A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball

It’s an idea worth kicking around. Let’s compare the different factions of the teams. For the WBC, I’ll pick the player who I think is their best at each position. I’ll try to just compare their 2012 regular season’s except in certain cases where their 2012 playoff performances were just too dominant to ignore:

The Outfield:

SF Giants: Pence, Pa….Gone!, Blanco

WBC: Braun, Stanton and Adam Jones

Edge: WBC. Easily.

Third Base: 

Giants: Sandoval

WBC: David Wright

Edge: Giants. One of the most dominant MVP World Series performances in history.

Short Stop:

Giants: Brandon Crawford

WBC: Jimmy Rollins

Edge: WBC. I love me some Crawford glove, but JR is still producing at a very high level and he’s simply a better overall player.

Second base:

Giants: Scutaro

WBC: Brandon Phillips

Edge: Giants. While Phillips has a more accomplished career and the better overall 2012 season, what Scoots did for us in the 2nd half and in the playoffs was legendary.

First Base:

Giants: Brandon Belt

WBC: Mark Teixeira

Edge: Giants. Just comparing their years, Belt didn’t have the stats to match Tex who had more bombs and RBI’s (24hr’s >7hrs and 84 rbi’s > 56 rbi’s). Belt did steal more bags (12>2) but came up a little shy in OPS (.807 > .771). Tex is a fantastic defensive player but I don’t think he’s better than Belt and I’ve watched both play many, many games. I’d still rather have Belt than Tex in this world series, Tex was hurt on and off all year and just looked done at the end of the season. Belt didn’t hit much in the playoffs but he was still the better player, in my opinion, at the end of 2012…….

Catcher:

Giants: Posey

WBC: Mauer

Edge: Giants. Hands down.

Starting Pitching (I’m going to give them Voggy just to give them a chance in this category):

Giants: Cain, Bumgarner, Zito

WBC: Voggy, Dickey, Medlen

Edge: Giants. Maybe a tie. nope, Giants, just for Zito’s huge, MAN-child pitching performances vs the Cardinals and the Tigers. 13 innings, 1 earned run. Epic. He’s one of my all time Giant’s hero’s for what he did to help bring us the trophy last year.

Pen:

Not gonna list off all of the players,

Edge: Giants. Blind call made easily.

Closer:

Giants: Romo

WBC: Kimbrel

Edge: WBC. Romo was fantastic but Kimbrel was incredible last year.

I think we’d likely win, especially if you factor in our secret weapon (Timmy) so brilliantly created and used by Bochy in the 2012 playoffs. But I’m open to a differing opinion….. 🙂 🙂 🙂

I know painfully little about this thing. I know it’s happening this March and I know the final games are going to be played at ATT. It takes up the first two weeks of March so it doesn’t look like the US players will be getting much spring training time with their mlb teams— and I bet that’s just fine with them. They probably will appreciate the break from the normal spring monotony of drills and tune ups. Here’s the US roster:

It’s a decent enough team. Despite the presence of Willie Bloomquist, I think we can take down Japan for once (they have won the first two *Classics*). Maybe Voggy gets to pitch in the finals at ATT? That would be cool.

So do any of you care about this competition? I guess it’s kinda like the Olympics, you don’t start caring about it till it’s happening and you’d feel un-American if you didn’t cheer for the USA team. I’m optimistic that it will be a pretty cool thing to watch, at least the finals if we make it that far…….

The winner is crowned “World Champion” and in some ways, isn’t that team a little more of a *world* champion than our Giants are?

We started kicking this around a little bit at the end of the last thread. I’m totally interested in where you all stand on this. One of the main reasons I like sports is that it’s an unknown outcome right up until the very end. Even if you’re watching a movie or a sitcom or whatever, you can usually see the end result coming. But not with sports. That all gets played out in front of you. It’s what keeps us on the edge of our seats. And I’ve just never been interesting in watching games on tape where I know the outcome. I’ve watched *moments* of a video a million times. Cainer’s perfecto. Blanco’s catch in Cainer’s perfecto. I watched Rowand’s catch to save Dirrrty’s no-no probably 30 times……

The one sport I can tolerate watching known outcome replays of  is horse racing. I can watch replays of a horse race all day long. 50 times in a row. I’d be embarrassed to tell you how many times I’ve seen the 2009 Breeder’s Cup Classic. Most of you won’t click on this and if you do you’ll wonder why you did at the end of it (as I’m assuming that most of you don’t care about the sport). Zenyatta is probably my third or 4th favorite horse of all time.  I was at this race, I’ve been to 4 BC’s, but I couldn’t appreciate the magnitude of Trevor Denman’s perfect call as he was drowned out by the loudness of the crowd. But what she did that day was spectacular and I could watch that race 5 million times and never get sick of it. Here it is if you care to partake:

But the world series wins? The Super Bowl wins? I’ve watched all the best parts of it over and over but I couldn’t imagine sitting through an entire game…..

I’m not really following why the D-backs are ditching their best young talent. They seem to have gotten very little in return.

I’m a little biased on Bauer, in 2011 I watched him strike out 17 Cardinal at Sunken Diamond. He was electric and dominant and I posted the next day about this future superstar. Then the D-backs drafted him with the third pick in the first round of the 2011 draft and I literally shat myself. He blew through the minors with a 13-4 record and 200 k’s in 156 innings. I know a couple a cats in Reno who watched him pitch for the Aces and said he was the next “Lincecum”.

Then he gets called up in late June (I bought him or picked him up in all four of my fantasy leagues) and he pitched in four games, sucking in three of them, before he was sent back down to AAA. I watched him on tv pitch the July 3rd game v the Pads and to me it was clear he wasn’t finishing any of his pitches. He clearly had some type of injury. And there were reports that he’s an ass and rubbed his teammates and coaches the wrong way. Not surprising for a kid from southern california.

Justin Upton had a poor 2012. It was sour news for me in one league, I drafted him with the 7th pick in the first round in one of my leagues. I thought he was going to win the MVP. He had a terrible year, he went 31 bombs and 21 steals in ’11 to 17 bombs and 18 steals in 2012. As was Bauer, he was labeled a *problem* in the clubhouse.

But Upton had a thumb injury last year and anything in the hand can fuck your year if it’s bad enough. Plus, it was clear that Gibson didn’t like him and if he had a bad attitude it probably got a lot worse as his shitty season carried on with Gibson glaring at him from the dugout…….

But either one of these guys could turn into a superstar in the coming years and I wouldn’t bat an eye. They’re both destined for it, whether they get there or not is up to the future.

Here’s what the D-backs got in return:

Tony Sipp–here’s what Shandler has to say about him: “2009-11 ERA’s were all propped up by favorable S% . when they finally reverted, his world came crashing down. DOM remains good despite decline, but CTl needs to improve before he has plus value. His best role is LOOGY”

Lars Anderson– big ‘ol 25 year old first baseman out of Oakland who’s done little in the minors and nothing at the big league level.

Didi Gregorious–  22 year old SS from the Netherlands who’s been fiddling around in the minors since 2008. His name will be his greatest legacy.

Martin Prado— Love him. I’ve owned him twice, he’s legit and can plan many positions and he’ll produce a .300ish ba with 14-15 hr’s and maybe as many stolen bases.

They got three other prospects that I don’t have time to highlight. None of them are overwhelming.

Put it this way: Had they traded Upton and Bauer in 2011 they would have gotten the world for them. By trading them now, they got a fraction of that. It’s all good for us but I truly have no idea what Arizona with all of this………

I’ve only been halfway following the new contracts for the arbitration eligible guys. We’ve become numb to the hugeness of the money baseball generates and the 9 figure mega-deals that get signed by the biggest stars.

But for peripheral guys like Joaquin Arias and Gregor Blanco, the deals they get this year are life changing. Arias was barely hanging on to a return to the big leagues when he was signed by the Giants to a minor league deal in December of 2011. After he hit .400 in Fresno he got the call up and he never looked back. He recently avoided arbitration with the Giants and agreed to play for $925,000. That’s chump change to a guy like Albert Pujols who makes $156,000 per game. But Arias must have been thrilled to get that type of security. And that’s on top of the $377,000 world series share he earned in 2012.

Blanco was a little more accomplished than Arias but he still hadn’t been paid the major league minimum since 2009. He avoided arbitration this year and will play for $1,350,000 in 2013. I haven’t followed what he’s doing this off season. He probably still went down to the Venezuelan Winter Baseball League to defend his MVP from last year. If he did go play, I bet he’s feeling a lot more content and secure this year as opposed to last year.

Here are their salary histories according to baseball-reference.com

Arias: 

Blanco: 

And maybe I’ve been clueless about this feature at that site, but you can now convert their salaries into what they would be worth in different eras. Here’s what Blanco’s mlb deals would have looked like in 1900:

Romo had been fiddling around at the major league minimum until he made $1,575,000 in 2012. He hasn’t come to terms yet but he filed for $4.2 million, the Giants have countered at $2.8 (I think). He’ll make around $3.5 mil once they finally come to agree. Not a bad way to make a living……..

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For those of you who have read Pawlie’s most recent book “World Serious”, here’s a pic of my friend Jordana who we ran into outside the ballpark before the game:

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Most of you can probably tell who the “Days Till” pic is but if you can’t that’s Atlee Hammaker posing with 2 chicks in 1982.

Billy Beane 1984-1989 .246 career OBP- “Moneyball” was not subtitled “The Career of Billy Beane”

Tony Suck, 1883-1884 career on base percentage of .205, a career slugging percentage of .161, and zero home runs.

Eli Whiteside 2005, 2009-2012 just because. he’s so bad that Vera rented his boyhood bedroom to J.R. Phillips. ” I wanted a decent player in Eli’s bed”, Vera explained.

J.R. Phillips 1993-1999 The worst 23 HR hitter ever. And it took him 7 years to hit the 20 mark- hit .188 and K’d 180 times in 501 AB.

Tommy Lasorda, 1954-1956 6.48 ERA in 26 games over three seasons.

Marv Throneberry, 1955-1963 He once hit a triple, but was called out after missing both first and second base while on his way to third. Jimmy Breslin said: ” Having Marv Throneberry play for your team is like having Willie Sutton work for your bank.”

Mario Mendoza, 1974-1982 A guy whose name is the benchmark for hitting futility has to be on the list. Actually, Mario has been unfailrly maligned, he was .215 hitter. I think he deserves Eli’s bed.

Herb Washington, 1974-1975 Baseball’s only designated runner, he was 31 for 48. He was picked off in the ninth inning of Game 2 of the 1974 World Series, killing an Oakland rally and handing the Dodgers a victory. He never batted, never played in the field.

The Reverend Aloysius Stanislaus Travers, 1912 In his one major league appearance, Travers pitched a complete game, allowing 26 hits and 24 runs

Bill Bergen, 1901-1911 Bergen has the lowest career batting average of any player with 2,500 at bats. He hit .170 with two career home runs.

No post with Lasodra in it is complete without his major contribution to the game:

The BBA, of which I am a proud member, is trying to come up with the top 10 all time baseball players still alive. Here’s the list of 22 that they came up with (to be voted down to 10 at some point):

Willie Mays

Hank Aaron

Ernie Banks

Yogi Berra

Barry Bonds

Roger Clemens

Whitey Ford

Bob Gibson

Rickey Henderson

Al Kaline

Sandy Koufax

Greg Maddux

Joe Morgan

Mike Piazza

Albert Pujols

Mariano Rivera

Frank Robinson

Alex Rodriguez

Pete Rose

Nolan Ryan

Mike Schmidt

Tom Seaver

 I might have added Steve Carlton, Johnny bench and Cal Ripkin Jr. Thoughts?

Charles Barkley told us he isn’t a role model and he couldn’t have been more right. He wasn’t one. But a lot of pro athletes are role models. For young sports fans growing up they are right up there with your parents, a little league coach, your favorite musician, the best 8th grade math teacher there ever was….. I now realize that it sucks as a parent to have those cats role modeling next to you for your kid(s). But it only sucks if you just leave it alone and don’t parent them. You have to translate the role model to your child. The Good, the bad and the Ugly are all in play. A role model (to me)  is someone you respect, someone you wish to be, and someone you try to live your life by.  That’s some complex heavy shit. And there isn’t a single person out there in the world who’s perfect……

My Number 1 qualification for an athlete role model is this: Show the world how to lose with dignity, class and sportsmanship. Anyone can feel good/look good winning. But the flip side of winning is losing. And you can’t have competition without both. Lots of my favorite players missed opportunities to show off this skill. I remember the game that snapped Jerry Rice’s consecutive catch streak. He walked off the field and kicked the pylon about 20 feet in protest. This morning I watched the highlights of Serena Williams losing to that teenage chick (can’t remember her name) and she bashed her racket into the ground after a lost point, destroying it and finally flinging it into the bench. And I remember the day that Twin tainted my feelings about Will Clark by uploading a link to an SI article that made him look like a fucking d-bag……..

Three examples of winners who acted like losers. Three role models who stopped being role models. But all three have brilliant qualities to pass on to your kids. All three people are fantastic role models–if the details of their life are translated properly. That’s where parenting comes in play…….

I’m not going to name any of my actual sports figure role models. Not right now, at least. I’ve got a girl who needs to go bed and several things need to go down right now to make that happen on time. There’s a Taylor Swift poster above her bed. I know very little about Taylor Swift. But when the time comes, I’ll do my best to translate her role model-ness to her. I just hope it’s not tonight………..

🙂 🙂 🙂

Reading the transactions yesterday, I saw Phil Humber got scooped up by the Astros off the scrap heap and went back to double check that he was, in fact, one of the 23 pitchers to throw a perfect game. Sure enough, he did it. It really should only be one of 21, not 23. Two cats from 1880 tossed a perfect game but the rules were different. Prior to 1893, pitchers only threw underhand from a flat box 45 feet away from home plate. You had to get to an 8-ball count before you drew a walk and a hit batter did not get a free pass to first base. So please make a note that Big Flavor has changed the total number of perfect games from 23 to 21. Hmmm, cross that off the list, baseball historians can thank me later. Off to the next task of the day……

Perhaps the greatest unofficial perfect game was pitched by Harvey Haddix in 1959. He tossed 12 perfect innings vs the Brewers. Then, in the 13th, the third baseman made an error allowing the leadoff runner to bat. He was sacrificed over to 2nd and Hank Aaron was walked. Joe Adcock (too many jokes…must focus on typing sentence) blasted a home run that turned into a double when AdCOCK passed Aaron on the bases. Sounds like a pretty crazy game. I couldn’t find how many pitches Haddix threw, but AlleyKat was the offical bat boy that day and says he personally counted 115 total, 82 of them for strikes. (Just checking to see if anyone is actually reading this). 🙂 🙂 🙂

Three of the last five perfect games have come against the Tampa Bay Rays. Weird.

And according the me, the greatest of all 21 was thrown by our very own Matt Cain on June 13th of last year.

Anyway, 3-D world time……

When the Niners started their Super Bowl dynasty run I was in that 10-18 year old range—basically, most of my childhood (the part of my childhood that mattered, anyway) and the perfect point in life to become a fan. We won 4 Super Bowls in that decade and I say “we” because the fans win them, too. They become part of your identity that get stored away in your past and stay with you for the rest of your life.

After Joe left, the Niners were still great but not the same *great* that they had been. They did win a Super Bowl in the mid 90’s. That was a long time ago. It didn’t hit me how long ago till yesterday as the clock ticked down to zero in Atlanta. I had forgotten what that feeling was like—And it was much different than what I felt after the Giants won in 2010. This was like a return-to-my-childhood type of feeling. It’s like a quiet confidence, something  like a knowing dude head nod but with less wisdom.

So yesterday’s win was a great, great day for me. I stayed confident throughout the entire game, even after we went down 17-0. My buddy from my softball team was an emotional wreck—here is the chain of texts we exchanged throughout the game (my comments are in green).

Here’s are the texts after we went down 17-0:

I continued to talk him down off the ledge, even using a softball reference as a reference point and I clearly stayed strong and focused even after the horrific Crabtree goal line fumble:

and finally, just as it did in the 80’s, everything makes sense again in my world and the Niners are back in the Super Bowl. It has been an easy feeling to get to know again…..

Pawlie went to Finnerty’s today to beat off to our trophy. Figuratively speaking, of course. I think….I hope.

As I understand it, Finnerty’s is like a *west coast Norcal* oasis. Or maybe it’s just a Giant’s baseball place, I dunno. He can speak to that better than I can.

Anyway, here are 2 photo’s he sent me. Earlier today he was texting me about *getting kicked out* of something. Katie had my phone and demanded to know who I am friends with that’s getting kicked out of places, lol. I explained that it had to do with a line to see the world series trophy and that he was going back in. Then I got a text from him saying “you will get an email with pic from a Melanie”. I never got an email but I did get a pic sent to me on my phone from a number I didn’t recognize. i DID recognize the mug in the pic. Nice looking girls he’s with, too.

And then I got sent a pic of Pawlie touching our glorious prize. Here it is:

great pic, my man and I know you enjoyed your day……

He also had a Loo interaction, sort of. After inviting Loo to meet him at Finnerty’s he received an email back from Anita detailing their missed interaction. Sorry, I love Loo and he’s welcome back any time, any day, no questions asked. But I think Anita is Loo’s *Lennay Kekua*.

And I’m not down with made up people.

But like I’ve said, maybe I’m wrong. I’ve been wrong many times before………

I buy it every year, it’s invaluable to my fantasy player assessment. I’ll try not to bore you with the numbers since many of them are, well, *boring* and often not reliable in predicting an outcome. But more often than not the underlying numbers that Shandler uses paints a much clearer picture of a player’s past year and upcoming year than the normal baseball stats do.

For each player, in addition to the saberstats, they write a little blurb. It’s user friendly and I’ll share those blurbs with you here at the Flap for as many Giants as I can get to before the sun comes up and I need to start going to do 3-D life stuff…….

Brandon Belt: Mashed RH pitching in 2nd half though xBA remains skeptical. More power to come? .906 OPS at home so ATT is not killing him. xPA says power is still there, just waiting for more fly balls. Up: 20 hr’s

Brandon Crawford: Gainfully employed for reasons other than his bat. Still, 2nd half gives tiny, infintesimal hint of a spark. Not enough to hope for league average power, speed or contact ability. Just enough for him to get regular PT but his fantasy value rests in runs and RBI’s and nothing else.

Marco Scutaro: repeated solid contact % and H% combo, turned in a career year with stratospheric LD% (line drive) and 600+ AB’s. Without HR’s or SB’s, all the aforementioned  and continued durability are the keys to his value. Advanced age is his biggest risk.

Pablo Sandoval: Injuries and off season woes feuled a near repeat of 2010. Apart from power outage, his basic plate remain in tact but conditioning remains an ongoing issue. high risk/high reward. Is house arrest with Jenny Craig an option? Minus some poundage: UP: .310/25hr’s/90rbi’s

Angel Pagan: 2011 now looks like the outlier. Even with 600at bats he couldn’t hit double digits in HR’s. But hits line drives at an impressive rate and that sets a nice batting average floor. Add in the SB’s and runs and he should maintain nice return for $20ish with full health.

Hunter Pence: on the surface, his consistent HR totals are encouraging. But something happened in SF that sent his 2nd half into a tailspin. If 2nd half contact % and ground ball % remain his future is cloudy. Power production is tied to 600+ at bats so pray his health grade holds up.

Andres Torres: Pro: above average speed, career best bb%, got on base vs LH at .382 clip. Con: stolen base opportunity collapsed in 2nd half, .214 ba vs RH the last 2 years. Power he displayed in ’09 and ’10 is not coming back. As a BA drag with little power he needs to run to have value, but age, playing time and stolen base % not on his side.

Tim Lincecum: try not to overreact to ugly 2012. I know it’s tough. Yes, control finally blew up but damage was due to fluky hr/f spike. Still, racks up K’s and S% and hr/f will regress. But it might not be enough if his velocity is still off.

Barry Zito: ended season with 3.03 ERA, 3.2 command in Sept/Oct then strong PS. But before that it was 4 PQS DISasters in a row and a season full of lousy BPI’s. Career best splits vs LH probably won’t repeat, nor will the 15 wins. Still only 1 positive RAR since signing mega-deal. Don’t expect another miracle in 2013.

Voggy: a worthy follow up to his luck-enhanced break out in 2011. When H% and S% finally failed him in 2nd half he displayed some encouraging skill growth (see DOm and COM). While xERA still isn’t convinced there won’t likely be too much regression.

Romo: Still owns elite CMD, even after it got cut in half and he’s equally unhittable vs LH and RH. xERA tempers expectation for a repeat but even a partial repeat holds value. In a pen full of ?’s he has demonstrated he can close so now he just needs an opportunity. Up: 40 saves.

Ok, that’s it! Sun’s rising…….

Oh baby, we’ve had some fantastic lies get exposed lately, haven’t we?

I’ve read as much as I can read about the Te’o fake girlfriend story and I can’t read anymore. It’s just so…stupid.  If you believe he fell for the hoax then you have to also believe he’s dumber than dirt. I think AT BEST he fell for the hoax early on and then once he found out his buddy/cousin/whatever was playing him, he kept the hoax going for personal gain. I’ve heard about the gay-angle and actually that’s the first thing I thought of when I initially read the story. But I don’t think that’s it.

But the dumbest thing about this entire stupid, weird story isn’t anything that has to do with Te’o. It’s the fact that not a single writer ever bothered to check up on any of this. The scribes had no problem descending on this story like vultures but they weren’t too interested in the facts. Unearthing the facts takes too dang long. It’s a lot easier to just cut and paste from Twitter, right? And I’m a big twitter-reader, but I’m just some dude on the internet. I’m hoping that the people who get paid to report and write shit actually do their jobs. I guess that’s too much to ask…….

Another fantastic liar is Lance Armstrong. Let me be clear about my feelings about him: Fuck him. For starters, the sport of cycling hovers right around swimming  in terms of holding my interest. If I only care about the sport 2 weeks out of every 4 years, it’s a dumb sport. Secondly, there’s nothing worse than a guy who lies to your face for years in a way that makes you think that just maybe,YOU’RE the dumbass who has this figured out all wrong. Then, just as you’ve properly chastised yourself for doubting this great cycling champion, he shows up on fucking Oprah after he’s retired (but with a motive) deciding that NOW is the time to set the record straight. He makes Pete Rose look good.

But in my opinion, even though it didn’t last nearly as long as the other two liar’s lies, the BEST exposed lie of the year was our very own Melky’s lie. Andrew Baggerley wrote an article exposing Melky’s positive test. It was brilliant investigative reporting. Melky stood up and boldly denied everything, essentially making Baggs look like a fool. I’m not going to bother to look up what lies he told that day. But I do remember reading Bagg’s mea culpa the next day. It was contrite, he apologized for jumping to a false conclusion, and in his written words you could almost see his head bowed in shame…..

Three weeks later, it turns out that Baggs was right all along and the Melkster gets busted with a positive PED test. But that didn’t stop Melky. He’s too smart to stop lying. He had his pals create a fake-o website to explain the *supplement* he mistakenly took. It took investigators about 4 minutes to snuff that lie out. He never apologized to Baggs and he skipped out of town without even a word to his teammates. Classy guy. I hope he falls on his face in Toronto.

So what do you guys think? Of the 3 big liars highlighted today, who was the worst, most unforgivable of the three?

As we all know, ain’t nobody alive got into the HOF this year. The dreaded PED suspicious possible infractions. But next year, our beloved porn-stach Jeff Kent will finally be up for induction. The SFChron posed a question today.

Will the fact that he was bringing up more testing and wanted to include blood layouts for Human Growth—what’s the word? Enhancement? No. That’s not it.

But the question is–will Kent be a first vote inductee based not only his numbers (which are outstanding for a 2nd baseman) but also for his advocacy of testing and flat out delivering major denuncements and possible elimination from participation in the game after a 3rd infraction?

Will this, by itself, negating his wondrous numbers as a second baseman, cause the journalists, or the BBWRADSWAQI or whatever that acronym is to automatically vote him in?

Throw ball, hit ball, catch ball. If you can do those things really, really well you get to play major league baseball. I stumbled across an mlb salary list of average salaries from 1967 till now. It’s nothing we didn’t already know, I just trip out on looking at how they’ve skyrocketed.

You don’t even have to go back to the 60’s to see something that stands out. In 1989, really not that long ago, the minimum salary was $68,000? Wow.

I don’t have a problem with the salaries these guys make. The money is obviously there and mlb, and especially Bud Selig, has done a pretty amazing job at maximizing the revenue it sees with mlb.com and the gynormous television deals. As everyone knows, Selig isn’t into this for the love of the game. In fact, pretty much every move he’s made as commish has been done with the sole goal of putting the most amount of Benjamin’s into the pockets of his fellowship.

But do any of us really have a problem with that? The game has never been more exciting, lower-salary teams like Oakland and Baltimore (and even Pittsburgh) are competing with the highest salaried teams, new stadiums are in every town in America (except Oakland) and we’ve won 2 out of the last 3 world series.

I say, give ’em all a raise on top of the raises Sabes has already doled out this year!

29 days….

And counting….

Downward.

This off season has been unusual for me. Very little Giants news to highlight or even be interested in. That’s what you get after you win a world series. Luckily for me, I’ve got the Niners to obsess about for at least another week (and likely longer). I haven’t had to turn the channel when hockey highlights come on but unfortunately that’s going to change soon. The Warriors are actually semi-engaging to watch this year. Stanford won the Rose Bowl. And hey, not that I care about it, but I heard Cal might graduate 50% of their football players this year. Come on, any trend upward with that number is something to celebrate! 🙂 🙂 🙂

So yeah, it’s been a pretty uplifting off season, considering how dark and cold it always is. And we’re inside of a month to go before P’s and C’s report to spring training. Ah, seem like just yesterday that I was searching for numbers in the low 90’s for the countdown….

So after going to see the Hobbit, I decided to re-read the story. My copy was published in 1966 and has been in the family for nearly that long. Apparently, the last time I read it was in 1985. Because there, big as life, was my ticket to game 44 (at the Stick, game 94 overall), Tuesday, July 23, 1985. Section 11, Box 5H, Seat 3, against the hated St. Louis Cardinals.

(from Flavor) Here’s a pic of the ticket. By the way, Chuck has 3 great old school tickets loaded up on his thread right now at ninersforever.com

The lineup:

Giants                                    Cards
Dan Gladden CF            Vince Coleman LF
Manny Trillo 2B            Willie McGee CF
Chili Davis RF               Tom Herr 2B
Jeffrey Leonard LF       Jack Clark 1B
Chris Brown 3B             Andy Van Slyke RF
Bob Brenly C                  Terry Pendleton 3B
Rob Deer 1B                   Darrell Porter C
Jose Uribe SS                 Ivan de Jesus SS
Mike Krukow P             Danny Cox P

The Giants had a 3-2 lead going into the sixth and the wheels came off. Krukow faces three batters in the sixth without getting an out. Mark Davis comes in and faces three batters, 2 walks (one intentional) and a strikeout. Greg Minton gets the final two outs while giving up a hit. 4 runs score and it’s 6-3 Cards, which is how it will finish. Mike Jeffcoat pitches 2 innings, giving up one hit. Vida closes it out with a walk, a hit and two strikeouts. Start Time Weather: Sunny. Time of the game: 2 hrs 44 minutes. Attendance: 7,688 for a 12:05 start. This is a classic example of Chili’s declaration that there are 5000 fans, and the rest are assholes (BTW, I saw a book today “Assholes, A Theory”. I think I’ll have to put that on the nightstand). Jim Davenport was at the end of his managing career before Roger Craig came in and took over. They lost 100 games that season. I was at the 100th loss.

It’s funny how a bookmark can dredge up memories. http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SFN/SFN198507230.shtml

The one cool thing that football has over baseball: it’s always sudden death in the playoffs. I love sudden death. The baseball playoffs certainly don’t mirror the speed of the sport in the regular season, but as a fan you at least get to settle in for a journey. A process. If you have home field advantage and you lose game 1, everyone huddles around the water cooler at work debating just how devastating the loss actually was. It’s funny if you think about it. How often do the Giants lose the opening game of a home series and there’s barely a grumble from the fans. But goddammit, lose Game 1 of the playoffs and you’re at least shitting in your pants a little bit.

Lose a football playoff game, and you’re done. Win and you get at least another game. Until you win the Super Bowl. Love it.

And tomorrow, my favorite team plays their first and hopefully not last playoff game this season. Just as I did last year, I’ve got several things planned throughout the day to distract me (or focus me, depending on how you look at it) before the game starts. Going on a run with a friend in the morning, coaching my mad-skilled girl’s hoops team at noon, maybe betting on a race or two and then…..sitting on my couch and watching the madness unfold.

Growing up, my playoff experiences were few and far between with the local teams. The Dubs were almost never in it. I remember Phoenix and Charles Barkley sweeping them at some point in the late 80’s. They put the beat down on RUN TMC (still one of the greatest nicknames in all of sports) that year. But I didn’t boo-hoo it too much. My Giants playoff experience growing up can be summed up in 2 non-WS-winning seasons: In ’87, my man-crush with Jeff Leonard was solidified. And in ’89 I jumped out of my college dorm 2nd story window after Will Clark hit the most perfect, majestic night time grand slam in the history of my life. Zimmer still wishes he’d brought Assenmacher in. Hindsight, I know……

For some reason, I was much more emotionally reactive to Niner playoff football games. I learned a little bit of how to lose your mind from watching my dad. I was at his house watching the game and after Clark caught it my old man made a bee-line for the door and tore ass out of the house, down the street. He was gone. There are conflicting reports (between he and I) of how many actual clothes he tore off on his maniacal dash around the block. I’m telling you, he came back largely naked, and that’s giving him the benefit of the doubt….

In ’83 I was at the playoff game where we dramatically beat Detroit. The next game in Washington had me literally throwing shit against the walls of the tv room in protest of the absurd pass interference calls against the Niners late in the 4th.

I will never forget how hard Jim Burt hit Joe Montana in the ’86 divisional playoffs. It devastated me.

And the loss to the Giants in 1990 NFC Championship is a point in my life where I briefly went insane. We were on our way to the super bowl, all we had to do was run out the clock. The usual adrenaline was building inside me, our rightful place in the most coveted championship game was but 2 minutes away. I was in full knowing (and drunken) dude head nod-zone. And then *the worst* happened. I’m not talking about a natural disaster or one of my family members dying. It was way worse than that.  Roger Craig….fumbled. I screamed so loudly it’s a sound that still wakes me up at night.  I was broken. I was watching the game with some college buddies but I couldn’t do anything but slump “face down ass up” in the center of the living room for what seemed like days. It was probably 5 minutes. After I picked myself up off the orange shag carpet, I knew I had to do something. There  had to be a plan. And it had to happen very quickly or my head was gonna slam back down into that carpet, with great force……

The Plan: I was going to drive from Portland, Oregon down to SF and kill Roger Craig. I’d never killed anyone before, didn’t know how I was gonna do it I just knew that he must die. I announced this bold claim to my drunk friends and headed down the steps to my car with my crew laughing and following behind me in as straight a line as the guy in front could muster. I got in, fired up the ’87 Fox and sped off down I-5 toward my target…..

At the first exit I pulled off to get beer and while still fuming in line about this incomprehensible turn of events, I decided to abort the plan and just go home. Me and the fella’s shot-gunned the Oly 12 pack I’d bought in about 3 minutes……

My point with this long, drawn out thread is to emphasize just how much Niner playoff games mean to me. I have seriously softened my approach as a fan over the last 20 years. Roger Craig could commit the same mistake today and I’d probably just swear at the tv and punch the couch or something…..

But this shit still means a lot to me. And I’m nervously anticipating the outcome of the game tonight. I truly believe that Justin Smith won’t be able to play to his ability, or even be serviceable. In fact, if I wasn’t a fan I’d hammer Green Bay on the money line…….

One thing I do think will happen: the game is going *over*. Way over. I got 45 and I couldn’t be more confident. It was the first time in a while I had to check myself on the amount that I’d bet. And if I’m wrong, I promise one thing and I’ve got no problem putting it in writing:

Regardless of the ultimate total, Roger Craig will continue to live…..

🙂 🙂 🙂

I was mildly surprised to read today that management and the player’s association have agreed to do in-season HGH testing. It sounds good. I mean, it sounds much better than just testing for it in spring training. And the freaking NFL doesn’t even test for HGH (which is a  j-o-k-e).

But what is up with the timing of this announcement? The DAY AFTER the HOF voters embarrassed themselves, mlb comes out with this *big announcement* about how far they’ve come in cleaning up the sport?

Sorry, but that sounds shady to me. The timing of it is shady as is the fact that the players association agreed to it. If they agreed to it they must know they are going to have no problem beating it. At least the smart (see: not Melky) or the rich (see: many of the players) must feel they can beat an in-season test like this. Otherwise, why would they agree to it?

There’s too much money to be made by pro athletes by juicing themselves to the nines. It really doesn’t even matter if you get caught. Melky got busted and then embarrassed with his bungled version of a baseball Ponzi scheme and then Toronto trips over themselves to gift him 16 million dollars? Shit, where’s the needle? I’ll take a hit or two of that. Think about it: Melky was well on his was to journeyman-outfielder territory before he started juicing in Kansas City. Then, even though he gets caught and exposed as a joke he still gets 16 mil? No matter who you are, 16 million can feed your children for a long, long time (unless you’ve got the headache that Spree was faced with 🙂 ).

So the motivation to take steroids is out there and thriving. And now today’s big announcement is supposed to make us think baseball is getting closer to getting cleaner? It all sounds shady as fuck to me…….

Everyone who had a vote in the hall of fame’s preposterous charade of a election proved their incompetence today. What exactly qualifies these guys to decide who is worthy of the hall of fame anyway? Because they wrote about baseball for at least 10 years? That’s an absurd, arbitrary qualification.

The Hall of Fame is run by private interests. Who ever these interests are state very clearly in their *Rules for Election* :

“1. Authorization: By authorization of the Board of Directors of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, Inc., the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA) is authorized to hold an election every year for the purpose of electing members to the National Baseball Hall of Fame from the ranks of retired baseball players.” THEY are authorizing the BBWAA to hold the election. They could just as easily *un-authorize* it and hand the task to more deserving, competent voters.

It’s crystal clear that the voting process is flawed and has been for some time. And for whatever reason, this current collection of writers sees themselves as some sort of reincarnation of Captain Queeg. The voters are the product of deindividuation, morphing into an incompetent entity that has delivered a serious blow to the credibility of those actually IN the hall of fame. It’s time for a change in who is responsible for the voting process.

My idea is simple: hand the votes over to the players who have served at least 6 years of service at the big league level. If they attained free agency, they get a vote for up to 10 years after they retire. That will *keep the line moving* with a variety of voters as well as always maintaining a connection between the voters and the players they are voting for.

I’m certainly more confident in a vote from a guy who played at the mlb level for 6+ years over some *keyboard jockey* who is imposing the will of his personal imprint into a museum he couldn’t have hoped to influence as an actual athlete.

Unca here . . .  Blind shot through the City Hall doors holding my camera over my head yesterday. So close, yet so far.

I’m very interested to see how closely (or not closely) my group’s vote compares to the BBWAA vote that comes out on Wednesday. We have over 400 voting members, I think. The BBWAA had 581 of it’s members send in ballots last year (a record number).

Upon further reflection, the only player i voted for who I would take my vote back on was Walker. I think the other 5 guys should get waved in with all the confidence of a Tim Flannery green light at third. And I regret not voting for Bagwell. I forgot how durable he was and was surprised to see that he had 2 seasons stealing 30 (or more) bases. There should be a lot more players in the baseball HOF and the criteria for entry has been diluted to the point of almost making the Hall irrelevant.

In 1936 the first five players to get inducted were Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, Christy Matthewson, and Walter Johnson. That’s a pretty slick crew. The bar was set high. Now, I’m not gonna say that it started to go downhill from there. But the criteria for entry became, shall we say, *fluid*….

Voters are only allowed to cast 10 votes per voting season but until the 1950’s, voters were encouraged to always cast up to the maximum of 10. Then for some unknown reason the trend started to turn and it became much tougher to get voted in. That’s too bad, they had the right idea up until the mid-50’s.

Last night, as I indicated, I sent off an email to my BBA brethren questioning the stinginess of the results of our vote. A rather spirited email chain developed that lasted well into the night. Here’s an email from one of the blog owners (Paul Dylan) that I thought stated it perfectly:

“I want the exact opposite.  I favor a huge hall of fame and think it should be much “easier” (whatever that means – if we let Mike Piazza in, does it mean his road here was any easier than if we don’t?).  How in the world is a fan’s experience enriched when we refuse to acknowledge the greatest players the sport has ever known?  The Hall of Fame is a museum dedicated to the sport and to the phenomenal athletes that have given so much joy to us, the fans.  The present state of the Hall of Fame is a travesty and a sad affair.  If no one gets into the Hall of Fame on this, the greatest ballot in the history of the institution, it’s because the system is unworthy, not the players.”

They send all sorts of memorabilia to the HOF. Bats, gloves, balls—all that jazz gets sent in. And why? Because it’s a part of baseball history—just like all of the *very good* players who get hosed on a yearly basis by the hubris of the BBWAA. I want a place to go to that honors everything that has ever contributed to making baseball the best sport in the world. Add like 6 or 7 wings to the HOF. Focus votes on inclusion, not exclusion. Dale Murphy was the best player in the game for 8 straight years. He doesn’t deserve a spot in the Hall? Why not? Cause he didn’t do it for 9 or 10 straight years? It’s dumb. I’d cast my vote for Murphy now as well.

And if Bonds doesn’t get 100% of the vote on Wednesday, I will no longer acknowledge the HOF until massive changes occur in the voting process……

As a member of the Baseball Blogger’s Alliance, I had a HOF vote to cast. I wrote about it in this thread back on 12/17/12:

https://oneflapdown77.com/2012/12/17/time-for-me-to-cast-my-hof-vote/

I waved in several players: Morris, Smith, Raines, Walker, Bonds and Biggio. It appears I was far m0re generous than the rest of my BBA brethren. As a group, we only let one player in: Bagwell. Here are the results:

Jeff Bagwell 76%

Craig Biggo 69%
Mike Piazza 69%
Barry Bonds 62%
Tim Raines 62%
Roger Clemens 56%
Edgar Martinez 41%
Alan Trammell 40%
Mark McGwire 35%
Curt Schilling 34%
Dale Murphy 32%
Larry Walker 32%
Jack Morris 32%
Lee Smith 25%
Kenny Lofton 21%
Sammy Sosa 21%
Don Mattingly 18%
Fred McGriff 15%
Rafael Palmerio 15%
Bernie Williams 4%
David Wells 4%
Sandy Alomar 3%
Julio Franco 1%

Well, it’s January 7th. It’s dark as fuck outside right now. 39 degrees. Fairly cold for this area. Forgot to get coffee yesterday so I made a pot out of the dregs of the bottom of the can. It is underwhelming…..

And that’s about all I’ve got right now. This winter has been the slowest in recent or long-term memory. No surprises. Scoots and Pagan are coming back. Same with Casilla and Affeldt. Bee-Wheezy is about 98% out the door but I got used to him being gone last year so it doesn’t sting as much as I thought it would. Plus, Romo is dominant. And cheaper.

The rest of the division has been pretty active. The Dodgers spent another quarter billion or so. The D-backs are busy stockpiling outfielders and they’ll be ready when the famine hits. The Padres did some sort of lateral shuffle, I wasn’t really paying attention.

Oh, and Twin and Blade started their own blogs. Links to be found to the right. Pawlie is churning out another book, I think about baseball poems, I’m gonna read my *sneak peak* later today at work.

And that’s about it. It says 37 days till P/C’s report. I’m not even sure if that number is correct. But I enjoy changing it every day. And I’ve got my BB’s-OTD to keep me company. Although today’s is looking a little ragged. If she unleashed those bad boys it would literally look like someone was pouring pancake batter, lol….

Carry on…….

Pawlie gets to take advantage of the darkness of my winter with a thread reviewing  his latest book, “World Serious”– One San Francisco Giants Fan’s 2012 Pilgrimmage.

Well, for starters, I immensely enjoyed the dedication: “To Craig and all at the Flap”. That was a great start to the book. 🙂

Here is the review I posted to Amazon on Christmas day:

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Giants Fans, Unite! December 25, 2012

By Craig V

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I read *World Serious* written by Paul Kocak on Christmas Day, 2012. I purchased a hard copy of it online a couple of weeks ago. As a huge Giants fan still basking in the glow of our second world series in 3 years, it was an easy online purchase. I was going to read it on vacation next week but it was quiet on this particular afternoon, so I decided to read it pre-vacation.It’s a short story, only 55 pages (not counting the epilogue). It’s not a long read, maybe an hour or a little longer. After I finished it, I was compelled to come review it here at Amazon.Mr. Kocak does a brilliant job of telling his tale of a spontaneous journey from New York to California in his quest to celebrate the San Francisco Giant’s World Series appearance in the fall of 2012. He didn’t tell a story that shocked me or had me dangling from the edge of my seat. The book isn’t about kick-starting your adrenaline. But that’s not what baseball is about, either. He wrote a book that read with the easy, perfect flow of a mid-Summer game at AT&T Park. There’s an “A. Bartlett Giamatti” feel to this book.His coast-2-coast *pilgrimage* balances the subtle vulnerabilities of his life against the deep seated love and commitment he clearly has to the San Francisco Giants franchise. And he shares these personal details with the backdrop of the poetry that is almost naturally associated with the game of baseball. I read many, many sentences in this book over and over again. As a reader, when you’re doing that, you know you’ve found a special writer.And the fact that Kocak is an east coast native, a near life long New Yorker who has lived his life as a lifelong Giants fan since he was 5 years old, all the while in the hostile confines of Yankee/Met territory, makes the book that much more intriguing.

I completely endorse this book and would recommend it to any baseball fan interested in a great read about about a single fan’s commitment to a moment in baseball time that he (or those who read this book) will never forget.”

Here’s a pic of the book. I stuck it in our still undisturbed Christmas tree. That’s called *subliminal advertising*. It’s quite likely you’ll now be compelled to buy this book and give it to someone as a gift. 🙂

Some might say I gave him such a glowing review because we are friends and those people would be mistaken. When I referenced A-Bart, what I meant was that he puts words together that make you appreciate the beauty of the language. Giamatti did this, too. For instance, after he arrives at Blade’s aunt’s house, he writes “To my left, the sun was setting, bleaching out visibility up Irving Street. A bronze gauzy haze drenched the streetscape.”  Anyone who’s ever been in the Sunset District around this time of day knows exactly what he saw that day and so perfectly put to words….

I’m not going to review the entire book in this space. I think most of you know how the story ends. As I reflect back on it a few weeks later, the thing I liked most about the book is that it wasn’t a book about baseball. I mean, there were the obvious correlations. But when you get to the core of it, it’s about the simple complexities of normal, daily human interaction. And he writes about it in a way that makes you wish the book was longer than 55 pages….

At some point this winter, I’ll probably read it again.

http://www.amazon.com/World-Serious-Francisco-Giants-Pilgrimage/dp/0615742882/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1357397347&sr=8-1&keywords=world+serious

Here’s one from Pawlie from last year:

PawlieKokonuts said, on January 30, 2012 at 5:33 pm (Edit)

lake-effect last night
spindrift January snow
HITS blizzard needed

I’ll write one later today. Feel free to post your very best January-blues Haiku’s……

I really don’t have any personal ones. I think resolutions, by and large, are pretty dumb. I don’t need an arbitrary day to make a bunch of proclamations that I’ve got about a 12 to 14.5% chance of keeping. I live by one *resolution*: Try to stay positive and patient in the present. Whether I fail at it or succeed in the moment, that’s how I try to live my life…..

But there’s nothing wrong with making a few baseball-related resolutions, is there?

In 2013 I promise to…….

1) have no expectations for Andres Torres and just appreciate his presence on the team

2) never forget Barry’s Zito’s contributions to the 2012 world series win (no matter how badly he will sometimes pitch in 2013)

3) never write a thread questioning a Bruce Bochy line up

4) not worry about how fat The Panda gets

5) go to at least 5 Giants games. This year I only went to 2 and felt lame about that

6) send Edd and GH their trophies

7) keep The Flap going for at least another full baseball season

8) not ever do again what I did today in the BBOTD widget 🙂

There are probably others but these 8 will do for now. January is always the darkest month of the year for me. I look to the right and see we only have 43 days to go before P/C’s report but that seems like a long time. And it’s still not actual real baseball games being played. I want to close my eyes and let the sunlight warm my face. I want to smell grass. I want to hear the crisp sound of a ball hitting a mitt perfectly. I want to be part of *the roar*. I wanna high five total strangers…… That’s what I want to do right now.