Heatin’ Up at the WBC

Posted in Uncategorized by Flavor on March 10, 2013

Most of you saw that brawl yesterday between Canada and Mexico. If not, it’s front and center at mlb.com. Now THAT was good baseball fight. And I define *good* as something better intended than the usual stuff of a bunch of guys posturing and talking smack. In mlb, if the batter takes a step towards the pitcher he usually doesn’t start going after him with intention until AFTER the catcher and others get in his way. It’s usually all a bunch of nonsense.

I think it’s safe to say that Arnold Leon is above participating in nonsense. After he throws inside to the Canadian hitter the ump comes out and boldly warns both benches. If this was an mlb game that would have been the end of it. But not for Arnold who was like, “Fuck that” and proceeds to drill the hitter in the back on the next pitch! I found it to be quite hilarious. And instead of players rushing the field to dance around each other these 2 teams hit the field throwing haymakers.

The entire scene looked like a bunch of players who had no fear of getting suspended and fined for their actions. Which makes me wonder, how are fights like yesterday’s governed by the WBC? If Sandoval cracks a bat over the head of Hanley Ramirez (please, if there is a God…) does he get hit with any type of mlb suspension? Or is the WBC an *anything goes* type of thing?

I stopped watching the USA/Italy game after Wright hit that grand slam to power us to victory. I’m not gonna lie, I was applauding David Freaking Wright in my living room last night. But, looked like we wrapped that bad boy up so I clicked it off.

In spring training news, The Royals destroyed the Giants 13-2. Belt hit his 4th bomb of the spring and Noonan blasted a triple….

And today we get to play a win-or-go-home game vs the Fightin’ Canadians. Here’s my dream for the game: Derek Holland takes the mound and his first pitch sails squarely into the back of the Canadian lead hitter. He then tears off his USA jersey and runs around the infield flailing his arms above his head screaming jibberish and wearing this shirt:

Now THAT would be funny.

________________________________-

We were at Sports Authority today, she disappears and comes back wearing this saying, “Daddy, don’t you love how it sparkles?”

I say, “Um, no. I don’t like how it sparkles at all”. Not only am I not a *sparkle guy* (and she knows this) but it’s sparkled in one of my least preferred patterns. I said, “let’s go get an SF sparkle hat.” I searched, long and hard and even asked store clerks to check the back. Nada. So yeah, I spent $$$$ on A’s gear today. How in the hell did the A’s out-market the Giants!?!?!?!?!?!

58 comments

58 Responses

Subscribe to comments with RSS.

dirtnrocksnomo said, on March 10, 2013 at 8:27 am

Haha, that shirt is awesome. I wold totally wear that to a bar in Tijuana. Or any bar in CA as its pretty much the same thing.
blade3colorado said, on March 10, 2013 at 8:35 am

I just read the AP wire on this fight. From what I read and understand – WBC rules are such that teams have to run up the score and consequently, this conflicts with the unwritten baseball “law” that it’s bad form to run up the score. In short, the WBC is to blame in my opinion for having fucked up rules that promote fights like this happening. I forgot who disagreed with me (may have been more than 1 person), but this is one more reason WHY I HATE OUR GIANT PLAYERS PARTICIPATING IN THIS PIECE OF SHIT TOURNAMENT. If one of our players gets hurt, that could mean bye bye World Series. If I am Sabean, I pull our players out of this BS tournament ASAP.

New post on my blog . . . 🙂
twinfan1 said, on March 10, 2013 at 8:41 am

I’m reposting a comment I made yesterday, highlighting what I do best here- provide informative, illuminating information that wasn’t known until I provided it.
“Well, the oblique is *not* a newly discovered muscle. The uptick in oblique injuries has been linked to, guess what- drug testing. It’s been theorized that playere are moving away from PEDs that are banned and many are using Creatine, a legal dietary supplement that is not banned by MLB, NFL, NBA or NCAA, it’s an amino acid that boosts lean muscle mass and strength
Creatine, according to Maharam, adds water molecules to muscle fibers, which causes the fibers to separate.
This makes for easier muscle tears and slows the repair process, leaving them on injured reserve longer,” Maharam says. “It is because of these side effects that professionals for a long time went away from creatine when they could use anabolics and HGH. Now that testing is stronger, I have seen a trend back toward the safer creatine.”
(Lewis Maharam is the former president of the New York chapter of the American College of Sports Medicine)

(More areas of threatened editing here.)
- Flavor said, on March 10, 2013 at 8:54 am
  
  So I did a new thread today to leave that convo in the LAST thread. Thanks for bringing it up again.
  Ok, so picture me on the field, I’m tossing warnings to both benches. Leave that “did you play enough to critique a player” stuff on the last thread. Go back there to discuss it if you must.
  Regarding your topic, I would loosely agree with you and say that oblique injuries are mostly cause by players who weight lift so much these days. Back in the day, the players stretch, they didn’t lift. Now you’ve got all these new, tight, strong muscles ripping off the same old bones.
  - Flavor said, on March 10, 2013 at 9:09 am
    
    Sorry about the typos, I pulled over to post this from my phone
  - twinfan1 said, on March 10, 2013 at 10:02 am
    
    On the thread about it you said you had no idea on the oblique injuries.
  - Flavor said, on March 10, 2013 at 10:29 am
    
    it was a joke. I’m quite familiar with what an oblique muscle is and that players didn’t just start growing it recently. Did you think I really thought that?
  - twinfan1 said, on March 10, 2013 at 10:34 am
    
    I know which part was a joke- what you didn’t know was about the link to testing and creatine. Really, Craig, it’s OK to say you didn’t know that.
  - Flavor said, on March 10, 2013 at 10:50 am
    
    I never said I’d heard of the Creatine article but Creatine itself is an older than dirt subject. That’s Mark McGwire stuff. I was responding to you saying “on the thread you had no idea on the oblique injuries.” I never said that at all, I said I haven’t heard of them (as injuries) till the mid 90’s
  - twinfan1 said, on March 10, 2013 at 10:59 am
    
    Creatine use and subbing it for banned substances is hardly an old story. The whole context of what you said was that you had no idea about the why’s in the rise in oblique injuries. Following that up, I provided some info for the board-which you shit on.
- twinfan1 said, on March 10, 2013 at 9:16 am
  
  You are agreeing with Lewis Maharam, who as far as I can tell has the cred to make the comments I reported about oblique injuries. The rest of this post was threatened with editing so I’ve done it myself- and I expect Craig’s edict to be honored. Not one fucking word on this thread about who has the right to critique a player. Not one. Zero. Nada. Zilch.
  - Flavor said, on March 10, 2013 at 9:25 am
    
    Thanks I’ll be editing this when I get home (if you don’t do it first). Please re-read my post above.
  - twinfan1 said, on March 10, 2013 at 9:35 am
    
    I read the post-try to be even handed for a change. But I’ll take care of my editing. *You* read my last Email.
willedav said, on March 10, 2013 at 8:58 am

the dumb rules blade mentioned is what prompted the Canadians to bunt in that situation, which anywhere else in real baseball would have resulted in what the Mexican team did–drilling the guy and fighting his team for being a-holes and violating baseball code. I’m kinda glad they did–maybe it leads to a rule change, tho I’m sure bud will apppoint a commission to investigate for the next 5 years.
willedav said, on March 10, 2013 at 9:11 am

Twin, the Bucks backcourt is really good, but the reason for it is Jennings, not Monta. He has the ball a lot and takes control..and also wants a big contract and is threatening to walk if he doesn’t get it. Both he and M are better right now than Curry and thompson, agreed.

Steph is often too casual with the ball and makes too many turnovers, but i just don’t care for monta’s game (or his tude, notice he was still talking yesterday about “my fans still love me”), at least as it was when he left here. The only advantage he sees to 5 guys being on his team would be more of them to pass him the ball.
- twinfan1 said, on March 10, 2013 at 9:33 am
  
  You have a problem with him appreciating the fan support he got here? I saw the interview after the game and he was gracious. He did say that he happy to get the win on his return, you have a problem with that, too?
  - willedav said, on March 10, 2013 at 11:07 am
    
    no it’s the me first/my game stuff like the comment quoted in the Chron he made at the shootaround way before the game. Hey he wins, he can say what he wants, but he is the second best guard on that team. I don’t miss the guy or the 9 turnovers gamees he used to have and imo the Ws are better off and more fun to watch without him. If he’s your type of guy as opposed to curry, enjoy.
  - twinfan1 said, on March 10, 2013 at 11:26 am
    
    Well, you make some claims not supported by fact. He’s averaged fewer TO per game than Curry in his career, and he’s shot better than Curry. And he’s also the guy they want taking the last shot. Which he’ll take, as opposed to giving up the game with an utterly stupid penalties when we should be playing defense, not fouling.
  - twinfan1 said, on March 10, 2013 at 11:45 am
    
    Monta averages19.4 PPG, 5.7 assists, 3.1 turnovers
    Jennings averages 18.6 6.7 assists 2.7 turnovers.
    They have been a very balanced backcourt , a team with a good chance of putting us out of the postseason if Curry and his guys don’t learn to play 4 quarters again.
Brian said, on March 10, 2013 at 9:13 am

Think the tournament is a fun idea and I’m happy for the fans around the world who are totally jazzed about it. And I’m not worried for a second about injuries. Players get hurt a myriad of ways…banging the wife, getting out of bed, sneezing, slicing hamburgers, picking up their kids and, CERTAINLY playing in ST games. As I stated earlier, it’s a couple of weeks out of a boring ass ST which no one but a handful of guys on the bubble takes seriously anyway. Stop worrying and get your I love mexican girls t shirt on 🙂
- twinfan1 said, on March 10, 2013 at 9:46 am
  
  It’s great for the fans of the rest of the rest of the other teams. It’s a joke here because we don’t send our best players.
twinfan1 said, on March 10, 2013 at 10:15 am

Spring Training is far more interestring for the true fan, as it has everthing that we have come to associate with the greatest game. It represents renewal, hope, dashed hope, the beginning of a dream, the end of a dream. The WBC is a is a glorified international business junket…
- Flavor said, on March 10, 2013 at 10:30 am
  
  well count me out of the *true fan* club because I think it’s far more interesting than what’s happening in this year’s spring training with the Giants.
  - twinfan1 said, on March 10, 2013 at 10:53 am
    
    You’ve always been more of a fantasy fan anyway, Flavor. I don’t mean that in a bad way, you just roll in that direction.
- blade3colorado said, on March 10, 2013 at 10:34 am
  
  Ditto . . . I agree with that Twin.
  
  I am not interested in any WBC, WBA, or any other alphabet soup tournament which interferes with the Giants effort toward winning the 2013 World Series and/or promotes itself as “World . . .” anything.
  
  That being said, if MLB negotiates a deal with other countries having legitimate leagues similar to our NL and AL, whereby a true World Series is held – then I am all in for this type of tournament, where the “World Series” team (or equivalent) from each country, plays in a round robin tournament to determine the Solar System Champion or whatever the fuck you want to call it.
  - blade3colorado said, on March 10, 2013 at 10:39 am
    
    P.S. By “equivalent” I meant a league team, not some fucking all star team, where that particular country has an unfair advantage.
  - willedav said, on March 10, 2013 at 11:19 am
    
    I caught a little bit of lurie yesterday, and he was talking about the timing of it. I don’t see when you could do a WBC type tourney in any time frame that would work and not interfere with reg season and playoffs..lurie mentioned november and playing the games in domed stadiums. after 162 reg season and playoffs, I doubt the likes of posey going for that. The other idea was like hockey breaking off for a couple weeks mid-season, something all baseball GMs etc I’m sure wouldn’t tolerate for the disruption. Hey a lot of them and mgrs get pissed if their guy is used too much in one AS game.
    Doing it now in March you get situations like yesterday where your SP (vogs) is limited by pitch counts and innings—you couldn’t throw velander or cain out there for 7 plus and 100 pitches, so it’s not like regular season real baseball, it’s a bastardized version.
Brian said, on March 10, 2013 at 10:29 am

People in the US are too jaded with football playoffs and the Super Bowl, now March madness, the NBA…in addition to the baseball playoffs and World Series…
- twinfan1 said, on March 10, 2013 at 10:47 am
  
  Football is a huge culprit in this- fueled by gambling, violence,over consumption of alcohol,and morbidly obese young men dommed to early death , it’s truly America’s game now. Baseball fans are not jaded, they’ve been over run.
twinfan1 said, on March 10, 2013 at 1:06 pm

Well, nice talking to you all today. See ya later. Jonathan Sanchez having another rough outing. I feel very badly for him, I’m not a “don’t let the door hit you on the way out” guy. Have to wonder if this is his last stop. Whatever else transpired since 2010, he saved our ass after Zito and even Cain gagged it up on the last weekend.
willedav said, on March 10, 2013 at 2:11 pm

WBC justs disrupts the natural rhythm of baseball. Vets come into ST, get loose get some swings, hit cufoff men, go around the horn, pitchers relearn how to cover first on ball hit to right side, yadda yadda. Teams go north (or wherever), phenoms have their flash in the pan month before flaming out, slow starting vets get re-acclimated with old nemeses on the mound, and you settle into long season that over time sorts out pretenders from contenders. some guys never find their groove and are mired in season long slumps, while others bust out with vengeance.
Nobody is playing meaningful games in march except the prospects and minor league contract invites. Nice to have pablo scuts romo back where they belong.
xoot said, on March 10, 2013 at 2:30 pm

Lurie’s pre-game show was particularly good today — lots of live interviews and interesting discussion. Perfect background for getting things done around the house on this beautiful day. I’ve completely revised my opinion of Marty. Game itself is fairly entertaining. (Jon Miller: “Strike three, he’s out, but he ends up on third base and the runner scores!”) Going to see Searching for Sugar Man tonight. I’m dubious, but always am, and what the hell.
- Flavor said, on March 10, 2013 at 2:44 pm
  
  Agreed. He has so many dipshit callers on that he gets muddled in with them. His interviews are great though. I enjoyed the one today with the CF kid from double A (can’t remember his name). Great story told.
zumiee said, on March 10, 2013 at 3:49 pm

Torre fell into the “managing by robotic idiocy,” and didn’t get Kimbrel up in the crisis moment in the 8th inning. And had Affeldt up earlier, but didn’t use him. The U.S. may still pull it out, though.
zumiee said, on March 10, 2013 at 3:52 pm

For the baseball fans choosing to get into the WBC, it’s got entertainment value. I’d like to see the U.S. do well, but I’m also pulling for the Puerto Rican team. The P.R. team is fun to watch.
zumiee said, on March 10, 2013 at 3:53 pm

Rollins batting lead-off for the U.S. team ain’t a happening thing. He looks old in this tourney.
- DJLoo said, on March 10, 2013 at 6:32 pm
  
  I noticed that too, Zumiee. Watched him play SS behind Vogey the other night. He has the reflexes of a corpse.
Flavor said, on March 10, 2013 at 4:20 pm

Hosmer destroyed that ball. U-S-A!! !!!
Haha. Hosmer’s gonna have a huge year in KC (for you fantasy guys)
zumiee said, on March 10, 2013 at 4:23 pm

The U.S. team scores a bunch of runs in the top of the 9th, so…..NOW Kimbrel gets to pitch, with a 9-4 lead. He wasn’t needed in the 8th inning when the bases were loaded with 1 out. Torre’s a GENIUS!. It’s all good when you win. (grin)
PawlieKokonuts said, on March 10, 2013 at 4:41 pm

Well, your girl sparkles.
tedspe said, on March 10, 2013 at 8:32 pm

I’ve done this skit before but it might as well have a new re-visit.
The Marty Lurie Show:

Lurie: Okay, we got Smeegle on the line, what’s on your mind, Smeegle?
Smeegle: Yeah, Marty, thanks for taking my call
Lurie: No problem, no problem. What’s up?
Smeegle: Yeah, I just wanna say that letting Romo get involved with this stupid Mexico WBC thing is a total failure of Bochy’s management style. I mean, why let him get all reved up for a country he’s not even from and totally blow his spring training warm up routine…
Lurie: Uh huh. Uh huh. I see where you’re going with this. But as I understand it Bochy has an agreement with their coach Renteria that he can let him know…
Smeegle: Screw that!! Romo showed what a (BLEEP) he was what with him blowing that (BLEEP) save the other day and that whole (BLEEP) fight, I mean, where does it stop with these beaners?
Lurie: Well, now, well now, let’s hold off on some of that..vernacular. First off, I see where you’re coming from but you have to keep in mind…
Smeegle: And while Romo’s in Mexico he’s eating all that beaner crap food that’s just gonna…
Lurie:Well, he’s representing Mexico but the games are actually being played…
Smeegle: Tacos!! Burritos!! What’s that down his speedos??!!
Lurie: Okay, okay, I can see where you’re going with this. But Smeegle, let’s calm down here for a moment and consider a few…
Smeegle: And what’s with this Gary Brown guy?
Lurie: I’m sorry, who?
Smeegle: Gary Brown!! Gary Brown!! Isn’t he the next coming of Barry Bonds??!! Let him play more. We need more black–uhm–African American’s on the team. Hell we need more in baseball!!!
Lurie: Okay, good point. Good point. But, uhm, Brown’s white.
Smeegle: Yeah and purple’s yellow. What am I an idiot?
Lurie: Well, I wouldn’t know anything about that. But seriously, Smeegle, thanks for the call. You gave us all a lot to think about. Next we have Attila on the line. Attila, whaddya have on your mind?
- ewisco said, on March 10, 2013 at 8:55 pm
  
  we were coming back from a tournament in Sacramento and had the coach in the car and i started asking about how the &^% Marty does this stuff! Neither of could fathom how the guy talks for hours with hundreds of knuckleheads and comes back for more. The coach is an A’s fan and said how Marty was a lawyer who paid to get 2 hours of air time after A’s games to talk baseball. it just astounds me.
  - tedspe said, on March 10, 2013 at 9:04 pm
    
    Astounding, I think, is the right term
- snarkk said, on March 10, 2013 at 10:56 pm
  
  I like Marty Lurie. He’s an adult.
  He puts up with a lot of stuff and nonsense called in, with patience and dignity. He rarely goes off on somebody, treats most everybody with respect, sometimes even when undeserved. He gets it that the callers and listeners are Giants lovers, they aren’t interested in the usual talk show dissing and bellicosity. I think he’s been a great accompaniment to the last several years of Giants success…
  - tedspe said, on March 10, 2013 at 11:05 pm
    
    I like Marty Lurie as well. That was sort of my point. He puts up with the biggest horse’s asses and always does it with politeness, dignity and class. And yet, very smoothly–let’s us, if not them, know they are the backside of an equestiranish (sic)
PawlieKokonuts said, on March 10, 2013 at 8:43 pm

Just saw on Yahoo that the Cubs’ video assistant almost won their bunting contest, losing in the final to David De DeJesus. Pa-thet-ic. http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-league-stew/chicago-cubs-video-assistant-takes-second-david-dejesus-011412597–mlb.html Bunting. A lost skill but so invaluable. Just ask our man, #rallyZito.
- snarkk said, on March 10, 2013 at 10:41 pm
  
  “Vid support” for my periodic rail against the lost art of bunting. Nice. Zito has turned into a dang good bunter, coming from the land of the AL. Maybe his lack of bunting background pushed him to really learn how to do it once coming to the Giants…
  - chipower9 said, on March 11, 2013 at 7:58 am
    
    The Giants do a ton of bunt work, especially with their pitchers. Prior to every game in ST, on one of the back fields in Scottsdale, you can catch all the Giant pitching staff doing bunt drills.
tedspe said, on March 10, 2013 at 9:02 pm

Movie trivia quiz. Integrity counts so don’t use Google. Just watched a WWII film with the following line used, like, 4 or 5 times:

“Broadsword to Danny Boy. Broadsword to Danny Boy. Come in Danny Boy.”

What movie? DJLoo probably knows
- Alleykat said, on March 10, 2013 at 10:02 pm
  
  I’m gonna guess an old classic one I remember with Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood called Where Eagle’s Dare?
  - tedspe said, on March 10, 2013 at 10:43 pm
    
    AND THE AWARD GOES TO ALLEYKAT!!!
    Well played, my friend. And what do we have for him, Johnny?
    
    JOHNNY: Well, Alley will be enjoying a sporting and fun sea voyage on a Princess Cruise Line that not only will have a fire that turns off all possible civilian comforts but we’ve arranged for pirates to take the ship over and make everyone a hostage!! Back to you, Ted
    
    TED: Thanks, Johnny, or should I say grass sietes, and Alley, my friend, it’s best now you learn to speak a little latin American so –Bria tar pit condios me amigo. Buenos nachos
  - tedspe said, on March 10, 2013 at 11:26 pm
    
    And BTW, Alleykat–in all honesty? I’m impressed. Well played sir. Let’s try another one. If you’re as old as me (50) and love this kinda stuff it should be easy. What’s this from, and no need to be too precise…:
    
    “Admittedly the story you’re about to read is bizarre, incredible. Those of you who wish to being unsettled, who wish to avoid thinking, will label it insane. And though you the reader would find these facts almost impossible to substantiate, that does not change their nature. Facts they are. I know. I saw them happen.”
  - snarkk said, on March 10, 2013 at 11:38 pm
    
    Ted, don’t forget to add a dash of norovirus for the cruise…
zumiee said, on March 10, 2013 at 11:17 pm

The guest on the Colbert show this past Friday was John Sexton, author of “Baseball as a Road to God.” Not a typical type of baseball book. I might give it a look. Here’s the description at Amazon:

“For more than a decade, New York University President John Sexton has used baseball to illustrate the elements of a spiritual life in a wildly popular course at NYU. Using some of the great works of baseball fiction as well as the actual game’s fantastic moments, its legendary characters, and its routine rituals—from the long-sought triumph of the 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers, to the heroic achievements of players like the saintly Christy Mathewson and the sinful Ty Cobb, to the loving intimacy of a game of catch between a father and son—Sexton teaches that through the game we can touch the spiritual dimension of life.

Baseball as a Road to God is about the elements of our lives that lie beyond what can be captured in words alone—ineffable truths that we know by experience rather than by logic or analysis. Applying to the secular activity of baseball a form of inquiry usually reserved for the study of religion, Sexton reveals a surprising amount of common ground between the game and what we all recognize as religion: sacred places and time, faith and doubt, blessings and curses, and more.

In thought-provoking, beautifully rendered prose, this book elegantly demonstrates that baseball is more than a game, or even a national pastime: It can be a road to a deeper and more meaningful life.”
- tedspe said, on March 10, 2013 at 11:28 pm
  
  Saw it as well, Zumiee. Nice
- chipower9 said, on March 11, 2013 at 8:03 am
  
  Yep, saw that too. Didn’t initially provide enough of a hook for me to purchase a copy (I have so many damned books in the queue). Let us know what you think if you read it.
twinfan1 said, on March 11, 2013 at 7:59 am

Well, Marty Lurie does have some appeal in that he comes across as one of the few talking heads using valium instead of instead of crank. But he really doesn’t have much to say. The valium is the thing…and yeah, he’s a nice guy for a lawyer 😉
As to the “lost art of bunting”, i think the proponents of this theory need to be more specific, if that’s in them. Are we are talking about the sac bunt and when it should be deployed? the drag for a basehit and when *it* should be deployed The pitcher sacrificing? Or are we talking about an inabilty to bunt? Or have many modern successful managers seen that in many cases, the bunt is stupid strategy that takes runs off the board?
A huge factor that’s overlooked is that’s harder to bunt than it used to be- in just the last decade pitchers throwing a mean fastball velocity above 90 mph had increased to 188% in 2011 compared to 2002. Pitchers throwing harder than 94 mph had doubled over that same time period. There’s a lot more to it than that, but that’s just some starter homework for a commenter who might like to do more than piss and moan and actually present a case..and a rationale, for instance, why a player who collects more extra basehits than anybody else on the team should be spending much time bunting.
chipower9 said, on March 11, 2013 at 8:18 am

Speaking of brawls…this is one of the best I have seen in a while…those who are local may have seen it (actually, it got national coverage when it made the Today show that Saturday morning) between Sacramento State and UC Riverside. My daughter’s boyfriend is the pitching coach for Sac State, and he said he had never seen anything like it (he got roughed-up a bit while trying to pull guys out of the melee).

http://tinyurl.com/bztrd7u

The Sac State SS and the baserunner were both suspended for a game.