Lincecum Back To Back

Tim Lincecum won his second consecutive NL Cy Young award. This year's voting was very close and a bit controversial. Only three pitchers contended, and only five got any votes. Lincecum won despite Adam Wainwright gaining more first place votes. But Wainwright finished third. Chris Carpenter finished second, yet had fewer first place votes than the others. Carpenter's downfall was that two writers didn't even vote for him, which explains the single votes for both Vazquez and Haren.

But this wasn't an inside job, either, as I heard on the radio that neither of the two Bay Area writers gave Lincecum a first place vote.

When voting is this close, and it is obvious that all the contending candidates deserve to be considered for the top spot, then there shouldn't be any sour grapes upon losing. I would be content with any of these three winning, so no injustice was done. Of course, I wanted Lincecum to win because I'm a Giants fan. I'm used to awards and records, just not parades down Market Street or pitching awards.

In conclusion, congratulations Tim Lincecum!

7th Inning Jones

One of the more lighthearted heckling targets of the mid-80's left field bleacher scene in Oakland was a backup Kansas City outfielder named Lynn Jones. (alternate stat site) Jones gained a nickname amongst the bleacher faithful, coined by John if I remember correctly, due to his completely predictable use as a late inning defensive replacement. He simply played left field every game, but only at the end of the game. So, John gave him the nickname of "Seventh Inning Jones." We heckled him and let him know every game just where he stood; he was not a star or even a starter. Jones had little choice but to accept the label and be content with our antics. He even enjoyed the attention, so we let up a bit and he became one of the fun targets of our crew.

In fact, here is a string of box scores for five consecutive Royals games in Oakland in 1985 (#1, #2, #3, #4, #5), and two more at the end of 1986 (#4 and #5) that show Jones as a late inning left field replacement.

Phillies Fans Trump Yankee Fans

In my last post I asked about the state of Yankee fans who sit in the box seats. But, now I want to ask about Yankee fans living in other cities. I know all too well growing up with the Oakland A's as an American League team, that Yankee fans show up in droves to see their team play on the road. The very few times they've played in San Francisco shows the same thing.

This year's post season saw Yankee fans show up by the thousands at the Metrodome. And in a complete embarrassment to the Southern California mentality, they appeared to constitute at least a quarter - if not a third - of the total crowd in Anaheim. This is all normal stuff. But something changed in the World Series...

Yankee fans were hardly noticed in Philly. There weren't more than a few hundred, max. Why? My guess is that Philly fans were so hot about the World Series that ticket holders valued being at the Series far more than the market value of the tickets. Philly fans were so fanatic that they shut Yankee fans out of eBay and StubHub.

In San Francisco we had a similar experience for the entire 2000 season, the inaugural season of Pac Bell Park. Giants fans were so excited about the new ballpark that the entire season sold out in February - to Giants fans - so that there were almost no fans cheering for visiting teams all year. Including Dodger fans. So, I must say congratulations to Phillies fans. You really love your team.

Whither Yankees Fans?

I noticed somthing about Yankee fans this year, and I'm pretty sure the new ballpark has something to do with it. All year long, whenever I've seen a game on TV, the box seats looked half empty. I know the overpricing played a part. But during the post season, the same thing occurred in the ALDS and ALCS. If fans aren't going to show up due to overpricing of tickets, that's one thing. But when large numbers from the box seats are leaving early when the game goes into extra inninngs, then there's a problem.

Quality Post-Season Umpiring Needed

Calls for instant replay in baseball continue. Numerous instances of bad calls in the playoffs are highlighted with greater fervor and scrutinized with greater technology. I'm not going to address instant replay here, but rather focus on the quality of umpiring.

I'm not as concerned with bang-bang calls that could go either way. If it looked like he was safe, but the super slo-mo hi-def replay showed he was out by 1/4 inch, it's just not much to gripe about. What gets me is when two players are stuck at the same base, they both come off the base by five feet, the player with the ball tags both of them out while standing still, yet the umps screw up by not calling both of them out. Six umps are watching the same play, and not one of them can see the obvious? Why not have a conference then?

A great piece of ump teamwork was on the Rollins/Howard/Matsui double play. Rollins caught a bloop pop with his glove on the ground, then stepped on second and threw to Howard. The throw was wide, and Howard came off the bag with the batter/runner beating the throw. Matsui started walking off the field, and Howard tagged him. What to do? This play was logistically complicated. The replay showed that Rollins caught the bloop, but his stepping on second (just in case the ump blew the catch call) added confusion to the play. And even in the replay, Howard really did have his foot on the bag when he caught the throw. His heel came off first, but his toes were still on the bag when the ball hit his glove, even though he was in the process of coming off the bag. The TV announcers missed this. But he eventually tagged Matsui.

Here's how complicated this all was: Did Rollins catch the popup? How did this affect his stepping on second? How did this affect the play at first? Was his throw to get Matsui doubled up or the batter out? Did Howard need to tag Matsui? Did Howard get pulled off the bag? Did Matsui walk off the field because Rollins caught the ball in the air and doubled him off first or because he didn't but stepped on second base? Both Rollins and Howard made double efforts just in case the umps missed either call. Rollins touched second in case the umps missed his catch. Howard tagged Matsui in case the umps saw the catch because the umps might call him off the bag. But, all the umps were in on a conference and made the right call. Double play. Why didn't this happen for the two runners caught off third?

Getting the call right by using all umpires, if necessary, is where baseball needs to make its first improvement. It should be done at the slightest question of a call. If an ump blows a call and all the other umps see it, there should be no hesitation in reversing it. That's the way it works in my kid's soccer league, and there's no problem. When 50,000 fans, five umps, 50 players, a TV crew and two managers see things one way and a lone ump sees things another way, there should be no shame in admitting there might be a problem and help from others is welcome.

Five Hundred Posts

I've reached five hundred posts on this blog. I wanted to get the exact 500th, but somehow I missed it by about ten. Oops! I've enjoyed writing about baseball, and it seems like quite a bit more than 500 posts over the last 4 1/2 years. That's about 100 posts or so a year, or about one every three days or so. I'd love to increase that frequency, but will need to be in a writing groove in more of a writing environment to do so. Maybe that's my New Year's resolution for October.

1989 Earthquake Aftermath

In a previous post, I wrote about my experience the day the earthquake occurred. The days, weeks and months that followed were ones of confusion and waiting. Even controversy. It turned out that there were far fewer deaths in the freeway collapse than previously feared, as most people left work early to watch the World Series! My good friend Mike was one such non-casualty. At the time of the quake, he would have been on that freeway on his way home, but he was already at the game.

The Bay Bridge was out of commission for months as a replacement section had to be constructed. This was a major bridge with six figure vehicle traffic each day. A new freeway in Oakland took years to be built. The World Series was delayed (ten days eventually) as there was structural damage to Candlestick Park. Expansion joints were located below seating section stairways. The concrete steps crumbled, and fans could see the parking lot through the new holes. There was talk of relocating the Series to Los Angeles. Over the dead bodies of 62,000 Giants fans would their first Series in 27 years be played at Dodger Stadium! Some people felt that a sporting event was so insignificant in light of such a disaster that it should be cancelled altogether. Cooler heads prevailed as the structural damage was fixed, and game 3 was played at the 'Stick after all. It turned out to be what the Bay Area needed as therapy.

The quake stirred fans, as they showed up for the postponed game 3 wearing hard hats with their team logo. The A's swept the Giants, and decided that in light of the catastrophe, they would celebrate their victory in the locker room without alcoholic beverages.

Another friend of mine was driving on the Bridge at the time of the quake and collapse. He had just passed the section that would collapse. Then when he reached the joint between the bridge and terra firma, the buckled pavement scraped the underside of his car. Not knowing what happened, he pulled off and checked his car out. He looked back up the bridge, and there was no traffic whatsoever in an eerie sight.

Having two teams close by has always been a blessing for me. Getting to drive to every game is something few fans have ever claimed. The '89 quake and Series are things I will never forget.

Priceless

World Series Ticket: $200
Airfare: $595
Hotel: $95
Seeing Manny take a mulligan off the first tee shot tomorrow morning: Priceless

Phillies Have To Win

If the Phillies don't win the NLCS, then it's either the Dodgers and Angels in the World Series, or the Dodgers and Yankees. How could I watch either of these matchups?

EARTHQUAKE

Tuesday, October 17, 1989, 5:04pm, minutes before the start of game 3 of the World Series between the San Francisco Giants and Oakland A's. It registered 7.1 on the Richter scale. Just prior to this I was in the upper deck at Candlestick Park visiting some friends who also had tickets. I was on my way down the ramp to the lower deck, and was near the bottom of the ramp with a friend, who said, "Is that an earthquake?" I stopped, felt some shaking and looked down. My head was still but I could see the ground move several feet in each direction under me. Yes it was an earthquake, and a huge one. It shook for 45 terrifying seconds.

There were 62,000 fans there, and when the shaking stopped, there was dead silence. Everybody looked up and around. A few seconds later, a monstrous cheer erupted. Welcome to San Francisco! "We had an earthquake on national TV! Awesome! Welcome to California!" could be heard by many of the fans. No visible damage. We proceeded to the concession line to buy some goodies. Just then, the power went out. The cash registers were electric, so no change could be made because the drawers were stuck shut. The concessionaires took the next bill up. We made it back to our seats (seven rows behind home plate were where my season tickets were.) People were dazed and confused. The scoreboard and PA system were not working due to the power outage.

Players and police were out on the field. A chant of "Play Ball!" erupted from the crowd. Who needs a scoreboard? Scoreboard, schmoreboard. A fan just behind us had a Sony Watchman (remember those?) He said that the Bay Bridge had collapsed. This was simply unbelievable news. A few minutes later (how can you sense time when something like this happens?), a police car with a hand held mega phone blurred something out that sounded like Charlie Brown's teacher. We were all told to go home. Go home? This is the World Series!

Once out into the parking lot, we saw a TV news van with an open door. There were many television monitors, and since it was operating on battery power, we could see the damage being broadcast by the blimp. What we saw were truly horrific pictures. A section of the Bay Bridge collapsed. A freeway had pancaked on top of itself and miles of it were laying on the ground. A massive fire broke out in the Marina district. This was a major catastrophe.

The SFPD told fans to stay close to the stadium, as bridges were out. All the other bridges in the Bay Area were closed for inspection. We had to wait. We figured that we would be there a while, so we proceeded to a mini-mart at a neighboring RV park to buy some beer. We bought a case. The door was blocked by a table, as they didn't let people in. They took orders and made sales at the door. When we turned around to leave, there was a line behind us hundreds of people deep. Suddenly we got questions about where we got the beer. Not wanting to wait in line, people started bidding on our beer! We sold to the highest bidder and walked away with eighty bucks.

After quite a while of waiting, it was getting dark. Police were being called away because there was heavy looting downtown. It was at this point we got scared. We decided to make a run for it, and anticipated heavy traffic as we headed 50 miles down to San Jose to wrap around the bottom of the bay and up the other side another 70 miles home. It was the only way home without crossing a bridge. By the time we got to the San Mateo bridge, it was open. We hit a Denny's on the way home, and it was filled with fans who were talking about the event. I eventually got home at 1:30am.

I will never forget that day or the experience of that earthquake. Hundreds of people were feared dead from the freeway collapse. Some tourists from Connecticut managed to shoot some video from the collapsed section of the bridge, with the eerie sight of a car crashing to the deck below. The replacement section had a different paving surface, a constant reminder of that day. I will write more about this event, its aftermath and what happened in the postponement of the Series. [Update: a followup post can be found here]

1989 World Series and Earthquake

This week marks the 20th anniversary of the all-Bay Area World Series between the San Francisco Giants and Oakland A's, and the major earthquake that struck the Bay Area just minutes before game 3 at Candlestick Park. I was there. The World Series was more than major news here, and the earthquake caused much death and damage.

I'll be taking several posts to tell the story as I lived it.

The A's beat the Blue Jays in the ALCS, while the Giants took care of the Cubs in the NLCS. Ticket sales were simply unbelievable. Tens of thousands of tickets went on sale through a major ticket agency, and were sold out within a matter of hours. Approximately ten million calls were placed in a frantic attempt to buy tickets, jamming phone circuits. But this was no problem at all for me and some friends.

I already had Series tickets for the games in San Francisco, as I was a season ticket holder. But I pulled a major coup in accidentally discovering a back door into the ticket agency's phone system from trying to buy concert tickets months previously. The ticket agency was given a block of about a hundred phone numbers - in consecutive numerical order - by the phone company. A call to the main number, if busy, was rolled over to the next number, and so on. You received a busy signal only if all hundred lines were busy. I figured out that if I dialed a number up at the higher end of numbers, I could get in fairly easy, as higher numbers waited a fraction of a second for all the previous numbers to roll over. A direct dial on a higher number usually resulted in a connection.

So, out of the millions of phone calls made, a small five employee architecture firm was able to buy 2 percent of all tickets sold within a two hour period. I first bought my A's tickets, giving me tickets for all seven games. Other people in the office bought all their own personal tickets. We prepped for this coup by getting credit cards from friends, family, and everybody on our company softball team. We closed the office and made purchases until we ran out of friends' credit cards. We were swimming in tickets, and all of our friends were ecstatic at getting seats for the Series. Life was beautiful in October, 1989.

Coming Soon: Foul Balls and Fair

My family recently moved. As we packed, I came across my box of baseballs. I paused to go through them. I have a collection of balls over the years consisting of foul balls, home run balls, batting practice balls and other balls thrown up into the stands. The box is an empty motor oil case, full the top. Each ball had a piece of tape on it listing when and where (if I knew that info) I retrieved it.

I went through each one. I have fielded ten foul balls in four different ballparks and eight home runs in two ballparks. I put each one into a separate sandwich bag, as a few pieces of tape came loose. I was able to piece them back together based on the league president signature on each ball and when that president served crossed with the date on the piece of tape.

I'll be writing soon about each foul ball and home run ball I retrieved, plus other notable ones.

Frozen Division Series

With the other three series being sweeps, the already snow-delayed Phils/Rox series now has sole attention of everybody in baseball. If this thing goes five games with another delay or two, the other teams might just go into hibernation...

Note To Giants' Marketing Team:

We're still in this thing.

Go Phillies?

The Phillies are the only team in the playoffs that I don't have a problem with their winning the World Series. I hate, Hate, HATE the Dodgers. I hate the Yankees, Red Sox, Angels. I dislike the Cardinals and Rockies.

So, I'll root for the Phils. First, they're playing the Not-Giants in the NLDS.

[Update: In the comments section, shallowfrozenwater asks about the Twins. I noticed this after I posted it. Shows you where the Twinkies are in my thinking. They don't nearly exist. I don't like their stupid dome and their homer hanky World Series titles. So, they are the lesser of four evils in the American League. Phils/Twinks?]

Yet Another Post-Season Scheduling Absurdity

Okay, Major League Baseball has a bunch of idiots running the post-season scheduling. I've written about this before, here, here, here and here. And here and here.

What I never knew prior to this year is that the home field advantage team gets to choose which division series schedule to play in. They can make their decision up until one hour after the regular season is completed. So the Yankees got to choose, but with one problem. The regular season didn't end until the Twins/Tigers tie-breaker was completed - on Tuesday, due to a Vikings game on Monday Night Football. So the Yankees could screw the Red Sox by making them play the next day with a warning only hours before the game. The tie-breaker game went 12 innings. Instead, they chose to screw the winner of the tie-breaker by forcing them to take a red-eye to Yankee Stadium where they would play the next day on sleep they could get only on the plane.

Baseball desperately needs to get rid of the guess work and pre-schedule which divisions play which and who hosts which games. They also need to ditch the network time slot pecking order. I'd hate to be a team's traveling secretary in the month of October.

Saying Goodbye To Rich Aurelia

Today was the Giants last home game of the year. Long time Giant Rich Aurelia played his last home game today. Eleven of his fifteen years were spent wearing the orange and black. Richie was a fan favorite. He had a stellar 2001 along side a nuclear year by Barry Bonds, and a 2002 that saw him rack up 17 RBI in the post season. Back in the early 2000's, my brother-in-law sported a goatee and he looked a dead ringer for Richie. The resemblance was simply stunning. He even wore an Aurelia shirt for a while.

Rich will never be forgotten among Giants fans, and today they paid tribute with numerous standing ovations. His last at bat was followed by taking his position at short stop in the ninth inning. Manager Bruce Bochy pulled the class move by replacing him before the first pitch of the inning so he could be cheered as he came off the field. Nora had the tickets for today's game and we're sure she shed tears for fondness of Rich.

We will miss you, Rich.

We're Still In This Thing

Nevermind that the Giants are sucking and that not only are they far behind the Rockies in the wild card race, there are now three teams in front of them in that race. Nevermind that the elimination number stands at three. We're still in this thing.

On Booing Your Own Player

In a commentary about the booing of Benjie Molina, Grant at McCovey Chronicles explains what it means for fans to boo their own players:

At the risk of repeating myself, one of the most important things that fans and players alike can remember is this:

When fans boo players or curse them out, it is almost always an editorial comment on the decision by the front office or manager to put the player in the position he’s in.

There are exceptions, of course. Armando Benitez was just an unlikable tub of goo. There are players who don’t try their hardest, don’t run out groundballs, or who curse the fans out. Those players earn their boos. Most of the time, though, a player is getting razzed because he shouldn’t be out there. When Marvin Benard would break in, back, up, and then back again to run after a fly ball, the boos didn’t translate to "Marvin Benard is a bad human being, and I object to his presence on this planet", it translated to "Jeez, guys, can’t you scrounge up a better centerfielder?"

I tend to agree with this assessment. Does this apply to fans in Philadelphia?

Giants Loss Projection Through September 15

September 1 through September 15:

L 72-60, 74; W 73-60, 73; L 73-61, 74; W 74-61, 73; W 75-61, 73; L 75-62, 73; W 76-62, 73; L 76-63, 73; L 76-64, 74; L 76-65, 75; L 76-66, 75; W 77-66, 75; W 78-66, 74; W 79-66, 74.

Giants Pitching Is Changing The Timing Of Restroom Trips

When the Giants come to town, it's bye, bye, baby. So says the song. Historically, the Giants have been more of an offensive franchise than a pitching franchise. Mike and I were talking about this earlier this year. It's always been more exciting to watch the Giants hit. So, traditionally, both Mike and I have always watched the Giants bat and have planned our trips to the restroom while they were out in the field.

Now that the Giants couldn't hit their way out of Wrigley Field with the wind blowing out, but have the best - and most exciting - pitching staff in baseball, Mike and I have inverted our scheduling so that we hit the head when the Giants are at bat. Neither of us can bear to miss an inning with a Gigante on the mound. If they just happen to score while we're in the men's room, we can hear it on the radio.

Ballpark Drive-By's

Last weekend my family drove to San Diego for some time away. It was a bummer that the Padres weren't home, but the R&R was more important. (At the end of our trip they were up here in San Francisco. Hey, let's get home!) But, I did endeavor to make three ballpark drive-by's. On the way down, I turned off the freeway (I-5) a few blocks and drove up to the Dodger Stadium parking lot entrance in Elysian Park. The one next to the Police Academy - yes the one in the Hollywood comedy! There was a game that night, and we were a few hours early, and a line about 10 cars deep were there. We still got a good view from left field in across to the stands on the first base line.

Our four year old loves baseball, so he gawked in wonder as I said, "Here's Dodger Stadium, where the Dodgers play." Then about an hour later we passed Angels Stadium (or whatever they're calling it this year). It is clearly visible from the freeway (I-5), just a few blocks down the boulevard, but a bit obscured from recent construction. The "Big A" in the parking lot with the halo around it is very red and can't be missed.

And while in San Diego, we drove downtown and made several circles around Petco Park on the city streets. Tours were available, and the kids fun lot was open behind left field, but our plans couldn't include those. Mrs. Scott and I have a special place in our hearts for Petco Park, since we used to vacation in San Diego all the time (and I had several business trips there) and got to see the construction of it progress from dirt to a completed ballpark. We saw a game there in its opening year, 2004.

I love looking into the open end of ballparks and seeing the huge bowl of seats and decks, flags flying, light towers above. We also saw Angels Stadium on the freeway on our way home (a better view while driving north) and the top of Dodger Stadium is visible from the freeway going north. Even without a game, the drive-by's were fun.

Giants Loss Projection Through August 31

August 16 through August 30:

L 63-54, 75; W 64-54, 74; W 65-54, 74; W 66-54, 73; L 66-55, 74; W 67-55, 73; L 67-56, 74; L 67-57, 74; L 67-58, 75; W 68-58, 75; W 69-58, 74; L 69-59, 75; W 70-59, 74; W 71-59, 74; W 72-59, 73.

T-Shirt and Shorts at Night Game!

Last night at AT&T Park against Arizona, the Giants played a warm weather game. I wore a t-shirt and shorts all night, and even on the long walk back to the train station, it was perfectly pleasant to be out. After 25 years of having season tickets, I still have maybe a dozen t-shirt/shorts night games. It was hot here in the suburbs, about 100 degrees, and never knowing what it will be like in the city, I took a chance and wore shorts without bringing long pants. My gamble paid off. A night game in San Francisco is usually shirt/sweatshirt/jacket weather and you still freeze your butt off.

The Giants got killed, 11-0. I watched seven of those runs in two short concession stand visits on the TV monitors on the concourse, the three run outburst in the first inning and the four spot in the fifth. I guess it was better than being in my seat for the punishment.

L - Sabean

Nuff said.

Throw Back Days

Back when I was much more of a baseball traditionalist, I liked those "turn back the clock" days, where old uniforms or old ways of doing things were put into play at a particular game. But not really anymore. I saw an A's/White Sox game recently that had throwback uniforms to 1929, a year the A's won the Series. The granddaughter of Connie Mack and grandson of Jimmy Foxx threw out first pitches.

The uniforms were interesting to look at, but when I looked at the total picture, it wasn't a real throwback attempt. Only the jerseys and pants were throwback. It just didn't look authentic because the uni's were polyester, not flannel with the right bagginess, and the players had their Nike swoosh spikes on, the A's wore their contemporary white shoes. Players also used modern gloves, had helmets, wore shin guards, arm guards, batting gloves, and other modern trappings. And I hate those throwback games where the current helmets are used if they don't fit the uniform. This game, the A's at least used blue helmets with a lone white "A" logo, like it was in 1929.

But the ones that are even worse are those games that use minor league uniforms or other past teams. Watching the highlights on SportsCenter is useless to identify those teams. If somebody broke some all time record or threw a no-hitter during one of those games, I'd hate to see endless replays of somebody who had to be explained every time. Oh, he threw a perfect game, but they were wearing minor league uni's in tribute to something or other.

The Worst Umpired Series Ever?

This last week's Giants/Dodgers series in San Francisco has to be the worst umpired series I have ever seen. Numerous calls were completely blown by the umpires. Not just bang-bang plays that happened to be wrong, but obvious plays. The announcers commented on this all series long. It was a nationally covered story.

The third game of the series had all the blown calls going against the Giants. Giants announcer Duane Kuiper recounted that Dodger announcer Rick Monday leaned into the Giants booth and said, "Oh-for-five." A play in the first game of the series had a throw to the first baseman dropped, then he stepped off the bag to retrieve the ball, the runner crossed the base and was called out. Amazing.

In the third game, 1) Manny Ramirez was picked off first, and called safe. 2) Pablo Sandoval was plucked on the arm trying to get out of the way of a pitch. The pitch was a foot inside, and the umpire not only didn't call it a hit-by-pitch, he called it a strike. Sandoval even started out toward the pitcher and both benches cleared. 3) and 4) were two blown calls on the same play. A grounder to second resulted in Sandoval being tagged out in the base path on his way to second base. Only one problem with the tag, the ball wasn't in the second baseman's glove but in his right hand while being thrown to first base. The second base ump called him out, but the first base ump overruled the call mid-play, and the ball was thrown late to first, and the batter was safe by a half step. But, the first base ump was so distracted by overruling the other ump, he blew his own call. Both runners were clearly safe, yet it was almost called a double play. And 5), in the ninth inning, a ground out to short had the Dodger runner out by a half step, yet the ump called him safe.

During this game, both Bruce Bochy and then acting manager Ron Wotus were tossed from arguing. Although none of the outcomes of the games were affected, the fifth blown call in the ninth cost Tim Lincecum both the win and a complete game. I wonder what the worst umpired game ever is?

WHOA, WHOA, WHOA!!!!

Unbelievable! While finishing typing the last paragraph, I witnessed two consecutive horribly blown calls on the A's/White Sox game on TV. A White Sox batter was out by a half step at first base, but called safe, and the A's argued the call [Update: I watched the replay, and not only was the runner out, he never even touched first base!]. Then the runner tried to steal second base and was thrown out as the runner over slid the base by several feet. The ump called him safe, saying the fielder shoved him out of the base path, and A's manager Bob Geren was thrown out for arguing. THE UMPIRE WAS THE SAME CREW CHIEF OF THE GIANTS/DODGER SERIES that blew all those calls last week. Gary Darling.

Unbelievable. Sandy Alderson, where are you?

Giants Loss Projection Through August 15

August 1 through August 15:

W 57-47, 73; W 58-47, 73; L 58-48, 73; W 59-48, 73; W 60-48, 72; L 60-49, 73; W 61-49, 72; L 61-50, 73; L 61-51, 74; L 61-52, 75; W 62-52, 74; L 62-53, 75; W 63-53, 74.

New Profile Photo

I've added a new profile photo to my blogs. This photo was a professional headshot produced by my friend Deb Wat. The photo shoot was a very interesting process, and Deb is a true professional. Her objective for this shot was to draw me out of my element as a writer. I think it came out great, and my family and friends agree. Check out her site at Deb Wat Photography.

I Got A Foul Ball, Then One Got Me

I got a foul ball in Friday night's Giants/Reds game at AT&T Park. A few minutes later, just one pitch after hanging up my cell phone conversation telling Mrs. Scott all about it, another scorching line drive came to the row just in front of me, and after leaning in over the ladies' heads in front of me (they duck and cover their heads, always, and are thankful for the chivalrous gentlemen around them who bring gloves) to glove it, a fan two rows in front deflected it slightly just as I was going to catch it, so I took it square off the bicep and another fan several rows up snagged it.

The ball I got landed about five seats in the next section across the aisle, about three rows back. I always play for a crazy bounce or series of bounces and flying bodies. Having aisle seats makes it easy to cover about ten rows because the aisle steps are clear, just zip up or down. This ball bounced off about four people, trickled down a row, then some huge guy from my section jetted across the aisle and belly flopped over a woman's lap, she just sitting there on the opposite aisle seat. It somehow got through him and out into the aisle. A ball in the aisle is my cue. Another guy piled on the squirting ball, but butter fingered it down a row into my waiting hands.

This was my tenth foul ball in my life. Double digits now. I've updated my baseball resume to reflect this fortune.

I was at the game with Mike, and he was getting food at the time. Even though the season tickets are mine, and I sit on the aisle seat, Mike made up a rule some years ago that if I'm late to the game, he gets the aisle seat. He needled me for this. So upon his return to his seat, he found the ball in his cup holder. I got the ball even though I wasn't actually in the aisle seat. Back atchya.

This wasn't the only crazy thing that happened this night, so in another post, I'll describe the other wild things that took place. It was really just one of those nights.

Luck Statistics

Over a 162 game season, everything averages out. Right? Well, I wonder. With both an imbalanced schedule and an asymmetrical one, how is the schedule fair to all teams? Let's compare the schedules of the Marlins and Mets. Since interleague play was introduced, each team's "rival" team (the other league's intra-metro or intra-state team they play six games against) is the Rays and Yankees respectively. Aside from last year, the Marlins have had probably a built-in two game advantage in only playing the hapless Rays as opposed to a near dynasty Yankees.

But other invisible things are real, and it would be interesting to see the following statistics. Like stats that show how hot or cold each opponent is when your team plays them. Say a team is good but they've had the bad luck of playing more of the teams - even the mediocre ones - while they were hot. Or in a slump. Maybe there could be a stat for winning percentage of opponents in the previous five games (or other number) before playing them.

Or what about stats that show how each team fares in facing other teams' starting rotations? The standard series in baseball is a three-game series, with some two- and some four-game series. But the standard rotation is a five-man rotation. Each team hits or misses the ace and second man in the rotation each series. What if some teams hit slightly more aces of other teams, and some teams fewer? How could this affect the final standings? Let's say the Mets hit the Yanks' aces each interleague series, while the Fish hit the bottom of the Rays' rotation each time, and the Marlins finished a game ahead of the Mets in the standings? Maybe the Mets hit the Nationals while in a slump three times, while the Marlins hit them while hot two times?

What if a World Series winner was just an above average team that had a bunch of breaks, or a great team hit a bunch of brick walls? Bill James, you out there?

Giants Loss Projection Through July 31

July 17 through July 31:

49-40, 73; 49-41, 74; 50-41, 73; 50-42, 74; 50-43, 75; 50-44, 76; 51-44, 75; 52-44, 74; 52-45, 75; 52-46, 76; 53-46, 75; 54-46, 75; 55-46, 74; 56-46, 73; 56-47, 74.

If The Season Ended Today

If the regular season ended today, here would be the playoff teams:

AL East: New York Yankees
AL Central: Detroit
AL West: LA Angels of Anaheim
AL Wildcard: Boston

NL East: Philadelphia
NL Central: St. Louis
NL West: Los Angeles Dodgers
NL Wildcard: San Francisco

The first round of playoffs would be: Anaheim vs. Boston, New York Yankees vs. Detroit, Philadelphia vs. San Francisco and Los Angeles vs. St. Louis.

League championship series could very well be the two greatest rivalries in baseball history: Yankees/Red Sox and Dodgers/Giants.

Now, that's what I'm thinking about. How about Giants over Yankees in the Series?

Cooperstown, Steroids and Bill James

Baseball stats entrepreneur Bill James, famous for his invention of new statistics and his ability to judge player ability based on those stats, has at long last commented on how steroids in baseball relates to the Hall of Fame. Read the four page .pdf file here. He believes that as we progress into the future, steroids will become a non-issue with respect to the Hall of Fame. He makes five basic arguments, in essence:

1. Steroids essentially keep us young. Many people outside of sports are taking these, and most people in the future will be doing so as well as life-lengthening drugs evolve. With society using them, they will look back on our time and wonder what the fuss was all about. The steroids users of today will be looked at as pioneers of a better life.
   
2. Some players who used steroids will make the Hall. Once these are discovered, an argument will arise to let the others in as well who were shunned.
3. History is forgiving, and statistics endure. He uses arguments from other players' faults and how they are viewed over time.
4. Old players play a large part in the Hall of Fame debate. They will not likely divide their ex-teammates into "users" and "non-users."
5. For the longest time there were no baseball rules against steroids, if there were they weren't enforced, and with a majority of players using them, was it really "cheating"? How then could players be kept out? And a great quote: "With the passage of time, more people will come to understand that the commissioner’s periodic spasms of self-righteousness do not constitute baseball law."
   

I agree with his assessment and have held many of these sentiments for a while now. James doesn't say all of these things by moral conviction, necessarily, but by how the future will shape the argument as time passes.

In addition to what James contends about baseball's Hall of Fame, I think the same thing will occur with respect to the use of these types of drugs, whether by athletes or not, and the decriminalization of drugs will follow.

Another thing I think should be debated. If a majority of players were taking steroids, who had any advantage over who? Who had the advantage when Bonds went to bat against Clemens? If pitchers were using steroids to be better pitchers, why did offensive statistics increase during the "steroids era?" Could the statistical change be due to other factors? With the Manny Ramirez issue, it is clear that performance enhancing drugs are still widespread, especially the ones undetectable by currently enforced urine tests.

Give the article a read. I think James has enough influence on baseball that the debate will change as a result.

Rickey Number Thirty Nine?

With the Rickey Henderson Hall of Fame induction coming up this weekend, there's a great number of stories and amount of footage of his career. With Rickey going in as an A, the question had earlier been raised as to which uniform number he would wear. His first stint with the A's had him wear number 35. After returning from New York, he wanted number 24, his Yankee number, but Ron Hassey had it, so Rickey wore number 22. Hassey later gave up his number to Rickey. It has been concluded that Rickey would wear 24.

But this week I saw a video of Rickey's first major league at bat. He wore number 39. I never knew this. I also heard of another game where a laundry or uniform mixup led to his wearing a generic numbered uni (no name on the back) for one game. What that number would have been, I have no idea. So, Rickey has worn at least four numbers with the A's alone.

Baseball Cards - Poses vs. Action Shots

Long lost in the art of baseball card photos is the pose. As players got richer due to free agency back in the late 70's and 80's, the tendency to go along with scheduled photo shoots for baseball cards diminished. What once was a rarity and often given special attention in a card set - the action shot - became the norm. After all, what could be better than a shot of your favorite player taken while in action?

Well, I prefer the still photo, the pose. Some of the classic shots in baseball card history were because of the pose. I still remember this shot of Bob Oliver, first baseman for the Royals, from my childhood.

Recently, our four year old went with a friend to a Giants game. He bought a Topps Giants card set at the Dugout Store. While looking through the team set, I discovered Randy Johnson's 2009 card. His was the only one in the set that was a pose shot. It wasn't an action shot. I am truly glad to see this card. It will be valuable for me for a long time to come.

Micro Brewers

The Giants single A team in San Jose is called the Giants, after the parent club. The team is known as the "Little Giants." Well, if you apply this logic to the Brewers team, and Mrs. Scott did, a Brewers minor league team can be known as the "Micro Brewers." Good thinking, Mrs. Scott!

Giants Loss Projection Through July 15

July 1 through July 12 (All-Star break):

42-35, 74; 42-36, 75; 43-36, 74; 44-36, 73; 44-37, 74; 45-37, 73; 46-37, 72; 46-38, 73; 47-38, 72; 48-38, 72; 49-38, 71; 49-39, 72.

All-Star Break.

At the break, the Giants are on a pace to win 90 games. They just missed a 50-win first half. Not bad for a bunch of guys who can't hit.

Bonds Available

I follow Barry Bonds' attorney on Twitter. He just tweeted an announcement that Barry is ready and will be available for tomorrow's All-Star Game.

No-Hitter Update

No sooner than I finish my last post about tonight's no-hitter, I turn around and watch the post-game show. Part of the TV coverage shows commentators talking about the game, and one of those interviewed is tonight's official scorekeeper. He is none other than an old bleacher bum friend of mine, David Feldman.

Congratulations David, on your scorekeeping!

No No-No, No-No, What Next?

Johnathan Sanchez throws a no-hitter! Well, it wasn't supposed to be tonight. It was supposed to be last night when Tim Lincecum pitched. Actually, I'm glad Lincecum didn't throw one last night, because I had a ticket but couldn't go. When I saw the no-hitter into the seventh, I was bummed. And, we have tickets for tomorrow when Matt Cain pitches.

Congratulations to Johnathan Sanchez and for his dad who saw his first game his kid started. Now, maybe Matt Cain can pitch one tomorrow night! The Giants really good pitching this year from a good rotation aside, the Padres look pretty anemic right now. Maybe their bats will stay quiet for one more day.

Bochy On Interleague DH Advantage

In a pre-game interview before a recent interleague game, Giants manager Bruce Bochy was asked which league's team had the advantage with the DH rule. To my surprise, he said that the AL team had the advantage, because they use a very good designated hitter that was signed for exactly that purpose and who is in the lineup every day. The NL team has to fit a bench player into the lineup.

I agree with him, and wrote about this a few years ago. I'm wondering if the conventional wisdom is either changing or has changed in baseball. I haven't heard an argument about the DH in quite a while and certainly haven't heard the "AL is penalized in the NL park by having a bat taken away, while the NL team gets to add a bat in the AL park" line of reasoning either. I hope the view of this is changing for the better.

Saturday Night Baseball

As long as I've watched baseball, a tradition existed that saw only three teams in baseball play more day games than night games. Those teams were the Cubs, Giants and A's. The Cubs were obvious because Wrigley Field had no lights for decades, then when they were installed, Friday night was the only usual night game scheduling.

The A's and Giants always played more day games because their traditions included exclusively day baseball on Saturday and day baseball on mid-week getaway games, usually Wednesday. Extra day games were usually sprinkled throughout the schedule on holidays or extra weekday games for whatever reason, including Opening Day for the Giants. Day baseball on Bay Area Saturdays is not too difficult to figure out. The weather is very cool at night, and beautiful during the day. Fridays have beer and the "it's the weekend, night-out" atmosphere to keep the crowd warm.

But the last couple of years, the A's and Giants have adopted Saturday night baseball as the norm with only a few day games. The main reason is because of the exclusive rights given to Fox for the game of the week slot. Now, the Giants are Bondsless and have sucked for four years, and the A's have sucked, too. Day games on Saturday are prohibited from being televised. They now need Saturday night telecasts for revenue. When the Giants were good and everybody wanted to watch Bonds, they were on Fox every Saturday afternoon.

I've attended a few Saturday night games and it is truly strange in several ways. First, the day. Saturday has always been a Bay Area staple of baseball. You wake up and go to the ballpark, and Saturday night is left for eating out, watching a movie, what have you. Now, the crowds at Saturday night games seem odd. It's like they don't know what to do. Their routine has been interrupted and are trying to figure out whether they are supposed to be like a rowdy Friday night crowd, or like a leisurely Saturday afternoon crowd trying to substitute something - anything - for the golden sunshine. I miss Saturday day games and wish they would make a comeback somehow.

Giants Loss Projection Through June 30

June 16 through June 30:

34-30, 76; 34-31, 77; 35-31, 76; 36-31, 75; 37-31, 74; 37-32, 75; 38-32, 74; 39-32, 73; 39-33, 74; 39-34, 75; 40-34, 74; 41-34, 73; 42-34, 72.

Cerveceros vs. Gigantes

It was Hispanic heritage night in Milwaukee tonight. The Brewers celebrated in part by translating "Brewers" on their uniforms into Spanish. "Cerveceros" was the result. The Giants joined them by wearing their "Gigantes" uni's. I've never seen the Gigantes on the road threads. I guess the usual "San Francisco" wasn't Spanish enough. Either way, it makes for an interesting marketing scheme for jersey collectors. I wonder what the Padres would wear on Hispanic heritage night.

Saltalamacchia: Longest Name Ever

Friday night's Giants game vs. the Texas Rangers I saw Rangers catcher Jerrod Saltalamacchia play. He has the distinction of having the longest last name in baseball history at 14 letters. The name on the back of his jersey starts at mid back on the left and curls all the way around his shoulders and ends at mid back on the right. It looks very strange indeed. The old record of 13 was shared by a number of players, namely Todd Hollandsworth and William Van Landingham, two players I saw play for several years.

Apparently there is a kid in the minors at AAA who originally had a 13 letter name (from his father), but upon his parents' divorce he took his mother's 16 letter name as his own. If he's called up and he plays, he'll have the new record. I just love baseball trivia.

Barry Zito Is The New Matt Cain

Okay, so Barry Zito got lit up last night. But he's had a dramatic improvement this year. Especially earlier in the season, he had some very good outings. His record doesn't show his improvement, though. As of his last start, thanks to the Giants anemic offense, he has the worst run support of any starting pitcher in baseball. Wow, that's exactly what happened to Matt Cain the last several years.

And Matt Cain? A dramatic improvement in offense while Cain is on the bump, he's one of the front runners for the Cy Young award. And like Pitt and Jolie, the new term in town for the starting two is "Lincecain."

Giants Loss Projection Through June 15

June 2 through June 15:

25-25, 81; 26-25, 79; 27-25, 78; 28-25, 76; 28-26, 78; 29-26, 77; 29-27, 78; 30-27, 77; 31-27, 75; 31-28, 77; 32-28, 76; 33-28, 74; 34-28, 73; 34-29, 75.

Wow, .500 or above for an entire half month!

Playoff Bound?

Okay, it's only mid-June, but if the season ended today, the Giants would make the playoffs! Yes, it's early and the Giants have had their share of struggling, but they've also had some great pitching that has helped greatly with some important win streaks.

Still, though, the Giants need a couple of big bats. Will Sabean work a deal before the trade deadline? Will it help them? I know that they'll probably have some more offense-inflicted losing streaks this year. Maybe it will come down to which team has winning streaks at the right time. I just hope it's the Giants.

There's still hope of a World Series victory this year. I'm not holding my breath, but if happens, I'll take it.

Cast and Crew: Dan's Family

There's a very colorful family that has season tickets in the row behind us at the Giants games. We've known them for ten years now, and they are great people to have sitting close by at a game. Dan and his wife, Monique, with their two kids Jeremiah and Madison. When we first met them, Madison and Jeremiah were just on the threshold of their teens. Now they're grown up and out of the house, living their own lives.

They are very receptive of our small children when they're with us at the game. They joke all the time and are all outgoing. Dan has a tradition of wadding up a hot dog wrapper or paper bag and tossing it across the aisle and down a few rows, trying to make it into somebody's cup hanging in the cup holder for two points. And although Dan is a few years older than me, with his glove and the aisle seat he's twice the ball hound I am. Any fly ball down the line and he's off to the third row waiting for the hop. He's a salesman and he never misses finding a strange group of people to buy their tickets if they can't go. Half the fun when they're not there is trying to figure out the story of how they got the tickets.

Monique is hilarious and will talk about anything whatsoever. She wears her opinion on her sleeve, but even if it's offensive in some way, it's guaranteed to be funny. Jeremiah is very vocal and into the game. Then when his parents aren't there, it's really a scream. He follows the Giants fiercely and posts their follies on Facebook. Recently he took the road trip to see them in Seattle. Madison has been away at school the past few years, so we haven't seen her as much, but the school stories about her friends are always entertaining.

Dan's family. Funny. Sarcastic. Giants fans.

Rain, Rain, Rain

The Giants had a total of 9 hours, 22 minutes worth of rain delays in a five game period this road trip. Washington and Miami were storm prone. It must be difficult for the announcers to come back on air every ten minutes to say it's still raining. And the crowd sizes have been puny. The total attendance in two series must have been less than either stadium holds if sold out.

But, I love small crowd games kept away by threat of rain. Not the rain itself.

Congratulations Randy Johnson

He did it. 300 wins. This is a great achievement, not likely to occur again any time soon. I got to watch part of it on TV and hear the rest of it on the radio. Nail biter when Wilson tried to get out of the 8th inning jam.

Now go out and win another World Series, Randy!

Rainout = Double Header

Tonight the Giants were rained out in Washington so Randy Johnson will try for his 300th career victory as part of a double header tomorrow. I love how baseball takes raining on the parade and turns it into something beautiful. Let's see football play two.

Those Timid Cardinals Fans

Mrs. Scott and I went to Saturday night's Giants/Cardinals game at AT&T Park. There were many Cards fans in attendance, and as usual, they dress in red. They are one of the NL teams that draw larger numbers of visiting fans (the Dodgers, Mets, Cardinals and Cubs lead the pack, with the Braves lagging behind a bit. The Red Sox, Yankees and A's lead the AL with honorable mention to the Tigers fans). With the red color, they are quite simply the most visible of the bunch.

Yet, they are the most timid in rooting for their team. They know their baseball like no other fans, yet don't really offer cheers, but applause when their team does well. The several instances where a group started with a "Let's go Cardinals" chant quickly resulted in protective Giants fans drowning out their chants with editing of their own. This not merely masked the cheers, but stopped them cold. Mets or Dodger fans wouldn't have let the Giants fans interfere.

In talking with the people behind us, we decided that if all those Cards fans were Mets fans with their typical bravado we would have known it an hour before the game even started. I'm not sure if it is the Midwestern demeanor, but they are an interesting breed. I'd like to watch the Giants play in St. Louis to see how many Giants fans would show and how they behaved themselves.

Giants Loss Projection Through May 31

May 16 through May 31:

18-18, 81; 19-18, 79; 19-19, 81; 19-20, 83; 19-21, 85; 19-22, 87; 20-22, 85; 20-23, 87; 21-23, 85; 22-23, 83; 23-23, 81; 24-23, 79; 24-24, 81; 25-24, 79.

Another Double Header the Hard Way

I enjoyed another "double header the hard way" yesterday, two games in one day, but in two different parks. The A's lost to Seattle 6-1 in a day game in Oakland, while the Giants beat Atlanta 6-3 in the night cap in San Francisco. A whole lotta baseball for one day.

In Oakland it was book reading club day, so 20,000 kids were there making quite a bit of noise. And I went to the game to take a break from mine! Ichiro got three hits and an intentional walk. It was dollar dog day (Wednesdays), a good value even though they are small. Ten dog limit.

In San Francisco, Randy Johnson struck Chipper Jones out three times, while the Giants showed what little bit of offense they've been able to muster this year.

Dressing appropriately without carrying a huge bag wasn't quite possible, so I was a bit warm for game one, and froze during game two.

Five Run Extremes

Last week the Giants had a streak of not scoring. Between the Padres series and the first two Mariner games, they scored five runs. Five runs in almost a week. Then in the late innings of the second Mariner game, they scored five runs in two batters. If you don't score, you don't win.

The Padres series was especially depressing. The Giants pitching staff, over four games, let up only five runs in 39 innings. The starters pitched 1) a shutout, 2) a two-hitter, 3) Lincecum's mowing down of the Padres with 11 strikeouts, 4) Johnson allowing no runs in his start. Their ERA fell off a cliff. Yet they were swept by the Pads and lost the first Mariner game.

This Giants offense is pathetic. Not quite like 1985, when in August they were on a pace to become the worst offense in baseball history, but pretty bad.

Missed Ballparks

Since attending my first other ballpark in 1985, I've missed a number of them who have been torn down. Here's a list: [update: I was so tired when I wrote this, I missed a few. There are twelve in total.]

Exhibition Stadium, Toronto; Memorial Stadium, Baltimore; Municipal Stadium, Cleveland; Arlington Stadium, Texas; Fulton County Stadium, Atlanta; Tiger Stadium, Detroit; Astrodome, Houston; Three Rivers Stadium, Pittsburgh, Riverfront Stadium, Cincinnati; Veterans Stadium, Philadelphia; RFK Stadium, Washington D.C.; Shea Stadium, New York. Unless I go to Minneapolis this year, I will add the Metrodome to the list to make thirteen.

Giants Loss Projection Through May 15

May 1 through May 15:

11-10, 77; 11-11, 81; 12-11, 77; 12-12, 81; 13-12, 78; 13-13, 81; 14-13, 78; 15-13, 75; 15-14, 78; 16-14, 76; 17-14, 73; 18-14, 71; 18-15, 74; 18-16, 76; 18-17, 79.

The Giants climbed up to four games above .500, which would project out to a 91-71 record, possibly enough to make the playoffs, but fell off again. A .500 season this year would be a major improvement and would give me hope for a contending team within the next few years if they play their cards right.

The Birds

Alfred Hitchcock's eerie movie The Birds comes to mind at the end of Giants games. As soon as the crowd leaves at the end of the game, thousands of seagulls invade the stands for leftover food. Especially in the bleachers. Tonight Mrs. Scott went to the game vs. Washington, but the crowd was so small that the gulls came in early to engage in a holding pattern. So many birds crossed the path of the center field camera it was hard to tell what was happening to the video. Nora remarked that they were happy that Randy Johnson was already out of the game.

TAINTED!

Everything the Dodgers have done since last August is now TAINTED!

Their playoff run, and victory over the Cubs; TAINTED!
Their signing of Manny this year; TAINTED!
Their all time winning record at home this year; TAINTED!
Their position in first place; TAINTED!

All their victories this year should be forfeited and they should be in last place. The Giants are in LA starting tonight. I can't be there, but I wish I were. I hope thousands of Giants fans show up and torch the place with chanting, heckling and making a scene. Slam it in their faces. We remember the Bonds era, so the Dodger fans should be forced to remember the Manny era.

Manny's Stick Turns Dodger Blue

Manny had a test. The stick turned blue. Dodger blue.

You know what would be an interesting suspension? Allowing the Giants to pick which 50 games Manny gets to sit out.

After all the Bonds hoopla, let's see how many Dodger fans treat Manny the same way.

World Series Winners Since Giants

Over the 54 years since the Giants last won a World Series, 19 different teams have won it. Fifteen of those 19 teams have won multiple Series, which includes 6 expansion teams. Here are the totals:

Yankees (10)
Dodgers (6)
Cardinals (4)
A's (4)
Pirates (3)
Orioles (3)
Reds (3)
Braves (2)
Tigers (2)
Mets (2)
Phillies (2)
Twins (2)
Marlins (2)
Blue Jays (2)
Red Sox (2)
Royals (1)
Diamondbacks (1)
Angels (1)
White Sox (1)

Get that? Even the LOWLY Pittsburgh Pirates have won three Series since the Giants last did. The expansion Marlins and Blue Jays have even won two. Arrrrrrgh!

Giants Loss Projection Through April 30

April 16 through April 29:

2-7, 126; 3-7, 113; 3-8, 118; 4-8, 108; 5-8, 100; 6-8, 93; 7-8, 86; 8-8, 81; 8-9, 86; 9-9, 81; 9-10, 85; 10-10, 81.

Note: The Giants actually reached .500 late in April. I'm still going to call this a loss projection until they have a winning season.

Wet Win

Last night, Mrs. Scott and I had a date night at the Giants game. We had our usual box seats, but got free passes to the club level. So we ate there, getting a greater selection of food and condiments. It rained, and there were only a few thousand at most for the start of the game. Our train coming in has less than a dozen people on it as opposed to the usual hundreds. The seats were wet, but it was not a very cold rain. More misty in nature. The kind where you can feel the water evaporate and the extra humidity takes the chill off, strangely enough.

The Big Unit struck out the first five batters of the game, and took a no-hitter into the fourth inning. There were so few people, except in our row, that we decided to move back a couple of rows and spread out. The bullpen struggled to hold a win for Johnson, and Wilson had to pitch a two inning save, basically. Enough of that! The Rockies bullpen took their share of verbal abuse from the Friday night crowd, the Giants won, and the train ride home was peaceful.

Giants Smack Bums

In a cold and windy night game, the Giants smacked the Dodgers around. Tim Lincecum pitched a good game and the Giants bats came alive. Plenty of vocal interaction between the fans of the two teams occurred. Fights in the bleachers. We also heckled the Dodger bullpen mercilessly. Just another night at the ballyard between these two rivals. A Friday night game would have made it more fierce.

Rivalry Continues

After splitting the first two, the Giants and Dodgers take up the rubber match Wednesday night, and I have a ticket. Heckling the Dodger pitchers will be a priority. It's my first game with Mike this year. It is especially fun to have tickets behind the bullpen when the Bums are here.

The Roof Was Open!

For one of the few times since the Phoenix ballpark was built did I see a game on TV with the roof open. I saw the Giants on the field in the sunshine. I forgot momentarily that they were playing the Diamondbacks. It wasn't 115 degrees, I guess. We saw one game there in 2001 against the Giants. After the game, they didn't open the roof, which is as I understand is a fan favorite in Arizona. Yep, sit after the game and watch it open. With the roof closed so often, I wonder how they get the grass to grow.

Year 55

On Facebook, one can become a fan of a favorite sports team and read the comments of other fans. Last week while the Giants were in the toilet, fans were ripping the team for their inept play and inferior players. One young fan, too young to appreciate the long suffering of hard core fans, protested the early season pessimism by replying, "Hey, it's only week two!"

I couldn't resist. I replied, "No, it's year 55."

Zito Lays Goose Egg

Bary Zito tosses a shutout? Okay, he didn't pitch all 10 innings, but he did give up no runs. Yes, the Padres were the opponents, but does it matter? Zeets is back! Another Cy Young award this year?

Sweltering San Francisco Day

Yesterday was a hot day for a ballgame in San Francisco. Randy Johnson's one-hitter. Just last week we were dealing with several days of high winds, with rain, hail, sleet and snow mixed in. Then to have a day in the upper 80's thrust into the mix in mid-April is a rarity here that made the day more unseasonably hot. Today was in the upper 90's.

Our seats were blistering in the sun as we sat down. Neither me nor my son could sit. I had to sit on my glove to avoid being scorched, as the seat cooled down. We switched seats and did it over again. A San Francisco baseball sun inversion took place. Usually, it's cold and windy here, so the crowd is marked by the shadow line. People are in the sun, and the shade seats are empty. Sunday was the reverse. Families with babies were retreating into the shade under the Coke bottle for relief. Okay, time to pray for summer fog.

Yet Again Another Non-No-Hitter

Today, I took our oldest son to the Giants game vs. Arizona. Randy Johnson was pitching for the G-men. The Big Unit took a no-hitter into the 7th inning before giving up a hit, the D-Backs' only of the game. I think I doomed myself to failure, as I called Mrs. Scott after the top of the sixth to make sure she had the TV on. I've never seen a no-hitter, but have come close on a number of occasions. Johnson is one of those pitchers where you know that he's able to do it if he's on.

42 Nobodies

Yesterday was the anniversary of Jackie Robinson's breaking into the major leagues. To honor this achievement, every player in the major leagues wore Robinson's uniform number 42. But the Giants and Dodgers played each other, so it was difficult for the fan watching. These two teams are among only a small handful of teams (Giants, Dodgers, Yankees, Red Sox - did I miss any?) that don't have players' names on the back of their jerseys.

Every player on both teams was 42 with no name. "Scorecards! Get your scorecards. You can't tell the players without a scorecard!"

Giants Loss Projection Through April 15

I'm doing a Giants loss projection like I did last year since the Giants are a losing team. For each game played in this half of the month, I will list their record in white, followed by the projected loss total over 162 games in orange. Same format will follow the rest of the year.


1-0, 0; 1-1, 81; 2-1, 54; 2-2, 81; 2-3, 97; 2-4, 108; 2-5, 116; 2-6, 122.

The Giants are off to a woeful start, and with 122 losses projected, they are on a pace to be the worst team in all of baseball history.

Still The Same?

A week into the season, and the Giants are 2-5 having lost four games in a row. Only four teams - Milwaukee, Houston, Cleveland and Washington - have worse records. Uhhm, I know it's very early in the season, but if I could point out that this is kind of where the Giants left off the last four years. Yea.

On the other hand, several teams that shouldn't be are off to a great start. San Diego, Florida, Seattle, Kansas City, Baltimore and Toronto are at the tops of their divisions.

Remembering Mark Fydrich

Two in one day. What a bummer. I remember Mark Fydrich on TV when I was a boy. His crazy antics won a nation of fans. I wish he could have pitched longer in his career.

Remembering Harry Kalas

I was saddened about mid-day today at the hearing of Harry Kalas's passing. He was a true voice, not only of the Phillies, but of baseball's history. I loved his deep baritone voice, the long drawn out way he would call the game - even it's exciting points - as a reflection of yesteryear's leisurely, pastoral pace of the game.

Philly fans will surely miss him.

Fan Participation Day

My childhood dream of playing in the majors ended in my late teens. One thing was sure. I would be a fan for life. But missing out on playing I was dedicated to still being an active part of the game. I committed myself to the game action by being an ardent taunter and heckler of the opposing teams. My 29th consecutive year of heckling action is starting this month.

During all these years, I've maintained a fortunate position of having seats in either the first, seventh or ninth row from the field. Twenty nine years of being within easy earshot of opposing players, whether directly behind the left fielder in the front row of the bleachers, whether seven rows behind home plate to heckle the batter or on deck hitter (dare I add umpire?), or nine rows behind the visitor's bullpen mound, have been a great joy.

I'm especially looking forward to the first Dodger series later this month when I'll be there with my long time friend Mike where we'll be able to heckle those hated rival Dodger pitchers. With me, every game is Fan Participation Day and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Remembering Nick Adenhart

I don't remember the Angels' Nick Adenhart apart from watching him pitch to maybe a batter or so the other night. I had the A's/Angels game on the TV in one room, then I heard about his death early the next morning. What a tragedy. I recall my own wife and oldest son being t-boned in an intersection by somebody who ran a red light. This occurred about four or five years ago. They were far more fortunate.

I hope the Angels are able to make it through this tough time. I'm sure the fans who attended that game are pretty freaked out, too. Sympathy to his family.

All Alone In First Place

After one game, the Giants are all alone in first place with a record of 1-0. The Rockies are in 2nd with a 2-1 record. Wire to wire? Last time that happened, the 2003 Giants failed miserably in the playoffs against the Florida Marlins.

Baseball Is Back!

Opening Day is here! Except it's raining. Only 32 rainouts in SF Giants history so far. Will today be another? More later...

Opening Day Is Next Week!

This off-season is flying by at a fast clip. Not only have I not been able to keep up with all the spring training happenings, I just realized that Opening Day is next week! Exhibition games start this week, as the Bay Area teams travel home from Arizona's Cactus League play. Man, time flies.

I'm sure the Giants won't go 162-0 this year, so I'm hoping for 161-0 with a rainout maybe. Of course, that won't mean anything unless they win the World Series. I don't care if they win the West playing under .500, just as long as they win the World Series.

World Baseball Classic

There was much discussion on radio about team USA's loss to Japan in the WBC. Our fans don't take this tournament seriously, and all the other countries do. Many people wonder why and give strange ideas for why we don't. Well, there's a very simple reason why our country doesn't take things like this seriously.

All the other countries have something to prove. If Japan or Cuba or Korea or the Dominican Republic win, they can boast of something great. If the USA wins, great, but it still won't matter. It's because we don't have anything to prove. We already have the greatest baseball spectacle the world has ever known. We have Major League Baseball, none of the other countries do (apologies to Toronto). From spring training through the World Series for more than 100 years, nothing else compares.

Combine every other baseball league, tournament, you name it, and our MLB season and history outshadow them. Where do all the best players around the world want to play, many Cubans included? Our majors. Where do all the best American players want to play? Our own majors. The World Baseball Classic will never produce entire careers of Babe Ruth, Willie Mays and Joe DiMaggio.

Our baseball history is our nation's history. Which is greater: Ty Cobb sliding into second, Ruth hitting a towering blast, the Black Sox scandal, Jackie Robinson, The Shot Heard Round The World, Willie Mickey and the Duke, Bob Gibson, the mustachioed A's, Reggie, the Rocket, Barry, Wrigley & Fenway? -OR- some no-name players winning a two week elimination tournament? The answer is obvious.

The Greatest Game Ever Pitched?

On July 2, 1963, what was probably the greatest game ever pitched took place at San Francisco's Candlestick Park. Future Hall of Famers Warren Spahn and Juan Marichal dueled to a 1-0, 16 inning decision, each pitcher going the distance. The game's lone run came in the bottom of the 16th, when future Hall of Famer Willie Mays homered off Spahn to end it.

Just to add some more future Hall of Famers to the mix, the Braves slugging teammates Hank Aaron and Eddie Matthews opposed the Giants Mays, Willie McCovey and Orlando Cepeda. This game is surely in my top ten woulda-coulda wishlist. See the box score here.

Tickets Have Arrived

I received my season tickets today from the FedEX driver. Bless you. It's always exciting to open the box and find out what they look like this year. Maybe I'll post a scan soon.

The Giants have their season tickets printed in book format, with sheets of tickets. Each sheet has usually five or six tickets, perforated between them, and perforated at the book binding. Tearing each ticket out and dividing them up between all the buyers is a very time consuming task. The sheets must be bent at the book binding, back and forth to weaken the perforation before tearing. Then each sheet must be folded up like a road map, first in one direction, then in the other, again to weaken the perforation. If you don't, the tickets will tear. One year I let a buyer do all the ticket logistical work, making a distribution spreadsheet, tearing out, passing around, etc. He swore never to do that again. I'll be sitting down to separate tickets here soon.

2009 Giants Loss Projection?

Last season, I posted regular projections (I settled into twice monthly, posted on the 15th and 30th of each month) of how many losses the Giants would total for 2008. I simply took their winning percentage each day of the season and multiplied by 162. Some people might think this is one of those "you've got waaaaay too much time on your hands" type of thing. Not so. It took about 30 seconds to create a simple formula using MS Excel.

I'm not as concerned about the Giants losing 100 games this year as I was last year. I'm not expecting them to win their division, but a .500 season would be a massive improvement. A .500 season isn't completely out of the question, and in this division, that might just win it. Just between you and me, I'd love to do a Giants Win Projection series, but I'll keep to a loss projection until the season after they break .500 again.

Just off the top of my head, I think the Giants will go 77-85 this year, a .475 winning percentage. I don't think that will win the World Series. Winning the World Series is something the Giants desperately need to do, and within the next three years. We're looooong past patience.

Ticket Draft

This last weekend, our friends and we had our ticket draft for my Giants season tickets. There are a number of players involved overall, and things are complicated, but we get together for a few hours and draft games from the schedule, over snacks and beers/sodas. We draft in order/reverse order fashion and try to accommodate those with special needs. I've developed a color coded spreadsheet for tracking every game and everybody's tickets. Great fun. Now it's time for the season to start. Tickets will be delivered next week. It's always fun to tear out all the tickets and divide them up. Well, actually that's a lot of hard work, and not for the feeble minded.

Manny Ends With Fizzle

The Giants blew an opportunity to help themselves out in the NL West in failing to do what they could to get Manny Ramirez. The Dodgers even withdrew their final offer. I became a "get Manny" fan a while back. I'm just not sure what the reorganized ownership group is up to these days.

Pee Wee Backstop

Our four year old had his first practice game with the pee wee Red Sox team. Minutes before taking the field, the coach announced that he would be playing catcher. "Oh, boy! Catcher!" He has a strong fondness for catchers, even at four years old, so putting the gear on was a true joy for him. He played well for half the game. Because he's so small, the gear was huge on him. The shin guards came up to mid-thigh, and the chest protector came down to his knees. No problem, though.

The coaches pitch to their own team in pee wee league. What I didn't notice until after a while was that he was putting his fingers down between his thighs and giving signals to the pitcher. Amazing.

Fan Fest Absentee Photos

As in most years of my life, I missed Giants Fan Fest this year, too. But vicariously, and unbeknownst to her, I will link to my friend Shelly's blog so you can see pictures of what I missed. See them here. Good pix, Shelly!

Why The Continuing Steroid Issue

It's too late for baseball to have an immediate effect with banning steroids. They have left this issue untouched, yet with complete knowledge for two decades now. I would like to propose that many players are faced with the following difficult position consisting of three possible scenarios from which to choose:

Scenario #1 - I'm using steroids. If I stop using, my production will fall off, my career will be over, and I will be out of baseball.

Scenario #2 - I'm using steroids. If I keep using them and get caught, my career will be over, and I will be out of baseball.

Scenario #3 - I'm using steroids. If I keep using them, and somehow manage to avoid detection, either by inside information or just luck of the drug testing draw, my career will continue, I will have success, and baseball will still be part of my life.

This is not an argument for or against steroid use, but it shows why the problem continues and why players who continue to use steroids, even in the current climate and environment, are not as "stupid" as most people would like to believe. Does anybody see a similarity between the first two scenarios, and a difference for the third?

Baseball On The Radio!

Today is a wonderful day on the calendar. It was the first game of the cactus league season for the Giants (spring training) and the first game broadcast on the radio. After an entire winter of silence, simply hearing a baseball game on the radio is the best music I can think of. I am a fan, and an avid fan at that.

But, my fandom does not mean that I hang on every pitch of a game and ignore all else. For me, listening to games on the radio is a daily event during baseball season, but I enjoy it at least as much as background music as I do paying attention to every pitch. It is soothing to the soul and easy upon the mind. That we are completely spoiled here in the Bay Area with wonderful announcers that communicate the game so beautifully makes me want to live here forever.

Clinching Games

I've been to three games that were the deciding games of the World Series. Game 5 in 1988, Game 4 in 1989 and game 4 in 1990. In each game, the winning team celebrated. I've also been to three games that decided a pennant. Game 5 of the 1989 NLCS, game 4 of the 1990 ALCS and game 5 of the 2002 NLCS (walk-off win). I've also been to game 3 of the 1981 ALDS western division (strike forced) series.

I've also seen Giants division clinches in 1997 and 2000. I'm not sure about others, as I may have seen an A's division clinch in the '88-'92 period.

Not only have I never been to a game 7, I've never been to a game 6. Maybe someday...

A's Disregard Their Own History

I'm often struck at the difference between the A's and Giants in how they treat their respective histories. Both teams started out as original teams in their respective leagues, the Giants in New York (moving to San Francisco in 1958) and the A's in Philadelphia (moving to Kansas City in 1955 and again to Oakland in 1968). The Giants celebrate their history, flaunt their history, relive their history. The A's seem to neglect - sometimes on purpose - much of theirs.

The Giants fully embrace their history in New York. With the A's, one would hardly know they played in Philly or KC. The Giants have retired uniform numbers for New York players, the A's don't for Philly or KC players. The Haas family, when they owned the A's in the 80's and 90's, seemed to shun the Charlie Finley years almost fully. They recognized hall of fame players and retired their numbers, but didn't greatly celebrate even their 3 consecutive World Series championships of the early 70's.

I wish the A's would embrace their entire history and teach their fans about it. While their history might not be quite as rich as the Giants or Yankees, it's still pretty good.

NL West Oddities

The last time the Dodgers played in a World Series was 1988. Every team in the NL West -- from either alignment, pre-'94 or post-'94 -- has won a pennant since then. The Giants ('89 and '02), Reds ('90), Braves ('91, '92, '95, '96, '99), Padres ('98), Diamondbacks ('01), Astros ('05) and Rockies ('07).

Since the last time the Giants won the NL West in 2003, every current NL West team has made the playoffs. Dodgers ('04, '06, '08), Padres ('05, '06), Diamondbacks ('07) and Rockies ('07).

Time to get that old rivalry into another pennant race. I'd love to see a Giants/Dodgers NLCS.

A-Roid Shocker?

I've never understood the argument that goes like this: Bonds put up such ridiculous numbers in obtaining his records; numbers that could have only been put up by using steroids. But now, there's a new breed of player in Rodriguez and Pujols that don't use steroids. I can't wait for them to shatter Bonds' records just to spite him and his cheating.

Uhhm, numbers that could only be reached by using steroids will be surpassed by even more astronomical numbers by players who never used steroids at all? This doesn't make sense. But now the "truth" is out, and nobody should be surprised in the least.

What concerns me far more than A-Rod using steroids is the trust that was broken in breaking a promise of privacy concerning test results. That's the real crime. Baseball and its weasel leaders (read: Bud Selig) completely allowed this problem to go on for decades now, profiting from it all the way. Now they are more than happy to see all the blame go onto the players.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Bud Selig is alone in holding the dubious distinction of having a steroids scandal take place right under his nose; both as an owner and as a commissioner. He wouldn't even stand up out of his seat to acknowledge Bonds' tying of Aaron's record, yet he acts like the whole thing is a tragedy.

Pee-Wee Red Sox

Okay, our four year old was drafted by the pee-wee Red Sox team. He had his first practice today, and it was muddy. He was intimidated by the format and group of other kids, and didn't think he was good. But, I think he'll do okay after a while. He loves all the peripheral things about baseball, like shopping for cleats, wearing his batting gloves and baseball jersey.

2002 World Series Highlights

MLB Network shows highlights from various World Series. Since the Giants lost the '02 Series to the Orange County Angles of Disneyland, I have avoided all watching of highlights from that Series. I recorded all seven games, yet haven't put one on. It's just too painful to watch.

Tonight I watched the highlight show from 2002. I sucked it up and watched. Still painful. I remember watching games 6 and 7 with Mrs. Scott form Yerba Buena Gardens in San Francisco, a downtown park, with about 10,000 other people. They hoisted a crane up with a monster big screen TV. The train ride home was very quiet.

I'll have to write about this topic some other time...

Zito Should Sign Manny

During my kid's pee-wee tryouts, another dad, named Will, had a great idea. He thought Barry Zito should sign Manny Ramirez. With all the cries that Zito should give back some of his salary, he should put it toward Manny. It would help his own run support, and gain him more victories, which will in turn help his future contract negotiations. What a win-win situation.

My Long Lost Ballpark Visits

With a new Yankee Stadium, the number of ballparks I've visited that are no longer in use has grown to nine. Those nine are: Candlestick Park, Jack Murphy Stadium, Kingdome, County Stadium, Old Comiskey Park, Yankee Stadium, Olympic Stadium, Old Busch Stadium and Mile High Stadium. Each ballpark has great memories for me, even if the park itself was terrible.

Equally in the negative, the ballparks I never made it to that are no longer in use kind of bothers me. I should have gone to some of these: Exhibition Stadium (Toronto), Memorial Stadium (Baltimore), Municipal Stadium (Cleveland), Arlington Stadium, Atlanta Fulton County Stadium, Tiger Stadium, Astrodome, Three Rivers Stadium, Riverfront Stadium, Veterans Stadium, RFK Stadium, Shea Stadium. The Metrodome will be added to this list next year unless I get a trip to Minnesota somehow. Detroit and Cleveland are the biggest bummers for me.

Pee-Wee Tryouts

Our three year old turns four next week. He's trying out for Junior Optimist pee-wee's. Today was the tryout. Pee-wee's are five and six year olds, with four year olds allowed if they can play well enough. They have to be four by a certain date to play, which is after tryouts. So at three, he's in the same grouping as some six year olds. He hit some balls (coaches pitch to their own teams in pee-wee), shagged some grounders, caught balls thrown to them, and threw balls to somebody else.

Trying to be as unbiased as possible, Mrs. Scott and I think he did as well as the average kid. He's small, so he doesn't have the strength as the older kids, as some hit the ball much farther. He had a lot of fun because he loves baseball. Some of the kids that play aren't interested much or play at the insistence of parents.

It's been raining for several days, so it was extremely muddy. Our shoes are caked with a mixture of mucky clay, pea gravel and tan bark. Everybody was about two inches taller because of the mud. It wasn't raining at the tryout, which was good. There was some great baseball conversation amongst some of the dads. We'll know next weekend how the draft went.

Jeff Kent Retires

Today, Jeff Kent announced his retirement. All the talk revolved around whether he would make the Hall of Fame on the first ballot or not. He had 17 good years in the majors, and some great ones, especially with the Giants. I got to see all of those first hand.

As a player goes, I'm on the fence as to whether he belongs in the Hall of Fame. But when compared to other second basemen, he places quite high on the list of great players. It's more than likely that he'll get in on his batting, as his glove wasn't quite Hall caliber. Either way, it was great to watch him play, and I won't argue if he makes the Hall of Fame.

Updated Resume

I've updated my baseball resume, and if you click here or at the margin at right, the resume will pop up. The big changes are that this is my 25th year as a Giants season ticket holder, despite being only 44 years old, and Yankee Stadium is a park I've attended that is no longer in use because a new one is being built.

Stupor Bowl

Okay, one of my few posts on football during the calendar year. The Superbowl teams are set, after two fairly exciting championship games. The winner gets a week off after the Superbowl, and the ProBowl essentially marks the final countdown to pitchers and catchers reporting. We're almost there.

The smashmouth brutality and punishing carnage in the trenches that made up the AFC championship game was so very welcome. I like good, physical football with relatively lower scores, where scoring points has to be earned. The high scoring games that are decided by who just happens to have the ball when the clock runs out are boring.

I will enjoy the Superbowl game, and hope the Cardinals win. I'm not a big fan of the commercials, although I do like a good one. I will become violently ill to my stomach if I watch the halftime show. This year, though, Bruce Springsteen should be a big improvement over the usual gag reflex pop star lipsinc trashing of the dictionary's definition of music, even though he can't sing very well. Maybe next decade the Raiders can climb back to the top.

Manny and Paris

Okay, I've questioned whether the Giants should sign Manny Ramirez. I've since come to the conclusion that they should. It will help the team, and the money spent isn't mine anyway. Heck, the more money the Giants spend that's not mine to win the World Series, the better.

But now that Paris Hilton is dating Barry Zito, Manny in San Francisco is a must. Who could pass up an opportunity to be on TV every day? Hilton could be the catalyst in a tag team media magnet with Manny that Bonds could never approach.

Some might object that such a woman might be a distraction to Zito. Yeah, the argument has been made about Tiger's golf game when he found a woman. But like Casey Stengel once said, "staying up all night with a woman never hurt no ballplayer; it's staying up all night looking for one that does him in." With Zito's record in his first two years of his contract, Hilton can only stand to improve upon it. We need both Paris Hilton and Manny Ramirez. We might get a Series trophy. We need one of those.

MLB Network!

A cool new channel suddenly appeared on our TV cable. The MLB Network. Baseball 24/7. So far, pretty impressive. Shows counting down the top 9 'x' of all time. (There are 9 innings in a game and 9 players on the field.) Top 9 pitching seasons of all time, top 9 characters who have been part of the game. Also, a look back at the 1986 season, and a replay of the 2007 All-Star home run derby.

Congratulations Rickey Henderson and Jim Rice

Congratulations to Rickey Henderson and Jim Rice for being elected to the Hall of Fame. Today was a day of great personal fulfillment for me. I saw both careers in their entirety. When I was a kid, I saw Mays, Aaron and McCovey make the Hall of Fame. I knew these players were great, but I only remember the very ends of their careers. They all started playing before I was born. Then there were players like George Brett and Mike Schmidt. I was a kid when they started playing, so I was aware of their entire careers, but I couldn't appreciate the first part because I wasn't a regular fan at the ballpark to see them.

Rice came just a few years later, but I was aware enough of his whole career. I saw Rickey Henderson's entire career. I sat in the front row of the left field bleachers in Oakland behind him so many times I couldn't count. He was right in front of me. When the Red Sox came to Oakland, I sat right behind Rice. I heckled him to no avail. He was the only visiting left fielder ever to have enough respect that fans didn't heckle him. I tried, and nobody laughed. The best somebody could do was to say, "Hey, Rice, you're a Chinese side dish!" He turned and shrugged his shoulders as if to say, "How lame was that?"

I've seen Rice as an on-the-fence Hall of Famer, but Henderson was a true HOF'er anyway you look at it. One question, though. He received 511 of 539 votes. What in the flying flip were the other 28 sports writers thinking? I just don't get that. They shouldn't be allowed to vote if they get this one wrong. Thank you Rickey and Jimbo for all the great memories. You are appreciated.

My First Ballpark Road Trip (7) - Ticket Stubs

Read entire series here.

These are the ticket stubs from my first ballpark road trip in August, 1985. Notice the "Swinging A's" logo on the Angels ticket at the right, and Mike Davis' autograph on the first ticket. The first two tickets were bought from Ticketron and Teleseat, and have no baseball design to them like the third. This played a big part in future tickets that I bought. If I could get an "official" ticket direct from the team, I always did. Heck, the first ticket looks no different than a Santana concert in Berkeley. Okay, call me a ticket stub connoisseur. I'm VERY picky about my ticket stubs.

My First Ballpark Road Trip (6)

Read entire series here.

After the Sunday doubleheader was over, I headed back to claim my motel room and take a real shower. A friend from my summer job was going to be on vacation in San Diego with his wife. He wanted me to join them at a comedy club that night in La Jolla, just a short drive away. I showed up and they didn't. I found out later that his wife had a bad case of food poisoning. Well, hungry I left for a restaurant. I couldn't find a good one open that late. I settled for a Taco Bell. Now, a Taco Bell in La Jolla was quite an experience. The parking lot was filled with Mercedes and BMW's. I had a yellow Camaro.

The next day I toured the beaches in San Diego, the same place where I took a shower the day before, and found some great places in Mission Beach. I fell in love with San Diego. I didn't plan it originally, but I decided to drive back up to Anaheim that evening to watch the Angels and A's. Anaheim and SD are only about 85 miles apart, barely an hour and a half drive. I bought a ticket at the park. I don't remember much of the game, but I just happened sit next to two sailors (or were they marines?) that lived only a few blocks away from me back home, and who had seen me in the bleachers in Oakland. They drove up from San Diego, just like me. Small world. I found out the following year that a cousin of mine was also at that game and had seen me.

After the game, the sailors wanted to go out, so I joined them. We went to a dive bar in Anaheim, and I played video games. Yawn. They really liked baseball and were going to go to the game the next night against the Yankees, so we arranged for them to pick me up at my motel and drive to Anaheim. They never showed, but I ran into them in the bleachers restroom in Oakland the following spring. Okay, so instead of going to Anaheim, I went out on the town to a hot club I heard about from friends back home. All in all I was there two more days before returning home. My battery also died while I was there, and had to bum jumper cables, then bought some. To me, a battery was just too big an expense for a 21 year old on vacation. I spent the other two days in San Diego, checking out beaches and clubs and Mexican food joints. Box scores for Monday's game in Anaheim.

Giambi To A's?

Jason Giambi back to the A's? Okay, bring them up, let them go sign for the big bucks elsewhere, then take them back at the end of their careers. Hope this doesn't keep as a pattern.

Rickey Henderson - First Ballot Hall of Famer

Rickey Henderson is a first ballot, unanimous Hall of Famer. He better be, and any sports writer who doesn't vote for him is a numb skull or an antisocial psychopath.

When I think of a Hall of Famer, I think of somebody who is instantly recognized as one. There is no doubt. A Hall of Famer is a player who changes the way the game is played simply by setting foot on the field. He strikes fear into the other team. He causes the players on the other team to bring extra pairs of clean underwear to the park.

Here's a logical progression: getting on base, stealing, and scoring a run. Rickey Henderson was at one time the all time walks leader. He was the all time stolen base leader. He was also the all time runs scored leader. So the obvious solution to this problem so far is to under no circumstances walk Rickey. But that solution doesn't help at all when you consider that he's also the all time record holder in lead-off home runs. When the opposing pitcher wakes up in the morning, he knows the first batter he will face is Rickey Henderson. Once Rickey finally takes a seat on the bench after his at bat, there is a higher likelihood for him than the 15-20,000 other players who have ever played the game that the score will be 1-0. You wake up knowing you can't pitch to him, and you can't pitch around him. There's nothing you can do. Your only hope is the possibility that the rest of Rickey's team has such a bad day as to make up for him.

I had the distinct privilege as a fan to witness a major portion of his career from the front row of the left field bleachers in Oakland. I personally witnessed the Chicken Stanley incident, talked to him from the bleachers at Yankee Stadium, and witnessed the final play of the World Series that got him a ring. Rickey Henderson is a Hall of Famer. Period.

Manny In San Franny?

Who am I?

I play left field. Well, I stand out there anyway, and try to play left field. I'm the greatest power hitter from my side of the plate in our generation. I hit many home runs. I change the way the game is played just by stepping onto the field. My personality is greatly misunderstood by the media. I am a cancer in the clubhouse. I make the most incredible statements to the media. I am a one-man three ring circus, being the center of attention all the time. I am aging and people aren't quite sure how much I have left to give. Who am I?

There are two answers to this question. The first answer was ours for 15 years. The second answer might be ours for another four. Let's see, that would be 18 out of 19 years with this answer. Been there. Done that. Do we want to go there again? What was so bad about 2008 again?

Happy New Year Means Pitchers and Catchers Report Next Month

Yes, we're just a few minutes into January, but that means pitchers and catchers report next month. That first radio broadcast does wonders for the mind, even if it is a meaningless practice between players who only play a few innings. Just the sound of the announcers makes merry. Doing wind sprints on the warning track has its place in life, just like the tiny buds on the ends of branches.

Big Unit Comes Home

The Giants signed Randy Johnson to a one year contract. Johnson is from the Bay Area, not far from where I live and grew up. This will mean that the Giants will have three Cy Young winners in their starting rotation. Johnson, five times, Zito and Lincecum. Johnson still has some gas, but is no longer the pitcher he once was. He's got a history behind him that will help others on the team.

The rotation should be, Lincecum, Cain, Sanchez, Zito and Johnson. Where and/or if Noah Lowry will fit remains a mystery. His recovery is still in question. Will the Giants make additional moves to set things in concrete? Brian Sabean has said that neither Cain nor Sanchez will move in a trade. Interesting.

My First Ballpark Road Trip (5)

Read entire series here.

I got to the ballpark, Jack Murphy Stadium as it was known then, before game time. The Padres were playing a double header against the Braves at 2:05pm. Fireworks were to follow the second game. I parked, and walked toward the stadium I had seen in the dark less than 12 hour earlier during a seating change. It looked different in broad daylight. Double sets of thin concrete columns arrayed around the "rounded square" shape, sloping inward as they rose toward the top of the stadium, had a distinct look. Since the lights were contained within the top row of horizontal concrete bands, there were no light towers. The overall appearance of the park was that of a spaceship from outer space. Not that it was bad, just very different from what I knew from the Bay Area. I actually liked this park and its feel.

I had an extra ticket for this day, too, so I began looking for a single who didn't have a ticket. I ran into somebody standing around outside the third base side of the ballpark. I casually approached him, fearing an undercover anti-scalping agent of some kind. He was just casually looking for somebody who had an extra ticket. So we casually agreed to casually entering the park together. He paid me on the inside. This was fine. He was a Dodger fan who lived in a coastal town half way between LA and San Diego. Nonetheless, he was good to talk to during a double header.

We had field level seats down the third base line. Not many fans were around us, as double headers had a knack for fans coming and going all day, but the seats did fill up fairly well at some point. Both games went only about 2 hours, 20 minutes. At the end of the second game, it was still very light, so the fireworks were blown off before it got dark. It wasn't nearly as much fun seeing streaks of gray smoke as it would have been to see the actual colors. It was "America's Finest City" celebration put on by Coors. I love San Diego, but they do have a knack of touting themselves as the finest city anywhere at anytime in history. I dunno about that.

Yes, this was another park I'd never seen before, but the newness of any park had worn off a bit. The awe I felt at Anaheim Stadium was superior, and I believe it would have been reversed had I seen the Murph first. But, it was still a thrill to look through that tunnel and see something completely new. After the game I left and went back to claim a room for the first time on my trip. Box scores for game one and for game two.

The Claw

When I was a kid I knew that my dad still had his first baseman's mitt from high school. We brought it back out in the mid 80's. It was a 1941 Rudy York model. It had three separate "finger" looking sections to it. It was about two thirds the size of today's standard fielder's glove, but was the biggest thing ever seen back then. My dad let me use it and I brought it out to the bleachers to show my friends. They nicknamed it "the claw." I had it out there for a few games and it paid off big. I caught a line drive homer off Dave Winfield. If you know how Winfield hit his homers (screaming line drives), and that there was only the palm to catch the ball in, then you can figure out that my hand hurt for not just a few hours.

Hot Stove Rumor Mill

Okay, CC Sabathia has now rejected the Yankees deal, along with all other offers, and has whittled his options down to two teams. He lives in California (San Francisco Bay Area, just up the straights from me) and will play only for either the Giants or Dodgers. This is great news for Giants fans that want another hot pitcher in the rotation, especially a home town kid. The only thing left is to wait for the news of him signing with the Giants.

Huh? Oh, wait, he just signed with the Yankees. Nevermind.

Both the Giants and Edgar Renteria's agent have categorically denied that the two sides are close to an agreement, or are even talking. This gives legitimacy to the Giants signing of Rafael Furcal at shortstop. Oh, wait, nevermind.

I'll start my own rumor here. The Giants are moving to Stockholm, Sweden.

Big Stick = Rubber Chickens

Giants GM Brian Sabean announced today that it was highly unlikely that the Giants will be adding a big stick to their lineup. He was quoted as refusing to trade Jonathan Sanchez to get anybody. Skipper Bruce Bochy also announced what would likely be the Giants opening day lineup. Talk show host Damon Bruce pointed out that this lineup would have a total combined 64 home runs last year. Barry Bonds outdid that himself.

I'm tired of hearing about the Giants adding a big stick to their lineup. If they add a big stick, I'll go into rubber chicken sales, because a big stick will get walked all the time. They need at least two big sticks to make a difference. Hasn't 15 years of the Barry Bonds circus proven this to us time and again?

Al Davis Should Be Ball Dude For A Day

Maybe Raiders owner Al Davis could be a Giants ball dude for a day. Like down the first base line.

Countdown To Spring Training

Oh, I don't know. It's at about two months or so. Some blogs have timers that countdown to the second.

How To Heckle - Saving My Voice By Discerning The Crowd

I learned how to heckle and was at the top of my heckling game during bad times for the teams I followed. The Giants and A's were both bad in the early and mid 80's. When the crowd is small, heckling is easy because everybody can hear you. But when there is a large crowd it is more difficult because the ambient crowd noise is so great. When your team is winning and all the games are sold out, it's usually loud out there.

Sometimes for large crowds, I would get a feel for how a crowd reacted to heckling. If the crowd were noisy enough, my strategy changed from yelling loud to getting others to do the yelling for me. If there were enough instant-asshole-just-add-water types around me, I would yell (unexpectedly for them because they weren't regulars there) at a player. Those fans would laugh. I would yell again, and if any of the other regulars added something, those fans figured out that yelling at the visiting player was a community thing and they joined in. Instead of yelling louder to overcome the crowd noise, I could save my voice for the next game by getting others to do it for me.

Renteria? Furcal? CC?

The news today was thick with speculation over the Giants signing a free agent shortstop. It almost looks like they're entertaining two of them at the same time. Rumors are false. Rumors are from reliable sources. What about the youth movement from guys like Burriss or Ochoa? If we sign Renteria for two years, then we might have the next shortstop waiting to take over.

What about Sabbathia? (I don't know whether there are one or two B's in his name - oh, I just checked. There's one) He's a hometown boy and would like to play here, but money is a big factor, too. But there are a few questions surrounding him. First, he could very well be yesterday's news. Sure, he's gone a thousand and one in his last 1001 starts with an ERA of about 3 below zero. Here's the question: does he show any signs of improvement in 2009? How about in 2010? Ever? Next, if not, will he be equal to his recent past? Less than equal? Remember Barry Zito? Maybe the Giants could just sign him to hit DH in interleague road games. Which would hopefully include the World Series.

Welcome Jeremy Affeldt

The Giants were the first team to sign a free agent. Left hander Jeremy Affeldt who pitched with the Reds last year will be setting the table for Brian Wilson. Hope he pans out in a positive way, unlike most other players over the last four years. Go Giants.

Tim LinCYcum

Congratulations to Tim Lincecum for winning the NL Cy Young award! I wasn't totally surprised that he won the award, but I was surprised by the margin of victory. Going into the stretch run I was convinced that Webb was the media frontrunner but that Lincecum had put up enough of a fight to make it close. Personally, I believed Lincecum should win it outright based on three factors. His ERA was clearly better. He led the universe in strikeouts. Webb led in wins, but only because he played for a contender. Lincecum had six leads torched by the hapless bullpen.

I'm glad to see that, unlike the national TV media, the sportswriters saw the same things I did. He gained 23 of 32 first place votes. Webb had 4, Santana 4 and Sabathia one. Some schmuck sportswriter from Chicago didn't even have Lincecum on his ballot. Wonder what he was smoking.

That this was only the SF Giants' second Cy Young award ever, compared to nine position player MVP's, shows that the team has concentrated on hitting and not pitching in its history. Hitting without pitching has resulted in zero rings. Maybe they'll learn from this. Hopefully, the Giants can put a team together before Cain and Lincecum are able to file for free agency so they aren't wasted on exclusively non-World Series winning teams. Way to go Timmy.

Why I've Come To Dislike The Star Spangled Banner and God Bless America

I've come to a point in my life where I now dislike The Star Spangled Banner and God Bless America. These were staple songs of just the average patriotism of the average American when I was a kid. The Star Spangled Banner is a tradition before the game of baseball, the national pastime. I grew up fairly conservative, and the national anthem was sung in a conservative way before a game started. Quite often, it was played by the ballpark organ and the crowd sung along as they wanted. In the 80's, the San Francisco Giants often invited odd characters to sing before the game, and they sang the national anthem in odd ways. Some of them butchered both the melody and content. Many San Franciscans approved, cheering wildly at the inappropriate times. I'm not sure if this happened across the country at non-nationally televised games, but it happened here. And not in Oakland, either.

Now, it seems to be a fad to have some "award winning recording star" butcher the song on every occasion. During this World Series, Patti Labelle got up to sing during one game. I had to change a diaper before the game started, and at about two words into it, I cut the sound. I had no idea she incinerated the song until several days later when it was a topic on sports talk radio.

I cringe in embarrassment every time I hear it before a game. I'm usually just on time at a baseball game, which means that I'm in the food or beer line, or maybe restroom, during the anthem. The Giants, ever since 9/11, have taken to playing the anthem on the radio. Not live either, but spliced in between commercial segments. It sounds so fake. I cut to an FM rock station. Then there's the Olympics. I have to hear it played about 83 times. Anything repeated that many times will result in stomach illness. So, mostly out of liking the song as a kid, I've come to dislike it as an adult.

God Bless America has similar problems. It was inserted into the 7th inning stretch by Major League Baseball just after 9/11. Now it's presence has faded to Sunday games only, with the exception that the Yankess still play it every game. If you go to the bathroom during the song, the Yankees' security will throw you out of the stadium forcefully. It doesn't belong in the 7th inning stretch. Take Me Out To The Ballgame does. God Bless America is sung first. This throws the fans off, and it disrupts a hundred year old tradition. It completely takes away from Take Me Out To The Ballgame.

Neither song belongs the way it currently exists. That's why I dislike them now. I don't listen anymore. I avoid them when I can.

Jamie Moyer Is Older Than Me

Phillies pitcher Jamie Moyer has been around for a long time. At 44, I'm younger than Moyer, who is 45. There are still several players older than me. I wonder who will be the last player to be older than me. I remember back in the 80's that Dwight Gooden was the first player that was younger than me. It made an impression. I was finally no longer able to look completely forward at baseball. Somebody had jumped ahead of me. Now, a bunch of kids are playing out there and I'm almost completely looking back at baseball.

Every Kid Dreams Of Playing In National League

Every kid's childhood dream. Three balls, two strikes, two outs, bases loaded, bottom of the ninth, game seven of the World Series, down three runs against the Yankees. The kid hits a grand slam to win the World Series. To beat the Yankees means to play in the National League.

Pedro Effing Feliz

Okay, I always felt that the Giants needed a quality third baseman. I was never truly unhappy with Pedro Feliz. He was okay, but I'd rather have somebody like George Brett, Mike Schmidt or A-Rod. But, wouldn't you know it, the split second the Giants delete what would have been the best hitter in their lineup, he goes out and gets the World Series winning base hit with another team. Shades of Orlando Cepeda winning the MVP and World Series the year following his trade? Well, it brings up the idea. This year's post season was so full of ex A's and Giants it was not even funny.

Congratulations Phillies

For the second time in three years, a National League team won the World Series. This despite home field advantage in the World Series going to the AL team. In the six years since the inception of the all-star-game-decides-home-field-advantage idea, all six times have failed to give a true advantage to the team that was awarded home field advantage. It's past time for baseball to rid us of that stupid rule. I heard that it was incorporated into the union contract until 2,000,012 AD or so.

Even so, congratulations to the Phils. They earned it all. They passed the Mets in the last week of the season. They beat CC Sabathia and the hot Brewers. They beat Manny and the hot Dodgers. They beat all the good players on the hot Rays that beat the hot Red Sox. I just wonder how many police cars are on fire right now.

The Longest Inning

Well, we're right smack in the middle of the sixth inning of World Series game 5. This is the longest inning I can ever remember. It's even longer than inning seven of ALCS game 5, when the Rays opened with a two run homer. A half hour later, and no further scoring, the top of the 7th was still not over. Not to be outdone, God Bless America and Take Me Out To The Ballgame preceded a four run outburst by the Red Sox before that inning came to a close.

During that ALCS inning, Mrs. Scott and I started giving the kids a bath, when she asked me what inning it was. I said the 7th. We then bathed all three of them. Afterward Mrs. Scott went shopping at the grocery store, came home, and asked me what inning it was. I said the 7th. She was shocked.

But this inning, everybody went home. Players, managers, umpires, fans, media all slept several times right in the middle of this inning. Oh, and it rained, too.

Wild One In Philly

Seeing the way the Phillies won game 3 of the Series, it was pretty wild. A hit batsman led off the bottom of the ninth, who then stole second on a wild pitch and took third when the catcher threw the ball into center field. Two intentional walks to load the bases, and a right fielder brought in as a fifth infielder. The bouncer up the third base line left "Eva" Longoria with no way to throw the runner out without hitting him. The replay showed that if he had let the ball go, it could have gone foul further up the line. But you don't think about those things when the game is on the line on that ball. The Phillie fans were great, outlasting a late start, a rain delay and a long game. Church might be empty tomorrow in Philly.

Game 1 Blues

The Phillies won game 1 of the World Series tonight. I wanted them to. But tonight after the game on SportsPhone 680, host Damon Bruce gave a sobering stat about how important winning game 1 was. It seems that 10 out of the last 11 teams that won game 1 went on to win the Series. I wondered who that 11th team could have been that didn't...

Oh, yes, of course. It struck me. I really didn't need to be reminded. But those are the kind of things that bring up bad memories. The Giants won game 1 of the 2002 World Series.

Manny, Big Papi No Shows For Sox Series Bid

Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz were no-shows in the Red Sox attempt to make it back to the World Series. That might have made all the difference in the world. When Manny was traded to the Dodgers, the first thing speculated was whether they would face each other in the World Series. Now, neither of them are there. As good as Jason Bay was in many ways, I'm wondering if the Ramirez trade didn't doom the Sox to a Hi-Def World Series. They lost game 7 by only 2 runs.

As much as Ramirez helped the Bums, they had their share of problems down the stretch. And even though he hit a thousand homers and batted a million against the Phils, their 3 games to one loss showed how the rest of the Dodger team didn't perform.

It will be an interesting series with the Phils traveling to Tampa. I can't start to predict this one as I don't have a clue where to start. Usually I can pick a team in the Series for one reason or another, but this series is a question. I'm pulling for the Phils.

My First Ballpark Road Trip (4)

Read entire series here.

Oops, here's a link to the boxscore to my first ballpark visit. With the game over, I headed out to find a motel for the night. This was about 11pm. I had tickets to a double header in San Diego the next day, starting at 2pm. San Diego is about an 85 mile drive south of Anaheim. But this is where being young and extremely naive came into play in a big way. You simply don't travel to Southern California in August without room reservations. Two out of every three families in the entire USA vacation at Disneyland or Seaworld just before school starts. I learned this the hard way.

Disneyland is only four blocks away from Anaheim Stadium, and I travelled down boulevards for miles in each direction. There are thousands of motels. "No Vacancy" was all I saw. This went on for at least an hour. I finally found one motel, and it looked dark and seedy. It was run by foreigners who obviously never watched June Cleaver clean her house on TV. The room was filthy and infested with insects, so I got my money back and split. With no light at the end of the tunnel, I decided that maybe I'd have better fortune if I hit the freeway south toward San Diego and got away from Disneyland. No such fortune. I hit every exit for 60 miles looking for a motel room. There were none. I resigned myself to sleeping in my car in a motel parking lot somewhere near Carlsbad. I dozed off for a bit, and I can only conclude that it was about 2am, when suddenly I was awakened by a noise. Okay, this was a bit creepy. I heard sirens in the distance. Then a man came flying over the concrete wall and landed right in front of my car and dashed off. Cop cars came screaching into the parking lot and chased this guy down on foot. This scared the crap out of me, and I was out of there. I had no trouble staying awake for quite a while.

So I kept going down toward San Diego, still hitting each exit. Finally I made it there, and with nowhere to go and wide awake I decided to go see where the ballpark was located. It was 3:30am. The stadium lights were on at Jack Murphy Stadium. Hmmm. I figured out that they were changing the stadium over from football to baseball. Back in those days the Padres shared the place with both the NFL Chargers and the San Diego State Aztecs college team. Sometimes the Padres' three game weekend series would have a Friday night game, then a football game on Saturday, followed by a baseball doubleheader on Sunday. I settled in to yet another motel parking lot. By this time I really had to relieve myself, so I went in the bushes in front of the car parked next to me, and fell asleep in my car.

I awoke in the early a.m. to daylight, about 7am. I looked around me and noticed that there was a family asleep in the car next to me. Whoa, was I embarrassed. I went inside the motel to see if by chance they had some kind of room. The clerk said I could wait for cancellations but that it might take a while. There were several people in line in front of me. Hours later, somebody cancelled for four days. Wahoo! I wanted to stay there longer, but it was a break. I took the room. BUT... It wouldn't be available until 2pm when maid service was done. But I had to be at the game before then. I broke down in the desert, sweated a lot and slept in my car. I needed a shower bad. I asked the clerk if he knew of any place I could shower. His only suggestion was at the beach using the shower heads to wash sand off. It was better than nothing, so I went to the beach and showered, wearing my bathing suit. How humiliating. I went to the ballpark to see the games. To be continued...

Beaten LA - More Info

In my last post I said that every other team in the NL west had won a pennant since the last time the Dodgers did in 1988. That is true of the current NL west. Then I realized that the other teams in the old NL west before realignment had each won pennants too.

The Reds in '90, the Braves in '91, '92, '95, '96, and '99, and the Astros in '05.

BEATEN L.A.!

The Dodgers lost the pennant! The Dodgers lost the pennant! The Dodgers lost the pennant!

It was scary this year, though, they did win a playoff game. I just realized that every other team in the NL west has won a pennant since they did in 1988. The Giants in '89 and '02, the Padres in '98, the Diamondbacks in '01 and the Rockies in '07.

My Personal 20 Year World Series Drought

For the twenty consecutive World Series played from 1975 to 1995, the team I was pulling for to win, lost. I often wonder what it would be like to have those 20 Series reversed. I'll give a brief rundown of each Series and why I rooted for the team that I did. More often than not, I cheer for a National League team if there's no other difference between teams. My childhood Oakland A's won three consecutive Series in '72, '73 and '74. Then my 20 year drought came.

1975 - Reds def. Red Sox. As a Giants fan, I came to hate the Big Red Machine. I was cheering for the Sox. We know the story.

1976 - Reds def. Yankees. Okay, I hated the Reds, but the Yankees hadn't done anything my whole life, so they were okay to cheer for.

1977 - Yankees def. Dodgers. While I'm a Giants fan and HATE the Dodgers, I hated Reggie Jackson and his personal public relations firm, Howard Cosell, even more. The Yankee media bias started here in my life. I wanted both teams to lose so badly it was an awful series to have to watch. But I couldn't bear to have the Yanks win at all.

1978 - Yankees def. Dodgers. Ditto 1977.

1979 - Pirates def. Orioles. When I was seven, I cried when the Bucs beat the Birds in the '71 series. I was pulling for some minor revenge. No big deal, I just wanted to see the Birds win a bit more than Pittsburgh.

1980 - Phillies def. Royals. I was turned off by Pete Rose and some of the general Phillies vibes. So I was giving a slight cheering advantage to the Royals.

1981 - Dodgers def. Yankees. The tables had turned from '77-'78. I hated everything there was about Los Angeles and the Dodgers. Enough to cheer for the Yankees. Yes, painful Series to have to know exists.

1982 - Cardinals def. Brewers. I think I cheered for the Brew Crew out of hatred for Astroturf and multi-purpose stadiums.

1983 - Orioles def. Phillies. I really don't know why I cheered for Philly, but I did. It probably happened just after game 1 started. Fans just get that thing in their heart, favoring one team over another.

1984 - Tigers def. Padres. Okay, hearing about the Tigers All. Season. Long. just wore on me. I played the NL card, too.

1985 - Royals def. Cardinals. I think I favored the NL team here, but just slightly.

1986 - Mets def. Red Sox. The New York media hype surrounding Lenny and the Mets, including the Straw, was just too unbearable. I also happened to stay with the Mets for three days in a Montreal hotel just after they clinched the division. What a bunch of first rate assholes ( I wanted to keep this as clean as possible. This is a family blog).

1987 - Twins def. Cardinals. NL over AL, plus I loathed the Astroturf, the parachute roof, the teflon warning track, the hefty bag outfield fence, the air conditioning blowing out during Twins at bats and that stupid, moronic Homer Hanky.

1988 - Dodgers def. A's. I grew up an A's fan, and I hated the Dodgers from being a Giants fan. What a joy it was to see Canseco hit a grand slam in the top of the first of game 1. Four batters, four-nothing. I thought it was over right then. This was my first World Series I attended in person. I refused to watch the Dodgers celebrate.

1989 - A's def. Giants. This one was tough. I grew up a fan of both teams. Becuase of each team's ineptitude over the last decade and a half, I was certain I'd never have to face these circumstances. I went to every game of this Series. Torn, I did like the song said and rooted for the home team. The scales tipped toward the Giants slightly because Oakland already had three rings and just lost to the hated Dodgers the previous year. I was shaken by the earthquake. What an event.

1990 - Reds def. A's. Heartbreaking to see the heavily favored team get killed like that. I also witnessed Eric Davis' kidney injury from the bleachers. Ouch. I didn't watch the Reds celebrate.

1991 - Twins def. Braves. I hated the Twins for all the same reasons as I did in '87. It had nothing at all to do with the players, just the fakeness.

1992 - Blue Jays def. Braves. I wasn't too keen at the time to let an American sport be won by a Canadian team. The font the Jays used on their uni's was also bad. Bad uniforms all around. This was the first year that the President didn't call the winning manager in the club house. It's never happened since.

1993 - Blue Jays def. Phillies. NL over AL. US vs. Canada. I also liked the idea of a bunch of guys that didn't know how to shave. Plus they beat the now hated Braves in the playoffs.

1994 - No Series: player's strike

1995 - Braves def. Indians. I took a serious hatred to the Braves once they started winning in the early 90's. They already played in Fulton County Toilet, the worst field in history (decimated by the Falcons each September) in the cheapest ballpark in history. TBS had the worst homer bunch of announcers ever, criticizing Candlestick Park on their telecasts. These guys were clueless and completely blind to anything other than the Braves accomplishments. Plus that idiotic tomahawk chop faked so cheesily by Jane Fonda. So I cheered for the Tribe.

1996 - Yankees def. Braves. As much as I hated the Yankees, they were silent for 15 years and harmless. They started winning in '95 and I at least had some small amount of respect for them, even if I hated them. The Braves had become an abomination to me, so the Yankees ended my 20 season drought of cheering for the losers in the Fall Classic. Yay!

I would gladly reverse the outcome of some of these Series if I could, especially the 1988 to 1990 Series!

Silence Is Golden

The Dodgers held a commanding position in last night's game. The Phils were floundering and the crowd was wild. I was thinking, "Oh, great. They'll win tonight and in game 5, too, and the Phils will have to go home and win both, but they won't win at all." Then Victorino tied it and old man Stairs hit a bomb. Man, did that shock Chavez Ravine into stunned silence. It was beautiful.

Go Phillies?

I'm cheering for the Phillies to win it all. Philly over LA, Tampa over Boston, Philly over Tampa. The reason? First, as a Giants fan, I HATE THE DODGERS! They must lose at any cost, even if they have to be beaten by the Yankees. Second, I hate the Red Sox. They're the new Yankees and the darling of ESPN and the east coast bias. But I don't hate them as much as the Dodgers. Now, the Rays are the obvious Cinderella story of the year and everybody seems to be pulling for them. But I want them to lose to Philly because they've never won a World Series and the Phillies have. The Rays would be yet another team to leapfrog over the Giants in World Series victories. Let them stew another several decades to pay their due. The Phillies are already there (1980). So, go Phillies!

How To Heckle - Pitchers Named McDonald

The last series of the regular season saw the Giants play the Dodgers. Friday night Giants/Dodgers games are always extra rowdy with lively crowds. Heckling is at its height. Late in the game, the Dodgers had quite a few pitchers warming up in the bullpen. One pitcher got up to throw, and his name was James McDonald. McDonald? This name was ripe for heckling.

Think of the cultural things surrounding McDonald. In children's nursery rhymes, he owned a farm. Think also Big Macs and clowns named Ronald. But Mike, Dan (he sits behind us - I'll write about him later) and I quickly came up with a chant about sending him down to the minors. Mike: "Send McDonald to the farm", Dan: "E-I-E-I-Oooo" (repeat), Me: "With an Albuquerque here and an Albuquerque there, here an Albuquerque, there an Albuquerque, everywhere an Albuquerque". "Send McDonald to the farm, E-I-E-I-Oooo!" Okay, Albuquerque is no longer their AAA team, but it was for so long that it doesn't matter.

Giants Downward Progression

Out of 30 major league teams, the Giants play in the 4th largest market, have the 17th highest payroll and the 25th highest winning percentage. This doesn't look good. The Tampa Bay Rays, on the other hand, play in the 21st largest market, have the 29th highest payroll and the 2nd highest winning percentage. Go Giants!

Playoffs Should Have One Day Off Maximum

It would help greatly if baseball had a one day off maximum between each round of series. None of the division series went five games. Both National League division series were over by Sunday, and the AL series on Monday. The playoffs should have gone to the next round by Wednesday, instead of the scheduled Thursday and Friday. Dead time takes people's interest away, even if for an extra day. Moving the post season up one day won't hurt anything. It's bad enough that extra days off were added both to the middle of series and between them, but adding any more because of short series is over the top.

History 08

At game 2 of the NLDS in Chicago I saw a jersey on a fan with the name, "HISTORY", and the number, "08" on the back. It was intended to predict that the Cubs would make history in '08 by winning their first World Series in a century. Instead, it foretold of the Cubs' dream as history in '08.

Another Night's Sleep Ruined By Playoff TV Schedule

Okay, it happened again. Tomorrow's Rays/White Sox game has a starting time that completely relies upon the outcome of the Angels/Red Sox game. Which by the way was a more than five hour, way past midnight affair that went deep into extra innings. The TV ratings pecking order has the Rays/ChiSox game behind the Angels/BoSox game. So an Angels victory puts the Chicago game early in the day with a night game in Boston, where a Red Sox victory ends the series and puts the Chicago game in prime time as a night game. Thousands of ticket holders in Chicago went to bed tonight not knowing the starting time of their game tomorrow; not knowing whether to leave work early or take the day off at all; not knowing in many cases if they even can go to the game.

But Major League Baseball doesn't give care about these people at all because a bunch of idiotic morons work there. FOX and TBS don't care because they have a contract. And Major League Baseball already sold the tickets. Screw the fans, they suck anyway.

Good Guys, Bad Guys

The current playoffs present an odd challenge for me. Of the eight teams, four I completely despise and would love nothing better than to see each of them swept in three games right now. The other four teams I wouldn't mind seeing win the whole thing. The trouble is that the four bad teams are all playing each other right now and so are the four good teams.

I hate the Dodgers, Cubs, Red Sox and Angels. I don't mind the Phillies, Brewers, White Sox or Rays. Two teams from each group will be in the LCS. Bad guys are guaranteed to be in each LCS, but at least the Cubs and Dodgers won't meet in the NLCS so as to guarantee one of them win the pennant.

A Great Day At The Ballyard For A Future Star

Last week I took our three year old to the Giants game vs. the Rockies to see his favorite player pitch, Tim Lincecum. He put on a lot better show than the Giants did. We arrived very early, as the Giants were unveiling a new feature, "The Wall of Fame" on the sidewalk outside the third base side of the park. Bronze plaques of Giants players who have either nine years of service with the Giants or five years plus an All-Star game selection. We met many players, JT Snow, Kirk Reuter (who shook his hand), Johnny LeMaster and sooo many more. We attended a "meet the young players" meeting, with the Giants top minor leaguers and prospects. It was dry for a three year old, so we walked around the club level of AT&T Park.

He remembers a "statue" of Snoopy, and I showed him the many pictures on the wall and jerseys and other memorabilia in glass cases. I showed him a big picture on the wall of Willie Mays' catch in the 1954 World Series. "I have that picture in my book" he replied. We went downstairs to our seats and ate sunflower seeds. He's pretty good at spitting them out. Before the game we watched Lincecum warm up. The next morning he showed Mrs. Scott how he did his stretches.

Several innings into the game, we hit the cable car and he rang the bell, went down the slides inside the Coke bottle, then hit the "kids fun lot." It's a mini diamond where small children can play whiffle ball. He made it clear that he needed his hat and glove. He already wore his Giants uniform. When it was his turn, he got up to the plate. The pitcher (a ballpark employee) took one look at his size (very small, even for a three year old), and scooted up to pitch. He drilled the first pitch on a line drive square into the pitcher's chest, nearly knocking him off his feet. He ran the bases, then took his glove out into the field, where later he played catch with some older kids, about 8 or 9 years old. I over-heard one of the older ones remark to his friend that our son was so talented that "he'll be a pro someday."

The Giants got killed by the Rockies so it was okay that we stayed in the fun lot for so long. In the late innings, most people had taken their kids home, so our guy was the only one left. He had dedicated BP. He drilled one pitch after another. The pitcher remarked that he was a "line drive back up the middle" type of hitter. He has his own batting stance, no doubt taken from watching on TV, a cross between Don Baylor and a right handed Bobby Tolan. The pitcher remarked to him that he doesn't mind the ball coming back up the middle, but to not hit him in the face. He also hit several balls over the fence of the yard. It was an amazing display of hitting. A crowd of 10-15 people had gathered outside the rail and were actively cheering him on in almost utter disbelief as to what they were seeing. I blew it by not having a video camera.

Possible World Series Rematches

I write as the Twins and White Sox are still scoreless in their tie-breaker game. There are a number of possible World Series re-matches this October. They are:

White Sox/Cubs - 1906
Red Sox/Phillies - 1915
Red Sox/Dodgers - 1916
Red Sox/Cubs - 1918
Dodgers/White Sox - 1959
Dodgers/Twins - 1965

No York

For the first time in quite a while, there are no New York teams in the postseason. Before I get too happy, this means that all the attention from FOX will now go to the Red Sox. Maybe they can lose in the first round. What is pretty cool is that I picked two of the teams in my Cynic's pick with one honorable mention still a possibility.

What a way to close out the NY ballparks. No October for the team that's played in more Octobers than anybody, and a collapse completed by the Mets in the last two innings of the season. Somebody should send some TV's.

Giants Loss Projection Through September 28 - Final Total

September 16 through September 28:

68-83, 89; 68-84, 90; 68-85, 90; 69-85, 89; 69-86, 90; 70-86, 89; 70-87, 90; 70-88, 90; 70-89, 91; 71-89, 90; 71-90, 91; 72-90, 90.

End Of Season

Final Loss Total: 90

In my first loss projection post, I figured the Giants would break the 100 loss mark. I was 10 games off as they only broke the 90 loss mark. Still, a bad season was very predictable. They were terrible the first few months of the season. The second half they upgraded to very bad. The kids were allowed to play and this made a big difference. The Giants need bats and will have to pick up at least two free agents to do it. They better get an offense before Cain and Lincecum split town. It would be horrible to waste those two.

Instant Replay Creates Pinch-Runner During Home Run Trot

I was at the Giants/Dodgers game last night and saw that weird instant replay play first hand, right in front of me. That had to be one of the most bizarre plays in baseball history. Giants catcher Benjie Molina came to bat with a runner on and hit a line drive off the top of the right field fence. It bounced back to the outfielder and he was held to a single. But the top of the brick wall at AT&T has a green tin roof that slopes back toward the field (link courtesy Google Image). Ground rules state that if the ball hits the tin roof (including both the edge and top) it is a home run. There's no need for the ball to go into the stands.

Molina is the slowest runner in the majors, so Giants manager Bruce Bochy sent Emmanuel Burris out to pinch run. The Dodger pitcher wanted a new ball, so threw the old one in. But it had green paint on it, proof that it hit the tin roof, so Bochy called for instant replay to determine if it was a home run. Somehow the powers that be missed the fans down the right field line twirling their fingers in the air with the home run signal and screaming "home run!". The ball obviously hit the roof because we could hear it. It is a loud thud, kind of like a baseball hitting a tin roof.

The umpires conferred and retreated to the instant replay area in a tunnel behind home plate. They reversed the call and declared it a home run. But Burris was already at first, and the umpires directed the runners to continue home. Burris had the most hilarious smile on his face, because he didn't hit the ball. Both runs scored and the game was tied.

But because the pinch runner was put in, neither Molina or Burris were allowed to continue playing. Bochy played the game under protest because if the umps had made the correct call in the first place, there would have been no need for a pinch runner. There will be a new rule next year regarding instant replay, for sure. There was also question as to how the play should be scored. Nothing like this has ever happened. Molina hit the home run, but Burris scored the run. Molina should get the RBI's, but does he score the run? Should Burris be in the box score? Essentially, the way the umpires ruled the play, a pinch runner was put in right in the middle of a home run trot.

What should have happened is this. The umps should have reversed the call, called Burris off the field and sending Molina back to first. Then the runners should have continued running the bases (giving the Dodgers the right to appeal in case either runner missed touching a base), allowing each to score. Burris' entrance into the game via a pinch running appearance should have been struck from the record, and Molina should have been allowed to continue playing. Burris would go back to the bench and be available to Bochy to play later in the game. The new rule should read that in case of instant replay overturning a ruling on the field, all interim lineup moves between the contested play and the first pitch (or pickoff throw to a base) afterward should be nullified.

Such a wacky play as this should have occurred at Candlestick Park. But it did happen in San Francisco.

Tiebreaker Possibilities Galore

Heading into the last weekend of the season, there are some pretty good tiebreaking situations still possible. The Twins just swept the White Sox (in extras tonight) to pass them by 1/2 game. The Brewers beat the Pirates in extras to keep pace with the Mets in the wildcard, and the Mets are only 1 game behind the Phillies.

If the Twins and Sox finish within a half game, then the Sox need to play a makeup game against Detroit on Monday. If this lands them in a tie, the Sox and Twins will have a playoff on Tuesday. If the Phils, Mets and Brewers all tie with the same record, the Phils and Mets will playoff on Monday to determine the division winner, and the loser will play Milwaukee on Tuesday to determine the wildcard.

If the Brewers and Mets each get swept this weekend and the Astros sweep, there might be a three way tie for the wildcard, and would force a makeup game on Monday between the Astros and Cubs to determine if the Astros are to tie. I think there might be a mathematical tiebreaker between the Rays and Red Sox in case they tie. Either way they're both in the playoffs. I'd love to see as many tiebreaker situations arise as possible in one year. Now that would be a news story.

Giant Spoilers

Okay, the Dodgers are 2 1/2 games in front of the D-Backs with a week to play. They finish the season with 3 games against the Giants at AT&T Park. I would love to see the season come down to knocking the Bums out of the pennant race on the last day of the season, as has happened between the Giants and Dodgers so many times in the past. They play the lowly Padres this week, while the Snakes play the Cards and the Giants play the Rockies.

Sunday's game in Chavez Ravine saw the G-men win a 1-0 exciter in 11 innings. This is good stretch baseball, even if one team is out of it. Go Giants. Beat LA!

My First Ballpark Road Trip (3)

Read entire series here.

During that first game of my road trip, I just had to take a tour of the park during the game to get a flavor of the fans and different vantage points around the place. A bleacher bum just has to go sit out in the bleachers. So I headed for left field. What I found didn't resemble anything I knew of bleachers. They weren't wooden benches (I knew this from games on TV) and they weren't even called "bleachers" either. They were like "outfield reserved" or something. I forget whether they were even general admission. All of the outfield stands at Anaheim Stadium were an afterthought, being added in the 70's for the football Rams. So the left field seats were essentially football seats, extending all the way down to ground level behind the outfield fence. Nobody could sit in the first ten or fifteen rows because they couldn't see the field over the fence.

The fans out there weren't any more enthusiastic about the game that the fans in the box seats. They just had less expensive tickets. In Oakland, I was used to fist fights several times per game, fans starting chants, heckling the visiting outfielders, etc. This was obviously not happening here. I yelled to the A's left fielder, Dave Collins at the time, just like we did in Oakland. He was "our guy," no matter how good he was. He didn't seem to much more than acknowledge that an A's fan was there in Anaheim. Oh, well. I did talk to one fan for a bit, then returned. Overall, the left field section was a major disappointment.

Anaheim Stadium was a big memory for me my first visit there. It was a large ballpark, three decks high, completely enclosed, seating 65,000. It was shaped similar to Candlestick, and the outfield enclosure was similar in that it was done for football in the 70's and the left field stands were in the end zone. Both parks' right field stands rolled in to the side line, covering right field.

After the game, I remember heading to the players exit to see the A's come out. I vaguely remember this, but I have a Mike Davis autograph on my ticket stub. I must have hit him up. It was a great night and I headed out to find a motel for the night. I will write about that, plus my time the rest of the week in San Diego, and a return jaunt to Anaheim for another game on Monday in future posts.

My First Ballpark Road Trip (2)

Read entire series here.

As a continuation to Part 1 of this series, I'll pick up with the game in Anaheim. I had made it to Anaheim before the game started despite my car troubles. I was wearing my A's hat and I had field level seats down the first base line. They were pretty good as seats went, as they were purchased much earlier in the year. I collect ticket stubs, and the ticket wasn't an Angels ticket; rather it was a Ticketron ticket (their phone order ticket service), so it didn't even look like a baseball ticket. There was no Angels logo, and the ticket taker was kind of clumsy on the tear. He missed the perforation and ripped the ticket right down the middle. If I didn't know what the ticket was for, I'd have a tough time identifying it.

Anyway, I was alone at the game, so I had an extra ticket. I tried to sell the other one outside the park (face value was all I was asking), but it just didn't feel right, so I went in alone. The concession stands had a different feel, and sold some different (and better) items than back at home. I got a hot dog and went to my seat. I don't know if this was the trip to Anaheim where this occurred, but after putting condiments on my dog, I dropped the wrapper on the ground, just like any baseball fan would where I was from. In a half of a second, there was a worker behind me with one of those old scoop broom deals and whisked my wrapper up and scurried off. Anaheim Stadium was extremely clean and uncluttered.

As the game progressed, I couldn't help but notice the crowd. I've always loved people watching, and I always take note of the feel of the crowd at a game. Angels fans were extremely tame. There were no loudmouth fans, no hecklers, nobody pounding beer after beer. Yes, there were people drinking beer, but no drunks, nobody even a bit loose. It was relatively quiet for a baseball game, even though I would have expected Saturday night to bring out the rowdies. People dressed conservatively, and it seemed that there were relatively few people wearing Angels hats, jackets and other items. They just sat there. They were very attentive to the game, but just seemed to stare toward home plate. I did my usual and cheered wildly and loudly for the A's, but even though I was very loud, few people seemed to even care. There were no strange looks or evil eyes.

One huge difference between the Angels crowd and the A's and Giants crowds that I was used to was in the women. Okay, maybe the Orange County/Southern California stereotype was true, but there were amazingly beautiful women all over the place. There wasn't just one in the left field bleachers and one over there in the box seats, but there were hundreds of them. I saw probably more beautiful women that game than in all A's and Giants games in my entire life combined. Maybe it was just the thing to do down there in LaLa land. Who knows, but a single 21 year old male didn't complain.

More in my next post.

How To Heckle - Umpires As Targets

Heckling isn't limited to targeting opposing players. Umpires can be equally good targets. What's usually needed, though, in the case of umpires is a blown call or a bad attitude in ejecting somebody. It is tradition in baseball to yell, "Kill the umpire!" - a tradition that has fallen on hard times these past few decades. Umpires are frequently referred to as "Blue." That they have most often worn black shows that the term started during a period where blue was king. Umps in my company softball league used to wear red shirts and black pants but we still called them "blue." Go figure.

Eyesight is the most often maligned attribute of an umpire. I read an account once where a ballpark organist was ejected for playing "Three Blind Mice" after a disputed call. One traditional heckle goes like this, "Hey, ump, if you had another eye you'd be a cyclops!" Another less popular says, "Hey, blue, you're missing a good game; Giants and Cardinals at Candlestick!" I used to yell, "Hey, ump, turn around and watch the game!"

The centerfield bleacher bums in Oakland, when the umpires were announced before the game, used to collectively yell, "Oh, no!" after each umpire's name. Their favorite target was rotund AL ump Ken Kaiser, for whom they would yell, "OH, NOOOO!"

How To Heckle - Developing Your Voice

I started heckling early on in my life. I attended games every so often, and after a game of yelling, my voice was often hoarse. When I started attending games almost every day, I realized that my voice wouldn't handle it. There's nothing more embarrassing to the prime heckler in the bleachers than to have lost his voice. So I started experimenting with my voice and training it.

I once heard an ad for voice training for would be stock traders. These guys spend all day on the floor of the stock exchange yelling prices. This class would help train their voices for maximum volume at extended times of yelling. I dreamed of joining that class and showing up the first day not wearing a suit or collared shirt, but a ripped up t-shirt and faded ball cap.

I paid attention to airflow, vocal strain, projection, tone and many other factors. You could say I was self-trained in yelling. I maximized my voice so that I could yell very loud for nine innings every day. It paid off. To this day, I've only met two people with louder yelling voices than mine.

One A's double header vs. the Twins I started yelling at the Twins left fielder, constantly and loudly. There were some Twins fans sitting nearby who were a bit forcibly unimpressed with my heckling. They explained to me that I would lose my voice in just a few innings. To my surprise, several of the bums around me exclaimed, "No he won't!" One of the games went extra innings, and the left fielder had as bad a day as he could, going 0 for 11. Some day when I become rich, I'll start a class on heckling voice lessons.

Giants Loss Projection Through September 15

September 1 through September 15:

59-78, 92; 59-79, 93; 60-79, 92; 60-80, 93; 61-80, 92; 62-80, 91; 63-80, 91; 64-80, 90; 65-80, 89; 65-81, 90; 66-81, 89; 67-81, 89; 68-81, 88; 68-82, 89.

With this last game, the Giants have clinched a losing season for the fourth straight year.

Possible 20 Wins For Lincecum

A few posts ago, I said that Tim Lincecum would no longer be able to win 20 games. Well, there has been an interesting twist to this. Starting every fifth game, he would run out of starts to finish the season on a winning run at 20 victories. His 20th would be on the day after the season is over. But the Giants have hinted that they will clip their off day next week out of the rotation and move Lincecum up a game. He'll still pitch on four days rest, but not on four games rest. The last game of the year is against the Dodgers, and they are in a pennant race (uh, yeah) with the D-Backs. How sweet it would be for Lincecum to win his 20th on the last game of the year, knock the Dodgers out of the pennant race, and win the Cy Young award, all in the same day.

Giants Loss Projection Through August 31