The Bonds Contract

I do not care. Okay? Okay.

What the Giants Infield Should Look Like in 10 Years, Part 2

2B: Are you kidding? The guy at the keystone sack for the future in Kevin Frandsen. Just look at his stats and tell me he's not worthy. He may not be a star, but he'll always be the guy to help with the little things, making that one nice catch, the heads-up defensive play, just like his childhood idol, Robbie Thompson. He also has a strange penchant for getting hit by pitches: he missed a significant amount of time near the tail end of the season after getting hit by a pitch in Fresno the day before being called up, and in his first five big league games, he was hit by four pitches.

Good Advice

If you're ever in trouble, ask yourself, "What would Blownitez do?" Then do the opposite.

Jackie Robinson and Retired Numbers

I think Jackie Robinson is evil. Are you all clear about that? OK, good to get that out of the way, just making sure your automatic "racist" ticker doesn't go off. In 1968, he called Willie Mays a "do-nothing Negro" for not "fulfilling his obligations to the black community". That's just the tip of the iceberg. In 1956, he was traded to the Giants and promptly retired. What is up with that? Marichal was dignified enopugh to acknowledge that he was going to be a Dodger near the tail end of his career. Vice versa for Robinson's old teammate, Snider. Then, years after his death, Selig decides to cruelly force the Giants to retire his number. Don't you think that blue 42 looks ugly up there next to all those other numbers at the Phone Booth? What's the problem with Monte Irvin? He was the 5th black in baseball (3rd in the 20th century), and a HoFer too. Speaking of which, what was so great about Jackie Robinson, anyway? He wasn't the first black in the bigs, not by 60 years. Why not retire Moses and Welday Walkers' numbers? I kow, they didn't have numbers. So? That hasn't stopped the Giants from retiring numbers. As an additional bonus, since the team the Walkers played for soon folded, reitiring their "numbers" wouldn't be glorifying any particular team, like the Dodgers are right now. If only Kirk Rueter could take up roster space forever, and the Giants would never have to retire his number 42.

On a somewhat related note, I remember reading that it was Giants team policy to not retire the numbers of non-HoFers. So then, why aren't all those HoFers from the New York Giants recognized? Some of them are. Of course, I realize that the Giants have more HoFers than any other team, and doing that would make Barry Zito's number the lowest on the team, but still, just the ones that wore a Giants cap on their plaques? Why not?

2002

I am finally coming to terms with 2002, and recognizing it for what it was: a great year, at least for the first 9 months. The Giants were a very good team, and we had all the pieces: Barry Bonds at his peak, J.T. Snow, who was always a very good player, and those one-year guys: Bell, Lofton (maybe not Shinjo). Then there was Robb Nen. If you ever doubt what he did, remember the way he generously donated his right arm to the Giants down the stretch. Would Blownitez do that?

Ned Colleti Meets Remeets Jason Schmidt

I am glad that the Dodgers got Jason Schmidt. I didn't realize that Ned Colletti still thought he was the Schmidt of his time, but if he wants that guy, he can take him. Schmidt was very good for a time, but this year, he showed that he was clearly not the best pitcher on the staff. The fact that the whole world thought the Schmidt signing was a bargain really amuses me. I knew that someone would look at his 16-strikeout game and misleading ERA and pick him up, but I didn't think it would be the Dodgers. I am now obligated to laugh manically, because, according to the principle of schaudenfreude that all Giants fans are obligated to live by, the Dodgers' pain is our gain. MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA!!!! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA!!!!

East Coast Bias

No one really cares what the heck the Giants do. Face it, Giants fans, it's a sad but true fact. There is a definite East Coast Bias, and you only have to turn on your TV to prove it. I'll bet in July, on a typical TV sports talk show like Around the Horn or Pardon the Interruption, you'll find more New York Giants stories than San Francisco Giants stories, sans the Barry Bonds media circus. Case in point: just this year, on June 28, Mark Teixeira hit a ball that should have been called fair and won the game, but was instead called foul. On the radio version of SportsCenter on the postgame show, that game, which should have been the top story, was instead the 12th—twelveth!—game mentioned. That's why you head to the blogosphere for real sports stories.

A Message to all Magowan Haters

Think about a black cap with an intertwined "TB" on the front. Does that scare you as much as it scares me?

Ballparks

The A's haven't had a ballpark built for them since Shibe Park was built, way back in 1909. Meanwhile, the Giants have had stadiums built for them thrice in that span: in 1911, in 1960, and in 2000.

What the Giants Infield Should Look Like in 10 Years, Part 1

Note: Judging from Brian Sabean's previous policies regarding bringing up minor-league position players, the chances of this actually occuring are so small they do not need to be discussed.

This is the first part in a four-part weekly series about who should be where, coming out of the Giants' talented but ludicrously underused farm system.

1B: Ishikawa is the way for the Giants to go. With the Aurilia signing, the Giants have proved their noncommitance at the first sack, which means good news for Travis. He hit 22 home runs for San Jose in 2005, if you want to know if he has power. I know the California League is the greatest hitter's league this side of the 8-year-old division of the local Little League, but still, 22 home runs anywhere in professional baseball is nothing to sneeze at, the home-run totals of Major League stars over the past 10 years notwithstanding. Can he field, you ask? You bet. I have compiled a nice little chart out of what I could find in the way of fielding off the link above, which you can find here.

The Giants' Uniforms

A few days ago, I talked about how darn ugly the D'backs' (D-backs?) uniforms were. Well, we now wind our way to the best-looking uniforms in the Big Leagues: the Giants'! Everything you could desire from a uniform is right here:

1. Classic: These uniforms are classic as it gets, reaching back to 1933. The design was finalized by 1949 (with "NEW YORK" and "NY" instead of "SAN FRANCISCO" and "SF", of course), and have been use ever since then, except for the Lurie years. (Bob Lurie, for all his qualities, was sartorially blind.) Very few uniforms have been around that long, and the home unis are basically unchanged.
2. Names: What more could you want on that front? The Giants' uniforms, with regard to names, are designed the way all uniforms should be: team name but no player names at home, city name and player names on the road, what more to ask for? Well, maybe great lettering. The Giants have that, too. The script lettering is all the better because no one else has anything quite like this tested-and-true font. Try to imagine any other lettering (let's say cursive) on the uniforms the Giants wear. Can you? I sure can't.
3. Design: The Giants' uniforms, from an aesthetic standpoint, are absolutely wonderful. The colors are very well done, the uniform has the light-at-home, dark-away color scheme, which never fails, and the cream on the home uniforms adds an unexpected but eye-pleasing touch. The orange-and-black caps with an intertwined "SF" are of the old, no-frills kind, which will never look garish, unlike the halos on the Angels' old caps.
4. Originality: This is the last, but most important point. If you are wondering why this is so important, let me ask you a question: What good is it to have a perfect uniform if you copied it off five other teams with the same exact scheme? Nothing, of course, and in the end, this is what makes the Giants' uniforms so great: They're unique. They don't have the Yankeeesque pinstripes or the Dodgeresque cursive, and no one has a Giants copycat scheme. The Giants are all the better for it.

Radio

I love listening to games on the radio. Wait, make that Giants games on the radio. Jon Miller and Dave Flemming just do it so well, how can you not appreciate them? Miller's an old hand at broadcasting, and he has a lot of stories, just like the equally good combo Kruk & Kuip, while Flemming brings a lot of good things to the table himself. Like I said, I like Kruk & Kuip, and I listen to their segment on the radio pregame show daily (which is actually very interesting; check it out during the season), but I just can't really find the radio magic in TV. Anyhow, I don't have FSN, and Jon Miller and Mike Krukow do the KTVU games, so most of the games I hear them call are on the video game MVP Baseball, which I don't even have. Now that's really unfortunate.
Baseball in its essence is a pastoral game, slow, regular, perfect for the radio, unlike, say, basketball. So, with the radio, you have enough time to tell stories and call the game, with nothing lost either way. I think that on the radio, you actually get a better description of the game than with TV, because whereas on TV, pitches can go by without (seemingly) any notice from the broadcasters, radio broadcasters have to give a thorough description of every pitch. This is especially good for people like me, who couldn't tell a fastball from a curve for their life. Viva baseball on the radio!

The answer to yesterday's equation: -2.84106181 (approximately)

A Number I Would Like to See on the Back of an MLB Player

I think it's fair to say that this image is self explanatory. What does it mean? Get out your nearest calculator and see. The answer will be revealed in tomorrow's post.

Bonds in '07

Barry Bonds' reputation has been tarnished forever. He will make the Hall, but he won't be a first-ballot guy. (I don't get that; If a guy's not a HoFer one year, what makes him an HoFer the next, and vice versa?) What should he do in 2007, though?

1. Bust his butt. Do it before you reach the record, but don't slack once you've broken it. The way to win the hearts of the fans is by playing hard.
2. Hit home runs. He has already lost irrevocably most of his fan base outside of his base outside of the Bay Area, so keep the real ones, the ones who don't half care if MLB doesn't celebrate his breaking of the record, because they will.
3. Don't act spoiled. This one is really an intangible; how can he seem less surly and aloof? I don't think he's going to ditch his famed recliner, so this'll really depend on how he acts around his teammates. Signing for about $8-10 million would have helped, but we're past that now.
4. I think the most important thing for Bonds, even though this isn't entirely in his hands, is for the Giants to win. If the Giants won a World Series in Bonds' last season (something I highly doubt would happen, but hope springs etenal), then all would be well, and Giants fans at least would remember him for helping bring a title to The City, more than anything else.

Yes, if Barry follows these four steps, I think his fan base wil be rejuvenated in no time! It won't be easy, though.

Villains of the 20th Century

There were three villains in the 20th century. In no particular order:

1. Adolf Hitler
2. Josef Stalin
3. Tommy Lasorda

The Ortiz Signing

While I think that the Ortiz signing is a good one, the 2002 playoffs somewhat obscure my memory of him, just as they do every other player who left in that offseason, so my opinion of him in those years is probably not the best one to consult. Nevertheless, what with the fact that Arizona is eating up all his salary and Ortiz isn't guaranteed a thing from the Giants, I don't think it's too bad an idea. Yet, if Arizona, which is so desperate for pitching it picked up Randy Johnson, is paying Ortiz $8,000,000 a year (read: a lot of money, even in today's world of $126,000,00 signings) to get his rear end out of the BOB, it makes you wonder...

The Diamondbacks' Uniforms

Sartorially the Diamondbacks have always ranked among the worst franchises in the league, and the new uniforms don't change a thing. They're still ugly, but now they're ugly in a different way. Before, the Diamondbacks' colors screamed haphazardly put together, and now they scream stupidity; who had the great idea of putting an abbreviation on the uniforms?. Who wants that? In the D'backs'—or rather, D-backs', as the uniforms define the new abreviation—In the D'Backs' old uniforms, the color purple was prominent. Why? Because the Phoenix Suns wore that color! That is the epitome of sartorial BBLLEECCHH. And then there are the placket problems. In the words of Paul Lukas of Uni Watch:

Turns out I was right, but not in the way I expected. Whatever else you may think of the new unis, it looks like they’ve got a major problem with the way the chest insignia breaks across the jersey placket. In short: Because of the logo’s design, they had to split the “a” into two halves, and most of the time it doesn’t line up. This shows up again and again (and again) in photos from last night’s unveiling event, and even, to a lesser extent, in MLB’s official merch photo.

J.T.

J.T. Snow willl now fill in for Jon Miller on Sundays, which is a very good thing, if it means good bye to Greg Papa. Papa is a big blemish on the Giants' otherwise great broadcasting crew, and I will not be sorry to see him banished to the Raiders forever. I have heard Snow call games, and he is good at it. I can't wait for him to become a regular in the booth.

Bush and Bonds

Note: This is facetious, and only somewhat based on facts.

George Bush. What does he have to do with baseball, besides the fact that during his tenure as owner of the Rangers, his team was terrible? Why, everything. I have, using my magic analytical powers, found a way to connect him to Barry Bonds, our good friend. Apparently, a while ago, a grand jury testimony by Bonds was leaked to the world. You know why? That's right, George Bush. Obviously, he despises The City and wishes that it would be completely wiped off the map. So, he finds away to get back at us by leaking a grand jury testimony and trying to make us look bad. Aha! So now you know. The truth will set you free.