Stix’s Backyard
Hopefully we have better luck in Minnesota than the Warriors did last night. Chris Paddock is a literal 5 and diver. Five starts this year. He’s gone exactly 5 innings in all five. Flores and Yaz crush this guy. Make it so.
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A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
Speaking of fives, Twins have won 5 in a row after completing 3 game sweep over O’s. Before yesterday Buxton (healthy again finally) had homered in 3 straight games. Per cbs site Twins have 5th best AL ERA and 4th most Ks. Giants, um strike out a lot.
At least Kerr got good minutes out of Kuminga and Jackson-Davis, players he might be able to use going forward. Post started and racked up what old back up Center Scott Hastings used to call a “trillion” in box score: 3 minutes played followed across by succession of zeroes.
simple stat but still: Wilmer has 34 hits and 33 rbis. Also one SB. ⚡️
Yeah if Wilmer could somehow steal another bag that would be a career high with 2, he’s 3-6 lifetime.But who cares that’s never been his game, the 33 RBI’s with 34 hits says it all in how clutch he’s been especially with RISP at .429 3rd in the league in that category.
On pace for 140 RBI’s, that won’t happen, but still should easily if he stays healthy should blow past his career high of 71..Giants sure have gotten their money’s worth with Mr.Ed over his Giants career..
We’ve talked on the Flap for years about the distressing and continuing dearth of American-born black players in MLB — and how that sadly compares to the Golden Age of baseball in the ’50s and ’60s that some of us lived through. On the topic, I submit this article for your consideration as one person’s opinion on it. I may not agree with all of it, but being a white guy I don’t have any bona fides to criticize the reality of this Black writer’s life and POV.
IMO there is a helluva lot of truth in it about MLB — and it’s not pretty.
https://getpocket.com/explore/item/few-black-americans-play-baseball-mlb-doesn-t-seem-to-care
thanks, interesting angle. My sons were born seven years apart, so I spent fourteen coaching and umping in the Oakland LL. The league did its best to recruit Black kids, with some success, but the Babe Ruth League based in East Oakland was where the poorer kids really wanted to play. All Star season follows the regular one, and at that moment in early summer every year the various levels of LL and BR ASs played bragging rights series. Crowds were good. We liked their IFs; they liked our shaded bleachers. Great games.
I saw an article in the Oaklandside newspaper about two years back that said BR participation was down from its peak of over 1000 kids to 200.
So far this season it feels like we’ve played 30 road games and 8 home games.
Well, the 60s were the last golden age of baseball what with Mays, Aaron, Marichal, Clemente, Maris, Mantle, on and on. Even through the 80s there were still a lot of homegrown Black players.
I certainly cannot point to anything that was a harbinger of the changing aura of baseball to football (and basketball) from the 60s-80s, but TV marketing sure seemed to play a big role in the rise of the NFL. Each game was treated as a huge deal, and stars were marketed accordingly.
Baseball players, especially after the steroid era, just became bland non-entities marketing-wise. And the game was boring for the most part. At least for casual fans. Bonds was the only guy in the past 25 years who transcended the game. I still couldn’t pick Mike Trout out of a lineup. The strikes and holdouts seemed to really turn the fans off as well. 1993 being the most damaging. Stadiums literally emptied out. Baseball wasn’t getting much good press (except for the Sosa/McGuire and Bonds home run chases, and those were exposed) for a good 10-15 years. Therefore no good national press, no stars to look up to, and no marketing money.
During that timeframe, the NBA marketed their games exciting and watchable. At least during the 80s and 90s during the Jordan/Bird/MJ era, when basketball overcame their doldrums. That cranked up the excitement. All that brings ad money and shoe deals and national prominence. Baseball? between the strikes and the steroid bans, no one cared about the players or the teams.
What that has to do with anything I don’t know, but the NBA and NFL certainly marketed to a broader audience and got a lot more people interested in their products than baseball did. And baseball was fending off the fucking Bud Selig era of turning a blind eye to the rampant steroid abuse, the holdouts and the strikes.
The only headway being made by MLB now is with Asian players. Ohtani being the face of this trend.
mlb put the Negro Leagues out of business and in the long run the lack of direct connection to the Black community took its toll. Meanwhile, desegregation also meant that colleges and universities could recruit Black athletes for football and basketball just as those industries were rising. It’s the same old story. Capitalism can’t cure the worst problems it creates.
Yeah, the Cosa NCAA certainly plays a gigantic part of this issue. College baseball is akin to field hockey in the grand scheme of things compared to basketball and football. Esp when you have colleges and shoe companies going to rec league and middle school b-ball games.
Willie provided a real eye opener with regard to how much it typically costs a parent for their child to participate in the major sports, when we exchanged numerous emails back and forth regarding this subject. Not certain when Xoot last coached, but I would imagine he would know about this as well, having coached little league.
Regardless, it isn’t just expensive for black parents to fund their kid(s) playing baseball, basketball, football, etc. Unless you’re upper middle class (minimally) or rich, forget about it. I will be able to allow my daughter to play whatever sport(s) she chooses, but to say I wasn’t shocked at how much it costs for a kid to participate, would be lying . . . It is astronomical compared to when I grew up and played (actually, I am not even certain it cost anything . . . of course, it’s been decades since I participated in league or school sports).
my younger son also played on traveling baseball teams circa 2007-14. Coaches were good but costs were high. Hundreds of bucks for bats. Some players carried quivers of three or four in their bags. Shoes, gloves, fees, hotels, overpriced steakhouse food. I didn’t like it. Except: the commercial tournament facilities would sell you an ice bucket full of bottled beer to enjoy in the stands.
Xoot, that period of time must have been a blast for both of you.
the kids. It’s all about the kids–but it was a blast
Yay, a hit!
Twins had no-hitter starting 6th. Pitcher having career start. Finally, Koss with single
Chapman!
Chap with the dinger.
And Chapman doesn’t get another AB. Zzzzzzz.
That looong trip from Chi town to the twin cities, and that extra day off from that journey, must have really tired the boys out.
Yep. Besides The Chappy dinger, Giant’s offense was a giant snore fest. Good news is that Hick’s looked decent enough.
I would love to see more black players in the league. My handful of favorite all time players were all black. Mays, McCovey, Robinson, Henderson, and Gibson. In my mind they were better than anyone else playing at the time.