intermadridSan Francisco Giants
…………….MORE LIKE……………..
let’s not forget Santiago Casilla.
Stress
I have been stressed lately. Getting finished with my finals, switching jobs, eating a lot of pizza, and watching the Giants….. all of these things stress me out. I want to say that my “magical vacation” to Chicago to see friends and the Giants play at Wrigley Field was a cloud of fun and relaxation, but it really was just more stress. I will fill those blanks in with a post when I get a chance. For now I am wallowing in a couple of stress free days. Now all that stresses me out are the Giants. Why did I even dream that this win would be an easy one?
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The Omar Vizquel defensive inside play of the game goes to:
Nate Schierholtz for making an absolutely balls to the wall flying catch to end the game. If he missed the ball we lose. Flat out spectacular!
The Eugenio Velez defensive mishap of the night goes to:
Miguel Tejada, sure he made an amazing dive to get the ball but how much does that mean when you almost throw it away…. at this point I know I am being petty, the guy is getting better.
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The Jack Donaghy (hero) award goes to:
Madison Bumgarner, how do you win your first game, hit a double and suppress the hell out of the opposing batters. Madison went all beast-mode on the dodgers today, I’m impressed.
The Devon Banks (goat) award goes to:
Police people. I know I know, I am suppose to welcome safety to the ballpark right? nah, this just looks like a my house after the kegger I threw in high school got broken up.
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more stuff:
Fontenot gets the scoring started!
The absolute meanest Pablo face I have ever seen. Awesome!
When you can’t win you just go after the batters I guess.
I love that look that pitchers have when they can’t believe that they just gave up a hit.
Soooo close to his first shutout. zoiks. bummer moment here.
I probably should have giving Fontenot the Velez award today, but I just couldn’t. I like the guy too much.
Usually a good sign, if you have two outs in the ninth, not today. Brian needs to take a day or two to heal that ankle.
That is the second batter that got hit tonight. just saying…
Who is this guy? and what has he done with the old crappy Tejada? No joke, let’s pay some respect to a guy who seems to be turning it around. I really do want to root for you buddy, just give me a reason.
Take notes Darren Ford, this is the only way you are going to make the bigs.
Walking Off
Last night my boss took me out to eat, we went out for burgers and he tried to convince me to not quit my job. We ate our burgers and had a couple of uncomfortable moments. Eating, drinking, me talking about “how money matters to me now”, as if I’m some sort of adult. After dinner we split ways, I went drinking with a friend, had a few too many and ended up running around SOHO kicking trashcans over at 3 am. At some point I blacked out, got blue paint all over my pants, told a poet that I hate poetry and lost $20. I woke up at 1pm today, my head was throbbing.
There’s no walk off hit in real life. I can’t make an amazing latte for someone, get cheered by a room full of satisfied customers, be mobbed by delirious co-workers and carried out on their shoulders. Life doesn’t provide the moments that baseball provides. I guess that’s why we get shitty drunk and run around manhattan kicking trashcans over.
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The Omar Vizquel Defensive Excellence Award Goes To:
Aubrey Huff for sticking with the under-thrown ball to nail Miranda at 2nd.
The Eugenio Velez Defensive Indifference Award Goes To:
Freddy Sanchez… surprisingly. For making 2 errors on one play, bobbling a ball and then throwing it too low for huff.
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The Setoguchi Award (Hero) Goes to:
Lincecum…… I wanted it tonight. I was sniffing a no-hitter when I turned the game on when I got home in the 2nd inning. “is there a hit yet”?
My girlfriend goes to sleep and I ask her…..”should I wake you up if anything “historic” happens?”….. It’s gonna happen… someday. Until then, sleep tight.
The Datsyuk Award (Goat) Goes to:
Ian Kennedy, not only for throwing a damn fine game but for breaking up the no-hitter in the 6th. disappointing, I was really feeling like tonight could have been the night for Timmy. But just like Datsyuk… you have to recognize greatness.
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More Stuffs
This makes me wonder if the phrasing “Andre The Giant” is copy write, or if they felt it was appropriate to call it “Andre el Gigante” just because of his latin roots? Either way it is kinda cool, and kinda lame, I can’t decide yet.
Buster sniffs out a hit.
“Vaaat I git no vin today, eeez ok”
Cody Ross does the Freddy Sanchez “fake like it’s inside” dance
Then he throws his bat like a spoiled brat. haha
Tim threw two perfect corner pitches for strikes in a row in the 7th inning. Both times they showed a close up of his face and he was mouthing “fuck” with a disappointed look on his face. Perfection must be hard.
Buster Posey is making gloves drop like beats……. ok that didn’t work as a metaphor. Whatever, Posey is playing great.
Can some internet nerd draw some lasers shooting out of these eyes? Cause Ford is straight up cyclopsing dudes with these lazy browns. “Ya, I just stole on you… what?”
Huff has the swing of the game, with this karate chop fouling a ball at his eyes.
Amy G. is the only thing in the world that makes Cody not want to smile. I feel ya Cody, I feel ya.
GMR Field Trip
The Mets have a scoreboard problem. They start playing the “Let’s Go Met’s” chant before their first batter even gets into the box, which leads to the inevitable scoreboard prompt burnout by the 5th inning. I say, only sounds until at least the 4th.
There was some pretty great banter back and forth between the Met’s and Giants fans during the game. And it went back and forth pretty well, through our bases loaded pop-outs, and through their bases loaded double play. Organic “Let’s Go Giants” Chants were squashed by thunderous boos but Giants fans definitely grabbed a foothold in Citi field tonight.
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I’m just gonna post pictures and give a couple of my thoughts. But first…..
Stock watch
Rising stock:
Schierholtz, Fontenot, Lopez, and Huff (a little bit).
Falling stock:
Tejada (majorly), Burriss, Ross, and Vogelsong (sorry buddy)
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If you read this blog you know that I am a Fontenot fan. He just embodies the underdog thing. He had an important hit tonight and played solid defense at SS.
Mets fan definitely remember Mota, and they don’t like him. Note to self: look up what Mota ever did to Mets fans.
The AAA crew. Ford, Burriss, and Rohlinger, chumming it up on the fence.
Just showing again how short Fontenot really is. Sure the angle distorts the view a little bit, but not much.
Stretching it out.
Burrell and Huff were chatting the whole afternoon before the game. There was not a lot of smiles going around. In fact the only one acting loose was Bochy who played catch with Ross for a while. Lots of focused looks on the Giants before the game.
Henry Schulman in the wild. zoiks!
The only action shot I took all night. I was in foul ball territory and I got about 4 that were hit in about a 30 foot radius, so I couldn’t be holding the camera the whole time.
Constant coverage!
Terribler Than Terrible
“These aren’t your father’s Nationals” That’s what Krukow said on the pregame show. I am assuming he was speaking about the endless futility of the Expos. At the same time Kruk might have a point. The Nationals are not terrible, but to say that the they are not terrible would be a lie. They ARE terrible, but the Giants are terribler. The Giants are the 111 loss 2004 Diamondbacks right now. The Giants are the fucking 43 win 2003 Detroit Tigers right now. The Giants are the fucking 1994-2010 Pittsburg Pirates right now. The Giants’ bats are limper than a senior citizen’s wrist. Ok let’s leave it at that. So let’s all just do some jumping jacks, loosen up and settle in for a LONG road trip. Let’s enjoy this round of terrible baseball while it lasts. Let’s hope it doesn’t last long.
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The Omar Award goes to:
Aubrey Huff for the excellent play down the first base line early in the game.
The Velez Award goes to:
Aaron Rowand and Cody Ross. I think everyone knows what I am talking about…… Just look at the picture.
“let’s share this ball and be happy” says those dorks.
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The Dorus Rijkers Award (Hero) goes to:
Tim Lincecum who found his good pitches a couple of innings too late. Poor bastard, if you don’t throw a shutout then you pretty much have no shot at winning with this lineup.
I forgot to snap a pic of Tim tonight so I stole this pic from here..
The Sea Award (Goat) goes to:
Jason Marquis who is a mutha fucking Giant KILLER. It’s unbelievable how much the Giants suck right now, and Marquis is just the wrong type of pitcher for us to face right now. I would rather face Halliday, Sabathia, Josh Johnson or pretty much any number of aces. A ground ball pitcher is the last thing I want to see on an upcoming schedule.
Here he is hitting an RBI hit and run on an impossible pitch to hit.
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Bonus Crap:
This bunt that worked (but ultimately didn’t work) doesn’t bother me. We are up against a ground ball double play pitcher, and we have a guy on base. Solid option.
This bunt does bother me, Miguel Tejada, former MVP, former slugger is bunting with no one on base and 36 year old legs. Now Tejada made it to first, I know, fair enough. But it just proves that Tejada knows that he sucks, and in my opinion should not be playing.
Right after Rowand and Cody decided that they wanted to share a fly ball Nix blasts a 2 run HR. Perfect timing. Can things go worse for the Giants?…….
Yes… Cody (why am I still in the lineup) Ross hits a single and gets throw out by 8-12 feet at 2nd base.
Buster (Don’t vote for me for the All-Star game ) Posey along with the rest of the Giants hitters swing about 20+ times at this pitch.
Posey throws his second runner out except he is called safe (make-up-call). This guy went on to score on that impossible hit and run Marquis hit.
Bring in the scrubs!!!!
Last Week In Giants
High light of the game (and possibly the week)
To say that the only Giants game that I will be able to see at AT&T this year was a downer is a huge understatement. Here are the facts.
1. We lost
2. It was damn cold (I forgot how cold SF gets… yes I’m an idiot).
3. I had standing room only tickets
4. EVERYONE was there early. Gone are the days where I would show up 2 hours early and was almost guaranteed to be able to catch a BP ball. Oh well, for better or worse… right?
5. I had just had my car impounded for parking on Mission street during rush hour (FUCKSHITDAMNFUCKING $475 later I got my car back!!!!)
The best seat in the house.
If you buy standing room only.
So ya, I enjoyed coming home, I enjoyed being at AT&T again. But I am much more looking forward to the Giants Vs Mets game at CITI Field where I have seats 17 rows behind the Giants dugout. And tickets are only $30 because the Mets are TERRIBLE.
But enough about me. Let’s talk about what the Giants are up to.
I’m just going to go through a couple of players and spout what I have been thinking about.
Fontenot
Can I get an amen? If given playing time I feel like Fontenot represents more runs saved on defense and more runs created on offense than Tejada. I know I am echoing someone but I get nervous every time the ball is hit to SS.
Pat Burrell
I want this guy in the lineup every day. Sure he makes a lot of outs, but he always takes at least 4 pitches. One of the shining examples of how to take an at bat.
Aaron Rowand
From now on I will probably not mention how garbage Rowand was. For Rowand we are going to have to put blinders on. I don’t remember what happened to Rowand last year… do you? All I know is there is some dude who looks like he sits on a toilet when he swings and he is saving our ass, game in and game out.
Darren Ford
…..Has more World Series Rings than Major league hits, and he totally deserves it.
1. Posey
2. Pablo
3. Timmy
4. Either Cain… or Wilson… not sure which one yet.
The Dog House.
1. Tejada (told you so)
2. Huff, but it’s not entirely his fault, he is hitting it into the defense a lot of the time.
3. Ross,….. is he playing for his job now? maybe.
4. The rotation, I know… I love them too, but they need to start getting deep into games or our bullpen will be all used up at the end of the season. My recommendation is to get Kroon, and Edelfson up here to help out for a while, drop Burriss and carry an extra reliever to keep the pressure off.
Last thing…
I see this sign every time I go to the park…. and I wonder… how the hell is a ball (or a freaking bat!) going to get back to the last row of the last section before the arcade, about 20 rows under the overhang and still be “flying”?
Spring break 2011
Reason for blogging hiatus: familial visit in California. Bad Internet connection, no Wifi. BE back in a few days.
Posted April 25, 2011 at 2:57am
Falling Down
This Zito story is sad. I want the bastard to win in the end… But he doesn’t. It’s as if you read all the Harry Potter books and in the last chapter it’s just Harry waking up in his small bedroom under the stairs cause it was all a dream. He grows up painfully awkwardly, never has a friend or a girlfriend. He eventually gets a sad job in some kind of cubicle, occasionally thinking about the amazing dream he once had as a kid under the stairs……….. What am I saying here? I don’t know. Just was thinking about what a crappy ending that would be for that book series…… anyway, Zito sucked tonight. And we are all lucky that he left early.
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The Omar Vizquel Excellence in Fielding Award goes to:
Miquel Tejada for a damn amazing play behind the bag at third.
The Eugenio Velez Lack of Glove Control Award goes to:
Barry Zito for the terrible pick off play that got thrown into center field.
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The Humbert Humbert Award (Hero) goes to:
Mota….. This guy shut it down. For the record I am not a huge Mota fan, maybe because he does not seem to fit into the typical Giants reliever formula….. aka, fiery, facial haired, weird delivery having. But he is solid, that solid guy who is easy to distrust, but in the end can deliver.
The Humber Humbert Award (goat) goes to:
Those damn double plays. Holy hell! How did we survive all that? It was a flashback to the Bengie days.
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Continuing with our theme…. Falling Down.
Saunders mark his territory on the mound.
Tejada falls down with purpose.
Pablo would rather do dirt angels than get to this ball. ……jk….. nice try Pablo.
Zito playing horsey on the infield.
More Stuff:
I don’t know what is going on with Rowand, I don’t know what he is smoking, but he is being reborn into some sort of bizzaro-Rowand
Posey puts one in the seats.
Sanchez was clutch tonight, in the field for staying with it on the Tejada flip, to catching this fly going back into CF, and at the plate by driving in the winning runs.
When are they gonna learn not to run on Posey?
Darren Ford’s first MLB at bat. At least he didn’t strike out looking.
The perfect ending….. again.
Almost Too Easy
I don’t like Jackie Robinson day. I always turn the game on and think that the Giants have changed their jerseys. It always takes me about an inning to realize that everyone is wearing the same number. So here is Matt Cain, winning his first game as #42.
I am feeling something with Cain this year, as if he is going to do something great. I have felt this for about three years now. But the better he gets….. the more you think it. If I thought he was on track to do something special last year (which he did) then this year I have to assume the same.
Year of the Cain……..? I guess we’ll see.
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The Omar Vizquel Defensive Wizardry Award Goes to:
Gotta give props where they are deserved. Kelly Johnson made a pretty nice play on this “almost” bloop single.
The Velez Award for Ball Bobbling Goes to:
Since this was an error free game I am going to put my favorite screenshot from last season up.
ooooh lord I love this photo!!!! hahahahahahahahaha
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The W. Mark Felt Award (hero) goes to:
Matt Cain, the guy is a beast. What more can I say about this guy?
The Richard Nixon Award (villain) goes to:
Again…… I can’t think of any…… This game was really really well played and kinda boring. I was going to say Jose Lopez for making Wilson come into the game, but… nah, he’s too good. No villain today…. So I will go with another classic Giants Villain Photo for those who know……
Mr. Poetry in motion…. The perfect Villain.
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More Stuff
Pablo continues his beastly run. If he knew where the strike zone was he could hit .400 some year.
I should have put the picture of Rowand’s strike out hat trick right here, but this picture has Rowand’s future replacement in it….. can you guess who it is?
Tejada is swinging a nice club right now. 3 hits.
Call me a second guesser, but I don’t see why Ford or Schierholtz was not in right field at this point. This is the 5th or 6th inning. It was 5-0, Just felt like we had wrapped it up by then.
Pretty lucky brake here, after a Pablo gone fishing strike-out Huff was hung out at least 8 feet.
Pablo is tearing it up over at the hot corner, I feel like I put a picture of his defensive plays in almost all my posts so far. (although he didn’t get the runner)
“Guuuuuyyyss…… Hey guuuuuuyyys…… I’m over here wait for meeeeee” says temporarily lost Aaron Rowand
I know that Fontenot didn’t really contribute in this game, but I just wanted to point out again that I am rooting for him and that the day that I didn’t do a game wrap he totally killed the ball and won the game for us. Love this guy!
I wonder if Darren Ford got his ring today? I really want to see this guy up in the bigs this year.
I like how all the Arizona fans have given this guy a 4 seat radius…. I’ve seen some pretty terrible beards this year, this one is pretty epic.
Wilson kisses the imaginary ring…… just a note. Anyone notice that Wilson now has matching orange (home) and grey (away) cleats? pretty legit.
Olberman’s Giants Predictions
I browse other sites sometimes checking out what other people say about the Giants, as I suppose everyone else does. I came across this piece today on Keith Olberman’s blog called “Baseball Nerd” which, which I rather enjoy. He picks the Giants to win the West again. But he kinda puts it to the fans. Here is the whole paragraph he wrote.
San Francisco: The Giants would have to screw up – and badly – to not repeat in this division. Brian Sabean would have to do the exact opposite of what he did last year and tradeaway key components and I’m not betting on it. But I must say this: the Giants are rapidly becoming one of the most disliked teams in baseball – and not just because of the silly boastfulness of the ring ceremony and the rest. No World Championship team has ever been feted by fans who have been worse winners than have the 2010 Giants. I mean Red Sox Nation didn’t gloat this much like this after ’04. It’s understandable that a franchise that saw that much frustration and even peril might continue to celebrate for years to come, but there is a reason they coined the phrase “act like you’ve been there before.”
He is right in a sense. Obviously I disagree with him when he proclaims the Giants the “worst winners.” BUT it’s about time we shut the fuck up and start playing baseball again. I enjoyed the hell out of winning the World Series, but he has a valid point.
