San Francisco Giants: No Complaints Here!

The starting first baseman is out for six weeks with a broken wrist, the 100-million dollar starting pitcher has one win, the little pitcher that everyone wants to succeed looked both great and terrible in a span of five days and yet the San Francisco Giants are in first place by three games.

Morse hit ball far. Arrgh!

How can I complain about anything? The Giants are in first place and the Los Angeles Dodgers are scuffling. I almost don't even want to mention this because it's May. There are four months to go in the season, and so many things are going to happen between now and the end of September that we all have no idea are going to happen. A three game lead in mid-May can easily become a 15-game deficit by the end of the year.

How can I complain when the Giants played 17 games in a row, their largest stretch of the season, and went 11-6? The last time we checked on our heroes they had just gone one-and-two in Pittsburgh, for goodness sake, and were headed to Dodger Stadium for an important four games, where they somehow went 3-1, and then back for seven at Phone Company Park, 2-1 versus the Atlanta Braves and a split with a feisty Miami Marlins team that has won 14 of their last 17 games in San Francisco, a feat which seems pretty incredible on the surface. Why would a team based in Florida have more success in San Francisco then, say, the Dodgers, or even the Padres?

The truth of the matter is that it doesn't matter what the name on the jersey says. Most players on any team don't live in their designated “home team” city year-round. Chances are they have a condo or an apartment there, and spend approximately 81 nights a year there, (that's how many home games a major league baseball team has per season.), although including off days and such, let's be generous and say 100 nights. That's little more than one-third of the year. For 70 days they're on the road (teams will fly back “home” immediately following their final road game trip), and then it's the off-season. Thus, while the Marlins have the best “road team” record in San Francisco over the past 17 games, it's really a crapshoot. There aren't really “home” teams anymore, just like college football teams aren't built with home-state players any more. As soon as teams realized they could bring in players from outside the area to win more games than they would otherwise, the concept of true home teams disappeared.

Speaking of disappearing, what happened to the good Tim Lincecum? Two gems against the Braves, one in Atlanta and one in SF, and then against those Marlins he looks uncomfortable from the get go- of course the whole team had to have been shaking their head over another curious replay that went against them. After Timmy gave up a run in the top of the second, it looked like Brandon Hicks doubled to put men on second and third with one out. The Marlins appealed, saying he missed first base, but the umpire ruled Hicks safe. Then the Marlins appealed via replay, and Hicks flat missed the bag because he was looking at the ball and turned just a little too wide.

That, while unfortunate, just made up for Thursday night, the first game of the series, when Hunter Pence hit a ground ball that bounced up and hit him in fair territory while he was running to first, which is an automatic out. However the home plate umpire, behind Pence, ruled that the ball didn't hit him, which doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Looking at the trajectory of the ball in the replay, it seems fairly obvious when it skips down the line and then takes a pretty sharp right turn at Pence's foot. But because the man in blue could not see the ball actually hit Pence- he was behind him- he ruled it a foul ball and Pence returned to the plate, and the Giants scored three runs in the inning to take the lead for good, including one by Pence himself.

"I won't tell if you don't!"

The Marlins could not challenge the call because it's not a reviewable play. Why, I'm not sure. The most likely explanation is that nobody thought that would come up. Which also doesn't make sense. When determining what would be reviewable, you would have thought that a group of people would have gone through the rulebook and said “oh, here's a way a guy could be called out that isn't a judgement call (like balls and strikes), so that should be reviewable.” Nope. It's clearly not a judgement call (you know, like a guy missing first base isn't a judgement call), so it should be reviewable. The biggest thing that surprises me about this is that MLB Rules Czar Joe Torre hasn't yet issued a declaration making this play reviewable. Maybe the “transfer rule” declaration was a clarification, and actual replay-rule changes will only come in the off-season? Or maybe Torre was begging Tony LaRussa to not take the Arizona Diamondbacks job so he hasn't gotten around to changing this yet?

Clearly, this needs to be a reviewable play. But this is not the only issue that replay people have had. Remember when NFL referees couldn't review whether field goals were good or not? The prevailing wisdom when there was an actual field goal that determined a game was questionable was “why the hell is this not reviewable?” and the first rule change that off-season was “all scoring plays are automatically reviewable.” That's field goals, safeties, touchdowns... everything. There's no reason in baseball that all non-judgement potential out calls should be reviewable. That's whether a batted ball hits a runner (which is an out), but baseline calls and so on. Again, I shouldn't be complaining too much, it worked in the Giants favor- and because of it that Matt Cain got his first win of the season, so at least I don't have to wonder when that's going to happen anymore.

Cain's first win since last freaking August

What's also worked in the Giants favor, oddly, is Brandon Belt getting his thumb broken by a pitched ball and being out for six weeks. The one scenario I didn't see was what happened- they moved Mike Morse to first base put the Triple-A guy they called up, Tyler Colvin, in left field. Morse has continued to mash the ball and Colvin has gotten some pretty nifty key hits in his first week back in the majors (he also played for the Cubs and Rockies). But this may mean a bit of an issue when Belt does return around the first of July- with Morse at first, it means that manager Bruce Bochy doesn't have to lift the not-that-speedy Morse in the late innings for a defensive replacement left and lose his bat. He just lets him stay at first the whole game. Morse, who was signed as a free agent in the off-season in the hope that he could hit the ball even a little bit (again, Giants left-fielders hit only five home runs last season. Before moving to first, Morse had nine), has shown that he needs to be in the lineup as much as possible. What to do when Belt comes back is a good problem to have. Nobody's brought it up much, but it seems pretty obvious that Bochy needs to leave Morse at first and put Belt in left field, where he's played long stretches before.

But before that, three in Colorado against the second-place Rockies beginning Tuesday night. The Rockies issue is pitching, as always, but that is not a problem in their home ballpark. Should SF even take two of three, they'll be four games up on Colorado. Then after three in Denver (an MLB network anchor the other day said, “let's head out to the west coast” and proceeded to do highlights of a Rockies game in Denver. Uh, dude? You just insulted everyone in Colorado and on the west coast. East coast bias, it's alive and well), it's back to the bay for more interleague, this time against the Twins, who the Giants have never played in the World Series- unless you count when the Twins were the Washington Senators and the Giants were in New York and it was 1924.

However, the Giants do have plenty of Minnesota history- their Triple-A team was based there for many years, (Willie Mays tore up the American Association for the Millers in early 1951 before getting called up to the bigs) and when the Giants were absolutely already going to move from New York in the late 1950's, Minneapolis was on their short list because of this. The Giants owner at the time, Horace Stoneham, nearly pulled the trigger on the deal before Dodgers owner Walter O'Malley heard about it and said to him “Look, we're moving to LA, why don't you move to SF and we'll continue this rivalry on the west coast?” and that's how it happened. Since the Senators were the next team to move and they went to Minneapolis, it's possible that if the Giants had gone to the Land of 10,000 Lakes, the Senators might have ended up in San Francisco.

So that's how the Giants are in first place in the NL West instead of the NL Central, Mike Morse is playing first base, and Matt Cain has a win. Again, how can I complain about anything? I'm glad it worked out the way it did.

Giants welcome parade in SF, 1958

photos courtesy: SFGate.com, foundsf.org, hugginsandscott.com

San Francisco Giants: Six Game Road Trip Oddness

The first six games of the San Francisco Giants 17-consecutive-game stretch (their longest of the season) certainly deserve a recap. While the Giants don't have a day off, they wrapped up the series in Pittsburgh around 12:30 pm Pacific time on Wednesday, and don't play again until Thursday night in L.A. So they really have a full day off, quite similar to how I like to run five days a week and get four days off. When I'm in a groove I'll run Sunday and Monday mornings, and then not again until Wednesday night- which means I have more than 48 hours between runs. Then, I'll run Thursday morning, and not again until Saturday morning- which is slightly less than a 48 hour stretch. Add that up, and I run five days a week and get four days off.

Sergio Romo and Gregor Blanco in Sea Lions throwbacks

Back to baseball... all road trips have their quirks, but man, this one has had enough moments for three road trips. First of all, the Giants, who normally have a terrible time in Atlanta (at least in the regular season), swept the Braves. And not only did they sweep them, they became the first team in more than 40 years to sweep a series and never plate a run with a guy in scoring position. Plenty of teams don't knock in runners in scoring position and get swept- they're called the Chicago Cubs- but this is the exact opposite. The Giants went 0-for-13 with guys at second or third base and still won all three games. It's called lots of solo home runs. Not only that, but Tim Lincecum and Ryan Vogelsong, the Giants 4^th and 5^th starters, both pitched very well. Not long ago I was calling for Vogey's head, now it appears he has gotten a stay of execution. Unlike what appears will happen to Tyrion Lannister.

The Giants happened to make this Atlanta road trip when the Braves were celebrating Negro Leagues Heritage Night, so while the Braves wore Atlanta Black Crackers throwbacks (which is a cringe-worthy name in many respects), the Giants wore San Francisco Sea Lions uniforms (which have bears on them... which is an interesting story in itself). I had never heard of the San Francisco Sea Lions. Doing a little research, apparently there was a one-year black minor league right after World War Two called the West Coast Negro Baseball League. They had six teams in several of the major Pacific Coast League cities- San Fran, Oakland, L.A., San Diego, Seattle, and Portland. The issue for the league, apparently, was that the Dodgers signed Jackie Robinson that same year, and even the Negro Major Leagues were starting to see the beginning of the end. So a black minor league far away from the major franchises, while a worthy idea, was in bad shape from the start- so it only lasted one season, 1946. And that's why I'd never heard of them.

Then it was up to Pittsburgh. I don't even know where to start with this Pittsburgh series. I suppose the best way to start is with some praise.... for me! You may recall that Matt Cain sliced his finger while making a sandwich in the hours before his scheduled start during the homestand, and Yusmeiro Petit got the spot-start, and also got the win. During that game, Giants color broadcaster Mike Krukow, a former 20-game winner in the show, said that there was no way Cain would make his next start, scheduled for the first game of the Pittsburgh series. Yet the next day, manager Bruce Bochy said that Cain would make that start. In my review of that week, I stated that I agreed with Krukow, that Cain would not make that start. Well, on Monday, the Giants put Cain on the disabled list, had Petit make another start, and called up a guy from Triple-A to take Cain's place on the roster (albeit temporarily- the was the DL works, Cain was “retroactively” put on it ten days ago, meaning he could make his next scheduled start on Saturday in L.A.). As always, believe the former pitcher and not the club.

Lincecum got goofy on throwback night

That was the game that went 13 innings that the Giants should have lost at least a dozen times. After scoring the first two runs of the contest, the Pirates scored eight straight. So it was 8-2 and there goes the good vibe from Atlanta. But without benefit of a home run, the Giants scraped together enough runs to make it to extras. And then, none other than relief pitcher Jean Machi put down of the best bunts of the year to bring home the winning run in the 13th. This is why the National League is more fun. When it goes to extra innings in the AL, managers need not worry about pitchers batting. They can change guys on the mound whenever they feel like it. In the NL, managers have to occasionally have to ask relievers to bat in crucial situations. Then there's the double-switch to try and sneak an extra inning out of a guy. A lot more strategy, which is why the inevitable adding of the DH to the National League within the next decade will be a death blow to the chess match feel of late innings in the Senior Circuit.

Nevertheless, the Giants won that one, the second time they've won a game this season while allowing at least ten runs, extending their season-long win streak to six games. That changed on Tuesday, when the streak ended on a bit of history... the first time replay has ever decided a walk-off win. The game was a strike away from going to bonus baseball for the second consecutive game, and Tim Hudson had thrown just over 100 pitches, a real spectacular game and much needed after that 13-inning marathon. The Giants claimed that the bullpen was ready to go, but if that's the case, why not lift Hudson in a 1-1 game after seven or eight innings? Would you rather have a 38 year old starter pitch the 9^th in a tie game or a 27 year old reliever? I thought so.

Anyway, with a one-two count, Starling Marte of the Pirates knocked one off the right field wall, and when the relay to third skipped wide, Marte headed home. The throw there beat him and the home plate umpire called him out, but the replay showed that while Buster Posey tagged him on the chest, Marte's right hand had just touched the plate. The call was overturned, and the Giants became the first team to lose a game on a walk-off replay.

Belt belts in ATL in Sea Lions throwback

Wednesday, there was hope that Tim Lincecum would pick up where the other Timmy left off, but that didn't happen, and SF dropped their third road series of the year (it's this one, San Diego, and Colorado). I would rant about Linecum, but he's really a coin flip at this point. You know he's going to struggle early, the question is only if he gets out of it or allows three runs. And most of the time that depends on one pitch, which is not the ultimate way you want games and seasons and careers decided. But it happens more often than not. We can only hope that Timmy figures out the early inning issues by, oh, August.

As a positive, Brandon Belt did drive in all three Giants runs on the day, including his 9^th home run of the year, which means that Belt has homered in every park the Giants have played in this year. I didn't figure that one out, but it's a pretty cool stat. It's certainly not Hank Aaron homering in 45 different parks or whatever the record is. It seems to just show the hot-and-coldness of Belt's season. He'll mash one, and then he won't do anything else for the rest of the series. He started out so well, like four homers in five games (remember the talk about him hitting 75 taters?), and since then he's hit five more. It's a combination of pitchers realizing his weak spots and Belt pushing because he knows he's struggling. Let's not even get into the ditch that Pablo Sandoval has dug himself into.

Anyway, six games down and another 11 to go before an official day off. Four more road games, these will be in Dodger Stadium. Vogelsong the start on Thursday, Bumgarner on Friday and then we'll see if Cain returns on Saturday before Huddy closes it out on Sunday afternoon. The Dodgers got Clayton Kershaw back in the rotation, he'll throw one of those games for sure. This is a dangerous series. As well as the Giants have started (21-13, still one of the top records in baseball), don't forget how poorly LA started off last year (remember when Don Mattingly's firing was inevitable?), and then they just motored past everyone without a problem to win the division. A split in LA for the four games is acceptable, because then at least it's evened out. A sweep or just one win for Ess Eff and that boosts El Ay's spirits as much as it deflates the fellows in the orange and black.

Then it's back to the Bay, where the Bravos will want nothing better to return the sweep favor, and four against Miami, who entered Wednesday tied for first in the NL East with Atlanta. Then it'll be May 19^th, and San Fran's first off-day since the first. And maybe Matt Cain will have a win by then. I know I’ll have taken at least 48 hours off from running.

All photos: zimbio.com

Roger Bannister, and is The Impossible Ever Ordinary?

At what point does the impossible become ordinary? Is it when the impossible has happened so many times that it becomes an everyday occurrence? Or is it impossible for the impossible to become ordinary because every time it happens, it's a little bit of a miracle?

Right, because this is totally normal.

Think of airplanes. Thousands of successful flights happen every day, so much so that airplane flights only are interesting nowadays when they don't land successfully. Or disappear. Yet, every time an aircraft takes off and lands... it's a little bit of a miracle. Man has dreamed of flying since the first time a long-ago ancestor looked at those winged things soaring above them and thought, “I want to do that.” Thousands, perhaps millions of inventors tried to make it happen. Balloons and gliders happened, but powered flight did not exist until 111 years ago. Now, you are always within an airport, or, at the least, an airstrip. The impossible has become ordinary. But if you think of the physics and the dynamics and how long it took for it to happen once... it's a miracle every time something goes up and down successfully.

There are thousands of these occurrences in everyday life that we ignore all the time. Like the fact that we live in surroundings a thousand times more luxurious and comfortable than any King's Castle between the dawn of civilization and the invention of the electric light bulb. We have easy access to more exotic foods than any ancient leader that you can think of. When temperatures rise, we can make it cold inside if we want to with the touch of a button. Even not counting airplanes, we can go farther in a day than many millions of people travelled in their entire lives.

And then there's the four-minute mile. Before May 6^th, 1954, no human had run so fast that they could go 5,280 feet in less than four minutes. There are claims that people did so in the 1800's and even the 1700's, but you'd think that if one guy did it, then somebody else would try and beat them at it almost immediately, and when timers came into existence, then a sub-four minute mile would be old hat.

Because that's what happened after Roger Bannister ran a mile in 3:59.4 at Oxford on May 6^th, 1954. He held the record for only 46 days until Australian John Landy, Bannister's main competitor in the under-4 minute mile challenge, beat him by a second and a half. Bannister held the record a month and a half, which is still the shortest time anyone has held the mile record since they started keeping track of such things.

Roger Bannister's record-setting performance gets shrugged off nowadays, yet he opened the door for every runner to run a sub-four. Before Bannister, more than a handful of people thought that if a man ran a sub-four, he would die because he would have exceeded human limits. But when the world record was 4:01.4, and had been for nine years, what's another couple of seconds?

If World War Two had not occurred, it seems highly likely that the first man to official go sub-four would have been a Swede, either Gunder Hagg or Arne Andersson, who had gotten the record to that 4:01.4 in the closing days of the war (and their story really needs to become a book). Landy, the Australian, had run 4:02 several times in the early days of 1954. But Bannister was the man to break the mark for the first time.

And 60 years later, nobody blinks when a man runs a mile in less than four minutes. The record is 3.43, set nearly 15 years ago at this point, and no one has come remotely close to it since. This could be because runners concentrate almost entirely on metric distances at this point (Hicham El Guerrouj owns both records, and has since the last century), or maybe because, you know, drug testing and stuff like that. It's a theory.

I do not like that runners shrug off finishing a mile in 3:50-something like it is a disappointment. I think it is an astounding feat. I also do not take airplane rides for granted. When I think that I woke up in Oregon and now I'm in Kansas City, or Hawaii... that's a pretty impressive thing that happened- and nowadays, it happens all time. If you've ever run a 3:50 mile or taken a 3-thousand mile plane flight, take a minute and think about how many millions of people wished to do what you did and never got a chance. Better yet, take four minutes. Even better than that, take 3:59.4.

photos courtesy: vehiclespics.com, thebounce.co.za

San Francisco Giants: April Wins Bring, Uh, More May Wins?

It's the first of May, Matt Cain still doesn't have a win, and the San Francisco Giants are in first place in the NL West. Something about a gift horse certainly appears to apply here.

Petit's his name, not who he is.

Of course, this is not entirely how it first appears. Cain would have most likely gotten his first win of the season on Tuesday night, but apparently sliced a finger on his throwing hand while making a sandwich in the Giants clubhouse a couple hours before the game. Yusmeiro Petit made the spot-start, Angel Pagan led off the game with a home run and Buster Posey also hit one in the first inning, and the Giants won it 6-0. A bit of bad luck for Matty C. During the game broadcast the Giants said Cain would “possibly” make his next start, and Mike Krukow, former 20-game winner, immediately said that there was pretty much no way that would happen. Kruk's explanation was that Cain can't even throw until the wound is healed and that's three or four days right there of not throwing, so missing two starts and even three is a bigger likelihood. I'll believe the former pitcher before I believe the club trying to spin some bad news for their 100-million-dollar man. (Note: the Giants said Cain “wouldn't miss his next start." I'll believe it when I see it.)

"Phew, I get another chance!"

On the subject of pitching, last week in this same space I said, very clearly, that Ryan Vogelsong should be taken out of the Giants starting rotation, after a dismal end to 2013 that was complicated by injuries, and a very bumpy start to 2014. I'm not going to sit here and pretend Ryan made a great start just to show me up, I'm going to sit here and say that Vogey made a great start because he knew the same thing I did- that if he didn't, he was close to done. The injury to Cain gave him a few more starts to step it up, because the guy who would probably have taken his place was Petit. And he's guy who spot-started for Cain and will now be the one who takes Cain's place for the short-term, and not Vogey's. I have no doubt that the Giants are continuing to look for a replacement for Vogey- Kruk and Kuip referenced an interview with Giants general manager Brian Sabean where he said you can't pull a guy out of the rotation “until he's made at least six starts,” and Vogey's sharp seven innings came in start number five- but he's got to prove this week's outing was the norm, and not the exception.

I wish I said this next line: somebody on Twitter said that Sabean needed to trade for a third baseman named Brandon, so the Giants could have an all-Brandon infield. They're just a third baseman away, with Crawford at short, Hicks at second, and Belt at first. And while Brandon and Brandon are doing very well at the plate and in the field, Brandon is really have a tough time of it recently. If that made sense to you, congratulations. If not: Crawford and Hicks have back-to-back Sunday walk-off home runs for the G-men and are keeping themselves in the lineup because of more than their defense. The guy having the problems at the plate is Belt. SF manager Bruce Bochy gave Belt the night off on Tuesday because he was nothing but an out at the plate the entire homestand and put Buster Posey at first. That situation is fine if it happens once in a while, but if it continues to happen we're entering the “we don't want this to happen” scenario I noted in my Giants season preview (scroll down a bit, to the “if Buster starts playing first because Belt can't hit the ball, this season is going in the tank” part. Actually, don't bother, because I just told you the scenario. Anyway).

The other guy pushing at the plate is the Panda man, Pablo Sandoval. The non-Brandon in the Giants infield came to the plate the other day with a couple of men on and less than two outs and was back to his old tricks, flailing at the forehead-high fastball for strike three. It has been like this for more than a couple of weeks. Panda's manner at the plate just doesn't seem very comfortable. He's pretty easy to figure out in that regard, or maybe I've just watched him enough over the years. I can tell when Panda's in a groove and when he's not, and it's more that just about batting average. I'm not alone in this, most Giant fans can also see it, in addition the broadcasters. Maybe it's because Pablo is thinking too much about that 100-million dollar contract extension he wants (this is the last year of his contract). I'm certain he feels that if Hunter Pence can get at 90-million dollar contract, he can get well over six figures. To which I'm sure Brian Sabean and the rest of Giants brass came back with, “Uh, have you looked at what you've done for us in the past two years? Since blasting three home runs in one World Series game in 2012, you've been super out of shape, injury prone, and if we could harness the wind created by your swings and misses we could power the lights at a middle school for at least six months.” So Panda is not comfortable at the plate. He's made some real nice plays at third to start the season, but did make an uncharacteristic boot in the San Diego series. I can't remember exactly what happened- I do seem to recall it was above average in the difficulty department- but he charged the grounder and it went off the heel of his glove, and it was a play he should have made. Since the report came out that he wants at least 100-million, the miscues at the plate and in the field have become more pronounced.

On the flip side, it's nice to hear Duane Kuiper mispronounce Michael Morse's name as “Michael Morris” only about two dozen times a game instead of the six dozen he was doing at the beginning of the year. This really does grate on me, it's like hearing somebody finish a sentence with “at.” Look, if you say “Where you at?” you are horribly botching the English language. First of all, never end a sentence with a preposition. Secondly, the reason you're adding a preposition is because you're skipping a word, and it would sound even worse to not use the preposition and just say “Where you?” Even though it would be less wrong, grammatically speaking, than “Where you at?” The proper sentence is “Where are you?” No “at”, include the “are.” Going back to baseball, as soon as Kuip says “Morris” it seems like Mike Krukow immediately jumps in and says “Morse” about eight times in the next sentence just to counter him. And then Kuip will call him “Morris” in his next sentence. It makes me cringe. Every time. Anyway, Morse/Morris already has more home runs (6) than all the Giants left fielders had in 162 games last year (5). Yes, really.

Looking ahead, the Giants have their longest stretch of consecutive games this year, 17 in a row, so their next day off is May 19^th. Three in Atlanta, then three in Pittsburgh, including a 9:35 am Pacific time start on getaway-day Wednesday so they can play four at Dodger Stadium starting next Thursday. That's immediately followed by seven back at Phone Company Park starting with three versus those same Bravos and ending with four against Miami, where maybe Brandon Belt can continue the Brandon Sunday walk-off streak on the 18^th. And perhaps Matt Cain will have a win by then. 

photos courtesy: sfgiants.com, newsday.com, sfbay.ca, csnbayarea.com