Buster Posey Needs to Get it Going
If this wasn’t happening in Colorado, I doubt so many fans would be lamenting the offense. But there are obvious red flags about the Giants bats and they will be waving wildly long after the team leaves Sherpaville.
If I was going to point a finger at one particular player it would quickly be pointed at Buster Posey. I don’t doubt his effort and this is obviously a complex and layered problem, but guys like Hicks or Arias aren’t counted on to carry the team. And in dark times like these, someone has to step up and lead the way to a better place.
Buster is hitting a pathetic .229 this year but his struggles are not just about this year. In the second half of 2013 he hit .244 with a measly 2 home runs. You wanna be the man then BE THE MAN. He gets paid the most. He gets the commercial deals. He’s the former MVP and batting title winner. He’s supposedly in the prime of his career. I don’t want to hear anything about him being tired or worn down. If he’s that sensitive he shouldn’t be playing catcher.
I’m not putting this all on Buster but I am putting it on him to lead the team, if he’s able, out of this funk. If they truly can’t hit as a team that’s fine, I’m sure Sabean will be chalking this up as another bad penny year soon enough. But Buster can hit.
So start fucking hitting.
Maybe Hector read Chuck’s 9:58 post about starting Susac.
Blade, thanks for the article link. That was cool. It’s interesting to think of that 100+ year old Cuban, living for decades in Cuba after having pitched against Ted Williams, Mickey Mantle, and others.
(There’s a new biography of Ted Williams out recently called “The Kid,” I think. I’d like to read that at some point.)
Speaking of ballparks earlier today- I remember in “World Serious” Pawlie having mentioned seeing the Mets play at the Polo Grounds. That’s an awesome thing; the Polo Grounds seem sacrosanct to me in some way. And yet I know it was an old ballpark with some issues to it, also. In Rushin’s book, the author talks about how awful the restrooms were at Ebbets Field, a ballpark held as sacrosanct by many, too.
“That would be 5 game winners for Hector (Wally Pipp) Sanchez!!”
Not to be picking nits, but it was Wally Pip who got replaced by Lou Gehrig, not the other way around. 🙂
Ballparks… no matter your opinion of Boston, I felt blessed to have seen so many games at Fenway in my years there. Opening Day, especially, every year for a dozen years; even if they had to plow snow off the outfield grass for the opener, all that green was just such a sight after a long winter of no color beyond black white and brown. Kind of makes me feel old or sad, not sure which, to have been to a handful of parks that aren’t even around anymore (Comiskey, Tiger Stadium, Fulton County, the old Yankee Stadium [will never forget my first game ever as a young boy and watching Mantle and Maris], hell, even Shea and the Vet in Philly). I hope they never tear down Fenway or Wrigley. If teams there want a new ball park, keep those places open as museums….
I think Boston or Chicago will never be as stupid as the Yanks were to tear down Yankee stadium. I mean really, How many legends spun in their graves when that went down? Steinbrenner’s legacy. What an idiot. Throwing away a direct connection to the Babe, Gehrig, DiMaggio, and all those guys.
Prefer Fenway to Wrigley. The concession area at Fenway is my favorite part of any ballpark.
Yeah, the bathrooms at Kezar were pretty bad.
Drove off to the grocery store ~ a mere 17 miles away ~ during the 8th inning. Just had a feeling the Giants would come out on top. Bit dumb about that, though. Thought it would be by one run. Even Sanchez’ salami got cut in half by Morneau’s blast. Proves you can never score too many runs when playing in the Box of Rox.
Agree, Chuck, about tearing down Yankee Stadium. There was talk in Boston a bunch of years ago that Fenway’s girders were getting creaky and they might have to tear it down. Severe outcry from the fans convinced ownership to do repairs instead. Even if they had built a new park, there was also talk of keeping Fenway up as a park, allowing families to come in on nice days and have picnics on the grass. That would’ve been ok… I will just never forget the smells and sounds of those old parks. Tiger Stadium wreaked of cigar smoke, a great smell as a kid. Fenway’s old wood and metal seats creaked and groaned when you sat down (since replaced by plastic ones). What I also thought was cool about Fenway was Lansdowne Street that runs along outside the Green Monster. In my days there in the ’80s, Lansdowne was home to a string of punk and new-wave clubs. Friday nights were great; just as the games were ending and the fans poured onto Lansdowne, the clubs were just getting going. Quite the mix of people. I often went right from a game to a club. Perfect Friday nights in Beantown.
Michael Pineda might be the dumbest baseball player to ever play the game. And that’s really saying something.
I didn’t know Michael Pineda was a baseball player.
Saw a game at Fenway in 2001. David Cone pitched AGAINST the Yankees, of all things. And won. 3-2 I think. Got a lot of curious looks as my wife and I were both sporting Giants gear. The action around the stadium was great. The cheap-ass hotel we stayed in, you could see the left field light standard. Great fun.
My lone Fenway visit came in ’91, Sox vs. Indians, right around this time of year on a chilly Sunday afternoon. I went with a then-DJ friend of mine and several of his radio cohorts, and we made what turned out to be a highly entertaining drive up and back from NJ in one day, I think we sat in the outfield seats in right-center. Jack Clark played for the Red Sox and struck out four times.
Chuck, they killed the charm of the old Yankee Stadium when they renovated it in in the 70’s. Tore down the magnificent original facade and put up a horrendous fake one. Moved the monuments out of dead center field. Installed ugly padded outfield walls, and fucked with the dimensions. It wasn’t the same place. The bathrooms still sucked, the corridors were still too narrow. The only improvement was getting rid of the poles that obstructed your view.
Wish I had seen a game at Yankee Stadium the time I went to Shea back in ’73. Shea had all the charm of an airplane hangar.
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