Does it Matter If We’re Sans Dicks?
In the clubhouse! I’m talking about IN THE CLUBHOUSE!!!!!!
Decent discussion at the end of the last thread about dicks in the clubhouse, Bochy’s success, Two-trips failures….
It does appear that the Giants made a concerted effort to go dick-free after the Bonds era ended. And whether it’s coincidence or not, that clubhouse castration led to two world series wins and the current best record in mlb. Going cold turkey on clubhouse dicks led to good things for the franchise….
I think Bochy and Sabean made the decision to go this direction because they’re old and they’ve earned it. After the years those two put in, they probably figured that fighting dicks in the clubhouse just wasn’t worth it anymore.
Two Trips hasn’t really earned that right. Sure, he played for many years and he earned respect as a player. But he didn’t earn that as a manager and I would argue that he’s got less rep on this side of the country than he does on the other side of the country. Throw in a team full of divas who are almost all set for life and you have the makings for Two-Trips not being able to change much in that dugout….
And I’m fine with that.
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A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
Message to Chuck…
Saw the Jesus and Mary Chain at the Fillmore I believe in the Fall of ’87…fucking great show. They got swooped into the venue looking all drugged out and took the stage with only a drum machine and I think 4 people playing guitar and they were phenomenal. One of those moments as a music fan that you always are searching for hoping to see something completely unique and that band at that moment in time certainly were!!!
But your additional Haight St comment made me remember that my first drink in a bar outside of San Jose was on the Haight right before the Jesus and Mary Chain concert. Fraternity brother of age and I walked in and never got carded, but cant remember the name of the bar. It had a huge airplane fuselage in the ceiling of the bar and I can even remember what we drank. Still the best beer I have ever had…Sapporo Black! Can’t find it in the US any more.
But we lived for the Haight in high school and college for the used record stores and thrift clothes and the music venues, the I-Beam was probably the one most visited…awesome memories!! My brother lived in the lower Haight while I was in grad school…
GH, the bar you’re probably thinking of was Rockin’ Robins, I remember they had the front end of a car, maybe they had a plane in there as well. The other bars with music on that end of Haight street and around that time were the Full Moon Saloon, Nightbreak and the IBeam. I don’t think Rock and Bowl had live bands (the one in NOLA does) and like unca mentioned bars like the Gold Cane would have live music but I don’t recall stages at those small bars.
and who exactly is Two-Trips???
Donny Two Trips is the Bruce Springsteen of baseball. Outside of NY/NJ, nobody thinks as highly of him.
Mattingley///got it…
I enjoyed Mabuhay (REM played there believe it or not)….IBeam ( Saw The Cure before they were on the map)….never cared for the big venues.
Bozo you remember the name of the club on Divisadero…was it 628?
Oops wrong place
salty, is it the Kennel Club that you’re thinking of? I’m not sure about 628 but it did go through some name changes, for awhile it was called the VIS.
Yeah, kennel club …thanks!
And of course I now need to mention the 5 other best shows in my youth in the Bay Area….
#5) Motley Crue Fall or Winter of 1983 at the Warfield. Have to put this in not only for the greatness of the show, but we met Nikki Sixx, Mick Mars and Vince Neil before the show and got autographs on our spray-painted pentagram bed sheet. Only missed Tommy lee, but his drumming was unbelievable. Highlight of the show during the encore, women trying to storm the stage and roadies pushing them backwards into the crowd. Great memories for a 16-year old.
#4) The Cure at little San Jose Civic Fall of 1985. The Head on the Door tour and one of those records that changed my musical tastes significantly.
#3) U2 at the SF Civic December 1984 – we met Bono, the Edge and Adam Clayton after the show at their hotel near Pier 39. I believe it is the Sheraton if still there. Waterboys (one of my all-time fav bands opened up and their lead singer Mike Scott was being heckled and his thick Scottish broguue telling the heckler to “Shut the Fuck Up!” I was a fan for life after that). But they opened with Gloria and probably had two-thousand people on the floor going nuts. I tried to hit on this hot hot blonde maybe 18 as we surged to the front of the stage and Bono eventually brings her up on stage to dance..fucker!
#2) R.E.M. at the Santa Cruz Civic Summer of 1985 – that place was like a high school gym. Fables of the Reconstruction tour and Michael Stipe came out on stage with his harbor coat and the band leading off with that song Harbor Coat and he had just shaved his head from his well known long hair from the South Central Rain video days, which put them on the musical map…
#1) The Smiths at teh Greek in Berkeley Summer of 1986 – I put this number one because they broke up not that long after and was obviously one of those monumental and historic bands. Plus the other 4 bands on this list were all still playing until REM’s recent announcement they officially retired and the Crue’s recent retirement tour.
Other notable was Echo and the Bunnymen in Fall ’85 at Henry J. Kaiser in Oakland. Their encore was a cover of the Stones’ Paint It Black and was just unbelievable. The Church opened up that show and they are one of my all time favorites.
The other great show of my youth (did not put it on the list because it was in a big venue of the Cow Palace) was Summer of 1985 and Judas Priest!!! Rob Halford the singer winked at me confirming to me and my friends what we had assumed for a few years, especially growing up near SF and seeing certian men in leather…
Wow, great post! Color me impressed.
Fighting dicks? Is that the same as a cock fight? I saw quite a few of those during my 3 month-plus stay on Guam.
I don’t think that DTTs has much control of the bums. I think that is a team doused in gasoline just waiting for someone to toss a match on it. Fuck ’em!
I am not a huge Ann Killion fan, but I thought this was a decent little piece on our Bay Area baseball teams.
http://tinyurl.com/ougvapa
Absolutely right, Craig, that Mattingly hasn’t earned the right to set the rules and tempo and personality of that team, which is based on Hollywood glamour and status and money and blah blah blah. That team will win games but not a championship. The inmates run that fucking asylum. Also absolutely right that Sabean and Bochy set the course a couple of years post-Bonds for “no more dicks”. And they have earned that right, and I think the players here, now, and since about 2009, they get that. And despite what some stats people say about intangibles in baseball not being important, that’s what we’re looking at here, the enjoyable success of this team over the past 5 years…
Timmy Jim against Homer (DOH!) Bailey tonight. Chance for isolated thunder storms in Cincy today up until game time. At 7 it is supposed to clear/be sunny with temps in the low-to-mid 80, humidity around 60%. That fucking place could be sweltering.
Bailey in his last 3 is 2-1. He lost in Philly on May 17th, going just 3.2. His last two starts have been wins against the the DeadBirds at home and lastly against the bumbinos at the latrine. He has a 5.04 ERA and 1.51 WHIP, with a .295 BAA this year. Giants’ mashers could light this dude up. Let’s hope.
Timmy comes into this game with a win, loss and ND. He has a 4.18 ERA and 1.54 WHIP, with a .275 BAA.
Time to kick some Red ass (no, not AJ, Kent, or Benitez)…
The Flight of the Concords said it well with their song “Too Many Dicks On The Dance Floor.”
And too many dicks on a baseball team is a problem. The players don’t have to all be best buddies, but the players need to buy into the concept of a team, and mutual respect. And the manager sets an important tone for that. I’ve been reading Gary Hall’s interesting and entertaining baseball book, and the book is loaded with positive stuff, but one of the negative, and even heartbreaking things to read about again, is Alvin Dark’s poisonous behavior as manager of the Giants in the early 1960s. For one thing, having a rule that the Latino players couldn’t speak Spanish in the clubhouse was so racist and counter-productive that it boggles the mind. It’s really sad if the MANAGER is the dickiest dick in the clubhouse. But you can’t have your manager just be a doormat either, like Two-Trips. A lot of teams, when hiring managers over the years, seem to go back and forth on the pendulum between “player’s manager” on one hand, and “disciplinarian” on the other. The ideal thing is to have a manager that seems to have elements of both, and Bochy seems to have that. The players know he’s in charge, but the players also know that they have a lot of freedom to be their own personalities. It’s a unique talent in managers. Madden, in Tampa Bay, seems to have that, too.
Here’s that Flight of the Concords song. Pretty darned funny:
LMAO…that’s good, zume…
I thought this was a good little read on the upcoming draft (starts on Thursday). snarkk will love this (go down about mid-way 7th or 8th paragraph). Will be interesting to see what the Giants do with the 14th pick…
http://tinyurl.com/mr99voo
“Twelve shortstops were chosen ahead of Crawford before the Giants took him in the fourth round in 2008. Among that dozen, only Gordon Beckham of the White Sox can be remotely considered to have enjoyed a career more fruitful than Crawford’s. Crawford is gaining recognition as a Gold Glove candidate and has a 2012 World Series ring to his credit.”
Beckham made two errors against the Dodgers last night; I wasn’t impressed.
Looking at numbers, Reds are 14th in NL in runs scored, 13th in OB, 10th in slugging HRs and BA despite playing in hitter friendly yard. If SF pitching can keep them down SF should romp. Hamilton has an OB of .290 and they are second in SBs, but obviously that hasn’t translated into runs. Without Votto, not an imposing LU.
Outside of Mez, lot of guys under .700 OPS among reg starters. Currently only ahead of Cubs in that division.
Tho it’s just not the same without Baker.
Interesting that Mattingly starts the Van slyke kid in CF, with Ethier on bench and Kemp in LF with Crawford injured again. I think ideally he’d dump all 3 of the latter and play Van and Puig and anyone they could get in a deal
He’s also had the Cuban kid Arruebarrena playing some SS, which I’d imagine is the plan going forward as Hanley goes to 3b and Uribe is phased into PT duty.
Problem with Puig, SD, is that he is uncoachable. He still does stupid shit on the bases, misses cut off men and acts like a spoiled child to umps and opposing teams. Mattingly has removed him from games before, but as crummy as team is doing he can’t afford to bench the kid until he gets a clue on how game is supposed to be played and how he is supposed to act as a mlb player. No one is able to teach him this stuff, and with his success and tude I don’t think he’d listen anyway.
Wouldn’t surprise me some SP he pisses off gives him the Gibson treatment and he winds up charging the mound and getting suspended.
Excellent synopsis of Puig, WillieD. I would not touch the guy if I was building a team. There are just too many other good players who do not have the baggage this dude carries around. Sure, he has some talent…no doubt. But his (my perception) disrespect for the game and the way it should be played, trumps that talent with this dick. Fuck him and the jackass he rode in on.
Yeah, GH, there was a bar right next to the I-Beam that I can’t remember the name of. They served pizza and shoved it through a hole in the wall for people at the I-Beam. Saw Etta James there in ’88 (and a bunch of other bands). Ranking shows is just too hard.
Saw Shreikback in what was really a big hallway at UC Davis years ago. King Crimson w/Adrian Belew, Belew with Talking hEads at the Greek, saw the Tubes in 1975 in a tiny gym at Stanford. Zappa at the greek. For mega shows, Blue Oyster Cult/Ted Nugent was killer. Also AC/DC/Van HalenForeigner/UFO/Journey was great, only in the fact that Michael Schenker was playing guitar for UFO and blew everyone away. Including Eddie Van Halen. But that was right after Van Halen hit the scene.
I saw Roy Buchanan and Todd Rundgren at some tiny club in SF that I can’t remember for the life of me. Unbelievable show.
The bar next to the pizza place (with a window to the bar) was the Full Moon Saloon, it was across the street from the IBeam, Rockin Robins was on the same side of the street as the IBeam.
Talk about dicks, Todd Rundgren fits that bill in my book, fuck him.
We loved michael Michael Shenker and saw him open for Nugent when were in high school. He blew Nugent away…an MSG concert shirt was bad-ass!!!
Cool post about music, GH. Your list of concerts brought back a lot of ’80s music memories for me. Just off the top of my head, some of my favorites from that era are:
REM at the Oakland arena, U2 at the Oakland Coliseum, The Cure at the San Jose St. football stadium, Living Color at One Step Beyond, in San Jose (I don’t think that club exists anymore), Sam Phillips at Slim’s, Neil Young at a few venues, the Smithereens at the Warfield, and Sonic Youth at the Warfield. I also saw some very mainstream performers: Elton John, Genesis, and a few others.
I htink I moved the year the Cure played at the football stadium:(
We got busted for drinking in the car a couple of times at One Step Beyond…but of course in those days it was nothing more than pour out the drinks…saw the Ramones there though:)
One of the weirdest shows I saw was the Meat puppets playing with NWA in Oakland. Some kind of mash up or some shit. Wasn’t the Paramount. Kind of a dicey west Oakland place. Saw Neil Young about 8 times at the Keystona PA, and the Rust Never Sleeps tour. Jerry Garcia band there was always a treat. Alvin Lee as well.
Man, I have to fucking enter my email every goddamn time I post now. On my blog and this one, Smething’s fucked up w/my wordpress account.
Remember The Lords of the New Church??? Saw them at the Keystone Summer of ’85 and the lead singer Stiv Bator almost accidentally hung himself during the encore! Could have been a scene straight out of Spinal Tap…
No Shit! Yeah, I remember them. Stiv Bator. Love that name. Up there with Stu Spewage and Dain Bramage.
Or Jello Biafra. The DKs were always fun stuff . . .
Some great posts on music, so I’ll join the party. This just off the top of my head: Tubes, Zappa, and Nugent (all separate shows) in the late 70s at Memorial Auditorium in Sac. Also saw the Tubes at a small club in Midtown Sac (name of the joint escapes me) that held probably a couple of hundred (this in the late 70s too). All great shows. Lots of arena shows. Cal Jam 2 in at Ontario Motor Speedway in ’78 (Aerosmith, Nugent, Foreigner, Santana, Heart, Bob Welch (with Mick Fleetwood and Stevie Nicks)…great show. A number of the “Days on the Green” (’77 one of Zepplin’s final US shows), and ’78 – Aerosmith, Van Halen, AC/DC Pat Travers, etc., and ’79 – Journey, UFO, J. Geils Nazareth. Saw the Police, ZZ Top, and other shows at the Cow Palace back in the 80s. Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen at the Last Chance Saloon in SF. 70s – high school days – Jethro Tull (Passion Play tour), Robin Trower, Hot Tuna (Cains Ballroom in Tulsa). This list maybe starts scratching the surface…lots of music over the last three or four decades…yeah, I’m old as fuck…
Ah, you mentioned Genesis, Zumiee – I saw them (Lamb Lies Down on Broadway) in OKC back in the 70s. We were 2nd row center…one of the absolute best shows I have ever seen. They did a majority of the songs from Selling England by the Pound and I would say 70-80 % of Lamb Lies Down. Also saw the Dead’s final show at the Cal Expo ampitheater. Also saw Bonnie Raitt with John Lee Hooker there. Lots and lots of music. Love it. Gail and I still catch a lot of live music.
Hah! Saw Commander Cody open for the Dead at Frost some time in the 70s. Trower at Winterland a few times (some unknown guy named Eddie Money opened for him). Shit, Saw Tull 3-4 times. Such a tight band that kicked ass. Kong Crimson and the greek. ELP, saw that J Geils day on the green . . . . The Who with the Clash was another greast show. Saw the Ramones open for the Tubes in like 79.
The Stones day on the green was the worst. Peter Tosh was great, Santana as well, then a 3 hour wait for the Stones, and they sounded like shit. The Aerosmith show was much the same. Everyone else was fantastic, but they sucked. Steven Tyler couldn’t remember the words to Train Kapt a rolling, and about half the other songs. The place was 3/4 empty by the time they finished. The crowd that remained was laughing at them. No encore, they just staggered off the stage.
Yeah, Chuck, remember Snack Sunday at Kezar? One of my first shows. 1975. Still have the ticket stub . . .
That was before my California days, Charlie (I arrived here in California in 1977, compliments of the USAF). But I did quickly find my fair share of music-related events to check-out.
Need a good one from freaky Tim tonight. Like to see him go 7 in under 130 pitches.
Speaking of Lords of the New Church…saw them a year later during spring break in Hollywood in 1986 and was not paying attention to the opening act, they went by the name Guns N’ Roses…
Giant Head: Very nice Top 5 concert list! Those are 5 epic shows in great venues in the prime for those bands!
“(some unknown guy named Eddie Money opened for him)”
Yeah, I try to never miss opening acts. There’s always the chance for something cool to happen, and maybe catch a rising star on their way up.
When I saw Sonic Youth at the Warfield, an unknown band named Nirvana was one of the opening acts. Nirvana did a terrific set, and of course, a few years later Nirvana was one of the biggest bands in the world, and Sonic Youth was now playing smaller venues than the Warfield. Ah, the ups and downs of the music business.
When Cobain died in ’94, it took my interest in concerts a while to recover. I started getting into Radiohead, and when I saw their concert in Mt. View in ’99, it felt like the ending of an era in my journey as a music fan. I felt like I had kind of gone as far as I could with rock music as a fan. I remember thinking after that concert, what now? Where’s the new and exciting music?
And then……
a friend of mine gave me a copy of a Steve Earle album, and it was like a lightbulb was going on over by head. I had found my new direction. The Americana/alt-country scene. It literally changed my life. I met my wife at a Buddy and Julie Miller show. I began to absorb all of these amazing performers, who I generally didn’t know even existed. Lucinda Williams, Emmylou Harris, Uncle Tupelo, Wilco, Son Volt, and on and on. My wife and I have been to almost every Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival at Golden Gate Park. My wife, who is an artist, painted a beautiful watercolor painting of a banjo in a desert-like setting, and was able to give it as a gift to Warren Hellman, billionaire founder and funder of the festival and amateur banjo-player; it was her way of thanking him for the festival, (Warren was always highly visible, moving around the festival, enjoying performances) and his office the next year sent us both “Friends and Family” passes, and did so for years, which gives access to some nice hospitality sites at the festival.
When Warren passed away, we felt a huge loss, as did many many others. Fortunately, Warren has set the festival up financially to carry on many years after his passing, and his children seem committed to keeping the festival going as a tribute to their father.
The Freight and Salvage, in Berkeley, has become one of our favorite concert venues. We saw singer/songwriter Mary Gauthier, and also the Milk Carton Kids there in the last year, amongst others. All wonderful performers. A lot of the Americana artists aren’t famous, and they generally aren’t rich, but they are doing great stuff.
Great post Zum!
Not many epic concerts for me, BUT I did see Guns n Roses open up for The Cult at the 3,000 seat Open Air Theatre on campus at SDSU in 1987. I remember my friends and I thinking these guys sound pretty good as we watched them rip through their set. None of us knew who they were prior to that.
Zumiee – similar track for me, although I was listening to alt-country back in HS (early 70s). Jerry Jeff Walker, Commander Cody, Ray Wiley Hubbard, Waylon, Willie, etc. And that genre of music is my favorite today, although my taste in music is still quite varied and eclectic. Some that I have seen of late (that I really like alot) are Devil Makes Three, Trampled by Turtles, Giant Giant Sand (saw them at Hardly Strictly a couple of years ago, and they had this guy named John Paul Jones on mandolin)…and yes, it was “that” John Paul Jones. While he is one of the best known bassists in the rock community, the dude can pick a mandolin like nobody’s business!
Pere Ubu doing “Final Solution” at the IBeam was the high point of a couple dozen shows taken in there . . . Richard Hell sucked at the Mab . . . Mekons awesome at the American Indian Center . . . X at Barrington Hall . . . Avengers at International Cafe . . . . Feelies, Alex Chilton, Replacements, Danny Gatton w/ Robert Gordon at Berkeley Square . . . Husker Du, Meat Puppets, and the Minutemen for $5 at Keystone Palo Alto. I could spend the whole day cataloging.
I’m not a fan of big arena concerts. Best “concert” of pop or blues type was Buddy Guy at a small club venue in Houston around ’96. Buddy was “young” then, around 60. Blew the doors off the place. Supporting band was top notch all around. Dude did PLAY. Last part of the show he walked out into and around the audience for 15 minutes just jammin’, and high fiving everybody in between, and sippin a libation or two while gettin down with the guitar and singin’ those blues. Incredible. Saw a coupla years back at Bimbo’s in SF an English torch singer Julia Fordham. Lives in LA now. Hard to characterize her style, but “torch” or cabaret singing and pop probably will do, writes most of her own stuff, plays guitar and piano a bit too. Great voice, great delivery, she has a 4 octave range or something. When she goes lower register, her voice turns to cool smoky. Great show. http://tinyurl.com/m75us4z Have no idea why with that talent she never got anywhere on the radio — music is a weird business. They used to play her stuff on the old KKSF in the late 90s and early 2000s, when it was jazz and new age, not the current tired oldies BS format…
Saw Lowell Fulson, who was also probably around age 60, at Eli’s Mile High. My favorite of the classic blues guitar men shows I’ve seen.
Saw Dizzy Gillespie at the old Kimball’s East years ago. We had a table about 8 feet away from him. Those cheeks did definitely puff. He still had some good chops even then at 75 or so. Dynamite backup players, too. I think he died within a year of our seeing him…
Saw Dizzy do a New Years show at the old Yoshi’s on Claremont. We snuck in free for the second set and were served champagne like the paying customers. Fantastic night.
Saw Chick Corea at that old Yoshi’s years ago. Mrs. snarkk likes his stuff, it’s a little out there kinda jazz for me, but I’m OK with it. Also saw Dave Gruisin and Lee Ritenour in there together once. Good show. McCoy Tiner in there once. And, one of my good memories in there was seeing Toots Thielmanns, the harmonica specialist. He recorded the Midnight Cowboy movie’s theme song. http://tinyurl.com/anuknpa He played a lot of Brazilian samba and jazz fusion stuff. Really made that harmonica weep. Tasty stuff. He’s still alive — Wiki says he’s 92…
Never saw Chick Corea. Went through a period in the mid 70s where I was into the Jass Fusion. Did see Stanley Clark with Bela Fleck and Jon LucPonty at the Mountain Winery in Saratoga a few years back. Awesome show.
Wow, haven’t thought of Ponty is dogs’ years. Electric violin, that was some esoteric stuff, good stuff…
concerts, I got to see the Blues Brothers at the Concord Pavillion. 1978 or 1979? That was a rocking good time.
Hey, WillieD, time for you to start the jazz show outpouring š
I’m gonna be a dick and point out that the dicks in blue are still scoring runs on pace with the dickless orange and black. The handful of runs the dicks haven’t scored because of lack of hustle are irrelevant when your pitching does not perform to expectations.
Pagan CF
Pence RF
Posey 1B
Sandoval 3B
Morse LF
Sanchez C
Crawford SS
Arias 2B
Lincecum RHP
Bochy going with Arias to milk that “hot” bat. Not exactly stellar defense on the right side of the infield tonight…
With Hicks at 2 for his last 26 and cratering, Arias looks like he was born on the sun.
The thing about Hicks (Mendoza line, withstanding), is that he is the only guy who plays 2nd who has the ability to put one out of the park on a regular basis. Dude does need to hit with a little more consistency. Hell, I would be happy as hell with him if he could bring his average up to around .250 with a mid-.3s OBP.
I think Bochy does a good job of recognizing when guys are hot and ensuring they get some playing time.
Mid ’90s I was in Chicago for a coupla days on business. One night I ditched the guy I was supposedly traveling with and hit three blues clubs by myself from about 8 pm to after 2 am, on a weeknight. I think one of them was named B.L.U.E.S., the other’s I can’t remember. North side. They were all good, different R&B and straight Delta blues action going on in them. Last one I hit around midnight was a narrow, long set up, with the little stage all the way back, and a slightly elevated sitting area where I sat that was off to the side of the “stage”, with a long bar along the opposite side of the space. Pretty small, cozy place with definite character. The band was four dudes led by a portly black piano player and singer, probably mid 60s. They were just awesome. No-name dudes, maybe they weren’t even a band, they just get together once in a while, who knows? Piano leader was killer, got a Muddy Waters voice thing going, and the blues guitarist was funky and got those rhythms down and dirty like he was straight out of Mississippi somewhere. I was groovin’ to these guys so much I must have had five vodka tonics in an hour and half, and bummed cigs off people sitting next to me — and I don’t even smoke…
Someoewn mentioned Buddy Guy, and when a good friend of mine got married in northern Indiana in 1995, we hung out in Chicago for a few days. Caught a Cubs/Dogers game (Dogs won 8-0), but we hit Buddy Guy’s blues club somewhere on the north side (I think). Buddy came out at about 2:30 am to jam with the band that played last. Killer killer stuff.
It’s Buddy Guy’s Legends Blues Club.
http://www.buddyguy.com/
I don’t think that was one of ’em that I went in Chuck. Doesn’t look familiar. Don’t know if Buddy had his own club back in the mid-90s. There were so many blues joints on the north side, it was a matter of just duckin’ your head in, and if the band sounded good to you, you pop in and stay. If not, move onto the next one. The other time I was in Chicago was when I went to a woman friend’s wedding there for a long weekend in the late 80s. She was marrying the wrong dude, which was proven about 5 years later when they divorced. Anyway, one night of the short stay there, a few of us went into the North Side and hit some blues joints and got some ribs. Good, good stuff. I really like Chicago to visit, tons to do and food options are endless. But, no way I’d live in that place…
Chicago?
http://www.suntimes.com/news/27767026-418/harry-caray-diary-tracked-every-drink-every-bar-in-1972.html#.U4zrq2Rznr9
Great story on Harry Caray. My hat’s off to a guy who recorded in a diary that he spent a part of every day of 1972, save 3, in at least one bar, and usually several. A total of 60+ different watering holes. The other 3 days just weren’t listed for anything, so who knows, he may have “taken those days off”, or else he just got so blotto he forgot to jot down the bar name. Good thing he was apparently a happy drunk…
Yeah, I mentioned alt-country/Americana earlier as a genre I have liked since back in the 70s, but the blues have always been one of my favorites, too. Chicago blues are fine, but I really love the Mississippi blues (both Delta – Son House, Robert Johnson, Charley Patton, Muddy Waters, etc. and Hill country – R.L. Burnside, Junior Kimbrough, Mississippi Fred McDowell, etc.).
Good stuff, Chi. I’ve always loved the Blues — not sure why. Howlin’ Wolf, just dig that voice, the stories told in the songs. Passion and reality and tough stuff in blues tunes, not the “lovey dovey” love stuff in pop. My favorite rock band the Doors had guys that were, like a lot or rockers, blues freaks, and their stuff showed it…
Now, a long weekend Flapalooza in Chicago including a game or two of Giants/Cubs, dinner at a chop house of some sort, a night crawl to blues clubs — that would be incredible. I might not survive it…
THAT would be awesome! Wrigley is definitely on my bucket list. A Flapalooza and hitting a bunch of blues clubs with some of you knuckleheads would be out of this world.
Morton’s is insane. I ate what looked to be a 6 lb. steak.
Big Country named NL Pitcher of the Month.
http://blogs.mercurynews.com/giants/2014/06/03/bumgarner-is-national-league-pitcher-of-the-month/
Buster is 0 for 8 lifetime against Homer Simp . . . uhh, Bailey.
D’oh!…
The Blues, now we are talking music!! Dr John a fav of mine. I think all the lead guitarist of the rock era learned to play the blues. Eric C, Jimmy H. Dwayne Allman, skynard. They all have some blues in them.
I don’t know what you would music you would put him in but I love listen to JJ Cale.
Links below to Buddy and Beck jammin at the White House, and same song at the 25th Anniv. of the R&R HOF show, a bit earlier in time I think. In the 2nd one at the HOF show, at the end Beck obviously is a major fan of Buddy. “Buddy F…in Guy!” I think the playing is better in the WH vid. Buddy still gets it done in a major way at 75+. Dudes like him and BB are national treasures…
http://tinyurl.com/kv4tjgr
http://tinyurl.com/kglwqxv
Ooooh we baby…Buddy Guy is the shiznit. I have always admired Jeff Beck, too. Loved his early stuff (Ruff and Ready, etc.). I saw him at Arco (Echo) Arena in Sac. A guy by the name of Stevie Ray Vaughn opened the show. Needless to say, SRV blew the roof off. Jeff Beck was going through one of his odd musical times. I wasn’t really that into the sound, but was mesmerized by the drumming of Terry Bozzio. Dude can play some fucking drums. SRV was spectacular. This was a few months before Stevie tragically died in the helicopter accident.
I just bought tix yesterday for an upcoming Robert Cray show (Crest Theatre) in Sac. Great venue…holds about 850…decorated in the art deco period. Should be a great show.
JJ Cale is right in my wheelhouse, having grown up 50 miles north of Tulsa (where Cale grew up). He is commonly known as one of the originators of “The Tulsa Sound” which is a mix of blues, country, rockabilly, etc. I saw him and Leon Russell perform together at Cain’s Ballroom in Tulsa on a number of occasions.
I had mentioned before the series with the Giants that the Cards weren’t hitting anything like past years and the Giants were able to take advantage of that. Offense has been hard to come by for the St. Louis Cardinals, who haven’t scored any runs in their last two games. Well, it’s worse for them as the slumping Cardinals try to avoid getting shut out in three straight for the first time in nearly 40 years, as they go against KC this evening.
Hunter got all of that.
Pence says “No no-hitter for you today, Bailey!”
Pence puts the Homer back in Bailey.
When’s the last time Timmy got out of a first inning 1-2-3?…
Lincecum plus Hamilton . . . Give him 3rd already. š
And home.
They had him. Shit.
Wow, the way the Giants pitchers field their position sometimes.
F me.
Again with Giants pitchers fielding their position like crap. Timmy is among the worst. Do they actually practice during the season taking grounders, bunts, throwing to bases? Or is that buried in Spring Training? You run to the runner when you have the runner picked off, then make the throw. And, as usual, he can’t find the damn strike zone in the early innings…
Timmy’s probably not lasting all that long in this one. Bullpen better be ready to do its thang.
Well, the Pen had yesterday off, they should be ready…
Another midwestern city where the fans where red shirts to every game. Sure, the Giants have Orange Friday, but that’s just one day of the week.
Timmy’s got absolutely no idea what he’s doing out there…
Fuck. What else?
It pains me to say this: Timmy sucks.
Pains me, too, but he does. More specifically, his fastball command sucks. Which, since that’s basic to pitching, means yep, he sucks…
Reds picking up from last year when they pummeled the Giants in just about every game.
I think Lincecum should be DL’d and go down into “rehab” with Rags to change his motion or something. This 2 year bullshit of not being able to command the fastball needs to change. Pitch out of the stretch. Truncate the motion to bare bones like Hudson, something. Do something else, something different. He’s got good stuff on his other pitches. He just has no idea where the fastball is going. This is just not working…
Agree about your motion comment. However, he has NO fast ball. So, if he is going to be Maddux or Hudson redux, then in my opinion – any semblance of controlling all his pitches will only occur with a simplified motion.
blade, his fastball is usually around 89 or 90, no? That’s good enough with his other pitches to get the job done, if he can locate the fastball…
If I were Lincecum I’d go see Maddox in the offseason for a mind meld…
Well, this has the look of a long game. Hope y’all got supplies.
Yeah, we’ve got to hope the Giants can turn the game into a 10-8 type of slugfest.
Deep breathes everyone. this years Giants don’t go down quietly. 1st inning. Timmy could settle down and not give up another run.
Yep, plenty of time for the Gyros to score runs. Lincecum does seem to usually find a way to stop major bleeding. In this bandbox, though, keeping it to 4 seems a long shot…
Maybe Lincecum should do an hour long warmup like Zito used to do. Timmy’s short warmups seem to lead almost every start to clueless control in the early innings. Why not change the warmup routine? If he’s already done that, I got nothin’…
I think he’s tried everything including Zen studies with the groper.
Let’s hope he can somehow get us 5 or 6 innings with us still being in the game.
I like that bunt play by Hamilton, even though Hector made the play on him. If I were a dude like that with burner speed, and I paid attention to the scouting reports on how lame the Giants pitching staff is at fielding, I’d drop two bunts a game, and make them make a play on me…
Snarkk, regarding your 4:42 pm post, that’s what I mean (I think we are agreeing on the same point), i.e., with a less then average fast ball, he better have control or he has no chance. His existing motion worked when he had an outstanding fastball. It also works occasionally because (I think) it sometimes confuses hitters where it is hard to pick up the ball. However, it has too many frickin’ parts and as you pointed out, he needs to simplify it if he expects to have any consistent control. I think Hudson throws an 89 MPH fastball and yet, he has excellent command, thus the consistent success. His motion is simple – Tim needs to really think hard about his mechanics/motion. Probably too late this season because you just don’t change something you’ve known all your life. Off season he should think hard about a change and maybe visit Maddux as you suggested.
Stay hot, Pence!
Bad AB from Posey. Swung at two pitches above the strikezone. It’s not his game to do that.
I heard this in passing earlier today and I’m not in a position to fact check, but I think Timmy had a May ERA in the 2’s in May.
So saying “he sucks” is fine since it’s an opinion, but it’s not accurate.
Yeah, probably an over-reaction on my part. When he does badly, it looks really bad. But the Giants have won something like 8 of his 11 starts.
In perspective, agreed, he does not suck. Though, for $17 million per, I’d say he sucks…
Sure, for 17 mil a year, I’d go with that, too…..
Run an inning, keep chipping away, Giants.
Should have kept my fingers shut.
Last two innings have done wonders for Tim’s pitch count.
Catching up on all the concert posts, great stuff. A fun year for me was ’85, a friend of mine was working what was then called the Garden State Arts Center, a venue similar to Shoreline off a highway literally minutes from my parents house in the suburbs of Jersey. It’s where part of Jackson Browne’s Running On Empty was recorded. Anyway, my friend got me backstage at several cool shows, including Eric Clapton and Neil Young. It was kind of a go-fer job for my friend, and I seem to remember driving with Clapton’s manager early in the show to find the nearest store and buy orange juice for Clapton. Then standing backstage, I’m a few feet from from Clapton when he goes off stage to take a cig break while one of his female backup singers sang a Beatles song. Damn, I wish I had a camera. And then Neil Young, absolutely mesmerizing watching that guy play the guitar. That also was one of the rowdiest concert crowds I’ve ever seen. I’m glad my buddy didn’t put me on security duty.
“I seem to remember…” well, I’d like to think Ida remembered that if I was rolling with Clapton’s manager to buy OJ but this is still a fantastic post either way.
Ha, or maybe it was a roadie. Now I’ll have to check with my buddy, who has a steel-trap memory even for something almost 30 years and will remember what we were getting with who and most likely where we found it. Looks like this thread turned into one of those where the posts far outshine the game.
Awesome story, Mac. That sounds so damned cool.
Miller saying on radio that tomorrow night’s game has very good shot at getting rained out…
Hunter needs a triple next inning.
Giants trying to give more runs away…
Can we get a rain out in here immediately?…
Good thing Votto’s out.
He’s Zito redux.
Christ of the Ozarks could get a running start on Lincecum…
This makes 19 runs Lincecum has given up in 3 starts against the Reds in 2 seasons. This season (before this start), his ERA was 4.18 and WHIP was 1.54. Just my take, but by any reasonable measure, he sucks. That being said, I hope he can turn it around this season.
When Timmy melts down it sure ain’t purdy. Between the bandbox factor and Hamilton’s speed the Reds seem to have salted this one away.