I think the slowest between pitches hurler I've seen was Julian Tavares---who looked like he was posing for his Topps card after every pitch...
One pitcher who liked to work fast was Goose Gossage. (Getting signs from the catcher was just a formality for him because he only had one pitch: a blazing fastball.)
I remember a few times when he faced Cleveland first baseman Mike Hargrove, who was one of those ssslooowww batters who had to check everything between pitches. Gossage would stand on the mound with his hands on his hips between pitches as if to say, "Anytime you're ready, MFer!"
I had the good fortune of being able to ask Gossage about it directly when I visited the Baseball Hall of Fame this summer. Gossage said, "Yeah, I remember Hargrove. I hated that SOB. I wanted to bean him every time he came up."
So I got a kick out of that.
I think if all pitchers worked as fast as Gossage did games would be an hour and half long intead of three hours.
2-3-2, home, away, home. Home field advantage is kinda sketchy, depending on how they look at it.
This page covers some of the history and ground on the idea. I've had to bone up on it myself.
Indeed, Giants get the W, 11 - 7. Great game. Everyone predicted a 1 run differential, a squeaker win for whoever got it. Pitching being what it was, the batters showed up tonight on both teams it seemed. Lincecum was good but far from bullet proof, still he held his ground after getting hit twice, the second time on the back of his leg with a line drive. Rattled I'm sure, but I'd probably have been carried off the field crying and waving my hat. He's tough. Lee was hittable, to say the least. Giants/Sanchez with a record setting 3 doubles and a 4th single/error getting him to second base for the 4th time. A Giant Uribe homer. (I think they're going to call AT&T left field seating "Uribe Cove" pretty soon, he seems to favor that for his homers). Assorted hits, good on bases. Lots of errors between the two teams. A real battle.
Great game! Game Two tomorrow - I have no doubt the Rangers will have a response. Gotta love it. Northern California is hot for the Series, I can say that. "Go Giants" signs up along the Freeways. Lots of people in Giants Orange and Black today where I work. Just went out to get gas post-game and the pumps were buzzing and several cars had local Giants Radio, KNBR 680 blasting the post-game after glow. Great stuff.
What can you say?...The Giants came to play...I don't think Lee was necessarily off his game---just that whatever he served up, the Giants were hitting...Great two-strike, two-out hitting team (ya hear that, Ryan Howard?)...I was really impressed with the Giants lineup...Both pitchers got smacked around a little---Linsecum could have easily been charged with 6 runs if his two inherited runners had scored...This could end up being one of the higher scoring series in recent memory....I wonder if Texas will think of starting Lee in game 4 since he didn't throw that many pitches...Game one had to have been a nightmare for him---I'd want him back on the mound as soon as physically possible to redeem himself and get his confidence back...Texas needs him if they're going to have a prayer.,..A-a-a-and---I was very impressed with Tony Bennett---still nailing a good tune at 84.....
I had to leave shortly after Kinsler's near miss in the fifth inning yesterday with the score tied 0-0...I wasn't really surprised to find out the Giants blew it open and won 9-zip...An almost physics defying moment---a potential homerun ball arcing to the top of the outfield wall, somehow reversing it's momentum and bouncing back onto the field of play, leaving the hitter with a two-bagger, where he stayed stranded due to some excellent pitching, seemed to take what little wind there was out of the sail of the Rangers...Definitely a game-changing moment---question will be, will it be a Series changing moment?...First one to reach four gets the ring...
Yeah, simon z, one of the weirdest things I've seen. In the gazillion ways that ball could have hit "normally" causing it to go over (where else would it go?) it managed to angle in and bounce back up and into the field - Torres was ready to catch it and that was that.
Series? Dunno. I'm all over the Giants keeping it going of course but they'll be behind enemy lines for 3 and the Rangers have to be stoking their fires to play a big one. The Giants are used to this though and this lineup has gotten some time behind them - and they got some serious bad-cha-cha from Philidelphia fans, not Philly's best moment IMO, and managed to battle through. This team seems to have the right attitude if nothing else is going. I really think it goes to many of the player's collective backgrounds. They know what it's like to tank. They've lived it and at this stage, this year, this team, they have a working combination of players that can carry each other as a team without a lot of bad-vibes-you-suck contentious B.S. when someone goes south in a play, at bat or pitching. Having followed the Giants through the Bonds - Kent era, I could see how bad vibes definittely have a way of stinking up a club house. There seems to be little if none of that here.
Sanchy, Game 3..... I like his profile, he's kind of like their whole psyche wrapped up in one guy. Great stuff, focused most of the time, but can be wild. His tendency to shoot wide at the strike zone helps him when he's correcting and resetting with each pitch. A batter can't wait it out when he's getting a lot of balls, knowing he's going to hit the zone, He walks a lot of batters but when he's on, cycles through it. When he loses his cool it can get dangerous quick so he needs to stay on. Bochy's already shown the strength of the Bullpen though so Plan B is as scarey as Plan A.
An interesting analysis of his no hitter last year HERE.
Nice to see the enthusiasm, especially from socks, for the series. I'm reading, if not always commenting.
Last year I threw in the towel, figuring no one cared what I had to say about the Yankees. Of course 'Yankees' is like saying 'Obama' around some of our friendly right wingers here.
I'm still hoping it will go 7-Texas better win today for that to have a chance. I know I'm more interested in going to Dodger Stadium when the Giants are in town next year, than I ever have been. Fun team.
Backatya highway. This will likely bring the Giants-Dodger rivalry full circle. SF's struggled against some very good competition there. Next year LA'll be back at the plate and it will definitely be on again. It will make for a great season! More baseball! And soon please!
Love that guy mstar. While I don't advocate the use of marijuana, there appears to be a lively set of users at the Ballpark. He's reporting to,,,Texas ...about people smokng....weed!
He's right though - people are happy and I think that the team has drawn out the best in those who follow the game here. (pot smoking reefer sucking aside - I guess one can only hope the trim is fresh and chemical free)
Two words to the Giggle Gang - "designated driver".
Which does bring up the "Let Timmy Smoke" movement. There is something hilarious about it, the phrase and the fact of people wearing it - can't put my finger on it but even as a big un advocate of use I think it's funny.
Anyone watch Game 4? Ranger won - 4-0. As a Giants fan I'm following their progress.
For the pitching - Sanchy walked Molina in the 2nd, and the Moreland home scored 2 The other homer brought in two and that equaled 4. Outside of a couple misses the pitching wasn't out of control though and including the first inning, could have sized up well. Colby Lewis was solid the entire night, but the Giants also hit two homers - with no one on base. Their get on and get around game didn't show, otherwise we'd have seen a tight 3-4 or even 4-4 game with the matching set of 2 homers. After the Rangers got the 4, that was it. The Giants couldn't put men on base and get hits to move them and they lost. Giants did do 3 hot double plays and some good fielding so that held up.
Sandoval presents a problem - as DH he'd be perfect - if he was hitting. He's not and he looks too heavy to do any good running the bases except to 1st on a long fair ball or a homer. Anything close he doesn't have the gas to push it. He's really out of shape so I'd suspect he's gone for these next two games anyway. A lot of off season work and he'll be back as strong as ever.
Pat Burrell in left - a toughie. He's what - at 0 for 9 post season. Dunno - is there time for him to get back on it? Tomorrow should tell, if he's in the lineup.
Rangers were on tonight but the Giants have faced strong pitching before and won tight games, so I didn't see it as a rout or as if they got run over by a Ranger train. I'm thinkin' they'll be back on tomorrow!
Missed the entire game...had a friend in need...I suppose had the planets been in alignment, and sickness and sorrow had been eliminated, and the Big Bang had reoccurred to prove it's own theory, and the federal deficit was eliminated, and the lion layeth with the lamb, and all the children came together singing on the mountain, and men could understand women,---and with all that the Cubs were playing in the World Series---I'd a probably asked my friend "can this wait?" and took in the game....
Enjoying your perspective, Socks, not really being too familiar with the Giants team until the last few weeks...Looking forward to tonight's game, in spite of all the interruptions from ghouls and goblins...
Ditto simon z. Hope you catch some! (and Game 4 ws 4-2, I'll take the error)
One point I'm reading is that Sanchy may be out of gas for the season and not able to make corrections at this point. He was close in Game 4 but even if the Giants had run a tighter game, even a last tie it might have been writing on the wall. Pitchers hit that point and with the series margin running up so tight by then, might be the best thing to either not bring him in or keep an ultra short chain on the team and have the 'pen up and ready, gametime. I'm really looking forward to what the off season will do for him, come spring.
I've been glad to see the Giants come back around last couple years and this season especially. I don't usually carry my interest on my sleeve but I've taken to wearing my black and orange t-shirts game day at work this post-season. My son got me Giants goodies to put on my iPhone. I'm wired in. Know a few people who know the stat's far better than I, and that does give me the full pony ride in that regard, so I kinda stumble along with what I understand and work at what I don't. Therein lies the beauty of baseball for me.
Someone commented this last week - why is an underdog so attractive? The Giants have been tagged "misfits", "cast offs", a "dirty dozen" kinda team. There's parts of that I understand, others I've taken to pondering. It's an interesting question.
Succinct report on Game 4 HERE, fresh off the ether. Man oh man. Great game.
Giants pitcher Madison Bumgarner, at 21 years the 5th youngest WS Starter, shot trouble out of the Rangers lineup for 8 straight shut out innings. Wilson's Beard went another shade darker to close the 9th, 1-2-3 seeya.
8 straight shut out innings. Bumgarner wasn't in the Zone, he was the Zone.
Sanchez - man, Freddie made a leap up and back and got enough of his glove on a line drive bullet sailling over his head to grab it as he fell almost flat on his back, did a somersault and finished the play to come up with it in hand, done deal, looking like he does it everyday before breakfast. Amazing play.
Game 5 - Battleships align for Linc and Lee - I'm expecting Lee to breathe fire after Game 1's outcome. Once again - great baseball on the horizon.
Bumgarner was great---and in an AL park, to boot---so he was facing nine hitters in the game counting the DH...I probably would have sent him out there in the 9th---give him a chance to throw a complete game shutout...He only threw 106 pitches, and he'll probably not pitch again 'til next spring...If he can't get the first two guys out then bring in Wilson...Something about gathering around the mound to congratulate a pitcher after he throws a shutout that I like...
TONIGHT (because I have never been known to miss a potential last game of the World Series even if I don't care who wins, and, because I am rooting for San Franciso to win the series) I will be rooting for...Texas!
Why? Just cuz I want to see SF win it all in their own ball park. I don't care to see the disappointed faces of Nolan Ryan (who I respect), or George Bush (who I don't), or Texas fans in general (who I'm sure are lovely people).
Nope...I'd rather see the SF fans celebrating in their own back yard. And I'm sure more than a few SF fans (especially the 60 or so thousand who hold tickets to a potential Game 6) are secretly wishing the same thing.
And so for that to happen, Texas has to win tonight. (Twisted, huh?)
[...during the yankees-mets WS of 2000 I actually rooted against the yanks during one or two games (I'm a Yankees fan 1st) simply so that the series would be extended to seven games. those were the glory days]
TONIGHT (because I have never been known to miss a potential last game of the World Series even if I don't care who wins, and, because I am rooting for San Franciso to win the series) I will be rooting for...Texas!
Well, sad to say, or maybe happy for many, Texas lost.. Giants win their first World Series in a long long time.. Great job!! Only, I was hoping Texas might have won at least one more game.. But the SF team ended up having a much deeper and better bullpen, but we all knew that. What I didn't expect were the Giants to become such prolific hitters. Would it be because of the Ranger's terrible pitching staff (Game 2, 2 walks for scores in a row!) or because they ended up playing their best (Game 1 & 5 against the one Ranger's ace Cliff Lee for 10 combined runs)...
Still surprised the Rangers didn't bring in their best closer [Feliz] much, especially when it could have won them a game. And their hitters were unusually quiet..
"Giants win their first World Series in a long long time"
Yep. The won't be coming back this way again, contenders. They won in 5, tonight 3 - 1.
Exemplary sportsmanship, outstanding pitching on both teams. Good pitching always beats out batting they say but it falls to the batter to recognize the opportunities when and if they present themselves, in a split second, literally. Renteria is a walking record, man. Too much.
The Rangers and The Giants were the perfect match to my mind in many ways. Moreso than any other players I've seen I realized tonight watching that this team iwill be remembered as having done it for...the team, their fans and the achievement of being The SF Giants.
Quietly incredible - Huff, laying down his first sacrifice bunt in his career - perfectly, setting up the bases for Burrell who struck out. Didn't matter where they were when Renteria hit his homer but it struck me how great an athlete, a baseball player literally, that Huff had to be to go for it and do it in the clutch. After all his years, the years paid off in him doing something he'd never done before. Interesting (an understatement).
"Delicious".
I'm especially happy for Andres Torres who couldn't have put more into his season. At his age there may not be a string of years ahead to do this. Like his team mates he seemed to be in the right place, right time.
It says something for seeing the moment for not just what it is but what it can be, and seizing it and not letting go.
Thank you! :) SF celebrated and managed to not set fire to the party - too much. Wednesday the parade, using the same route they took when they moved to SF. Cool. I wouldn't wish Mayor Newsom on my worst enemy but it was good to see him engaged and the preparations planned. Hopefully the cost of a Hot Dog and a drink won't go up too much next year as a result of all this.
Pondering some post-glow points....dunno what the radio and TV broadcasting is like where y'all are at but locally in the SF Bay Area, we have it good. TV is caled by "Kruk and Kipe", MIke Krukow and Duane Kuiper, both former ball players. John Miller (drafted in the Nat'l. Baseball Hall of Fame this year) leads the radio broadcasting on local KNBR 680 AM radio and typically partners with Dave Flemming. All of these guys with several other network broadcasters call the play by plays and color commentary for the Giants games broadcasts I get locally.
Joe Buck and Tim McCarver cover the Fox broacasts and did the Post Season playoff and World Series games. I've never liked them on any broacast they do and realized through this post season why. I thoughy I was the only one, but there's widespread criticism of their broadcasting tenure. HERE'S a good run down that describes my feelings to a T.
Their tone and the overall sound of the broacasting is grating, harsh and at times sounds whiney for want of a better word. At other times their tone sounds pompous and pontificating, with Buck sounding like he's fighting a migraine and McGarver rattling off the Truth from his perch.
I noticed this on many of the plays this post season on any of the teams playing, things like "you just can't do that (an error) in the majors", or when J Sanchez pitched Game 3 of the series and didn't get a strike call - both of them noted "the other pitcher would have gotten that call. Lewis would have gotten it. Sanchez....no". They sounded like they were gloating.
Other times if a team was struggling and would make a hit, a play and rally they'd down grade the plays - "that may not be enough", "that may not make up for the deficit"...."they're still behind".......arrrghhh.....by Game 5 though they must have realized that the broadcast was at a critical point of a Series ender and managed to get a fairly balanced and up beat flow going for both teams.
Kruk and Kuiper both call the games like players. They add their experience into it, often noting what a player might be thinking, what's going on throughout the team at a point, what a manager might be ready to do. When there's a bad play they call it like they see it but also will respect the players with comments like "no one feels worse about that play than he does, he knows he should have had that, he's better than that and he knows it", etc. and will note things that the player might be thinking now or doing to get back in the game mentally. They're on the players side, win or lose.
Miller calls it like a voice from the past. Big drama, intimate observations. Listening on the radio is like remembering every game I listened to on the radio as a kid locally with Russ Hodges and Lon Simmons, both pros pros. . It's almost as good as watching it, seriously. When there's a big play, big hit, it's huge in his voice. "That ball is up - up, it's on it's way out!!! That ball's on it's way to Oakland!!!! .... (nearby city across the bay).....It's a home run!!!.....The (.....) have scored!!!!" .....He loves the game and he sounds like it.
IMO Buck and McCarver stink. The article notes the apparent Fox bias in the post season outcomes. That aside, as announcers I don't like hearing them call any game no matter who's playing. It seems like there's enough of awareness that Fox might make a change, but I kind of doubt it. They've been there this long.
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kimberly
I missed the LLWS. The boy had baseball practice 4-7. Playing in a USSSA tournament this coming weekend. The new season has just started. Can ya'll believe we are in September of the ML baseball s
mstar1
Dont scare me like that Bolsh--the way you posted I wasnt sure if it was a done deal--I had to go check....Im on the fence whether to go for Halliday or not---I'd love to have him but I'd hate to give
hiway29
I love those fan trades where players you don't care about, plus a 'prospect', are offered up for a major player. Yeah, the Jays will jump at that deal.
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soul searcher
One pitcher who liked to work fast was Goose Gossage. (Getting signs from the catcher was just a formality for him because he only had one pitch: a blazing fastball.)
I remember a few times when he faced Cleveland first baseman Mike Hargrove, who was one of those ssslooowww batters who had to check everything between pitches. Gossage would stand on the mound with his hands on his hips between pitches as if to say, "Anytime you're ready, MFer!"
I had the good fortune of being able to ask Gossage about it directly when I visited the Baseball Hall of Fame this summer. Gossage said, "Yeah, I remember Hargrove. I hated that SOB. I wanted to bean him every time he came up."
So I got a kick out of that.
I think if all pitchers worked as fast as Gossage did games would be an hour and half long intead of three hours.
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Human without the bean
Giants win Game 1 and look strong. What is the format for the World Series anyway?
2 at home 3 away and 2 at home again like basketball?
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socks
2-3-2, home, away, home. Home field advantage is kinda sketchy, depending on how they look at it.
This page covers some of the history and ground on the idea. I've had to bone up on it myself.
Indeed, Giants get the W, 11 - 7. Great game. Everyone predicted a 1 run differential, a squeaker win for whoever got it. Pitching being what it was, the batters showed up tonight on both teams it seemed. Lincecum was good but far from bullet proof, still he held his ground after getting hit twice, the second time on the back of his leg with a line drive. Rattled I'm sure, but I'd probably have been carried off the field crying and waving my hat. He's tough. Lee was hittable, to say the least. Giants/Sanchez with a record setting 3 doubles and a 4th single/error getting him to second base for the 4th time. A Giant Uribe homer. (I think they're going to call AT&T left field seating "Uribe Cove" pretty soon, he seems to favor that for his homers). Assorted hits, good on bases. Lots of errors between the two teams. A real battle.
Great game! Game Two tomorrow - I have no doubt the Rangers will have a response. Gotta love it. Northern California is hot for the Series, I can say that. "Go Giants" signs up along the Freeways. Lots of people in Giants Orange and Black today where I work. Just went out to get gas post-game and the pumps were buzzing and several cars had local Giants Radio, KNBR 680 blasting the post-game after glow. Great stuff.
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simonzelotes
What can you say?...The Giants came to play...I don't think Lee was necessarily off his game---just that whatever he served up, the Giants were hitting...Great two-strike, two-out hitting team (ya hear that, Ryan Howard?)...I was really impressed with the Giants lineup...Both pitchers got smacked around a little---Linsecum could have easily been charged with 6 runs if his two inherited runners had scored...This could end up being one of the higher scoring series in recent memory....I wonder if Texas will think of starting Lee in game 4 since he didn't throw that many pitches...Game one had to have been a nightmare for him---I'd want him back on the mound as soon as physically possible to redeem himself and get his confidence back...Texas needs him if they're going to have a prayer.,..A-a-a-and---I was very impressed with Tony Bennett---still nailing a good tune at 84.....
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socks
Game Two - 9-0, Giants Win.
Cain's showing a post season ERA of "0". Pretty snug game through till the 7th and then the relievers got into trouble.
They scored 7 runs on two outs - 2 on walks with the bases loaded.
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simonzelotes
I had to leave shortly after Kinsler's near miss in the fifth inning yesterday with the score tied 0-0...I wasn't really surprised to find out the Giants blew it open and won 9-zip...An almost physics defying moment---a potential homerun ball arcing to the top of the outfield wall, somehow reversing it's momentum and bouncing back onto the field of play, leaving the hitter with a two-bagger, where he stayed stranded due to some excellent pitching, seemed to take what little wind there was out of the sail of the Rangers...Definitely a game-changing moment---question will be, will it be a Series changing moment?...First one to reach four gets the ring...
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socks
Yeah, simon z, one of the weirdest things I've seen. In the gazillion ways that ball could have hit "normally" causing it to go over (where else would it go?) it managed to angle in and bounce back up and into the field - Torres was ready to catch it and that was that.
Series? Dunno. I'm all over the Giants keeping it going of course but they'll be behind enemy lines for 3 and the Rangers have to be stoking their fires to play a big one. The Giants are used to this though and this lineup has gotten some time behind them - and they got some serious bad-cha-cha from Philidelphia fans, not Philly's best moment IMO, and managed to battle through. This team seems to have the right attitude if nothing else is going. I really think it goes to many of the player's collective backgrounds. They know what it's like to tank. They've lived it and at this stage, this year, this team, they have a working combination of players that can carry each other as a team without a lot of bad-vibes-you-suck contentious B.S. when someone goes south in a play, at bat or pitching. Having followed the Giants through the Bonds - Kent era, I could see how bad vibes definittely have a way of stinking up a club house. There seems to be little if none of that here.
Sanchy, Game 3..... I like his profile, he's kind of like their whole psyche wrapped up in one guy. Great stuff, focused most of the time, but can be wild. His tendency to shoot wide at the strike zone helps him when he's correcting and resetting with each pitch. A batter can't wait it out when he's getting a lot of balls, knowing he's going to hit the zone, He walks a lot of batters but when he's on, cycles through it. When he loses his cool it can get dangerous quick so he needs to stay on. Bochy's already shown the strength of the Bullpen though so Plan B is as scarey as Plan A.
An interesting analysis of his no hitter last year HERE.
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hiway29
Nice to see the enthusiasm, especially from socks, for the series. I'm reading, if not always commenting.
Last year I threw in the towel, figuring no one cared what I had to say about the Yankees. Of course 'Yankees' is like saying 'Obama' around some of our friendly right wingers here.
I'm still hoping it will go 7-Texas better win today for that to have a chance. I know I'm more interested in going to Dodger Stadium when the Giants are in town next year, than I ever have been. Fun team.
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mstar1
Looks like everyones having a great time.
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socks
Backatya highway. This will likely bring the Giants-Dodger rivalry full circle. SF's struggled against some very good competition there. Next year LA'll be back at the plate and it will definitely be on again. It will make for a great season! More baseball! And soon please!
Love that guy mstar. While I don't advocate the use of marijuana, there appears to be a lively set of users at the Ballpark. He's reporting to,,,Texas ...about people smokng....weed!
He's right though - people are happy and I think that the team has drawn out the best in those who follow the game here. (pot smoking reefer sucking aside - I guess one can only hope the trim is fresh and chemical free)
Two words to the Giggle Gang - "designated driver".
Which does bring up the "Let Timmy Smoke" movement. There is something hilarious about it, the phrase and the fact of people wearing it - can't put my finger on it but even as a big un advocate of use I think it's funny.
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socks
<chirp chirp>
Anyone watch Game 4? Ranger won - 4-0. As a Giants fan I'm following their progress.
For the pitching - Sanchy walked Molina in the 2nd, and the Moreland home scored 2 The other homer brought in two and that equaled 4. Outside of a couple misses the pitching wasn't out of control though and including the first inning, could have sized up well. Colby Lewis was solid the entire night, but the Giants also hit two homers - with no one on base. Their get on and get around game didn't show, otherwise we'd have seen a tight 3-4 or even 4-4 game with the matching set of 2 homers. After the Rangers got the 4, that was it. The Giants couldn't put men on base and get hits to move them and they lost. Giants did do 3 hot double plays and some good fielding so that held up.
Sandoval presents a problem - as DH he'd be perfect - if he was hitting. He's not and he looks too heavy to do any good running the bases except to 1st on a long fair ball or a homer. Anything close he doesn't have the gas to push it. He's really out of shape so I'd suspect he's gone for these next two games anyway. A lot of off season work and he'll be back as strong as ever.
Pat Burrell in left - a toughie. He's what - at 0 for 9 post season. Dunno - is there time for him to get back on it? Tomorrow should tell, if he's in the lineup.
Rangers were on tonight but the Giants have faced strong pitching before and won tight games, so I didn't see it as a rout or as if they got run over by a Ranger train. I'm thinkin' they'll be back on tomorrow!
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simonzelotes
Missed the entire game...had a friend in need...I suppose had the planets been in alignment, and sickness and sorrow had been eliminated, and the Big Bang had reoccurred to prove it's own theory, and the federal deficit was eliminated, and the lion layeth with the lamb, and all the children came together singing on the mountain, and men could understand women,---and with all that the Cubs were playing in the World Series---I'd a probably asked my friend "can this wait?" and took in the game....
Enjoying your perspective, Socks, not really being too familiar with the Giants team until the last few weeks...Looking forward to tonight's game, in spite of all the interruptions from ghouls and goblins...
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socks
Ditto simon z. Hope you catch some! (and Game 4 ws 4-2, I'll take the error)
One point I'm reading is that Sanchy may be out of gas for the season and not able to make corrections at this point. He was close in Game 4 but even if the Giants had run a tighter game, even a last tie it might have been writing on the wall. Pitchers hit that point and with the series margin running up so tight by then, might be the best thing to either not bring him in or keep an ultra short chain on the team and have the 'pen up and ready, gametime. I'm really looking forward to what the off season will do for him, come spring.
I've been glad to see the Giants come back around last couple years and this season especially. I don't usually carry my interest on my sleeve but I've taken to wearing my black and orange t-shirts game day at work this post-season. My son got me Giants goodies to put on my iPhone. I'm wired in. Know a few people who know the stat's far better than I, and that does give me the full pony ride in that regard, so I kinda stumble along with what I understand and work at what I don't. Therein lies the beauty of baseball for me.
Someone commented this last week - why is an underdog so attractive? The Giants have been tagged "misfits", "cast offs", a "dirty dozen" kinda team. There's parts of that I understand, others I've taken to pondering. It's an interesting question.
Game about to rip - Go Giants!
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socks
Succinct report on Game 4 HERE, fresh off the ether. Man oh man. Great game.
Giants pitcher Madison Bumgarner, at 21 years the 5th youngest WS Starter, shot trouble out of the Rangers lineup for 8 straight shut out innings. Wilson's Beard went another shade darker to close the 9th, 1-2-3 seeya.
8 straight shut out innings. Bumgarner wasn't in the Zone, he was the Zone.
Sanchez - man, Freddie made a leap up and back and got enough of his glove on a line drive bullet sailling over his head to grab it as he fell almost flat on his back, did a somersault and finished the play to come up with it in hand, done deal, looking like he does it everyday before breakfast. Amazing play.
Game 5 - Battleships align for Linc and Lee - I'm expecting Lee to breathe fire after Game 1's outcome. Once again - great baseball on the horizon.
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simonzelotes
Bumgarner was great---and in an AL park, to boot---so he was facing nine hitters in the game counting the DH...I probably would have sent him out there in the 9th---give him a chance to throw a complete game shutout...He only threw 106 pitches, and he'll probably not pitch again 'til next spring...If he can't get the first two guys out then bring in Wilson...Something about gathering around the mound to congratulate a pitcher after he throws a shutout that I like...
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soul searcher
TONIGHT (because I have never been known to miss a potential last game of the World Series even if I don't care who wins, and, because I am rooting for San Franciso to win the series) I will be rooting for...Texas!
Why? Just cuz I want to see SF win it all in their own ball park. I don't care to see the disappointed faces of Nolan Ryan (who I respect), or George Bush (who I don't), or Texas fans in general (who I'm sure are lovely people).
Nope...I'd rather see the SF fans celebrating in their own back yard. And I'm sure more than a few SF fans (especially the 60 or so thousand who hold tickets to a potential Game 6) are secretly wishing the same thing.
And so for that to happen, Texas has to win tonight. (Twisted, huh?)
[...during the yankees-mets WS of 2000 I actually rooted against the yanks during one or two games (I'm a Yankees fan 1st) simply so that the series would be extended to seven games. those were the glory days]
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excathedra
i get goosebumps when you guys talk
baseball
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soul searcher
I love you, too, ex.
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TrustAndObey
Well, sad to say, or maybe happy for many, Texas lost.. Giants win their first World Series in a long long time.. Great job!! Only, I was hoping Texas might have won at least one more game.. But the SF team ended up having a much deeper and better bullpen, but we all knew that. What I didn't expect were the Giants to become such prolific hitters. Would it be because of the Ranger's terrible pitching staff (Game 2, 2 walks for scores in a row!) or because they ended up playing their best (Game 1 & 5 against the one Ranger's ace Cliff Lee for 10 combined runs)...
Still surprised the Rangers didn't bring in their best closer [Feliz] much, especially when it could have won them a game. And their hitters were unusually quiet..
Great game!
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socks
"Giants win their first World Series in a long long time"
Yep. The won't be coming back this way again, contenders. They won in 5, tonight 3 - 1.
Exemplary sportsmanship, outstanding pitching on both teams. Good pitching always beats out batting they say but it falls to the batter to recognize the opportunities when and if they present themselves, in a split second, literally. Renteria is a walking record, man. Too much.
The Rangers and The Giants were the perfect match to my mind in many ways. Moreso than any other players I've seen I realized tonight watching that this team iwill be remembered as having done it for...the team, their fans and the achievement of being The SF Giants.
Quietly incredible - Huff, laying down his first sacrifice bunt in his career - perfectly, setting up the bases for Burrell who struck out. Didn't matter where they were when Renteria hit his homer but it struck me how great an athlete, a baseball player literally, that Huff had to be to go for it and do it in the clutch. After all his years, the years paid off in him doing something he'd never done before. Interesting (an understatement).
"Delicious".
I'm especially happy for Andres Torres who couldn't have put more into his season. At his age there may not be a string of years ahead to do this. Like his team mates he seemed to be in the right place, right time.
It says something for seeing the moment for not just what it is but what it can be, and seizing it and not letting go.
Go Giants!
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simonzelotes
Congrats, Socks....It must have been a fun ride...Savor it while you can, before they start bringing up talk about spring training...
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socks
Thank you! :) SF celebrated and managed to not set fire to the party - too much. Wednesday the parade, using the same route they took when they moved to SF. Cool. I wouldn't wish Mayor Newsom on my worst enemy but it was good to see him engaged and the preparations planned. Hopefully the cost of a Hot Dog and a drink won't go up too much next year as a result of all this.
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socks
Pondering some post-glow points....dunno what the radio and TV broadcasting is like where y'all are at but locally in the SF Bay Area, we have it good. TV is caled by "Kruk and Kipe", MIke Krukow and Duane Kuiper, both former ball players. John Miller (drafted in the Nat'l. Baseball Hall of Fame this year) leads the radio broadcasting on local KNBR 680 AM radio and typically partners with Dave Flemming. All of these guys with several other network broadcasters call the play by plays and color commentary for the Giants games broadcasts I get locally.
Joe Buck and Tim McCarver cover the Fox broacasts and did the Post Season playoff and World Series games. I've never liked them on any broacast they do and realized through this post season why. I thoughy I was the only one, but there's widespread criticism of their broadcasting tenure. HERE'S a good run down that describes my feelings to a T.
Their tone and the overall sound of the broacasting is grating, harsh and at times sounds whiney for want of a better word. At other times their tone sounds pompous and pontificating, with Buck sounding like he's fighting a migraine and McGarver rattling off the Truth from his perch.
I noticed this on many of the plays this post season on any of the teams playing, things like "you just can't do that (an error) in the majors", or when J Sanchez pitched Game 3 of the series and didn't get a strike call - both of them noted "the other pitcher would have gotten that call. Lewis would have gotten it. Sanchez....no". They sounded like they were gloating.
Other times if a team was struggling and would make a hit, a play and rally they'd down grade the plays - "that may not be enough", "that may not make up for the deficit"...."they're still behind".......arrrghhh.....by Game 5 though they must have realized that the broadcast was at a critical point of a Series ender and managed to get a fairly balanced and up beat flow going for both teams.
Kruk and Kuiper both call the games like players. They add their experience into it, often noting what a player might be thinking, what's going on throughout the team at a point, what a manager might be ready to do. When there's a bad play they call it like they see it but also will respect the players with comments like "no one feels worse about that play than he does, he knows he should have had that, he's better than that and he knows it", etc. and will note things that the player might be thinking now or doing to get back in the game mentally. They're on the players side, win or lose.
Miller calls it like a voice from the past. Big drama, intimate observations. Listening on the radio is like remembering every game I listened to on the radio as a kid locally with Russ Hodges and Lon Simmons, both pros pros. . It's almost as good as watching it, seriously. When there's a big play, big hit, it's huge in his voice. "That ball is up - up, it's on it's way out!!! That ball's on it's way to Oakland!!!! .... (nearby city across the bay).....It's a home run!!!.....The (.....) have scored!!!!" .....He loves the game and he sounds like it.
IMO Buck and McCarver stink. The article notes the apparent Fox bias in the post season outcomes. That aside, as announcers I don't like hearing them call any game no matter who's playing. It seems like there's enough of awareness that Fox might make a change, but I kind of doubt it. They've been there this long.
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hiway29
I'm in agreement with your analysis of Buck and McCarver. I also like John Miller very much.
As far as the local TV in my area-well-Vin Scully-'nuff said (at least for another year-I don't THINK he's immortal, but I hope I'm wrong)
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