Happy 4th of July
I’m out of town and moderately off the grid and I just heard that a hurricane passed by or through North Carolina. I swear to God, the first thing I thought of was “good thing that fuckin’ clown decided to raise his house after the last one.” I checked the comments in the last thread, sounds like he’s ok and he broke off one of the great one-liners in Flap history:
“Living along the Hurricane Belt is kinda like being a Giants fan: You pay the price and you get to ride the ride.”
If he was able to generate that type of gold with a maelstrom swirling around, I’m assuming he’s just fine.
Today we play a team with the worst offense in the league and will be facing a starting pitcher that is one of the worst in the league. We should roll tide today, right? 11-3? Something like that?
Or lose 3-1 because we suck.
Happy 4th to all you guys and anyone else even loosely associated with Flavor Nation. This is my favorite holiday of the year and no, I don’t light shit on fire. Just love the day. Gonna go bone up on the contestants in this year’s hot dog eating contest. I’m guessing that is NOT one of Loo’s favorite competitions to watch. 🙂
31 years ago today, this happened. Was there anything more “4th of July” than this? Raggs throws a no hitter striking out Wade Boggs while Billy Martin does a quiet, nervous burn on the bench during the final out. You know, nowadays we just don’t seem to have moments like this anymore. I guess that’s why they’re *moments* you never forget……
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
Good thread. Happy Independence Day. Independence. I’ve got that. Now what do I do with it? Pretty lazy today, after a taxing drive yesterday from Philly. Best to Flap Nation!
why don’t you make it out to that hot dawg eating extravaganza? I’ve always wanted to see that live. I have several questions about things that tv doesn’t show…..
One of the columnists for the Houston Chronicle is a regular judge at the Nathan’s contest. Apparently each contender has one judge that keeps track of their individual number….They also have to ensure there is no “reversal of fortune.”
Craig, oddly enough about Rag’s July 4th no-hitter, I remember exactly where I was: sick as a dog with a high fevered summer flu, sitting on the floor of my rented house in Cambridge with fans and ice buckets all around (no A/C even in that Boston steamy summer heat), friends out of town for the weekend, just me and the TV set and the ballgame. I was more or less a Sox fan at that time, due mainly to living there, but was full on rooting for Rags and the no-no. Seemed like a perfectly patriotic kind of thing, Yanks-Sox on the 4th of July, a no hitter to boot. My birthday weekend, as well. After the game, I crawled out to the backyard, where my housemates had erected a little kiddie pool and filled it with ice before they left for the weekend, setting it in the shade of a huge old black cherry tree.. I sat in that stupid little Little Mermaid pool or whatever it was, for hours, into evening, dousing my fever with ice and downing chilled vodka/tonics. Woke up the next morning and felt completely fine and it was a beautiful clear dry day for the first time all summer… Thanks, Rags.
That is a gem of a story: a slice of life and a time-capsule keepsake.
And happy 4th to all of Flap Nation.
Hope everyone has a great Fourth of July! A Giants win would certainly help.
MLB has an interesting video on another iconic Yankees July 4th moment: Lou Gehrig’s remarkable speech. http://m.mlb.com/video/v34196007
I had a good time at the game yesterday, regardless of the score. Beautiful weather, and there were some nice moments during the game. Pablo’s great diving play starting a doubleplay; Colvin’s throw to home for the out; Blanco’s bunt single; MadBum’s RBI single; and a few others. The Cards made some nice plays, in particular the pitcher Freeman’s throwout on the swinging bunt. It was a breathtaking throw.
The two biggest moments of emotion for the crowd were when the bases were loaded for Posey. The crowd was rockin,’ but Posey struck out. Still, a big part of baseball is anticipation, and it was a great “anticipation moment.” The other big moment was Duvall’s throwing error that opened the Cardinals floodgate. As the ball sailed into the outfield, the crowd let out an awesome collective groan, from deep down. A groan that expressed three weeks of baseball frustration. But even after that error, the fans still cheered when the Giants got the final out. The fans are doing their part to stay positive and try to lift the team.
I was talking to somebody in our group about how Giants fans generally don’t boo the Giants. And we both agreed that we liked that. That’s more of an East Coast thing to do that, and I’ve never liked that.
Photogenic, and sunny, thumbnail of the game. Thanks. Yeah, we East Coasters have that booingness, don’t we. I mean Yankees fans booed Mantle and Schmidt was booed in Philly. don’t know if Mays was booed in NYC but probably so, at some point.
Could the tour be a blessing in disguise? ~ a road trip transmogrifying into a good trip? Surely this crapitude at home has gone on long enough and a change should be immanent. Still big on the notion that we are under bad karma because the playground is named ATT instead of Willie Mays Field. What did ATT ever do for baseball. It’s just another crappy corporation with waaaay too much money, power and control. Sad thing is that Giants ownership doesn’t really need the extra money from the sponsorship sellout. They are mostly filthy rich already. Greed is bad karma.
On a whole nother note: All you Flappers go forth and have yourselves a helluva fine day.
Willie Mays Field. I like it. The “Field” suggests memories of Rickwood Field, where Willie played in Birmingham. I believe it is the longest-running ballpark in America.
Some great faces in that video. If you look, you’ll have a Yogi sighting, a Don Zimmer pudgy head, and you’ll even see Donny Two-Trips in the scrum, not to mention Billy Martin. Look at Wade Boggs. No RSox fan here, but the guy even looks like a hitter. Closed stance, shoulders square, bat where it should be, not fidgeting in the box. He’s set, ready to hit, no screwing around. Like Bonds. Then the TV shot around 2:18 of the royal box with what looks to me like Steinbrenner (white shirt) clapping. Kinda fuzzy, but I think that’s him. I assume this may have been from the Yankees TV feed. What other organization after a no-hitter focuses even a second on showing the owner?
BTW, Rags had a pretty good slider.
Happy 4th, Flappers!…
Yeah, Snarkk, Boggs was a pleasure to watch during his/my time in Boston. There was one ump who, as Boggs was just stepping into the box before the first pitch, would just say “3 and 2”, as a joke, considering how often Boggs worked the count to full. Like, almost always. Just a hitting machine, along the lines of Carew, Gwynn, etc. Scutaro, NLCS 2012….
Is “competitive eating” a sport? If so, would Maalox be a PED?…
Pence RF
Belt 1B
Posey C
Sandoval 3B
Morse LF
Arias 2B
Crawford SS
Perez CF
Cain P
Happy 4th fellas. Go Giants!
Maybe Boch is reading the Flap. Apparently he called in a few “leaders” on the club yesterday, for a meeting. What was discussed, who knows. Now, KNBR reporting there is a “players only” meeting going on at Petco right now. I don’t know if those things ever do any good, they’re usually a sign of a club in trouble. We’ll see if it does any good.
Belt back today should help, anyway. His glove will shore things up in the infield.
Bochy says today that Pagan out until at least through the All Star break…
Snarkk, either that or he’s in cahoots with the NSA and spied our exchange of email yesterday, i.e., we said the same thing.
Yep. We’ve been baseball fans a long time blade, there’s not too much new under the sun. Except salary size and beer prices…
I read a lot of columns on fantasy league baseball, especially to have an edge/keep ahead in daily league tournaments. Here is something that I read which might give you pause when burying Sergio Romo . . .
“After allowing 15 earned runs over his past 15.0 innings, Sergio Romo has been removed from the Giants’ closer role. He has a 5.17 ERA this season despite a .226 BABIP. Still, it’s safe to say Romo has mostly experienced bad luck – for instance, this two-run “homer” (see video link below), as he sports a 20.5 K%, a career high 17.1 IFFB% and a healthy 14.2 SwStr%. Romo has hung a couple of bad sliders, resulting in the most homers he’s ever allowed in a season over just 31.1 innings, but the safe bet is he records more saves than any other pitcher in San Francisco’s pen over the rest of the year. Since entering the league in 2008, Romo is tied for the third lowest WHIP among all relievers (among active pitchers). I certainly wouldn’t drop him.”
http://m.mlb.com/video/topic/70087564/v33718487/colsf-barnes-delivers-insidethepark-homer-in-9th/?query=brandon%2Bbarnes
In short, don’t be surprised if you see Romo back in the closer’s role.
HItters slump, pitchers slump (unless due to arm injury). Romo was definitely in a slump. Guys were hitting doinks off his slider, and crushing HRs, as well as long long outs. Bochy had to pull him out of closer. Put him in a position in the earlier innings where he can’t hurt the team for a while, see if he gets his mojo and sharp slider back. IMO Bochy is doing it right…
It’s good to see Belt back. Out 6 weeks and still tied for 4th on the club in HRs. I thought we might see him lead off.
I’d rather see anyone but Pence leading of. He’s a run producer, not some gnat you hope to get on base at a healthy clip. For a team that doesn’t score runs, who cares if Pence gets on first or second base just to die there at the end of the inning?
Yeah, he’s wasted in the 2 hole. Better in the 5 spot. Pagan’s absence is a killer. I seem to remember you commenting how we could look forward to him being injured all the time when he signed his deal.
I don’t like it either, but who else is there? All the bench jockeys will do at leadoff is make an out 4 of 5 times in front of real bats. I’d rather have Pence get 5 ABs a game than Blanco or Perez. Welcome to the world without Pagan, part deux. You’d think Sabean would have figured out from Pagan being gone 3 months last year, and the cratering that followed, that Blanco, et al wouldn’t get it done if Pagan went down again. But, no, Morse comes in for power, no other upgrade in OF over Blanco. And, Perez — another AAA+ player, with nobody in the minors except persona non grata Gary Brown. The thing is, over the winter Sabean himself admitted on KNBR that they were caught flat footed when Pagan went down. Now, here they are again caught in the same predicament…
Just got power back, it went out about 12:30 ET last night. The winds woke us up around 2AM , the eye of the storm went over us about 3 or 3:30. We let the dogs out to do their thing while it was quiet and the storm surge hadn’t happened yet. Around four I went to get a two finger snarkk with ice and I had water dripping on me from the second floor. We spent a few hours plugging some leaks, it was just a long ass night but we are still standing. From what I hear our little village got named as we took the direct hit (I didn’t have power so I can’t say for sure). I haven’t heard of anyone being hurt, so that’s great, some small buildings, like sheds got flipped (not mine). Really for 100 MPH sustained winds, I haven’t seen too much damage, but being up 8 feet on sticks you can sure feel it. Cheers all, I have some ice melting and I’m gonna put it to good use before it does.
Damn that AC sure feels good
OH yeah, happy 4th y’all.
Cheer’s, Bozo. Great to hear. Gutsy of you to hang.
Great to hear you came out of it OK, Clown. Letting the mutts out for a leak when the eye of a hurricane passes over is classic stuff!…
Glad you came out the other end all right Clown. 🙂
congrats clown! being in the eye must have been pretty cool, especially with the house still standing. too bad it wasn’t daylight so you could see the eye wall. and a two finger snarkk is money!
If the eye of a hurricane were passing over my house, I wouldn’t be as calm as Bozo. Screw the fingers. Give me the damn bottle!…
Great to hear you’re safe, Clown.
Maybe the best thing in the Rags video is that the Yanks aren’t wearing any gimmicky 4th of July caps.
when I see old videos from the 80’s, I’m always struck by how small the players look. Boggs looks like a boy. Maybe it was the style of the uni’s. I know I didn’t look too good in those short white tennis shorts but I rocked them hard back in the 80’s.
Morse awakens from coma…
Clown– great update, glad you and the chick are all good. That must have been a pretty good ride, my man…..
100+ MPH is kinda fucked up. Glad we’re still here and very glad to have power back. Yes the next 30 thousand I spend will be on central air and a generator system.
Anyway, thanks all for the well wishes, fuck Arthur in any hole you want and get some run Giants. I’ve started to blame all the futbol shirts the guys are wearing for the lack of runs.
Did I mention how nice the ACs being on are? Go Flapping Giants.
I just canceled with some friends on going to the Sherpa and Dodger game this evening. Kershaw was going to pitch. “Was” because it is raining cats and dogs right now. Unbelievable amount of rain is coming down and I will be really surprised if they get the game in.
Clown, great to hear that you and yours and your stuff are okay.
Way to hang in there, Bozo!
At the Giants game yesterday, “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” played between innings at one point. There’s a line in there about a “crossfire hurricane,” I think. The song was still sounding great. A timeless recording.
Cain continues to be victimized by the home run. Worse, this dude gets his 1st hit against Cain and it is a HR.
Yeah, I think now Cain has given up 2 more HRs than Timmy in around 18 fewer innings…
?. Amarista has been around awhile
HR to the guy before the pitcher. Jesus, that’s lame.
Plus, Seth Smith hasn’t been able to buy a hit off Cain in his career (3 in 30 something at bats). Today? Double.
I was just reading a column on players that have face planted this year and Cain is on the list. Three FL columnists do the “Over and Under” predictions on these players having a better 2nd half after the All Star game. Cain? Two think he will continue to face plant, with one thinking he will do better . . . Read it and reap:
http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/fantasy-roto-arcade/all-wiener–14–justin-verlander-heads-a-charred-class-150815979.html
Correction – 2 think he will do better. 🙂
OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Read all about it!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Arias gets extra base hit!!!!!!!!!!!
Champagne all around. Arias’ first xtra base hit for the season in 94 ABs.
The league is pounding this Stults guy like nobody’s business. WHIP of 1.51, ERA 5.36, BA against .308.
Giants should be ripping this dude…
Is Amarista a relative of Hairston?
Happy 4th! On my way to a bbq with Kathy
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sjzZh6-h9fM
woodson played some of that the other night. Right away he got a call from a gal who said she was at Miami Pops when Hendrix played the Anthem and all of a sudden skies opened up, and it became legendary with tons of anecdotes from attendees.
Glad to hear Bozos are alive and well, and that Arthur is headed elsewhere.
Ignoring the game fore now. 2-0.??? Worst hitting team? When will that be us?
Jurrjens still hasn’t completed the 1st inning. Ethier just tripled. No help from the Sherpas.
If Gyros are shutout today by this stiff, I think that will be 4 shutouts in 11 games, or some such.
This offense is just lame now for a month. No more player meetings. No more pining for Pagan.
Get some hits, anyway you can. Bunt, slap, chop, tomahawk, whatever. Steal a bag, hit and run, run and hit, work a count, take a walk. Do something other than stand there and hack. Get some damn hits…
In all my years I’ve never been more disappointed as a G guy. Talk about being fooled by them the first two months. At least the pros were also. It’s like they ran out of coke or juice or something…
Take Cain out, I don’t know why keep him in. If Diego gets any more runs here, the chances of a comeback are pretty low. A homer here seals the deal…
So, another walk, now to load the bases. WTF is going on with Bochy? It’s crunch time, and he leaves a laboring Cain in to load ’em up. Now, he puts in the wild pitch scud thrower Affeldt under extreme pressure…
Yes, defense gets it done! DP, and Belt with the short hop save. Whoa, that was needed. Now get some damn runs and stop the slide…
clown performance by the Giants offense tonight against one of the worst starting pitchers in the league. They might wanna hold a players only meeting differently next time
Better do it now.
As I once saw somewhere, the Giants couldn’t score in the Gas Light District.
Four frickin’ hits spread out across the line up. Belt no help tonight (which makes sense, since he just got back). Sandoval 0fer too. Sigh. This is like watching a continuous loop of futility.
Snarkk, the Cain thing was l/r match up. If he brought in Affeldt they would PH Denorfia, plus Cain was leading off so ideally he saves an arm. Affeldt got him anyway on the DP.
I wanted Pence in lead off few days ago and I’m sticking with it. First he has a great OB, better than anyone else beside Pagan. Second, the best hitters should be at top of the order to get more ABs, not 5th or lower. Which is exactly how it looks–Pence Belt Posey Sandoval Morse. Third, maybe Pence hits a few out and SF starts the game off 1-0 and you don’t need anyone else to drive him in. Fourth, there is not a better option or a hitter that comes close to matching talents of 5 above–and I’m including Panik Colvin Perez Blanco or anyone else. Barring a trade for another hitter of course to take Pagan’s place.
Belt has already saved a few runs just with his glove, including just now for Machi.
I get the r/l thing, willied. IMO, only 2 down late, I don’t go with the risk of a tired Cain going any longer. After the first runner get’s on, he’s out, and I have L and R relievers ready to go. You can’t risk going down 3-0 or more. And, yeah, totally agree on Pence. In this situation with Pagan out and bench jockeys swinging linguini bats, I want Pence getting 5 ABs a game…
Let’s get somebody on, and then we need an HR…
We have the unknown Ace tomorrow, Odrisamer Despaigne, Here he is . . . http://media.utsandiego.com/img/photos/2008/11/17/3c20cb42-7d3c-4984-8f40-a18d6e214ea5news.ap.org_r620x349.jpg?75d51d0aea2efce5189afce216053cbc530c46a8
Well, Giants saw him once in the last set in SF, right? They should be able to get a run tomorrow…
In the old days of the Mayan empire, bad times and bad karma required a human sacrifice to appease the gods. Somebody on this roster needs to go, and bring somebody else in. I don’t care who goes, or who comes in, or from where. Bochy isn’t shaking anybody up. He’s thrown up his hands (“enough is enough”), asking the “leaders” to do something. The players meeting sure helped — now a 4th shutout in the last 11 games. Sabean needs to come down from above with a hammer, and shake something up. This face plant has gone on far too long. Any other organization and a month long free fall like this would mean some heads start to roll…
Agreed . . . Who goes first?
Wow, helluva scene.
For such bad times, the Chief seemed pretty fat…
You never saw this movie (Apocalypto)? You should rent it. One of the best films Mel Gibson ever made (director). Hey afterwards, let’s line up the Rockies too. 6-0 Dodgers extend their lead.
When’s the All-Star break?
Much more of this fiasco and Sabes will set BF off again with another “bad penny year” conversation…
Well, no fireworks from Giants bats.
But, fireworks are on the viewing agenda tonight at dark.
G’nite Flappers, Happy 4th!…
Give em till two weeks before the deadline and if their on the same skid, blow it up. No one is untouchable…Rebuild the farm, patience will be the key. It’s gotta happen at some point. The longer they wait, the longer the rebuild will take.
“John Shea @JohnSheaHey 14s
Asked about trades, Bochy said he likes his talent he has.”We’re not looking for help. We don’t need the help.”
Ok, fuck this. I’m out tonight. Not sure if fireworks are in the cards but we will be enjoying warm Summer breezes and good friends tonight. Hope you guys enjoy the same……
Dodger announcers (Hershiser and Steiner) are really yukking it up about how good the Dodgers are, somewhat at the expense of the Giants; but most of the venom is directed at the hapless Sherpas. Almost all announcers that come here are respectful, but these guys are pointedly criticizing the Rocks, at one point saying the Rockies have given up in this game. Wow!
I need a three-week ASG break, starting now. Stat. Worst record in MLB since June 9? Your San Francisco Giants. My daughter said baseball is bad for me.
I heard the Syr Chiefs announcers mention Andres Torres in the wrap-up! Vungo is on the Pawsox! Maybe I’ll go tmrw. I’d love to meet him. I stayed home, despite postgame fireworks. They drew 12,000 plus, one of the top 25 crowds in their history. Lost 3-2 in 10.
My best friend and I worked at Sears. We took an “extended break” in the break-room and watched the last 3 innings. Great memory for me. My friend and I went to college together soon after, and he was best man at my wedding. He was killed in a car wreck a month later. I still miss him 22 years later…Watching all the managers and store VP come and go while we were watching still brings a big smile to my face! Thanks for posting Craig..
posting this from my phone. Right now I’m with people I’ve been friends with since college. Your post touched me deeply, dude. Sorry for your loss.
David Huff got the win for the Yanks today.
Samardzija and Hammels to the A’s in blockbuster trade.
Meanwhile, Bochy says he’s cool with the players he has, and Sabean has his thumb up his…
Hammel, too.
“The Cubs will receive pitcher Dan Straily as well as shortstop Addison Russell, the top prospect in the Athletics’ system. The A’s also are sending over outfielder Billy McKinney, the 24th overall pick in the 2013 draft, and a player to be named later.”
Addison Russell? This doesn’t make a whole lot of sense in lieu of the Cubs having one of the best SS prospects, Javier Baez, already in their system. In fact, Baez is their number 1 prospect . . .
http://baseballnewssource.com/prospects/chicago-cubs-prospect-javier-baez-analysis-and-scouting-report/26479/
It will be interesting to read more about this trade. Right now, I don’t understand it.
Steve, they’re the cubs for a reason. that being said, the g’s starters aren’t the issue right now.
I read this in Baez’s bio: “Baez isn’t as advanced defensively. His average speed begets solid range, and he has a good arm, but he still commits too many errors. Some scouts feel Baez is destined for a move to third or second base, which would be eased by Starlin Castro’s presence in Chicago. No matter where he plays, Baez’s bat has the ability to make him a star.”
Mac, yeah I know he isn’t that good defensively, but I suspect he goes to 2nd (or even the outfield), since the Cubs have another stud 1st round draft prospect at 3rd base named Kris Bryant. Which makes this more of a conundrum is Castro (whom you mentioned) and he was supposed to be the savior as recently as the beginning of this season, after his fairly good season last year. In short, they have a logjam in the infield which leads me to believe the Cubs aren’t done trading yet. Don’t get me wrong, they did really well to get Reed and McKinney, two top prospects in the A’s system, but I’m wondering if one or both of them are trade chips . . . or, are the Castro, Baez, or Davis blue chips going to be used to get other pieces???? Interesting mega deal to be sure.
By the by, this is how Kris Bryant is rated by the major rating services:
Prospect Ratings by Baseball America:
Pre-2014: Rated #8 Prospect
Prospect Ratings by MLB.com:
Pre-2014: Rated #9 Prospect
Prospect Ratings by BaseballProspectus.com:
Pre-2014: Rated #17 Prospect
Just read this column and as I suspected, the Cubs may not be done dealing quite yet:
“It may not be long before Russell joins Chicago’s prospect party at Triple-A Iowa. That is, if the Cubs keep him. Keep in mind, they have Starlin Castro already in place and another top prospect in Javier Baez, who also plays shortstop. It’s possible Russell is flipped to another team based on the three team rumors, and it’s possible the Cubs are just stockpiling elite prospects so they’ll have more flexibility down the road. Either way, they stand to gain nicely from this deal, as it appeared unlikely Samardzija was going to agree to an extension.”
Cubs just acquiring the best young players they can. They’ll deal one or more of their young guys, and spin them for positions of need. This was a good trade for both Cubs and A’s. A’s a going for it, and want lock down pitching for the playoffs. Meanwhile, Giants are happy with the 25 they have, apparently. Why, I don’t know…
If I am the Giants, I am thinking seriously about calling Billy Beane. Why? Oakland’s rotation is overflowing with options, which means some tough decisions (or additional trades) are on the way. Obviously Sonny Gray, Scott Kazmir and Samardzija are locked into place, and Hammel should have a job waiting for him. Does Jesse Chavez get bumped to the bullpen, or is Tom Milone out of luck? And don’t forget about Drew Pomeranz (broken hand), who could be a second-half factor, in some role. In my mind, Billy Beane is more likely to trade an asset or two, to the NL versus the AL (as he did with the Cubs). Just makes sense.
Interesting, but Beane seems way more comfortable doing business with anyone but the Giants and making deals with their division rivals: Ethier, Cargo, Street and Seth Smith, Cahill and Pennington, etc.
Maybe I’m just skeptical but I don’t think this is an accident.