Baseball Is Back Baby
I had just driven into Bend yesterday when the game came on so I really only saw a few snippets of it at my sister’s house. Even with Kershaw sitting and that absurdly haired dope toeing the rubber we looked well beaten….
Today it’s golf at Widgi Creek with my sister and her kids and then it’s over to Black Butte where I shall be surprising my mom who doesn’t know I’m in town. I might videotape that if it’s funny I’ll post it here at the blog.
Make it a great day Flappers. Baseball is back and I’m golfing for the foreseeable future, and things are starting to feel normal again even though I know they aren’t…..
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
Cueto looked good until he started flagging a bit. Endurance not there yet. Smyly’s veteran wiles makes him a valuable addition. Kapler and the Train-bust pulled Crawdaddy for Solano as a pinch-hitter, leaving a largely rudderless infield which embarrassed itself in that Keystone Kops rundown. What were they thinking when they re-inked Pence? Joe McCarthy? Likely won’t be around long. Young Jimenez got “umped” a least three times on borderline bottom of the zone pitches. At least two of them should have gone for strikes.
Offense? Hey! This was like throwing mud against a wall and seeing if any of it sticks. An attack comprised of an assortment of cast-offs, spare parts and maybe or not ready for The Show? What do you expect? At least it was fun to see those long faces in the DOdGerS dugout through the first five innings.
Good point about Jimenez getting squeezed, especially after, as Loo said, Flores got rung up on a questionable strike 3.
Agree with Stix. Cueto looked good for most of his innings. I think he started getting gassed.And yes, there were multiple examples of the Giants failing to play simple, clean, fundamental ball.
But I had NO expectations going into last night, and really have none for this year. You look at the dog’s line-up against ours, you should expect us to get our asses handed to us, more often than not.
But I am just happy to be watching baseball, and to try and get a read on the Giants talent (or lack thereof).
Flav – have a wonderful time with your family. I would love to be a fly on the wall when you surprise your mom. Hope you have fun and this provides a recharge of your batteries.
Enjoy that vacation, Flavor.
Hope you’re able to do most of your regular stuff there…
Flav: I second Chi’s emotion. Thank you so much for keeping the blog going even when you’re on a much needed break. Surely you will have made your mom’s day .Enjoy the links.
Terrific re-caps by Stix.
Giants seemed to lose focus and I wonder if any part of that has to do with having no one in the stands screaming an occasional “YOU SUCK” to help keep their heads in the game…
Maybe they should pipe that into the ballpark…at least for home games.
According to Pavs, Cueto was pissed and said he’s never come out of a game that early ever.
To beat LA you’re gonna need really good LHP out of pen vs. Muncy Bellinger Seager and Pederson. Kapler said plan all along was 1 inning for Smyly so he might start a game this weekend, then 2 for Rogers ahead of Gott and Watson. Plan of course blew up on him and Rogers might not be closer material at all.
giants top 4 hitters went 6-15 with all singles; next 4 Craw Dubon Mac Pence 0-14. Good game for Dick.
Flores had two tough Ks on borderline pitches and Sando had the dribbler back to mound that wound up with Heineman being caught off base. Still don’t know what Wotus was up to there as the kid was right in front of him–I can see one bluff but the kid is a C he ain’t outrunning any throw to plate so he should never have been that far off the bag.
No problem taking Craw out for Solano vs. Dodgers (or anyone else) LHP and Crawford is not the defensive player he was years ago either. Would like to see more at plate out of Dubon though.
Gonna look him up but kike Hernandez continues to destroy SF. He had some major ownage on Bum iirc; I thought without him maybe they could get him out, which didn’t happen.
Yeah I can’t stand Kike Hernandez, he’s always seems to destroy the Giants with key hits.And he’s totally smug with his light color blue glove I can’t stand like him..
Hernandez: A virtual reincarnation of Ron Cey, aka “The Penguin.” Though not extremely effective vs other teams, he positively haunted SF.
Btw, ESPN has Sunday nite game and Fox tmw afternoon. Can’t believe I’m looking forward to Kuiper.
LOL…no shit. ESPN was horrendous. Their interviews covering shit that had NOTHING to do with the game being played was just ONE annoying factor. Definitely makes me look forward to seeing our “homers.”
A-Rod getting torched everywhere…
Good for you Flavor getting away and enjoying the great outdoors with some fresh air and your bombing some drives around the links( I’m jealous).. And surprising your mom will put an extra joy on her face as well!!
Positive from last night eventual massacre, Shimmy looked real sharp thru 4, tired some with extra pitches in the 5th, but still ended up giving up only 1 run.
Yaz,Heineken,Dick spraying the ball around nicely.
Negative , Sloppy defense
Pence who is pathetically bad and can’t hit out of paper bag(what ever happen to that revised swing just got worse)needs to retire with his Lexi pants,he’s just a bad player now looking for gimmicks to inspire himself and his teammates,and really making a useless role of what a DH player should be capable of..
Rough night for Willmet at 3rd base, think he’s better off as a 2nd base men, but with Kapler’s musical games with players all season, it is what it is.
McCarthy??? Why he Sucks
Just get me my boy JAYLIN DAVIS in the LU Please!! He’s the guy that can jumpstart a dead feeling team..
Happy birthday, Barry Bonds (56) who should be our DH this silly season…
I agree, Loo. Man, that would have been entertaining.
Yep, even at the magical age of 56, the very sight of BB25 at the plate would cause moundquakes.
No real surprises last night. We need help just about everywhere. Still think we are on the right track though and it’s gonna take Kap awhile to get it right. It would be nice if we could get rid of some vets. Get the full scale rebuild going.
I’m not optimistic.
At least not until I see some young talent doing good things with the big club.
This could be the longest and darkest era in SF Giant history.
Don’t let the pretty stadium fool you. Candlestick made things look worse.
The only thing this team does well is kneel.
Does WBK have a drill for that?
I agree with Winder, and as mentioned above, I have zero expectations for this year. I do think that Z and Kapler and crew have a plan, but I think this year and probably next are going to be lean.
I am with you though Loo and more than anything else I just want to see them play some good fundamental baseball.
IMO shit will have to be pretty dismal this year to have it be “the longest and darkest era in SF Giant history.” Boy, going back to the late 70s and early 80s there were some really bad teams for many years…with the icing on the cake being the 100 loss season in ’85.
We’re already 4 years into the dark ages.
Who’s gonna lead us out of it?
When will the next over .500 season be?
Even our awful teams had that occasional surprise season (73, 78, 82, etc.)
Yeah, I really don’t see a way out for a year or two. If Kap doesn’t hit on cohesive team by then well back to the drawing board. I think lifelong Giants fans are kind of used to that scenario. Can’t win in this league without top notch pitching and i just don’t see that now.
Well, a couple of those four years mentioned were under the Booby-Sabes-Boch era. Again, I don’t expect to see measurable movement of the needle until 2022 or so. They need to get past the current deadwood contracts. These all come off the books after 2021, with the exception of Longoria. And no way I see the Giants being able to dump any of these (Posey, Belt, Craw, etc.) unless they eat a lot of money (don’t see it), and also some of those guys have full or limited trade clauses.
Loo, Chi: I do have expectations (and hopes). During this 60 game sprint our team could well be a twenty game winner.
Stix – I have hopes. Hell, I hope the Giants surprise the fuck outta everyone and win a world series. Hell, I even hope for a better than .500 season. Those are my hopes. But, I have no expectations.
The few times that I’ve been in Bend, I’ve had some good times drinking lots of beer. Have fun Flav.
Get to know your Giants. I was leafing through the 2020 Media Guide and found that it had some interesting tidbits on the front office, baseball ops, SF admin and the players. If y’all haven’t already checked it out you might want to give it a look.
https://www.mlb.com/giants/team/front-office/
I only made it through 6 innings last night, looks like that was the right call.
Never realized there were so many people involved. But i guess with a billion dollar industry that is to be expected.
I haven’t compared the two in years, but I’ll bet it’s about the same: The a’s FO page is a lot leaner than the Giants’ — comically so.
Besides the FO folks, I’d bet not many teams have as many coaches and assistant coaches as we do.
Giants have to play the Dodgers 10 times and 7 of the games are at the Latrine!!
It’s the freakin Larry Baer factor of always starting on the road! Hell I can’t even remember the last time they started a season at home!!
And for a obvious rebuilding team, they should start a season at home to build up some early confidence instead of starting out 1-5 are so before theyy1st home game.And throw out the idea of finishing out at home, that’s a crock cause they are already dead 💀 in a pennant race anyway!
Larry Baer needs to go away he’s only hurting the team being involved even if his duties have been cut back…
Well, the schedule makers also gave them 10 games with the Pads but with 7 of those in SF.
With no fans in each ballpark, the only home field advantage that I see is getting last at bats, unless that cutout of Tommy Lasorda really scares the shit out of you.
Kapler: “I just don’t think we executed all that well . . .” Given that there’s seemingly almost as many coaches as players, how is this possible?
unfair to blame Solano for not being able to get Betts at the plate. Ball wasn’t hit hard enough and he got great jump and beat the throw. The rundown that took forever, Heineman getting caught off 3b, inability to get runs in when they had chance, yeah. Rogers Jimenez Menez let 1-1 game get out of hand
Giants 8 hits were all singles too–LA got 4 doubles and Hernandez bomb.
Stripling goes tonite for LA–mlb.com still Giants SP as TBD. Huh?
They’ve only had 9 months to set the rotation…
Maybe there bringing back Shaun Estes for a start..
Should any team be chary about facing a “mere stripling?” No team would be, but at this point the Giants are nothing more than a collection of spare parts. Team? Wait and see after half the season is over. At that point the weeding out process should be half over.
Smarge isn’t starting tonight?
Yeah, I was wondering about that too. Could Kapler be trying to mess with Roberts’ mind? Nuh-uh-.
What seemed obvious is that this coaching staff needs more practice coaching situational baseball, they looked like a beer league team out there.Agree with Willied that you think 🤔 a guy like Wotus who has years and years of coaching would not get suckered into a mistake with a catcher running the bases, that play was demoralizing..
Maybe all the unfamiliar faces are a bit much for the ol’ boy.
OK file under whoa how does this make you feel:
Searching through the twitter accounts of Pavs Baggs and Hank for Smardz/SP/LU, this is Schulman writing up recap for Chron and what’s ahead for weekend.
“The lineup needs Belt and Longoria, who are not eligible to return until Thursday. They represent a potential hit every time up.”
Could we trade Schulman and Baer to Friedman at the LAtrine for a bag of used jockstraps?
I think Baer’s pretty much caged since the video of him stupidly and clumsily assaulting his wife in public surfaced. Poor Schulman’s so busy fighting with his twitter followers he’s become largely irrelevant. Baggarly and Pavlovic are ok though.
Yeah no shit Stix..
Schulman I can’t believe even has a job anymore, he offers nothing to baseball but illogical information that’s useless..Wow WatchKit once they get Belt&Longo back and they both get hits every AB to carry this team LMAO 😂 Henry ..Who’s only claim you fame is his avatar “Oh Henry Candy Bar”
Soto testing positive for the Nats isn’t good. Next round of their testing may show he gave it to other Nats. Then what? They’ve exposed themselves to the Yanks. A guy with the Royals also tested +. I still think this “season” isn’t going to finish the 60 games, nor get to a post season. I’ll be shocked if it gets that far…
Snarkk: Watched that whole game…so far as the rains allowed…and never did witness the Nats exposing themselves to the Yankmees.
Did anyone think that Rogers was going to be consistently effective?
Now hard-throwing religious caveman Coonrod — now there’s a guy you can count on. He only kneels for god, he says, explaining his absence from the opening ceremony last night. Also, he knows BLM is satanic because of things he’s heard (from the pulpit, probably) about BLM’s *marxist* bent. He probably shields his kids from reruns of This Is Your Life. He’d be an entertaining closer. If closers exist now.
I read that about Coonrod, it’s a wonder to me just what God/Jesus is being preached. Seems to me that a majority of Christians are willing to give up many christian principles on account of abortion. Either that or preachers are financially involved in politics.
Yeah Xoot Rogers got lit up like a Christmas tree 2/3 of an inning 3 hits 4 runs and an ERA of 54.00 yikes
This submariner got torpedoed last night!
I just saw Coonrod’s act as the only guy standing during the black lives matter gig.
Hey to each their own as even Kapler has said no player will be judged on their own beliefs..
He could come off as early favorite as moron of the year award though, following in the footsteps of former moron Hunter Strickland!!
I would like Coonrod to get a chance of closing dome though,he can bring it at 100mph, but hopefully it moves better then Stricknine’s which was laid out on a tee…
Let’s hope his god likes cut and corners.
Smarj vs Stripling tonight.
CF M. Yastrzemski L
DH Hunter Pence R
1B W. Flores R
LF A. Dickerson L
SS B. Crawford L
3B P. Sandoval S
RF Jaylin Davis R
2B M. Dubon R
C T. Heineman S
1B Max Muncy L
RF Mookie Betts R
3B J. Turner R
CF C. Bellinger L
SS Corey Seager L
LF Joc Pederson L
DH A.J. Pollock R
C Will Smith R
2B Chris Taylor R
Is Pence’s movement in the LU one of those corporate promote upward and out forever kinda things?
It’s a puzzler.
Yeah after lastnights awful performance,DP ball and 3 more that never left the infield, I just don’t get it having him start again.Does Lexi have some incriminating info on Kapler?.Why not Slater are Ruf both capable of driving the ball to the gaps..
If the Giants hadn’t signed him, I wonder if his career would be over now.
I’m sure someone would have put him on their farm team or taxi squad or firing squad. Whatever the fucking minors are now.
A 60 game season isn’t a grind, it’s a sprint. I have to figure that a majority of the teams that are evaluating players or in rebuild mode, are already out of it.
Pence’s .91O OPS for the Rangers last season is one of the biggest mysteries in the history of baseball.
Tiny park, unfamiliar pitchers?
Yeah, the AL must have had the wrong scouting report on him.
The Dodgers certainly didn’t forget.
Fuuuuuuuuuuuuck. My only hope is that they want to see how really God-awful Pence is before pulling the plug.
Yeah it’s only one game, but it is very reminiscent of 2018.
Yeah it would be nice to see the young guys. I’m not going to Sacto to do it though. Oh yeah. They have those games on TV? I’d rather watch the RiverCats than these guys.
Stopped by here last weekend.
Is that near the football field?
It’s going to be sad to have no Hardly Strictly in Golden Gate Park this year.
Right across Stanyon.
Hadn’t been there since the 60s.
They still play HS football there.
I heard Bobby Seale (and others) rage against the machine on stage there for a huge crowd, circa 70. And of course I saw that Siegel/Eastwood Dirty Harry movie.
What a great place to watch football though. When it rained you got wet, really wet. Always had one eye on the game and the other on the seagulls. Not really it wasn’t that bad.
One of my old neighborhoods. I lived in an apartment at Carl and Willard for about 10 years (late 80s – mid 90s).
Cespedes pops out to C first AB in 2 years.
And one more. Charlie O’Connell’s old stomping grounds.
Roller Derby and big time wrestling was where it was at in the early 60’s. At least for me, throw in the Niners and Giants and who could ask for more.
The Stanyan Park Hotel is in that area. I stayed there a few times for Hardly Strictly. An old Victorian era hotel.
My daughter lived on 38th and Lincoln back when she was in college. We crashed there. Way too convenient.
Not all that far away from there is the Jefferson Airplane mansion.
Remember when it was painted black. Used to live a few blocks away at Cole and Waller near a comedy club I can’t remember the name of.
A real drag that the Cliff House just announced they are closing. After 157 years and multiple fires, rebuilds, and such. They said they might be able to reopen after the pandemic, but they aren’t sure.
When Garrett and I went to Kezar we were on our way to the Sutro baths. We hiked around there and, and had lunch at the Cliff House. It was takeout, and I guess they said they couldn’t sustain the place any longer simply doing that.
I hadn’t heard about the Cliff House, but I did hear that Louis’ Restaurant was closing up. Damn shame for both of those places.
What last night taught is is that we are one game closer to the Joey Bart era…
Jaylin Davis is not carrying this team…Flodgers have a stud right-handed starter as their #3 prospect. Would they cough him up and Chris Taylor for Cueto???
No, Why would the dogpile give up a top prospect for Cueto?
The City is not like it used to be. Hopefully all the old home owners made bank when they sold. The dot com industry is just insane. My dad bought a house off of Willow and Middlefield in Menlo Park for 16,000.00 in 1955. It recently sold for over 2,000,000.00 in 2014. Their property tax is over 23,000 a year. Unbelievable.
Winder, south bay is like that too. My parents house in Sunnyvale cost about the same in that time frame. Everything anywhere near there is 7 figures easy today. I can remember orchards everywhere, block away. We walked through them to get to Fremont High School in 60s. Now? new buildings everywhere, including downtown all the way to Lawrence Xpwy too
I finished high school 68-69 in Santa Clara — prune/plum and apricot orchards everywhere. iirc OSF grew up in the middle of an orchard in Cupertino. My parents bought places in Sunnyvale in the 70s. That little apricot patch the City of Sunnyvale preserved is pretty funny, if you remember the valley in the old days. There’s a small museum nearby. I stopped in one day and discovered that one of the docents taught at my old HS. She said she thought she remembered me. I said no, probably not. I spent most of that year over the hill, at the beach.
What are fans expectations for Bart this year?
I am hoping he can mirror what Posey did and become a somewhat savior.
Yeah like Winder mentioned the 60’s&70’s were great times!
You had the Bay Bombers with Charlie O,Connell,The Amazon Queen Joanie Weston,&Ann Cavello,Peanuts Lowery and her husband on jams,a guy named Gilla Roscoe as a blocker great name, great action!!
Then you had wrestling with Walt Harris on the call, with the best of the best performers..Ray Stevens,Pat Patterson,Pepper Gomez (cast iron stomach)Bearcat Wright,Kensi Sabuta (sp) (sleeper hold)
Flying Ray Bastin,Haystack 600 lbs Calhoun,Andre the Giant,The Shiek,The Flyin Samoian Peter Mahlo (sp)
Ernie Ladd ( who also played for Loo’s KC Chiefs) many more greats I have forgotten their names ( hey long time ago)but great entertainment on a Saturday are seeing them which I did at the Cow Palace&Civic Center..
Kezar Stadium a great memory for me seeing Led Zeppelin there in 1973, great show! Opening act was a new group starting out called The Tubes White Punks on Dope, hilarious as they tossed out bags of white powder substance to the audience, I’m guessing flour, but who knows?
Yeah, for me the Bay Area was a great place to grow up in. The Orchards I remember the most were the Cherry ones in Sunnyvale. Lots of open space.
Saw Snack (Students Need Athletics, Culture and Kicks) Sunday there in 1975 as a 14 year old. The Dead, Merl Saunders, Dylan, Neil Young, Doobie Bros, Tower of Power, Graham Central Station, fucking Marlon Brando was there.
45 years ago? Man . . . . time fades away.
That was a big concert i remember that one. I didn’t go for some reason but i know I was planning on it.
That got me to thinking. The first concert i ever went to was the KYA limbo party. I had a blast. the second one was the next year in 63 and it was KYA’s Surf party. Both were at the Cow Palace.
whoa Cespedes homers and breaks up scoreless game vs. ATL bottom 7
Is Yoenis wearing a goddamned stop watch on those chains around his neck? big HR, though
Flava flav style?
Cespedes bomb.
And then HR celebration in the dugout with high fives all around, everybody in each other’s faces. Yikes.
R they wearing masks?…
No
Giants’ lack of HRs will keep them safer. 🙂
maria guardado said Tyler Anderson starts tonite.
funny cause I was watching espn and bottom line had TBD again vs. Stripling. Wtf?
Different LU McCarthy is in LF, Dickerson is DH no Pence. Flores at 3b Sando 1b Tyler Anderson SP.
Kapler is already weirding me out.
Brantly C. Dubon 2b Craw SS Yaz CF Davis RF according to Crowley twitter
this is not the sort of creative, dynamic, responsive and freely flowing substitution strategy I hoped to see, although it is flowing pretty freely.
SF Lineup
Mike Yastrzemski (L) CF
Wilmer Flores (R) 3B
Pablo Sandoval (S) 1B
Alex Dickerson (L) DH
Joe McCarthy (L) LF
Mauricio Dubon (R) 2B
Brandon Crawford (L) SS
Jaylin Davis (R) RF
Rob Brantly (L) C
LA Fucktards
Mookie Betts (R) RF
Max Muncy (L) 1B
Justin Turner (R) 3B
Cody Bellinger (L) CF
Enrique Hernandez (R) 2B
Corey Seager (L) SS
Chris Taylor (R) LF
Joc Pederson (L) DH
Will Smith (R) C
No Pence!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I tell ya, I’d have EVERYBODY up from the minors who is anything near highly touted. If only if that means Bart, Luciano and Bishop. Ramos when his owwie mends. This is glorified scrimmage anyway, so what is the issue with giving them a taste? Like I said, I’d rather watch the these guys scrimmage.
MLB extra innings package is free this weekend.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t Slater there hottest hitter breaking camp and now he can’t sniff an AB with the likes of Pence&Who the fuck is McCarthy getting the AB’s? Is Ruf on this team as well are just the mask supplier in the dugout?
Ha, I’ve learned not to post the early lineups anymore.
I don’t think giants beat writers knew it was different either. Original Dodger LU did not have Betts leading off but Roberts changed it when he saw Anderson the LHP was starting instead of Smrdz. Then Giants guys got it.
And the dogpile put Giants killer Kike Hernandez back in the lu tonight coming off his 5 RBI game..
Bummie not hitting 90 with his FB. 88-89 MPH>
He’s at about 40 pitches through 2 innings.
At least their road uniform tonight is very conventional, so he looks normal.
His hair is shorter…
This is gonna be Bummie’s MO. As it was here lately. High pitch counts. Lots of gopher balls.
It’s depressing enough to come here and have to read about Hunter Pence at-bats. Now ya’ll are breaking my heart, talking about Cliff House and Louis’ closing. Lived out in the avenues in the Richmond for years; Louis’ had one of the best damned greasy heart-attack omelettes I’ve ever had. Went there a lot after hikes in the Headlands or just around Land’s End. Ah, Louis’, Louis’…. ohhhh ohhhhhhh…..
Man, it has been forever since I’ve been there.
Spent a year after grad school in the Richmond…think 23rd Avenue off California…
And it was an awesome year..
Oh boy. Anderson is looking gunshy already.
I want to see a fight with no one reacting.
He’s not fat, but Bum has probably put on 35 lbs since his rookie year…
Get this Batting Practice pitcher the hell out of there!!!
And take this Joe McCarthy with you….
Giants have to make Stripling throw strikes. Sando and Dick struck out on bad pitches and Dubon swung at two high one out of zone too.
And Crawdaddy looked overmatched on his K..
That’s an understatement, Kat. Hopeless is more like it.
He has significantly de-gukked his hair as Zumiee I think mentioned.
He’s starting to remind me of Randy Savage…
Without the savage
Kaptain Hook…
the percentage of Tylers on the roster may diminish soon
Anderson faced 11 hitters and retired 5 of them. 38 pitches and he’s done in the second. and now it’s quickly 2-0.
Wreak-o…
How about some offense. We have a DH even!
Jay bomb!
KAT your main man!
JD!!!
Kat’s boy Davis goes yard!
That’s my boy!!!
Play Davis!!!
Way to go with that pitch and drive it out!
GH your wrong about this kid, he’s a player!!
And we missed it:(
Robo ump!
Yeah, I hear ya.
Looks like we will be averaging 1 run per game. While giving up 5.
Oh man, MadBum gives up bases-clearing double to Hosmer in the 6th on his 100th pitch.
Bum gives up 0-2 bases clearing triple on pitch 100 of his night…
Or double…
But you had the 0-2 detail.
Giants let batter after batter dig in with no fear.
Turner and Bellinger practically stand on the fuckin’ plate…
Cool, can get a double-dose of play by play from Loo and John… 🙂
Re Wille’s 7:11, how many outs have the Giants made swinging at pitches that aren’t even close to strikes?
serious. they give up on that high curve and Stripling gets that call all night. Isn’t that the idea of analytics–you get all the pitches and the results.
Hopefully this song will be about Joey Bart.
Don’t hold your breath. I don’t see them starting his clock this year.
I know it has been only 1 game but we are bad already. Our lineup vs LA is ad. Our starting 8..no way one of those guys makes the dodgers, let alone starts. Our starters? maybe Johhnny C is there 4th starter. Bullpen. None make LA. That is sad. Even posey likey wouldn’t beat out Barnes and Smith.
Yep. Gonna be a rough year or two…
Wow. Panda falls on you, you feel it.
Taylor ran right into Panda’s left ass check at full speed. That will be a meme for the ages.