Losses Piling Up
This is just like the Dodger series, no time to panic, we were in another game just didn’t get the timely hit…..uh….
Baseball goes like this. You have bad stretches over 162. That’s why you bink those wins, they come in handy later to withstand stretches like this one….
Who knew it was gonna be *Breeze to 50 then stop*…..
Still in………..FIRST PLACE
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
Flap Universe, Asia update, Star Date whatever
Friday night in Saigon, and I’m entering week 8 of 4th-wave Delta-variant blahblahblah at-home isolation, with at least another 2 weeks until mid-July, and I’m guessing beyond. Shaky times, and a shaky day that began this morning with waking up all hazy from a muddled dream that Stephen Stills, probably my favorite songwriter/guitarist/singer from way back, had died. Now, as far as I can tell, he hasn’t. But man, here in lockdown, with nothing to do after my last 2 university classes finished online a couple weeks ago, with day and date and time having absolutely no meaning right now, that dream shook me up a bit (David Crosby turns 80 this year!), and it sent me down a day-long rabbit hole of music, videos, and biographies. Crosby Stills & Nash, Buffalo Springfield, Manassas, plus a little Byrds, Airplane, Woodstock… Amazing how a whole day can pass in the blur and mist of YouTube videos and memories. And I realized that in the end… besides friends, and family, and, for me, the sea… it is only music like that, which formed and informed me from early years, and baseball, which has continually formed and informed me, win or lose, that get me through it all, in these times. And it’s pretty cool that the Flap often has a lot of both. Always so grateful for Flap U. Carry on….
Great post, Paul.
Crosby has released an astounding 5 albums in the last 7 years. And his voice still sounds great. Unfortunately his friendships with Nash and Young have been torn, so there hasn’t been any activity from CSN or CSN&Y in a while.
There’s a good recent documentary about Crosby called Remember My Name. In the doc he admits his “no filter” way of talking about things has damaged friendships over the years. His Twitter page is open to the public and is one of the few Twitter pages I check out regularly. He still has a lot of passion about music and other arts, and politics.
He has a regular feature on YouTube, produced by Rolling Stone magazine, called “Ask Croz,” where he answers questions about life. He freely admits he doesn’t know why people would seek his advice, but the questions viewers send in are serious, and he gives his advice which is often pretty wise-sounding, given his experiences in life, which cover a lot of highs and lows. I recently binge-watched a bunch of the “Ask Croz” episodes. Each episode is only a few minutes long. They’re interesting and entertaining, IMO.
Awesome post my friend. And yes, one of the many things I like about this site is that talk of music in addition to the love of baseball. Hang tough my friend and I hope the time passes quickly and uneventfully.
I was thinking about Vietnam earlier today as I watched a news show. As the U.S. military is leaving Afghanistan it feels like we’ve seen this before. I was thinking about the last days of the U.S. military in Vietnam, the desperate embassy people on the roof of the building trying to get a helicopter ride.
The Taliban is on the move in Afghanistan. Seems very similar.
Although this time embassy people are being evacuated in a much more organized and orderly way.
There is great concern about the fate of thousands of Afghans who worked as translators and in other jobs for the U.S.
Once I had to make the very tough decision to abandon a consortial software project that UC Berkeley had invested a lot of resources in. I was one of its big supporters, so was pretty reluctant to pull out. The decision was essentially made for me when one of my programmers bluntly told me “It’s time for the helicopters to leave Saigon.”
That can be a very difficult thing for people, or nations, to do.
Paul, unvaccinated here in America are suffering from Delta variant in disturbingly increasing numbers. There are of course interesting coincidences, validated statistically, on who they are/where they live.
Of the top 20 states in percentage of people fully vaccinated for Covid-19, none are “red states.” Even getting vaccinated against a deadly disease has become a partisan issue.
Hey Paul, sounds like a tough situation over there, hope you’re coping as best you can. If you didn’t know, Deja Vu got the re-release treatment about a month ago, with all the demos and extra stuff like that. I happened upon an interview with Nash on the radio last week on my way to Maryland, he was mainly talking about the album and individual songs, but other things too. One thing he said that stood out is that it’s amazing CSN&Y were able to record anything at all given the strong and rather forceful personalities of all involved.
Such a great album. The opening track, of course, is “Carry On,” written by Stills, which grabs the listener from the get-go.
Lukas Nelson, son of Willie, has a really good band. They do a nice cover version of “Carry On.” This is a performance of the song on the Howard Stern show:
Nice hat….
Yeah, he’s got a Clint Eastwood hat going on there.
Good stuff.
Yeah that’s one kick ass hat!
Reminds me of Clint in The Outlaw Josey Wales!
Great version of a legendary song Carry On by CSNY
Awesome cover. I have seen Promise of the Real. Outstanding band…
Manassas! Man, haven’t thought about them in decades.
Even MLB is not so dumb as to let this guy pitch right now…
Very cool post, Paul. Crazy shit with this variant now wreaking havoc upon so many places across the world. The vaccine can’t get into arms fast enough. Sorry you are having to go through another round of lockdowns.
It’s also nuts that I’m finding concerts I went to in the mid-70s on the webs. Trower at Winterland, AC/DC at Day on the Green, and bunches of other shows. Of course lots and lots of Dead shows. Don’t play any damn instruments (tried the trumpet for 5 minutes) but music is a constant presence in life, from listening to the loadie friend of my sister’s that drove me to kindergarten blasting Creedence in his beater station wagon to seeing Chuck Berry at the Circle Star in 1975 to the hundreds and hundreds of shows we all saw.
The Circle Star was a fun place to go. Saw some Rock, Blues, but mostly Soul shows there.
good place for jazz in 70s too. Grover Washington, Freddie Hubbard Stanley Turrentine, others.
Patti LaBelle and Richard Pryor too, that was classic. Man he was funny
Didn’t see a lot of shows there but did see Return to Forever. I used to work down the street from the Circle Star and would eat my lunch in the shade under the sign and take a quick nap. One day that nap lasted 5 hours. My boss was like WTF? I said sorry man, fell asleep!
Unc, during stretch of poverty got a job at GTE Lenkurt plant over there on Industrial. Was actually pretty fun–we had run of whole plant to deliver mail twice a day and nobody ever bothered us from outside so time was our own. Used to take motorized golf cart over to production area to chat up couple gals I was interested in on their break. they had inter company softball teams too from different areas of plant and we did well–called ourselves the “Hummers” as in Dinah Moe.
Remember it well. I worked for an air conditioning company in that little industrial park next to Levitz. What was that Italian place on Harbor down the street? Cheap cheap cheap ass food but pretty damn good. They’d lay out a ton of free spaghetti for Monday Night football. Always a bat-shit crazy crowd.
Y que triste que no puedo vaya. O va! O va!
I used to hate it when a.m. stations cut out the last section of Suite: Judy Blue Eyes to cram in commercial time. I think Buffalo Springfield’s Bluebird suffered the same terrible truncations.
Great songs. Stills sure had a thing about those Judy Collins eyes.
At the point now where they should just run through all the AAA OFers to see if they can do anything other than suck. IL Dick with peyrone’s disease and bring up Braden Bishop.
Don’t think they will be bringing up Braden Bishop Chuck.
He’s not on the active 40 man roster, and besides he bats right handed they have plenty of those guys on the bench.Vosler would be the likely choice being a LH hitter off the bench and he’s on the active callup list.
Sick of Dick. I’ll take anyone at this point. They should go ahead and DL Dick anyway. His back don’t look right. And he nearly killed Dugger yesterday.
Peyrone’s?
LMAO !!! …
Hah!!!
Think Bauer’s gonna be abused much on the road?
How bad would it have been for him at Candlestick 30-40 years ago?
I’m thinking the scene in Pulp Fiction. That’s the kind of abuse he should get. Zed’s dead, baby.
Yes he will Loo and especially if Roberts adds him to the A/S game in Colorado..
I guess Bauer won’t be seen for a month or two. Or, rest of season.
That situation is toxic right now, whatever the facts turn out to be.
Dodgers won’t miss a beat.
They’ll probably bring up some AA or AAA stud, and he’ll turn into the next Buehler…
Love the positive energy craig! Still in 1st!!
Agree, and if they win tonight, it’ll be first at the halfway point of the season.
Just glancing at the bbref big plays list, I see that Melancon with a two run lead in the bottom of the 9th gave up a HR and then apparently loaded the bases and allowed a walk-off single. I just don’t see that guy panning out over the full season. Good for the Giants if so, I suppose.
As much as I hate all the strike outs in baseball these days, it’s ideal these days to have a closer who is a strike-out power-pitcher. Melancon isn’t that, and the Giants don’t really have that either.
Kimbrel in the 9th inning of that no-hitter vs. the Dodgers was incredible. That was awesome.
It would be very nice to have a Kimbrel in addition to the guys we have. Still, if you look at the stats, you’ll see that some of the closers with overpowering stuff fail as frequently as those without:
https://www.espn.com/mlb/stats/closers
Bauer’s future with the Dodgers is very uncertain. I was curious about Dodger fan reaction and checked a Dodger blog. The vast majority at the blog are very angry at him, and many want him to never pitch for the Dodgers again.
One Dodger fan friend of mine was angry when they signed Bauer because he thought they didn’t really need him and his personality would inevitably be a distraction.
“Police say criminal investigation of #Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer ‘bigger than we thought’ https://t.co/XjZbw1HYAo via @USATODAY
— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) July 2, 2021”
Trevor could easily get a job at Eddie Bauer’s and stalk women in the Brebbia aisle..
1. LaMonte Wade Jr (L) 1B
2. Mike Yastrzemski (L) RF
3. Buster Posey (R) C
4. Alex Dickerson (L) LF
5. Brandon Crawford (L) SS
6. Wilmer Flores (R) 3B
7. Steven Duggar (L) CF
8. Thairo Estrada (R) 2B
9. Alex Wood (R) P
An Estrada sighting!
Dickless wonder plays again. I guess JD is gonna get no looks. Dick’s next AB brought to you by
https://www.urologyhealth.org/urology-a-z/p/peyronies-disease
I think JD’s gonna platoon with Grave Duggar and Peyronie will platoon with Ruf for now…
Ruf/Dick are this year’s Pence/Panda.
Nats/Dodgers is one of the MLB Network games.
It’s a Nats home game, but the MLB Network is using the Dodger broadcast. That’s bogus.
Lots more folks in LA than in DC metro…
It ended up not mattering, because MLB Network decided to switch to their MLB Tonight show.
The decision was based on the other MLB Network game, Mets/Yankees, being on a rain delay.
Doesn’t make sense to me, but oh well.
I did get to see the crazy start to the Atlanta/Marlins game.
JD tragically won’t start to till Sunday when D-backs toss a lefty so he can go to his RH unit.But who knows Kappy may go with Slater&Ruf in the outfield just to screw with him.
Its a joke that Peyronie shaft still gets his hacks and stays in the game late now as well with no defense upgrade..
If the Giants start hitting, and knock out the RHPs early, there should be a lefty coming in, so JD could get a couple ABs that way. Kap likely not wavering from his LR platoon thang. I’ve no clue how JD has been hitting LHPs in Sac…
I forgot all about Slater…
Wild scene bottom 1 of Marlins at Braves. first pitch Acuna is beaned, Braves mgr. Snitker out of dugout yelling, umps confer throw Marlins SP and Mattingly out of the game.
Marlins pitching coach Stottlemyre thrown out now. Must be some simmering thing going on between the teams before the game started?..
Yes. The two teams have had beanball wars before.
Acuna does stand real close to the plate. He’s going to get hit more than the average batter. Like Turner and Rizzo.
Sounds like old time baseball.
Those early LPs of his had great routines. That chuckle laugh in between jokes was great too.
belongs under Winder’s comment on Richard Pryor, sorry.
willedav- I didn’t get to see him but Richard Pryor is my all-time favorite comedian. There was just something about the way he did it.
He was from an era when people bought comedy albums. Bought them! He was huge.
We had a Lily Tomlin album when I was a kid. We laughed even after we’d heard the album several times. I had a cousin who had some Cheech and Chong albums. It was an era before comedians got a lot of movie roles, of course.
Cheech and Chong were unique. Their thing WAS the albums, with different characters, music, and sound effects. And then they got movie roles later.
I was watching some stand-up performances from Robert Klein on YouTube recently. He’s one of my favorites from the past.
i watched a Richard Pryor show the other day on netflix. It was the most racist thing I couldn’t believe what I was listening to. But, times have changed and it was funny as hell…..
Way back before he became a sleaze ball,
Bill Cosby was one of the original stand up comedian who was never vulgar in his skits compared to most today.
His albums What is Air? and Wonderfulness among others were classics a must get back in the 60’s and inspired Jerry Seinfeld later on to become a comedian.
They just don’t give a crap…
https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/mlb/yankees-and-mets-rained-out-on-friday-night-will-play-july-4th-doubleheader/ar-AALIv6G?ocid=msedgntp
I wonder if this actually even legal:
“it will be a split-admission doubleheader and tickets tonight will only be valid for the matinee (and this is all happening on July 4th, when they may have had other plans anyway). Additionally, these two games will of course only vaguely be real, as they’ll be seven innings each.”
Not that anyone would bother to sue over it.
of course it’s legal; don’t you ever read the minuscule print on the back your license agreement, I mean, your ticket? lol
Yeah, no telling what all is on the back of the ticket.
It basically says: BEND OVER
Many contracts contain a bend over clause.
This will get us on the right track…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOof_L8mPpc
OK Cepeda had 10 AS selections…how many of those were when he was giant, maybe half?
All 10 as a Giant due to the quirk of 2 ASGS from 59-62.
So he got 8 in 4 years…
ah thanks, but funny they count them that way. None for the Cards, where he won MVP?
That was his other one.
11 total per B/R.
Didn’t make it when he ROY…
Even though Dickerson is a hacker, I like him. He’s got a really nice, controlled swing, and has had some great stretches. That was brutal watching him K on the same sequence of pitches as his last AB. “Watch for the high fastball …”
Kap and staff look at ABs in their own way. with all the statcast data, he has said it’s not just the end result, it’s the approach. He defended Casali in this way–end results weren’t good but he was still having good ABs.
Said same thing about Wade in ST–he only hit.182 but I remember reading this in Chron–Kap said, “He constructs a good at bat.” bugged me at time, but that’s how he rolls and have to hand it to them for how well it’s worked.
I don’t even want to know why the Giants are wearing those ridiculous red caps that clash horribly with their uniforms…
It’s very likely not a cause you’re going to be stoked about.
It’s in honor of Red Skelton who is vastly under-appreciated.
I wonder how much sympathy he had for real skid row bums.
Not as much as Charlie Chaplin
Base hit, I’m ready for them to dump Solano.
The just-strike-out AB from the pitcher.
That was a nice control HR swing for Dickerson James…
It was my way of predicting a bomb, Kat.
Shoulda posted that 3 weeks ago.
good luck to East Coast tonight. 3 innings in books, and it only took hour and a half.
Go Wade!!!
If the Giants had a choice between rd, white and blue for this weekend, they should’ve picked white. My god, this is fashion, not anti fascism.
More ground balls getting through against Wood. Another motherfucking hit batter. A real bad luck stretch for him.
Another Sherlock moment for Krukow with the pitcher up with the basesloaded.
2-2 count..I think he really doesn’t want go to a 3 ball count here.Duh really
There you go. Willlbuurrrrrrrr coming through.
Krukow thinks it’s terrible that Jeff Kent has not been elected to the HOF, but he thinks every year the voters “get it right.” Krukow Thinks could be a comedy game.
Wiiiilbbbuuurrrrr!
A horse is a horse of course of course!!!
Mr.ED delivers again!
Wilmet’s really turned his season around and doing it hobbled.
What a great pick up he’s been…
John, thanks for telling me about the Deja Vu re-release, I hadn’t heard that. And Charlie, yeah, Manassas. IMO, that double-album is one of the truly under-appreciated great albums of all time, Stills at his best.
Thanks for the well-wishes, guys. Yeah, Delta variant is a pisser, so great you’re all getting vaxxed. Probably a couple months longer for me. Just got notice that I have to go to a gov’t testing facility this afternoon. They’re doing mass testing, when they should be doing mass vaccinating. Ugh. And today I turn 65, now full-fledged Medicare recipient (not that it does any good over here). Kind of ironic, the day Medicare kicks in, I have to go get a Covid test…..
My son a grad student in Ireland is getting tested now because of close contact. They trace closely apparently. They also put him on the expedited list for a vax. About time. I have my fingers crossed and juju charms working. Best ti you under similar circs. Daily infusions of Bluebird and Suite: Judy Blue Eyes may help.
it was an advantage over here to be older, as we (65+) were eligible first round of vacs, then got second round soon after. Hope your country can continue to be safe and reopen soon. happy b-day.
question-how are restaurants services and businesses doing? Even after reopenings here, lot of shops and restaurants have not survived, large and small.
Alright, big 2-out RBI for the new guy.
So Thairo still has that bullet in his hip?
Estrada is turning out to be are short version of Altuve..
Nice clutch 2 out double for an RBI..
And a heads up play by the Grave Duggar to get into scoring position.
Happy Birthday, Paul!
Let’s hear it for the new guy.
Lol it’s Ponch Estrada..
Shit. Don’t fuck this up, Wood.
Judy’s eyes will keep us calm.
Baggs tweets Wilmet is hitting .386 with 5 bombs and 11 rbis in last 14 games. Thairo off to great start. Bet Wilmet’s hammy approves and welcomes day off.
Só a LHP and Kapler goes with Slater over my boy Davis!
Keep whipping his back Kap..
At least Davis didn’t suffer that completely ridiculous strike one call on Slater.
Ohtani’s got 2 HRs tonight, 2nd one a long oppo field blast.
Total = 30 so far.
This guy is Babe Ruth a century later, maybe even better…
Yeah, John, the making of Deja Vu was something. Stills said Young just sent his tracks in, didn’t even participate much in the studio. Nash said Young didn’t even bother playing on any of Nash’s songs. Stills just wanted Young in the band because he liked playing electric guitar with him. It’s sort of like Young wasn’t even part of the band. And yet, such a great album. I love Young, on his own; more of a straight CSN guy myself. Thanks for the b-day wishes. Willie, everything’s shut down, for weeks now; chances are, some won’t re-open. Local people are really hurting. A friend of mine said she’s eating nothing but instant noodles because she has no money. Common refrain. I gave her a million dong ($45) so she could get some real food… Go Giants!
Davis with the dying quail double! You go boy!
LaBomb!
What a pleasant surprise this guy’s been…
Whoa. The Giants suddenly have two African American hot shots on the roster.
Yeah Black Lives Matter on the Giants all of a sudden..
Davis and Wade the Rivercat connection!
That was a bomb by Wade my god!
Wade is a keeper…
What’s this guy’s name, Servie? On a platie?
Sherfy, WTF?
Giants Pen still has a ways to go with Sac ups/downs and other experimentation.
Still not really a dependable closer ID’d.
It makes you realize how good the Core Four were during the 3 in 5 …
Sherfy for a guy who owned lefties doesn’t anymore with those 2 loud bombs.
Flight from Phoenix to Sacramento is short atleast..
Tauchman&Slater
Throw them to the Gators 🐊
Ponch!!!
Thairo is THE BULLET!
Grand Estrada! That’s chipping in!
Wow…
The real D-Backs showed up tonight.
Ponchslam!
Wow that was crushed!!
I’m guessing he’s in the LU tomorrow again..
I’ll note that Thairo’s AB was made possible by Duggar taking a pitch too close to take.
It was a strike. He got lucky.
That’s completely irrelevant.
So is your stupid fucking post.
It’s true.
It was strike 3 with Angel Hernandez behind the plate.
And Angel would have been right!
At first blush, Thairo might make me and Kap forget Dubon pretty fast…
Still in first!
And the losing streak is over!
Nice beat down in dominant fashion..