The Game Comes Easily To Some
I mean, come on, Ty Cobb did most of his damage hitting against those goofy bastards. If he came back from the dead today he probably WOULD go 0-2,523 hitting against the stud pitchers of this era. But still, I bet that pisses off a guy like Bake McBride who grinded his way on the daily on to retire with a career batting average of .299. For some unknown reason I was always a big McBride fan.
Really enjoyed yesterday’s thread. I might go read it again at some point today…..
here’s Zumie’s scorecard. Nice cursive!
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
I think I mentioned before I got McBride’s autograph when I was a kid. It’s on the cover of the game program and I unbelievably still have it.
Such a different era. A group of us neighborhood boys would walk together a mile or so to the local minor league ballpark, without any adults, and watch night games. And our parents never gave it a second thought, even though we had to walk home after the games, too. We were doing that starting at about 12 years old.
On McBride’s team was a player who we were sure would be a star in the majors someday, Bill Brooks. That never happened. At that age we had no idea how few minor leaguers even ever make it to the majors.
that’s awesome. What kind of shape is it in? Send me a pic if you can. bigflavor77@gmail.com
i honestly don’t remember why I liked McBride. It may have been his name. Or his hair. I’m sure I dug the hair on the baseball cards I had.
well in addition to other perfectly valid reasons you mentioned, he was also one of fastest guys in the league and could steal bases.
The name and the hair. Both were epic. lol. Pretty good ballplayer too.
Wow Zum that’s really cool.
Loved Shake and Bake, awesome player. By mid 80s I was playing great baseball (and basketball) board game called Statis Pro with my cousin and other friends of his. McBride’s card from 1982 season with Tribe was tremendous, based on .365/375/.481 slash line, of only 80 some ABs. Hit .291 next season but that was end.
Too bad about .299…in his 11 seasons he hit over .300 7 different times.
All Bake needed was to go 2 for 2 and he would’ve raised his career BA to .2996 which they’d round up to.300…
BF, unfortunately the program with the McBride autograph is packed in a box amongst other boxes in the garage at the moment. I did see it a few years ago, so I know I still have it, but not easy to find at the moment. I do have a program in the house from ‘71 with George Theodore’s autograph on it. He was a monster in Single A, but only got a cup of coffee in the majors, I think.
That program is interesting to me because I used the scorecard in the program to keep score of a Giants game from the radio. I could send a photo of the scorecard or the Theodore cover if that’s of interest. On the scorecard it’s the ‘71 Giants, and I was 10 years old at the time. Someone had taught me the basics of scorekeeping. For some reason I didn’t score the opposing team. And it kind of stuns me how nice my cursive writing was as a kid. Teaching cursive was a big deal in schools in those days.
I have always been amazed at how some peoples cursive handwriting looks like art. I think mine peaked in the 3rd grade. I don’t use it anymore because I can’t read it.
LOL exactly. My mom got pissed at me this week because she sent me a card and I had to call her and tell her I couldn’t read it. She was flabbergasted that I couldn’t read her cursive writing
I did 4 1/2 years of college printing everything. I used a pencil and lots of erasers.
no, that’s cool and all but I was really only interested in the Bake autograph. Send it some day.
It could be a trivia contest. Guess which Giants game I kept score of. There is a small hint. I wrote down the opponent’s lineup in the upper left. It’s not very readable, although if you can see who played first base for the opponent, it’s easy. The game is from ‘71.
The opponent side of the scorecard is the Giants from a different game. The final score appears to have been 7-3 from a line score I wrote, and yet, for some reason I also wrote 9-4 in the bottom left corner. The scorecard shows the Giants scoring 7 runs, which included a Bonds solo HR in the 8th inning. It was a home victory. The Giants’ 9th inning is blank on the card.
good idea. Ok it’s posted in the main thread.
Bonds: a walk, two singles, a double, and an HR. My favorite player. He was the coolest.
Awesome to see that, Zumiee…
Thanks!
Those fucking ink cartridge pens were a major bitch in grade school.
I forgot about those god damned things.
Stanford Men b-ball playing Arizona today, in Santa Cruz. I’d wondered when I saw story on Warriors signing jeremy Lin to play, starting in G League, whether people’s republic of Santa Cruz would allow teams to play and practice there, which Santa Clara County does not.
Great day for college b-ball—powerhouse matchup of Gonzaga and Iowa in few minutes, Carolina and Kentucky face off today, awesome all Philly Big 5 St. Joe’s Hawks and Nova…#1 Stanford women tonight at USC.
NFL has 2 games today too plus next to last day (?) racing at Los Alamitos…hope couch and kitchen can handle this
I put all those little curlicues on the capital letters. We were taught that in those days.
great Zum. this was all off radio broadcast?
Yes.
I’m convinced I became a Giants fan instead of an A’s fan because the Giants had the great Lon Simmons and the A’s had the horrible Monte Moore.
I’m thinking now that the 9-4 I wrote in the lower left was Marichal’s record after the win.
Also, the way I did the photo the opponent lineup in the upper left is unreadable. That’s Colbert at first base which tells who the opponent was.
I didn’t even bother to score the opponents’ ABs.
lqtm
Macdog, great story in yesterday’s thread!
After reading the 2013 thread, I went and watched a couple of 1962 WS videos hoping to see Tom Tresh’s catch that Loo mentioned. My big takeaway from that series was how competitive it was. The Giants were every bit the equal of the Yankees during that era. Both teams had stacked lineups and solid pitching staffs. Jack Sanford was a stud in that series! One break here or there and none of us would’ve had to endure the agony of 54 years without a championship.
The 1960’s Giants may have the best baseball team to never win the WS. Never did see Tresh’s catch.
*56 years.
I was always a big McBride fan too, Flav. My family lived right outside Philadelphia for a couple of years in late ’70’s so I became a pretty big Phillies fan. I was even at game 3 of the 1977 NLCS when the Phils melted down and blew the game. My brother and I had standing room only “seats.” Veterans Stadium was an absolute snake pit in those days. Unbelievably loud and a lot of fun. I remember Burt Hooten getting thoroughly rattled by the crowd when the Phillies seized control of the game early on (we thought).
Anyway, I really liked Bake, as well as Maddux for his obvious connection to the G’s, and Schmidt and Luzinski, both of whom are among my favorite players of all time. I had the Bull’s SI poster on my wall for years.
Phillies had some great players back then. Gary Matthews too. I loved that dude
That’s right. Always thought the Giants made a big mistake letting Sarge go, but that’s kind of what they did back then. Foster, Bonds, Kingman, Maddox, Matthews, etc.
As a kid in the Calif. Central Valley, the Giants were an all-radio situation for me. SF Channel 2 on TV carried a few Giants games, but we didn’t get good reception on that channel on our house antenna. It was very snowy. The Giants were playing in a snowstorm, and the ball itself couldn’t even be seen.
NBC’s Saturday game of the week rarely if ever had a Giants game.
Channel 2 also had the great Bob Wilkins Creature Features show. When that show came on late at night the Channel 2 reception was better, and it was must-see TV.
Other than that, it was just NBC, ABC, and CBS, of course. And Channel 40 out of Sacramento may have started by then.
Smoking a cigar on TV, lqtm. That was a different era.
The perfect 36. Carol Doda . . .
Sat Game of Week first time I ever saw game in color, probably mid 60s at relatives house while on summer vacation in Gold Country. Remember Cards Julian Javier leading off in those great old school unis. Other than Dodger games, even Channel 2 rarely showed Giants games on TV at that time on our old monster B/W with sliding panels in front.
You a lefty, Zumie? That backward slant gives it away.
No, I’m righthanded. I have no idea why my writing slanted that way.
Btw- my cursive handwriting now is garbage.
I don’t think I ever missed a Giants/Dodger tv game in the 60’s. After that yeah but not to many.
I’m going to win my own trivia game. 🙂
I was curious to figure it out. I didn’t know. Turns out it was a June 18, 1971, 7-3 victory over the Padres. Marichal was 9-4 after the victory.
Every win was precious, of course. The Giants barely won the division. But lost to the Pirates in the playoffs, as we know.
After that disappointing playoff loss, I figured the Giants would do better the next season.
Yikes. 16 years until their next playoff appearance.
Mays struck out 4 times in that June 18th game. Rough game for Willie.
Here’s the box score…
https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SFN/SFN197106181.shtml
Cool; thanks!
A Friday night game that clocked in at a tidy 2 hours and 43 minutes. Marichal with the complete game win. How many pitches did he throw? Who knows? Who cared?
Thx Loo. Poor Nate the Great Colbert didn’t have much help aside from Cito Gaston. Pads 20 games under .500 at 23-43 ouch.
Instead of the teams paying bonuses for pennant and world series mvps (maybe $5 mill for penants and $10 mill for world series) the networks covering with mlb pays it. Would add more fan interest and maybe the players get into it and add some ratings interest during competing with nfl and college football at that time of the year..
I’m not getting the increased fan interest part of the networks paying instead of the team. Personally, I already don’t care who gets the trophy/free truck or whatever, adding a $5+ mil award would interest me about as much as a CEO getting a golden parachute does.
The Tresh catch in the ’62 Series can be seen here a little ways in…
https://www.criticalpast.com/video/65675055856_Baseball-World-Series-Championship_Candlestick-Park_Yankees-wins_San-Fransisco-Giants
We just couldn’t hit Ralph Terry in that series. He killed us.
Nice box score Zum. I wished I’d saved the few I did over the years, I had one from Crosley field, Reds vs Braves. I was pretty young, it might have been the last year of that park (I went to a few at Riverfront, summers after that). Don’t remember much about the game, just how weird the hill in the OF seemed to me, wished I still had the box score.
Stanley Cowell died the other day. Great piano player. Nice couple of homage hours on KPFA this afternoon, on the jazz program.
Kentucky played fairly well vs. NC, compared to their earlier season games, anyway. With both star sophs in the LU and their overall length, they’re a threat. They sure fouled a lot, though. Pretty much the difference in the game. They likely won’t even make the tourney this year. I bet those freshmen who thought they’d be one and done and on to the NBA will get a harsh surprise.
Great work finding that 62W/S clip Loo!
As the announcer said:There’s no joy in San Francisco right now…
McCovey could really move before his knees went bad, that triple to deep center over Mantle’s head was something watching Stretch sprint even taking the turn a few steps in case of a bad throw.
Tom Tresh really did make a great play on Mays ball, I bet it got loss some cause of the Bobby Richardson catch on McCovey’s searing rope …
In Brooklyn public schools it was always called “script” not cursive.
The real show-offs used a fancy uncrossed “t” at the end of a word only…
very interesting. I’ve never heard script, only cursive. I tried to write in cursive today and made a mess. Unreadable.
San Jose State Spartans are champs. Their fourth and goal play-action pass in the fourth quarter was beautiful. Their tough little running back is good.
And this evening the Jupiter/Saturn merger got closer. Anyone else watching it, in the SW sky? First time in 800 years for this event. Monday night, I think, will be the conjoining moment. The planets will align. Z will sign Bauer. Etc.
Yay, San Jose. Now that makes me happy
I’m hoping I’ll be able to see it.
Got the binocs ready…
The boxscore from Zum’s game was the first game of a doubleheader. Giants scored 5 runs in the bottom of the 9th to win the nightcap after the Pads scored 5 runs in the top of the 9th. 14,000+ at the Stick. The sweep put the Giants at 43-25, they would play .500 the rest of the season.
Score was 10-9 in the second game.
Great info; thanks! I had LONG forgotten that.
Wonder if the effin Irish (the school only) big loss to Clemson with Lawrence knocks them out of Final 4…and who would take that spot.
Sounds like A & M…
Only cause its Norte Dame and they’re strength of schedule is that they slide in at number 4 as Texas AM will get screwed..
Alabama
Clemson
Ohio St
Norte Dame
Hey Loo, I just saw the Tresh catch in a longer highlight film of that series. Mel Allen narrating. It was a nice catch and came right before McCovey’s triple. Would’ve changed the game had Mays gotten on. I also saw the McCovey was playing left field in game 7. It’s easy to forget how athletic he was before his knees started giving him trouble. He ran really well for such a tall guy.
Just a couple of plays swung that series to the Yankees.
Mantle cutting off Mays’ drive in the 9th was huge too. That would’ve tied the score right there had the ball gotten to the fence.
It was actually Maris in RF, J-Bat.
It’s been said that the ball was slowed down by all the rain they had out there.
Ironically, Maris would be maligned later in his Yankee career for not hustling.
Irish get in!🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪
Sorry, my bad. The film showed how soggy the grass was during the three days the games were postponed, so that makes sense.
Small world, full circle, etc. When that ‘62 World Series was rain-delayed, where did the teams hold practices to stay sharp?
Wait for it….at the ballpark of the Modesto Reds, where 9 years later I got the program I scored the Giants game in, in the photo. In the ‘71 season that the Giants first made the playoffs since ‘62.
“The center of the world of baseball was Modesto, California on Oct. 14, 1962. That day, for three hours, the World Series arrived in town. Typhoon Freda had dampened the baseball classic, and after three consecutive days of a postponed game six, the San Francisco Giants and New York Yankees sought a place to practice that was dry, well-drained and perfect for stretching their legs and letting the balls fly and the bats swing. Turned out, Del Webb Field, some 90 miles from Candlestick Park was the perfect place. Several thousand Modesto baseball fans showed up and filled the ballpark with joyful cheers. A few days later they would be listening to President Kennedy describe Russian nuclear missiles in Cuba aimed at the US.”
The Modesto ballpark is called John Thurman Field now, and is the home of the Single A Modesto Nuts, a Seattle Mariners affiliate.
Man, I was SO bummed when we lost that playoff series to Pittsburgh. That was right when I was really getting into baseball and I went to game 1 of that series with Perry getting the win. Thought we were a shoe-in for the World Series.
Yeah, the Giants had to use Marichal in the last regular season game to clinch the division for a playoff spot.
2 Words..Rich Robertson!!
Not sure if you meant Pirate’s Bob Robertson who helped kill us in ’71, but this guy was one of our forgettable hurlers of that era…
He kind of looks a little confused.
Yeah my bad it was Bob Robertson, his 71 playoff series was unreal.Any time he came up bad things happened!
Best. Video. Ever.
Niners tie it up. After way this started I was ready for them to run Wildcat so Mullens wouldn’t go back to throw any more.
There finally exploiting Dallas and Nolan’s pathetic defense.If they can still keep a RB on the field would be good too!!
Mullens is like tits on a bull, both useless!!
Lol. Well the coaching staff must think beat hard is absolute shit then. Makes you wonder why they keep that 3rd rd pick on the team
There’s gotta be some use for tits on a bull.
I never understood that expression…
They keep him around for “The Hail Beater play I guess?”
Fuck this hard. Mullens throws into traffic regularly and has 3 more turnovers.
But the other guy is worse? How can this be?
21 turnovers in 8 games for this stellar offense.
Mahomes Brees, next SB matchup?
I’ll go Rodgers and Mahomes but I’m not ruling out Josh Allen..
It’s unbelievable how many times Romo uses the word unbelievable..
I say that watching Mullens play..
Good thing he’s not calling the Jets game.
A good loss. 7-9 or 8-8 gets nothing. 5-11 gets Niners a top 7 pick most likely. Mullens is horrible, and now they can get a capable backup for the 2-3 games Jimmy G will miss next year. Draft a QB in 2nd round to develop.
How did the Saints not recover that for a TD? Unbelievable!
tik tok commercial has bill withers singing Just the Two of Us…Grover Washington takes two nice solos on that tune, and the one that ends the song is one of best things he ever recorded, riffing off withers last “juuuust the two of us” on his tenor. Saw Grover number of times, live shows were great.
wow Royal Act comes from behind 6 horses in stretch to win 8th at Los Al for trainer P Eurton ridden by Abel Cedillo who takes over jockey standings lead with couple races to go. Mr. Eurton’s beauty of daughter Britney said before race she liked the horse that had been racing long distances and hoped it did well, and it finished mile with nice stretch run.
i had FIVE horses in my pick 4 and didn’t have him. That’s how horse racing goes sometimes. Lick your wounds and start over.
I have Romo at 11 “unbelievables” since I posted above…
Jets win will be front page news here and not in a good way…
Yeah, NY sports reporting can be brutal. But they usually tell it like it is.
Can only imagine what’s happening on Twitter…
Yeah lol the Jets don’t control the Trevor Lawrence sweepstakes anymore..
Jets fans angry at Gase, they oughta be more pissed off at the Rams for losing to such a lousy team.
my buddy texted me calling Rams -17 a lock. I was like, “Dude i would NEVER give 17 points in a pro game.” He’s been dark since…..
They should fire Gase just for winning a game and possibly blowing that sure fire number 1 pick to Jaguars..
thank god.
What a terrible year for the Niners. The must have pissed off the football Gods big time. The only bright spot was beating the Rams twice and that probably took us out of contention to get a top 2 or 3 QB.
Jets though have to have more issues than just Darnold to have record they do. There are also plenty of passable vet QBs whose teams have crummy records, like minnesota. Chargers have Herbert, who is having great year and they’ve won 5 games. All I’m saying is it’s gonna take more than Trevor Lawrence to make the Jets competitive.
Any word on Helaire? this guy, picked at bottom of first round, has had a fantastic season.
where’s everyone with my take on Cobb facing actual pitchers? I’m right on this, yes?
I’m fine with the Niners season. You can’t overcome this many injuries and Mullens is who he is. I like the guy a lot, he just has very few skills. Great foxhole guy, tho
WillieD let me let you something about Britney Eurton. Besides the fact that she’s hot. About 6 years ago I was at Del Mar and I watched her give someone an interview in the paddock, whatever nothing special, I honestly just wanted to see her up close and I was down there for the day and had never seen her in person. So after the interview she’s walking away and I said something about her dad’s horse in the next race to my buddy Tom. I’m a pretty loud dude as most know. She goes “what? You don’t like him?” LOL She still had the mic in her hand. She was like “No go ahead and say it again!” and she was laughing. I pussed out like a bitch with all the attention on me, she knew what she was doing. She quickly wandered away with her crew. But let me tell you, seeing her in person, CONFIRMED, HOTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!
Ha thanks great story.
Yes Craig, you are probably right about Cobb going 0 for 2000 against today’s pitchers. Anyone, for that matter, from that time period. Except maybe against a pitcher like That Doughy Fuck, et al. Obviously, it’s a stretch to compare them, though, since today’s players are *athletes*, and judging from the photos of the old timers and the stories of boozing, whoring, etc. in those times, the players just seemed to play because they enjoyed the sport and the lifestyle that came with it, so anyone who was any good was just naturally good. It’s possible that for those times, Cobb’s skills were comparable to, say, Wade Boggs, or even Carew or Rose. On the other hand, it’s also possible that lesser hitters today wouldn’t fare well against a Cy Young or Dizzy Dean. Would be fun to be able to do an A.I. program that matched them up. Didn’t they do that once, years ago, with Ali and Marciano? Interesting stuff.
Oh I have to believe Ty Cobb would of “Bitch Slapped “ every pitch Todd Wellenmyer could ever throw, every other hitter sure did..
Just my opinion, but the whole world has changed so much in the last 10-20 years, that it’s almost ridiculous to compare anything anymore to the way it was before that. Not just sports, everything!
I remember one time visiting my folks about 7 years ago, my Dad was sitting in his recliner watching TV, said he was waiting for the 6:00 news to see about something. I asked him what news he was waiting for, he told me, I pulled out my iPhone, found something about it, showed it to him, and he just looked at it.. raised his eyebrows, said “Wow, really? Huh. It’s alright, I’ll wait for the 6:00 news.” Up until when he died at age 98 about 6 years ago, he always said how proud he was that he never used a computer in his whole life. Microcosmically, maybe I’m a little like that now. Have never tweeted or used TicTok and swear I never will. Wonder what *amazing* advances will yet be made in our lifetimes….
Loo..Ten Years After had a great song, and title to one of there great album cover..A Space In Time
I love to change the world
But I don’t know what to do
So I leave it up to you
Maybe they were on to something back in the 60’s 70’s as well..
Those dominant Green Bay Packer teams of the 1960s would go 0-16 in the NFL nowadays.
exactly.
I wonder if the gap between athletes from different eras more generally can be sort’ve measured by track and field records. Bob Hayes could still compete in the 100, but Jesse Owens couldn’t.