charlie O did, anyway.
Charlie O was pretty epic, as a character.
Nobody like him before or since. Bill Veeck, maybe, but Charlie had a bit of a nastier edge to him…
Gomez!!!
uh, s
Easy or sleazy, take it any way you can.
Byrnsie needds to ease up.
Belt!! Like the action here. Tie it right back up.
Belt is starting to get comfortable. Nice RBI pickup. Now, if he can just pop one out every now and then, it’s good…
Bad call. Crawford beat the throw.
MLB needs replay for 1B calls. Badly. There have been tons of missed calls at 1B so far in Giants games. Multiply that by all the games, and that’s crazy bad umpiring…
Just got home, turned on game– why are Flem and EB doing a Fox game?
Because they can?…
It’s usually Buck and that idiot ex-Dodger with bad hair
Probably because both were already in the area. Why waste $$$ on flying a couple of other guys cross country.
Actually, I think that’s true. Fox uses ” fill-in local commentators” for many games
If you mean Karros, he doesn’t work with Buck. He works with Stockton. McCarver works with Buck. I think that’s current set up.
I don’t ever listen to the Fox games so I’m just going by vague memory. I will turn them on, listen for an inning or so and then just go without sound the rest of the way.
Bum has to be PO’d at that inning. Those were some chickenshit hits there…
Harkening back to Snarkk’s post, it’s just radio for me thanks to the Fox blackout. Heck, I didn’t even know the game had started until I just saw the score at the bottom of the Mets-Yanks game. Doesn’t sound like a good start for MadBum.
Fucking Gomes OWNS Madbum.
Sandusky’s on suicide watch? Is this just routine? I can’t figure out why this disgusting pervert didn’t just kill himself during the trial. He HAD to have seen the writing on the wall especially as his attorney’s seem to have thought this was a total longshot to get him off. Did they tell him that?
While I am glad there is a suicide watch on him (because he is the type of convict I WANT to see live a loooooong life in prison in that tiny cell by himself) I’m surprised he didn’t just end it all knowing what was likely gonna happen.
I’d put two in the back of his head and use the $30K/yr it’s going to take to incarcerate him and feed some poor kids. But that’s just me.
Funny listening to this, the crowd roars are as loud for the Giants as they are for the A’s.
that happened down in SD, too. And, obviously, we are but a BART trip away from the game. But the residual effect of the Giants winning the world series HAS given the team a presence in every stadium they go into these days…..
Bum with a chance to win giving up 11 hits in 5 innings? Gift.
I’m having satellite probs and am re-setting the receiver right now. Doing a slow burn over how long this is taking. But anyway, I see that MadBum has given up 11 hits. The couple innings I did see they didn’t look to be too hard hit (except for the bombs). Is he just catching too much of the plate like he did in that Minnesota game 2 years ago?
Moss is a complete butcher at 1B. I hope he enjoyed his 15 mins of fame. He’s brutal.
BELT-ED!
Belted!!!
who *is* this guy??!!
Have I mentioned that Moss is a complete butcher?
Yes you have. POSEY
Funny, I was going to post something about the A’s getting 11 hits and only 4 runs, I was thinking we were going to come back and win this badboy. The receiver just reset and we are winning 6-4. Nice. Gotta backtrack and find out how all this unfolded.
Buster open!
Byrnes, who I know personally from the years I worked with his dad, should like that wall-crash by Gomes. It was an unnecessary, over-the-top *bounce off*. But it looked good, especially on tv. Byrnsie was great at that move–
BUSTER!
There are supports behind that wall that can hurt.
thanks, they’ve improved that since 1977. And Byrnes, again a guy I like, was KNOWN for the over-dramatic drama queen effort. That was my point…….
I know what your point was, Craig. But being cavalier about bouncing off the wall is still not a good idea. I don’t follow the 1977 reference, though.
I threw 1977 out there as a random year. The safety improvements that teams have made over the years have been substantial. Oakland has the old stadium but that doesn’t mean they’ve ignored fortifying the walls. That doesn’t cost much.
Obviously changes were made-gee, I saw Lyman Bostock break about 4 bones crashing into the wall there. I was really just expanding on your comment.
More walks than hits now. Hey, who’s the Moneyball team here?
So when Huff comes off the DL and gets a start at 1B in place of Belt is it OK that I demand for Bochy’s immediate resignation? Belt leads the club in walks. Huff? He leads the team in walking into guardrails.
I wouldn’t count on seeing a lot of Aubrey, Denny. I think I already saw talk that he wouldn’t be coming off the DL when eligible.
Belt has locked the job down. He’s earned it, I like it. Players should earn their spot. There’s an argument that could be made that he would have done this had they not dicked around with platooning him. And I wouldn’t argue that hugely except we don’t know what the results would have been had he played those games. All I ever said about Belt was that I understood why Bochy was sitting him— he wasn’t earning the spot and everyone CONTINUES to talk about the changes he made mechanically so it should be assumed that he made the changes he needed to make. Good for him
Didn’t the clown just p/u Belt in our fantasy league last week? I coulda used a hot-hitting C/I myself.
Fuck you, Bozo!!!
He talked about the changes, too. He said was getting back to where his swing used to be. But all I care is that he’s in there and producing- with Pablo still not all the way back, he’s been huge.
I know, I read that. There’s no way to know what went down with his swing. I was only noting that several of the main players close to the team (Sabean, Bochy, all the broadcasters many, many times) mentioned that Belt had finally made changes. I’m not a hitting coach, I don’t know. Whatfuckingever, he’s hitting now, he’s locked the spot down, it has been a critical, positive development for the team……..
“Whatfuckingever, he’s hitting now, he’s locked the spot down, it has been a critical, positive development for the team……..”
At this point, my sentiments exactly.
As much as I like him, I have never declared that he’s “all that” quite yet- he’s workin’ on it though.
Yes, he’s a work in progress. But he has *locked down* that spot unless he completely implodes.
KInd of funny to listen to byrnes give out the “coming into his own and fullfilling the promise” praise for Belt. Wasn’t that long ago he was on air with tolbert advocating Belt bat 8th in the LU. Glad that one never happened.
The rosenthal bit on SF trade moves and byrnes take on SF going after pitching are probably going to be my thread next week, if I can figure out how to actually get in wordpress and accept the invite, etc., before then.
if you haven’t seen an invite from wordpress then tell me and I’ll re-send it. And if it’s still not there, it might be in your spam filter. But we’ll work it out WillieD, I appreciate your commitment to the blog during this transitional time………
Flav, I think I need one as well. I’m unable to find the “New Post” icon.
shoot me the email you want me to send it to
Loux kinda died after the praise, didn’t he?
cheapo Santiago save coming, I love it. Um…..until I no longer love it….
Casilla is doing his best B-Wheezy impersonation right now. Nail this fucker down!
Get him out!
this is so stupid. Casilla was at his worst tonight and clearly his head wasn’t in the game. These guys start getting ready in the 7th, he clearly blew the mental part of that job off……..
Casilla.pitched like horse shit! No reason to be.upset.at Bochy you fool.Get this over with Javy my BP cant take it.
Unbelievable choke work by Casilla and Lopez.Here’s Hensley time to do or die.
no matter how tonight’s game ends, I hope these bullpen guys learn something from this. You can’t just assume a big lead means you don’t have to start getting ready for your job in the 7th……
Whew!
Jesus, Weeks swung for the fences.
Fucking Christ, I did not want to have to wear that loss, and I would have (we all would have) for a long, long time…….
Wow I can go off life support for another day.Giants the cardiac kids.
Weeks might’ve been the Giants’ best closer that inning.
Lopez was fine- with 1st base open, he absolutely CANNOT give Smith a pitch to hit. His run meant nothing. But Casilla has to do better than this- and Loux could be gone. I jinxed him.
Lopez sucked and that’s why he was pulled. Bochy saw it as we all did, his command was not his usual command.
Well, I still maintain that he had to make Smith go after a ball with 1st base open. Bochy got him because he wanted Hensley facing Weeks with Weeks batting LHed.
Lopez is a lefty specialist, he isn’t ever brought in, especially in that critical situation, to dance around the hitter regardless of whether or not he’s got an open base. It was clear he was off. Every fucking pitcher who came out of the pen was off (except, ultimately, Hensley). That pen was sitting down there from the bottom of the 8th onward spending their time dividing up all the whores they’re going to co-mingle with (single guys only, right?).
It was a complete mental breakdown by the entire pen and Theriot dug their asses out out of Hell……..
Fleming made the same point I did. And I suspect more observers will also agree. But it’s not worth arguing..
What a wild line
Giants 9 8 0
A’s 8 15 4
And, in the end, MadBum gets the win. Lucky and GOOD!
belt has now jacked up the OPS to .848, second on the team only to melk. Hope that will shut up the haters, including Baggs, for a little while. Might be time to drop theriot and his .620 a little lower, say right above craw who has fallen below .600 mark. Series has been fun so far, but I’ll be happy to get back to real baseball like it’s played in the NL.
Theriot got hot, so Bochy has left him there. You’re absolutely right- he should be in the 7. He’s not a good enough hitter to be in the 2.
Well, I figured Bum would win today. Just not with this crazy kind of game. BPen has to regroup, that was absolute bullshit. No way Bochy should have had to even get to Casilla, then Casilla coughs up a hairball. How bad is it when the game comes down to a pitch by Hensley? And, the Giants have nobody better than Loux in Fresno? Or, Hensley, too. Those guys should be pitching like their hair’s on fire. Belt is settling in, I definitely think he’s headed for a nice second half. Every day play is what that’s all about…