A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball

Hello flappers

Well are you flappers the same bunch of winners that I’ve been hanging out with for the last few years? It’s been a grumpy group the last few weeks and adversity makes us stronger. I’m not going to go crazy thinking that three wonderful wins against another team with a losing record means that we’re all the way back but I am going to try and talk about how important team is to this team.

Just as this group of flappers are bound tighter by the long slog of the Giants recent losing streak so a group of teammates can be bound or unbound through the course of a season. I certainly saw a real falling apart of the clubhouse camaraderie during that long losing streak. One time when I saw Bruce Bochy standing at the edge of the dugout his hands (seemingly) folded in prayer I instantly thought to myself, “oh my God even the skipper has lost it.” Where was that intelligent confidence that he always shows this team? It was gone, everything was in dis-array. Losing can affect every member from bench players all the way up to the general manager and, so can winning.

Big flavor has already commented on the new Korean player Tanaka providing a spark that was so sorely needed. Matt Cain who has been such a rudder and such a solid calming force, always pointing this team towards winning, has not been able to do it this year. We’ve had some injuries and what most people will admit is a weak bench neither of which was helping to turn things around. When the team started going south it sunk like a stone.

Last night we saw the littlest hero Tim Lincecum throw a game and a half, 148 pitches, of no-hit ball. For a lot of fans and a lot of the Giants players Timmy is well loved. Last night I saw a lot of love in that dugout and for me major hope for the second half.

What I’m trying to say is the biggest thing this team has is team spirit and when I see that coming back these last couple of games I know we have a team that can go all the way to the playoffs.

Thanks Anna and get well Twin.
Go Gigantes!

how do we go forward from here? The team, the players, the fans. Expectations. An externaty till the next time. Memories. Greatness, SF Giants style, old baseball knowlege, see ball hit ball. Pitching beats hitting every time and visa versa ~yogi
Yogi, the greatest catcher of all time until this time. In the west. Like the west coast offense, winning bball. Like no other time, this time.
Not a big team dominating headlines in NY news, just a ball club playing ball.
Not the fans screwing down another season.
Not a big fancy domination of all on the diamond.
Just us, just the World Champion San Francisco Giants!
Just a sold out crowd.
Just a play, for the win.
Just a team.

We might not be the darlings of ESPN; we might not be a sports media cash cow. But anything else, ANYTHING, we have earned and claim rights to.
VICTORY!!.

One for the ages; incredible pitching; little known hitters; rock solid defense; old school tactics; fantastic fan base; home built; a team of: work, spirit, play, and just plain team. Adversity; against-all-odds; character; done with aplomb; winning decid_edd_ly. I am sure you get the idea.

Andres Torres knows, Jim Leyland knows, TWO-flaps-down, one giant step for the team that could.

To really get the spirit and flavor of last night’s victory Nottinghamshire is a place too far. I would like Craig to take us home on the first day of the rest of our championship reign.

Magnus, could you help me out here?

Game 2 of the NLCS was a hearty win for the home team. 7-1 looks a bit more dominate than a 6-4 win by StL. We have broken the home field slump. We are now 1 & 3 in PO games at phone park. If necessary one or maybe two wins at home gives us the league championships and on to the WS.

Umpires were lacking in the Cincy series. They have not been too bad in this one. The one run STL got last night was on some bad calls and a pitcher double – our specialty. Then, later in the game, a blown call kept Blanco in the game and he eventually scored.
[rant]
The umpires are not out there to be perfect or to make sure the game is played perfectly. That would be a goal. The umpires are out there to keep things as close to the rules as they can. The way ML ball is currently played, at such a high level and fast pace, it is tough to get every call correct. This is partly due to having humans on the field and the human part of the game that I love. We have the technology to use one umpire per game and he (or she?) wouldn’t have to be on the field. Would you want to see games played likke that? Or are you willing to suffer the slings and arrows of human error? As we all know these things can balance themselves out as they did last night. And which is why I am never comfortable when my team is getting all the breaks. [/rant]

Bochy has reported xrays on Scooter’s hip are negative. I hope he is able to get a decent night’s rest ’cause that baby is going to be sore. With the resources available he should miss no more than one game. With Arias and The Riot we have that game covered.

Matt Cain, come on down

Cain ended the year with a seven inning shutout of AZ and a no decision in LA. He was 16 & 5 w/era @ 2.79 (nl leader @ 2.53) slightly better than his 2010 season numbers. One number from last year? He did not give up HRs in 2011(9), but for the last three years he has been very consistent and very good.
Flash forward to now and in October he has pitched 3 games and not made it to the sixth inning once. In three games in October he has given up 4 HR and 4 BB with 15 H and 11 SO. In three games. His ERA is over 5. He won game 5 in Cincy. He is the horse and a gamer.

Which Cainer will we see in StL?

Winning

As unusual as 2010 WS WIN! was, being division champs today, with a couple of days rest and a team that looks to have a decent chance, is a heady, out-of-body feeling all its own.

I think we should just bask, talk about the season’s accomplishments our personal highs, how we appreciated what was done, watch the best-of-the-losers games and enjoy this day.
Tomorrow? – put the game faces back on!

CONGRATULATIONS — YOUR SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS — NL WEST DIVISION CHAMPIONS 2012

UP NEXT?

 __________________________________________________________

Posted by Flavor:

And I now present to the world, the Final Flap Fantasy League Standings. Edd, you dominated the rest of us with a 3.5 point *cherry on top of the soup* day yesterday (still not using that “soup” word right, am I?) . Congratulations to you and everyone who played hard till the end. Blade gave you a run for it but in the end, you were just too strong. DIRT gets an honorable mention for finishing 4th, almost as good as an improvement over last season as this year’s champion, Edd.

And . . . Kevin sent this pic in.

Boo hoo!

I have been a Giants Fan for a very long time, as have most of you. Very little of that time was my team a team clearly at the top, one of the ‘big boys’, winning and playing good baseball. They are, today, a 3 tool team using defence, offence and pitching. With Pablo coming alive the Giants can add the long fly. As Baggs wrote in his post game report last night:
This is what happens when you combine youthful energy, a commanding lead in the NL West and a team that has all the talent and confidence to make a sustained run through the playoffs.
This team is winning and I am a believer and unlike the NY fans, World Series or not, being in the playoffs means you are a top team; two out of three years now. It is still a month until we will know which of those top teams will play in the World Series. I like our chances.

Buster Posey is a big reason this team is winning. He has had extra incentive lately winning the Willie Mac award for most inspirational player on the team this year. The man is a Giant and there is great joy over, first his return from a frightening injury, second his hardball, winning attitude and, of course, third his shot at the MVP. His game is ON. Even Vern and Vera were bringing him food in the clubhouse saying, “a catcher needs to eat to keep his strength up.”

Posey should add another award sometime after the season ends, when baseball has gone quiet and the league MVPs are announced. Here’s why: over 20 HRs | premier backstop | no worse that 2nd in the batting championship | helped his team WIN the division | plays for the best team with the best fans in the best city. What are your thoughts?

P.S. The WC game is on my birthday this year. If any of you were considering gifting me a play-in game ticket I prefer Baltimore or Oaktown. No thanks if it is LA or Philly. Come to think of it East Coast teams mean cheaper air fair, but let me worry about that.

Hopefully there will be some fan memories made in SF this weekend. GET YOUR BLOG ON!

We had the earthquake in ’89 and the Cubbies had Bartman in 2003. Baseball had the strike in 1994 and then the steroids era. Frick and Maris had the asterisk. Soon to come will be a live demonstration of the new duple duel of the Wild Card. Also at the end of this season is the re-alignment of the NL West.
NOW, we have the Evil Empire West. The EEW (© flapper world 2012), also known as dem bums, dogers, boyz in blue and the Los Angeles Dodgers. The EEW (© flapper world 2012) is right now, it is in our face, too close to home, a portend of the end of the world or, at least, of baseball as we know it: on a level playing field.

Don’t deny it, you LQTY as the McCourt mess took some of the edge off a bitter rival team. And now we wring our hands at not only what the current trades might mean but, what financial voodoo the “magic” team will produce in the future. (it was quite hard not to type ‘Lakers’ after the thought of magic!)

Magnus covered the current trade in a brilliant topic yesterday and I did not comment because, permission to speak frankly here, it exhausts me. I think most baseball fans love the _game_ as it is played on the field and tend to lose attention with much of the off-field stuff. Before I list the three items from the topic’s title an aside:
Blade continues his masterful march for the Broken Headed-Rich Aurilia Bobblehead. Pussy and the Bombers bounce back and forth for third while Pawlie vies for the coveted top half finish. Go Flappers!

Asterisks – Baseball – and Birthdays

1) I would vote for Bonds, into the hall, full stop. Will he get a silent asterisk from many of those who vote? Probably. Baseball writer David Martinez said: “The steroid era happened, records were broken, and no asterisk can change it.”
Unfortunately, after having been quiet for a period, steroids are back, especially in Bay Area baseball. That makes me sad. Nipper?

2) EEW (© flapper world 2012) – baseball (this should almost be a poll) has survived worse. the AL East and the TB Rays have proven money can’t buy you championships, but it might rent them for a while. I say: not this season. And that is what I care about; today’s game, this season, what we can/will do to make our team playoff regulars. We have a picturesque park, fabulous fans, healthy history, Bruce Bochy and freakin’ Dave Righetti , how cool is that!

3 I know I have posted this twice before, but next to baseball I love my kids and it is his birthday today and he is a Giants fan. Happy Birthday, Aren. I remember that day better than any baseball moment.

eddacker 29 August

Happy Birthday, Aren #3 son

A good result last night and, with the dogers losing in extra innings to the bravess, Your San Francisco Giants are back in first place. We cannot look too far into the future even though it holds those same dogers and bravess. 

The near future is all we care about, and there is no sense looking at the past just now.
But of course we will.

The prognosticators have the Friars winning tonight’s game figuring Stults will outpitch our man Barry.

Zito-1-4 with a 4.93 ERA in nine career appearances at Petco Park. He is 4-2 with a 3.15 ERA against NL West teams this year and the lefty is 1-2 with a 7.06 ERA in his last four starts after going 3-1 with a 2.25 ERA in his previous five. Stults has recently started starting and has allowed one run in his past 13 innings. And he has won twice.

As my man yogi has said, ‘great hitting and vice versa’. We certainly saw the Giants do some great hitting last night and we have seen flashes of it all year (I am thinking StL). The current team can score them some runs. The Orange Friday fans last night were FANtastic it was hard to tell when the SD crowd was making noise. I have my peace pipe out and I am already thinking this is the rubber game. A win tonight should get us the sweep with our new ace going tomorrow who got his shit game-of-the-month out of the way against the nats.

The Flapper Nation has already pointed to the schedule as an advantage; especially these next 5 games. I do not think anyone anticipated a blow-out win at petco park being just the thing this team needed to heal from a surprise loss in the lineup. If Zito works it this evening (5:30 start btw) I know a sweep here and a series win in losenges would be the elixer to carry back home against the choppers from atlanta.

Yeah, it is ‘one game at a time’ and a series win is nice, but we are IN a pennant drive, we will want more and there are only 40 games to get it. Go Gigantes!

tonight’s hero(?) with my everyday hero