A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball

Anyone believe in that dumb Billy Goat curse? Found out this morning that the goat was named *Murphy*. That’s funny. Reading back on the history is even funnier. The owner said “You are never going to win another World Series again because you insulted my goat!” How absurd is that? It sounds like something said in a dispute between two middle eastern farmers except substitute “cricket championship” for “world series.”

Anyway, today is going to be interesting. A couple of teams might be finding out it doesn’t matter how many wins you pile up in the regular season. It’s all about stepping up in the post season……. #3in5

No football, two huge baseball games today. Let’s see if the umps can restrain themselves from tossing anyone. Seriously, that was a joke that Tulo got tossed yesterday. I want to know who the umps have to answer to for absurd moves like the one Heirshbeck (or whatever his name is) made yesterday. Can they just do whatever they want? What if he ran across the street and spit on Tulo? Any repercussions for that?

It is so beyond time for robot umpires. Just for balls and strikes. Leave the ups on the field to make all the field calls. It would speed up the game too, since I can’t see a player trying to argue with something that isn’t even there. Actually, that would be kind of a hoot to watch. Fight Club 2. I’d watch that.

Both pennant series at 2-nada. So while it looks like a New York/KC series, we know better. Nothing is set in stone until it’s set in stone…..

All this Lamar Odom angst is starting to irritate me. I’m tired of hearing about what a great guy he is. This dude wasn’t clothing the homeless or curing cancer. He was banging two whores high as fuck on ccccccccccoke. Jeez, by all means let’s hope the doctors can make him all better so he can continue on with his “life’s work.”

I’m a full blown Royals fan these days so I hope they make quick work of the Blue Jays and move on to the World Series. Seriously, I can’t get enough of KC. The uni’s, the park, the players, the fans. That damn gorgeous georgeous (Brett) water fall is simply hypnotically spell binding. 🙂

Go Royals.

The end of that Michigan game still blows my mind. As a young boy, my dad took me over to Berkeley for the Big Game. That’s the last game that reminded me of yesterday’s game. I still remember walking out of that stadium with my dad and having multiple Berkeley fans (students) screaming “fuck Stanford!” at us. And while I’ve been to many, many Big Games at Stanford, that was the only game I went to in Berkeley. No real reason other than no interest in being around fans like that.

Jim Harbaugh just seems to be involved in weirdo endings in big games, doesn’t he? The inexplicable Kyle Williams fumbles. Being first and goal on the 7 and losing the Super Bowl. Yesterday’s game at Ann Arbor.

So is Harbaugh just unlucky? Or does he feed into it somehow? How about Toronto? Goins and Bautista NOT catching that pop up is still inexplicable to me (despite all the excuses the talking heads gave). And we all saw what unfolded after that missed pop up.

Is it luck? Or in these cases, bad luck? Karma? Whatever that is. Or do these players contribute to these unreal turn of events? Had replay been around back in ’82, The Play would have been reversed 5 different ways. Still makes you wonder about so many weird plays happening in big games.

Eh, it’s probably just random. Still, weird…..

26 years ago today, an earthquake hit the Bay Area. I was in Portland, Oregon at the time so I had no experience other than worrying about my friends and family. How many of you guys were here when it went down? Any strong memories?

27 years and one day ago, an injured Kirk Gibson dragged his ragged bones off the bench to hit one of the most dramatic home runs in baseball history. Yesterday, the Mets eliminated the Art Dealers from the post season.

Lots of things happened in between those 2 events……

There’s a bunch of websites that show “this day in history.” I was looking up 1988 and they have notable info for every day of the year. I didn’t go through the entire year, but this was the best one I found, by far:

Oct 26th – Donald Trump bills Mike Tyson $2,000,000 for 4 month advisory service

4 months? What could he have possibly advised Mike Tyson about for 4 months?

So yesterday we learned that Canadians shouldn’t be allowed to drink at baseball games. Seriously, how many Molson Golden’s do you have to fire down before you decide it’s a good idea to trash your field over a call you were wrong about in the first place? Bautista didn’t do much to kill the fire with that ridiculous bat flip. It was actually a bat throw. Encarnacion should be commended for how he tried to restore order. Whatever, if I was looking for a reason to root against Toronto, I found one…..

Bummed to be missing the Met game tonight (will listen to some of it at the tailgate on the radio) but I’ll be at the Stanford/UCLA game. Huge, huge game for the Cardinal tonight. I’m really excited to see Josh Rosen live. Blitz the shit out of him the way ASU did, that seems the best way to go. He’s a huge talent but he’s young and he was clearly rattled in the game they just lost at home to ASU……

The Cardinals and their 100 regular season wins have been bounced from the post season and I wonder how often that happens. I’m not gonna look it up. Just wonder about it. How often does the team with the most regular season wins NOT make it to the World Series?

Disappointing but predictable ending for the Mets. Kershaw can finally spell his name properly again. Goodie for him.

deGrom can still pull this off. He’s a beast and even going against a fellow beast it could come down to a single hit that sends the Art Dealers to the couch. I still believe the Mets can do this……

More fun games to watch yesterday. The Cubs banged out just shy of a billion home runs into the wind tunnel at Wrigley. The Mets came back from down 3 to destroy the Art Dealers 13-7. Now Two Trips is scrambling for answers and Kersha goes today.

I missed the first 2 games because of work but I can’t remember a post season not involving the Giants that I found so entertaining.

Let’s go Mets!

If you’re worried about Kersha pitching today, please refer to the POTD for re-assurance on a Mets W today……

I thought Kruk was gonna bust a gut this morning as he seethed about the Utley slide. Would he have seethed less if it wasn’t a Dodger? Doubt it. Kruk thinks he got suspended so that MLB can protect Utley from being attacked by a Mets fan. Kruk’s world view is skewed and dull.

Since he’s been suspended I don’t expect any retaliation. The only guy who deserves to get popped is Utley. What good does it do to hit A-Gone? The only time it makes even a little sense to hit a position player who didn’t have anything to do with a retaliation play is if it’s an AL pitcher who started it.

And there’s is NOW WAY Harvey hits someone today. He’d be tossed from the game immediately, as would Collins. The time for retaliation will come, Utley will get a fastball in the ribs, probably next Spring Training.

Either way, pretty excited to watch this game tonight……

Tired of hearing about how Utley *plays the game hard* and how he brought a bunch of *Philly toughness* with him to LA. That’s all bs. Guys in the mob play pretty hard too, that doesn’t make what they do right. And something no one has been able to explain to me: how was Utley declared safe when he never touched the bag at any point during or after that assault on Tejada?

Krukow lamely explained away the Kang broken leg by saying Kang hadn’t played mlb long enough to know about jumping out of the way. I wonder how he would justify what Utley did?

What Dodgers blog do you guys go to when you re-post those sad-sack, depressing, nervous, angry posts from their fans? Because I can’t believe they were too stoked to see Kersha come out in the 7th at 113 pitches. Isn’t he your dominant beast? And don’t you have like the worst bullpen in the land?

DeGrom’s performance was *Timmy-like* vs Atlanta although incredibly he had 14 K’s, one more than deGrom, in his masterpiece. Lincecum had 43 strikeouts in the 2010 postseason and this image of him is my favorite from any sport, from any time period…..

just below him, Velez can be seen 50 years in the future on his front porch telling the neighborhood kids about the time he won a World Series and what a bomb-ass stud Tim Lincecum was……

All the road teams are winning. Can you imagine that happening in football or basketball? Why is it easier to win on the road in baseball than those other 2 sports? Is it because baseball is just a slower, quieter game where the fans don’t have the same type of influence as they do in football and basketball?

Anyone have thoughts about this?

Pirates fans have got to be getting a little tired of this. They show up positively bursting and for the second year in a row, they get utterly shut down.

I love the 1 game wild card and for those who think it’s unfair, don’t forget the Giants won 103 games in ’93 and never had the opportunity that the Pirates have had the last 2 years…..

Let’s see if the Blue Jays can keep their sphincter’s loose and their bats hot.

Yikes, I can’t believe I just wrote that.

Not much fun to be a Yankee fan these days, right? They looked old and disinterested last night. I wonder if CC saw the game? It was cool to see the Astros celebrate like kids on the field after the final out was secured.

Quick comment on this fantasy sports *scandal*. There is a lot of misinformation out there starting with using the term “insider trading.” I am familiar with Ethan Haskell (the draftkings employee at the center of this controversy). I’ve followed him on twitter for over a year and have had several exchanges with him on that site about various sports topics. Huge Boston sports fan. Has always seemed sharp to me, despite his dumbass appearance.

To win big in a fantasy sports tournament you need to have a bunch of low owned players produce big results. It’s really that simple. Any dipship can build a roster with an outfield of Harper, Trout and McCutchen. But those guys will eat up most of your salary. All the rest of your players will be bargain basement prices and those are usually the lowest owned players on a daily basis. And they have to produce as well. At issue is whether Ethan, a draftkings employee, had an unfair advantage by knowing who the lowest owned players would be on a given day and whether he began using them to score in big tournaments. A couple of weeks ago he finished 2nd in a big tournament at fanduel and won $350K. He also did very well this Summer in other large field tournaments.

Here’s what no one is talking about: if you truly know how to play fantasy sports, it’s really not that hard to predict ownership percentages. It’s actually a skill you need to have to be successful. If Blade were still in the country he could tell you about a text exchange he and I had earlier this Summer. I told him that as a daily practice I pick 10 random baseball players and try to predict what their ownership % will be that day in a tournament. It’s something I got very good at doing, usually coming with 2-5% of the actual number, often nailing it cold.

Here’s another point: most players are low owned and it’s not that hard to figure out why that is or who they are going to be. It is much harder to play them and have them produce big results for you.

Final point is that if you CAN’T reasonably predict ownership percentages you probably shouldn’t be playing daily fantasy sports in the first place. And if I know this premise to be true, then Mr. Haskell didn’t really have the advantage that some people say he had. It certainly shouldn’t be considered “insider trading.” The truth is, like many professional daily players, he’s good at his job. And there are a lot of players making a lot more money than he is who don’t work at a fantasy sports site who are just very good at predicting ownership percentages on a daily basis. Also, and I can’t stress this enough, they are good at picking low ownership players who PRODUCE. Again, anyone could plug Kevin Frandsen into a line up and congrats to you, you nailed a low owned guy! Now watch your team finish last in the tournament you play…..

I do believe Haskell was using his knowledge of player ownership % to build his line ups but it guaranteed him nothing. Those players still had to perform. Additionally, I believe reform is needed and the easiest thing would be to ban employees from playing for money at any site. I think a lot of employees would quit because this is their livelihood but it wouldn’t be difficult to restock the industry with people who just want to work at the site and not play professionally.

Those are my 2 cents and believe me I know what I’m talking about regarding this issue…….

Yahoo has a headline this morning that says “Who Is the Year’s Madison Bumgarner?”

Uh, yeah, good luck with that…..

I couldn’t be less interested in the mlb playoffs this year, for obvious reasons. Maybe I’ll peek in on them at some point and the juices will start to flow. Or not. We’ll see…..

“Who is this year’s Madison Bumgarner?”

I tell ya, Yahoo can crack a good joke, can’t they?

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I don’t get this Sabathia thing, like, at all. How much was this dude drinking that he had to quit right this instant? Wait a week, maybe even just ONE GAME, then disclose it. Unreal, stupid timing. And I’m not trying to be insensitive, but this guy couldn’t be more selfish with the timing of this.

We could fire off our predictions for the post season but I also thought this was an interesting post last night from Snarkk:

Shocking. Pat Murphy will not return to manage the Pads.
There will be a good handful of manager spots open this off season. If Wotus doesn’t get one of those this year, it seems more unlikely he ever will. How much longer is Bochy going to manage? Who is on the short list to take over from him? Wotus? Decker? Rags wouldn’t get it, would he?…

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I would guess that Wotus would get the job but that worries me since he’s been passed over so many times. I guess that’s not a major concern since GM’s make so many bad managerial hires. Still, I’ve listened to him for years on KNBR and nothing about him stands out. Marty Lurie calls him *the professor* on his radio show but he’s never taught me anything I didn’t already know……

Here are the current odds to win the WS (with my adjusted line in parenthesis).

Toronto 3-1 (2-1)

Royals 5-1 (12-1)

Cards 5-1 (9-1)

Shit Fucks 6-1 (2-1)

Mets 6-1 (10-1)

Cubs 12-1 (15-1)

Pirates 12-1 (8-1)

Rangers 12-1 (6-1)

Yanks 14-1 (20-1)

Astros 16-1 (20-1)

I think Toronto is too loaded offensively to not get past the boring teams that made the AL playoffs. And the bottom line is that the Dodgers have the 2 most dominant pitchers in the league. Arizona won a WS with that method. Odds will obviously change after the WC stuff gets sorted out. Pretty hard to predict any of them would win since the game they play to *get in* is a coin flip…….

Here’s a lame stat to choke on while you’re eating breakfast this morning:

Only Duffy and Crawford have more HR’s at AT&T this year (7 each) than Nolan Arenado (6 in 7 games). That stat goes out to everyone who says it’s really, really hard to hit home runs at AT&T…

So where are we with Hesto Presto? Because I’m starting to think that the more expensive version of him (Leake) would be the better route to take next year. I’m kidding. Sort of.

Still can’t believe Duffy won the WM Award. And that Loo called it. 35 years, no rookies win the award. What must that say about how his teammates view him? The Duffman is a keeper……

A Flapper becomes a Clapper….

I was at the game tonight, early. Pretty good turnout for the Willie Mac Award ceremony, maybe 50% of the stands full. And Willie’s proud announcement of Duffy’s name sparked a genuine roar of approval. A bit of surprise and a lot of respect fueled that roar. We stood cheering for a long time.

The airwaves have been dominated the last 24 hours with Affeldt sound saying goodbye. Both Bay Area teams bent over backwards to say goodbye to Huddy and Zito. Saying goodbye is important.

So why aren’t we getting to say goodbye to Timmy? He’s in town. He’s in uni. Is it just because there’s a chance we re-sign him?

I’ve got both thumbs pointed down on signing Timmy. Enough already. Healed hip or not.

I just want to see him wave goodbye. Is that so wrong?

That “gamer” Mike Leake is coming out of the fog he’s been in to finally start his free agent contract drive. Here’s hoping he gets all he can get….from the Dodgers. On KNBR this morning they played some sound from Leake last night. He kept referring to *them* and *the Giants*. Seems like a hell of a team guy. Not.

We won our 83rd game last night. Vegas had our over/under at 84 to start the season. Without all these concussions we likely would have blown past that number last week.

Checking the run differential, it’s hard to miss what Toronto is doing this year. +229 is the biggest diff I’ve ever seen. I’m sure it’s not a record, run diff isn’t something I pay a huge amount of attention to. But it’s still impressive……

Of course, I am talking about the 70’s sitcom. Remember that one? It starred Eddie Van Halen’s future ex-wife. It was about a divorced mother who was raising her 2 teenage daughters through all the grief the 70’s could throw at them. Truthfully, it was a below average comedy. Why did we watch it? Because it was on tv. And we had nothing else to do in the 70’s during prime time hours…..

The thing I disliked most about One Day at a Time was when they would try to tackle serious issues. Like one of the kids would get drunk and Bonnie Franklin would spend an entire scene crying her eyes out because she was a broke single mom and she didn’t know what else to do. Schneider, the affable, quirky handyman, would stand by, silent and awkward, watching her wail because this was something that a hammer and a nail just couldn’t fix.

I always felt worse after watching one of those serious episodes. Sad. Deflated. Wished I’d never seen it.

Of course, 3 decades later One Day at a Time was reincarnated in a new show called “Modern Family.” It had the same theme, a comedy about a family with an unusual family structure. The main difference between the two shows is that every scene in Modern Family is hilarious and they don’t spend a second tackling any serious social issues. Why? Because they’re all rich as fuck and they don’t have time for one-off serious drama scenes….

My point with all this sitcom talk?

I can’t bring myself to truly believe that the Giants have it in them to sweep the Dodgers. We simply don’t have the players to pull that off. But we do have the heart–something that beats much fainter in LA. These guys are playing with as much heart as any Giants team I’ve ever seen. So while I don’t believe we can sweep, I do believe we can win one….game…at…..a…..time.

One Day at a Time……

We’ve been gifted a surprise Game 7 today. If Bum can beat Kershaw we will have done the near impossible. We will have slayed their 2 headed beast back to back. And if we can do that, there is nothing to fear about Game 3 or 4.

So today is huge. And there is no other man I’d rather have take the hill for us.

One game at a time.

One day at a time……

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here’s a very cool, detailed photo of this epic catch. 483!

We’ve got a 0.1% chance of making the playoffs this year. That’s better than I thought. If we were able to sweep the Dodgers that would rank as one of the best things I’ve ever seen this team do. Maybe ranked right below the 3 world championships. One game at a time. “You could be walking around lucky and not even know it…..”

Hey, whatever happens, at least we aren’t the Nats. We don’t have petulant children like Harper. We don’t have stranglers like Papelbon. And our manager isn’t….well, you know……

Funny note about Williams and his sinking ship: He said he didn’t know the severity of the fight because he was on the other side of the dugout. Just how big is this dugout? A mile long? Was Williams asleep during the fight? He was probably doomed before the fight but he will get his proper firing at the end of the season. Guaranteed…..

I’m no Harp fan but I support him, to a degree, on this. Pap didn’t yell at him because he didn’t hustle, he yelled at him for the comment Harp made to the press the previous day about questioning Pap hitting Machado. Pap was looking to embarrass Harp the way he perceived to have been embarrassed by Harp in the press the day earlier. That’s stupid. And what exactly did Harper do wrong? He was at first base when the ball got caught. This wasn’t a ground ball that could have been misplayed, it was a lazy pop up. How often do those get dropped? It’s September, everyone is tired, I don’t see the point in running like a maniac out of the box on a lazy pop up with the 0.1% chance that the left fielder drops it and you give yourself a chance to make it to second base……

Sadly, I won’t see it. NFL today.

I am hoping we push our elimination to the Dodger series. Make them earn it. And if they win, so be it. It would have bugged me pre-2010 to watch the Dodgers celebrate a divisional crown at our expense but not anymore. #3in5 has everything to do with that. Good luck with their #1inlast27

That bomb he hit to center field….you just don’t magically hit them there. That was a monster blast. I’m trying to figure out what’s wrong with this guy. Drafted in the 2nd round of 2010, he’s 26 now, always shown good pop in the minors. And yet he’s just now getting a shot?

He’s tall and long, maybe that’s his problem. Easy to get inside on him? If he put on 20 pounds I wonder how far these monster blasts would travel?

Time to admit that we were all wrong about Leake. Everyone said that was a great pick up and he’s been a total dud—at least in terms of signing him to a big deal. Don’t want this guy. Already have him under control in the body of Heston…..

In case you missed it, here is the 24 seconds of the stare down between Bum and Joe West. this is pure gold. I’ve never seen anything like this on a baseball field.

My favorite part is Posey punching his glove a couple of times and then just looking back and forth at West and Bum like he was the 3rd wheel on their blind date……

Hey– meant to get a thread out. Actually thought I did.

Anyway, I missed the game yesterday but based off your comments from the last thread it sounds like it was less than optimal. Kuip was on the morning show and said he sat with Bochy for 15 minutes after the game and that Boch was straight pissed at how our relievers pitched some of the Padres.

Must have been a frustrating game to watch.

I’m 100% West Coast and nearly 5 decades younger than Yogi, but I know enough to tip a 2-Flap up salute to the life and career of this man. Most of what I know about him I learned from the radio driving into work today.

He was part of the Normandy Invasion. He won 3 MVP’s and 10 World Series. That’s Buster Posey X 3.

I read a tweet from his daughter earlier this year. It was a picture of Yogi dressed to the nines in his Yankee gear. He had a huge smile on his face. Caption read something like “Game doesn’t start for 7 hours but dad is dressed and ready to go as usual”.

He’s a baseball hero. RIP.

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Also learned on the radio today: Giants were 6 out with 12 to play in ’51

You guys that play fantasy league ball — this is basically gambling gone legit, right?
What is the chance, if any, of the money in this driving some sort of player scandal? Can players be tainted or at least tempted to do something or stop doing anything (that is not legal) that some fantasy league players(s) would like to see to see happen or not happen?…

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No, I don’t consider it gambling the same way I see poker as gambling. There is skill involved with poker but I think far more luck than in DFS. Regarding a scandal, Blade covered it at the end of the last thread. Looking at it the other way, DFS players influencing players in the game, I don’t see that ever happening. The risk would be too great for the player, the gain not enough.

I do wonder about DFS cheating by trying to shut down entire games. For instance, a couple of years ago Fanduel had their million dollar baseball tourney (winner got a milly) and there was a water main break in Colorado. The guy that won that day faded all of the Colorado players and the guy that WOULD have won had the game played had like 4 Colorado players. He finished second. I always wondered about the chances of foul play that day. I don’t know how hard it would be to cause a water main break/problem but it stands to reason that if someone had the means and a shady side to him that he’d do it to win a million bucks. A more simple plan would be to call in a bomb threat or something like that. Because remember, if you could shut a game down then all the players that day do not accrue fantasy stats for that day. Still, you’d have to hit on all the other players you have who do play so there’s no *fix* there that I can see……

Regarding a player playing DFS and starting himself in a line up: What could they really do? Swing for the fences instead of taking a walk? Steal an extra bag? Even if they did that the stat bump would be pretty inconsequential to their *team*. They’d have to have other guys in on it and again, that would blow my mind if it turns out a bunch of players all get together to try to pad stats for a fantasy game they’re playing that evening…….

Looking like Huddy vs Zito on Saturday actually might happen. Do any of you care even a little bit about seeing this come together?

The last time the Giants scored a run: Wednesday night against the Reds. 7th inning. For those not keeping score, today is Sunday. Way back when, according to the box score, 000 tripled to deep center and Specs came in to score. That was the same game Peavy hit a home run. His first in 9 years. Unconfirmed report: that is also the exact same amount of time that has passed since the last time we scored a run…..

I choose not to comment on losing 2-nada to the Dirrrrrrty Snakes.

Today is probably the first time in my life that I am going to watch a Cal game where they aren’t playing Stanford. I am legitimately interested in seeing how they do. Goff is the real deal, I think, and it’s time to find out where the Bears stand against real teams.

And then Stanford will be getting blown out by USC later tonight…..

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Baseball question: Is there a team you are going to be rooting for in the post season? Or are you not interested if the Giants aren’t in it?

I’d like to see The Pirates play the Blue Jays in the world series. Two fun teams to watch…….

Last night I texted San Dawg that I get more than a little irritated if my can of Tinactin runs out….

I can’t even imagine if my home was destroyed in a fire…..

As most of you have probably heard, our Flap brethren Twinfan lost his home in the Valley Fire. He and his wife, as best I can tell, are staying in a shelter somewhere near Calistoga.

One day you’re living your life in your house dealing with day to day problems. The next day you have no house and no place to stay and everything you had is now gone. I just can’t even imagine what they’re going through.

Let’s hold them in our best thoughts and hopefully this some how works out for them.

What is up with all these pitchers hitting home runs? Bum you expect. But then Voggy goes oppo. Freaking Hudson hits one. And now Peavy rakes out his 3rd career bomb?

His revival this year has been epic.

Zito vs Hudson looming?

The only good thing about last night was that we were all ready so far back in the standings it really didn’t matter if we win or lose. Because otherwise, that one would have hurt. But the Dodgers DID lose in 16 innings so it was a little irritating that we couldn’t close the gap.

Everyone talks about getting it to 4.5/5.5 games for the Dodger series but with 1/3 of our starters spittin’ seeds from the dugout that 4 game series would be more frustration than gratification.

Doesn’t matter. We couldn’t even put the Reds away. Still stuck a long way from first place……

Why the heck not?

Hest by Hest vs a lefty I’ve never heard of.

Giddy up

Back in the day, you’d root for your favorite players and you never wondered who they were you just looked at them and knew.

After free agency started revving up, the cynical fan talked about having to root for laundry. A’s fans are the poster fans for this.

But I’m looking at these new Niner uni’s and feel like I can’t even root for laundry anymore.

What is THIS?

Apparently I am rooting for the Texas Tech Red Raiders tonight……

Forget “red and gold till I’m dead and cold.” Now it’s “red and black and Kap just took another sack. I want the old uniforms back.”

After a train wreck off season and now these hideous uniforms to open 2015 the word “rooting” isn’t going to have the same meaning either…….

Go Giants.

NFL…..

But still….

Go Giants.

Out and About today. You guys hold down the fort with the dignity and class that this place is known for.

Bahahahahaha!!!!!!

Oh boy, the college football and pro football come fast and furious this weekend. I’m bummed the Giants are out of it but what are you going to do? I’m happy to continue basking. Although you don’t want to bask too long, right? If you do, all of a sudden you look up and your last world series ring looks like this:

I know I posted this before but it still makes me laugh quietly to myself…..

Also, if you ever find yourself looking longingly back at the 70’s, check out this ad….

This comment says it all:

Noonan, Williams, Perez = easiest save in MLB history.

When you’re running those 3 chumps out there, either strung together or spread out across baseball time continuum, your team is in trouble. I’m not really down on this year, but the reality is we just don’t have enough major league players to make a run in September. Not news, I know, but…..

we needed a new thread.

🙂

So of COURSE Huddy pitches a gem and hits a bomb (4th of his career). Why wouldn’t he? This team plays backwards. Wins when you expect it to lose, lose when you expect it to win. Glad I don’t bet on baseball.

Unfortunately, the Dodgers also get to play bad teams right now and they aren’t missing.

So games like last night are fun and to be enjoyed. And Huddy, that’s your big send off, ok?

I thought it was funny when Angel Hernandez and all the umpires forgot the count. I’m fairly confident that a robot umpire would have gotten that call correct. We are so far past due robot umpire time it’s getting silly.

Boy, if we could all have as nice of a Labor Day as the Giants, right? Show up to work, get paid, but do no work. That’s how the true wise guys stay ahead of working stiffs like you and me…….

Leake came up ant-small but it didn’t really make a difference since we continue to have trouble driving runs in. When Jackson Williams is your starting catcher, otherwise known as “The Human White Flag”, you know your season is toast.

Who wants to get a look at Clayton Blackburn? I do. He’s got a tidy 2.84 ERA in AAA this year, impressive considering all the bandboxes and altitudes that come into play in that league. Well, you don’t get to see him. You get fucking Huddy. Apparently, his is a tale that has yet to be told…….

Enjoy……..

In San Francisco they worry about whether or not Buster Posey is getting enough rest. In New York, Matt Harvey and his snake agent huddle together wondering if he’s going to turn into a Spinal Tap drummer once that 180th inning falls.

Happy Labor Day? I think not.

Let’s rewind to 1976. Tommy John just came off the surgery he’d become famous for. Now, obviously there have been some improvements over the years in how that surgery is done. That first one was probably done with a rusty butter knife and a half a bottle of cheap whiskey to kill the pain.

What did John do his first year back? He went 10-10 and pitched 207 innings. That was for a Dodger team that finished 10 games back in the standings to the Reds. Four of the 5 LA starters went over 200 innings that year….

I picked a random year (1970) and here were the top 10 innings leaders:

With a few starts left for each, here are today’s leaders:

We all know it’s a different game today with pitching specialists and pitch counts and nervous managers afraid to leave anyone in for too long. But being Labor Day I thought it would be nice to give a shout out to the pitchers from back in the day who, you know, pitched. Today’s pitchers have every advantage imaginable over guys who pitched in the 70’s—Technology. Diet. Conditioning. They have like 10 new pitches to throw. They have it all. And yet not a single one of them would be able to crack that list I posted from ’70.

Hope Posey got his 10 hours last night…….

Harvey is now saying he’s going to pitch in the post season (assuming the Mets make it). Why didn’t he just say that in the first place? Public pressure is probably not the best guide for your career. If I was Gaylord Perry I would be laughing long and loud at guys like Harvey…….

Go get ’em……

Pretty locked in with college football today. To be honest, watching all that scoring will be a welcome relief from having to watch the Giants offense operate at glacial pace.

Cardinal…..

Last night didn’t surprise me at all. Coming off an emotional beat down, the team didn’t get to sleep until 5am Denver time. Their VMI number was terrible and they were facing a team that had the luxury of having been in Colorado acclimating for at least the previous series. Sprinkle some Voggy in there and you get an 11-3 drubbing…….

Today might not be much better. Chris Heston is going to get pummeled. And while De La Rosa is no Kershaw, he definitely knows how to pitch in Denver. Glimmer of hope: this is the 3rd straight left hander we’ve seen. Can we finally get to one of them today?

What am I missing? Why isn’t Petit starting today? Is he hurt? If he fails THEN you can bring in Heston or Huddy for mop up duty. But it seems to me that you go with the guy who doesn’t rely on his ball to sink for success. At least in Colorado.

I woke up this morning and smelled smoke. Not real smoke. Metaphoric smoke. I had hoped it was just Mike Winters smoking copious amounts of pole again. Unfortunately it was a fire and it had burned completely through. Nothing left standing. On the ground, smoldering ash. Not sure if we can rebuild.

Remember this epic movie line? “Her insides were a rocky place where my seed could find no purchase….” You can draw a jagged line from that quote to how I feel about this season. How I miss the “salad days”…..

It would be easy to target my venom at guys like 000 who seems to think tagging helmets with no heads in them is sound, fundamental baseball. And while he didn’t directly cost them the game, all I have to say is FUCK MIKE WINTERS. You’d think that after his obvious horrible call on DeAnza from Game 2 he would be a little remorseful, maybe even sheepish. But nope, there he was again making a horrible call and looking directly into Bochy’s eyes waiting for him to flinch before tossing him again. Seriously, is there ANY recourse to get this clown punished by the league?

Gonna hear a lot about *odd years* and *bad pennies* over the coming weeks. That’s misguided. Sabean got caught with his pants down this season. The roster was poorly constructed nearly from the beginning and now we are stuck with guys like 000 flinching at *Noonan!!!!* from the dugout and tagging headless helmets. He’ll now spend eternity being haunted by ghosts from basepaths past……

That is your 2015 Giants. Consider it an early epitaph.

Sinking, sinking, but not yet sunk.

Sure, the umps didn’t do us any favors but the bottom line is that Greinke was better than Bumgarner and even with that, this game was there for the taking. We simply didn’t get it done.

Kershaw is just a man, he can be beaten. I have decent confidence in Leake to make a game of it. Dodger hitters don’t scare me. I could easily see the Giants winning today. They almost have to.

It’s irritating that we aren’t pummeling a bullpen that everyone else pummels.

Not really sure what to say about that game except to honor those of you who stayed up to watch it.

Krukow said something interesting yesterday on KNBR. When asked about Agent 000 he said “Look, he’s not a major leaguer.” That’s a pretty blunt statement in public about a guy who has been a major leaguer for so much of the season. And look, he’s right. I’m going to try to remember that the next time 000 screws something up. It’s not his fault he’s on the team.

Somehow they have to win the next to games. Maybe *have to* is overstating it. But the calendar is dusty and worn. There are only so many games left in 2015……..