Category Archives: Philadelphia Phillies

“TEXAS CAN’T HOLD EM” ~ Game 1. Rangers and Pundits Lose!

Posted on October 28, 2010 | Leave a comment

Whodathunk it? I had almost as much fun watching the sports pundits after the game than watching the game itself. Well, almost. The Giants had no chance, nada, zilch, zero, of beating Cliff Lee in game one of this World Series. None! I mean, after all, Cliff Lee had never lost a playoff game. Won 10, Loss 0! Whew, who wants to go up against those odds? I almost believed it myself. So after the game, when the pundits came slithering out from under the rocks, it was just a lot of fun to listen to their enlightened jibberish. I believe it’s called “eating crow”? As Joe buck said in his post-game commentary, “Don’t listen to us folks. We don’t know anything!”

The thing that puzzles me about the Giants getting absolutely no respect before the game, and still now, even after the game, is the way they made it to the World Series in the first place. This is a team of self-proclaimed misfits and oddballs, picked up from the trash heaps of other teams, a couple of rookies, and one helluva pitching staff. In August, this team was 6 1/2 games behind in the NL West, but they scratched and clawed and fought off not only the San Diego Padres, but also a very good Colorado Rockies team to prevail. They willed their way to the NL West Championship. They were the underdog as they advanced to the NLDS against Atlanta, under the leadership of Bobby Cox, destined to extend his career a few more games. But, once again, against the odds, the Giants won the National League Division Series against Atlanta!

So now the pundits had a ball! I mean now the Giants had to face the Philadelphia Phillies, defending National League Champions, two years in a row, and World Series Champions only a year ago! Their ace, Roy Halladay, as good as it gets, pitched a “no hitter” against the Cincinnati Reds, enroute to the NLDS this year, and the Reds were no pansies. To solidify the belief, earlier in the year Halladay had thrown a perfect game! And it wasn’t just Halladay, they also had to face Roy Oswalt, a fastball pitcher who the Phillies acquired from Houston specifically for this reason, to dominate in the playoffs. Again, Phillies fans lost a lot of money through their bookies over this series. Giants beat the Philadelphia Phillies and won the National League Pennant in 6.

So what’s it going to take? Headlines all over the country projected the Texas Rangers to win the World Series. Everywhere except in the San Francisco Bay Area. Even the Los Angeles papers ….. (whoops forget it, that’s Dodger country, doesn’t count! i.e., LA Times article today by “Bill Shaikin ~ San Francisco takes advantage of a less-than-sharp effort by the highly regarded left-hander on a night when Tim Lincecum is not exactly crisp.”) Cracks me up, but you know what? He’s right! And that’s baseball folks! And you know what else? The SF Giants may NOT win the World Series. But if they do, it will be because they WILLED it, and not because of anything the Rangers and pundits have to say. Baseball, don’t you just love it?

“Texas Rangers – San Francisco Giants in World Series” and related posts (oddjack.com)
2010 World Series: The Giants Offense, Cliff Lee, and Other Game 1 Highlights (bleacherreport.com)
Giants out to exploit Rangers’ boldness (mlb.mlb.com)
World Series Game 1: Why Offense Ruled and Pitching Drooled (bleacherreport.com)
Giants defy odds to take early Series lead (guardian.co.uk)

SF Giants and a wannabe Rodeo Clown ~ Going to the Ship!

Posted on October 25, 2010 | 2 comments

The “Ship” is short for Championship as Sergio Romo explained to us diehard fans after last night’s game. I stayed up for hours watching the late night commentaries on all the sports channels. Just couldn’t get enough! Duane Kuiper, our local television and radio commentator of team Mike Krukow and Duane Kuiper, coined the phrase mid-season “Giants Games ~ Torture!” and boy did it stick! Whew! The statistics for their one run games pretty much explains it all. I seriously considered not watching the bottom of the 9th last night! Instead I chose to leave the room with my radio and headphones and sit in a corner overcome by a huge anxiety attack! This was fun! Fun, like getting your finger stuck in a light socket, or pulling your toenails out one at a time. Nothing comes easy for Giants fans. Is that why we love these guys so much? Endurance?

All I can say is I’ve been a Giants fan for many, many years and I can never remember a team of players quite like this group. Misfits? Probably. Oddballs? Oh sure. Endearing? Absolutely! They have so many tags this year, it’s hard to know where to start. Black beards in the bullpen, Aubrey Huff’s red thong for good luck, Cody Ross, the wannabe Rodeo Clown, Timmy Lincecum’s long black hair flowing out from his cap, and his minor infraction this summer with the law, Barry Zito, most expensive paid cheerleader in history, sitting on the bench through the entire playoffs with his $18,000,000 Annual Salary, supporting his teammates.

But along with the idiosyncracies the Giants organization weaned a couple of rookies off their farm program this year and what a couple of rookies they turned out to be. I don’t know what they’re feeding and teaching the kids down in the Fresno area, but boy does it work! Rookies Buster Posey and Madison Bumgarner both played key roles throughout the season after being called up this Spring, but also contributed immensely in the postseason . It gave me a huge thrill to watch the two of them, Bumgarner the Pitcher and Posey the Catcher,a couple of kids performing in postseason in the 6th Game of the NLCS against the current champion Philadelphia Phillies, doing their job like the young pro’s they are. My guess is they’ll be around for many years and, Lord willing, in San Francisco. Well for whatever reason, the chemistry works for both the players and the fans, and the fans aren’t going away anytime soon!

I’ve tried not to dwell on the incredible odds the Giants were up against with the Phillies who were the hands down favorites in every aspect. But I’d like to mention

Madison Bumgarner, Postseason Play

something here that’s been bugging me for years. The very worst of the worst of sports announcers has to be without a doubt Fox Sports “Buck & McCarver”. At one point in Game 1, the Fox commentators made a comment about how “bored Halladay must be, throwing strikes and retiring players. He probably thought he was back in the minors and what a piece of cake” or some such trivia as this, at which point Cody Ross blasted a home run out of the park and silenced the dribble at least momentarily. In the next game, the same illustrious announcers announced that some had referred to this year’s Giants team as a bunch of “idiots”. Then went on to explain it was the same term used for the Boston Red Sox the year they won the World Series, as though that somehow justified the comment. Another time they were busy showing pictures and

Fox Sports' Buck & McCarver

about Alcatraz while missing pitches and activity at the bases. But you know what really bugged me? In Game 6 the Buck & McCarver had a mindless conversation about how Buster Posey would never make it as a catcher, and probably would be more suited to “leftfield”. (Note: See Johnny Bench’s comments regarding Buster Posey as a catcher http://www.mercurynews.com/giants/ci_16344094?nclick_check=1 ). Probably the hardest part to sit through with these guys was that final out. Whew, might as well have been teatime ~ thank God for my Walkman! 1These guys musta had a lot of money bet on the Phillies. How else can you explain the complete ambivalence towards the Giants? And, good grief, we get to listen to them for the World Series? (Gotta remember to get batteries for the Walkman.) Where do they get these guys? Wherever it is, I wish they’d send them back! We want our own announcers in the broadcast booth, doing what they do best. Mike Krukow and Duane Kuiper, true professionals, and I truly missed them during the entire playoff season! For what it’s worth!

Cody Ross, NLCS MVP

And so, in spite of the odds, the San Francisco Giants, with beards, thongs and a wannabe Rodeo Clown are going to the World Series to meet their worthy opponents, the formidable Texas Rangers, under the ownership of one of baseball’s greatest, Nolan Ryan. Best of luck to both teams! This is gonna be fun! See y’all on Wednesday!

Giants peaked at right time (denverpost.com)
Giants Beat Phillies 3-2 In Game 6, Will Face Rangers In World Series (huffingtonpost.com)
Surprising Cody Ross named NLCS MVP (msn.foxsports.com)

2 Comments

Posted in A1 Baseball, General, Philadelphia Phillies, San Francisco Giants

Tagged Johnny Bench

Best Players in Past 58 Years ……. A Mathematical Study!

Posted on August 12, 2010 | 6 comments

: Roger Clemens

: Greg Maddux

: Randy Johnson

: Pedro Martinez

: Johnny Bench

: Albert Pujols

: Joe Morgan

: Mike Schmidt

: Alex Rodriguez

: Barry Bonds

: Willie Mays

: Ted Williams

: Frank Thomas

I came upon an interesting study a few months ago. It was written by Don Davis, Mathematics Professor at Lehigh University, Bethleham, PA. There’s a lot of criteria used in determining different aspects of this study, but for the most part the players names are all recognizable and only a few to make the list are surprises. The following table lists the top five All Star Teams, using 4 pitchers per team. It also lists the overall rating percentage by player. Take a look:

Pos’n	First team	Second team	Third team	Fourth team	Fifth team
P1	Roger Clemens, 266.2	Tom Seaver, 166.9	Bob Gibson, 129.2	Jim Palmer, 106.4	Johan Santana, 85.4
P2	Greg Maddux, 203.9	Warren Spahn, 160.5	Robin Roberts, 128.3	Gaylord Perry, 96.1	Tom Glavine, 84.8
P3	Randy Johnson, 202.4	Bob Feller, 143.7	Sandy Koufax, 126.0	Phil Niekro, 96.1	Curt Schilling, 80.7
P4	Pedro Martinez, 185.7	Steve Carlton, 140.7	Juan Marichal, 109.5	Fergie Jenkins, 91.7	Bob Lemon, 79.9
C	Johnny Bench, 115.5	Yogi Berra, 97.2	Mike Piazza, 82.2	Ivan Rodriguez, 77.7	Gary Carter, 75.5
1B	Albert Pujols, 145.4	Jeff Bagwell, 103.2	Eddie Murray, 95.2	Willie McCovey, 92.1	Harmon Killebrew, 86.4
2B	Joe Morgan, 140.3	Rod Carew, 94.5	Ryne Sandberg, 92.4	Jackie Robinson, 82.4	Roberto Alomar, 81.1
3B	Mike Schmidt, 173.2	George Brett, 119.2	Eddie Mathews, 111.7	Wade Boggs, 108.0	Brooks Robinson, 88.4
SS	Alex Rodriguez, 145.4	Cal Ripken, 113.6	Robin Yount, 93.0	Ernie Banks, 90.7	Derek Jeter, 81.6
OF1	Barry Bonds, 270.7	Stan Musial, 205.2	Frank Robinson, 145.3	Ken Griffey, 114.2	Tony Gwynn, 100.3
OF2	Willie Mays, 226.8	Mickey Mantle, 198.3	Rickey Henderson, 141.5	Al Kaline, 110.1	Pete Rose, 99.7
OF3	Ted Williams, 213.4	Hank Aaron, 195.6	Carl Yazstremski, 127.5	Reggie Jackson, 108.9	Roberto Clemente, 99.3
DH	Frank Thomas, 115.0	Edgar Martinez, 64.4	Paul Molitor, 62.4	David Ortiz, 43.4

Are you kidding me? Can you even begin to imagine a game with all of these guys on the same team? What was particularly interesting to me is that mathematically Roger Clemens is the highest rated pitcher and Barry Bonds is the highest rated batter. These ratings are through the 2009 season, and personalities and private lives are not taken into account. This is just using good old fashioned baseball statistics.

I found the study intriguing and spent a lot of time viewing the criteria used in coming up with the lists. Rather than go into all the particulars here, you can view the study yourself @ Lehigh University http://www.lehigh.edu/~dmd1/baseball.html

This information is being used with the permission of Professor Davis.

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Posted in A1 Baseball, General, Arizona Diamondbacks, Atlanta Braves, Baltimore Orioles, Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, Cincinnati Reds, Cleveland Indians, Colorado Rockies, Detroit Tigers, Florida Marlins, Houston Astros, Kansas City Royals, Los Angeles Angels, Los Angeles Dodgers, Milwaukee Brewers, Minnesota Twins, New York Mets, New York Yankees, Oakland Athletics, Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates, San Diego Padres, San Francisco Giants, Seattle Mariners, St. Louis Cardinals, Tampa Bay Rays, Texas Rangers, Toronto Blue Jays, Washington Nationals

Tagged Albert Pujols, Alex Rodriguez, Barry Bonds, BASEBALL, Eddie Murray, Frank Thomas, greg maddux, Hank Aaron, joe morgan, Johnny Bench, Lehigh University, Mickey Mantle, Mike Schmidt, pedromartinez, randy johnson, Roger Clemens, sport, TED WILLIAMS, WILLIE MAYS

Whew! 7 Days of Baseball and 10 Different States…..

Posted on July 3, 2010 | 2 comments

Who wouldn’t love this? Never mind the early mornings, late nights, blisters, junk food and sunburns! Looking back who’ll remember any of this stuff? What I’ll remember is getting to sleep on the bus (our reward for getting up on time and actually making it to the bus) and those great movies (Corner Gas? Who Knew?) and great food and the comraderie of great baseball fans gathered together for the experience of baseball, ballparks, and ballpark food. And that’s exactly what we did! We could ask Dan anything and if he didn’t have the answer, our driver, Mark, did. A pool of knowledge from these two! And the best part was sharing their baseball experiences with us. The time flew by and now I’m safely home just in time to cheer my home team out of a 7 game losing streak ~ sure glad I could help! There’s something very special about baseball fans. When you’re sitting in a stadium with 40,000 fans cheering and clapping for whichever team, there’s a common bond that says it really doesn’t matter, just for today, what’s wrong with the economy. And just for today I’ll let BP worry about that oil mess and I’ll let someone else solve the world problems because today I’m watching grown men throw baseballs around a field shaped like a diamond, hopefully hitting more baseballs and scoring runs, just because they can. Well, I can’t explain it, but there’s something very special about baseball fans!

We’ve waited all winter, withstood snow and cold
Thru free agent signings for millions in gold.
“Play ball”, “Batter up”, the umpire will yell,
Peanuts and crackerjaks the vendors will sell.
Like Bogey has said with panache and glitz,
“A hot dog at the ballpark beats roast beef at the Ritz!”

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Posted in A1 Baseball, General, Baltimore Orioles, Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Reds, Cleveland Indians, Detroit Tigers, Minnesota Twins, New York Mets, New York Yankees, Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates, Seattle Mariners

Tagged BASEBALL, diamond baseball tours, GARLIC FRIES

Day 6. Philadelphia Phillies vs. Pittsburgh Pirates!

Posted on July 2, 2010 | 4 comments

Thursday, 7/1/2010. Long day on the bus to get to a great ballpark and a great game! Pirates won 4-2 as I remember. We left this morning at 8:00AM and arrived at PNC Park at 6PM after a couple of quick 20 minutes stops, rushed into the stadium to find our seating. Whew! Grueling day for most but honestly I slept most of the day so was ready to go once we got there! The park itself was set on the river and directly opposite the Steelers football stadium. We could stand at the concessions and look out over the river. Really great views!

This was the most accessible and user-friendly park to get around of all the parks we’ve been to so far. Took about 5 minutes off the bus to our seats which is pretty amazing when you compare it to some of the marathon walks we’ve been through! As far as ballpark food goes, the Fermenti Bros sandwich lays claim to the best food at PNC and they’re probably right! This sandwich sure makes carrying it back to your seat “easy”. It not only loads the bread with lots of deli sliced roast beef, but also layers the coleslaw, condiments AND french fries on the sandwich. No kidding! And they were lined up to get it! The Quaker State BBQ Chicken looked great but had an awful sauce. Big mistake so I was glad I got the smallest order. It pays to listen to the locals! As far as the game went, Pittsburgh has one of the worst records this year, and the Phillies are doing great. But we were all compelled to cheer for the Pirates which I wanted to do anyhow. So it was fun to hear the cheers and enthusiasm when they pulled it out in the end. They were ahead the entire game but it was one of those “you score – I score” games and was never really comfortable until the end! This is a great ballpark. The backdrop looking out from the 3rd base line toward Right Field is spectacular, resembling a Hollywood backdrop of high rise buildings that look super-imposed, not the real thing! We arrived here at our hotel after the evening game at 1:30AM and leave 7AM for Chicago. It’s now 2:45AM so goodnight all! Next stop Wrigley Field in Chicago!