Here come the Cubs!
Arguably the low point of the 2013 season: getting swept at home by the Cubs. I’m sure the Giants won’t be taking these guys lightly. I hope. This series is an excellent opportunity for the Giants to continue to rock and roll.
On Memorial Day, I’m remembering my dad. Here’s a photo of he and my Uncle Mel in Europe during WWII. It’s amazing this treasured family photo even exists. My dad and Uncle Mel, helping to defend our freedom to do things like watch baseball. They both made it safely back home.
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
My dad is on the right in the photo. He passed away in the Spring of 2010, at age 91. He missed seeing the SF Giants win the World Series, but he wasn’t a big baseball fan. He was a huge NASCAR fan, and would have enjoyed watching that Charlotte race yesterday very much. 🙂
My Uncle Mel passed away in the mid-1980s.
Great photo. Thanks for sharing, zumiee.
Cool photo zum. My grandfather worked in shipyards here during that time.
Yes that was one of the low points of last season, watching teams like Cubs come into ATT and win . I also recall Nate hitting an HR, to add insult to injury About any way you slice it, Cubs are one of worst teams in all of baseball, esp NL. Fewest wins, most losses, 13th NL in road win pct. Bum talked yesterday about not forgetting what Twins did to him before…
Yesterday on cbs site I watched the vid of Yunel Escobar stealing 3b with no throw after a 2 run double in 7th gave Toronto a 5 run lead vs. Boston. Much yelling from Sox bench and Escobar posturing, players rush the field yada yada. On the comments underneath, bloggers went:
It’s only boring baseball who cares.
Um, why did you follow story and comment?
Because his girlfriend just deflated.
🙂
great photo!
Thanks.
He was actually my step-dad, but my only real dad. He married by mom when I was 3 years old. He was always an “older” dad; he was 15 years older than my mom. He and I grew much closer when I was an adult. As the old saying goes: it’s amazing how smart our parents suddenly get when we turn 18. 🙂
I’m figuring on that. Right now, for my 15 year old snarkkette, I’m not too bright…. 😉
Wonderful photo and words, Zumiee. Although my father also served in WWII, my thoughts today mostly concern the wars that have marked the days of our lives.
A somber Memorial Day in light of the VA scandal that cost many veterans their lives. I am quite sure many here have served in one of the wars that have marked the last 5 decades- or have friends or relatives who have done so .In 2015 It will be 50 years since I joined the Navy. There was a draft back in those days and many young people chose to avoid what was thought to be an immoral and unnecessary conflict. My thoughts today are to wish a happy Memorial Day to those who have served and also to those whose beliefs led them on a different path. We have all served and loved our country in our own way. Take a minute before the game and before you fire up the grill to reflect on what war has wrought upon all of the people of the world and how lucky we are to have the freedom that so many are denied.
In a less serious light-how lucky we are to have BASEBALL and our beloved Giants. Now. Don’t burn your wienies. Have a happy and safe holiday, my friends.
Very well said.
Ditto…
Awesome words, Twin. Thanks for your service my friend.
Great post Twin and that picture and your memories of your dad are awesome Zum.
On a lighter note, today marks the 25th anniversary of the Phillies/Giants game a few of us on here attended. I always forget who else was there—Chuck and Zumi maybe? Anyhow, I’ve told the story before how my friend Will and I walked from my Uncle’s place in the Portola, splitting a 6 pack on the way, only to get the Stick and find it was a rare sellout. In a huge stroke of luck, I noticed someone just pull open a gate and walk in, I grabbed Will and we followed him right him. Will Clark hit his first grand slam, Ken Howell got ejected, Mike Schmidt had a rough game and retired in the locker room after the game. Big Daddy got the win.
Will is still a good friend and lives here in SD as well. Yesterday, we went to the Padre together as part of a large group for his work and we regaled everyone with our 25th anniversary story.
Yeah, I was at that game with my Dad. The Westin hotel by SFO had a deal, where you could get a room and two lower box seats for $99. They were great seats, about ten rows behind the Giants dugout. I am pretty sure it was a giveaway day, possibly a cap day, but I can’t be sure. It was a beautiful warm Sunday. if you had never been to the Stick you would have wondered why in the hell would they want a new park.
Wonderful post and photo Zumiee. For all the Vets whom served, I salute you. Everything I have today is due to enlisting in the Air Force (I served on a medical rescue team), e.g., government civilian job when I left, GI educational and home purchase benefits – both of which I took advantage of, and an unbelievable pension that the government no longer offers. In short, no complaints and only sincere gratitude toward the U.S. of A. 🙂
God Bless!!
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Great pic, Zum. I had an Uncle Mel too. You don’t see that name very often anymore. He was from the older generation of the family and also served in WWII. I don’t know if it was the logistics of being on the west coast but all of them, grandfather, great uncles and so forth served in the pacific theatre. Happy Memorial Day to all the vets
Thanks ZOOM. I didn’t have anything to post today but you sure took care of that. Great photo.
I think I stepped on Z’s post. Wasn’t my intention. Live long, live well. Ciao..
????
you added to it. That’s what the comment section of the thread is for! 🙂
BeerCan to be on KNBR live shortly. I breathlessly await…
I find it hilarious that he only refers to his girlfriend on the air as “Beer Can”
I’m waiting for Champagne Bottle…
66 degrees projected this afternoon, with winds to 15 mph, at ATT. Sounds like a good day for baseball, and remembrance. And, probably a few dingers…
Hunter Pence is just all kinda of awesome. His scooter was stolen recently and he’s offering a signed bobble head of him on his scooter if it’s returned. No questions asked. Epic
Why would the Cubs hire ManRam as a player/coach at AAA in Iowa? Supposedly Theo Epstein is a smart cookie. I assume he would have to OK that move by an affiliated farm team. Excuse me, but that seems to me a move that sets back the progress at supposedly making the Cubs less of a joke organization…
S-Dawg, I wasn’t at that Giants/Phillies game; that would have been a great one to be at.
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I see in MLB news that the Mets continue to have problems with their young pitching. Syndsgaard (if I spelled it right), their top minor league pitching prospect, has developed arm pain that the Mets are very concerned about.
The Mets got Syndsgaard with a draft pick from the Blue Jays, when the Jays signed Dickey, if I remember correctly.
I’ll be at Wednesday’s Giants game. If any Flappers are going to be there and want to say howdy, let me know.
might be getting caught up in the moment of the day, but that was a hell of a national anthem
I have Petit as my pitcher in a fan duel outing.
Great throw by Sanchez to nail Bonifacio on his steal attempt. Grab some pine meat.
Nice first inning by Petit. Maybe we’re going to get the ‘good Petit’ today. 🙂
Marty Lurie noted some interesting pre-game stats on Petit. When he goes 1-0 and 2-0 on hitters, they hit something like .360 and .570 off him (its really high), respectively. When he goes 0-1, 0-2, and 1-2, its something like .230, .175, and .130 (don’t quote me on exact numbers). Needless to say, if he’s getting ahead of batters early, the day should go well. If he’s not hitting his spots early in the AB, look out…
The Cubs pitcher reached 97 on his fastball. Impressive.
Ha! Sandoval turned that fastball around.
Morse, so far, really isn’t nearly as bad a fielder as I was led to believe. If he can get to the ball, he usually makes a play on it. He’s got a long, loping stride, so he won’t get to the frozen ropes in the gap or straight over his head with a leaping catch, but I can live with that, given his bat…
if you missed the outtakes from that *brandon/Brandon* commercial here it is. Hilarious and it makes the actual commercial funnier
Nate with the “in your face” HR. Where were more of those when he was here?…
well, that was his first one of the year so…..
So, it sucks for us even more… 😉
Amy G’s hair looks awful.
Her face isn’t anything to write home about either. She should stop smoking or wear some sun screen (looking more and more like a California Raisin). 🙂
I wouldn’t mind having this Samardzija dude in our rotation…
How bad are the Cubs? From Nightengale with USA Today, calling for the Cubs to trade him now…
“The Cubs have already proved they can’t win with Samardzija. He hasn’t won a game in his last 16 starts. His last victory was Aug. 24, 2013. It’s not his fault, of course. He has a 2.99 ERA in these 16 games, yielding no more than two earned runs in 10 of the starts.”
Their entire team sucks. For example, Starlin Castro, was supposed to be “can’t miss” and sports writers decribe him as “lackadaisical” and “plays only when he feels like it.” Junior Lake, a phenom, only has these types of losers to look up to. Just my take, but they need a disciplinarian, similar to their last successful manager – Lou Pineilla.
Panda looks like he’s got the power mojo coming back. Has anybody here been sending him care package snacks?…
MLB.com is pretty good. They put up the highlight video of the Panda HR within about 3 minutes. That was not a mistake pitch. Inside and low slider with bite a few inches below the knees. Panda is dialed, no way most LH hitters 8 iron that one into the RF pavillion…
LQTM
That was in regards to the care package comment.
I am on a bit of a delay (got home from the Memorial Day ceremony at our Veteran’s Memorial after the game started). Pablo is in a groove!
Pfffttt! Petit is out of gas . . . Next.
Still a bit delayed…but are you fucking kidding me…giving up the tying RBI to the other pitcher. Geez…
It gets worse Chi . . . Cubbies are ahead.
Yeah, I am almost caught up with the live game, Blade. Looks like it will have to be another come back win…
Uh, WTF is going on here with the Giants pitching?…
Sloppy play this inning.
Wow. Looks like this is one of those games you chalk up as destined to be a loss. Three errors in one inning? Sheezus. Adios, Flappers…
HAHA . . . Kuip read my mind.
Not sure what the point was of leaving Huff, a pitcher who had nothing, in the game that long. This is a team that can score runs, it’s not like we go down 1 or 2 and it’s all over. Waiving the white flag a little early, in my opinion and Kontos stops the bleeding, finally….
Into each life some rain must fall. Taking the long-view this one was our #6 and #7 starters who came up vs not only their best but also sporting an ERA usually only seen among setup men and closers. Panda transforming into a force of nature is a good sign. Wondering if someone like Runzler isn’t getting a bit stretched out at Fresno. Huff may not be long for this team. Looks as if Petit is good for 4 or so and then second and third time around he starts getting a bit predictable.
kinda tough to take much advantage of that wind blowing out when you can’t hit the ball. 10k’s for Sam?
Two outs, bottom of the sixth and a runner on first, Bochy burns Blanco instead of letting Kontos hit for himself and go another inning. Sometimes BB15’s moves are quite open to question.
Kontos pitched 2 frames yesterday, that could have factored into it…
good point.
the theft of Pence’s scooter seems to be weighing on his soul heavily today…..
if they overturn this, it’s time to overturn replay
Kruk said, “it could go either way.” And he was right. And if it could go “either way” there’s no way it should ever be overturned. CONCLUSIVE. Seems like people forget that word sometimes…..
I see some more Fresno in Huff’s future.
It got up to 100 degrees in Fresno today, by the way.
I’ve never seen a rally cap moment that’s worked. All it does is fuck up your cap and make you look like an idiot. They should replace it with *rally-rack time!* where all the chicks take off their tops and go topless. It might not work but it would make the pending loss easier to take….
Stupidity of ballplayers, Dodgers edition: A.J. Ellis sprained his ankle during the celebration after the no-hitter. He’s probably headed back to the DL.
I love it. As predicted here, sometime before. Shades of NFL kickers jumping to celebrate a winning kick and tearing a knee. I’m not at all convinced that last year Pagan’s hammy injury occurred solely or even partly while he ran the inside the parker, and not during the ensuing celebration…
I’ve wondered about that. He flies around the bases, gets pummeled by his teammates, and comes up lame. He tore his hamstring badly. How could he have kept flying around the bases with a torn hamstring? Is that even possible? Maybe he was so caught up in the moment, he was able to do it. But I guess we’ll never know for sure. He says he injured it earlier and then it finally tore while he was running around the bases. That’s his story and he’s sticking with it. 🙂
We’ll see if the Phillies can hold on to their 4-0 lead over Colorado.
The jerk who stole Pence’s scooter better give it back. because the bad karma as a result of such thievery is the only explanation I can think of for losing yet again at home to the awful Cubs.
Zum, that’s a great photo.
Thanks!
I thank my sister for converting it to digital for me.
As you know, the Cubs handed Tanaka his first loss in over a year.
Pitchers often don’t pitch well in their next start after a no-hitter or perfect game, because they had to pitch more pitches than they’re used to in order to go the distance. We’ll see how Beckett does.
Unfortunate waste of a game getting 4 runs against Samardziya, which is hard to do…
Here’s some funny news: Dodgers catcher A.J. Ellis has gone on the 15-day disabled list with a sprained right ankle, a day after getting hurt while celebrating Josh Beckett’s no-hitter.
I posted about that a few minutes earlier, but I didn’t know the disabled list was for sure. What a disaster for the Dodgers, but totally predictable. It’s amazing it doesn’t happen more often around MLB.
Ha, just saw that.
Ha! They can’t even call up Ear-biter Olivo…..he gone.
I buried the Phillies yesterday, and here they are whoopin’ the Rockies today. Well, hey, we’ll take that. 🙂
The Rockies have road issues, don’t they? They are getting shut-out so far in the Phillies bandbox ballpark. Talk about a bunch of Coors Field-inflated batting averages on the Rockies.
I have. Many times. 😉
9-0, Phillies ahead now. Epic butt-kicking going on.
Larry Krueger, who I didn’t know b4 his “brain dead” comment that got him fired years ago, is a pretty sharp guy in my opinion.
He’s on twitter promoting this move: trade Crick for Samarjiadaggmiia and put Timmy in Casilla’s role. Can anyone support that from any angle?
I’d be up for it. Samarxxxxx is not a FA until end 2015, I believe. He’d be lights out with the Giants. I don’t think Epstein is that dumb, though, to take Crick for a guy who’s a proven #1 / #2…
Stunning photo, zumiee.
Just back from lovely (really) Geneseo, NY and incomparable Letchworth State Park, termed the “Grand Canyon of the East.”
Managed to get a text yesterday from Sam P. telling me about the Giants’ win. And no, no stories to relate about running into a Giants fan. (I’m slipping!) But watching 15 or 20 hot-air balloons take off and sail away was splendid.
LA’s Ryu is pitching a no-hitter through 7. #jinx
Now I’m hoping the Reds rally and the Dodgers lose.
Rick Reuschel is 65 years old. Doesn’t that seem like, older than you thought he’d be? Or are we just all really fucking old? lol
Christ, he’s older than Mike Schmidt…..
And I think I’m older than both of them (but I am constantly told I’m a young 65. I am. And I reap all the dividends that go with that, oh yeah). Was Reuschel EVER thin? He carried us in ’87, no?
For a portly man, Big Daddy could run and field the position. More than I can say for most Giants pitchers today. Fielding a bunt or a grounder and throwing to first without a throwing error or tearing up a knee is a major accomplishment, apparently, for Giants hurlers. Huff today basically started the end of the Giants chances by his errant throw to first on the pickoff. Why is this basic fielding and throwing so hard for Giants pitchers?…
He was a rock for us for 2 seasons. If you go look at some old video of him near the end of his career, it’s shocking how fat and out of shape he was. Pale and doughy without a spec of muscle tone. He had the body of Colin Montgomerie. Yet, he was still winning.
I am a little stunned about how good Reuschel’s career records are — per Wiki. 214 wins? That’s more than Hudson. The number of complete games for guys like this before the progression of the relief pitcher era always seems to me astounding (and no TJ surgery).
“In a 19-year career, Reuschel compiled a record of 214-191 in 557 games (529 starts).[1] He had 102 career complete games and 26 of those were shutouts. He allowed 1330 earned runs and 2015 strike outs in 3548 and 1/3 innings pitched.[1] Reuschel was a two-time Gold Glove Award winner and a three-time All-Star.[17] As of 2009, Reuschel was is in the Top 100 winning pitchers of all time. Reuschel won the Hutch Award in 1985,[18] and was also a winner of The Sporting News Comeback Player of the Year Award.[12] Reuschel was named to the Baseball Digest 1972 Rookie All-Star team.”
One guy, at least, thinks Big Daddy is HOF material.
http://www.highheatstats.com/2013/02/beyond-era-why-rick-reuschel-had-hall-of-fame-value/
Nate wouldn’t look bad on our bench in August…
The Mays statue has better OPS than our bench…
Nate, you guys gotta be kidding–why would he come here to sit on the bench 6 days a week?. Belt gets back you shove Colvin over there plus Hector. I still think Sabes will find back up middle IF/2b off waivers/trade and Adrianza won’t be here to kick around. 25th guy is basically irrelevant; don’t know why he bugs people so much.
Besides, it would bring back all those loony tunes who thought he got raw deal here in first place. I think the guy was named Berger, who said SF would regret trading him for Pence.
Watched Wilson almost heimlich Ryu’s effort vs. Reds last night.
Ryu was perfec thru 7 then gave up double single sac fly single and left with 4-1lead 2 on 1 out in 8th.
Wilson walks bases loaded, gets a full count K, then gives up 2 run double to billy Hamilton (!) and reloads the bases with another walk. Gonzo, and replaced by Jansen who gets 4 out save eventually.
Blogger on cbs site said last week after watching the C Butera throw an inning in a blow out loss that
Dodgers 3rd string C now had an ERA that was almost as good as Wilson’s.