Who Was Your Most Disliked?
A great topic that mushroomed out of the middle of yesterday’s thread: what former Giant did you dislike the most? Some good ones got listed with AJP and Blownitez being the 2 most popular. I had a tough time going super historical. Sure, there were guys I didn’t like on teams 30 years ago but that was really more a function of frustration with entire teams. I had no problem coming up with *ugliest former players* deciding on a 3 (ugly) headed tie between Willie McGee, Julian Tavares and Darrell Evans.
But who did I dislike the most? Honestly, it was probably Rowand. And certainly not because of his effort or commitment to the game. I have no doubt he was trying his best. He came to the Giants in a dark time for the franchise. And those 10 million slowly rolled balls to the left side of the infield finally got to me. His batting stance was a turnoff, man. I also didn’t care for the amount of time he spent in the batting cage. Perfecting a shitting swing was not the answer, dawg. Laying off the slider once in a while might have been the way to go.
He did make a great catch to save, I think, Dirrrrrty Sanchez’ no hitter. Ah, suddenly a new candidate emerges…..
Anyway, not the sexiest pick but that’s mine: Aaron Rowand. Somewhere I bet he’s still practicing that swing……
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
Aaron Rowand was awful, but honestly the only two things I remember about him was the throw that saved us in 2010 and him being so excited and miked up during the Renteria Homer!!!!
The Gamer was a classic. I knew as soon as Sabes signed him he’d never match earlier numbers.
Another guy that just refused to adjust to the yard. Seemed like he always took a first pitch strike then swung at next pitch foot further away from the first one, followed ultimately by K or ground out to left side.
Didn’t exactly go out quietly either.
Effort? Sure, but most of it wasn’t too well placed. Running through a wall isn’t always smartest way to go after a baseball.
And as was mentioned on earlier thread ala Zito, K and K loved the guy.
Predictions tonite Flav? You’re on fire lately…except for Belt of course.
Maybe all my Aoki dislike is finally catching on with Baggs (and Bochy). OF rotation will be highly interesting, starting tonight. If he isn’t any better than Blanco, why bother? How many 4th OFs do you need?
Plus, once the Giants finally dumped him, nobody would touch they guy,
like oranges grown in Chernobyl.
Or German wild boar š
Isn’t that something kind of odd? Guys that leave SF, for one reason or another, are soon out of baseball.
Nate and whole Bowker gang, Kieschnick, Hembree is still in the minors, Rowand, Aurillia. Tejada and deRosa hung on another year or two maybe.
It’s like Giants are last to know these guys aren’t ml players anymore (or ever).
There was an innocent time, before GMs became such public figures and salaries took off, when the animus towards crappy players just didn’t reach the pitch it does now. Or so it seems. The player whose acquisition pissed me off more than any other was Shinjo.
Riffing on that, I do like Aoki a bit more than him and the fact that Nori truly adds no more to the offense than Blanco does — which as WiilieD has pointed out was a very likely outcome based on a casual glance at the stat sheet — is more amusing than aggravating.
Those arm bands didn’t do it for you?
Hey Flavor, how about that relief pitcher you nicknamed “Big Sweaty”?
His specialty was loading the bases.
Might’ve been a member of the Bowker Gang…
Tyler Walker?
I think it was Walker. Wasn’t he an albino or something?
You guys are right – not sure about the albino thing…
Rowand certainly had McG status in his day. And yes, that stance and the gripping of the bat, like he was strangling a snake.
I’ve disliked different players over the years because of their play, attitude, ex Dodger or whatever but it’s the bible thumpers and racist that I really detest. Topping my list are Alvin Dark, Dave Dravecky and Brett Butler (did you know that the little prick tried to sue Brett Butler the comedian, because they shared the same name?). The other guys that I didn’t care for I’d just root for them by saying, prove me wrong (insert whatever name but Rowand and Happy Pete came up a bunch).
Bozo, It seems like they’ve had way too many bible thumpers over the years to differentiate among them because of that. Casilla looked fucking crazy in the WS parade last year, but it’s kinda hard to dislike him. I know you’re targeting the really out there John Birch Society types, but it just feels like those hideous beards tell you all you need to know about the wider culture.
I didn’t know about that Brett Butler lawsuit. Perfect. I think MGM should’ve sued em both for being just too close to that GWW character. Kareem Abdul Jabbar filed a similar action, by the way, aftert the NFL player changed his name to Karim A [etc.] AND chose the number 33 for his back. Big Kareem won that one–an injunction against the player and the Dolphins, I believe. imo, the best and last word on such bs comes from Groucho, who responded to a cease and desist letter over A Night in Casablanca with this: https://archive.org/details/Groucho_Marx_Letter_to_Warner_Brothers
Too me/guy had to be awful but also be a jerk. Or carry himself like one. A guy like Brett freeeking Tomko.
I don’t know that I disliked Walker. He was put in a tough situation–a closer who should never have been a closer. The sweat poured off him like he was standing under a waterfall. Tell tale sign— he didn’t believe in himself either.
Walker, good one. Another of those endless guy who sucked (Sandler, Merkin et al) Kruk used to rave about with “electric stuff. When he’s right…:” which unfortunately was like never.
You’re tough grader. He did save 23 games…
I’ll stick with AJP, the guy with zero redeeming qualities as far as I’m concerned. Early on, I remember reading that he was reluctant to work with pitchers like most catchers do, going over hitter’s tendencies, etc. That was an immediate turnoff and it only went downhill from there.
I think it was Willie that mentioned Armando Benitez last night, and I’m onboard with that joker as well. A classic gas can with a shitty attitude thrown in for good measure.
Rowand is another good candidate if only because he sucked so bad.
Did everyone catch the bit that was posted by Chuck last night saying that his son and Ewisco’s son are in the same high school Spanish class??? Amazing.
This is turning into the Six Degrees of Unca Chuck!
i was going to say that!
Missed a lot of the Belt drama over the past few days because of a work deadline, but a few thoughts:
1. He simply can’t hit the high fastball
2. Rather than advising him to hack more, I’d tell him to at least try to lay off any fastball up in the strike zone, especially in those 3-2 counts he’s in so frequently. The rule flouting umps will call it a ball 2/3 of the time anyway. The idea that taking strike 3 on borderline pitches is some shameful mortal sin is irrational.
Belt has already proven himself to be a pretty good player. Glad Bochy is finally treating him that way. His power numbers over the years have him hitting around 19 per 600 PAs. The one year he was allowed to play close to a full season, he hit 17. As I’ve mentioned before, the most HRs any left handed batter not named Bonds has hit in a season since ATT opened is 19 by JT in 2000. I’m guessing the collective power numbers for visiting players would only confirm how much the park suppresses the HR numbers for lefties.
For me it was Todd Wellemeyer I couldn’t stand.I would literally curse& throw things at my TV watching that idiot pitch.I knew every 5th day he pitched it was an “FUCKING AUTOMATIC LOSS”!!!!!!!!!!!’
Jesus, the guy is still pissing me off as I type this!!!!!!!!!!!!
That’s hilarious
My first thoughts for LFG was Rennie Stennet. the lightest hitting .300 i ever saw. sure to get a hit with the bases empty and 2 outs, but have people on base, people in scoring position, oh no. Then brett butler. hated him. got totally schooled in the world series. again, nearly useless when people were on base. i had forgotten about Dioen but didn’t hate him so much. rowans pissed me off big time, to echo unca’s thought, practicing the same shitty swing over and over is no way to fix it. I actually like candy somewhat until that playoff series. the dude was INCREDIBLE as a pinch hitter but useless as a starter. and then in the series he screws up not just the “ball in the lights (yeah, sure) but the throw home from shallow right. you HAVE to make one of those plays!
As for the six degrees of Unca Chuck, it’s sure a small world. you all probably have a connection you just don’t know about yet.
when i lived in NYC in the late ’70’s, i would read the Post because i liked their sports section more than the Daily News. favorite headline was: “Doorbell rings, she’s slain”. That just cracked me up for some reason. I think the NY Times is vastly over-rated and reeks of pretentiousness. Any paper that doesn’t have a world class sports section and a comics section isn’t world class. Having lived in several different parts of the US, and always reading the local paper when i’m on the road, i have to say that the Chron is one of the best papers out there. a really solid front section with news both globally and nationally. I love that the green has all those different columnists. I watch almost everything so i don’t need to know what happened, i want to know what people think about what happened. Growing up in santa clara county i also like the PA Times but could never embrace the Merc. I go to their website now because i started reading bags and then grew to like kawakami. their niners coverage isn’t bad but it’s no “niners forever”.
Chronicle is nothing like it used to be when I was young. It was a real paper then. Herb Caen, Stanton Delaplane, Art Hoppe, Charles McCabe, several other writers — it was a place for great newspaper writing. And the Sporting Green had lots more info. Unfortunately, a skeleton now of what the paper was then. Even in those days, I didn’t think the editing was that great — some stuff rambled more than rarely. Anyway, most newspapers now, if they still exist, are pretty bare bones, so even having the Chronicle is a plus, I suppose. Personally, I like the Merc better now. The SFGate website is a disaster, I don’t go near it much anymore…
i never liked or got Herb. I thought he was mostly a gossip columnist with a pure SF focus (when he wasn’t talking about Chico ;). And you’re right about the website. even as a subscriber it’s a nightmare.
when Caen died, the chron split his beat into three parts–Garchick got the the celebrity gossip/sarcasm slot (she’s survived to today, because she’s actually pretty good); Scott Ostler got promoted from the sporting green to handle the humor (he tanked quickly and went back to the green); and some dullard named Rob Morse got the political insider/gossip beat (he tanked quickly, too). Nobody could do what Caen had done. In addition to handling all of that immediate stuff, Caen also always offered his own personal work, and it was great. His column about the death of his sister, in the early 90s, was one of the best pieces of short nonfiction writing I have ever read. I also liked the Fairlyism feature he developed, reporting on the malapropisms he and his readers heard from the execrable Ron Fairly during Giants games and in interviews afterward. (“You just keep getting big hits and running all around the bases and you’ll have a great career son!”)
The SF Chronicle sucks and always has, although it took a terrible turn for the worse after Herb Caen died. Caen was a truly great writer. The paper still keeps a couple of interesting columnists working, but their range is limited. Charles McCabe wasn’t very good. “Here’s how I use Rainier Ale as a maintenance drink to get me to scotch at dinner and to closing time.” Or “Did you know that the button down collar shirt was the original ‘polo shirt,’ the buttons used to corral the free-flying scarves aristocratic Persians wore when they played the marvelous horseback game?” Also, the way the Chronicle pounced like a hyena on the illegally leaked Barry Bonds grand jury transcripts in 2004 sealed the deal for me.
Caen was definitely the leader of the writers pack there. He held a lot of weight in that town, and threw it around when he wanted. The Chronicle took a body blow when he died. King of the ellipsis, he used it maybe a bit more properly than I, which is pretty much not at all…
Headless body found in topless bar.
Yeah I had Stennet as well. Did less tha. Nothing.
Benitez. A lot of blown saves and his pointing fingers at others for his failures.
Bozo’s post reminds me of Bob Knepper, who I’m sure many here remember that he may or may not have said “It’s God’s will” after giving up a home run when he was with the Giants. Later with Houston, he had some interesting things to say about female umpire Pam Postema and NOW.
that whole “God Squad” thing might have been blown out of proportion but it surely was irritating at the time.
I don’t remember Knepper saying that but I believe it.
I’m pretty sure on Butler’s radio show he said something about the devil having hold of the Giants bats during a slump. When he went to his favorite team, the Dodgers, a group of us were going to dress in devil costumes and sit in the metal bleachers in CF for the LA games, while banging pitchforks and chanting slump, slump, slump. That is one drunken idea that I wish we would have followed up on.
Ahh, basking after seeing the name “Pence” penciled in for tonight’s action, batting 6th and playing R.F.
Ah, those mid-80s Giants. Someone picked Manny Trillo (SanDog?) and that’s a good pick, IMO. Not only was he not all that good for the Giants as a player, he seemed to have a prickly personality. I saw him have a little on-field altercation at a game I was at. He (playing secondbase) and an outfielder (Chili Davis?) slightly tangled together going after a tweener pop-fly, and as they were untangling Trillo gave the outfielder a shove. Trillo was angry. And the outfielder gave him a WTF look. At least the mid-80s teams got the Giants some good draft picks which turned into key players.
And who can forget this guy?:
dirrrrrrtiest, bacteria ridden mascot of all time. Hands down.
That’s how I dance…
Wasn;t it Mark Davis who ‘protested’ the first AIDS awareness day by turning the ribbon sideways into one of them Jesus fish?
I never understood the willingness of the supposed Christians to turn their backs on those who are suffering.
Like if Jesus were here, he’d live in Blackhawk and drive a Porsche
Lol great post
Tell ya one thing. McDeepee is number 2 with a bullet.
Hope Dortmund likes monsoons…
What a run by AP! Did not expect him to run away in those conditions.
Gotta think about my most disliked Giant. Not Rohand, nope. I know my most disliked announcer was Lindsey Nelson. Terrible, could not stand his style, nor his voice. And, coming from NYC, it was like he was the leftovers from the Mets. Not that he was a bad guy, but those stoopid plaid sport coats didn’t help. Art Eckman was a close #2 on my all time suckage Giants announcer list — because he was just lousy…
Hector sent down, Pence back up. Crossing my fingers the medicos didn’t rush their OK of Pence…
Hes been playing in Sacro w/oI problems. Think he’s good to go.
I did something totally against logic – I added Belt to one of my LUs. The stars are perfectly aligned for him to have a great evening. He’s a streaky SOB and coupled with his matchup vs. Mike Leake – Per Roto, “he is slugging .735 and hitting .353 (12-for-34) against pitchers with similar repertoires as Leake in the last two seasons.”
Bring me the money belt (pun intended)!
blade- totally throwing caution to the wind, that’s the way to go!…
There’s a lot to dislike about Rowand, but I’ll also say, and I’ve said this before, if somehow I had a chance to go back in time and change any Giants player between 2010-2014, and take my chances on a sliding-door alternate history of the Giants, I absolutely wouldn’t do it. I’ll take Rowand, and every Giant between 2010-2014, and the three championships, as I’m sure we all would. Except maybe James. I think James might dump Rowand and roll those particular dice š
If I got to live those years over again, too, with say Fred Lewis out there instead of Rowand, sure I’d be a selfish bastard and risk it all š
Military person singing the Natl Anthem in Cincy. I get all this militarism now, after reading that article a few weeks ago. The DOD pays baseball to have the uniforms out there on the field, celebrated in the 7th inning stretch, etc. Paid patriotism is worse than no patriotism at all…
And not to sound like a jerk, but the referring to everybody in the military as a hero nowadays by the media…. So some guy who’s a clerk on Guam is a hero, just like a guy who rescued someone during a fire-fight? Words can lose their meaning when they’re over-used.
Apparently the NY Times is coming out tomorrow with a big story that the bin Laden operation resulting in him getting killed was in reality, nothing like the operation described to the media — much of the story fed to us was made of whole cloth. The Pakistani military had the guy under house arrest for years, and his location was leaked to the US. He was taken out by our guys, and the body never reached our Navy to be buried at sea. Interesting to see the story tomorrow…
I thought Seymour Hersh broke that story a couple of weeks ago in the London Review of Books and got mercilessly assaulted for it. Hersh’s usual venue, the New Yorker, refused to publish any version of his report. Be nice to see him vindicated (yet again), although I can’t imagine how Hillary will deal with the shit storm that will follow.
Must be the same story. I read in the WP that it is from Hersh. Maybe it’s coming out in the New Yorker, not NYT. NY something…
Preakness was unbetable .
Amazing Baffert 4th try at a TC and Espinosa’s 3rd, 2nd in a row. If any two should finally break thru, it’s that tamdem.
Firing Line broke bad, might be the only one with a prayer to stop AP if he runs.
That’s our boy!
Belt responds to naysayers…
Belt with a dinger.
Kruk’s wrath pushed back another day!…
He’s baaaaaaaaaaack!!!
Pence looks just fine
Belt likes this ballpark! š
And, Pence gets a hit immediately. Will Pence energize McDP?…
Uh oh, man on first, McDP up.
What are the odds for the DP?…
About 100% apparently…
Belted! Gotta have something to do with the other Too Tall Texan being back.
Nice call putting Belt on your Fantasy team Blade. Just smoked that HR off of Leake who he does own.
Wow Pence comes out of the gate fast, ripping a double,and Crawdaddy knocking him in!!
Yep AK . . . Shit, I might even grow to like him.
Wow! As good as we may feel seeing Pence back in the LU, can you imagine how great he feels to get back with this sort of start?
Yeah as great as we feel about Pence in the LU, we feel sick to our stomach to keep seeing 2ball in it.
Brandonburg Concerto sandwiching Pence.
McDeepee is the next Giant I’m going to boo. The last one was blownitez. Geez this guy sucks!
McDP does what he does best another “2Ball” which should be on the back of his jersey..
McBuzzkill doing his best to try to kill the buzz.
We all could feel it coming. McGDP fully meets expectorations. BB15 scratches his head and counts to ten.
Seriously, this McDP dude sucks balls. I don’t care that he’s from Santa Cruz. He can be from Tijuana, or from Chicago — it’s irrelevant.
It’s near time to pull the cord on him. When he’s at 100 ABs, that’s decision time.
There is no reason, other than saving face for the trade, that this guy is playing over Duffy. He can be a PHitter when nobody is on first.
He’s got no speed.
He sucks defensively — his career UZR is between below average and poor.
He’s a rally killing DP machine.
Where’s Kruk busting this guy’s chops? — because busting McDP would be busting Sabes?
There’s no sugar coating it. 1/4 season of this guy has been an absolute disaster…
Why do so many people scramble for cover from a little rain?
Nobody’s afraid of more things than the people in the middle of the nation.
Blanco!!!!Adios Baseball!!!
Leake’s not fooling anyone except Mr.2Ball
Giants homeruns are a cool concept.
Hey, I’m down with more HRs. Blanco, good.
Downside — now he’s doing another 2 months of big swing rollovers to second base…
Yeah, I’m not into Blanco as a lead-off hitter. A 7 or 8 hitter, sure.
I’m thrilled, delighted, and psyched to see his distorted numbers as a leadoff hitter being corrected.
Nice start, keep it going.
McDP tied for MLB lead in DPs with 12…
Vogie’s nibbling can drive a person crazy sometimes.
The kick-save! How often does that actually work?!
Craw&Reverend putting on a clinic hitting tonight 4-4 .. Pence the running and Craw knocking him in,great work to do it before 2 ball buzz kills the inning.
Belt 2 for 3 with a dinger, too…
Buzzkill with a rare hit!
“I canāt imagine how Hillary will deal with the shit storm that will follow.”
Xoot, I’m not seeing a political advantage for the GOP on this. Criticizing the killing of bin Ladin doesn’t seem like a political winner to me.
Criticizing the way the Obama administration publicized it won’t be good for Hillary, who famously was sitting with the powerful men in that room watching the raid and killing occur. Or so it seems to me. I mean, she was Sec. of State at the time, right?
And another Benghazi aside, there’s this. http://www.salon.com/2015/05/13/seymour_hersh_gives_bernie_sanders_a_golden_opportunity_could_the_bin_laden_controversy_shakeup_2016/
So–a shit storm.
Return of Pence means the team is close to hitting on all cylinders ~ 6 of 8 position players anyway. This is the kinda production we saw as possible with this lineup before Pence got whacked on March 5. My take at the time was play .500 ball until the return of the Reverend. They did and he’s baaaack.
Frazier having BABIP bad fortune. That’s baseball, dude!
Speaking of the military, in the June 2014 issue of National Geographic there’s a terrific article about military dogs who sniff out IEDs and the soldiers who are partnered with the dogs. A wonderfully written article.
If you get a chance sometime:
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2014/06/war-dogs/paterniti-text
I’ll be partnered with a dog in about an hour…
Haha
The Brandons are en Fuego!…
Fuck yeah, Craw.
That’s $5K for somebody in the grand slam inning! Didn’t that used to be $10K? Cheap SOBs…
I think the whole team likes this ballpark. Grant Brisbee can rest a little easier about the run differential.
Have a night Brandon Crawford!!!
6 RBI’s with that Grand Slam..
24 RBI’s for the season for a guy who bats 8th a lot unreal..
Hoelly Fuck! Brandenburg Concerto complete with salami. Looks like the floodgates have opened. Cincinnati’s starter has definitely sprung a Leake.
Great American Craw-Slam!
If we had a guy at third that actually hit above the Mendoza line, this lineup might be a little dangerous…
Well we have that guy Snarkk,paging Bruce Bochy, Courtesy phone call,the Flap is calling for Matt Duffy in the LU pronto and a 1 way ticket to the boardwalk for 2 ball..
So Leake comes into the game having given up just 1/run in 22 in
Vsong has been awful on the.roadjin two starts…vulnerable to the long ball…so of course it’s 9-0 giants
Belt’s HR tonight would have been a double into the wall in R center at ATT, possibly an out with a well placed CFer who can run…
WTF is Voggy doing. Up 9-0, he walks the leadoff batter, goes to 3-2 on the pitcher before he Ks him…
He’s a-nibblin’ away.
then walks the lead off. The rest of the guys up now can hurt you.
Kruk said it, “STOP nibbling!”
Well I was wondering down 9-0 why Leake was even batting in the 5th?
He had one of the two hits
Of all your lineups Blade, you had to put Belt in the one against me. Thanks man! š
Well, I just checked our scores and you still have a thin lead on me. By the by, check out giants54’s 5:32pm post . . . Yep, I was aware of that info too and inserted Leake in one of my LUs. In short, the Lord giveth and taketh . . . Usually evens out.
Poor Joe: Giants are hitting on 8 cylinders now ~ but Vogie is number 8 and Panik is 0 for four. Is he ready to press the button?