Is there Lightning Down in LA or Is it All Just Thunder?
SanDawg said, on June 4, 2013 at 9:22 pm (Edit)
“This guy Puig is gonna be problem…”
Well, he could be my man, he could be. But to all the LA fans out there I would say “Don’t start suckin’ each other’s Puig’s just quite yet”….
I mean, he sure does back spin those balls out of the yard with shocking ease. And he’s got a beast of an arm. And he did, uh, hit .517 in Spring Training with a 1.328 OPS. Hmmmm…..Well, he was at double A this year and only hit .313 so he’s obviously overrated, right?
There’s no doubt he *could* be a problem. But I don’t think he’s going to be. He’s being compared to Mike Trout and what he did to jump start the Angels last year. Well, in my *expert* opinion, LA’s gonna need a little more to get their season jump started. The Dodgers are a soul less team, always have been and never more so after guys like A-Gone, Beckett, Grienke and Crawford joined the team. Puig might get the drunken Dodger fans going but it’s gonna take a lot more than a nice throw and a couple of bombs to kick start that dump truck.
Puig will be like all other hitters who get called up. Once he proves he can hit a major league fastball (Ok, ok we believe you!) the rest of the league will start throwing him specialty stuff that he’ll corkscrew himself into the ground trying to hit.
At least, that’s my *plan*. You guys got a better one? 🙂
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
I haven’t really seen the dude yet, so no, at this time I don’t have a better plan.
Love the line: “Puig might get the drunken Dodger fans going but it’s gonna take a lot more than a nice throw and a couple of bombs to kick start that dump truck.” LMAO…that is fucking priceless, BF.
Great start by Tim last night. Now let’s hope he can string together a couple more of those types of gems.
Zeets on the bump tonight. Talk about a true Jeckyl and Hyde (home vs. away stats). Let’s hope the home-lovin’ Zeets shows up today and helps the G-men complete this little ol’ two game sweep.
SD might be right; LA is getting back M Ellis and Hanley, tho Kemp and AJ are still out. Maybe the kid forces a deal for Ethier or gets him going. Either way LA comes out ahead even if they have to eat a large portion of what they owe Ethier. Health of pitching staff and a crummy pen tough to overcome.
I noticed Kings of Sacto dumped all the assistants, including Alex English and Clifford Ray, two guys I dug. #2 was part of a very cool Denver team coached by Doug Moe alongside Vandewege, Fat Lever, T.R, Dunn, Wayne Cooper, Calvin Natt and Mike Evans and end of the Issel era. The dark blue road unis with the skyline in the middle were cool too. They played a fun style and them vs. Warriors was usually 125-122.
Ray had the most awesome game face. Even tho he had few inside moves at all, it was neat to watch GS throw the ball into him at high post and waive the ball around and pass to cutters
Johann!…
“Puig” will fit right in, he even sounds like a dog…
The Short-Haired Puigie Terrier, a reknowned 16th century ratter, eventually fell out of favor blah blah blah…
Hey, if he hits 50 the Bums have a good shot at a solid 4th place finish…
hmmm…been quite busy at work lately and at home, so have not been out here in awhile. So we are talking about a Dodger hitter instead of the gem that Timmy pitched. interesting. I am waiting for the hitting and the pitching come together as one. where I will see 6-1, 5-0, 8-3 games. that way I am not on the edge of my seat for 9 innings, I want to be leaned back in my barcalounger and a beer, nice and relaxed.
Well, the other component of Giant baseball that has been missing is solid defense. Finally got that with the pitching last night. Two out of three. I want to see them hitting on all cylinders, too, but I’ll take the wins any way they come.
Another thing that MUST change if they are going to have any chance at making/going deep in the playoffs is their play on the road. The nine game roadie that starts on Friday would be a good place to start.
As for the cubanos, the aggressiveness can be used against them. Cespedes routinely looks awful on breaking balls, and only now has his avg. up to .239. I watched Viciedo of white sox swing at almost everything too vs. A’s without much success this weekend and he’s at .240 or so.
Nice game for the kid, but it’s just not going to be that easy, and of course pitchers are going to concentrate to keep top of the order off base ahead of A-Gon Hanley and co. If he’s gonna leadoff, let’s see what happens to his patience and OB.
You can put Puig on the Dodgers, but it’s still the Dodgers.
I guess what I mean is, a guy who is as free a swinger as Pablo can still keep his avg. at .300, while being capable of taking the best pitchers on the planet out the yard. Even Pence has a decent OB and a .290 avg while hacking away. These two do not get cheated at the plate but are able to get on base and maintain a high avg.
Dump truck, dogs…I like it. Hopefully apt.
Of course, we have looked like a “rent a wreck” or an “ugly mutt” on the road, so we’ll have to see.
I agree Bums seem soulless and incapable of pulling together but not ready to count them out just yet.
I actually only saw Puig for one play in the Dodger game. I had flipped over to their game, and it was just as he was throwing the ball past thirdbase and allowing another Padre run to score.
It will be interesting to see how Donnie handles the outfield situation when all 4 are available- Crawford, Kemp, Ethier, and Puig. Maybe Ethier becomes trade material; new scenery and all that.
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Mayberry, Jr. hit a walk-off grandslam last night, and as he was approaching homeplate to get pummeled and assaulted by his teammates, one of his teammates kicked him in the rear-end right before he reached homeplate.
Why?
There’s altogether too much attention paid to the frigging Bums. Kevin is right- Timmy’s outing is of far more importance than what the Puigie dog did.
There’s no way to know that at this time, of course. We’ll see how much of a ‘bump’ Puig gives or doesn’t give to the Dodgers. He clearly won the game for them last night.
There is a way of knowing that Timmy’s performance is of more concern here. Or should be.
“he clearly won the game for them last night.” So did Timmy and Torres.
And Crawford, Affeldt, Romo, etc. No one player wins a game alone. EVER.My point has nothing to do with whether the new dog will help them, how can he not? The point is thaat OUR team played a fine game, Lincecum pitched well, and as Kevin said ” So we are talking about a Dodger hitter instead of the gem that Timmy pitched. interesting.”
Indeed it is.
We’ll talk about what we want to, thanks.
A Barry Zito start in San Francisco is usually good luck for the GMen. They’re 7-0 this season with Zito taking the mound at AT&T Park. I see the him continuing that streak (fingers crossed).
So the Biogenesis guy is singing for the coppers, as they say in old gangster movies. Some MLB players are doing some serious sweating as we speak.
I am getting all goose-bumpy: 7 innings from Tim last night and now the day approacheth where-in blog number 1K will hit the blog-o-shpere. Heady times, thanks for letting me be a part of it. mucho felicitaciones my man
I should be home from work before the second inning
go giantes!!
From today’s iteration of The Splash:
“Barry Zito faces R.A. Dickey in Wednesday afternoon’s series finale. Scouts won’t need their radar guns. They can gauge pitch speed with calendars.”
You can put lipstick on a Puig, but it’s still a Puig…
1. Gregor Blanco (L) CF
2. Marco Scutaro (R) 2B
3. Pablo Sandoval (S) 3B
4. Buster Posey (R) C
5. Hunter Pence (R) RF
6. Brandon Belt (L) 1B
7. Andres Torres (S) LF
8. Brandon Crawford (L) SS
9. Barry Zito (L) P
Listen, this guy Puig has played 2 games. He’s getting an initial diet of fastballs. How long is that going to last? Not long. It’s early to conclude he’s Willie Davis with a power stroke. Cespedes looked all world, and he’s good (2 dingers yesterday against an awful pitcher), but he’s hitting under .250 and seems constantly hurt. The Dodgers have pitching issues, and that’s their key problem. Next is Kemp, who also seems constantly hurt, and when he wasn’t this year, he sucked anyway, possibly from his shoulder being hurt from last year. Still, for all they have sucked and been hurt, LA’s not at all too far back at only the 1/3 waypost of the season. I wouldn’t count them out just yet…
Tom Tolbert interviewed JT Snow yesterday afternoon. Normally, JT’s interviews are snoozers, but this one had a tidbit. He said that he and Will Clark are working with Belt on his swing, intimating again (indirectly) that it’s difficult because Belt stubbornly wants to stick with his tried and true swing he’s used since high school. Then, JT said what I’ve said alot, that part of the reason for his hitting inconsistency is that Belt “was rushed” up to the big club. JT said that as a young player, he had one full year in the minors at each level A, AA, AAA, so that he had plenty of time to get his swing ironed out as he progressed so that he was confident at every level that he could get it done at the NEXT level. Belt hasn’t had that. I think that was an important piece of information on this kid from a guy that has worked with him…
Wel, It’s well documented that the team reworked Belt’s swing after they drafted him. So J.T. is FOS if he “inrtimated” that ” Belt stubbornly wants to stick with his tried and true swing he’s used since high school”…
Well, they probably have his interview on podcast at KNBR. You can listen to it and conclude yourself what JT meant. At least JT admitted the Giants “rushed” him up (and that is the word he used), after what I would call another indirect, but public diss of him. Maybe I’m looking for how Giants management publicly denigrates the kid, but I don’t think I’m having too much of a thin skin for the kid. If they were re-working his swing constantly, they should have left him in AAA for a full year to groove it. Instead, Huff got hurt and they decided Pill was not the answer, and brought up Belt too early…
“JT said that as a young player, he had one full year in the minors at each level A, AA, AAA, so that he had plenty of time to get his swing ironed out as he progressed so that he was confident at every level that he could get it done at the NEXT level.”
Well, it didn’t quite work for Snow until his third year. So he’s FOS on that as well. He had a decent first full year, mostly a little worse than Belt’s. In his second year, he was optioned to AAA to start the year because Buck Rodgers decided that Eduardo Perez was the first baseman of the future for the Angels.Here’s what J.T. said about that:
“”I need to play in the big leagues. I don’t need to go down there and hit .300 again. What’s that going to prove?”
Well, he came back up and hit .220. for the rest of the year, with a sub .300 OBP, and .634 OPS…He broke out the following year.
I think someone needs to work with J.T. on the holes in his googling so he can remember how he did when he played..
Enjoy the game, see ya later.
FOS — an apt description for about 95% of the analysis from players. They should stick to teling stories.
As a piece of writing, this is one of Henry’s best, IMO. It just seems a notch higher than the usual Henry.
http://blog.sfgate.com/giants/
Although, I would agree with BF that more people were clapping for Melky than booing him, especially as he walked up for his first AB.
I can’t believe DeRosa is still playing. I thought he was done two years ago…
But another way of looking at it, perhaps, is that, if DeRosa is starting on your team in 2013, your team is not very good. (grin)
Batting clean-up no less.
Yeah, that was my point yesterday. Melky could have very well derailed the season by getting caught during the stretch run, and he slinks out of town without a how-do-you-do . . . tool.
.
Bonds’ circumstances were worlds different.
Ed, I responded to your email.
No idea why Pablo didn’t sweep his tag. Dumb.
He seemed to kinda get his glove caught in the dirt as he was doing it. Weird play
Where was that 2 RBI hit when DeRosa was here? Sheeeeeeeeet…
Pffft.
Tricky Dickey really fucked us up this inning.
Scutaro yet again with the KLUNK on the glove. Wow.
How many guys named “Izturis” play infield in MLB? Seems like they’re all over…
Me? I give him the frickin’ error.
Looks like I picked the wrong inning to stop sniffing glue!
You, Lloyd, and I.
Ha- De Rosa went all FACE on me as he dunked on me. OK- I can take it. (grin) But we’ll see where Toronto is at the end of the season.
The Dickster has a one hit shutout going, is that correct? He has only allowed one hit? He hasn’t allowed a run or five for that matter, is that true?
“You talking to ME?” ~Travis Bickle
Ed – we’ve got a win bubbling here, are you ready for this? I’m talking a comeback win. Are ya with me?
baby, I am, and that is humm baby, at the very worse a 2 out rally, fuck the nuck
Sorry Buddy, I was wrong, Dammit.
He didn’t have his power stroke back but DeRosa had a lot of big hits for us when he came off the DL in August 2011. ..”if DeRosa is starting on your team in 2013, your team is not very good. (grin)”
He’s a utility player ( he’s started just 17 games), and one we could definitely use.
Sorry, I’ve sort of pyschology blocked out a lot of the 2011 season.
It was a rough season after 2010. I remember Mark because I “discussed” him with a couple others here. He got a lot of grief from some but he worked hard to get back when he could have drawn his paycheck and just moved on.
True. He drew his paychecks and moved on.
Btw- several of us called it correctly when Sabean signed him. We said bad move; DeRosa is coming off wrist surgery and there’s no evidence he’s OK yet.
You’re misunderstanding, or or trying to be a d**k again. He could have sat out the year without playing. And you were wrong about the circumstances of the signing and the medical report when he was signed.
I disagree. Thanks for your thoughts, though.
DeRosa had a clean bill of health from independent medical people. It was only later that was it found that the surgery was botched.
He was batting in the 4 spot because he had 3 HRs in 31 AB against Zito.
Since you were totally of DeRosa’s role this year and dismissive of his very good numbers in that role, I think your recollection of from years ago is rather suspect.. uh, where did Panda play in 2009?
You don’t know where Panda played in 2009?
he has a 5.18 era in 12 games
I read this line in a Yahoo column . . . “If I were Tony Bosch, not sure I’d actually admit that Jesus Montero had been taking my products. Tough call.”
Blehhhhh. I missed the brain dead inning. One hit against Rad Ickey? Fuck that.
The rest of MLB has hit RA Dickey like a drum. He dusts the Giants in two games like he’s Hoyt Wilhelm in his prime…
Yeah, or like some guy named Dickey that won the Cy Young last year.
Previous two starts: 12 ER, 20 hits in 12.2 innings.
Well that sucked.
I’m going to the Wednesday game, two weeks from today. I’m glad I didn’t pick today’s game.
D-Backs/Cardinals could be interesting tonight.
And we’ll see what Puig does or doesn’t do for the Dodgers tonight. (grin)
had you picked today’s game, we would have won. 🙂
BOO HOO!
Big win for the Jays to stay 9 back of the Yanks for the final wild-card spot.
Sheezus, that was brutal. Giants aren’t beating up on the dogmeat teams like this POS Toronto outfit. Not good.
They better gird their loins for this roadie. Hoping like hell they can pull off a near .500 trip…
Dbs catch a break getting Joe Kelly (0-2 6.75) instead of Shelby Miller.
It was obvious from the 1st inning that Dickey was sharp. His previous outings are irrelevant. This should be an easy one to forget…one of those tip your cap games…
Mac, I hope you and your family/friends were not affected by that building collapse in Philadelphia.
Thanks Blade, but no need to worry about me. I’m in Jersey well east of Philly. Hurricane Sandy storm was our main problem. But yeah, what a terrible accident with that building collapse.
OK . . . Yeah, I wasn’t certain about your exact location. Yes, very bad that this has happened.
Not baseball related, but Kevin Johnson’s political star shines brighter after helping to save the Kings in Sacramento. I don’t know what his political ambitions are, but certainly governor is within reach if he wants it. And easily the House of Reps, if he wants it. Maybe a future Senator, who knows. It’ll be interesting to see.
I saw him once in “real life.” I was staying at a hotel in downtown Sac, the same time he was there. He was part of the TNT or TBS basketball broadcast crew, along with John Thompson and Danny Ainge. I saw those guys hanging out in the bar area. The visiting team, the Timberwolves, were staying there also. We saw the team hanging out in a lobby area for a few minutes, waiting for their dinner room to be set up. I thought it was pretty cool how they had their dinner. The staff took an empty meeting room, and quickly turned it into a fully catered instant dining room. Kevin Garnett was the big star of the team. He sat by himself in the lobby area, his game face fully on already, staring intensely into a pillar, as far as I could tell. There was a hotel security guard with them, and nobody bothered them. We all just thought is was cool to see them.
As for Johnson, I saw him go into the hotel store, and buy a New York Times, and I was very impressed. My image of athletes and newspapers was pretty locked into place after reading Sparky Lyle’s “The Bronx Zoo.” There’s a scene in the book, in the clubhouse, when Lyle has finished reading a newspaper, and Yogi Berra comes up to him and asks to borrow the sports section. After giving it to him, Lyle offers Yogi the rest of the newspaper, and Yogi says “Nah, I don’t read that junk.” Of course, I don’t know if Johnson was going to read more than the sports section, but it’s obvious now he probably he was. I can’t remember if Lyle was reading more than the sports section, but who knows.
He has a BA in Poli Sci from Cal…
Very cool. He’s one of the few politicians I can listen to for a whole speech. In fact, other than Obama, I can’t really think of anyone else at the moment. I’m sure I would want to hear Elizabeth Warren give an entire speech, but I haven’t yet taken the opportunity on the internet for that.
What, Mitch McConnell doesn’t float your boat? ;)…
In an otherwise BLAH game, there were some nice moments in the broadcast. One of them was when Lasorda was in the booth visiting. At one point, it got mentioned that the Giants are World Series winners, and Lasorda kind of gave a grudging statement like: “Well, you have to give them credit. They got it done.”
And after Lasorda left the booth, Kuiper said something like “If I’d known Lasorda was going to be visiting the booth, I would have worn the other World Series ring, too.”
And Krukow said “Yeah, I would have worn the other ring hanging from my ear.”
that’s funny. I was working and didn’t see the game, is Lasorda in town for that Michael Milken prostate cancer thing? Otherwise, why is he there?
That’s the reason. He and Milken were in the booth. It’s great what they’re doing, and helps redeem some other things about both of them.
I’ve been *in the room* with Milken a couple of times–never spoken to him. I have a buddy who’s related to him through a marriage. Seems like a very cool dude. I do believe people change, many times, over the course of their lifetime. Of course, not everyone changes.
I don’t know about you guys, but when Lasorda goes to see that big Giant in the Sky, I’m gonna miss the bastard. He reps an earlier era of baseball, and that’s really all he knows. You can dog him for being a Dodger, but you can’t deny his passion for the game. He loves baseball, and made his whole life about it. IMO, that’s cool. There’s really no Giant counterpart to him. Willie is the Giants icon, but he’s really the equivalent of say, Koufax. There is no Giants “Lasorda”…
And, BTW, recent pics of Koufax make me envious. The guy is 77, and looks in fantastic shape. Looks like maybe he’s 60, and he could go out tomorrow and pitch a damn 2 hit shutout…
“There’s really no Giant counterpart to him.”
Us?
I hear you, but I can’t stand Lasorda. I just as soon he never set foot in ATT.
As for our Lasorda…….maybe Mike Murphy??
According to something I read somewhere, it was said that the previous ownership of the Dodgers, in addition to all the other problems, had a lousy relationship with the legendary Dodger players. Koufax has been brought around by the new ownership; the kind of thing we’ve seen so well as Giants fans since the Magowan era onward.
Dawg, good call. Murph is the only guy that’s been around the Giants so long as Lasorda’s been with the Doghairs. Just not a lightning rod and as high profile as Tommy…
I understand the reticence about getting touchy feely about Lasorda. But, I’ll tell you guys, as I get older, I’m taking a broader view of things in general. Would the Giants/Dodgers rivalry have been anything like it was in the 70s and 80s when the Giants were generally crap and the Dodgers were good — without Tommy? I’m trying to imagine it. Tommy was so much more of a lightning rod and brought sizzle to the situation compared to Walter Alston. Not even close. I can’t imagine a ’70’s – ’80s SF/LA game at the stick without Tommy sauntering from the RF clubhouse area into the LA dugout blowing kisses to the Giants fans. He was the needed nemesis to a generally moribund set of decades for Giants fans…
Be careful, Snarkk, your comments about Lasorda are sounding like those of an adult. There’s still time to save yourself- just say you had too much Maker’s Mark.
The Lasorda/Milken visit was a helluva lot more bearable than the Amy G interview with Paula Abdul.
Wow. Glad I missed that. I wasn’t able to see the whole game.
Amy wanted to take Paula home with her. And yes, she said that. With an oooooooh or some such exclamation..
OK- now I’m sorry I missed it.
Tulo with 5 hits tonight, CarGo with 3 dongs. Jeez, it’s too bad the Astros don’t need some hitters, they’d fit in real nice with that young crew.
That’s hilarious. But of course the Rockies totally suck and are void of talent.
hahaha . . . 🙂
Glad to see the smile Blade!
When are you gonna come forward with the REAL backstory of why you hate the Rockies so much? Did Dante Bichette kick sand in your face at Bonny Lake????
Well, first off – I never use “hate” (maybe detest, dislike, etc., but I try to keep that word out of my vocabulary).
Bichette? Dawg, I actually met him at a steak house in LODO and he’s a nice guy. No issues with him. Ask me about the Monforts though . . .
Fair enough. Glad to hear that bit about Bichette. I always liked him.
Off topic . . . I am about to pull the trigger on a 50″ VIZIO M501D-A2R 50 in. CLASS 1080P 240Hz LED SMART TV, online at Costco for $789 . . . Costco mostly sells TVs that have been out for more than a year and this is a relatively new release (maybe that’s why it can only be had online).
Anywho – do any of you mugs have Vizio televisions? Good experience? Bad Experience? Why?
Can’t help you. I’m a Westinghouse guy from way back.
Philco, baby!
Actually, I have a 42″ Visio LCD that buzzes like a mofo on the HD channels. My older Sony, no prob. Not quite positive it’s a Comcast prob, or Visio, but it only happens on that TV. I have a couple others that don’t have a prob.
I have a Toshiba, and love it. Have heard mixed reviews from friends re: the Vizios. I had a Vizio sound bar that was OK re: sound quality, but the fucking power supply went out shortly after the warranty period (1 year). I now have a Klipsh sound bar and it kicks ass.
I like Amy G. and appreciate her challenges. A lot of personalities are just flat out boring people.
What are Amy G’s *challenges*? She’s just some non-ugly former college volleyball player who scored a sweet tv job out of nowhere. Her *challenges* are nil.
I believe she is married to a Comcast (or other TV station) exec. Not that helped her land her gig, I am sure.
She does as good a job as most at what she does and she probably knows more about baseball than most of the numbskull ex-players at CSN. Estes, the Bipper, Vida.. do the people at Comcast have no standards ? Do they hear what these morons say? Estes in particular is a propped up semi-functional baseball illiterate.
Blade, we have a 55″ Vizio from Costco, and we love our TV. It has HD, the picture and sound are great. It’s been all positive experience for us.
This is probably a dumb question, but does the TV you’re talking about have HD? I couldn’t tell from all those things you listed, and the price you listed is much lower than we paid for ours.
Yes . . . http://www.costco.com/VIZIO-M501D-A2R-50-in.-CLASS-1080P-240Hz-LED-SMART-TV.product.100049045.html
The Dodgers blow a run-down.
Beautiful.
And I’m now officially a little concerned about Arizona.
At least you didn’t say Colorado . . .
well that’s good cause that balances out San Dawg’s problem with Puig…..:)
From the Hit List:
Astros: Another failure to lose a baseball game. These guys have truly lost it.
Marlins: Juan Pierre had more career plate appearances than the other eight men in their lineup by over 6,000.
Phils: How much housework did YOU get done during Ryan Howard’s triple?
Sherpas: They went 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position, which is unclutch and horrible so they made Carlos Gonzalez just hit dingers until the game was over.
Snakes: A paltry 2-for-4 day lowered Willie Bloomquist’s average to .611 in four games. Starting to think he won’t be able to keep this up.
Maybe it’s just perception, but AZ doesn’t scare me like they used to when they won NL West. This is a different group with Prado and Parra (as a regular) and minus a few big bashers. The Bloomquists of the world we can keep in the yard. As I recall we smoked both of their pen guys last time in, and Miley and Cahill haven’t been very effective SPs. We’ll see what happens to Corbin as teams get more familiar with him.
I also don’t think Gibson is brightest bulb in the division either. My guess AZ will wind up fighting for the last WC spot and allowing them one extra game.
That’s all well and good but the Giants sure need to straighten out their shit at some point in the not-too-distant future. The pitching slump has to right itself very soon, and the defense needs to settle down. As the hitting has been scattershot lately, giving away outs ain;t the way to win. This roadie won’t break the season, but it sure could put them into a hell of a hole should they continue their wayward ways on the road. AZ has us at home, then the Dogs and Pods on the road (they are 18-13) while we have AZ, PItts, and Atl all on the road, where we are 10-17. AZ can put some distance between them and us if we scuffle.
I’d take 4-5 in a heartbeat, but maybe we can get hitting again.
Just fininshed reading that last few comments. @ zumiee, you are right, Kevin Johnson should be looking at the Govenors office. right now I am not sure who the other candidates would be. but Johnson surely has set himself up for success. I live in Sacramento and he has become the Man.
2., I agree with out Tommy L in the 70’s and 80’s the Giant/Dodger rivalry would not have been as exciting. Also the Doderplayers back then were to hate for. Tommy was a showman fun to watch.
Thank goodness for Kevin’s ambitions that Jerry Brown has no children…
LOL, you mean Moon Beam??
In SoCal, it’s “who’s Kevin Johnson”?. That’s where the votes are…
I see that point, Snarkk, but Johnson campaigns very well. He’s got the “it” factor of a politician who can communicate well to groups, big and small. I think he could win over a lot of folks in So. Cal.
Just my opinion on that.
Hey, based on my limited knowledge of him, and being a Cal alum and actually being at Cal while he was and seeing him play, I’d vote for him. Could he be worse than Ahnuld? Impossible…
I don’t know any of the details on this “list” coming out from that PEDs lab in Florida supposedly with a bunch of MLB players’ names. But, I do consider that the way MLB has gone after this demonstrates that the MLB knows that its drug testing program is a failure. If there are a coupla dozen guys on the “list” that supposedly went to this guy’s “clinic” for more than a high colonic, yet only a few were caught in the testing net, then what does that say about testing? It’s a joke…
Yes it is, Baseball needs to contract out to a private Lab who wiill not let the players know when they are going to be tested. and the Lab should not have to ship the speciman to Timbuctoo to get the results.
Baseball needs to come to terms with reality They’ve lost the war, time to negotiate the terms of the surrender.
Then the records for the past 130 years are pointless.
Uh-Oh, the Hanging Judge is online. Whatever you say, Chuckles.
Unca – I really don’t want to get into the whole PED thing, but considering nobody was tested for anything when a lot of the records were set, I’m thinking the records have never really meant anything over the years. Can you say without a doubt that the Babe didn’t have a cocaine weight control cocktail in the 20s? Or that he didn’t do anything more than beer and hot dogs? What about Mantle? What was in that shot, that he took in the ass, that gave him an abscess and took him out of the HR race with Maris? Cal Ripken? Come on, that dude should have been tested for PEDs big time, but he wasn’t. Aaron, went through the 50s, 60s and 70s. Can anyone prove he didn’t do anything illegal during that time? Or, can anyone prove he was completely legit? Nope, Can’t be proved for or against any of these guys because there wasn’t any testing, for anything.
Given the lack of testing in the past, the lack of competition (whites only). the various drugs that were legal then but not now, yeah I guess I agree with you when you say, ” Then the records for the past 130 years are pointless.”
Notable passings:
1. Deacon Jones, one of the Rams “Fearsome Foursome”. Inventor of the term “sack” for tackling the QB. Certainly one of the top defensive linemen ever. SI in 1999 called him the best defensive end of the century. Trivia: went to Mississippi Valley State, graduating in ’60. Same school that generated Jerry Rice. Obviously, Mississippi in 1960 was not a great place for a young black man. The college was created in the ’50s by the Mississippi ruling legislators as a black college to keep young black people out of the other state universities that they figured were going to be the subject of forced integration.
2. Frank Bank. Child actor that played “Lumpy’, Wally’s friend, on “Leave it to Beaver”…
Sad to add former Airplane drummer Joey Covington:
http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/Jefferson-Airplane-drummer-Joey-Covington-dies-4583576.php
Reading about Deacon brought back a memory. As a young kid, I traveled with my parents back east on a summer trip. For some reason, one night we ended up in Selma, Alabama, I think this was ’66, maybe ’67, right after the civil rights protests in Selma and the marches in ’65. It was definitely before Dr. King was killed, and probably was ’66. Anyway, we were walking down the street in “downtown” Selma at dusk, still light, yet the town was just shut. Hardly anybody on the streets. A man (white) came up to us and asked my father what we were doing walking downtown at night. He said it was too dangerous for white people to walk alone at night, and that we should leave immediately and go back to our motel. I remember thinking that was just weird, and I was scared. I haven’t been back to Selma since. But, I did live in TX in the mid ’90s for a while, and I’ve seen East Texas, Louisiana and Alabama in those modern times. There’s a good deal of change, but at the core, there’s some that hasn’t. What we’re seeing in the political sphere out of the South is no accident. It is a different world down there when you are out in the smaller towns, even some of the smaller cities. The place where those three putzes dragged and murdered a black man behind their truck in 1998 was in Jasper, a town in East Texas, not really that far from “modern” Houston, in miles anyway. These are the areas that elect Congressmen now that are now acting like anarchists. Instead of bringing us together, the election of a black president has bubbled to the surface many divisive things that supposedly had gone away. Now, they’ve arisen again, use better code words and have PAC money, and instead of the old poll taxes and literacy tests — they cut the pre-election day voting periods and minimize the number of voting booths in poorer neighborhoods…
Those playing sports have tried to get an advantage (cheated) since the dawn of time. They can improve the process, no doubt, but it will never end it. There will always be those developing the next “cream” and “clear” to attempt to beat the latest tests.
Just a quick note about the latest “scandal”- Sergey Brin knows more about us the government does.
That’s why the gov’t wants to mine Google records — without a warrant.
http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/291871-google-fights-secret-fbi-subpoena
http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_23365220/judge-orders-google-turn-over-data-fbi
Second link shows that Google just lost that case in Federal District Court in San Jose, and will likely appeal to the 9th Circuit. That is good, I hope the 9th Circuit overrules. Meanwhile, the gov’t is probably monitoring this Blog. Not good if the “gov’t” are Dodger fans…
Or women.
The “Lump” is dead? Sigh . . . Long live Clarence Rutherford!
new thread–sorry, this one came out late today.