One Step Forward One Step Back
MIssed last night’s game. Ohtani tonight. This should be fun, I’ve never watched him pitch an entire game before.
Angels only -135 tonight, I would have expected that line to be higher. I’d put them closer to -240. If we get more than 4 hits off this dude I’ll be shocked.
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
I lived in Hawaii when I was a kid . . . sounds like ALL of Lahaina, Maui, including historic district, is gone. Unbelievable.
Hawaii has always been a risky place due to infrastructure, and weather. I remember a couple of times when a power line went down it didn’t come back up for a few days. With the way Oahu has grown(no more pineapple fields) they are likely going to have drinking water shortages. One good hurricane and just about everything shuts down probably for a long time.
Yep. Speaking of which, one is coming in the next couple of days (Dora, I think it is called). The “pre” winds caused this fire to spread.
The fires in Hawaii are bad. Maui is the only one of the islands I’ve visited. Few times. But for the tourists, the place was paradise.
Oh. Looks like Luciano up, AJ to the IL.
yeah saw this earlier re: Luciano leaving game. Very cool, and hopefully less time at SS for Estrada. Wonder if he starts tonight vs. Ohtani?
Speaking of him, interesting column from Baggs in TA about adjustments Angels make for him in rotation pitching once a week and how things might work here.
I checked that out. Thanks. I’m grateful Baggarly took on the speculative assignment and not what’s his name. Really sounds as if laa hasn’t been able to build a flexible pitching staff system around Ohtani. Btw, interesting article on the A about the dramatic drop in scored errors this season. Partly the decision time crunch of the clock.
https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2023/08/09/coast-guard-joins-brush-fire-response-lahaina-where-crews-continue-battle-wind-whipped-flames/
Yeah Xoot, per the video, it’s gone. Been there twice. Beautiful, relaxful place. A shame.
What also makes it hard is there in no place to draw power from, they are a small rock out in the middle of a very large ocean. I gotta go and look it up but I bet with climate change some of the more famous beaches will be altered forever.
Agree with everything you said. I came this close “” to buying a beach house on the Big Island weeks before the Pandemic started. On hindsight, I am so glad I didn’t do it. Particularly because of what you said, along with the schools being very shitty (except the private ones). Island fever is a real thing too.
Maui geography is strange. Rain forest on one side of a ridge, kindling dry brush on the other. Somehow the resorts manage to furnish plenty of water to sunny golf courses.
Big island is like that too xoot. Rain forest North of Hilo and very dry Kona area and practically everywhere else.
Blade, a guy next to me on a plane out of Maui was taking his annual mental health vacation. He intended to hop into a rental car at SFO and drive north until he felt better–Eureka, Portland, wherever. He said he just got so fucking tired of just driving around in a small circle.
Yeah, visitors love to play golf and are definitely catered too. But tourist money is quite a bit of their total revenue.
Hawaii also has a very large homeless population.
lol . . . exactly!
and also it’s 85 degrees every day of the year.
Xoot that Athletic column about errors that are hits this season per official scorers was interesting. Note this from Patrick Sandoval (btw FA after this season): ” Everything’s a hit. I have a little conspiracy about it: That they are telling the scorers to be more lenient with the hits so they can be like, ‘Oh the new rules work. You have more hits.'” Manfred ball again.
Most of comments from fans said same thing about official scoring this year.
Yeah. The authors did a good job presenting the conspiracy theory side without endorsing it. They also offered a lot of detail about the scorer system. Very interesting stuff.
Amusing factoid in the piece: “The league utilizes a five-person panel — former players Gregor Blanco, Rajai Davis, Raul Ibañez and Dan Otero, plus an official scorer who did not make the initial call — to decide [scoring] appeals.”
Quick look at average bullpen whips last season and this one — numbers are generally up a bit. The outlawed shift? The scoring conspiracy? I bet ban of the shift plays a role. (Cf: quick look at team DPs per game also seems to show a general (though not uniform) increase this year. That’s a number I expected to rise.)
Come to think of it, wouldn’t a comparison of pre and post shift-ban ERA and FIP bear on this?
Yeah, rigging stats brings the games integrity under the lights. But that leaves a few more minutes of words from our sponsors.
Just heard that, Blade. Devastating. Our friends lived 4 blocks from the burger place at the end of Front Street near that big hotel. They moved to the north shore of Oahu about 8 months ago.
Glad your friends are safe on Oahu. I have friends who moved back to Colorado from that area too. All of Front Street (businesses) sounds like it is gone. Video I have seen is horrendous. Roads blocked off to all of Lahaina area and I think the Fire Department is overwhelmed. No idea how they are fighting the fire (except via drafting from some water source and/or fire breaks).
What’s crazy is Lahaina is hotter than fuck in the summer. You go anywhere else on the island and it is 20-30 degrees cooler. Can’t believe upcountry is burning as well.
My ex-wife and I went to Hawaii in 1982.
The hotel mistakenly gave us two single beds.
We were both happy about it…
lol
My impression is that more great athletic plays are being made in the infield on defense with the shift rules eliminating the rover on defense.
Damn. Our friend’s old house burned down and two of her friends lost their houses on the water south of Lahaina. The old church, the Banyan tree, all of old Lahaina is gone. Tragic.
Robbie Robertson died. 80.
I always liked that pop tune Somewhere Down the Crazy River more than I should. (“Hang the rich!”) His work with The Band was great. And with Dylan live.
Id forgotten how much film music work he did after collaborating with Scorsese on The Last Waltz. He wrote a huge number of the bands songs too.
Charlie Gillett in “Sound of the City” cited Robertson’s harsh lines on “Who Do You Love” as an early breakthrough for the kind of loud, aggressive playing that dominated classic guitar rock. I was stoked when back in the late 70s I tracked down an import copy of a Ronnie Hawkins compilation that featured it. https://youtu.be/pK5mxNKI9rM
that’s a great cover of Hoodoo You Love, and teenage Roberston was good. Dylan liked him almost as much as he liked Mike Bloomfield. Sometimes when I hear a lesser cut from Blonde on Blonde, Robertson sounds like the best part. But I’m jaded. I attended two of the Before the Flood Dylan/Band concerts, one in Oakland, one in LA, and both shows they opened and closed with this tender love song. Dylan drives it, but Robertson’s essential. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcVm5JiOdCY
Little assist from the lone hillbilly in the band. One of the better live albums. Is there a better one? I was a couple years too young ….
I came across an account by Robertson about the time he and Levon set out to meet Sonny Boy Williamson in Jim Crow Helena. Cops interrupted their unlawful get together.
Loved the Band. Never like Robbie Robertson. Not sure why.
I talked to my father in law who lives on Maui but more in the hills and are safe,Lahaina is a 40 minute drive southwest he said but smoke everywhere and he mentioned lots of historical wood buildings that easily acts like kindling for this wildfire.He said they get little rain in the weather pattern there compared to where they live the storms usually Peter out by the time they reach Lahania whichmakes it very dry area and Dora acted like a vacuum surrounding the whole town real strong winds (60 to 80)when they’re use to more like 15-20 tops didn’t help..
His son in law is a fireman named Josh(performed the wedding ceremony for my daughter& her husband last year out in LaHonda Cá)and he was working on brush fires not near Lahaina but he’s on standby and maybe deployed to this fire area soon.Thoughts and Prayers for everyone please 🙏
We were there last summer and it was over 90 every day. Spent the whole time getting out of Lahaina.
Sad to hear about Robertson. The Band made it big when much of the music scene was morphing into various rock, psychedelic, and soul. With mainstream pop encompassing all three of those. The band was unique and definitely had their own sound, I wore out their first two albums. Just another sign that we are getting old.
Yeah, the whole southern fried rock thing with the Band, Allman Brothers, and Little Feat all hitting around the same time really took off. My older sister used to listen to Music from Big Pink all the time.
Robbie Robertson became the rock star of The Band, and the other members of the band probably eventually resented that.
When your band is named The Band, how dare he?
In the early years, The Band was going for an “every member is equal” type of thing.
A lot of bands start out that way, but if a member or two start becoming bigger stars, it can create tension in a band.
A lot of it was drugs.
A’s used opener and 5 pitchers total to shut out Texas today 2-0.
Ruiz singled stole 2b and 3b before scoring first run on sac fly. HR from 2b Zac Gelof added second. A’s up to 33 Ws.
Game time was 2:17!
kids on the a’s have nothing to lose by playing as hard as possible now
1) L. Wade (L) DH
2) T. Estrada (R) 2B
3) W. Flores (R) 1B
4) J. Pederson (L) LF
5) J. Davis (R) 3B
6) M. Conforto (L) RF
7) P. Bailey (S) C
8) B. Crawford (L) SS
9) L. Matos (R) CF
P) R. Walker (R)
Like when Bon Jovi names the band Bon Jovi?
Seems weird like it all about myself and I don’t give a shit what my band members are anyone else thinks..
The bands that last for decades make their peace with the fact that there are stars and non-stars in a band.
Like the Beatles. I kid . . .
Actually ZZ Top were pretty solid their entire existence. Both guys traded off singing. Frank Beard shaved his beard.
Loudest show I ever went to was them at the Oakland Auditorium. Good God, my ears rang for a week.
Fuck Jon Bovi. And fuck Johnny Melon Cougarcamp! Robertson just seemed like a smarmy fuck. Kinda how I feel about Jackson Browne. Redneck Friend? Come on, man.
Yeah, at least Van Halen had two Van Halens. But some names just sound cool.
Montrose. Sly and the Family Stone. Danzig. Yes, even Van Halen.
Redneck friend is a funny song unless you think the girl in the song is underage and the narrator’s not.
There are some people who want to blame Yoko for breaking up the Beatles, which completely ignores much bigger issues like George Harrison being no longer OK with only getting a couple of his songs on each album.
John at that point was pretty deep into the heroin an didn’t give a shit either way. Ringo was the one always making the peace. When he gave up, that was it.
I subscribe to Greil Marcus’s substack, and in the recent set of questions posed by readers, he was asked to opine on Yoko. I was amused by his anti-revisionist take:
“I think you only have to watch the footage in The Beatles: Get Back to see how her presence in the studio, as a kind of silent judge finding all around her wanting, insignificant, and inferior, when at the time both she and John were using heroin, which she later described as an act of “celebration of ourselves as artists,” a naming that quite clearly did not include such mere journeymen as P G & R, to understand how the other Beatles might not be altogether generous in their assessment of her contributions to the world. She has played an art saint all her adult life. She said as a professional widow for decades. Well before John Lennon was murdered she was an accomplished businesswoman, which didn’t hurt either of them.”
I recall reading that John & Yoko owned a shitload of cattle.
Can’t imagine (sorry) that going over very well with their fellow Dakota residents…
At the time, the Dakota residents probably weren’t concerned about the methane emissions, but cow ownership was undoubtedly déclassé.
You, Xoot and Snarkk continue to do wonders for my 500-word Brooklyn vocabulary…
In the Sac game at Vegas last night that Luciano left to rejoin big club, RC’s took 7-0 lead in first. And then…Hjelle gave 6 back in the second and was knocked out in 4th after not recording an out and giving up 4 more runs. 3 innings 10 hits 3 BBs 10 earned 1 K 1 HR. Ouch.
echoed everything I keep saying
https://www.knbr.com/2023/08/09/jim-bowden-breaks-down-why-he-gave-giants-d-grade-at-handling-trade-deadline/
Bowden lol, um not someone you want on your side. Even people that read his columns in TA make fun of him, endlessly. He’s clueless.
At least Zaidi never did this:
“In February 2009, it was reported that Bowden along with former special assistant José Rijo were part of an FBI federal investigation into the skimming of signing bonus money from Latin American baseball players. He resigned from the Nationals on March 1, 2009.”
“Bowden joined Murph and Mac…” says all you need to know right there.
I read Giants news on lot of different sites and most common take about deadline, echoed by those that know more about the game than Bowden, is there wasn’t much out there to begin with that would have made a significant enough difference.
Z made his decision and he’ll have to live with it. And there will always be Fire Farhan l-fringe to beatch about him being an A’s reject trying to turn Giants into Moneyball Lite as long as $$ rolls in.
I recently finished the audiobook of “Educated,” by Tara Westover. The book is powerful, disturbing, and inspiring.
It’s one of those books that you’re really glad you read, but it’s also devastating.
Actress Julie Whelan won an award for her reading of the audiobook.
Giants games and audiobooks. Good summer stuff.
There were so many rock artists that turned to heroin it wasn’t even surprising after awhile. The only one that made me sad to hear about was Jerry Garcia.
In the context of the rock and roll world, Lennon’s time of heroin usage was relatively short.
He decided to quit, and stopped cold turkey. And wrote and recorded a song about it, called….”Cold Turkey,” and released it as a solo single. As a song, I don’t consider it one of John’s better songs, but the song meant a lot to him.
Just noticed this. Retweeted by Pavlovic.
So Ramos is up instead of Luciano. Apparently.
Yes.
Phillie’s Lorenzen threw a no-hitter.
4th no-hitter of the season.
Can you name the other 3?
German, in better days, for him, threw a perfecto, and at least one team had a combined no hitter.
In the Walter Mosley “Easy Rawlins” audiobook I was listening to recently, heroin is the MacGuffin of the story. A stewardess smuggled some of it into the U.S. hidden inside hollowed-out croquet balls.
Airline security in the early 1960s was not awesome.
It wasn’t exactly stellar on 9/11…
So Lucky wasn’t so Lucky last night as Luciano was pulled for an injury early not to be called up.They pulled the rug out on the flap with that one. Well another go around with Ramos Fizz but it’s the right move they need outfield depth more then infield right now.
Pollack is washed up but of course the brass doesn’t see that whatever?
Seems something got lost n translation.
Wade swinging at a horrible pitch solely because of who’s on the mound.
Conforto doubles and Giants take lead on sac fly.
Bowden btw made one of worst big contract signings ever, trading Mike Cameron and others to Seattle to acquire 30 yr old Junior Griffey for the Reds.
Unfortunately junior had one good year, his body fell apart (played 200 games in 3 yrs) and stats fell off cliff. Cameron meanwhile had 4 good years of 3-5 WAR each for M’s. After 1999 season w 5.5 WAR Griffey had 7 WAR total in 8 years for Reds making $12.5 mil per.
Sad end to brilliant early start of career. but cautionary story of long term deal for 30 yr olds.
Got an unearned run cause the catcher and SS weren’t on the same page.Giants working Ohtani hard with the pitch count at 44 already as he’s been wild high..
Nice play by Manaea there. Beauty of glove he has.
And freezes Ohtani with 95 fastball for strike 3.
6K’s in 3 innings for the SanFrancisco Openers!!
If only “Giants” was offensive to a marginalized group, we’d have a perfect new team name.
Give it time…
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/22954-gigantism
9K’s in 4 innings from Walker and Insanely effective Manaea as the SF Openers are rolling compared to yesterday’s ineffective Openers who all gave up runs..
Speaking of the Beatles, 54 years ago today, this photo was taken.
60 years ago today, iirc, He’s So Fine by the Chiffons finally slipped out of the top 100 after half a year of chart and am radio play dominance on both sides of the Atlantic.
Kinda sounds like a George solo tune …
Cool girl group, had few other hits that followed that one, written by G Goffin Carole King. Usually at the end they finished with nice out chorus.
A sad day. The wife and I love Kaanapali and Lahina. We travel there every other year, our happy place. We have pictures of our kids from little ones to adults in the famous banian tree. Took the adult kids last year on a “last vacation on mom & dads dime” now that they are adults and off the payroll. Heartbreaking:( Hard to imagine it is gone.
The game last night was fun except for the losing part. Go Giants!
Paul barefoot wasn’t that part of a conspiracy that he was dead that floated around?
Yeah, like just about all conspiracy theories, it was crazy.
Yoko helped construct Revolution no 9. Maybe she was responsible for the final 11 seconds.
Great song to dance to…
Manaea faced 14 hitters and gave up 1 BB and that last double in 4 innings. 6 Ks and couple nice fielding plays too.
0-2 pitch, 1-2 pitch. On a night when Ohtani wasn’t particularly good.
And an 0-2.
Personally, I think he should be starting. But I know that is counter to the *success* the Giants seem to have overall using openers.
And they took out Manaea for this shit?
Joc could get his fat ass down on his error which I guess u expect since he should not be in the outfield, and Beck? major league bigtime blast given up..
Giants errors second most in baseball behind only the Redsox’s is killing them 7 errors in the last 4 games..
Time for a hit!
Estrada useless since he came back. GRR
Ah tough L, Angels got the one big hit, Earl Weaver special did them in. Ohtani did only give up 3 hits as Flav predicted in 6 innings, and one unearned run.
Day off tomorrow and gear up for Bochy bringing first place Rangers into town.
Gad I cannot listen to Carlos Ramirez.
He’s a dingbat.
test.
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