An Open Letter To A Flap Legend
Stix. If you can read this, let me provide a status report:
Twinfan is dead. Sabean dethroned. The team is on life support. The day after you disappeared the Giants lost 10 of their next 14 games. They did manage to squeak into the post season in 2016 but the result was a complete bullpen meltdown the likes of which none of us have ever seen. The Cubs advanced. We have not yet recovered. In 2017 we lost 98 games. The last 2 seasons, 174 losses. Absolutely staggering totals. All the players you once knew are gone. Except Posey, Crawford and Belt. They will never leave. Life sentences, my man. Fucking life.
Now that you’re caught up, I have some questions…..
I recognize you probably can’t talk about your case so I won’t ask about that.
- What were you doing the day this all went down? Right up until the moment those commie bastards attacked by aircraft. Spare no detail.
- What happened to your property and your pussy cats?
- How much actual ass fucking goes on in prison?
- What was your first post-prison meal? Alternatively, what was the first thing you did after your escape?
- What is your plan now?
My man, we missed you. We thought about you. As the years passed on we re-posted some of your most epic posts as a vigil in the hopes that you would one day make a glorious return. I honestly never thought we’d hear from you again and while I know you can read this I fear there is still a chance we may never hear from you again.
But I hope I’m wrong.
Flap Nation always stood #StixStrong. And we will remain so. Now there’s nothing left to do but……
login.
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
Great invite. I am sure Stix will come here when he can. How could he not? Flap Universe is and has always been in his corner. I still want to hear his recaps of down-home savory recipes and accounts of all the pussy lying on his bed keeping him warm at night. Although there was probably not much of the latter for the past 4 years…
Reading through story of North Dakota governor who urged its citizens not to turn mask wearing into political divide, many comments from both sides. One blogger chided mask wearers who “wear your subservience with pride.” Another cited the precedent of 1905 Supreme Court case Jacobson vs. Massachusetts to affirm police powers of states in decision written by Justice Harlan. “A community has the right to protect itself against an epidemic (smallpox in this case) of disease which threatens the safety of its members.”
Notes on Jacobson decision and precedent set and cited for many later cases are fascinating read.
Your boy Eddie Sutton died
yeah saw that. Liked Arkansas teams in general but more into Nolan Richardson b-ball era. Sutton was briefly here at USF too and previously had lot of success at Oklahoma St. Kentucky. 2 of his sons are college assistants.
Sidney Moncrief did play for Sutton at Arkansas; Richardson came in right after Sutton left for Kentucky.
Always liked Eddie Sutton.Another dinosaur of the Coach Dean Smith,Keading,Thompson,and others who were basketball lifers of coaching.
Had a nice run with Creighton,Arkansas,Kentucky,Oklahoma St .Many NCAA tournament appearances but never got the brass ring.Not sure the reasoning of USF hire, unless they just wanted a big name coach.He went 6-13 with the the Dons before calling it quits.Still he went 802-329 overall which any coach can hang their hat on.RIP Eddie
Great letter, Flavor.
Love the bluntness – there’s enough babying in this world.
Stix might know of Twin’s passing from the Chucks, but it’ll be fascinating to read what he has to say about our late controversial legend…
Looks like Hertz is going out of business.
Trivia:
Who can tell me the location of their most famous billboard?
The 2006 AL Champion Detroit Tigers were 43-109 in 2003.
I have a funny feeling about our Giants whenever baseball resumes…
by my rough estimate, Stix hasn’t posted here in 1017 days. Let’s see if today is the day. I can’t wait.
I would not hold your breath Flavor.
But maybe a Memorial Day Debut might make more sense for Stix🇺🇸
i been holdin’ out hope for 1,017 days and counting. Why not? Don’t cost nuthin
I always thought that Hertz had a clever iconic phrase when they said:”Let Hertz put you in the drivers seat”
Then having a guy in a suit and a lady in a cocktail dress magically land inside a moving Chevrolet Convertible Impala to drive it was astonishing..That original commercial came out in 1959!!
Think mlbtiv was having Nats 2019 marathon today. That certainly did include very watchable takedown of NL West champs…
Dodger series not on; NLCS clincher vs. Cards on right now followed by games 6 and 7 of WS.
Is the golf thing today a must-see for you guys?
I can’t stand all 4 of them – especially “Chief” abuser, Manning…
Manning is also in HOF for most annoying commercials ever. And likely will be doing them forever.
The deadpan Johnny Bench ones I’ve seen are pretty funny not that he actually does very much.
no interest in watching it
Verlander btw has a WS record of 0-6 with 5.68 ERA and has given up 9 HRs in 38 innings.
thanks for making us a part of the letter to Stix.
Have to step in and say “miss ya’ Stixs, come on home” and viva Giantes.
As for here – my oldest son and I spent the month before the cancellation researching and bangin heads over our fantasy draft. Seems like a distant memory now. He’s playing a ‘fantasy with HOFers’ league while I when back to work.
OH, Well!
Cheers, all
Edd? Who’s showing up next?
WTF is up, Edd? I see you on FB on occasion. Hope you frequent the Flap more often, brother.
I have no interest in watching the golf either. I like to play golf, not watch it. Especially some gimmicky match like that.
IIRC, USF brought in Sutton to finish out the season after firing their coach AND allow him to get 800 wins. It was kind of a hoky deal. I liked his Arkansas teams, but never have been able to root for Kentucky.
i like watching golf but not gimmicky bullshit.
I saw that Mike (xoot) talked with Stix yesterday for about an hour. Mike, fill us in. Stix and I talked for about 40 minutes when I called.
BTW, I did give him the blog address. When I call him back (maybe later today) I will pass along your email Craig, if that is OK. That way if he is challenged logging-in, maybe you can assist.
That first post from Stix is going to be FUCKING EPIC.
i don’t know how to log in anymore than you guys do. It’s pretty self explanatory, right? BTW Stix has my email, he sent me like 500 emails back in the day. lqtm
We covered a lot of things, including his case. Books, government, history, some baseball. When he finds a computer to use, I’ll bet he’ll quickly get up to speed on Giants’ prospects. He definitely did most of the talking, which was fine.
if he’s having trouble logging on I would create an account at wordpress. And I don’t know how to do that without doing it again myself but I’m sure they walk you through it. For those who have had trouble posting here maybe you could offer some tips
I’m sure whoever Stix is living with can get him logged in on their device.
Stix has done it on his own before…
The Giants started their losing ways right when Stix was shanghaied.
At least that’s how I remember it.
my buddy in Reno, PaSalon, swears it happened the day they traded Muffy. I mean Duffy.
Was a week later…
I’m sticking with Stix.
Duffy was successful hitting opposite field, teams figured that out and started doing a shift. So I think we started losing when the Duffman was still with us.
Giants lost 11 of 13 coming out of the break in 2016.
Duffy was still on the team.
The East Coast Flapalooza was in high gear at the time…
Not sure PaSalon can come back to the blog after that thrashing. Well done. His love of Duffy has pissed me off for many moons now
It was nothing personal.
Mac would’ve gotten that quicker if he was looking in…
Don’t apologize. Make it personal. paSalon needs to pay for his wayward Duffy takes
I was at Duffy’s ML debut, just to rub it in…
Wherever Stix is now let’s hope he’s chilled some.Dont need another Freeman,Waco scenario for my man!!
This golf match is must TV for Brady haters.
Waiting for Stix to post is like waiting to hear if Apollo 13 survived re-entry…
Lol. Perfect.
I clearly have nothing to do today other than to hope Stix posts and possibly stoke a brew haha between Loo and PaSalon. Sadly, I don’t think either will happen
Like what happens to lot of players, Duffy in second season was lot less effective hitter than year before. Bozo is right, he was very one dimensional, trying to hit everything to RF for singles. The guys who took his place, Gillaspie and Nunez, were better hitters which tells you all you need to know.
Year before he had been breath of fresh air taking 3b over from McGehee. But, as MLBTR noted in a series on rookies of the year in 90s, lot of them fell apart and never duplicated what they did in their first season.
Giants of 2016 fell off wagon after that but he had little to do with it. He wasn’t on the mound in that fateful playoff game in 2016, and Giants pitching 2017 on has been flat awful considering very favorable park factor.
“McGiggles” was one my favorite nicknames.
A Dirt creation?
A lot of Flappers loved Duffy for no real reason that I ever understood. He was slow and weak. And hurt.
From the Giants to the Rays to Bull Durham( yes Crash Davis&Noose) to now the Indians The now hopefully forgettable Christian Arroyo( who SUCKS Bigtime) will all make us feel better about getting Evan Longoria, who actually imo had a solid if not spectacular 2019 season
absolutely terrible draft pick. And everyone told him that at the time. Starting with 2010, fucking Sabean went Gary Brown, Panik, Crick, Stratton, Arroyo, Beede, Shaw….Ramos and Bart were the last two let’s hope they fare better than that Shit Seven
The draft-nerd websites were shocked with the Arroyo pick in the first round. The consensus was “he’s not a first rounder.”
The Sabean/Evans axis was deep into decline at that point.
I never understood the Arroyo pick, contact hitter with little power. I guess picking at 25 in 2013 it was better than the Yanks picking up Eric Jagielo at 26 (best known for being part of the Chapman trade) or the Reds picking Philip Ervin with the 27th pick (best know for hitting a walk off of Ray Black in 2018). Although the Yanks getting Judge at 32 in the comp round would have been a nice find for SF.
this is peak badassery
Not bad, but try googling my new idol: Light Cheese Larry
Heading outside to bbq a Fred’s steak. If you don’t know what that is, google it. I’ll check back later and hope that….oh whatever you know the drill.
Oh man I’m craving a nice juicey flavor!
Damm medium rare for me I’ll social distance all the alcohol!!🍺🥃🍻🍹🍸🍹
I would burn it more and douse it in ketchup, but that’s just me.
Sometime I mix A-1 & ketchup together…
A-1 and ketchup is an outstanding combo. My favorite steak sauce is that British shit, HP. Buy it if you can get it where you live
https://tinyurl.com/ya44sbmh
This must be it?
https://thisweekfordinner.com/freds-steak/
that’s it. It’s incredible I don’t know what they do with the marinade but it works and Schab’s is the only store in Palo Alto I don’t mind waiting outside of.
the best thing about Covid19: all the trolls are gone. You guys don’t see most of them, they write a bunch of stupid shit and because of how I filter the comments they usually just go harmlessly to *quarantine*. But for the last couple of months they aren’t even showing up there. Hilarious. Hopefully all those dumb motherfuckers living in their parents basement got the virus and died. Fuck them.
Back when I was a single parent with two hungry sons, I got pretty good at grilling or roasting tri-tip and chateaubriand. That Fred’s Steak looks excellent. Could’ve worked it into the rotation very nicely. (We had salmon sometimes, too; I was responsible.)
Watching old games on tv now, it’s easy to enjoy how the dodgers got whipped, year after year, in the post-season. Pleasant memory. In light of the Astros’ cheating theft in 2017, I think going forward every team that plays the dodgers should pay tribute to their victimization by thumping on a dugout trashcan lid once or twice, or occasionally not at all, just before a dodger pitcher starts into his windup. I’m sure they’ll appreciate that tribute.
I wish I could watch old games, I really do. I can watch highlights or moments no prob. But not games. My attention span is like 2 minutes. Gee, I wonder where that came from. lqtm
This past Friday night I had the old Giants game on in the background while I did other stuff. Early 2013. Looked like a good game. By chance, as the game went into the 10th inning, I realized that I’d attended that mid-week night game. Pablo was about to blast a monster walk-off into the CF bleachers. My view of that drive from my seat above home plate had been so fucking great. Then I remembered the joyous walk downtown my friends and I had after the game. Never know.
Dodger fans, for 31 years in a row and counting.
Yeah Zumie, The Dodgers year in and year out sucking in the long run will always put satisfaction only my face!!
And how the hell could anyone wear a Dodger Covaid19 mask?When you know it’s a choke mask 😷
IDK anything about Fred’s Steak.
But, a very underrated steak is a Hanger steak.
Not around a lot in the Butcher’s case.
But, if you see it, check it out.
I’d marinate it for at least a day in your favorite marinade, then cook it like any other steak the way you like it.
If you get a good cut of a Hanger, the flavor will blow your mind…
Does that pair well with Hanger Vodka?
huge yes on the Hanger steak, Snarkk. Good small restaurants in the Bay Area often serve it, in my experience. Jump on it.
With ‘ya, xoot.
First time I ever had a Hanger was in a small bar in Philly on a hot summer night about 13-14 years ago.
I was there a few days on business, and went out to Citizens Bank to see the Giants get spanked by the Phills. It was something like 11-4, and some Phill clubbed a grand salami. Good time, though. Walked in this bar on a different night, hot and sticky humid — some recommendation I got as a booze bin, turns out the food was good. They had a Hanger, the bartender said it was a winner, and he turned out more than right. Outstanding. I just looked it up on google maps. “Standard Tap” is the name of the place now (not sure if it had that name then) at 2nd and Poplar, a few blocks from the Constitution Hall. I can tell that’s it by the photos. Neighborhood was sketchy then, looks like it’s upgraded some. Still looks like good eats, and they still have the Hanger — see wall menu. Sometimes, the Internet is cool to bring a good memory home…
https://tinyurl.com/y9c34wme
https://tinyurl.com/yc47g898
Snarkk, is this the game? https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/PHI/PHI200506010.shtml
Yeah, that looks like the one, it was a mid week game like that.
Utley hit a grand slam, so that fits.
Giants were crap that year.
Phills fans were cool around me, we talked a lot of ball…
My first summer job was at the 34th Street location down the block from MSG.
I was the youngest guy to ever be put in charge of the onions…
Ouch! cry me a fucking river
I like the Giants retro games. Any game from the decade of the 2010s feels like a piece of the mosaic of the 3-in-5 era. It’s all part of the story.
And if I happen to have been at a particular game being shown, that adds extra memories to the viewing experience.
NFL tv had 1 year highlights of SB champs in 90s, good shows where they get direct interviews with 2 players and head coach. There were a few who had long standing grudges/overcame embarrassing losses from year(s) before as motivation…just saying.
One of these btw was 99 Vermeil led Rams, who had lost 17 in a row to Niners. They showed previous clip of SF guys taunting them (Rams were in STL then) as same old same old, then, then Warner and co. beat them.
Where I live is 6th most populous county in state, however 17th in number of deaths from covid. Still on restriction but does appear these have helped.
read interesting story from NYT on MSNBC pointing out differences btw red/blue states. Most serious outbreaks in urban coastal areas that trend Dem, generally fewer in counties that voted in our current Peerless Leader (old rocky and friends joke).
Steak sauce? Maybe a little garlic butter but that’s it.
I was gonna say…
I’m actually an A-1 guy myself, but I catch a lot of crap for it.
I don’t care much about the cut or the marinade, just keep the fat and gristle to a minimum, cook the pink out of it, give me a bottle of A-1, and I’m good. (I’d really rather just have a burger)
Agree on a dab of garlic butter, Charlie. No steak sauce for this kid. If a steak is seasoned and cooked correctly, no need, IMO.
Hey Stix, just glad you survived this ordeal. A total farce and complete harassment by the local yokels and the feds.
Well said, Chuck!
Noticed there are some burger places open for curbside pick up near here including Kirk’s on Bascom. They have great pineapple milkshake too yum. Used to be able to get these at old Foster’s Freeze too.
7 years ago today
Stix may not have any desire to discuss what he’s been through here.
I could understand him thinking that the only people who really cared reached out to him in some way…
Well, nobody is judging him.In fact, we are all behind him regardless of whether we reached out or not. I hope he sees this as a safe place where he can come and vent/post etc but it’s human nature to want to ask him questions about his incredibly unique ordeal…..
Agree, Loo. But, he may want to mix it up with some baseball talk. All of the letters I received from him, and some quite lengthy, 90% was baseball. The dude found a way to stay relevant as best he could.
Hank had sad story he put in the chron. Giants June 1 98 were in Montreal. Jose Uribe’s wife was here at Sequoia Hospital and had their 3rd child the day before…who lived but she didn’t, dying next day due to complications from previously unknown pulmonary condition. Hank was at Oakland Trib in those days.
Sadly too, Jose himself died in car accident in the DR December 2006.
The Sweet Mesquite Smoky flavor from Costco is my go to seasoning rub for steaks,burgers,chicken,turkey,ribs hell even a dash on eggs 🍳 is good!This rub is the BOMB!! With so many uses!
Oh Flavor.. How did your Fred Flintstone steak turn out??
I use a number of different rubs from Engage Organics. They do some amazing blends of herbs, and most as salt free.
I also put together my own from scratch. I have a Santa Maria run I put together for tri-tips. Shit is the bomb.
insane.
You can count on the high ratings due to a draught of live sporting events.It really was boring, but when u have Tiger and Riverboat gambler Phil it will draw bigtime..
Was a bit boring. They should have been playing skins. Givint TB and PM strokes just like all golfers do. All of those guys could play $1000 bucks a hole.If TB12 had some holes where he got 2 strokes on the pros it would have ben a blast!
Crazy Horse is on mlbtv playing LF for PR vs. USA in WBC classic championship game 2017. Craw with 2 run single pushed lead to 6-0. Stroman had no hitter for 6+. Posey is on team too Lucroy catching this one.
The Athletic just published 5-1 of SF Giants greats homers. Can you guess them? Take a moment to guess the last best 5. I’ll post them in order in a few minutes so you can guess before you know!!
Renteria
Ishikawa
Belt
Morse
Posey (GS vs. Reds)
I’m with Loo’s first 3, maybe Will’s slam vs. Cubs in NLCS?
And Bonds #756.
Uribe’s HR vs. the Phillies was hugely important but probably can’t crack the top 5. Ross’ two HRs vs. Halliday were huge, too, but won’t make the Top 5.
I could see Clark’s HR vs. Ryan being lower down on the list.
No Pablo? Mays 4 vs. Braves has to be in there somewhere
Ewing btw according to his son is, “now home and getting better.”
Here’s hoping he doesn’t have any permanent damage from it.
Yeah I like Loo’s top 3.
I’ll give some props to Cody Ross and Connor Gilaspie for the other 2!
Though Posey’s slam off of Giant hater Mat( should have 2 TT’s Latos) was damm special as well!!
I figured the top 5 all had to contribute to eventual titles and none was bigger than one we waited for the longest…
If you want to go really old school, Dusty Rhodes hit an important HR in the ‘54 World Series.
Oh I just realized, this list is SF Giants HRs.
watching NJ Devils coached by Jacques Lemaire win Cup 95 vs. Red wings of great Sergei Fedorov.
Any of bombs listed above deserve to be in there. Gillaspie blast is just iconic, never get tired of watching that one, Ishi neither.
Lemaire was coaching against the great Scotty Bowman, for whom he had won all those Cups in Montreal as a player before he retired. And assisted by Larry Robinson.
Fun run by the Devils, sweeping the Wings and winning the Cup in a strike year. Great local story was an area guy named Jim Dowd, who I saw play in high school and is probably the best high school player in Jersey history, scored a big goal for the Devils in Game 2.
Meadowlands is rocking. Better place for hockey than b-ball Mac?
Probably, because the Devils were a lot better than the Nets, haha.
I seem to remember Dowd being a Ranger nuisance – most Devils were…
I dunno Loo, that wasn’t the case the year before or ’97. Dowd ended up playing for what seemed like half the teams in the NHL.
I could be wrong. The Devils had so many interchangeable parts in that annoying system they played.
The players were hard for me to distinguish from each other.
I hated all of them!
There was that period after ’97 when your team wasn’t very good, so maybe that’s what you recall.
I just want to be clear about something. Are you dudes talking about……hockey?
It’s very popular in……………Minnesota!
lulz. sorry for starting it; I enjoy watching some of the more important retro games and all the sports networks have them on. Trying to stay in as much as possible, even when it’s 90+ out. Bow to east coast guys who have followed it for so long.
I’m waiting for the answer to the top 5 SF Giants bombs!
My 9:30 AM trivia question yesterday got zero response…
I didn’t know Hertz had a famous billboard.
Yeah me too!
I vaguely recall the O J Simpson Hertz commercials. No billboard though.
hockey and golf. my god.
talk about hockey all you want, I just wanted to confirm the topic. I remember the OJ Hertz commercials like they were yesterday
My top 5 SF HRs, mostly for the drama at the time:
Renteria
Crawford slam
Posey slam
Brian Johnson
Ishi
Hertz billboard: not sure about that, Loo, but I do seem to remember from childhood a number of interesting billboards along the highway from NJ to the Holland Tunnel, maybe around Secaucus. Or maybe my whole childhood was just a dream dreamed along some highway in NJ….
Counting the signs on the New Jersey Turnpike!
Exactly….
that is a hell of a top 5.
Damned good top five, Paul.
Ahhh….. good one….
Is that big D? I went there in the late 70s. I don’t remember that. But I had other things on my mind.
The only sign I remember is the old Hamms beer sign on top of one of the building near the SF train yard
Were any presidents murdered below it?
I don’t think so.
That Brian Johnson HR didn’t result in a title in the end, but it was pure joy at the time….. as it propelled the Giants from “worst to first” ’96 to ’97, my first full year living in SF. Saw it from a bar stool in the dank dark stink of Pierce Street Annex on Fillmore in Cow Hollow. Good times.
I attended the Brian J HR game. We bought tickets that morning at the Giants dugout store on the ground level of our office building. Our seats were just about the last ones available, in the upper deck in CF as far away from homeplate as you could get, but I saw the big bounce on the comebacker Murray hit to Beck and I saw the final HR LD to LF. Great game.
That must’ve been fun. Beck was awesome in that game, if I remember correctly….
I was at the Brian Johnson HR game, too. And also equally cool in that game was Beck’s working out of a bases juiced, no outs situation.
The joy and jubilation in the stands was insane. You would have thought the Giants won the pennant. People were jumping around high-fiving and hugging total strangers.
Winder I remember that Hamms sign.It goes back to 1959, you could see it we’ll crossing the bay bridge into SF.It was really cool at night with the Hamms letters spelled out and it had a huge beer goblet you see in yellow for the beer and a 2-3 inch at the top in white for the head!!
Yeah that’s the one
You are killing me Paul. Pierce street annex? Balboa Cafe? The golden triangle? Lots of wild nights down there