Limping into Colorado….
….and still hanging onto first place by a thread, with wagon wheels wobbling, axles stressed to the breaking point, oxen gaunt and wheezing- it’s the orange and black wagon train straggling into Colorado, looking for answers. In a now three-team division title battle with the Dodgers and D-Backs, the Giants are at a pivotal point in the season- a moment in time that seems eerily similar to August of last season. Things need to improve, and quickly. Win some games this weekend, and feel some of that “Colorado Rocky Mountain high” that John Denver sang about. Catch a second wind that will propel them through this last 1/3 of the regular season to where they want to be at the end of it all.
The Rockies ballclub hasn’t been feeling all that high about things lately, themselves. Five years ago they were in the World Series, and their future seemed bright. Did you know that Affeldt was on that 2007 Rockies team? I didn’t. I just saw it in a boxscore from that World Series. Tulo was the starting shortstop, Torrealba the starting catcher, and that guy Helton at firstbase. But the 2007 Rockies were in the unfortunate position of being a team destined to be a footnote in baseball history, background characters in the bigger story of the Red Sox winning a second World Series in four seasons. So the Rockies’ amazing run at the end of the regular season, winning 21 of 22 games, and then rolling through a bunch of playoff games, has faded a lot from the collective memory of the baseball world. You have to win the World Series for that kind of thing to be remembered much.
Injuries and Father Time have taken a toll on the Rockies this season. Still, Giants fans know what a Chamber of Horrors the Rockies ballpark can be in any given series. The Giants have a lot of games left with the Rockies- thirteen, with six of them being in Colorado. Given the Rockies’ plight this season, anything less than the Giants winning two of three this weekend will be a big disappointment; especially since the Dodgers will probably be feasting on the Cubs ( as did the Giants.) Vogie, MadBum, and Timmy will be working to keep the Rockies hitters in check; and the Giants batters are eager to enjoy some high-altitude hitting. Games at that ballpark have a way of often turning into Friday night softball games. Score early, and score often.
These games mean everything to the Giants, and they mean a lot less to the Rockies at this point. Hopefully the Rockies, and not the Giants, will be the team to sleep their way through this series. As that same John Denver song says: “The shadows in the starlight are softer than a lullaby….”
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
Still hurting, the Mets?? I can’t face the losses, of to the library to read ‘the band of miSFits’ while openly weeping.
now we are worried about Colorado!! the shame
“Limping”
today at London 2012:
1968 was an exciting time, 8 years before the Apple started a revolution that many consider the invention of our time. But 1968 the world the world received a new invention from Dick Fosbury. I love the high jump, shotput and field events in general. Yes it is time for track and field to start. A UK with bated breath awaits our Olympics poster girl, Jess Ennis. She has won world championships indoors and outdoors over the last 3 years and is the current world champion in one of my favorite events, thanks Bruce Jenner, the Heptathalon (indoors called the pentathalon).
the games are getting exciting. Day 10 (there were football matches and archery started the two days before opening ceremonies so you may hear today referred to as Day 8)
note: BEACH VOLLEYBALL goes into the round of 16 today so if you have been waiting to see the best teams now is the time. It has been raining all morning in London, but not enough to delay any events and the sand is dry at The Horse Guards Parade which is next to Buckingham Palace and is where the ‘changing of the guard’ takes place. But now it has 6500 cubic yards of sand and a grandstand the size of Wimbledon centre court. It was one of the most rushed of the Olympic builds as the Queen’s Diamond Jublee was being celebrated during the month of June.
today’s events having finals:
badminton, track and field, Judo, rowing, archery, velodrome, swimming, weightlifting, fencing and the newest Olympic *sport* trampoline. (don’t ask, I do not know)
get the gas BBQ going outside, aircon and a fridge full of cold ones inside and make it a 3 day sports weekend.
advert: Denny’s rolling bar is available for parties at prices you will not believe. Call
925-728-6094 and ask for Frank. Medical insurance available at extra cost.
I return control of the Blog to baseball
and remember: “Stewardesses” is the longest word typed with only your left hand and “lollipop” with only your right.
go Giants! (gulp)
Stewardesses…..yeah you’re right…never knew that. Of course they’re known as Flight Attendents now. Another obsolete word landing in the dust bin of history.
I know you wanted pole dancing as the newest Olympic event, but trampolining it is. It has the word ‘tramp’ in it.
😆
Win a Willie McCovey autographed baseball! 53 years ago today he debuted in the majors with 4 hits. Share your favorite #giantsmemories using the Topps Pennant app to enter the Topps Pennant Time Capsule giveaway.
http://atmlb.com/R0sKpg
win one for the flap!
Pitcher….Robin Roberts…..I always like that name.
liked
ed
funny thing about SF 1b debuts and HOF pitchers….Mac got his off robin roberts of philly, clark off nolan ryan…didn’t belt hit one off Kershaw last year?
I heard mattingly said the series vs. AZ was a “trap series” and the Bax certainly obliged. Considering how they played at home vs. LA and NY, going out of town is probably best thing for SF right now.
I think it was a four hit game for mac against RR, at 21 his ML debut July30. His first homer came a few days later off a pirates pitcher Ron Kline. In 1959 he was paid $12,000. Average income in the east bay today is $54,000.
PAC BELL is another obsolete word. Too bad ….it was a great name for the PARK and the phone company.
I should say name not word.
I think it was Paul From Asia, in one of his many post’s of the day, that suggested it might not be a bad thing that the team is going on the road right now. I agree. I know the pitcher’s take solace in the pitch-rich confines of our yard, but it’s time to get the bats going and there’s no better place than Colorado to kick start that engine.Colorado is all a mindset. Don’t sweat giving up the crooked innings and expect them to happen every inning when we bat.
Willied…Not sure if Belt.took Kershaw deep,i do remember his 1st HR off of Barbara B.
Yeah Willie Mac’s debut was sure special,4 hits with 2 triples 2 singles off of Robin Roberts,Mac being a rook with no knee.problems then,could really run back then.
Remember “The Thrill’s” Bomb off of the “Express”like it was yesterday.He was just a cocky kid like he still is,and Nolan figured he would just blow some heat by him,But Will would have none of that and smoked it over the CF wall and then had that Nuschler stare and one arm fist pump after he crossed home plate.Classic!
thx. barbs obviously not in HOF class, lol.
It was Pill who beat Kershaw with a HR. Belt has not homered off of Kershaw.
Well, the scary part about going to Colorado is the fact the Giants have had some of their mosst gruesome losses in that hell-in-the-sky that is Denver.
There was this one in 2009:
http://tinyurl.com/c7tzx2d
There was this one in 2010:
http://tinyurl.com/bpayybm
And this year:
http://tinyurl.com/casd6pj
I think the home pressure should come off of Pence, and he gets in a groove. When is Panda coming back?
That old John Denver chestnut always goes through my mind when the Giants play the Rockies, zum. Unfortunately it’s always followed by The Calypso which remains an earworm for the rest of the day.
DAMMIT!!! It’s happening again!!
Yeah, Edddd, track and field is pretty cool. Back in the day I did some long jump and a little high jump. I always thought Dwight Stones was bad ass . . .
Didnt Idol the Original back first guy “Dick Fosbury” Chuck? The signature creator of the “Fosbury Flop”.
Dude won the Gold Medal in Mexico City in sixty eight.
Yeah ol’ Foz changed the game . . . I never learned the other way . . .
One of the nice things about hitting in Coors is you get to do it vs. the rockies pitching staff. As blade pointed out months ago, it’s awful from top to bottom. I think our ex-rf used to do pretty well here, and so did fred lewis. But hopefully these guys will have a lot of company this weeked.
goal for SF is to out pitch the rox, keep the ball in the yard, and of course play solid defense. It’s tough enough to get 27 outs here without blowing a few easy ones and giving them extra whacks with men on base and pitcher out of the stretch.
And I’d say the same thing about STL–as I remember that’s where Huff had his 3 HR game last year and SF rocked them a couple times. we can hit just like anyone else in these types of parks, so our advantage will be to outduel them on the mound and play good D.
I know that 2-1 L hurt, but it did feature 4 DPs, posey throwing out a couple would be base stealers, and blanco with a tremendous catch in CF. Giants are fully capable of doing this.
Oh, they’re fully capable. I’m just concerned with what actually happens.
Actually, Coors had been somewhat tame in recent years- now the games are more like the old days- the SS leaves his beer can on second base, 9-1 was a save situation, yep-Friday Night Softball is back…question- there’s no Hairston here, is there? OK, thanks- we’re sweeping…
Side note- I’ve E-mailed Craig, I will not be a Stable Boy any longer. Personal reasons. So you’ll miss out on my “Worst Baseball Players of All-Time, 21st Century Edition”- highlighted by a guy many of us wanted, me included: Mike Jacobs.
and I hope you come back when things settle down. Good luck.
Since Twin and I are back to back I can do both. I’m leaving SV tomorrow morning and will be on the road for a couple of days but I won’t have a problem taking those 2 days.
Wish the best for you Michael.Hope all is well.
Btw…Yeah i can’t stand the Hairston boys.Another coulpe of Giant killers that we will avoid in Colo atleast are Ryan Spilbourgh and Seth Smith.Those 2 always had the big hit or walk off against us.
This year seems to be a return to weirdness. Numbers arre up. And there was that 18-7 loss earlier this year . . .
Flav, say hi to Marge at the Four Jacks Casino in Jackpot. Ohhh, she’ll remember me . . .
oh, I am excit_eddd the heavy and super heavy weightlifters are on. the 187lb class. 2 lifts (clean/jerk & snatch) should be somewhere around 800lb total.
wonder if they can hit a curveball?
Clean, jerk and snatch. Sounds like a night in the cave for Dennis and Nipper. . .
too true, we wear the cave colours with pride and a bit of a hangover
Gold Baby!
Could also describe an evening at Mustang Ranch.Not that i would no that.:-)
we are also watching women track racing.
see (Queen) Victoria Pendleton, gold at Beijing here: http://goo.gl/F1hMv
something broke the blog, oh, no!
my browser shows “waiting for wp.com”
apparently a chrome butt crash at my end, back now.
will have to review recent changes and check extensions.
Bochy’s a pretty funny guy. This is in response to Pablo being ready once he’s eligible to come off the DL Aug 9th:
………………………………………………………….
Bochy said he didn’t expect Sandoval to be any more susceptible to injury, though he used some interesting words to get his point across.
“Really I didn’t,” Bochy said. “I was asked that when I put Pablo at first. That’s usually where – going back to Little League – you put the fat guy. You didn’t worry about injuries. But he did a pretty good split there. I guess any time you make any kind of change with a player, there’s a slight risk there. But it’s not something I thought about it. You notice I said put the fat guy at first, not behind the plate?”
…………………………………………………………….
It almost sounds like he is saying: “we all told him to lose weight” or “the bloggers were thinking he might be able to catch” or it could just be that he was a catcher and wanted to keep the position away form being the place where you put the last guy chosen to play.
Boch’s “joke” was more of an insult than some of the stuff that’s been thrown at Panda here…
Maybe Denny’s therapist can help you get over your re-discovered aminus towards Bochy.
Almost as funny when Bochy said…Burriss can still help us now that he cleared waviers.
Like any team was really gonna claim him.But i guess Boch is just saying the right thing,since he’s still in the org.Just can’t come out and say he Sucks and prayed some other team would have been foolish enough to grab him.
Manny can steal a base and he can score or go first to third when another guy may not be able to do that. When rosters expand and we could be in a multiple team chase for playoff spots, those little things can be huge.
Sometimes sports play out like a movie script. Congrats to Gabby Douglas! Historic and wonderful. This photo is an instant iconic sports photo for the ages:
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-08-02/sports/chi-us-gymnast-douglas-wins-womens-allaround-gold-20120802_1_jordyn-wieber-komova-and-aliya-mustafina-gabby-douglas
nice, congratulation to her, heart warming story.
That’s the move that landed Panda on the DL…
I didn’t realize we were facing Johnny ‘Chez tonite. Didn’t know Colorado picked him up. Here’s hoping we swing at strikes.
I know he’s had a dreadful year, but I’ve got a bad feeling about this one.
yeah, it’s guys like him that kill the g’s. it can’t be overconfidence. at least it shouldn’t be.
Seems like, in general, it’s the crafty guys who have given us the most trouble. And “crafty” might be the last word that comes to mind in describing Jonathan. I’d like to see him pitch well-in a losing cause…
Second baesman on my all-worst 21st century edition is Enrique Wilson, a no tools guy who managed to hang for 6+ seasons despite lacking any skills. Baseball scholars have puzzled over his 2000 season and can only conclude that it was related to a reported alien landing in western Ohio..
A’s trade Suzuki to nats! if they bring norris back (terrible hitter so far) they’ve got two catchers with almost no AL experience.
now i see blanton to the dodgers! sheesh.
for a player to be named later and cash considerations.
Everyone needs a good 8th starter, I guess.
Blanton to the Dodgers…trade deadline my ass.
I am the only one where the blog has hiccuped and isn’t formatting?
it’s working for me. possible flapper demand in england swamping local net?
Yeah, I was just asking Prince Harry, the one that does all the work in Africa, why baseball isn’t payed a lot here.
yes
Pagan CF
Theriot 2B
Cabrera LF
Posey C
Pence RF
Scutaro 3B
Pill 1B
Arias SS
Vogelsong RHP
Fuck. Pill?
Huh. Suzuki was sucking this year, but they get a single A catcher in return. Again, huh . . .
Chuck impressed with the A’s with a response….”huh . . .”
Bochy has never seemed to entertain the idea of Belt as a top of the order guy. Teams have done that with firstbasemen before. Bat Belt lead-off or #2 a few games, where his walks will be more valuable.
And as others have noted- he’s got pretty good speed.
Walk on the Wild Side.
Johnny Damon was cut by Cleveland. Might be some teams interested in him. Maybe.
Don’t go out on a limb now, Zum…
Belt’s too tall to lead off.
Pill? Christ. This is ridiculous. I guess someone needed to fill the Justin Christan auto out role.
Better giving Pill a shot at a platoon than using Posey.
Fuck that. Play Belt. Pill is doing nothing.
Coors can give a guy confidence…
I’ve wondered, as some of the rest of you have too, why we haven’t seen Belt get a shot at the top of the LU. About the only thing he’s done consistently this year is take walks and we don’t have anyone who’s done that over the course of the year. He’s got a little speed, too. Why not?
Exactly. If they can put Scooter in the lead-off why not Belt? And he ALWAYS takes walks and Theriot would be able to at least move him over to second and set up Melky for an RBI chance.
It’s not believed, rightly or wrongly, that Belt is a top of the order hitter. They like that he has has a good eye but they want him to be more aggressive.It’s sort of the hitters version of “don’t walk him, but don’t give a good pitch to hit”. But for now, why not?
AZ passed on Blanton? Really?
Just kidding. Fat Bastard needs a job I suppose.
Well, it’s all lefties this week end-would Bochy really sit Crawford, Blanco, and Belt all three games ?
If Pill and Arias go 0-fer, no.
Wow. Weird seeing that from the other side. For all that, the Giants should have scored 5.
I’m stuck with the ROckies broadcaster’s tonight in our last night here. What idiots. They BOTH just went on and on with how patient Sabean has been with Pill and Belt this year. The color guy started talking about how neither got sent down this year even though they’ve struggled. He then again praised Sabean for his patience. He starts listing off Pill’s stats for the year, he’s pausing as he’s getting through the number of at bats, the HR’s, etc…he keeps going with it…there’s more pausing…..then the other guy just changes the subject.
Hilarious…….
I’ve mentioned before, as I’m sure others have, how ignorant many announcers are of the other team’s players, especially the young guys and reserves. It’s inexusable- simply a case of lazy announcers not doing their homework.
True. The Mets announcers were relating the other day how sometimes kids visit them, and when the announcers tell how many hours of prep are needed, the kids are shocked. And the beauty is: any excellent announcer makes all that prep invisible. It sounds natural. BTW, they do get help, as we know. I snagged a whole packet of pregame data from the press box in Pittsburgh, though I have not really looked at it yet.
Poetic thread, zuuuuum. I remember listening to Les Keiter “announce” McCovey’s debut on a transistor radio in a shopping center parking lot when my parents were shopping. [could be a misplaced modifier in there] It took me quite some time to figure out that the “broadcasts,” on WINS 1010 in New York, were re-creations with sound effects, a la Ronald Reagan doing Cubs games in Iowa, as the teletype relayed info. Sounds like the 1890s. When you think about it, what a tribute to the NYC-area Giants fan base. The Giants were gone, but WINS knew there was enough of a fan base still there to do these games. It may be unprecedented in broadcast history. It would be fun to share stories of this with folks at the famed Finnerty’s in Manhattan. Come to think of it, if WINS radio, now an all-news station, did not keep me going with this (I have to research how many years), maybe I would not be typing this now. Footnote: The fuckin Dodgers? No one was relaying their games, boohoo. Must be we had more loyal and more numerous fans.
Pagan giveth, Pagan taketh away.
We really have had some wild games at Colorado, haven’t we? Some extra-inning doozies, too. Isn’t this where Darren Ford scored that run on the wild throw to third from the catcher in 2010? That alone earned Darren Ford his ring.
Here’s the deal with the Belt/Pill thing (and while they were laughably wrong about Pill, it was also pretty funny to hear them declare Sabean *patient* with Belt): I know what players have been sent down, who’s up here, when they’re *at risk* of being sent down….it doesn’t take that much effort. And I have a full time job and I’m a single dad, so I don’t see how I’m able to do this as a hobby and they can’t do it as their job. Makes no sense at all how ignorant they are about *other players*…….
Sanchez is hard to watch in any uniform…
I think he goes back and forth between being stubborn with this *I’ll never give in” attitude and having pretty shitty command of everything.
Hey, maybe the former is an excuse for the latter?
At least that makes sense..
Cardinal Ottaviani in the Rockies bullpen. Staunch opponent of Vatican II reforms but a good arm.
THAT was an easy Pill to swallow. [cheap, easy hed]
I’m assuming this is the end for Dirrrrty— the Rockies have run him out there for some horrendous starts and probably took a last shot with the ol’ “playing against your old team” angle.
It’s over……
Well, it’s pretty bizarre if that’s the case- he actually pitched better than in nearly all of his starts. Not that he was *good*, but certainly an improvement. The Rockhead 75 pitch deal is ridiculous- if he was making some progress, pulling him retarded it.
Twin knows best!
Loo as Nipper.
DP here would be very, very nice
The Amazing Kres-clown!
Thank Christ…
What position is he playing?
I thought MadBum would be the ace this year, edging out Cain and Timmy. Hard to argue against Vogelsong now.
Say, Who is the stupid one/ or more in the Rockies Org that decided to have all their starters on a 75 pitch count? WTF did they even bother picking up Dirrty,shit he throws 75 pitches in 2 innings sometimes.And every arm in the pen,will be falling off soon with this stupid ass strategy.
Jesus,no wonder their so buried on the bottom of the divison.Tracy and this whole coaching staff will be gone after this season,maybe before.
It’s intriguing to me in theory. I’ve wondered: why couldn’t you do all the time what is done for the All-Star Game? Three innings for all starters. It’s not stupid, in principle. We take the whole set-up and closer and role players in the bullpen as a given, though it is relatively recent in baseball. SOOOO, if everybody rotated three innings, would that mean you have a staff of 12 starters? Would arms fall off by June? Something tells me Whitey Herzog either weighed in on this or even tried it.
It looks a little better when the 3 are Marichal, Gibson & Seaver…
Not sure what the intent is here. Limiting the badness? That’s a grisly starting 5..
If the same guy started the first inning each time he’d never see a win and probably would be pissed off.
Confession: Deep down I figured Vogelsong’s performance last year was a pleasant fluke. Man, this guy is something. He gets almost no ink. And that’s just fine. His concentration reminds me of the best years of Steve Carlton, my favorite pitcher of that era. You’d look at Carlton’s zen master face: same thing, whether he was ahead 6-0 or behind 6-0. Focus.
Hey Pagan smiled, that might be the first time this year that I’ve seen that.
the giants, with this team, could go 4 starters. the 4 th guy, Lincecum I guess, is the one where the pen has to be ready. All you are doing is skipping the 30 starts from the #5 (now in the pen), your shittiest guy to begin with, and giving them to the others. Actually, your pen in theory should get less work, because the better quality SPs are going more often. If the SPs can hold up, I don’t see what’s not to like.
The Melkmen approved that message.
Wow- y’all went “blog jinx” on Vogie. (grin)
Wow, ya gotta love this inning.
To quote Hawk Harrelson: “Put ’em on the board….yeah!”
Everyone getting well – lotsa games left against this pitiful crew. Better take advantage…
True dat, Loo.
Baseball quiz question for y’all: The Cleveland Indians had the first chance to sign Lefty Gomez, but didn’t do it, leaving the opportunity for the Yankees. Why didn’t Cleveland sign Lefty Gomez?
They wanted a righty?
Paul (Asian) made a good point that I agreed with before the game: Get the fuck out of ATT and get back on track. Nice game. And if the Rockies were picking players off the waiver wire, why they would pick the guy who is a GUARANTEED 5 inning/100 pitch guy is beyond me.
Dirrrrty sucked tonight, by the way, a WHIP of 2.00 is horrendous, and, basically his usual shitty contribution to his starts…….
He pitched pretty well after the first inning, where a botched DP didn’t help. And the idiotic pitch count nonsense prevented him from showing if he was making progress or not. He’s set a low bar, as has the rest of the staff, so I’d be surprised if it was the end of the line for him in Colorado. But you could be right about that. We’ll see.
If you mean Sanchez on the waiver wire thing, they didn’t pick him off the wire- they traded for him after he was DFAed- for Jerome Guthrie- who also has sucked. As terrible as the Rockie starters are, it was really a zero risk deal.
I saw somewhere on the Web where the Melkmen are paid by Comcast and/or the Giants.
Anybody else got that info?…
i can’t say it would surprise me.
Like something straight out of that scene with the old scouts in Moneyball, the Cleveland scout was in the SF Seals locker room and was all set to get Lefty Gomez signed. But when he saw Gomez undress after the game, the scout left without signing Gomez. The scout told the Seals owner and a sportswriter that he wasn’t going to sign Gomez because Gomez’s penis was too big to be a good major league pitcher. The next day, Gomez signed with the Yankees, and helped them win the World Series a bunch of times.
As if we needed confirmation that the Yanks were always a bunch of big pricks…
??????????????
Dare I ask how your dick gets in the way of your pitching motion?
The scout didn’t think they had a big enough cup in Cleveland.
The quackery that went on in those days is unreal. Back in those days, according to the Gomez bio, team GMs and managers sometimes had pitchers get healthy teeth pulled or healthy tonsils or healthy appendixes removed in order “to help the pitcher pitch better.”
Hopefully they didn’t blow their wad too early here.
GNight.
Good night, TF.
Rockies are gawd awful. Giants should take the series, at minimum. No sweep will be a disappointment…
‘night lads. let’s get ’em tomorrow.
test
POTD
Brandon Belt “420” born 4/20/88.Maybe to much mota smoking with Timmeh effecting his stats.along with Timmy.
Belt 4 HR’s 244 AB
Pill 4 HR’s 89 AB