A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball

Do any of you guys remember this? I was but a wee lad.

I’ve heard all the stories but Clemente was just too before my time for me to care much.

Nice NYE post from Stix………

Not to make an outsized flap about it, Flav, but Happy New Year to you and to all the Flappers who have made for such a Giants community. It’s actually ABOVE ZERO here in the Minnesota Northwoods today after yesterday’s HIGH of five below. Going to a party tonight 20 miles from here and delighted that it will stay above zero tonight and for the next couple days ~ then back to the deepfreeze. But i’m still basking, even in the cold. Three in Five, Baby. Dynasty.

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Good bye 2016. Succinctly, you sucked.

Every winter I need to find something to keep the blog humming till P/C’s report. I know that past years may have been more interesting to some of you guys (BBOTD, Retro box score of the day, etc…). But I have really gotten a kick out of this Stix-stuff. Sometimes I wonder if he’s really serious or if he’s just posting shit to blow the minds of the non-notherwoodsians.

Anyway, I enjoyed the posts about him at the end of the last thread and found this to compliment it. I wonder if Stix ever just skipped the actual meal and went straight to downing the dipping sauces? And he makes a reference to prison food in this one so I had to post it.

Awright Dawg. Enjoy that dutch treat. If you got a source for actual, gen you wine smoked slab bacon, not the thin-sliced pre-packaged pig-prison stuff, but the real mccoy; try cooking up those special tatercakes in the drippings from that slow-cooked pork. Would help if you too had a wood cookstove and a Griswold #10 self-basting skillet, but i guess we can’t all fit into Eden. This time of year the Northwoods of Minnesota is heaven on earth for those of us with productive gardens. Let me tell you bout my five-grain batter dipped zucchini, peppers, apple, tomato and cheese fritters some time. Worldclass bacon drippings work well there too. Try dipping em in molasses sweetened Thai soy sauce with a sprinkling of your favorite hotsauce stirred in. Yumshus.

This reeks of hot stove rumor nonsense but I’d like to at least dream that the Giants are in on this guy.

• Mark Trumbo is probably now the player with the highest earning capacity who has yet to sign, but his landing spot remains hard to peg. Beyond the Orioles and Rockies, Heyman says, “a couple more opportunities may have cropped up” of late.

Speaking of *hot stoves* let’s see what our license plate pounding Flap buddy has been up to in the kitchen…..

#freestix! RPOTD

One of those occasional meatless mornings for me. Kinda. Few days ago i steam-sauteed down some fresh garden veggies like spinach and bunching onions along with some small peppers (3 mild, 1 japaleno). Meanwhile i stirred up a batter featuring some Indian Head cornmeal from Maryland (no GMO and maybe even organic); plenty of oat-bran; some rye flour; bit of whole wheat flour; one farm egg; Rumford’s (non-alumina based) baking powder and considerably more milk than water.

Veggies ready, they got folded into the batter along with a full can of pre-Fuckyoushima radiation-free, Alaska pink salmon (been hoarding those) stirred it all up and them spooned into my original Griswold #10 skillet dabbled with olive oil atop the wood cookstove.

Served it up with a bit of raunch dressing for a side-dip and a cup of strainer-seeped heavy-duty coffee. Got 4 meals from it over the past 5 days or so with enough batter combo remaining for one more go.

Do any of you still subscribe to Sports Illustrated? I stopped years ago. The thing I loved about them were the awesome covers. They don’t do that anymore. The perfect simplicity was what made it almost like a work of art. Check this one out that I just came across.

There were so many….

Speaking of works of art, I have loosely counted 10 references Stix made over the years to making and ultimately delivering my never received oneflapdown gift. If I were to walk the grounds of his rolling estate, it would be something I’d definitely look for. I bet it’s outside somewhere on a table with a rake or a hoe leaning up against it….

Can you imagine Stix taking a ride on BART?

#freestix? RPOTD

This one is long, and not a lot of gold in it upon first review. But maybe I need to read it again. Anyway, it’s just a nice snapshot into the strange but interesting life he led before getting locked up.

Hey, it’s good to be back on the blog after a whole lotta drama. Monday i drove 40 miles to Bemidji to stay with relatives a couple days while undergoing cataract surgery at a hospital less then a mile from their home Tuesday morning. No pain in the half hour or so surgery. Lots of bright lights and such, much like some kinda acid trip.

Drama began when i had, per instructions as i understood them, left my notebook in my car as being under orders not to drive to the hospital and back and got a ride over by my cousin. Problem developed when i realized her cell # was in the notebook. But knowing where her son worked, i had the hospital page him to get her number. When she picked me up after surgery she immediately informed me that her foster son, suffering from fetal alcohol syndrome, had gone on a rampage, hitting her and that resulting in a police call.

Wednesday morning sort of lazed around, going next door to my cousin’s mother and brother’s place where i was treated to more stories and yet more stories about various family dramas. Then it was off to a grocery to pick up a few items and get down on some deli food before returning to the eye clinic to see the opthalmologist and get the patch removed. Wow! Patch removed and a couple of tests and the right eye is seeing better than it had since probably fifth grade in the year the New York Giants were last World Champions. But there’s always a catch. With the left eye still heavily beset by a cataract condition i’d be needing to wear a patch over one eye or the other, depending on whether needing close-up or distance vision. More appointments to come, including one in a couple weeks to operate on that other orb.

Got home Wednesday afternoon, fed the cats and dog, unloaded groceries and such and logged into the puter to discover that SF had beaten Houston in game one and now were 2 runs behind in game two. Then a friend calls and as we are talking the sky rapidly darkens and thunder rumbles. The wind picks up heavy duty, we ring off and i begin shutting down the computer. Did not quite finish when the lights went out,.

Nothing else to do but up to bed for awhile and towards evening i wake up and head downstairs with all the current out and walk outside to a scene of devastation. Two big spruce trees down across my driveway, so i can’t drive out. Then behind the house my big, old oak had blown down, just missing two different sections of the house. No significant structural damage. Despite being pretty good with a chainsaw i’m a bit handicapped as the doc had ordered me to lift nothing heavier than 20 pounds and not to bend down to the ground. Oh great. Back to bed after a quick snack.

Monday morning after moping around in a very dark house and grubbing together a couple sandwiches, i begin cutting spruce branches with a small swedesaw. Then i hear a car pull up to a downed popple further up the driveway. It’s my friend Ron. His friend Sam had gotten caught driving after a suspension he did not know he had. Ron had driven a couple hundred miles to pick him up along with his car. He’d stayed the night at Ron’s and needed to get home to his place some 55 miles distant. They needed another driver and Ron’s wife is like a day away from major dental surgery and other friends were tied up with one thing or another. So i am elected and agree to drive Sam’s car.

Ron returns the favor, and the some. In the heat and humidity he gets on the chainsaw and first branches the spruces and then cuts the trunks into logs which we roll out of the way. Some of the branches are off the ground significantly that i’m able to pick them up and toss them out of the way, saving him a bit of labor. Then we go after the popple and the driveway is cleared. Back into the house for a couple of Grain Belt Nordeasts. Get up another couple sandwiches after Ron leaves. Do the eyedrops again. Read next to the livingroom window for awhile and then back to bed.

This morning at about 10, a crew from the power company manages to untangle the lines feeding into my transformer. POWER returns. Light. Computer. Refrigerator. Yaaay!

And here, when i got home i thought it would be all peace and quiet after much drama at the relatives. When it rains, it pours.

One of my favorite days of the year: day after Christmas, Santa Anita opener. I might even make it out to GGF today to meet up with that goddamn A’s fan The Boney One…..

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In this excerpt from “Who’s Media is it Anyway?” we see Stix scolding Zumiee for allowing his mind to be controlled. lqtm.

Zumiee: You haven’t been accessing websites independent from the mass media of mind control, mesmerization and general corporate-sponsored garbage…or at least to any degree. Hillary was the main push behind the attacks on Yugoslavia and Serbia; the coup d’ etat in Ukraine along with her Wicked Witch of the East Viccious Nudelman (aka “Cookies Nuland); the current pro-terrorist attempted takedown of Syria and most egregiously, the destruction of Libya and the murder of its leader Muamar Gaddhafi. She famously cackled when he was anally raped with a bayonet: “We saw, we came, he died.”

The Clinton’s are money-grubbing materialists, always with hands out to the biggest polluters and most especially to the titans of the WarDefense industry like Lockheed-Martin with their Trillion dollar plus F-35 which aviation experts across the world laughingly denounce as the “F-35 Turkey”. Such models as have flown have been regularly bested in test combat by third-generation fighters. But the City of London bankster investors (prime shareholders) are delighted with those no-bid, cost-plus contracts.

Woke up very thankful today. No matter what you think of our shackled and bedraggled (probably not entirely accurate but 2 of my favorite words) Flapper Stix, it’s gotta suck to wake up in the clink on Christmas. So to honor his commitment to our team and this community and for all the other Flappers far and wide, I’m re-posting a classic Stix Christmas tale. Enjoy. Whatever you do today be thankful and enjoy. And if you can’t do that, just don’t be a dick. Life isn’t perfect for anyone but we all have two things in common: we woke up today, and it wasn’t in prison. So there’s that….

Merry Christmas to all the Flapzoners. Looking out my Northwoods window there is a sea of white flocking on the lilac bushes and the ash and apple trees. Sky is a light grey. A few lazy flakes are taking their good ol time establishing a landing-pattern. It’s nine above zero outdoors. Dogs are out on an Oouffspedition, running free around the countryside. Outdoor cats are coping after breakfast and will get some treats later. Couple of the housecats got put out, one cause he wanted out and the other to chill. Woodstove is keeping the house cozy. Breakfast was cake and icecream with hazlenut coffee. Cuppa tea and a clementine next to the keyboard. Ready for a lazy day, mostly indoors.

Basking in the warm afterglow of the WS win. Last evening, driving home from a birthday party for aunt Mary Christine, her 91st, a Queen tape was playing. As i neared the driveway “WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS” was pounding outta the speakers of the ol’ pickup, distinguished by its hacker axe poised in the left front stakehole, with steel grainscoop snowshovel nearby and the 1976 Huskvarna-65 chainsaw perched between a couple small logs and some ballast rocks towards the rear.

Ahh, country living. Late afternoon lunch/supper will, according to current hankering, likely be venison-based spaghetti, with onions and jalapenos from the garden ~ or maybe, if ambition strikes, it will be based on some very nice looking scallops purchased at an old-fashioned butchershop only 25 miles from home. But the laziness may overcome the fascination, as i have zero experience in preparing scallop dishes.

Back to the woodcarving in a few minutes. Flavor, i haven’t forgotten about the ‘One Flap Down’ piece. Creative types are not as reliable as most folks. The right mood has to hit at the correct time. Will know it when it happens. Thanx again, for all the energy you have put into this site, Craig. Really did dig the “Area 51” hook for the countdown to stage one of the next SF championship.

Well, in case you missed it, the Giants gave minor league deals to Mike Morse and Justin Ruggiano. I actually thought both of those dudes had retired. But whatever, come on down I guess.

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#freestix RPOTD

Jeeze. Here i am politely attempting to lurk and here’s this talk about “canes”, walking-sticks and suchlike while i’m sposta be the goddam expert on the subject, probably having carved a good four-five dozen over the course of years. Not really talking canes, though, as they are just for the geezer trade and i’m not there yet. It’s more like staffs, both ornamental and practical as well as various lengths of walking-sticks, wands and whatnots ~ that’s totally aside from the sculptural stuff in Wizard Willow.

You talking stix, gang, you talking to me. Michael, i prolly owe you one by now for all you have contributed to the blog and Craig, soons i get into the mood to take up that cudgel again, that One-Flap Down sculpture is yours. My carving is intuitive, instinctive and spermathemoment, so can’t just say it’s gonna be that one today and i mean to finish it before supper. It doesn’t work that way. So there are twenty-odd unfinished pieces around the house, nearly half of them not being strictly art/sculptural. Meanwhile, in various residencies of storage there are dozens of finished pieces.

So Twin, what is your preferred length, strength and presumed fortitude of a Wizard Willow stick? I AM talking sticks so get your collective craniums outta the gutter. Tripods? There is a finished one on hand but it’s only about 3.5′ long, kinda hefty, though. Staffs? A few long, tall Sallies, ranging up to 7′ or more. Standard walking sticks? Generally in the 5-6′ range. Some have lottsa diamonds. Every one is singular, original, unique and one of a kind. Though found from Paris, to Maine , to various burgs around ManySnowta, my Wizard Willow sticks are collectively, sometimes individually, the best on the planet.

I was all over last year’s pick up of the glorious and all knowing and all wondrous Nunie because he cost us almost nothing and he filled a glaring need. But I am far less interested in paying the king’s ransom that would be needed to pick up Brian Dozier. Dude hit 42 home runs last year and stole 18 bags. That’s gotta cost a lot. And BD ain’t hitting no Ronnie Lott in our yard. I would much rather pick up a guy who hits monster no doubt Chinese satellite banging bombs that a little second baseman who only hits them in hitter’s parks.

But whatever, it would be complete poppycock to think Sabean and Evans put together the necessary booty to secure Dozier. Let the Dodgers have him and watch him underperform.

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#freestix! RPOTD

Oh, oh, called out on the Flap. Currently around 8 below with a deeper windshield factor running. Both stoves going. Kitchen cookstove has finally warmed up the room enough to sit down at the keyboard. Actually, my grandfather tacked on this shed-roof kitchen to the main house built the year before in 1915. So this frigid room with sagging floor, dipping ceiling and shaky north wall will be 100 Y.O. this year. Wanted to get a hundred into Magnus Rodseth’s kitchen. So now we’re here ~ with cold feet and dreaming of a well-insulated replacement.

Been sleeping in the upstairs or late. Warmest spot in the house. Hard to get outta the sack because its covered with pussy. Eat your hearts out, guys.

Kinda feeling a bit sorry beforehand for those Seattle fans showing up in the Sitties tomorrow for the game. They are NOT used to below or near below zero conditions. Minnesotans will dress for it. A week ago one Packers fan was maintaining bare-chested in below freezing conditions at Lambeau. So some drunken purple person may feel honor-bound to top that. A lot will hinge on whether or not there is a wind. Vikes are a bit less injury-ridden than the occasion of their embarrassing thumping by tomorrow’s opponent earlier in the season. Chances are the game will not be such a blow-out. Likely lots of running and little passing.

-22 expected up thisaway tonight. At least the sun is shining this morning. Such is life in the Cathouse.

Would it have killed an SF beat writer to stop stuffing their faces with hot dogs and popcorn (I’m looking at you @hankschulman) long enough to do a story like this? Anyway, I’m imagining Bochy reading this and just absolutely salivating, man. He’s probably got good  ol’ lovable Murph saran wrapping the clubhouse as we speak. This is his type of guy. And honestly, he sounds like he would fit right into this team…..

http://tinyurl.com/zlclm63

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#freestix RPOTD

Maybe prefer them to tidal waves and earthquakes, but deerflies (also known as deltawing demons and simply “goddamns” ~even from religious types when they chaw down); were out in full force this evening as i did a tank of gas with my 22″ Huskvarna mower over sections of the 3 acres or so that get cut around here. Up and down hills and watch out for trees, shrubs, milkweed plants, alfalfa plants and rock-edged gardens. They really like attacking when both hands are occupied.

Though the back of my head and the arms have plenty of welts, i know i killed a dozen or so in the process. This is peak season for the demonic parasitical predators ~ always out for blood. Bites from the ladies of the evening are mere pinpricks by comparison. Had a number of them as well, though they are not so avid as the goddamns when you present a fairly quick moving targets. The deltawinged demons like to keep buzzing around your head and then dive bomb.

Three Giants losses in a row seem like small potatoes compared with not being bold enough to go out and get something more done before dark. Just flipped a fly-corpse off the sleeve of my ca 1980 teeshirt with the slogan “Support Wildlife, drink Wild Turkey. Cost a quarter at a garage sale about 30 years ago and seem to wear it as a workshirt once every summer. Good amortization but not much protection from those flying menaces. Thankfully by the end of the month they will be pretty much gone. Hope.

“Keep the line moving….”

I hate that baseball saying. It’s a smokescreen for a shitty line up. WillieD brought up a good point last night about the correlation between OPS and runs scored and there is absolute legitimacy in that. But you know what boosts your OPS? Home runs. I get it, guys who strike out a lot can kill rallies. But they also win games. And how many rallies did we see die last year after we got men on first and third with no one out? Happened all the time. Is there a law against the Giants hitting a 3 run bomb in that situation?

Almost every home run hitter strikes out a lot. Guys *like* Bonds excluded. You take the good with the bad. The Giants will always be at the top of the league when it comes to doubles and triples due to the park but even with that their OPS stunk last year.

What could possibly be wrong with adding a guy who hits no-doubt home runs? I think we’ve gone so long without a power hitter that we have tricked ourselves into believing home runs don’t matter.

They can and do.

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#freestix! RPOTD

Ah, the manifold perils of life on the run in our overworked, overstressed, overhurried contemporary reality. One thing i can recommend about retirement out in the countryside is that while the need to get things done remains (think homesteading with wood-based heating and cooking plus much gardening); there is no great rush to get things done yesterday. Today’s breakfast consisted of local butchershop smoked bacon, cut off a full slap right in the kitchen; a mess of grits; four large Amish farm eggs; a couple slices of stove-toast slathered with chunky peanutbutter and a mug of high-test coffee.

Maybe once did i endure food-poisoning. That was on a farewell to HHH as Veep junket as editor of the South St. Paul Sun back in ’68. As i recall, the item that laid me low overnight and all was a meal at then Senator Mondale’s table in a hoity-toity joint in D.C. Nowadays i’m about as far from that lifestyle as one can get.

So count those days till you can drop the hurry-up, GH. And look forward to taking naps whenever you feel like it on a barely above freezing, drizzly northwoods day like is happening out my window as i type. Or as an old buddy used to put it “don’t sweat the petty stuff. Pet the sweaty stuff.”

I dreamed about a dude who knocks down Chinese satellites with his monster bombs. Instead, I got a dude who observes Chinese satellites with his monster telescope. And make no mistake about it, Rollins is making this team unless he shows up drunk or dead. Bochy creamed his jeans when he heard about this pick up. A grizzled vet who will show up to play every day and who’s best days are long since behind him? That’s smack dab in Bochy’s wheelhouse.

Specs will likely also make the team because he’s got speed and he had a bunch of clutch hits last season. Agent 000? Well, he can now take solace in that 300K the Giants weirdly gave him to play in the minors in 2017.

#freeStix! RPOTD I’m starting to wonder if Stix knew that all his different pork chop recipes were all actually the same recipe. Somewhere in the east bay, Snarkk is doing the slowest of burns right now….

Jeeze, caught the first inning or so while cutting up an onion, a couple types of peppers, a bunch of tomatillos, an apple and worked them into the Griswold #10 atop the wood cookstove. Dashed in some paisano and a bit of curry powder and let it stew for awhile. Then it gets a nice centercut smoked porkchop from a local butcher and it stews again. Next comes some water and a diddle of egg-noodles. Finish the dish with the pussies getting tidbits. Back to the puter and whaaat? Giants score 5 in the third with one very unlikely suspect getting one of the two taters.

I saw a poll at mlbtraderumors.com asking readers to predict where Mark Trumbo might go. There were 6 teams listed and the 7th choice was “mystery team.” I’m on vacation for a couple of weeks so I will take the time to relax and dream about the Giants being one of the teams in that poll (which they weren’t). Ah….that feels good.

He can’t play the outfield you say? Fine. Stick him at first base. Move Belt to LF. I know that has zero chance of happening but it’s my vacation and my dream. So let’s continue….

Can you imagine Trumbo and his 47 homeruns getting blasted out of AT&T Park? He really wouldn’t even cost that much. He’s seeking a paltry 70 million dollar deal. I say, pay that man his money. But Flavor, his HR total would take a big hit at in SF.

I don’t think so. Have you seen how far that dude hits home runs? Some only come down when they run into Chinese satellites.

Oh yes, I want Mark Trumbo to become a Giant, play first base and hit home runs that don’t come down until they run into Chinese satellites. That’s the dream…..

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#freestix! RPOTD. I’ve been posting too many retros about food. Time to get back to the meat and potatoes of Stix posts. lqtm

Worst part of that bunch of “conservatives” among the Extremes is the fact that four of them are suspect members of Opus Dei. Opus Dei, founded by a fanatical Spaniard in the 20’s, was closely linked to Francisco Franco and his Falangist (fascist) overthrow of the Republic of Spain in the Dirty 30’s. Totally secretive and working constantly to recruit up and comers, the Opus Dei (the “Work of God” if you can believe the hubris and arrogance) is an openly elitist outfit that stands for the 1% ~ or more likely the 1/100th of one percenters ~ in other words those who have inherited incredible wealth and have no clue as to how real people live their lives.

Here are the teams that paid lux tax on the 2016 payroll:

• Dodgers, $31.8MM tax bill
• Yankees, $27.4MM
• Red Sox, $4.5MM
• Tigers, $4MM
• Giants, $3.4MM
• Cubs, $2.96MM

I would imagine a game or two of concessions and parking will take care of that tax bill.

#FreeStix RPOTD

Wonder if Timmy’s ‘conditioning’ may not relate to his bust a few months back. People smoke for a lot of reasons. There are many different grades of smokum. Like the Indica is soporific, kinda like opiated quaaludes. Sativa is more of an activator/energizer. Maybe Tim is off his medicine. Maybe a lot of his hyperanxious teammates could use some good, positive, energizing but relaxing medication.

Fkkk the Feds, the Duponts, the Mellons and Big Pharma. At least you Californians have the chance to vote on it this fall by way of Initiative and Referendum. Democracy, baby. As for “bad influence on kidz” ~~ psssss on that nonsense. Ask any 16 year old. He’ll tell you where to get anything you want. It’s the hypocritical, corporate-serving attitudes that gets em thinking all forbidden fruits are good and then they go doing something stupid like taking hard drugs.

Ignore me if i’m “off message” and if you suffer from an acute case of cognitive dissonance. For a fact i know that my writing and the insights behind it happens to be one helluva lot better when i’m buzzed than not ~ which happens not to be now. I’ve been out in the sun hoeing weeds a bit long, my brain’s a bit cooked, the Giants lost last night and i’m in a bit of a pissed off mood.

This whole country needs a good reality check.

Very sad to see Craig Sager pass. I’ll never understand why guys like him die and lurking sickos like Dylann Roof continue to live. Anyway, I’m posting this mostly for me and Loo but this is a great article. It doesn’t get any more 70’s than sleeping in the barn with one of the finest steeds to ever hit the track.

http://tinyurl.com/jl8mt4x

Could be time for Jill Stein to raise another 4 mil for a re-c0unt. Barely 1/4 of the voters got the correct answer (way under .250). Two voters were high as fuuuuuuuuck (.280+). So let’s revisit the Span issue after the votes are counted again.

#FreeStix! RPOTD

• stixwiz said, on August 21, 2011 at 7:17 pm (Edit)

  Sorry, no antelopes in Minnesota. Try Why oh why oh Wyoming. If you were here i’d invite you in for some fresh spaghetti made from scratch outta the garden including tomatoes, basil, peppers, onion, zucchini and oregano. Heading for the kitchen right now to fire up the wood cookstove. Evenings are getting cooler here now so that’s a comfort rather than a bother. Improves the cuisine too.

Everyone knows that San Dawg and I are in lockstep on almost everything. There are exceptions. He doesn’t like the Warriors. Or the Niners. And he and I are split on Denard Span. It’s starting to consume the friendship. Yesterday this was the text exchange between us:

First of all, I am biased against Span because my 4th favorite player of all time is Rickey Henderson. My list goes 1) Thrill 2) Barry 3) place holder and 4) Rickey. I couldn’t have an Oakland A be in my top 3.

My expectation for a lead off man is simple: Make shit happen. I don’t care what your stats are, just make shit happen. That can be as simple as stealing 2nd base. It could be rattling the pitcher once you get to first base. Taking an extra bag or dropping down a sick bunt for a base hit. Rickey did all that including hitting a mind blowing 81(!) home runs to lead off a game. Now THAT, my fellow Flappers, is making shit happen. Rickey also referred to himself in the 3rd person during interviews. If Span can at least start doing that, I might lay off him a bit.

So I noodled it and came up with the following poll:

Ah, felt good to do a poll again. Now get out there and vote.

So the Dodgers just spent close to 200 million dollars re-signing 3 guys they already had on last year’s team? And they didn’t sign 3 “Kershaws”. You could poke holes into each of those 3 guys and if I was a fan I would have wanted more for nearly a quarter billion scratch.

#FreeStix RPOTD

One of those occasional meatless mornings for me. Kinda. Few days ago i steam-sauteed down some fresh garden veggies like spinach and bunching onions along with some small peppers (3 mild, 1 japaleno). Meanwhile i stirred up a batter featuring some Indian Head cornmeal from Maryland (no GMO and maybe even organic); plenty of oat-bran; some rye flour; bit of whole wheat flour; one farm egg; Rumford’s (non-alumina based) baking powder and considerably more milk than water.

Veggies ready, they got folded into the batter along with a full can of pre-Fuckyoushima radiation-free, Alaska pink salmon (been hoarding those) stirred it all up and them spooned into my original Griswold #10 skillet dabbled with olive oil atop the wood cookstove.

Served it up with a bit of raunch dressing for a side-dip and a cup of strainer-seeped heavy-duty coffee. Got 4 meals from it over the past 5 days or so with enough batter combo remaining for one more go.

Dodgers look like they’re re-signing Turner. They can have him. He’s 32, I didn’t know that. You want to give a dude a 4 year deal at that age when he just had a power explosion out of no where? Well, at least he’ll have the dough to buy up the best masking drugs money can buy.

This is from one of the many Giants beat writers who have blocked me on twitter:

It doesn’t look like the Giants will be re-signing free agents Gregor Blanco, Santiago Casilla, Javier Lopez, Angel Pagan, Jake Peavy or Sergio Romo, CSNBayArea.com’s Alex Pavlovic writes.

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#FreeStix! RSPOTD (retro stoney post of the day)

True, my diction can get a bit airy at times, but rarely do i garble the syntax. Rarely too, do i consult one of those things due to a firm belief in the evolution of the American language away from the bloody Quean’s English. Gotta consider actual usage by everyday folk in common conversation as having more streetcred than the vaporings and snifflings pronounced and pronouned by pundits, prognosticators and general poobahs. Now, i’m not proffering suchlike syllabilizations to be wrong, per se ~ just not my cuppa lapsang souchong to go with smoked provolone and a thin slice of cucumber on a club cracker.

Big day in the NFL for most teams not associated with SF. I flipped through the rumor mill looking for some Giants news but came up with squat. Wish we had picked up Danny Espinosa, he was cheap and would have provided fantastic utility depth for us. I’ll never understand why Sabean declares the team done in the Winter just because he’s got his positions filled out. What’s wrong with putting together a back up plan here or there? If you don’t, you usually get shingo’ed come post season time.

#FreeStix! RPOTD

It was so nice to go into my hot woodstove kitchen and load up the plate with a couple fresh garden spuds and then top it off with a smothered porkchop awash with tomato, basil, three varieties of pepper, zucchini, some garlic, a spot of paisano and a nice red onion. Took the loaded plate into the dining room and leisurely meandered through the deliciousness of it all with not a worry, fret or jitter in my mind. Eighth inning about to start. Nice relaxed sitdown meal, knowing the Giants finally got that laugher i called for earlier today. Sure nuff. Matt the Horse wins his eleventh. Casilla puts him down in the 9th and Giants fans can bask a bit once more. We’ve won two straight!

If any of you Bay Area old timers missed it, George Shirk died of a heart attack at age 64. Bruce Jenkins gave him a beautiful mention in his column. I remember his byline on Warriors stories in the Chron like it was yesterday:

Sometimes it’s what you DON’T get in the off season that gets you excited about the upcoming baseball season. Even though we weren’t in on him, I feel like we won when we DIDN’T get Adam Eaton. I have no idea why the Nats gave up 3 of their top prospects for that guy. Makes no sense unless they are becoming “prospect phobic” and they’re trying to ease their anxiety by purging all their best players as quickly as possible. And I’m sorry, but 5 years for Dex Fowler just wreaks of back-end ugliness. Already not a very good defender, he’s only going to get slower and worse (like all of us) with each successive year. I’d love to know what the “Shop Talk” is at the Cardinal blog about this pick up….

Ok, I know you are ALL waiting for the next #FreeStix RPOTD and I found several good ones to choose from today (as I always do). But THIS one might be the RPOTY (at least as it relates to our potato peelin’ patriot). Blade, take it away…..

Great post Stix . . . For whatever reason, I always think of you as the non-violent and much, much kinder anarchist Ted Kaczynski. Like him, you live in a secluded place and have become self-sufficient so that you live autonomously. Probably like Ted, you taught yourself survival skills such as tracking, edible plant identification, and how to construct primitive technologies. You’re one of the main reasons I come to this site.

Very sad to see this news. Torres will always be a special Giant.

________________

#FreeStix! RPOTD

When one of my numerous pussfolk snags a mouse, i always inquire “how was the brent mouseburger?” After years of close study i’m nowhere near being able to translate their responses into anything vaguely resembling English, but sometimes their looks say far more than words would anyway. Seems they’re quite fond of em.

From time to time temptation urges me to do something about a catchy book title that nudged its way into my consciousness: “Life in a Cathouse”. Some readers, i fear, would be disappointed with the lack of salacious episodes. Certain cat-fanciers would not approve of my language. Oh well.

Doggone it! Can’t leave out Macoozhoe. He’s chief enforcement officer around the place. He’s responsible for keeping the bam-bam-Bambis outta the gardens and shrubbery. Tough job, as he lost his running-mate, big black Mac, the half Lab, half Rott about three months back. Minnesota deer-hunting season ended yesterday evening, so no more gut-piles for the sandy-brown Oouff. Back to the grrrumbles outta the sack.

Gotta stop by the backside of the local custom-butcher this coming week, where there is free access to his barrels of bones, trimmings and cuttings which get picked up weekly by a rendering plant about 130 miles south. No money changes hands either way so the pickings are free and none too slim. With Winter soon about to settle in up here, weather’s cool enough so that a modest accumulation of the stuff in the back of the Blue Whale (’87 GMC 1-ton van rusting away in piebald rusty retirement) won’t stink up the place too bad and it will keep local law enforcement vs the Bambinese in a happy mood. Ditto the outdoor catclan.

Now that Melancon is locked up and the Giants have have decided to open up the Palo Alto version of “Mac/Park” in left field, I am now able to focus 100% of my time on scouring the archives for Stix posts. In honor of the great Twinfan emerging from his blog slumber, I wanted to re-post this classic that I stumbled upon while I was looking for Stix mashed potato recipe that I wasn’t able to find.

Bob Skinner is still alive, by the way. Born in San Diggity’s hood, he turned 85 last month…

I wrote this yesterday, it seems in line with the tenor of this mornings comments. BTW, Steve and Paul- where may I find your Fountain of Youth, you guys look great…

“We’ve all come about our love for baseball in our own ways. I loved it as a boy and playing it made it even better. Then for many years it was a sometime diversion as my work took 12-16 hours of my day. I had season tickets for over 3 decades but my friends and customers went more than I did. Baseball as the National Pastime is a thing of the past- life is faster now, so much is available with a click and a tweet. I liken baseball to the foods of the Shaker women- the cuisine was in their heads and hearts, not put to paper. It was up to the food historians and writers like Ronald Johnson to find what was in their hearts and preserve it for today. And so it is up to those of us who remember the game of our youth, to pass along to a new generation the joy of baseball when it was the game that little boys dreamt of, when small towns were abuzz as the World Series approached and *everyone* wanted to see the powerful Yanks humbled.
Which brings me to today. I rediscovered the game when I grew older and my health deteriorated. I became a NUT, a FANBOY-and miraculously became a young boy again. I often dream of the game, I remember the players of my youth in Pittsburgh. For years I had remembered what we now call a “walk off”. A player named Johnny Powers hit one of his few home runs into the teeth of a strong wind and raised his arms high into the air as he soaked in the cheers. It wasn’t until many years later that I found out that it wasn’t Powers, it was Bob Skinner. And then I realized that it didn’t matter, what mattered was that it made me recall what the game once was and why I loved it as a boy and now again in my older years. It slows life down, it’s a game that you can savor as you savor a fine wine or a walk in the woods, a doze in a hammock, it’s a game that makes us realize that life is to be enjoyed slowly -as it passes by all too soon.”

__________________

And in the same thread I found this.

#FreeStix! RPOTD

Whatta day. Perfect excuse to take the day off from homesteading duties outdoors as temp dropped to low 30’s after mid 60’s yesterday. It was complete with off and on rain,snow and sleet with a 30 mph NNW wind howling away. Kept the wood cookstove fired up all day. Cooking down some chancy tomatoes at a slow boil. Then steamed up a couple squash. Then stewed a modest pot of pinto beans. Tomatoes still stewing and stove has been fed and fed and fed.

Fed myself half an hour ago. My refried beans begin with some lard at the bottom of the pan, followed by a garden onion, three varietals of peppers, ten fresh and juicy tomatillos, a bit of my dried oregano, some cumin, good dashes of turmeric, splash of paisano red, few slices cut finer of crystallized ginger, nice dollop of garlic ~ and ultimately freshly mashed pintos and half a small squash ~ also from the garden.

The blend simmered for about 1.5 hours and then it was time to cut up a couple cherokee purple tomatoes for a topping and toast lightly the first flour tortilla atop the wood range. Ended up eating four burrito sized entities. Fresh cold well-water for a wash. (the brandy followed the victory).

Perfect coda for an indoor day in the old shack, all centered on a 3-2 win. Tuxedo cat “U-Boat” cuddling on the lap just springing off as i write about him. Sometimes pussy is waaay too telepathic. Nice warm feeling overall here in the dank, chilly northwoods evening. Fun to share with the Flap.

It’s funny how adding one guy to the bullpen can change your entire perspective. Melancon locking down the 9th? Ok, so let’s work backwards. You know, that fucking lefty reliever was actually very good in September. I’d like to think he’s not completely incompetent. If he keeps his September-ways rolling it’s not inconceivable to think the 8th inning couldn’t be handled deftly by a combo of That FLR and a healthy Derek Law. Now let’s double back to the long man just to get him out of the way and that’s probably handled by Ty Blach although I admit that’s a stretch to count on him after such a short rate of mlb success….

Now we’re really just looking at the 7th inning and I don’t see why some of the young guys CAN’T step up and cobble together some type of successful 7th inning. Okert and O(!)Shit both have dominant stuff. Kontos, Gearrin and Strickland will be there too.

All in all, not the worst bullpen I’ve ever seen. Right?

_________

Who’s up for a good conspiracy post with a dash of paranoia? Stix, take it away….

#FreeStix! RPOTD

stixwiz said, on November 22, 2013 at 6:58 pm (Edit)

Was in a basement poolhall on a grey morning in Kansas City 50 years ago today when the news came over the radio. Everyone there stood around in a state of shock. Days later i was staying with a friend in Topeka, watching the news live beamed from the courthouse in Dallas and saw the underworld figure Jack Rubenstein Ruby gun down Oswald. The fix was in.

There was almost a waiting list of people with a hard-on vs. JFK. Joint Chiefs were pissed cause he shut down their Operation Northwoods which was about killing innocent Americans so we could make war on Cuba. Both the military brass (and the WarDefense Industry were on his case cussin onaccounta he refused military backup for the CIA’s Bay of Pigs op vs Castro. Two of the ships bringing in the rebels were the Zapata and the Barbara (Zapata Energy Corporation was Daddy WarBush’s oil operation) and maybe you have heard of Barbara of he “beautiful mind” who is alleged to be the natural daughter of Aleister Crowley and all his Satanic majesty’s crawliness. Daddy WarBush was photographed as a CIA case director in Dallas that day.

The nasty old drag quean, J. Edna Hoover, who had the dirt on just about everyone who was anyone as head of the FBI was due for retirement the next year and already knew JFK would give him the axe. He was big buds, though, with LBJ. Israel didn’t like Kennedy because he did not allow them near any access to bomb plans or enriched uranium.

Biggest player, however, was the clan which owns the Federal Reserve System (note the eye above the pyramid on the $1 Fednote). JFK had signed off on Executive Order #10001 which ordered the printing of $2 United States notes backed by the silver holdings of the U.$. Treasury. LBJ, as his first act on the plane from Dallas to D.C., cancelled the E.O. and ordered the recall and destruction of the same form of currency which Abe Lincoln had authorized 100 years earlier, Constitutionally lawful government-backed banknotes.

Friend of mine who had 32 hits as a sniper in Nam as a four-tour Navy Seal got to talking with some of his cohorts a few years back. One of his pals years later checked out that 6th floor window in the Texas School Depository building and noted the odd deflection angle to fire with a bolt-action rifle to the street where the limo was proceeding. The bunch of them agreed that none of them could pull off three accurate shots in the time available with even the best of high-grade sniper rifles and scopes ~ to say nothing of a mail-order $9.95 Italian Mannlicher-Carcano.

So we know the identity of the silenced patsy and we know the identities of several interested parties. Suspects abound. The Warren Report was a smoke and mirrors coverup job. Who dun it? Maybe it was a bit of a group effort. All we know was that the hit on JFK ensured that we would get into the Vietnam War (which Kennedy was about to drop before we got in too deep) and that our country is as close to becoming a police state as Germany was in, say, 1934. JFK was in the way.

Montana. Clark. Rice. Lott. Young. Craig. Those are my Niners. Until further notice, they and those who played with them, are the only ones I will recognize as 49er players…..

*Sources* are indicating Melancon is a done deal. He’s about to be ours. ALL OURS. (went with a period instead of exclamation points for obvious reasons………)

#FreeStix! RPOTD

What does a Giants fan do when the high temp for the day was twelve below zero with the wind blowing at 20 mph? Don’t even ask me to calculate the windshield factor. Took close to an hour to schlep in the wood for both stoves and feeding and watering Macoujoe and the outdoor puss department. Then back to standing close to the stove and turning to a stash of NY Times business sections from October of 2012. Whaaat? you say. Ain’t you sposta be retirded? Why the business section? Big investment decisions? Not quite hardly.

Back pages of section B in the NYT happens to be where they park Tyler Kepner and the rest of their sports reporters and October of 2012? Hope i don’t hafta tell anybody here why i was alternately chuckling, tearing up and laughing out loud. Was too busy outdoors during that wonderful month to even read the coverage at the time. But reading about the achievement of their second Market Street parade in three years was sure a nice way to beat up on a helluva nasty, cold January afternoon.

In February it all begins again. I like our chances.

If the Giants sign Melancon I’m not sure if I could have a more underwhelming reaction. Yes we need a closer. Yes he is a closer. He’s going to be 32 this Spring. 4 years? I think I’d prefer just giving him 2 years, same amount of dough. We know how the Giants roll when it comes to expensive guys who are failing. The most Mariano Rivera ever pulled down in a season was 15 mil.

#FreeStix! RPOTD

Somewhere in the kitchen porch my second glove gathers dust. Wore it pitching for Minneapolis Central High in Spring of 1960. Got the spikes too. Kangaroo hide. Purchased at the old landmark Sears and Roebuck on Lake Street near Chicago Avenue in Mpls when my family lived about 12 blocks from there. Alas, they are no longer a fit as one’s feet do tend to grow larger over the years. My gawrsh! Those two hunks of leather are over 50 years old already. Maybe an antique shop of the recently trending mantiques type? Naah. Probably keep them along with that mass of Giants baseball cards starting with 55’s and concluding with 89’s.

I’d be the first to admit I don’t understand or track the intricacies of baseball contracts. So can someone explain to me why Agent 000 gets $600K in the major leagues and $300K in the minors? I mean, why not just pay him the minimum if he’s in the minors like everyone else. Or is this a common contract stip? What possible leverage could .000 have in contract negotiations???????

Having done a fair amount of research on Stix posts this off season, I’m wondering if this was the last straw for the The Feds. (Kinda)lqtm….

#FreeStix! RPOTD

I sure would trust a flapper government more than i would by Killary, or the Trumpeting Pachyderm for that matter.

This is one of my all time favorite Stix posts. It was probably also one of his final entries here at the Flap. I wonder what he’s doing for exercise in the clink? I keep wondering if anyone is feeding his cats. I’m positive no one is mowing “the estate.”

#FreeStix! RPOTD

Golf? Well i ain’t getting my summer workouts this week and i’m a bit pissed. Mechanic informed me the coil is out on the 22″ Huskvarna mower and it’ll take another two three days. They call it a “push” mower these days cause it is not self-propelled. A friend brought one of those by a few weeks back and using it for a few minutes convinced me that no way would i want one of those clumsy, heavy, complifuted monstrosities on my course.

Though the estate is a bit over 8 acres i only mow three or so and its up and down hills, dodging trees, shrubs and various stone-lined raised-bed gardens, ponds and whatever. Fantastic workout, but one needs easy mobility with your machine. One of those contraptions where you ride around on your ass like some doddering doofus? Fuggidaboudit! Very little of what the Germans call “sitzfleish” on my corpus. I do not sit well or very long at a time.

But fast approaching 72, i need that mowing workout on a steady basis through the summer and it’s galling me because with tropical rainforest conditions during July we just experienced the heaviest growth ever of the grass population ~ and when it gets over 6″ inches tall ~ particularly that nasty, heavy redclover down on the polderlands ~ the whole affair turns into brutal trench warfare.

Some H.S. football player could get himself into great shape investing about 4 hours daily on what will be facing me when i get the mower back. He’d go through the opposing line like shit through a goose.

Sounds like the Pirates are just looking for prospects for ‘Cutch and that takes us out of the running. I would still try to pawn off Belt to them along with our best pitching prospect. But there is only one year left on his deal so maybe it wouldn’t take this much to get him. Of course, I would trade Belt for probably a little less than he is worth. But that’s just me.

#FreeStix! RPOTD!

70’s MLB: In 71 i turned 27 and was as far away as i’d ever get from giving a rap about baseball. It was the late peak of the “turn on, tune in and drop out” era and they were all part of my experience. Would not have missed 64-73 for nothin. There was magic in the air, but not for the Giants.

Candlestick Park and Horace Stoneham caught up with the Giants through the 70’s and though that 71 team had some sparkle it was pretty much downhill from there on, what with Mays going to the Mutts, Stretch to the Pads, i seem to recall and Bobby B. later to the Yanks. Much of this disintegration had to do with the fact that ol’ Horace had been sold a lemon out there on the foggy, windy point and the revenues simply frittered away and so, ultimately did the team. So for me, the Seventies was the decade where i got out of touch with the game.

Believe it was ’82 or so when i started tuning in again and remembering Joe Morgan’s smash to sink the LaBumbos’ pennant hopes. Never having owned a boobtoob, my only on-time connexions with the game were by way of opposition radio clear-channel a.m. radio stations out of St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and Chicago. Crackle and static, with the dial turned up to max output.

For me it all changed after 2002 when i first got connected with the net. After a STEEP learning curve i was able to access daily info on the Giants and in another five or six years, the blogs hooked me. Daily contact with fellow Giants fanatics. Had i died and gone to Heaven, or what? Cainer and Timmy came along. Even the national sports media started noticing action by the Bay. Then 2010 and the Golden Gate opened. Wow!