Texas vs San Francisco

It’s the day before the next and final hurdle, so here’s where I’m supposed to see how Texas ranks against San Francisco, how their pitchers do against our batters, etc. but I don’t really feel like it.  

For one, it hasn’t really mattered.  All these post-season teams are closer to each other than most people seem to want to admit.  So it doesn’t really matter if so-an-so’s ERA is has a .04 difference to the opposition.  What happens during the games is what matters.  

Secondly, post-season stats and regular season stats seem to be two different beasts.  Was Cody Ross a hero during the regular season?  Nope.  Has Buster Posey hit anything I can remember in the post-season?  Nope.  Comparing Cliff Lee to Tim Lincecum doesn’t really work because Cliff Lee is a post-season 1.26 ERA god, whereas during the regular season nobody’s looking at his 3.98 ERA twice.  

Lastly it’s kinda hard to compare how two teams played each other this year when they didn’t play each other this year.  

So I’ve got nothing to offer this series. Just like when I post all those stats, ultimately we all have to just wait and see what happens.  

Speaking of “seeing what happens” it’s really great to read and hear about how few people will want to see what happens because apparently these two teams are insignificant and not worth tuning into.  I don’t get why everything has to be East Coast all the time. Why do the same teams have to play every year for people to tune in?  How fun is that?  Why does it have to be Yankees/Phillies for it to matter?  

Why do the Giants NOT matter when they’ve been around since 1883 and have a W-L record second only to the Yankees?  How does that make them insignificant?  Granted, all their World Series success was in New York, but they’ve had division and pennant titles since then they almost always have a star or two on the roster, and are generally fairly competitive in a difficult division.  

In fact, as far as baseball history, franchise, legacy stuff goes, the Giants should be way up there.  Certainly the top in the National League, alongside the Dodgers.  But the way everyone’s acting, it’s like they have to watch the Diamondbacks vs the Mariners or something. Geez people, try a little West Coast once in a while, it’s not that bad!

Okay I need to stop watching and reading sports news, at least until the series is over. It’s making me bitter, and I want to be in a good mood right now.  The Giants are in the World Freakin’ Series!  Y’all ain’t gonna get me down!  

Can ya feel the legacy yet?

Two for Tuesday Against Phillies

Okay, I borrowed that line from an MLB.com headline.  Shame.  But we won the series!  Now how about a sweep?  Seems likely since Lincecum is on the mound tonight, but ya never know.

One lesson the Phillies hopefully learned yesterday (or didn’t learn so that they keep losing) is that if you hit the ball anywhere near Schierholtz, do not go for the double, he will get you.  Both Ryan Howard and Chase Utley found out the hard way that they were being too dang greedy.

Speaking of Chase Utley though, got to hand it to him and Castro for that amazing double play.  Hate to see it, of course, but it was pretty entertaining.

Twelve hits, six RBIs and two home runs from the Giants, so their hitting seems to be getting better.  I especially like the RBIs, because it seems like we’ve been missing opportunities to get players on the plate home.

Wellemeyer (who’s name I can never spell without looking up) got his first win this season by pitching seven innings with only three hits and two runs.  And here I was worried that the Phillies were facing us with Wellemeyer and Sánchez as starters, but they both did great!

I’m finding it weird to watch the Giants play the Phillies, because not six months ago, I was on the edge of my seat rooting for the Phillies to beat the Yankees.  I toyed with naming my kid Chase Lee, for crying out loud!  Mostly still the same guys, but now I want them to lose, though I still find myself appreciating some of their talent, more so than I have other teams we’ve faced.  I wouldn’t mind seeing Chase Utley get his 1,000th hit tonight, even though that means he got a hit off us, which I don’t want. Oh the dilemma!

Naw, I like the Phillies, but I want the sweep.  Just temporary crazy talk on my part!  We’re back to tied for first with the Padres (man those guys won’t go away) and we just knocked the Phillies down to second place behind the Mets, which just can’t make sense to anyone, but man is it satisfying.

Maintain!  Maintain!  Maintain!

Flip Flop Fly Ball

Craig Robinson’s Flip Flop Fly Ball site is my new favorite thing.  As self-described:

A love of baseball plus a love of infographics equals Flip Flop Fly
Ball.

The thing is loaded with fun statistics in graphics form, and while I haven’t perused them all yet with equal scrutiny, here’s my current favorite (so far):

CLICK FOR FULL SIZE

It’s crazy that the “best team” has only won the series three times since 1995, isn’t it?  (Since the Wild Card system has been in effect.)  I suppose that’s what playoffs are for, but so much for the reliability of stats, eh folks?  Also specifically interesting to the theme of this blog, the last time the Giants made it to the series was the only time that that two Wild Card teams went head to head.  (Giants lost of course – boo!) 

Trivial

So none of my imaginary readers knew the answer to my question from last post.  (Or it was such an obvious answer, they didn’t bother to fill me in.)  Luckily my sports savvy brother-in-law helped me out via Facebook (and he probably didn’t even have to look it up, da rat!)

The lady in the cover is Leo Durocher’s wife, actress Laraine Day, who was often referred to as the “first lady of baseball.”  So there you have it.  Apparently she also wrote a book while still married to him called Day with the Giants.  Get it?  Day?  Laraine Day?  Okay then. 

So that’s one thing I found out thanks to a tip from B-I-L and a 2am insomnia suffering surf of Wikipedia.  Another thing I found out is that Leo Durocher coined the phrase, “Nice guys; finish last.”  That’s crazy to me that we not only know where that saying came from, but that it came from a Giant.  As a geek, I’ve used that quote many a time to get through yet another round of not getting the girl.  I’m sure we’ve all been there, right fellas?  Right?  Uh…

Moving on. 

Somehow my Wikipedia exploration led me to Willie McCovey, whom I have heard of before, so I guess I’m not completely hopeless.  In the 1962 World Series, he did not get a base hit that would have probably won it for the Giants.  Fairly sad, but what’s interesting is that Charles Schulz made not one, but two Peanuts strips about it.  Check it:

So either Schulz was a Giants fan, or was just rooting for them in that particular Series.  Maybe he just hated the Yankees.  I know eventually he made it out here to Santa Rosa, but I think that was around 1969, and these strips are from December 1962 and January 1963.  So…who knows?  I just thought it was cool. 

I’ve officially posted about a bunch of stuff everyone already knows about.  Go me!

2009 World Series: Game 6

And there you have it.

 

Yankees beat the Phillies in Game 6.  At least it took them six games.  Everyone in my little universe were rooting for the Phillies, but we all pretty much knew how it was going to turn out.  Still, it’s fun to root for the underdog.  (Yes, underdog.  2 world series titles vs 26.  Ranked 5 vs 1 in October.) 

I tried to watch the game as best I could, because I know now that me watching the game somehow makes the Phillies win, but I had my brother-in-law’s birthday party to go to, and even though they had the game on, it was fairly impossible to pay attention to completely.  I think I missed every score in fact, from both sides. 

Sorry for letting you down Phillie, but at the end of the day you weren’t “my team” anyway, so I can’t feel too bad about it.

 

Not the first World Series I’ve ever watched, but the first where I’ve felt involved and cared about what was going on.  It was certainly entertaining, all in all. Maybe I should buy the program? 

I got home in time to see the Yankees win it and watch the post-game hoopla and I got to wondering what it would feel like to have a team you had an investment with in a game like this, win or lose.  Lose especially, in some ways, because talk about heartache! 

Of course, the Giant’s haven’t won a World Series since uh..New York (ack) and haven’t been up to bat since 2002, so who knows how long it will be before I have to worry about that kind of fun.  But I am looking forward to next season so I can officially start rooting for them again for the first time. 

Now…what the heck to write about until next season…?

2009 World Series: Game 5

Jane Heller must not have ate her lucky pizza.

I’ve watched two games of this World Series so far, and both times the Phillies won.  I’m starting to feel their fate is tied into my viewing schedule. 

I was getting a little tired of baseball.  My last post was kind of crabby about it.  Maybe because the Phillies were losing, but more likely because I think I was having a bit of an overdose.  I went from having nothing to do with sports to being obsessed about baseball, and I think my brain got tired and I needed a break. 

I wasn’t even thinking about watching the game when I got home, but The Girl inexplicably turned it on for me when I walked in the door, just in time for me to see the Yankees score their first run.  Off to a great start! 

But then Utley decided to keep his “Mr. Homerun” title intact and hit a couple homers, and the Phillies were suddenly on top.

 

But then the Yankees started catching up again, and it became a race to the finish, and I found myself on the edge of my seat.  My palms were sweating as the Fox announcer made some stupid jinxy comment about how no team has ever caught up on a 3+ lead in the 9th of a World Series, and then Jeter stepped up looking like he was going to prove that announcer wrong. (Or was it A-Rod? I have a theory they are the same person.)

  

I did one of those when they got a double play off Jeter and there was only one more out to go.  And then Damon got on base and I got nervous again as they kept showing A-Rod warming up. (Or was it Jeter?  I have a theory they are the same person.) 

Then The Girl came out to the living room and wondered if I was every coming to bed and asked me how long the game was going to last and when I looked back to the TV to answer her…it was over! 

And yes, it was cool that the Phillies won, but if the Yankees had ended up catching up at the 9th, that would have been a fun game too.  It was an exciting game!  Edge-of-your-seat exciting!  Bring on Game 6!

BTW…OW!

 

2009 World Series: Games 3 & 4

The only game of the World Series I actually watched was Game 1.  The only game of the World Series that the Phillies won was Game 1.  A fella can develop a complex, eh?   So should I watch tonight to make sure they win again?  Cliff Lee is supposed to make a comeback, and he was awesome.  But…eh.  I think I’ve lost interest.  The Yankees are going to win their 848 billionth (is that a word?) World Series and then everyone starts waiting for the 2010 season. 

Speaking of, why are they even playing in November?  Isn’t it too cold and rainy?  And doesn’t that compete with football?  The World Series is going on and everyone is wearing football jerseys.  That seems weird.  Also, and I could totally be wrong here, but isn’t the SuperBowl one game played in a neutral stadium?  Wouldn’t that make more sense to do with the World Series?  That way everyone can tune in on that one really important day on the weekend, and advertisers would buy spots on that one really important day on the weekend that everyone is tuning into.  It just seems to me that, other than this blogverse, no one is really caring about the World Series, and maybe that’s because it’s on a Wednesday and Thursday.  Bleh.

VS

2009 World Series: Game 2

Didn’t watch the game last night and the Phillies lost.  Was it my fault?  Probably not.  Actually I did see some of it at the pub we ate dinner at, the part where the Yankees scored their first run.  So maybe that was my fault?  Nah. 

I didn’t get much of a recap this morning either, as Quick Pitch wasn’t on in favor of a three hour World Series Coverage show, and I don’t have that kind of time before work.  So not much to say about it, other than at least the Phillies got one game in their favor on the Yankees home turf.  That’s probably a good thing, since away games are supposed to be harder. 

It ain’t over yet kids!

2009 World Series: Game 1

So what did we learn?

Utley channeled the Babe.

Sabathia channeled the Babe’s physique.

Cliff Lee is cooooool…like James Dean cool…

Johnny Damon was cooler when he looked like this…

Got to watch the game last night.  The Girl wasn’t especially happy, but she wasn’t especially difficult about it either.  This is the first full game I’ve watched since starting this blog.  For the Championship, I mostly kept up with the score by hitting refresh on MLB and I would watch the highlights the next morning on the MLBNetwork.  It’s definitely faster the do things that route.  It’s somewhat difficult to watch a game on a weekday when there’s dinner to be had and family to interact with.  But it was the World Series and I wanted to watch the kick off. (Whoops, that’s another sport!)  I’ll probably go back to my other method for the next two games though, as Halloween is coming up.  But maybe I’ll catch Game 4 on the weekend, maybe see the Phillies win it two times in a row.  That’d be fun. 

Pitchers are the bane of his existence.

Guess What’s On Tonight?

Now…will The Girl let me watch it?