The 1970’s—The Greatest Decade (For Names) Ever
I loved the 1970’s. Obviously, not for anything economical or political. And certainly not for anything personal–my parents got divorced in 1978. I just liked the whole vibe of the 70’s. I was quite young so I didn’t really start appreciating it till I got older. I liked the music, I liked the way everyone dressed. I liked not feeling guilty for eating at McDonald’s. I liked how no one was allergic to anything…..
In fact, this pic from my past symbolizes everything good about the 70’s…
…..I loved the 70’s vernacular and still use it regularly today. I still like referring to another person as a *cat*…. Saying *Dig?* at the end of a sentence is the best way I’ve ever found to find out if the person you’re talking to is either in compliance and/or understands what you’re talking about. And I don’t just say “old school” because it sounds cool. If I label something as such it’s because I honor and respect it…….
But without question, my favorite thing about the 1970’s were the names of professional athletes. And I’m talking across ALL sports. In boxing you had guys like Ali, Frazier and Haggler. Is boxing still even a sport anymore? Football had guys named *Mean Joe Green* and *Otis Sistrunk*. In basketball you had *Jabbar*, *Dantley*, *Wilkes*—guys that just sounded like they were about to hand you your ass. How about *Purvis Short*? I mean really, Purvis? That sounds made up. I’ve never heard of anyone named Purvis before or after that cat. But he had the sweetest arching jump shot I’ve ever seen in my life. Sometimes I thought it was never gonna come down……Was there a better name in the history of the game than “World B. Free?” Lloyd must have just shook his head laughing quieting to himself when he saw Artest change his name to “Metta World Peace”—dude just doesn’t get it.
One of the many things that San Dawg and I have eerily in common is a bizarre attraction to the Orioles in the 70’s. I was too young to even know what an *Oriole* was, I just thought it was a cool-ass name for a team. All the Oriole’s from the 70’s had cool names: Boog Powell, Al Bumbry, Bobby Grich, Brooks Robinson, Doug DeCinces….
The A’s had some great baseball names in the 1970’s–Rollie Fingers, Vida Blue, Joe Rudi, Catfish Hunter, Sal Bando….
And everyone on the Pirates had a name (and a body) that just exuded “I am going to kick your ass”– Bill Madlock, Willie Stargell, Dave Parker, Jim Bibby, John Candelaria….
For me, baseball players in the 70’s just had bad ass names. And by owning all their baseball cards, I was a bad-ass-by-association.
If you want to know how cool the baseball names were in the ’70’s take this quiz: Ask yourself to name 5 of the coolest baseball names from the 1990’s. You have 10 seconds. Go…..
See what I mean? Hell, take the same quiz over the last 5 years in baseball….
Didn’t think of too many did you?
I’m bringing all of this up today because we are in the midst of something very cool that is happening in baseball right now. Just like it was in the 1970’s, the Orioles, the A’s and the Pirates are are suddenly relevant again. Not because of the great names of their players but because, for the first time in 30+ years, all 3 have a shot at the post season. Baltimore and Oakland are tied for the WC lead and actually have an outside shot to win their divisions (2 games and 3 games out, respectively). Pittsburgh’s hill is a little tougher to climb—they have no shot at catching the Reds but they’re only 1.5 games out of the WC spot.
I never cared too much about the economics of baseball, the skewed playing field, etc. At least until this year. Teams are making moves that make no financial sense and, what’s even more important, no practical sense for the short term or long term direction of the franchise. Two years ago the Angels TRADED for the ridiculous Vernon Wells and 80 million still left on his deal. They gave up Napoli who was making 2.6 million and who went on to lead the Rangers to the World Series last year. Last off season, the Angels spent needlessly by signing, among others, Albert Pujols to an absurd deal. Why? They already had Trumbo and a returning Morales at 1st base. And while it can’t be argued that either is better than Pujols it was an disgusting luxury to just go out and give a declining player 240 million dollars when you already had TWO outstanding hitters in place at first base. The Tigers did the same thing with Fielder. In 2011 they had signed Victor Martinez to a 4 year/50 million dollar deal. He was going to play 1st base this year before he blew out his knee. Problem? Nope, just go sign Fielder to a 10 year deal. V-Mart will be back ready to rock next year but they don’t need him. They’ll pay him 36 mil to ride the pine instead. The Boston Red Sox have been doling out the dumbest deals in recent memory: 142 mil for Carl Crawford? 157 for A-Gone who’s never been on a team that’s won anything? They paid 50 million just for the right to negotiate with Dice K. They gave 80 million dollars to John Freaking Lackey. I mean, come on……
Now, some would argue that the teams handing out mega-stupid 10 year 200 million+ deals will regret them later. I don’t think so. They KNOW these deals are going to go bad at some point. They don’t care as long as they win now. But they aren’t winning now, are they?
The final straw for me was the Dodgers giving the clueless Red Sox a *get out of jail free* card by taking on all of their idiotic deals (and players) AND were stupid enough to give them prospects, too!
So finally in 2012 I started to appreciate the pure lunacy that influence baseball decisions on the teams with the highest payrolls. And it just isn’t right. It’s bad for the game if 80-90% of the teams start the season with no chance to win. Sound judgement and keen financial decisions SHOULD factor into how your team performs…..
But wait–this year isn’t JUST about stupid financial decisions by teams running without a budget. There are low-payroll teams performing well. And watching what the O’s, A’s and Pirates have done this year has been phenomenal. It’s made me a lurking-fan of all three teams. With it being Labor Day I felt like it was a good time to honor teams that actually WORK to EARN results on the field. Teams that are just burning money and expecting to buy results are an embarrassment to the game.
Of course, you could also just root for Baltimore because of their cool-ass name. “Baltimore Orioles”– it just rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it?
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Flap Author Note: I am writing for Dirt today, the order stays the same, no switches……
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A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
and before anyone starts on it, I recognize there will be some *boo’s* on some of the names I used to illustrate *cool 70’s names*– Purvis, for example, only played one season in the 70’s–don’t nit-pick
O’s smiling bird hat from those days was really cool one, and so was pirates 3 rings. The yellow unis, maybe not. I used to play softball in a red phils hat, and also got a gift of a Tribe shirt, white with dark blue sleeves and the grinning indian logo over the heart. When the Cards went to dark blue it was lame.
There’s going to be a number of big money teams that aren’t going to playoffs—how cool would it be if Angels Red Sox and Yanks all missed it. And goes without saying, LA.
Btw, I have a Purvis Short poster (shooting a layup over couple Atlanta Hawks) on my fridge. W’s PA guy Dick Callaghan was absolutely the best, and we used to imitate him all the time.
WillieD–wait a min, you mean you HAD one on your fridge, right?
No, it’s still there, b/w one with small budweiser on it . Short is in home uni with warriors letters across the chest and the pic of calif with star near where SF would be, inside a cirlce with #45. Only piece of artwork anywhere in my apt. If I could figure out a way to get a pic of it to you, sans cell phone, I would.
Now THAT is old school
As a kid, I used to impersonate Dick Callahan as well…I absolutely loved that guy….”Chris Mullin, shooooooting two.”
Yeah, just the way he said the player’s name and number after every basket. “#2 is Alex English.”
“Tooooo many sssstepsss.”
We need to see the Purvis pic asap….I don’t care if Flav has to drive to Willie’s house to take a pic of the damn thing himself.
Big Wheel photo is a beauty.
I had my Fantasy Football Draft party and golf extravaganza in Woodland this weekend. Every year the host breaks out his game used MLB bat collection. He’s got a Mays, a McCovey, not to mention Bob Heise (Vacaville High), and Rich Chiles (Winters High).
Bake McBride
Boots Day
Dock Ellis
Tug McGraw
Cesar Cedeno
Dawg, I have been invited to join two leagues, but I am probably going to pass this year, after my experience last year (where I finished 9 out of 14 . . . after finishing in 1st place in my first year of playing). Football FL is really hard because of too many injuries and the NFL coaches not revealing them until the last minute. Couple that with me playing in a league that also had defensive players, it was really difficult. Two players last year – Adrian Peterson and Rashard Mendenhall – especially screwed my team over. Both of them are a piece of shit as far as I am concerned. 😉
enos cabell, too
The famous ode to great baseball names (definitely pre-70’s):
WillieD…I was a decent scorer back in the day. I was tall and not a good post-up guy, but I liked to work the high paint area with lots of bank shots and 10-12 footers. A couple of different times over the years guys compared my style to Alex English…..which I always thought was cool as he was kind of an under the radar dude.
That denver team when doug moe was coaching them was really cool. I saw them hit like 8 shots in a row to start a game vs. W’s and score 40 in the first quarter. English, kiki, wayne cooper, fats lever and t. r. dunn…issel calvin natt, mike evans. Dark blue unis with the mtns in the center, classic. so was spurs road one, black with white piping and the little diamond on the side of the shorts. Iceman, johnny moore, mike mitchell, artis, gene banks, rod brewer, edgar jones.
gotta work today, promise I’ll stop. Maybe tmw I’ll bring the poster to work and my sales girl associate can snap a pic with her phone and email it to flav. enjoy, guys
Underrated Bad-Ass: George Scott.
SanDawg beat me to a couple names (McBride, Cedeno), so I had to come up with a few others:
Ferguson Jenkins
Amos Otis
Lerrin LeGraw
Aurelio Rodriguez
and my favorite — Scipio Spinks.
Not to be confused with his long lost cuz, Leon “I want my two front teeth back” Spinks. 🙂
BOO!
Don’t look back, something may be gaining on you.
Nipper with a Satchel Paige quote, good job. And in honor of Labor Day “Avoid fried foods, which angry up the blood.”
If the Prates end up over .500, they’ll probably have a parade and they should after a 19 (?) year losing streak.
But don’t forget about the Nats. As the Senators they became the Twins in the 60s, got another team and became the Rangers in the 70s. This version of a DC team did well with their first round pics and also with FAs and trades. That is going to be one tough team in the playoffs.
I didn’t include the Nats because they got good mostly in spite of what they did with the windfall of cash they came into after they moved to Washington. They dropped a shitload of dough on Werth (and that was a huge mistake). They got Strasburg and Harper but that was because they were so bad that they got the #1 draft pick back to back (I think that’s what it was).
True, but Pittsburgh had the no 1 draft choice for years and didn’t do that well. But the Pirates were the Giants AAA team for awhile (or so it seemed), so I gotta love them.
Just have to note that the Pirates actually worked to intentionally cheat their fans for years by pocketing revenue sharing funds, much of which should have gone to payroll. This has been a team that posted 18 consecutive losing seasons while being one of baseball’s most profitable teams. Make no mistake- the system has rewarded such behavior. Finally a threat from the league office forced the Marlins and “incentivized” other teams to put more of those funds into payroll ( Marlins at one point were putting just 15 percent into payroll compared to a league average of 52 percent). Anyway, bully for the Pirates for not cheating their fans after nearly two decades…I’ll root for the players but a pox on the men who conspired to to keep the team dowm while lining their own pockets…
Yep, I remember when this story came out and was equally disgusted. But those were the owners, not the GM or the players.
I just think it’s cool as hell that they are competing on the field this far into the season with a shitty payroll
And, as I said, I’m rooting for the guys-always have,
As far as the 70’s..well. I came here to live in 1974- after some aimless years after my military service. I left twice- after driving off Highway 9 in Santa Cruz I went home to “Mommy” to recuperate… then I went to Minneapolis in the the late 80’s to help my Dad and brother open the ill-fated “Ray Scott’s” restaurant and bar.
But back to the 70’s-EASILY the most significant and exciting local pro sports achievement here was the Warrior’s upset run to the NBA title, IMO. My favorites were the late Charles Johnson and the great shot blocker, George Johnson.
CJ died of cancer in 2007, he was just 58…
I loved CJ, but the two players I liked better, was his bench replacement, Charles Dudley; and the Warrior’s center, Clifford Ray, whom I met (my mom’s best friend, dated him, so he scored tickets for us occasionally). Dudley’s defense was unbelievable and he always got the team fired up when he came in off the bench.
Loved CJ Twin.He was a local bay area guy,playing HS ball at Sequoia in Redwood City,Then on to Cal.Tough defender,smart all-around player.
Warriors were lucky he was there to help mentor the likes of Keith Wilkes(yeah im not calling him Jamal,that’s a Freakin Laker thing) Phil Smith.
To me it still seems like yesterday when they won that shocking title.Even today Rick Barry still calls it ,”The biggest upset of alltime in Professonal Sports.”
I tend to agree,and it’s a shame it’s the most forgotten.Heavy underdogs to the Bullets,Unseld,Cheiner,Reardon etc.The Warriors with Barry,the 2 rooks Wilkes and Smith,and Cliff Ray helping out another rook George”The fly swatter Johnson”,just Dominated them Sweeping the series in 4 as Al Attles in his funky 70’s Lindsey Nelson plaid loud outfit went crazy!
I long ago stopped watching the Warriors regularly, but they will always hold a special place for me as the first team I followed that won anything. I may still have my life size Rick Barry poster rolled up somewhere.
Just in case you Flapper nutjobs didn’t know,
Go on.
That includes me,for posting to quick(geez).
Wonder if Renel and who ever pumps out the walk up music for players have Xavier Nady’s all que’d up…DMX’s “X Gon Give it 2 YA.” Keep on Cha Cha’ing!
I always thought George Mitterwald sounded distinguished, and Rogelio Moret exotic. Don Mincher would be better without the “h.”
Mitterwald- he could get elected Prime Minister of Canada on the name alone.
San Dawg, move in weekend at UCSD is the 22nd. I had hoped to take some extra time and maybe catch one of the games the next weekend, but will very likely have to get back for work, unfortunately. I grabbed your email address, and will let you know if I have time this trip to get together to watch one of the SF games at a bar of your choice, if you’re up for it.
BF, you mention that the business side of things isn’t that compelling to you. I agree, and have studiously ignored a lot of the GM and above stuff that Snarkk, TF, you and others are so well versed in. In part, it’s because “Moneyball” – which I’ve never read – represented yet another wave of Oakland outclassing the team I began rooting for back in 1971. The idea that the A’s, of all teams, would be the first to apply Bill James et al was galling to someone who started reading the Abstract back in 1982. That the application of SABR theories was couched primarily in terms of the economics made it even less appealing.
Nady stays in Left, but no Arias, Posey can’t be bothered catching Barry. We finally have a decent bench, ya think? Huff, Arias, Pill, Blanco, Theriot, Belt
to Be honest, I assume Bruce is resting Buster any way he can for the end of September and into October.
I think the total bullshit nonsense of having the right catcher is in fact holding sway. Shame on Bochy for either believing in it or pandering to it.
Totally agree. So far this season, Posey is assigned to catch only 3 of the 5 starters. You can point out games where that wasn’t true, but for the most part, that’s the deal. I’d like to know the calculus behind it. Will they go to him at 1b all next year, Hector moves to starting C? To me, trading Tommy Joseph put moving Posey to first on hold at minimum, for several years…
A labor day shout out to all you working stiffs, thanks. for all you do this Bud’s for you.
If Jimmy cracks corn and nobody cares, why does he keep doing it?
Great photo, Flav. Who here wasn’t at one time or another a Big Wheel Knevel?
Not I . . . They came out in ’69 and I already graduated to a Schwinn stingray. 🙂
when we were in early high school, we used to borrow some kid on the blocks big wheel. we had a flag lot with the house set way back into the “middle” of the block space. so we had a long driveway the sloped slightly down hill. to turn into the carport (no garage) you had to make a 90 degree right turn. if you didn’t make the turn, there were poles in the ground to protect the gas meter from stupid people in cars who couldn’t make the turn. to top it off, the neighbors had a tree in that corner of their lot that dropped these little hard berries or acorns or such. we were too big to peddle the big wheel, but if you sat in it and draped your legs over the handle bars you could fit. The game was for one person to ride the big wheel and someone else push. you pushed as hard as you could but you had to stop pushing at a certain line. then the driver had to make the turn. failure was punished severely by the poles. and because you wanted the guy to fail, you pushed like a maniac until the line (and maybe a bit over!). the little nuts/berries subtracted from what little coefficient of friction the plastic wheels had. a nice little variable. hilarity ensued and we returned the slightly worse for wear big wheel to it’s rightful owner (who sometimes got a ride too, though we didn’t push too hard).
Great story ‘wisco!
Sounds like the shit we did too, e.g., playing tag in a big oak tree, making wings out of cardboard and jumping off our roof, expecting to glide. Umm, yeah right (don’t do this at home kiddies). 🙂
I can’t think of a lot of 70s baseball, truth be told I was living deep in the forests of the Sierras inventing sensimilla, yeah, that was one of mine.
Still had lots of baseball time, I just can’t think of any right now cause I am pretty baked. Hottest day in September for a long while today in the Nottingham area. Spot on.
ed, did you happen over to my neck of the woods, Humboldt County? I was living in Arcata in the late 70s.
Arcata, mad river and had some goats in moonstone heights in the early 70s Also trinity/humbolt forest and eureka, crescent city, my uncle owned a sport fishing business in CC
Know it well Bozo and Ed. I worked at Shasta Dam (safety manager) and we had Lewiston and Trinity dams also. Loved taking trips to Eureka and Crescent. Not really located in Eureka, but near there is a town called Samoa. I loved going to the Samoa Cookhouse, which used to be a lumberjack cookhouse. There are only (I think) three surviving cookhouses in the Western North America, and only two in the US. The Samoa Cookhouse is one of them. Great food, and a lot of it. Cookhouse is no longer used for serving loggers as the timber mill in Samoa is no more.
The Samoa cookhouse? Dang blade, that was one huge ass breakfast. We used to take the Samoa way back to Arcata from Eureka if we had been drinking a bit. When I lived behind the redwood curtain I played in a western swing band called Rhythm On the Range and also a country band called Buckshot.
For the season,A Scary Stat….The Giants Pitchers (Cain and Bum)have more HR’s then are 2nd basemen.(Scurato 1,Theriot Zero) Ouch!
It’s not in the least bit scary.
Going up to 105 today here, already feels like 107 or so the computer tells me. I think I have come over to the Global Warming side, don’t remember it being this hot at this time of year as a kid.
I thought there might be more interest in the Labor Day eating page- an afternoon game, a holiday, a natural.
One other remarkable thing about the Warrior’s championship looking back on it now was the sense that I had already waited an eternity for one of my teams to win it all. I started to follow the Giants, Niners, and Warriors at pretty much the same time, way back in 71 when I was 11 . . . .
James—I’m still up for a cocktail and a game on TV, so check in if you schedule out some free time.
I loved that George Johnson, at least for a little while, also shot his free throws underhanded.
One thing that made the Giants championship so meaningful for me was that I had NEVER had any of my teams win a title before then. My sports-fandom sprouted around 1972. The Chiefs have always been my fav NFL team and in the NBA I rooted for Hawks/Jazz (Pete Maravich) and the Kings once they came to Sac-town. Throw in the fact that I attended SDSU, and I have had my share of heartache and near misses over the years when it comes to my sports teams.
Too funny. Flav. It seemed like, as kids in the 70s, everyone wanted to be Evel Knievel. I was the youngest of 5 and we’d all jump in the Fairlane wagon (the one with the 428 CJ) climb around (no seat belts), and fight the whole time. If it was just me, my mom would let me sit in her lap while she drove around town. The cops would wave and smile. Stuff you’d get arrested for today.
I managed to set the family record with 5 emergency room visits. Although my brother at 12 got hit in the mouth with a line drive in a pickup baseball game (2 lost teeth, broken jaw), plus a burst apendix at 14, my sister got hit by a car (6 cracked ribs and a broken arm). The same sister that burned our house down to the ground. And I knocked my older sister’s teeth out with a plastic guitar I got for Christmas (my oldest sister said “hit your sister in the face with this guitar.” I was 3 (don’t remember this) so I did as told and took a huge swing and hit her right in the mouth, knocking out 2 off her lower front teeth. My oldest sister also was riding her bike with me on the handlebars, and when she stopped too fast, I flew off and broke my collarbone. She then ran over my hand, breaking m,y thumb. Emergenct visit #1.
Ahhh, the freewheeling 70s. I am still flat amazed sometimes how any of us survived. And this was all before my teenage years. When things got REAL dicey. Shit. I should write a book.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! That was some funny shit Chuck. Laughing while I type this. Good story. 🙂
Dick Deitz
Manny Sanguillen
Harmon Killebrew
Cassie Russell
Boog Powell. I know someone already said that one, but how can you not smile just saying that name?
You can’t make names like that up.
Cazzie may put you in the hospital again . . . .
Jesus Chuck, it’s “Cazzie”. (Acquired from the Knicks for “EJRRY ACLSU”.)
DIdn’t like that trade at the time (nor did I like the Cliff Ray/Nate Thurmond trade at the time). Shows you what I knew back then.
Didn’t Jerry Lucas go on the road (after basketball) promoting some kind of memory expanding thing?
Yeah. 1975 was cool in that I had lived through the heartbreak of Preston Riley and the Niners 3 playoff runs in the 1970s, and the Giants failure to close out Pittsburgh in 1971 ( I saw Perry win game 1 of the playoffs). Kingman blew game 2 when he butchered a play in left field by knocking what would have been a foul ball fair, thus giving the Pirates a 3 run homer in the top of the 7th.
Shit, they looked like z’s when I typed them . . .
POTD.
Yeah, about Nady, what a breath of fresh air. The guy rocks the 68, and comes in hitting. He says, “I’m just thrilled to be putting a Giants uni on.” He should keep the number.
So much for Peguero, I guess. He was almost as good as Adam Shabala…
as it turns out 68 was nady’s jersey number in college football
tonight he will be 12
Memories of Dusty who awaits in October…
“The same sister who burned our house to the ground.”
We got about 12 minutes until first pitch—–spin this yarn for us plz Chuck.
Yeah, no shit. Don’t leave us hanging. So, is sis in prison? 🙂
Don’t tell me, her name is Carrie?…
Super ironic that Nady is now on the Giants. I mentioned this a few months back, but the way Bochy yanked around Belt for a long time there and “Body Language-gate” broke out here on the Flap TOTALLY reminded me of Bochy’s handling of Nady when he was a young player on the Pads. X back then, like Belt, would show his emotions on his sleeve and it was widely reported that Boch was irritated by that.
Its all water under the bridge now, so lets not revisit it, but it cracks me up for sure.
Question, not a proposal: with a day off Thursday, would they skip Zito’s scheduled start against the Bums on Sunday if he struggles today?
If you thought being a kid in the ’70s was cool, try the ’60s.
The stuff my parents let me do without supervision I would not even think of letting the Snarkettes do. It would be close to child neglect now. I used to ride my bike 3 1/2 miles to school one way every day beginning in first grade, first grade for Kreissakes. And up and back I crossed a four lane street on a crossing with no stoplight, no stop sign. You just had to go when the traffic passed. Sometimes in the Valley fog. Now, as my younger one starts middle school, we’re organizing a group of neighbor kids so they can go in a convoy, ending up where they cross the street where there’s a crossing guard. In 4th or 5th grade, we did bike jumps on an old broken down picnic table as the jump ramp. When the one kid that everybody thought was a dope propped up the higher end real high, we all said yeah, go ahead, because we figured he’d go head over heels and it’d be a laugh riot. He did, it was, and we laughed our asses off as he lay screaming on the ground with what turned out to be a broken collarbone. This was on the school grounds. So, when Romney says he can’t remember leading an assault on a classmate in high school — I call bullshit. And, the ’60s were famous for free love. Shoot yeah. I remember the name of the girl that kissed me in the sandbox in Kgarten. Celeste…
yes
Somewhere in the 2007 Splash archives is my Bonds to the Pirates for Nady trade proposal…
The ’75 Warriors were my first pro team championship, too. I saw one game that season at the Coliseum Arena, they played the Lakers with Kareem, and smoked ’em. Rick had something like 38 after 3 quarters, he was on fire. 22 foot jumpers on a string — Down! I loved Bill King broadcasts, listened to them all the time. Amazing how he could keep up with all the action. He was great, the only think I found was his achilles heal is that he really let the refs have it a little too much, it was just a little over the top when he railed at them. There’s no doubt that was one of the greatest upsets in US pro sports history. It’s gotten lost because it was perpetrated against the East Coast team…
The AL East just got a little more tighter.
There’s his 4 runs!
BZ not struggling
yet
BZ seems to be getting some early love from the offense these days. go g’s.
twiscos (the twins) and i are headed to a nice 9 hole golf course. i’ll take the radio.
tri-tip soaking since saturday in a red wine/red wine vinegar, garlic, mustard, spices brew. some potatoes, snap beans and pop overs await.
enjoy the holiday knuckleheads.
e.
Just finished sirloin with mushroom cream sauce. threw in some kale so it is healthy
Wash it down with a pint or two of Sam Smith’s Nut Brown Ale — hey, its positively healthy! 😉
Wow, 4 already. Beat me to it BF. Awesome. Zito should be relaxed now, that’s for sure. Well, if things start to go south, Bochy is going to have a short leash today on him with an enhanced Pen and a lead already in hand…
I could learn to like these four-run first innings. (The Seventies? My decade was the Sixties. Can’t beat for music, chaos, tragedy, art, history, destruction, nonsense, creativity, and baseball.) (Shocked to learn or recall in Steve Blass’s book that the first world Series night game was 1972. I’m w/ him. It sent MLB down a bad road.) Happy LABOR Day! Thank the labor movement for days off, vacations, benefits.
He got 4 last start in the 1st- Bochy and the pen saved him and he got a no decision.He looks sharper today, though.
If Pence and Pablo actually start hitting for some pop on a regular basis, this race will be over by the 20th…
Yes the names of players from the 70’s, I always liked Thurmon Munson, and Goose Gossage for names. The reson those always are remember cause of the 77 and 78 WS, Yankees and Dodgers. I worked in a restaurant and one of the waitress’s was a dodger fan had bets with her during bothe series. No Internet, blogs, FB etc, had to wait till the next day to taunt her, all in good fun!! I still rank those as some of the best WS in baseball! Funny though because of no love loss over the Dodgers I cannot remember any of their players!!
OK. Here’s ths story. My brother, who is 6 years older than me, was 5 at the time. He thought it wouid be fun to burn all his younger sister’s clothes. So, he took them into a nearby field had a nice little bonfire and burned them up. My sister, who was 3, thought OK. I’ll get even. So she put all his clothes on the floor in his room, and lit them up.
A little background. We lived in the High;lands in San Mateo. If you know those houses, they are Eichlers. Plywoood everywhere, flat tar and gravel roofs. My mom, who was 7 months pregnant with me, was asleep on the couch. Of course, the curtains went up real quick, and by the time my sister came out of my brother’s room to wake my mom up, the walls and the ceiling were going pretty good. After she tried to stop the fire for a few minutes, it was going fast and furious. So she grabbed her jewery and some photo albums and ran across the street to call the fire department. by the time the fire department got there 10 minutes later, the entire house was in flames.
Sheesh. Not funny. Talk about “so much depends”!
So does this mean you are the sane one in the family?
What’s hat Traffic song. John Barleycorn and his nut brown bowl?
John Barleycorn mut die. OI know, woolgathering here . . .
unca – Umm, I think some of your keys are sticking. Or those flashbacks they promised us back in the 70s, finally came true.
Maybe you were thinking of Ogdens’ Nut Gone Flake by the Small Faces?
Yay!
Was gonne mention Goose . . . Dan Quissenberry. Fat Lever? Someone say that? Moses Malone (80s?), Chocolate Thunder is one of the all-time nicknames. Doctor J, The Iceman, Blue Moon, Catfish, Jack the Ripper . . .
The Penguin and Who’s your Padre were my favorite Dodger nicknames. And of course, Orel Sax.
I think of all the ’70s Dodgers, I “disliked intensely” Ron Cey the most, with Garvey a close second. That waddle walk and run, that little waggle and crouch with the bat, and those crushing hits always against the Giants. Penguin? Prick, more like it. But, I wish we had had him…
Did you read the story about how Jay Johnstone and maybe Rick Monday got together and built a tiny locker (I think, complete with tiny shoes) and had it installed in Cey’s regular locker. I guess he was pretty pissed about that.
Now THAT”S funny . . . I HATED Cey, Garvey, and Sax with a passion. That infield was all a bunch of arrogant pricks.
Bochy just put on the choke chain for Zito. He’s gone 5, so could get the win. Anybody gets a hit in the 6th, I’d pull him immediately…
Barry just barely made it through that inning.
AL East. I’d be soooooooooooo happy if Magnus’s mistress YES Yankees went down in Bronx flames. Go, Rays. Go, O’s. Go, Anybody But the Yankees.
I don’t put the Yankees in the same category as the Angels, Dodgers, Red Sox, Tigers that I referenced in my thread today. Yes, they are trying to purchase a championship each year. But all of their moves are thoughtful and planned out. They misfire on some of them (Kei Igawa was funny) but they are going after character guys who are brought in to fill a specific need–and to a man, every Yankee understands how they are supposed to act and perform in that uniform0—- unlike in Boston……
I didn’t see anything after the 1st inning but ZIto’s 5 innings look serviceable. Yank him in the 6th, he’s in line for the win, no reason to temp fate with all those relievers in waiting down in the BP
Yeah, improbable as it would seem to be, a playoffs without the Red Sux or Yankers would be OK with me.
Take him out. Now…
Thank you. But, one batter too many…
I think it would be better for baseball at this point to have the Orioles and A’s in the playoffs rather than the Yanks and Red Sox.
Apparently, the seamstress that does uniforms for the Gmen is off today, Labor Day. So Nady is wearing 68 for one more day.
Mental fatigue got to Hector, some very poor calls with 2 strikes.
Can anyone on the Giants ever get this guy out?
There you go. Zito was obviously done in the 5th. Bochy should have pulled him no later than after the first hit in the 6th. He gives them two hits, then puts Mota into a tight situation with two on. Now, the game is in doubt. Bochy should know by now when Zito is done, and we’re way beyond damaging his fragile psyche…
Awferfecksake!
Watching the game with my son, and he got off a good one. Said “That was a Cody Ross strike out.”
Casilla, pissing gthe closer role away.
Huh? Mota’s in there right now, pissing away the long man role…
Check that. Now officially pissed away that role. Damn, he was horrible…
Wow, 1-2 count 4 hits in a row?
Ya gotta wonder about that. Partly pitcher blunders, partly pitch calls? That really sucks…
At least this latest RBI hit was only 0-1.
Zito pitched fine for 5 innings and yes, Bochy seems to have left him in a batter too long. But fuck this *tight spot* shit, that’s why Mota is here—to come in and get them out of a *tight spot* before the 7th inning. I am just following on my ph but it appears he’s not doing anything other than pouring gasoline on this *tight spot*.
Mota did fuck up. So did Bochy keeping Zito in to get this bullshit started. They share the wealth…
Check that. Now Kontos is sharing the wealth. This is a freekin nightmare pitching effort…
Shit. Not really paying attention. Fucking crazy. I was checking the transmission fluid in my daughter’s car, and it is 2″ above the hot line. And I haven’t driven it today. I drained 1.5 quarts out of it, and it is still a little high. 2 quarts too high. And I just had the tranny rebuilt. I need to call those clowns.
Fuck. Can’t these guys win at home?
Never seen so many awful pitches in one inning. Buster must be calling them from first base.
Miller got off a funny line when he said something like “Kontos has thrown a month’s worth of hanging sliders this inning.”
Flem made a good point that much has (justifiably) been made of how much the offense has struggled at home, but the pitching has regressed at home as well.
Thank goodness Zito was pulled in time to preserve his 4 runs or more winning %. It could be Mota is just more comfortable with Posey behind the plate. The complexities of the modern game. . . .
Solution. Whiteside catches everybody…
The Designated Hitter for the battery, an idea whose time has come. Does anyone need more proof than Lincecum and Zito? The NL could one up the AL.
IMO, Zito doesn’t get near a playoff roster; again…
Sounds like Penny had the old atem ball working that inning
Wilkes was mentioned today…..I saw him this morning on the NBA network; they were showing a Laker/Portland playoff game from ’83. That Laker team could really push the ball up the court, relentlessly. It was a more entertaining NBA product then. And it did it without the 3-point line, which is part of the reason why.
Pawlie’s 1:34pm post regarding other things to be thankful for on Labor Day . . . . . . No more Chinese railroad work gangs, “Chinese” overtime, sweatshops, slavery, Samuel Gompers, Peter McGuire, Matthew Maguire, and President Grover Cleveland – but only for giving us the frickin’ day off (because he fought tooth and nail to suppress worker’s rights, e.g., he was trying to repair some political damage that he suffered earlier that year when he sent federal troops to put down a strike by the American Railway Union at the Pullman Co. in Chicago, IL. That action resulted in the deaths of 34 workers)..
Plus he messed up the presidential numbering system with his two non-consecutive terms. 44 presidencies, 43 guys. I don’t think that’s ever going to happen again. These days, once you lose the big election, you are done. A Richard Nixon losing in ’60 and running again in ’68 will probably never happen again.
Wow. Giants middle relievers’ stuff today is courtesy of Chevron…
They’re not awesome.