Ending Losing Streaks/Winning at EVERYTHING
In case anyone has trouble remembering it, the Warriors had lost this many games in a row in San Antonio:
As to the Giants, they were dealing with a losing streak of their own:
So here’s to *winning*….
Between the Niners (Super Bowl appearance), the Giants (World Series win), the Cardinal (Rose Bowl win), the Sharks (playoffs again) and now this improbable run by the Warriors, I think it’s not going too far out on a limb to call the last 8 months the best in Bay Area sports history. In fact, has an area/region ever had an 8 month stretch like this, ever?
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Speaking of *winning*, who has a better winning %, The Great Zumie or Anna The Real Estate Agent?
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
I was JUST saying the same thing to a friend in an email (we’re considering going down for Sunday’s Dub’s game). Here is exactly how I opened the email (sent about 2 minutes ago):
“Man, with the way the Dubs are playing, Niners a whisker away last year from winning their sixth Lombardi Trophy, the Giants winning two WS titles in three years, and the Sharks sweeping a playoff series for the first time…it is a GREAT TIME to be a Bay Area sports fan.”
I do not recall a time where there has been so much winning across the board by teams in the Bay Area. It is BAD ASS.
Giants open a four-game set against the Braves tonight who are playing good ball (half a game better than the Giants, overall). Hoping our starting pitching can calm down a bit, and the bats get revved-up again. Would be sweet to take at least 3 of 4 from the Chop.
And with all this winning mojo going on, I think it time for you to throw us a “true gem” (think Daisy) on the BBOTD page…
And speaking of Daisy…sure love that grip she has on that tap handle…what a babe.
And last but not least…it is SO FUCKING SWEET to see the Bums are still cellar-dwelling!
Just a fantastic game for Klay Thompson,he really stepped up drilling 3’s getting 14 rebounds some steals,dude brought his “A”game last night.
First win in SA since 1997 30 games ferchrissakes! !
Way to get that home court advantage back Warriors!!! SA is going down.
I know some of us “older”-timers remember it well, but that 1974/1975 Warrior season culminating in the sweep of the massively favored Bullets was as big as the first Super Bowl and even the 2010 World Series -at least in terms of the improbability of it. My award winner as the Bay Area coach to follow into a battle or bar fight, Al Attles, got ejected earl;y in game 4 after protesting a hard foul on Barry. I believe he actually got into it with Bullet player who committed the foul…
Barry was the star, but the “role players” stole the show for me- Charles “C.J” Johnson, George Johnson, Derrek Dickey…CJ, Derrek, and Phil Smith have all passed away, but just as the 2010 Giants will be remembered forever, so will those men and their teammates who brought us that thrilling and improbable season. It’s always a thrill to see Attles, who well into his 70’s still looks liike he could grab a tough board in traffic..or kick ass in that bar fight.
The series was also notable in that it was time two black coaches or managers of the major sports had faced each other in a championship series.
The negative? Play-by-Play announcer was Brent Musburger.
yeah that was Mike Riordan, designated thug sent in to rattle Barry’s cage.
Attles was a fierce defender in his day who got the assignment on Jerry West and other team’s best guards. West got his 30, but had to work his ass off for it. Al was a pretty sharp dresser on the sidelines too, and I love that deep voice of his. he got all he could out of his team, mark of an excellent coach.
Thompson is a pretty hard working defender too–when he fouled out the other night is when Tony Parker went off. If this series was the old 2-3-2, Spurs could be going home to unpack their fishing gear.
I agree. The Spring ’75 win for the Dubs was a thunderclap against the NBA establishment. Winning it all, and in a sweep, no less, against the Eastern bias Bullets was mind boggling. I still remember listening all the time to the Dubs on radio with Bill King. He was the best all around sports announcer, ever. But, basketball was his best palette. In that sport, he was an auteur at the mike, with Chick his only rival…
Yeah!
I was following cbs site thread at end of Dodgers game. Oh man, hometown bloggers are all over the boys in blue. Schumaker got lead off double off Heath Bell in bottom of 9th (LA down a run). Bell gets the next 3 out runner never advances, (no bunt) and game over. Heath Bell (!) with the save as LA drops 7th straight.
Schu hit for Luis Cruz, and one guy said words to effect ,”It’s not often a PH batting .135 is an improvement over the guy he’s replacing.”
Other comments:” Ethier is on pace to score 35 runs”, and ” is a platoon player”. “$17 mil just doesn’t bring what it used to”. “Kemp will be in 50/50 club—50 runs scored, 50 driven in”.
Yes bay area sports have pretty much taken over all sports!! gotta love it. I will be at the Giants game to night. My son is a diligent Stubhub searcher!! he found $50 tickets lower level behind home plate!! Section 115. GO GIANTS
Have fun, Kevin.
We don’t expect you to bring the same winning percentage that The Great Zumie brings to the games he goes to. Just try to do your best!
ha ha, they will win, I went to the SD game that Barry pitched and he gave up 0 runs!! I Vogie is at his best. he is due for a win!!
It is good to see the Warrior’s in the playoffs. I want to care but I just don’t. I’ve always been a fan of Duncan though. I mean how can you not like a dude with a wizard tat? I picture him and my brother having some awesome D&D games in a basement somewhere. If the Spurs are going to have any hope of winning this series they need to stop with the grey unis. The Warriors will go with the Yellow T-Shirt unis at home though right? That creates some sort of weird juju too so this series could go either way.
Fair is fair, so let’s not forget the A’s, who improbably won the AL West last year and nearly beat the Tigers in the first round of the playoffs. And speaking of the A’s, they sure got screwed big-time last night on that Rosales “double” in the 9th. How the hell did Angel Hernandez, who might be the worst ump in MLB, not see that it was a homer in the review? Even the Indians announcers knew it was gone.
I froze that frame down several times just to keep blowing my mind over and over………
I want to know how it is possible that MLB can screw up a replay where everybody BUT the umpires and the guys in New York (whoever they are) sees that the ball was OBVIOUSLY a home run. How is it possible? Selig is an absolute imbecile, that’s how. A reviewable call still gotten wrong contrary to what everyone sees, and costs a team a game. That game should be re-set to 4-4 and played on. You can’t TAKE a game away from a team on a blown, reviewable call like that. Any commissioner with balls would make the game replayed at 4-4. There is precedent for reset — the George Brett pine tar game was reset…
Screw the A’s!
BF conveniently forgot the Cal Bears this Spring getting to the round of 32 in the NCAA men’s basketball, AND Cal Women getting to the women’s Final Four for the first time ever. 😉
1970: Niners and Raiders go to NFC and AFC championship: both Lose
1971: Niners lose in NFC championship; Giants win division, lose to Pirates in League championship, Stanfurd wins Rose Bowl over Ohio State
1973, ’74’ 75: Raiders go to AFC championship, lose every time; A’s win WS in ’72, ’73’, ’74, Dubs win NBA championship ’74-’75 season. I’d say the ’74-’75 time period rivals now for the Best in Bay Area Sports, but NOW (meaning this last year) just could be the best ever…
As a Giants and Niners fan, 73 to 80 was pretty much the dark ages of sports for me. I didn’t give a shit about the A’s or Raiders. The Warriors win was just so unexpected. One glint of hope in an otherwise shitty time. I still felt they were SFs team even though they had recently moved across the bay.
I’ll admit I was a Raiders fan then, and a Niner fan, not an A’s fan. Raiders were a fun bunch to follow then, and were damn good, they just couldn’t get over the hump of the AFC championship game until the ’76-’77 season. I loved Kenny Stabler, it is a crime he’s not in the football HOF. There was NO other QB in his time that was better in the 4th quarter crunch time. When Al bolted for LA, I stopped following the Raiduhs, and could give an S about ’em since then…
Yeah, I liked some of the players, but I just couldn’t stand the Raiders as a team. Freddy B and the Snake were guys I liked. Ghost to the post and all that. Even Madden was OK.
You’re still in the dark ages my man.
Yes, went to game 2 of that 75 championship and a few playoff games. Crazy days. I hated seeing Thurmond go in favor of Cliff Ray in 74, but he was the needed piece in the middle. Seeing Thurmond go down to the Dubs in the playoffs was bittersweet as well. Thurmond was struggling badly in the playoffs.
Maybe an eerie parallel between trade of Monte Ellis and Nate Thurmond? I hope so. And, similarly, I’m still thinking maybe, just maybe, regardless of how this series turns out, the Dubs are better without David Lee…
Ah quit bragging..
Joe Torre, the Budster’s lapdog, of course has ruled that the umpire decision in last night’s A’s game will not be reversed. The game will not be reset to 4-4 and continue on. What a disgrace. MLB admits the ump crew had ALL the video feeds everybody else saw, so there is no excuse for this. I don’t know what role people in NYC with MLB had in the decision, but I thought there was some communication of the umps with MLB’s “control center” on these types of calls. Whatever. Either the umps in that crew are wildly incompetent, ego driven to the point of not wanting to reverse their call, or they are dishonest/on the take. Whichever it is, they should all be fired immediately…
Hernandez: “It was not evident on the TV we had that it was a home run.” What exactly is the TV they had, something like this? http://antiqueradio.org/art/EmersonTV01A.jpg
Even Deputy Fife could’ve made the right call on that replay…
Yeah it’s all about saving face, not getting the call right.
The goddamned George Brett pine tar deal, they played the last inning something like 2 weeks later.
I didn’t realize what a pussy Joe Torre is.This is about the integrity of the game. If they had shitty views of it yesterday, they certainly had better views today. And they certainly could say restart the game from the point of the home run.
Get the fucking call right and move on. Play the game from the time of the home run and go from there.
Beautiful day at the ballpark yesterday. It was overcast for a lot of the day, but the humidity was high, and it felt downright balmy and very pleasant. It finally got a bit cold in the 9th inning, but not even all that much. I didn’t have to put my coat on at all.
Very entertaining game. Too bad Zito lost his win, but the team won, and he had a big part in that. Excellent pitching from him, and a piece of excellent hitting. Just when teams are starting to lean left on him on defense, he pulls one through on the right side. That is absolutely awesome and hilarious at the same time.
Romo had an off outing, but otherwise the team played very well, except for Belt’s inexplicable baserunning blunder. I’d love to have a microphone on the conversation he and Bochy had in the dugout. Belt seemed kind of animated during that conversation. But there’s no excuse for not running to secondbase in that situation. You have to have a killer instinct in that moment. You run to secondbase and make the ump tell you to get off the base. You’re trying to win a game. To take the other team’s milkshake. Be hardnosed about it.
Bochy was more upset with Blanco’s throwing mistake.Belt made a mistake but it was “explicable”, really.Yes, he should have run but it was a rare situation where many young guys might have erred ( and a few vets as well) . Belt properly stopped running to avoid running into a DP. He was not tagged but he thought he’d been called out for running out of the basepath. A lot of folks have castigated him as if it was a common situation. Again, everyone can agree it was a mistake but IMO it was an understandable one. He’s now been caught in a couple of rare baserunning situations ( that bizarre wheel play was another). It was not that he was “lollygagging” as one of the writers penned, he just thought he was out when he avoided the tag. All of this is of course IMO.
I agree. He smartly stopped to delay or avoid the tag, he knew what to do there. Had he just run into the tag, then he WOULD deserve crap for not thinking ahead, for stoopid baserunning. He probably thought he was called out for being way out of the baseline, because he was way out of it. He did then run onto second, and was barely tagged out. I don’t see too much to complain about. I’m more concerned that he’s back in a hitting funk. He’s saved a coupla runs with his defense already, so I’m not upset at his base running. And, Blanco’s throw to third in the 9th was dumb, he HAS to know the situation to keep the winning run on first and the DP in order to win the game…
Well, the Giants won the game, so everyone will be very forgiving about it, including me. I still don’t get it though. He thought he was called out? How does that work exactly?
It reminded me of the play in football where the receiver catches the ball and hits the ground without being touched, but the DBs think somebody touched him, so as all the fans scream at the defense “TOUCH HIM!!!,” the DBs walk away without touching him, and the receiver gets up and runs into the end zone, and scores the touchdown.
Kind of like me yelling at the TV set for Kyle Williams to get away from that punt.
At least Belt’s baserunning wasn’t the worst in the history of the game:
Even if we’d lost, there were plenty of mistakes, too many to pin it on one guy. I think why he thought he’d been called out was already explained.
Did he literally think he heard an ump say “Out!”? How about he keep playing until the ump says ‘out.’ I’m sure Bochy reminded the professional baseball player to do that.
I think Snarkk and I both agreed that it was a mistake but not the “inexplicable” one you have claimed it to be. Much more experienced players have made baseruning mistakes in far simpler situations. Bochy undoubtedly knew it was an unusual situation or he woudn’t have been more upset with Blanco’s mistake. Do you think Bochy might have “reminded the professional baseball player” of that error?
The poll question cracked me up. I am in awe of Anna.
Riding Light rail into work in Sacramento this morning, Some teenager had a t-shirt that read
Too many Busters and Posers
But only one Buster Posey!!
Love it.
Best season for Bay Area sports, no doubt, still it’s going to be hard to top New York, 1969. The Jets won the Super Bowl to start the year, the Mets won the World Series, and the Knicks began their championship season with an 18 game winning streak early on.
My high school varsity football and soccer teams both went undefeated. Only the Rangers and St John’s failed to win it all.
A couple of years later, Baltimore had a good run in Pro sports, Pittsburgh wasn’t of shabby in ’79.
If the Blackhawks win the Stanley Cup, Chicago can make an argument for having the best single seasons in all four sports: ’06 Cubs, ’86 Bears, and whichever Bulls team was the best.
Yogi is back? I thought you died.
Niners/Giants in 1989 wasnt’t too bad. Dubs made the playoffs behind Mullie, Mitch Richmond and Manute Bol.
No one has equalled Miami;s undefeated season. There are a few one-loss football teams.
I’m so tired of that Miami undefeated BS. New England 2007 went 18 straight wins before losing the SBowl, that’s one more win than games Miami played (17) in its undefeated season, including SBowl win. Besides, the ’84 Niners went 18-1 with destruction of Shula’s Miami team in the Stanford SBowl, and would have kicked ass on that earlier Miami undefeated squad…
Snarkk is relentlessly snarky.
Didn’t Philly win the WS and lose the SB, Stanley Cup and NBA finals all in the same year?
Possibly. But they didn’t win a rose bowl, too
🙂
Forgot about that — 1980: Sixers lost to Lakers in finals; Flyers lost to Isles in SC finals; Phillies beat Royals in WS ; Eagles lost to Raiders in SB (’80 season, ’81 SB).
I can’t believe that 10 Flappers went Brutus on a fellow Flapper for a skank realtor. The horror!
You still have time to change your vote and save face (or is it give face? Whatever). 🙂
BF said it well- she has magic in that bikini.
Blade, you’ve resurfaced! You must be posting from a late night Paris bistro or something…
Yeah, I should be in bed (1am). Just rolled in from from Versailles Palace (I went with the 2 new friends I met in Florence last week).
Nite all! Go Giants! Yawn . . . 🙂
Belch!
Pagan CF
Scutaro 2B
Sandoval 3B
Posey C
Pence RF
Blanco LF
Crawford SS
Belt 1B
Vogelsong RHP
Come on Twin get mad!
I just got my dumbass banned from The Flap. 😦
good
He’s had it coming for a while……
I voted for Anna. I have no standards.
I highly doubt Zumie will hold this slight against you.
Anna has been perfect on the bases, too.
Outta here.
In honor of Bead Necklace Woman, BlockBUSTER!!! #sfgchamps
The Rockies had the advantage of playing the Yankees when the Yanks had a very piecemeal lineup, and the Rockies still lost 2 of three, at home.
SO MUCH FOR A QUICK INNING
Santa Rosa’s Justin Fitzgerald will move up to Fresno and start tomorrow’s game. He’s 3-0 in 6 starts (33 IP)
1.09 ERA 8 BB 41K..
Vogelsong has ZERO business swinging on 3-1..
You don’t bat a player 8th because he’s going bad. If Bochy thinks Belt really is the worst hitter, leave him there. Otherwise he should hit 5 or 6- and leave him there…
I hope Nicole saved her kimonos..
Fitzgerald’s been in AA for 2+ seasons, age 27. Oy…
Vogey’s rapid decline is not a lot of fun to watch.
A second baseman with any range at all and the inning is over.
It’s official. Voggie is sucking eggs. Since last August, with a playoff respite. Even if they DL’d him, who would they bring up? It’s nervous time now for this rotation…
They’d probably try Gaudin, IMO.
That would probably be OK for one or two starts, then uh oh…
I didn’t say it would work out. None of the current starters in Fresno has pitched well and Fitzgerald is a 27 YO who was in AA for his third straight year.
I looked up Freddie Freeman’s minor league history. 1771 minor league total PAs, 1590 ABs over 5 seasons. 471 ABs in AAA, 149 in AA. Belt in the minors: 825 total PAs, 670 ABs; 273 PAs in AAA, 201 PAs in AA. You can add in Belt’s PAs in college, but I can’t find how many that was. I would argue ABs in college are OK and add to experience, but not as good as high A pro ball or certainly AA experience. Freeman is about a year and a half younger than Belt, but had far more pro ABs before reaching the majors. I think Belt missed a lot of foundation hitting work and repetitions in the minors, and it’s showing…
Belt had a better year than Freeman did last year, looking at the ballpark adjusted stats. The maligned Giraffe missed many PAs because management stupidly played Pill.
Brett Bilko just hit 2 more HRs tonight. If was up to Bochy, he’d be here tomorrow.
Yep, you’re right. They could send Belt down, have him light it up in AAA instead of letting him get hot in the bigs. Brett would attack the ball like a man, and succeed or fail, generate no controversy.
We know how that would turn out. Pill would hit about .225, lots of Ks, and hit a few HRs in a month. Then what? Meanwhile, Belt’s confidence, if he has any, is shattered, and he’d be itching to be traded out of the org. They should trade Pill for something…
If the Gyros starters don’t start pitching, the Pen is gonna be dragging their knuckles by about mid-July. Not that Bochy would do it, but I remember that relief guy that Felipe brought into about 90 games in 2004 — Jim Brower — just worked his ass off, and his arm was never the same again…
The pen has thrown 103.2 innings, 1 2/3 innings more than the league average.
Well, they’re going to need more than 4+ innings from their starters, which they got tonight. Zito can’t carry the entire load — what am I saying?… 🙂
This one was a snoozer and a loser, adios and goodnight Flappers…
They’re getting 6 innings (5.97) , counting tonight .( no typo on Zito- he and Vogelsong each have 7 starts, 5.58 average IP)
MadBum 6.6
Timmy 5.85
Cain 6.0
Vogelsong 5.58
Zito 5.58
Unbelievable:
“In the top of the seventh inning, the Astros decided to go to their bullpen and bring in lefty Wesley Wright to face left-handed hitting J.D. Schuck. Angels manager Mike Scioscia countered by deciding to pinch hit with righty Luis Jimenez. Without Wright having ever thrown a pitch, Astros manager Bo Porter then decided to go to right-handed pitcher Hector Ambriz. And the umpires allowed the move.”
There’s nothing else involved-no injury, nuttin’. Porter said he thought his move would be good for the Astros.