The Molina Brothers
I just read that Yadier Molina wants to play “several more years.” He’s 38. That got me to wondering about Big Titty’s age and I guessed he was 50. This is what the pandemic has turned me into. He’s only 45. Then I clicked on ‘Titty’s stats and it really is incredible that in his final, underwhelming season in his painfully average career he ended up playing for BOTH the teams that made it to the World Series. That’s a pretty cool thing to be able to tell your grand kids.
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
I time when I was frustrated with the Giants even though they went on to win the World Series!
I just kept wondering why Molina was still getting at bats and starts when clearly Buster was raking the ball. It took all the way to the trade deadline before Mr. 8 5/8 head loyalty to the end Bochy was probably convinced by others to cut ties with Molina!
Twin and I were getting in some heated discussions over the 2 up to the deadline, as he like Boch kept defending the over the hill vet saying the team is stronger with Molina then Posey in the LU, yeah right Lol 😂 Who won his 1st W/S championship as a rookie catcher handling the staff? Enough said..
Sounds like win/win for Cards. Molina scheduled to make $20 mil this season, and yes will be 38 in July. So Cards could let him walk away, play their prospect(s), and save whatever salary he might have wanted while only paying fraction this year if any games are ever played at all. One of bloggers on MLBTR story said Angels would be great for him, as he’s only Molina left who hasn’t played there.
OSF—Fauci made his comments little over a week ago; LATimes and others including YES network reported them and topic came up here too. If you google Fauci and baseball, columns are there.
Here is direct quote: “Where you get the group of players and you put them in a few cities, you make sure they’re not infected, you test them, so they don’t infect others.” He did say he doubted this could be done by July 4 projected potential opening.
Testing of course has always been the key and I hop we can get this more readily available, soon. Even here in Calif. Newsom has not been able to arrange for near enough testing kits and quick analyses, one of his keys to relaxing SIP. Here in hotbed Silicon Valley, we are SIP lockdown mode for another month. Takes a doc referral to sign up for one and idk know where that would be locally.
I talked to a Dr. yesterday at Stanford who says they have 1 patient + with Covid 19 in their ICU right now. ONE
And some of the first cases to fly in privately from Wuhan in Dec and Jan landed in Silicon Valley. Dr Sara Cody, the local health department officer, really clamped down quickly and all of the Bay Area governments responded immediately, too. We’re very lucky. Well, so far, anyway.
BF, the nurse across the street from me was furloughed! Deaths in Oregon are, I think, about 100. Not catastrophic by any means. But, the whole state is in severe lockdown. It took her a week before her test came back negative.
Willie, thanks.
OSF
One more take on when and where baseball may be played. This saying that teams could potentially be playing in their home parks by late June or July (this all with input from three baseball execs involved in the ongoing talks).
https://www.nbcsports.com/bayarea/giants/mlb-rumors-league-discussing-plan-play-home-parks-late-june
Not sure if this has been shared here, or not. Giants supposedly the favorites to sign a 16 year old SS out of Venezuela. Kid is ranked 21st in top 30 international prospects.
https://www.nbcsports.com/bayarea/giants/mlb-rumors-giants-favorites-sign-diego-velazquez-16-year-old-prospect
Thanks, Chuck.
Yeah I read that story Chi.
I have to be impressed whoever is the main man is in finding the international talent players.With 4 Giants in they’re system now rated in they’re top 10, they have come along way from their lean years in this area, hope that trend continues!!
Me too, Kat. There has certainly been a concerted effort over the past couple of years to rebuild the farm system. I hope the trend continues.
Yeah Flav, saw reports saying local hospitals so far have not been overwhelmed and are in fact not nearly full. Maybe that will speed up more elective non emergency surgeries like for Kat; my next door neighbor who is her 80s and has been suffering for some time as her leg/hip surgery scheduled for March didn’t happen.
Fauci’s not above sending mixed messages, either.
I think fame has gone to his head…
I’ve already given up on Birx, and Fauci is losing me, too. A phrase I am so tired of hearing is that those two “have to walk a fine line,” which means they stand on that stage while Trump spouts crazy stuff like someone’s drunken uncle, and they try to rationalize whatever dangerous and wrong misinformation is coming out of Trump’s pie-hole. Birx and Fauci are incredibly compromised.
They should resign from Trump’s crap-show and form their own group that will speak to the media daily without compromise.
I think Fauci kneeled to pressure yesterday when he touted remdesivir so happily for the tv cameras in the Oval Office. I bought some Gilead stock last year, so I thank him for the boost. But it’s probably temporary. The drug was a failure against Ebola, and I think it has to be administered intravenously. It ain’t no Salk vaccine. (Anyone else remember standing in line to receive that stuff on a sugar cube?) Trump was just desperate for some good news.
I saw a fairly comprehensive piece on national news last night, and the study with remdesivir was controlled and wide-spread. It is no magic bullet, but early results from the study show that it has the possibility of shortening the run of the virus, particularly in older folks involved in the study. As one doctor accurately said (IMO) it may be just one of many tools in the COVID-19 toolkit.
Bottom line, testing capabilities must continue to ramp-up outside of all these treatment possibilities, and development of a vaccine.
as an older folk, I’d welcome it. shoot me up doc.
Xoot, I can remember getting a needle shot for polio in Merced. I was in 3-4 then grade. Long lines and I went off to play. My Mom got to the front of the line and I was no where around. She was pissed when she found me. Got the needle then.
ha! you’re slightly older than I am, Seal. I was 15 when I sat in the stands at Super Bowl I, while you and twin both enjoyed your more worldly experience — you with your date and twin assisting his father in the broadcast booth.
Oh shoot–Mark McNamara died at age 60 of heart failure. Went to nearby Del Mar HS, played at Santa Clara with another local hero Kurt Rambis and then transferred to Cal and played few seasons as backup Center in NBA.
Brighter note, today April 301961 day Mays hit 4 HRs out of Milwaukee County Stadium.
Yeah I sure hope so Willied.Nothing from my doctor so everything is on a holding pattern, even though I don’t believe the hospitals are swamped.Its all about the safety of the patients going forward.March 20th was when I was going to get the hip replacement done, missed out by less then a week when all hell broke loose.Living on oxycodone,vitamin C, and cocaine ever sense.Geez sounds like a Dead song I know..
Sorry to hear that, AK. But yeah, elective surgeries are taking place in some bay area counties. Not sure about San Mateo though.
Hoping you get in soon, Kat. I have a few friends who have had hip surgeries, and I recall the pain they suffered leading-up to the surgery.
Living his life on oxycodone, vitamin C and cocaine…all the Flappers say is ain’t it a shame. Truckin’…up to Palo Alto…
I’m ready for the country to start opening up with these new guidelines in place–wearing a mask indoors, social distancing, this can work. Let’s go.
The virus is ready, too. It’s all “Giddy-up, people, I can’t move around by myself.”
Can’t hide at home forever, zumiee. It’s time to get this country moving a little in the right direction.
It’s been 5 weeks. Our will was broken after 5 weeks.
the lyrics to the old Stones tune Ventilator Blues come to mind
We have one fucking guy in the Stanford ICU suffering from this. It’s just not realistic to keep living like this indefinitely
I’m no math expert, but there’s a lot of range between 5 weeks and forever.
We have one guy in the Stanford icu BECAUSE we clamped down. The skilled nursing facility in Sunnyvale where my mother resides called me some six weeks ago to report their first case. They clamped down. Nothing since. Open up carefully. Even then it’s at our peril.
“Ain’t nobody slowing down no way
“Everybody’s stepping on their accelerator
“Don’t matter where you are
“Everybody’s gonna need a ventilator”
(Jagger, Richards, Taylor)
I understand how mitigation works. And I support re-opening carefully. Now is a good time to start.
We went to mitigation because we blew by the possibility of containment. But I don’t disagree with you; I know you’re intelligent and I value your opinion. Zumiee’s 9:53 am, however, also hit the mark.
Parks and golf courses in Jersey will be back open starting Saturday, yay!
Soon the Secret Service cell phones will be tracked to the links again.
Yeah, Trump is missing the golf.
MLB Network is showing a Giants loss to the Dodgers in ‘04.
A Pierzynski sighting. Yikes.
Too bad about Mark McNamara Willied way to young!And before Rambis and McNamara..
Man I remember when Santa Clara had a real powerhouse team in 68 led by Center Dennis Awtrey and the Ogden brothers Bud&Ralph coached by Dick Garabaldi (sp) they went something like 27-2 (13-1 in conference) before getting bounced in the tournament.
yeah good programs over there under Carroll Williams too. when I was coaching Asian travel ball, a kid I knew from SF went to Dick Davey’s 2 day skills camp and really liked it. Gave me a copy of his drills for fundamental skills stuff, really good takes on how to teach change direction change speed passing drills etc.
My buddies always hassled me about Steve Nash and unheralded Santa Clara taking out higher seeded U of Arizona and Lute Olson in Tourney too.
First time as I recall a 15 seed knocked out a number 2 in the March Madness tournament…
What we know for certain is that social distancing works. The question is, how severe does it need to be. We are going to find out soon.
The alternative to experimentation now would be to gather more data first through wider testing, and then devise and implement the plans for easing restrictions.
Jazz Festing In Place per station wwoz streaming again this weekend, as of now. Herbie Hancock due up soon, Marcia Ball Charlie Musselwhite Beausoleil and others today, plus Alan Toussaint Roy Hargrove Neville bros etc throughout rest of weekend. good music last weekend and looking forward to more next few days.
oh that’s a good lineup today. I’m turning wwoz on now.
Me too.
Is that Zachary Richard singing in French with Shane Theriot on the guitar? Do I have that right? Man, whoever it is it is tremendous.
In what books I choose to read, current events have lately driven me to fantasy escapism. I’ve never been a big fan of fantasy, especially the European medieval-style fantasy that is so hugely popular. “Lord of the Rings,” “Game of Thrones,” etc. It has its fans, and that’s cool.
But some new things happening in the fantasy genre have caught my interest. I just finished Chinese-American author Ken Liu’s novel “The Grace of Kings,” which is set in a fantasy world that is sort of Asian medieval with steampunk elements. I’m still not a HUGE fan of fantasy, but this one held my interest. These types of other-world fantasies usually have a map in the book, and I found myself referencing the map many times. This fantasy novel was set in a collection of islands, with the islands having their own geological characteristics.
There is a sequel to this novel that I’ll read eventually. He hasn’t written a third yet to turn it into a trilogy which is a very standard format in the fantasy genre.
I knew Liu’s work from a great short story collection of his that I read that was mostly science fiction. And he has a new short story collection out that I’m looking forward to reading. He has become one of my favorite authors.
I just started reading the novel “The Fifth Season,” by African American author N.K. Jemisin. It’s the first novel in a fantasy trilogy. It has a map in front of the book, and I’m still in the process of figuring out the world of this novel, from the various clues given by the author. The novel’s world has its own strange qualities, as all fantasy worlds do.
I was familiar with Jemisin from having read positive reviews about her work, and from having read one of her short stories that I liked, and from reading what she puts on Twitter. She’s very political in a lot of her posts and re-tweets, and she often brings up news items that I’d missed.
Of course, fantasy literature can be set anywhere. Tim Powers has made a career out of setting fantasy novels in present-day Los Angeles and Las Vegas, and other places. This type of modern day fantasy is usually referred to as urban fantasy.
Zum, I was a huge into fantasy genre as a kid (Stephen R. Donaldson my fav then) and loved Game of Thrones books. But Donaldson did an updated trilogy a decade ago and I cant get through the first half 9f the first book still…hard to get lost 8n that world…I have loved Clive Barker’s stuff as well.
I read the first couple of books in the Game of Thrones series. They’re well-written. I watched the first season of the TV series and never got back to it.
And him being traded helped his old team win their first franchise WS!!!
The MLB Network is Giant/Dodger games all day in honor of the rivalry.
The network is alternating between Giant wins and Dodger wins.
Funny, if you compare Bengie with Yadi, numbers aren’t that far off. Here’s B/R average season for each:
Yadi: .333 OB/.405 slg/ 13 HRs
B-T: .307 OB/.411 slg/ 17 HRs
HOF numbers???
Lincecum iirc loved Bengie
I happened to have seats near 3B line that evening in early 2010 when Timmy formally received his second CY. The ceremony occurred right in front of us. He thanked a lot of people, of course, but his voice deepened when he thanked Bengie, and he got that strong, sincere Lincecum look in his eyes. He meant that one, I thought.
Charlie Musselwhite’s set on WWOZ is terrific. Sounds like it’s from the Delta Hardware phase, a great album, imo.
yeah Xoot Musselwhite was awesome. saw him couple times but never did pick up any of his LPs, thx for tip.
any idea who the guitar player was during that time? really like that group he had performing.
according to the CD notes for my copy of DH, Chris “Kid” Andersen was his guitarist then. But I see that CD was issued in 2006, so I don’t know if that guy was in his band at the 2011 festival. But the guitar work on DH is great.
this Little Walter cover was always my favorite cut on the album
And I was about to get out for my first round of golf tomorrow but going to be a rain out…pushing back a week but more rain expected. Wettest spring in my 26 years on the east coast..
Courses never closed here.
And Posey with a walk off!!! Take that Bengie and Twin…
Was nice to say Buster being able to turn on a fastball…
I have not paid attention to the incoming hall of fame class but Larry Walker and Ted Simmons but no Barry Bonds??? Fucking joke…
When I watched Walker and Simmons play, I never thought I was watching Hall of Famers.
Totally agree
Neighbor woman down the street is having a needed surgery next week…
Little League World Series has officially been canceled for this year. No surprise there…
Sweden may be pretty open, but there are definitely encouraging poultry distancing…
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/29/swedish-city-lund-dump-tonne-chicken-manure-park-deter-visitors-coronavirus-lockdown
lulz. Pretty low-tech for a high-tech country.
Bird shit is great fertilizer but it produces nasty vapors. In the 19th century, entrepreneurs sailed to rock islands in the Pacific, applied explosives to the encrusted bird shit on the rocks, and then stole away with a fortune in guano packed into the holds. They had to take extra sailcloth, though, because fumes rising from the birdshit destroyed the fabric hoisted above them. Can you imagine being on some of the early voyages, before they knew they needed extra sail? Talk about pushing ahead without testing.
of course, I guess that could get into the lungs and just clear em out — you know? Like bleach?
Xoot thx again. Kid Andersen is at the Greaseland recording studio where my friend (currently in south Carolina but who also lives in los gatos) does photography. He sent me the blues song “Give Me My Stimulus” from youtube done there recently I think.
wow. turns out there’s quite a bit of Kid Andersen and Greaseland on youtube. Good stuff. John Blues Boyd’s Give Me My Stimulus, vocals from his front porch in Redwood City, I guess, is classic. I’d love to be able to see those guys in a club this weekend. Ah, well . . . .
I was living is SoCal when Molina first came up with the Angels and enjoyed watching him play. In the ’02 WS when he put up a solid line – not so much. I liked him in his time with SF and he was instrumental in nurturing a historic staff.
kat, my stepmother is in the same boat and had to postpone a replacement procedure. She’s been in a lot of pain but is getting through on various top shelf wines I’d imagine. My pops had a hip replacement last year and it was practically an out patient procedure which sort of blew me away. He was out of the hospital within 36-48 hours and is enjoying a full recovery-golfing pretty much every day and whatnot. Hope it all works our for you man.
Anyway, for what it’s worth Mrs. Dirt works for a local healthcare provider. I don’t want to name names but it rhymes with Lanford. She’s on the operations side of the clinics and they’ve rolled out a pilot program for their personnel to get tested. So far they’ve testing ~14K and .04% positive. I’ll let the big brains do the math but that’s not a lot of positives and no fatalities have been recorded yet.
Personally, a colleague at work tested positive and was on death’s door but has recovered after 2 weeks in hospital and another 2 at home. Haven’t seen him yet but news is that he’s more or less returned to normal. My employer has extended mandatory work from home through 01 June and I am on furlough next week plus another week sometime this summer. We’re fortunate that we can get through all of this but I’ve got real concern about my job. My take is that the longer SIP extends the worse the social unrest could become. I don’t mean these ammosexual clowns in the streets right now but large masses getting really desperate. Come June there will be folks barely making rent, if at all, for the second or third month to say nothing of food – no bueno. Just my two cents.
Some of my son’s colleagues got laid off today. The concern in his text to me was clear. Some for them, most for himself and his girlfriend, who got laid off from her job long ago. As I said weeks back, I feel for people with kids to protect and careers to sustain. Spending trillions to prop up the financial markets may not be the best investment we could make right now. But then it’s not our decision, is it? What’s the poker term? New deal?
Sorry to hear about your son’s colleagues. I hate to hear about people losing their jobs-the ripple effect is just terrible. Hope your son stays in the clear. We’re not too worried yet but if this extends into July I’m sort of resigned to the riff. My wife is in an essential field (to an extent) so she’ll probably be good. After the ’07-’08 crash we became savers to an almost paranoid extent and still hold real estate in NV. Worst case we end up back in Reno which would suck but I could camp and fish more so there’s that.
What’s the point of testing people for CV when we’re all living as if we have it anyway?
Not that anyone’s getting tested one way or the other…
It would help to open society up in a more safe way. What is not said a lot on the news is what happens if an asymptomatic person tests positive, which is they are to be quarantined for a couple of weeks, and all the people they were in contact with should quarantine.
But, that also presupposes that everyone would be getting tested, and tested more than once. And the Trump administration long ago blew off that responsibility. So what we have is state-by-state chaos.
We needed a Manhattan Project type of federal government focus on developing more testing; but that would have taken a real President instead of the real estate huckster we have in the White House.
Zumie are Willied,Chi.are any of us other old timers
Do you guys remember a guitarist by the name of Pete Carr?
He was instrumental with a lot of of bands back in the 60’s-70’s and did recordings out of the famous studio I now forget something Shoals?Where 4 musicians owned and operated out of.
He did release one album back in 1976 called” Not a word on it” which is so true.The guy is a phenomenal guitarist, some compared him with Jeff Beck and Jimmy Hendrix.. Alittle of Blues,Rock, fusion combo.
Enough rambling if you guys get a chance to hear some of that album you will be impressed..
Googled it up,
Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Alabama
Formed by The Swampers in 1969..
I’ve never heard of Carr, but I know that one of those Muscle Shoals musicians is the father of Patterson Hood, one of the founders of the great band, the Drive-By Truckers.
The Stones recorded at Muscle Shoals. Brown Sugar, et alia 🙂
Didn’t Lynyrd Skynyrd do some recording there? I think I read that somewhere.
ha! I looked it up. The greatest cover of all time, Aretha’s RESPECT, was recorded there. Also, interestingly, Wilson Pickett’s version of Hey Jude.
Even I know this from Sweet Home Alabama and you guys lost me hours ago…
Now Muscle Shoals has got the Swampers
And they’ve been known to pick a song or two
Lord they get me off so much
They pick me up when I’m feeling blue
Now how about you?
Yeah Pete Carr was influenced by Duane Allman among other artists.They became good friends before Duane’s motorcycle crash in 71.Ironically they’re álbum Eat A Peach 🍑 was named as sort of a tribute since it was a peach truck he collided with on his bike..
Pete Carr on his record album had Chuck Leville ( allman bros) playing bass, Bob Wray, Lenny Leblanc and others.
Did some intro music on a Bob Seger song, along with Rod Stewart..
Ah, Duane Allman. Whipping Post. Holy sheet. He single-handedly established the solo careers of both Eric Clapton (Layla) and Boz Scaggs (Somebody Loan Me a Dime).
Agree, among the best guitar work of all-time, and live, no less, when sound isn’t always great.
Supposed to be the first really nice weather weekend of the year here.
We’ll see what happens…
I’ll looking for a wall to throw a ball against.
Maybe even a slow jog under the Verrazano Bridge…
Oh yeah Muscle Shoals was go to place for 60s music I loved, Aretha and Wilson Pickett. the rascals too. David Hood was one of the famous bass players, tommy cogbill another, roger Hawkins drummer– almost all white guys that could lay down rhythm for the r/b singers. Wexler (Atlantic records) eventually got them to move to Miami for his studio down there. good stuff. He does mention Pete Carr too I’ll check him out thx Kat.
For some reason Wexler (rather ruthless businessman) had business problems with Stax out of Memphis, the great Steve Cropper Booker T. band he liked and was looking for different place to record his artists and a buddy of his tipped him off to muscle shoals. He got down there and said hey this is what I’m talking about.
“Rhythm and the blues” 1993 by Jerry Wexler and David Ritz. lot of personal tragedy for him and his family along with death of musicians he was close to like Otis Redding and Duane Allman among others.
Your welcome Willied.
Carr is very talented on both electric and acoustic guitars 🎸 never in the limelight but respected by many musicians..
“Yeah man, you really know how to clear out a room! lol. Hey what were you doing stuck in Hanoi?”
Craig, to answer your question from end of last thread, I had been working up in Hanoi the past 2 years, and planning to get back down to Saigon for the past year of it. My work finished, I was ready to go, and BAM, lockdown. So, I was feeling trapped up there, with no reason to be there anymore. Prison time, very dark days, it was depressing. So happy I could finally get on that train and get back to Saigon.
One thing that helped Vietnam control Corona was testing of course but also tracking. They did this very well for the past 2 or so months. Before traveling on the train, I had to fill in a travel/health declaration on an app, gov’t would then scan the app and track movements. If anyone on that train turns up positive, everyone who was on the train will be notified, and it’ll be back to shelter in place for 2 weeks. I hope that doesn’t happen, of course, but it has really helped them contain it here. No deaths in country, no new cases in more than 2 weeks. Hence, the lifting of the lockdown. Good luck, you all…. And now let’s see if the room clears out again…. 🙂
Haha, yep, there they go.
Paul, obviously the USA is a larger country, with many more int’l travelers entering (usually), but we could do some of the things Viet Nam is doing. We won’t, much. Your comment some weeks back about the difference between the collective and individualistic societies made sense to me. Many people in the USA do not (probably cannot) think in terms of the collective good. That road leads to Pol Pot, they’ll tell you. (Some Republican tv ads actually push the Khmer Rouge Pol Pot theme.)
Meanwhile, it sounds as if you’re safe. Glad to hear it.
Oh yeah, Xoot, can’t really compare the 2 countries (US and VN) for sheer size and other complexities. But yes, the difference in mindsets is huge. I praise the gov’t here for their decisive actions, but more praise the people for taking it seriously. They took it seriously, and now can get out of lockdown. That’s the order of things. US must reopen soon, but they really should wait until cases decline, not while still rising, or man, it’s going to get ugly. Pol Pot, that’s pretty funny. Nothing like that here.
I’ve read comments from Americans about “can’t trust VN’s Commie gov’t to speak the truth of no deaths, probably thousands of dead bodies dumped in the countryside, etc.”. Haha, I’m guessing these commenters have never been to Vietnam. The people here see everything, and are not afraid to talk about it. If there had been any dead bodies, we would know about it, from the people, not the gov’t.
Finally, I understand the concept of (paraphrasing) “If you give up freedom for security, you have neither”, but in a case like Corona, I disagree. Sometimes freedom means having to sacrifice a bit to keep it. Like, no manicures for a couple months. Sheesh….. Stay safe…
We’ll find out what with some states loosening things up. Every time a country eases things they spike.
Yeah Charlie, I think it’s the new norm. Step by step opening up, occasional spikes, maybe rolling shut-downs and hopefully not complete lockdowns… Here in VN with no community infections, people are wondering just how long the gov’t should continue a ban on international arrivals. I had hoped to get back to the US to visit this summer, but that’s not going to happen, as I’d probably never get back here…
3 months in and no meaningful testing
I think it’s gonna be like a jailbreak here this weekend…
Paul good luck. You know Michigan court sided with their governor over the “you have no right to do this” freedom flag wavers. Said yes govt does, for greater good of all.
Yes, have read about it and seen the video…. looked like big protests but I have no idea of the percentage of the population doing that. Just looks like it could get increasingly ugly.