News Is Coming This Week
Well, that was a hell of a Mem Day weekend. Hope you guys enjoyed it. Sadly, the call at the blog went unanswered. Yesterday I had a vision of Stix driving south in a red convertible. He musta been doin’ 100. Top was down, hair flying in the wind, he was laughing loudly and maniacally all the way to Mexico. Why was he headed there? Nobody knows, nobody knows…..
Expect some big news one way or the other about baseball this week.
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
like top 5 SF Giants HRs. where mrsportsdude was getting the list from?
ah was from the Athletic
I was about to list my top five SF HR list, and then saw Paul’s list. That was a damned good list.
Hi all,
Inlaws broke self imposed quarantine and came over for dinner and i didn’t get back on. A longer dramatic pause then planned! Grant Brisbee from the Athletic. Top 50 SF Giant homers
5- Posey Grand slam
4- Bonds 71
3- Bonds 756
2- Renteria
1- Ishikawa
The story includes video of all the homers. Includes some discussion of the homer and historical context and why it mde the list where it did. A lot of fun!
The 1st video in the story has fox guy. This one is better
that HR was so great—way back in the day when home runs were actually special.
I skipped the bonds homers. They are easy to find:)
With apologes to Brisbee. This is part of the story, and what precides the video. I recommend anyone to the Athletic. The best ever, even when considering Sporting news or SI back in the day. Wht? Stories are good, but embeded videos in all stories make it better!
“He started the 2010 season hot, and even though he was sidelined often, he was hitting .346 in 116 plate appearances through June 24. Maybe this was going to work out after all. Except this had a lot to do with his batting average on balls in play, and the creakiness resumed after that. From June 25 through the end of the season, Rentería hit .223/.285/.331. He was absolutely cooked. This, along with his nagging injuries, explains why he got only two plate appearances in the NLDS.
Pablo Sandoval looked even worse, somehow, so Rentería got plenty of starts in the NLCS. He was 1-for-16 in the series.
Absolutely cooked.
But these were the Giants of the early ’10s, and that entire time was one long baseball version of the Aristocrats joke. Other teams would have “better” players, who were “more talented,” but the Giants would gather up a dozen 20-sided dice, roll 20s with all of them, check the chart, and say, “Ah! Twenty 20s! That means Edgar Rentería hits .412 with a home run against one of the toughest pitchers in baseball! The Aristocrats!” It was absolutely nonsensical that it would be him to crack the Cliff Lee code.
Crack it he did.”
Since were waiting on Sportsdude top 5 I will give you my top 5 inside the park homeruns!
1) Angel Pagan
2) Aubrey Huff
3)Connor Gilliaspie
4) Nate Scheirholtz
5) Dustin Mohr
And Honorable Mention for Ichrio Suzuki who hit an inside the park HR in the AllStar Game in SF!!
Ishikawa…
“Now consider why Ishikawa was on the roster at all. If you have any ideas, I’m all ears. After he left the Giants in free agency, he signed with the Brewers, then signed with the Orioles, then got waived, then got selected off waivers by the Yankees, then got released, then signed with the White Sox, then left as a free agent, then signed with the Pirates. On April 25, 2014, he signed back with the Giants on a minor-league contract.
On April 25, the Giants were in first place. Brandon Belt had an .861 OPS. They had Michael Morse in case of an injury to Belt. Ishikawa would join a Fresno Grizzlies team that had Adam Duvall starting at first base, and Duvall would hit more homers with the Reds in 2016 than Ishikawa would hit in his career. There was no reason to sign him. None at all.
The Giants signed him.”
Enjoy. This one a bit longer. It shows the hits leading up to it but not all the pitches so don’t move forward!
I’d put the Ishi bomb number 1 too, even above Renteria. The Bonds hr’s aren’t on my list.
That’s bad ass. I have the Ishikawa bobblehead that has the HR call…
See the 7:44am post Kat:)
Thanks for that list. flashback to nate. Always liked that guy. Bummer he never panned out..
All in all the list was pretty good. Hard to argue with the final 5. Craig what 2 would get in above the Bonds homers? I would keep 71 but 756 would be earlier. I would put Uribe vs Philly. Maybe we don’t get to 2010 WS without it?
I’d definitely have the Brian Johnson bomb before either of the Bonds hrs
Flav, how about Will Clark’s slam vs. the Cubs, the one that made you jump out a window?
Sure. Def top 5. The bonds hrs, I dunno, as time has passed they were really more about him than us, know what I mean?
It’s still awesome to know that we all can reflect on great postseason moments and the Dodgers never can!!!🤣
5. Brian Johnson
4. Will Clark grand slam
3. Buster Posey slam
2. Renteria
1. Ishi
Mike ivie grand slam got bubbled off my list
I was at the game in Houston where Bonds tied the record with 70.I believe Dierker had intentionally walked him his previous 2 AB’s to a chorus of boos. When he hit #70 it landed in the upper deck right above where we were sitting in the lower deck. The entire Houston crowd was so loud, you would never guess it was a road game. Probably my second favorite live sporting event moment behind the Pennant winner at the Stick in ‘89.
Hard not to forget Bob Brenly on a HR list.
The guy makes 4 errors at 3rd in the 4th inning, the Giants are down big, and he starts this amazing comeback with a HR then a 2run single to tie the game 6-6 against the Braves, then hits a 2 run walkoff Homer off of lefty Paul Asemacher (sp) in the bottom of the 9th! Roger Craig said that was the greatest humm baby game of alltime!! And Brenly said thank god Roger put me behind the plate later on are I might have had a few more errors at 3rd🤣🤣🤣🤣
Ishi game is on mlb today 2 PM our time.
I’d put Bonds’ 73rd on the list only because I was at that game. The scrum for that ball lasted at least 25 minutes. He hit 72 earlier in the game off some Dodger stiff throwing knuckleballs.
Ishi #1 definitely. Crawford had a nice granny in the play-in game late in 2014 Pitts game as well. Posey slam. Was that off Latos? Renteria’s was extra cool mainly to hear the abject disappointment in Joe Fuck’s call.
I was at that game, too, Charlie.
That was the postponed Dodger series that was supposed to be the 9/11/01 series and was tacked on to the end of the year.
My son and I were there too. It’s one of my favorite HRs.
Twin loved Rent & Ishi…
Don’t forget Andres Torres.
Oh yeah Loo..Twins bromance for Renteria and especially Alex Smith was unwavering!
I use to get any with him over like sportsdude mentioned a overcooked player!
Give him his prop for that HR in the W/S but that’s all imo…
mlb showing Subway Series from 2000…damn Yankees were rolling in those days. Game 1 on right now, Benitez blows save Yanks win in extras. G Hill was with them then, cool player.
The Bonds HRs that stick the most in my memory and mean the most to me are the ones he hit when I was at the games. They were often awesome rocket shots hit so hard. Harder than I’d ever seen a baseball hit before. At the height of his ‘roidal powers, he was the most dangerous hitter in baseball history. I can’t imagine what it was like playing defense on the right side of the infield when he was batting. It had to be really scary, even for major leaguers. And the pitchers standing just 60 feet away? Yikes, just walk the guy.
good point. Harder with Bonds to find most memorable. The one he hit off Percival in Series just exploded off his bat, like so many others.
Forget Mike Singletary’s “I want Winners speech”
It can be changed to “I coach Losers including myself)
After a stellar HOF Football career,
He has hit rock bottom, coaching (yes a High School Football team in Texas)
To a 1-21 record the last 2 years!!
Guess he could try for a Pee Wee Football gig??
I’m not a defender of Singletary, but I’ve done some youth coaching. Winning ain’t easy unless you have superior athletes. Now, if he had really good athletes, but still couldn’t win, then that’s on him.
Harbaugh took Singletary’s team and was 2 fucked up punts from the Super Bowl.
I think Belt’s homer could be on that list.
Hold my feet to the fire and I’d have:
1. Ishi
2. Renteria
3. Posey slam
4. Crawford slam
5. Bonds 73rd.
Too many honorable mentions though. Brian Johnson. Will Clark slam. Cody Ross div. HRs. JT Snow’s 3 run bottom of the 9th bomb vs the Mets. Joe Morgan vs the Dodgers. . . .
Yanks of 2000 had Paul O’Neill too. Infamous for breaking up Garrelts no hitter with 2 outs in 9th when he was with the Reds.
I thought is was later in the game. What I love is the crowd is going nuts until he blasts it. Instant quiet.
Robby Thompson’s HR to win NLCS Game 3 vs. Cubs is another good one.
Zero recollection.
How is that possible?
the thing I don’t get about Singletary—before he took that job he had to have known what type of quality (or lack thereof) he had on that team. Like, if they were all terrible why would he take a HS coaching job? He’s got money, he didn’t need the job. So assuming the team had talent were they just riddled with injuries to their best players? Or is he just that bad of a coach?
I think Singletary just doesn’t think 🤔
I bet he just dived into this job without checking out other schools.This High School’s Motto is:Educating and Developing the whole person for the glory of God” Uhh OK??
Singletary has always been about religious beliefs,wearing his cross on the sidelines as a coach is not motivated players, wins do! He was a great HOF football player, but he stunk at every nfl coaching jobs he’s done.18-22 with the 49ers, 2-6 as HC for the now folded up Memphis Express featuring a laughable Johnny Manziel as his QB.Now 1-21 for a god driven squad.
He just just stick to motivational speeches that nobody gives a rat’s ass about.Are just be a minister full time…
Ishi game, he had earlier misplayed a ball that wound up going over his head for a double and that turned into first run off Bum,
bottom inning Blanco singles Panik homers down the line for (short lived) 2-1 lead. In that his rookie season, Panik hit 1 homerun in 269 ABs.
This one was only one he ever hit in 86 post season ABs.
Wonder where the John Patterson homer was on the list…
Somewhere above Emmanuel Burris one and only HR in his career..
But hey that ties him with Kuiper who had a shitload more AB’s
I was in Atlanta for work and went to that game. It shut down the tomahawk chop. BTW the chop is even more annoying live which I didn’t think was possible.
If negotiations take longer, what’s the minimum that fans would accept as a “real” season? A 70 game regular season? A 60 game regular season? You could have a team win 35 regular season games and go on to win the World Series? Is that acceptable?
Is 82 regular season games a hard line in the sand for most fans?
?. I could care less at this point how many they play. 82 sounds good to me.
Obviously there would be an asterisk next to whoever wins. Does that matter? I just want to watch and bet on some baseball
From KNBR today:
“According to various reports, MLB has suggested the highest-paid players in the league take substantial pay cuts, part of a sliding pay scale in which all players take paycuts but the lowest-compensated ones receive close to their full, prorated amounts.
“We made a proposal to the union that is completely consistent with the economic realities facing our sport,” the league, which said it could lose up to $4 billion without a season, said in a statement Tuesday. “We look forward to a responsive proposal from the MLBPA.”
Under this proposal, according to ESPN, a player making $35 million — so, roughly Mike Trout or Gerrit Cole — would make about $7.8 million. That would mean the $35 million was cut in half because of the half number of games. The top of the market then would get hit the hardest, a 45 percent trim bringing the total to about $7.8 million. For the Giants, Buster Posey and Johnny Cueto are due about $21 million this season, followed by Jeff Samardzija’s $18 million, Brandon Belt’s $16M and Brandon Crawford’s and Evan Longoria’s $15M. No one on the team would be making double-digit millions.
The union has argued the financial pact was struck in late March, when the two sides agreed to prorate the salaries without the additional contract hits. With games occurring without fans, though, the owners believe they had positioned themselves for a renegotiated deal to offset the losses.”
The union isn’t diggin’ the idea of Trout playing the season for $7.8 million.
there is no way any vet with a good salary is going to sign off on this.
The majority of union members earn $1 million or less per year. (Every player on the 40 man is a union member.) They gladly may vote for this opportunity to play. I bet mlb would love to see a general vote on its proposal. Older, richer players may sit out a truncated season and litigate later.
I’m fascinated, well, at least amused, by the machinations. If we see half a season full of young guys and mere prospects, I’ll watch that all day long.
Of course, there will be gap fillers. Kratz earned $1.5 million last year.
I would too Xoot!
Hey I would be thrilled to see the likes of Lucky Luciano,Dubon,Ramos fizz,Davis,Bishop,Bart,Canário,Corry,Webb,Wyatt,and many more youngsters to check out and get experience in a wasted season!
yes as xoot said vast majority make a mil or less. According to what I read on cbs site, the higher paid players would be in line for much smaller pcts than what Heyman lists. the $25-$30 mil guys of which there are only a handful would make less than $10 mil according to Passan. Divide and conquer, age old strategy. Doubt union goes for it.
Loved seeing others lists. Almost all the homers mentioned were in the top 50. Get the Athletic:) No I don’t work for them! I have been a lifelong subscriber to SI. Started when i went away to colleg in fall 85, and couldn’t read my dad’s copy. 35 years. I’m going to let it go when currnt subscription lapses. Athletic is better. Our new age. I can see a brief video of D geen on d or a Giant homer. Videos (10 sec sometimes) in every story. Great writing.
I heard someone say that the player’s argument might be that they can never make up the money they are losing because their careers are finite. The owners have forever to make it back.
That ain’t gonna fly with the public.
As Bud Fox said to Gordon Gekko in Wall Street: “How many yachts can you water-ski behind?”
MLB owners would love to put big cracks in the players’ union.
The union, as a union, will be going through a challenging situation.
The press narrative is usually won by the owners. The owners: “We’re ready to start things up; it’s the players who are dragging this out.” And the press writes: “Yeah, that sounds accurate.”
I’m not worried about whether the players get a big enough boatload of cash or not; but I know the players value the strength of their union. The baseball players usually stick together.
The players are already smarting from what sabermetrics did to a lot of salaries. The younger nerdy GMs did some substantial damage to player free agency contracts.
Along with self imposed salary cap via lux tax. This was excuse for all big money clubs.
Last homer thought…
I was and am not a fan of Joe Buck…
That said his Ishi call is the best.
Travis ishikawa HITS ONE IN TO RIGHT! The amazing crowd roar. THE GIANTS WIN THE PENNANT!
Then silence. 42 seconds of NOT ONE WORD. Nothing but roaring fans. Excited players. Ishii tring to get past Peavy. Bedlam. PURE Gold. I will always have a soft spot in my heart for him after that.
scroll up and look at it again!
A’s making headlines again, this time for being the first team to say they aren’t going to pay their minor leaguers after May 31. That is just fucking terrible.
He probably got a $100 million rich-guy tax cut from the Trump tax cuts.
82 games is pretty shaky in my book. Anything less would be a total joke. I’m fine with shutting the season down completely. And I think the players already have way too much power in MLB. I like seeing the owners take a hard line with them and see if they can reel that union in a bit.
He would disagree:
lulz! The owners must’ve turned soft as they watched their franchise investments soar. Time to be ruthless, like any other private-sector employer during the pandemic. Take advantage of this disaster.
I was kind of surprised when the owners caved in after the ‘94 players’ strike. I was pretty sure the owners would start the ‘95 regular season with replacement players, with the career minor leaguers who crossed the picket line in the ‘95 Spring Training games. The owners just couldn’t do it, though. The NFL broke a players strike by using replacement players in ‘87.
I think then federal district judge Sonia Sotomayor ruled in the players’ favor before the owners could begin to implement a replacement player scheme. She issued an injunction against the owners, iirc, after finding that they’d violated the National Labor Relations Act. The players simply won.
Charlie, my mention yesterday of Pierce St. Annex and your subsequent mention of the Golden Triangle got me thinking. As in, there seem to be some gaps in my memory of that area, which was such a great ‘hood for food and drink there in Cow Hollow. From ’96 to ’00, I lived on Pixley, right around the corner from Pierce St. Annex. Balboa was a favorite. But I’m not remembering The Golden Triangle bit. The name of the bar across from Balboa eludes me. I loved Desert Moon bar but it closed shortly after I moved to that ‘hood. Highlight of my time there was the night a Pierce St. bouncer fired a pistol into the air to try to break up a fight (pretty common). Cops swooped in like they were waiting for someone there to make a mistake (also pretty common). Story is, the next day Gavin Newsom walked across the street from the Balboa, made the Pierce St. owner an offer he couldn’t refuse, and that was it for Pierce St. Annex, may it rest in … peace…. which was something it never gave back to the ‘hood, that’s for sure….
Great article about the incident in Central Park.
https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_5ecd1d89c5b6c1f281e0fbc5
“Christian Cooper, a Black man, had reportedly asked the woman to put a leash on her dog. She didn’t appreciate his request and what transpired was captured in a video by Christian Cooper, in which the woman, unhappy with being recorded, threatened to call the police.
“I’m going to tell them there’s an African American man threatening my life,” Amy Cooper says in the one-minute clip.
And she did, whining hysterically, emphasizing the fact that her so-called attacker was African American (and nearly strangling her dog in the process).
What was clear in her words and how she used them was that she didn’t actually feel physically threatened ― rather, she was wielding her privilege as a white woman with the knowledge that accusing a Black man of violence was a weapon against him.”
As a birder, he probably had a pair of binoculars in his hand. At the arrival of the police we all know how wrong this could have gone.
If only she had referred to him as an “African American Birder”…
What are the odds that they have the same last name?
They’re probably married and staged the whole thing to get famous…
The Franklin Templeton firm, whose ads dominate the low wall behind home plate on Giants telecasts, sure dumped that woman quickly. FT made Charles Johnson a billionaire.
Ben Franklin & Gary Templeton?
Wayne Franklin?
Good one from the previous wilderness years…
Franklin Edwards? got himself a ring with 76’ers in 80s.
So many Karens….
“A white woman this week was caught on camera screaming at a Hispanic family in a park because they were not playing “American music.”
In the video, the woman can be seen confronting the family and chiding them for playing what she described as “Mexican” music during their outing in the park.”
Friend of mine who is my age wondered out loud if next gen behind us can bridge the political and social divides that have once again come to forefront and make things better for everyone. idk we can only hope
They’ll need to do it. There are huge issues with climate change coming in the future.
On PBS a recent multi-episode documentary about water was very sobering. Corporate farms are being allowed to suck up massive amounts of water from the natural water reserves underground. Water is going to be more and more a precious commodity.
The oceans are getting messed up.
There’s about 90% less tuna fish in the ocean than there used to be. We see bottled water in stores and cans of tuna in stores and we think everything is OK, but things really aren’t OK. It’s a big topic. A lot of things going on are not sustainable. A lot of young people know that. They are hungry for change.
They will…
Paul, it was the Dartmouth. Tons of great bars around there back in the day.
Trump is right when he says If Democrats would vote they would win every election.
The Golden Gate Grill?
If you want to O.D. on reminiscing, N.Y. is for you.
Or maybe it’s just what everyone does at a certain age.
I try to limit it, although recently I’ve noticed the young folks really eat up tales of the 70’s.
That decade in general is suddenly getting a lot of respect back here…
wow read story on yahoo men’s b-ball coach Bobby Hurley vs. ASU AD. Members of his family were subject to some abuse at hands of a donor and after complaints were lodged Hurley was assured by the AD the guy would not be around. then he gets courtside seats for a Dec game. 3 different women have complaints, including asst. AD’s wife. Meanwhile the AD himself used the donor’s plane for trips.
so now Hurley is sending emails out and getting paper trail going. This one isn’t getting swept under a rug.