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What About Joe
You probably know lots of Joe's. Lots of guys named Joe have been born, played ball, gone to war, done both, done neither, lived and then died. Baseball Research lists 750 guys named Joe who played in the Big Leagues including 46 All-Stars
Eleven Joes enshrined in the Hall of Fame and one who was good enough to, but was left out.
Thats what I write about here. The Joes of the world.
E
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Wednesday, January 25 2012 @ 06:36 PM PST
Contributed by: E
Views: 68
 Movie Night With Billy
Billy Calzada, a truly gifted photo-journalist who lives in San Antonio took this extraordinary picture of Tuskegee Airman, John Mills at the San Antonio Texas opening of Redtails. Just click the picture for the full-size rendition. This is what Billy wrote in his Facebook entry:
John Miles, a member of the Tuskegee Airmen of World War II fame, acknowledges an ovation as he is introduced prior to the screening of the film "Red Tails," in San Antonio on Jan. 12, 2012. The Red Tails were a fighter airplane group made up of African-Americans. The film officially launches in theaters today. I'm eager to see it.
Billy lost his dad (Guillermo Calzada) a couple of weeks ago, himself a veteran of the South Pacific Theater during World War II, so no doubt this Redtails evoked some recollections of days gone by for Billy; as it has for a lot of folks.
WWII Movies In General
For some reason, the Private Ryan, Band of Brothers, Tom Hanks, Ken Burns and Steven Spielberg melodramas are considered the standard in World War II films and documentaries. Don't get me wrong, they have their place. War is the most horrific of human depravities. War gives license to all the cruelties that the evil amongst us can visit upon their fellow human beings.
The monsters of the night, the serial killers, the rapists, the gangsters, the pedophiles, the torturers, thieves, thugs and the worst instincts of mankind are unleashed upon an"enemy". An "enemy" that has to be dehumanized and vilified in order to enable the ordinary citizen soldier to become an ice-hearted killer and allow the truly evil to roam free amongst them.
Changing the Course of Civilization
World War II changed the soul of humanity for a long time to come. Until then, civilians, women and children were off-limits to combatants as a matter of humanitarian policy. There were always exceptions of course. Once a war starts, the insanity commences and it is mostly out of control until somebody surrenders. It all changed when the Japanese raped Nanking, and death-marched 75,000 American soldiers at Bataan.
And it happened when the Nazis declared race war upon the Jews, Slavs, Catholics and Russians. By dehumanizing their enemies as all serial killers and sociopaths do, they gave themselves permission to bomb civilian targets for morale-breaking purposes. Starting with Warsaw, Krakow in Poland. And all of the horror visited upon its victims in the name of some higher calling. Retaliation was inevitable. Tokyo was bombed in retaliation for Pearl Harbor and as a morale booster.
Berlin was bombed in retaliation for the London Blitzkrieg that enabled the RAF to prevail in the Battle of Brittan. It didn't stop, the V-1s and the V-2 terror rockets into London throughout the war however. Hamburg and Dresden Firebombings were the brainchild of Air Chief Marshall Arthur Harris. Twenty-Five Thousand German Civilians were torched in March 1945 when the outcome of the war had already been decided.
You Bomb Me - I Bomb You
They bombed ours. We bombed theirs. All as part of the overall war effort. The American Armed Forces constricted their bombing raids to strategic target bombing as a matter of policy dedicated to "precision bombing of military targets only". which is why their missions were always in daylight. More than one mission was turned around rather than drop bombs over non-threatening non-military targets. That was not always the case of course in the insanity of war, but it was American Army Air Force Policy. The Brits bombed at night, and bombed more indiscriminately. Nighttime area-bombing
The Backdrop
So that's the backdrop for the deployment of the 332nd Fighter Group; The Redtails. I'm not going to supplement the movie with a bunch of historical sidelights and corrections to aircraft markings, maneuvering capabilities and combat tactics and enemy encounters. There are all kinds of historical inaccuracies with the movie. It is the nature of movies to do so. Movies are about story telling, not an analysis of military operations.
Stories - Not Documentaries
Top Gun, Memphis Belle. These are all adventure stories meant to stimulate thought and curiosity; entertain and evoke emotional responses. The hope is that those in the audience who came into the movie knowing nothing or worse, ill-informed, now know enough to make Redtails a starting point in discovering a beautiful and noble effort by genuine heroes who too often were despised by the very ones whose lives they were defending and protecting.
If one thinks in the context of a greatly under- rated underdog, then you have the context of the Redtails. To believe that assembling a handful of the most intelligent, the most courageous, the most physically coordinated and calculating risk takers and marksmen from within an ethnic grouping of millions of Americans, and expect to come up with an inferior fighter pilot at the end of the process defies logic. It is beyond ridicule.
The Necessity for Escorts
Bomber formations of B-24s and B-17s were extremely vulnerable to Luftwaffe Fighter attacks. In the early part of the war, unescorted bomber crews had no statistical chance of surviving beyond ten of the mandated twenty-five missions. Morale as one can expect was horrible. Until the P51 came along, there were no long range escorts. It was enraging to American Fighter pilots to watch in helplessness as the Luftwaffe fighter packs waited outside their fuel range to attack the bomber streams. Every time a B17 or B24 went down, it took 10 men with it. For the most part, the allies achieved air supremacy over Europe in the middle of 1944. But as the allies shrunk the amount of territory controlled by the Nazis, the concentration of aircraft and armed defenses closed ranks making missions even more risky.
Into The Breach
American Fighter Pilots were relentless in their pursuit of Luftwaffe fighters. The Luftwaffe changed tactics when engaging the bomber streams. They used ME 109s to draw off American Fighters and then attack the bomber streams with the canon-armed FW 190s from above to shoot up the slow moving B17s and B24s. If you've ever seen Zebras and wildebeest get attacked by crocodiles when they migrate the Mara river, then you have an idea of what those bomber streams faced.
The 332nd made it their mission to never leave the bomber streams to the mercy of the Luftwaffe. The defense of Berlin was horrific. It was Hitler's last stand and the allies were attacking from the west and the south from Italy. And this is where the Redtails made their bones. The LW threw everything they had left at the American Bombers including their 600 mph ME 262. who could flash through a formation of bombers flying 400 mph slower before they even knew what hit. The 332nd never lost a bomber. Of the dozens of fighter groups who flew in the European and Mediterranean theaters, only the 332nd Fighter Group can make that claim.
Conspicuous Gallantry
The Redtails ended up the war with a unit citation that included the term "conspicuous gallantry." Think about what that means. Conspicuous Gallantry. Then look around you. How many institutions or groups can you apply that too and keep a straight face?
Ordinary men, performing extraordinary acts of courage and nobility in an ignoble time and place of kill or be killed.
Monday, January 23 2012 @ 08:48 AM PST
Contributed by: E
Views: 88
 The End
January 22, 2012 marked the end of Joe Paterno's 85 years in this life. What awaits him in the next one is anybody's guess, which intrigues me not in the least. The last thread of the old regime at Penn State seems to have been broken. New AD. New President. New head of the Board of Trustees. New football coach from the outside. New VP of Finance. Indictments and trials to come. The aftermath of 60 years about to be autopsied and put on display beginning sometime in March.
Mercifully Paterno's passing will spare the denizens of that part of Pennsylvania some of the anger if not speculation about Paterno's role. The folks back there can write their own history about him. We will not be exposed to testimony, and recriminations swirling around an old and sick man. I'm glad its over. Mainly the victims of his football program are free of him.
The Beginning
January 22, 2012 also marked the beginning of a reclaimed NFL dynasty, though it ended on a dreary day, on an off-track with Eli Manning doing his personal and boring impression of a New York Yankee, Boston Red Sox game, stretching the confrontation out to four hours. Nothing was going to match the double-comeback in the fourth quarter against the New Orleans Saint from the week before. A more dragged out game would have been hard to come by. Officials, reviews, challenges, extended television time-outs 9,378 incomplete passes, out of bounds, dead-balls, referee timeouts. Not that there wasn't tension. But it was the kind of tension that comes from sitting in a bomb shelter hoping you don't catch a direct hit.
Meatheads Exposed
Lot of folks are all torqued at Kyle Williams, for his two miscues, the fumble on the run-back in OT, and a muffed punt - Hideous call really. Which is simply stupid and demonstrates a childish mentality, when you read some of the comments floating around. But thats what you get when the NFL and the ethically retarded networks have convinced millions of drunks, trailer trashites, posers and other assorted anger-issue loons that every single football game is life and death or worse.
Meatheads, will focus on the last game because of their personal disappointment, and childish need to be a victim by finding somebody to blame for their own unfulfilled expectations. In this case, it is Kyle Williams, an exciting and contributing player. The idiots only want to remember the two muffs. They don't want to remember his key run-back earlier to set up a 49er score. They can't recall the week before when he laid a key block to enable a last minute score against the Saints. And if you get that unwound because you lost a bet, don't gamble. If you get that upset over one lost bet, don't bet.
Risk Taking
The same mindset and skillset that turns these guys into breakaway scoring threats on any kick are the same things that cause them to muff punts and fumble -- they are the ultimate risk-takers on every team. Thats why they're threats to score and why they're threats to muff too. Taking risks. It leads to mistakes inevitably. But its also what makes them good.
The Upcoming Nobody West of Toronto Cares Bowl
The NY Giants and New England Patriots will re-enact a prior Superbowl matchup featuring the NFL's version of a Yankee-Red Sox game. An overly-long, drawn out, meldodramedy featuring obnoxious fans, a drooling media, and a drawn-out over-amplified two weeks of network promotions, exceeded in annoyance only by Flo, campaign ads, and a never-ending presidential election.
Maybe Derek Jeter can represent the Yankees during half-time with 1983 skank of the year during half-time. I'm sure John Lackey, can represent Kentucky Fried Chicken for the Boston fans. Everybody east of the Hudson River and north of the New Jersey Buttabing will be enthralled. For the rest of us, it is baseball season.
The 2013 Season Begins
But mainly Jan 22, 2012 marks the first day of the 2013 49ers Season. It will follow a season that came within a whisker of a Superbowl trip. In 1980, Bill Walsh and Joe Montana led the 49ers to the biggest comeback in their history against the New Orleans Saints. They finished 6-10 that year. The next 20 years would see them establish unmatched superiority in the NFL, including two back-to-back Hall of Fame Quarterbacks whose jocks Eli Manning will never be able to carry. Last week Jim Harbaugh and Alex Smith, brought the 49ers back twice in the most exciting finish to a 49er game in 30 years against those same New Orleans Saints.
I would not bet against the 49ers picking up where they left off 10 years ago. What a great future. What a great organization once again. A new stadium is on the horizon, new players to be brought in. A redeemed Alex Smith, and NFL coach of the year Jim Harbaugh. I just know Bill Walsh is smiling someplace.
Saturday, January 21 2012 @ 05:54 AM PST
Contributed by: E
Views: 159
 From Last Week's Update
And then it started raining footballs. The Brees storm was expected, but not to the extent in which his receivers were running amok like one of those electric vibrating football games. What was jaw-dropping and unexpected, except by the 49er coaching staff and players themselves, was the torrent of Joe Montana, Steve Young types of plays not seen since the last century as Alex Smith put the team on his back and brought them back twice from sure defeat.
Even when the Saints went ahead with 1 minute 37 seconds to go. Play after play until finally with 9 seconds left, he connected with former Maryland standout, Vernon Davis at the Goal line who did to Roman Harper what Dwight Clark did to Everson Walls. Beat their teams in their last defensive play of the season.
And so Sunday January 22, 2012 waits for the New York Giants. Just like it waited for them in January 1982. It was a Divisional game then. A conference championship now. We shall see.
Is It Sunday Yet?
So inquired Jerry Rice on Twitter. "I'm trying not to think about the game, the old pre-game jitters come back, my palms start sweating, my hearts starts beating faster, and I can't concentrate on anything else but the game": - That was old 87 talking with old Number 25 on Friday afternoon. That would be Santa Cruz neighbors Dwight Clark and Eric Davis who do pre-game and post games for the local CSN Bay Area. The buildup is not only in my head, my self being victimized by ghosts past.
Random Recall
My dad, who has been under the weather didn't watch the New Orleans game to its conclusion. Not because he didn't care; too much excitement for his physical condition he claims. Literally. He's not your typical buy-a-ticket fan. He was an assistant at Poly High School when George Seifert played. He was in Kezar when it was uncool. He and another guy spent years running the ushers for the 49ers at Kezar. Which meant mostly breaking up fights."The Moribitos were cheapskates" "When the Raiders formed in the old AFL in 1960, they treated us like golden..twice the pay of the 49ers." The Raiders played one or two seasons at the Stick before moving to Frank Youell Field in Oakland. So he goes back to 1946 the year he got home from the War. Not easily impressed.
Poly High
Poly High School. Thats where former 49er Gary Lewis played too. When he was in high school he was OJ before OJ. First guy I ever saw dribble a ball behind his back at Kezar Pavilion in 1959. I was 11 years old when he carried 3 Mission HS defenders 30 yards into the end-zone, hardly missing a stride. 6-4 225 and a sub-11 sec 100 yard dash in high school in 1959. He and Pop always stayed in touch after graduation and of course during his time with the Niners. In those days, the 49ers camped at St. Mary's College before they moved onto UC Santa Barbara when Dick Nolan came in. We used to go out there a lot as kids. I remember an old kodak instamatic picture of Gary holding my youngest brother at about the age of 10 or so. Tossing him up in the air like a sack of flour during one training camp in the mid-60s. The two of them grinning and laughing from ear to ear like they just won a pizza.
My son was 5years old when Dwight Clark came down with Montana's pass 30 years ago over Cowboy DB Everson Walls. The Niners had handled the NY Giants pretty handily as they had during the regular season the week before in the Divisional Playoff. We watched the final minutes of the Dallas game in a back room with rabbit ears and a static-filled 12 inch black and white. The winter storms had knocked the roof antenna off the chimney so we were stuck. He remembers almost getting crushed by his crazy old man who lost what was left of his mind for an hour or so. I have no independent recollection except almost knocking my father in law into the next county.
Number 22 In Your Program
Vic Washington, Bob Hayes, Eddie Lewis, Dwight Hicks, Tim McKyer, Todd Bowles, Amp Lee, Tyrone Drakeford, Tony Blevins, Terry Jackson, Nate Clements, Carlos Rogers. All the guys who have worn Number 22 since Gary Lewis first pulled it over his pads in 1964.
Gary Lewis died in 1986 of Lou Gehrig disease. Three weeks before the 49ers would suffer their worst playoff defeat in history at the Meadowlands 49-3. Jim Burt crushed Joe Montana just as he let go a pass that was intercepted by Lawrence Taylor for a TD. Gary wasn't the only old Niner to fall victim to ALS. QB Bobby Waters died in 1989, and LB Matt Hazeltine died in 1987 of Lou Gehrig disease.
My youngest brother would die at the age of 50 of lung cancer in another brother's family room on a sunny Saturday morning in August almost twenty years later. Luckier than he deserved, his daughter, my niece and an awesome mom herself, flew across the country and brought him home. She stopped her life for as long as it took, to be with him until he slipped away one last time. A Bill Walsh autographed copy of "Building A Champion" from 1989, that co-author Glenn Dickey had arranged for Coach to sign a couple of months earlier was pretty damn special to him. It was actually Glenn's idea to have Coach sign it as he was visiting Coach on a regular basis as Bill's own battle with a terminal illness was in full swing. "To my good friend Paul, GO NINERS!" - Bill Walsh.
Thats The Thing
When you get older. Along with all those cool memories, comes the recollection of all that was connected to them. A lot of sad. A lot of happiness. As you get older, your future is pretty finite and for the most part has already taken place. So its important to you that those who are behind you on the trail be successful and get their shot at the dream and peace in life.
I see Dwight Clark now, and I see a kid out of Clemson at the age 22. Joe? Multiple surgeries, and injuries and the remnants thereof, in his 50s. He is still the high-school point-guard out of Notre Dame, sicker than a dog leading a comeback against Houston in the Cotton Bowl. I see Eric Davis, (who looked like he was 13 when he was playing alongside Deion Sanders here) on CSN and he still looks like he could play. What a delightful, bright and tough guy too. Talks about his girls all the time. Thats the root of the brotherhood. The very essence of what is important to fellow warriors. I love it when I can look at somebody whose father I am old enough to be and go "Yeah. That guy kicks ass and there is a lot to be learned from him."
Enter The Ether
And then I see Jed and damn if he doesn't look like his Uncle; Eddie D. The Boss is going to be the honorary captain tomorrow. Family. Friends, Ghosts. Then the cameras will do the pan around the top of the Candlestick rim. The names will evoke memories. And one above all will stand out. Coach Walsh. And then for an instant it is 1981 again. And it flashes to Rice and Taylor and the backfields of Ronnie Lott, Dwight Hicks, Carlton Williamson, Eric Wright . Its 1984, and 88 and 89 and 1995, and its Deion Sanders, Eric Davis, Tim McDonald and Merton Hanks. Now its Donte Whitner, Carlos Rogers, Tarell Brown, and Dashon Goldson. Roger Craig, Jack Reynolds, Freddie Solomon, Fred Dean, Dan Bunz, Archie Reese, Ray Wersching. He never looked up and was as deadly as anybody from 40 yards in.
I am also pretty convinced that Ronnie Lott is the invisible fifth DB when the Niners are faced with elimination. He's not in there all the time, he's in his fifties now you know. And if Charle Young wasn't coming across the middle with Vernon Davis, then some invisible Freddie Solomon must have cracked back on Roman Harper from behind as he went down in a heap.
Dan Bunz takes over Donte Whitner's body and crushes Pierre Thomas like Bunz crushed the Bengals Charles Alexander on the goal line to end the Bengals scoring threat in that first Superbowl. And what has been with linemen in the backfield this year. Shades of Coach Bill and Guy McIntyre. Kickers throwing for critical touchdown passes?
In the last game of the season in St. Louis, everbody in the stadium sees Crabtree out on the flank when the 49ers line up for a chipshot field goal.. On the Rams side of the field no less. Everybody sees him except the Rams. Crabtree skips into the endzone invisible to the Rams for a 14 yard touchdown pass from a 37 year old guy who has never thrown a TD pass. Ever.
The Journey Continues
And so the journey continues - on track again after a long and sometimes bitter delays. Tomorrow will bring a trip to the Superbowl for all or a trip to the Probowl for some. Its easier with baseball. Baseball just flows from one day, one week to the next; even the off-season is just a few weeks of R&R really before the season starts again. Football is different. It is the end of a war. A war fought without weapons, but with plenty of wounded. Broken bones, torn tendons, concussions, internal organ injuries, contusions, lacerations, fatigue, illness. Warfare. There is the weekly buildup-like the buildup to landing on Normandy or Iwo Jima. Only one side prevails. Plans are made, strategy and tactics tested, tuned and finalized.
But like War, once the shooting starts, its out of control until somebody loses.
Or Wins
Sunday, January 15 2012 @ 09:56 AM PST
Contributed by: E
Views: 159
 (update) Joe Paterno passed away on January 22nd. As expected, Happy Valley, like Chicago or Philadelphia whenever a Mafia Don passed, is turning the event into a day of canonization. Sorry. Al Capone was still a bad guy. Read this excellent piece by Tom Scocca at Deadspin
Joe Paterno As Victim?
There is an attempt by many to change the Penn State narrative to reflect that Joe Paterno is a victim of Jerry Sandusky; a victim of the Penn State Board of Trustees, and the victim of mob rule by "outsiders". They would have you believe that Joe Paterno, was and is, as worthy of sympathy as any of the sexual assault victims of the criminals and enablers that have been a staple of his football program for more than 30 years.
Uncle Junior
It is perhaps telling, that in his first public interview since November, Joe Paterno sat down with the Washington Post exactly 3 days after the end of the College Football season and coincidental with PSU president's Rodney Erickson's whirlwind alumni tour. The interview took place in his kitchen, where he was flanked by a trial attorney and a public relations guy from one of the firms who help control the narrative of the monied notorious when they get their hands caught in the cookie jar or somebody's panties. Remember, Paterno is the same guy who for more than 50 years has never found a camera he couldn't mug for. Not even Tony Soprano's Uncle Junior (at left) had that much interference being run for him in his great masterpiece performance as a kindly loveable old uncle in his declining years.
Outrageous Circus Act
The recent meet-n-greet town-hall tour of PSU president Rod Erickson embarked upon to enlist Penn State alumni in his rehabilitate the reputation of PSU traveling circus, has been met by outrage. Not outrage at Paterno's football program which has disgraced a multi-billion dollar public university and created unknown numbers of children victims of sexual assault amongst its other victims of PSU football thugs and perverts. No the outrage was directed at outsiders. The media, the Board of Trustees, Sandusky and Erickson himself. Everywhere but at the creator, enabler and perpetrator of the disgraceful Penn State Football team. Dozens and perhaps hundreds of vocal Paterno zealots ranting on and on about the unfairness being visited upon Joe Pa. In spite of blatantly obvious evidence to the contrary.
Washington Post Interview
So much protest and agonizing over Joe in the media and elsewhere. Where two months ago, it seemed like many had come to their senses about the PSU football program, the media has focused its attention challenged interests elsewhere. In the breech, steps the Paterno publicity machine. The Washington Post was the paper that relentlessly pursued Nixon's crooked, but at the time very popular, administration to ground over the fiasco and constitutional crisis of Watergate. Who better to bring gravitas and seriousness to this horrific scandal, criminal activity and ongoing decades long coverup?
Well thats not how the interview went. It was as suspected a puff piece if for no other reason than omitting the critical timeline between the rape of a boy in his football facility by a guy who had been previously banned, and "arranging a meeting" with school bureaucrats days later. No doubt, deliberately excluding himself from the proceedings after researching his criminal and/or professional liability in advance. As expected Joe washed his hands of the crime, opting for the Pontius Pilate/Chico And The Man Its Not My Job, defense
 One Statement Reveals Much
That one incident alone is as revolting as it is revealing. But not a first. Not by a long-shot. And Paterno bald-face lies to Sally Jenkins, Washington Post interviewer when he spoke the following:
“He (asst coach Mike McQueary) was very upset and I said why, and he was very reluctant to get into it,” Paterno said. “He told me what he saw, and I said, what? He said it, well, looked like inappropriate, or fondling, I’m not quite sure exactly how he put it. I said you did what you had to do. It’s my job now to figure out what we want to do. So I sat around. It was a Saturday. Waited till Sunday because I wanted to make sure I knew what I was doing. And then I called my superiors and I said: ‘Hey, we got a problem, I think. Would you guys look into it?’ Cause I didn’t know, you know. We never had, until that point, 58 years I think, I had never had to deal with something like that. And I didn’t feel adequate.”
Just a Recitation of Random Facts That Are Incomplete and/or Out of Context
"I never had to deal with something like that. And I didn't feel adequate"? What! Paterno thinks nobody in America can read except him? Nowhere in the recent Washington Post interview was there any mention of the two murderers who came out of his football program (one as recently as 2006). In none of the so-called "town-hall meetings" where President Rodney Erickson attempted to have cordial discussions with alumni in his Penn State reputation and rehabilitation campaign was there any mention of the outrageously high number of felonies committed by PSU football players committed year in and year out. "....I never had to deal with something like that.."
No mention of the Sports Illustrated pieces on the criminal elements in football program going back to 1980. No mention of the 2008 ESPN expose on the criminal activities of Penn State Footballers. "....I never had to deal with something like that.."
No mention of Lavon Chisley, who stabbed a non-footballer former PSU student 93 times, in 2006 and tried to blame white racists for the slaughter by scrawling on the walls with his victim's blood. "....I never had to deal with something like that.."
Nowhere in the puff-piece was there mention of Todd Hedne another former player who in 1979 was convicted on a series of sexual assault and rape charges. In 1988 Hedne was convicted of premeditated murder of a woman in New York and given a life sentence. He was denied parole in 2009. "....I never had to deal with something like that.."
In the interview there is no mention of the 46 players arrested and charged with various misdemeanors and felonies in just one seven-year period between 2002 and 2008. "....I never had to deal with something like that.."
No mention of any of that. No mention of the criminal activities exposed by Sports Illustrated in 1980."....I never had to deal with something like that.."
No mention or reference to the beating of Penn State criminal justice student Jack Britt in 2007, by one of Paterno's thugs. Britts father is a 30+ year veteran of Philadelphia PD and supervisor of Homicide Detectives. "....I never had to deal with something like that.."
That is when I was convinced that Joe Paterno is who I thought he was. Another arrogant narcissist, crippled by age, infirmity and disease unwilling to cede even the slightest imperfection in his judgement, personality or character. Accept absolutely zero responsibility, going so far as to admonish the Board of Trustees in his "retirement speech" that since he was going to retire, he was instructing them to not waste time investigating his program.
Let me remind you that there is plenty of documentation to be had. In the public record and mainstream articles in ESPN and Sports Illustrated and Pennsylvania newspapers and magazines. Most are freely available with Google. Or you can click to these two posts that gathered up the links and information through the early part of December. Murder and Mayhem - PSU Football and A Program of Criminals
Paying It Backward
And for three days of Town-hall meetings in New York, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, speaker after speaker came forward to defend Paterno. "When is the university going to honor him?" "The Board of Trustees should resign for their treatment of Paterno". And so much more insanity that I almost had to stop reading. I am inclined to believe that there are people in this country who in spite of their intelligence, their supposed upbringing, their education, and their professed beliefs are of no better mindset than the German townspeople deniers of Dachau, home to the first Nazi death camp in Germany, a mere 10 miles from Munich in the bucolic and civilized mountains of Bavaria. How ironic.
You can get first-hand objective updates by remarkably adept journalists, Brooks of SportsbyBrooks and Sara Ganim the crime reporter for the Harrisburg Patriot News who first broke the Jerry Sandusky Indictment and story.
Wednesday, January 11 2012 @ 09:14 AM PST
Contributed by: E
Views: 180
 Note: A lot of folks are really interested in the Baseball Hall of Fame. If that is your won't I guarantee you will not find a more interesting and fun place to visit than Graham Womack's Baseball Past And Present
The Best of The Best
When I was a kid growing up in the fifties, the Baseball Hall of Fame was a pretty big deal. Only the best of the best
would be granted admittance. It was a privilege and an honor and better than being a king, a pope and a president combined. It was probably even better than being canonized, because even non-Catholics would think you're great. And as the 50s evolved into the 1961 season, a bunch of the same people who vote for Hall of Famers, thought Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle were going to break Babe Ruth's Homerun record.
They Didn't Like The Idea of Somebody Breaking Ruth's Record
They decided they didn't like that very much. So it was simply a matter of declaring it wouldn't count if it took more than 154 games. And as August rolled into September and September started to wind down, the hysteria got even louder. Roger Maris was daily crucified by the braying writers of the Baseball Writers Association of America. It got so bad, that his hair started coming out in chunks.
Mantle Fell By The Wayside
Mantle's production fell off. He hit only one jack in the last 18 games of the season, missing the last few with injuries, to finish with 54. This suited the writers just fine as Mantle was their golden party boy and they were conflicted with Mantle the same way they were with Ruth. But Maris was this "nobody" who had come over from Kansas City. Maris tied the record against the Orioles in game 158 and broke it in his last game of the season against the Red Sox. And man did they let him have it. Including Commissioner Ford Frick, as history has well noted.
No Yankee Fan, I
I was no Yankees fan. But I loved Babe Ruth, like every other kid who got to watch the affable galoot William Bendix hit a homerun for a sick kid in the movie made not long after Babe's death. As a matter of fact, I hated the Yankees because they got rid of Ruth, and wouldn't let him manage after his career was done. Anyway, the whole thing didn't sound very fair. It seemed like a bunch of guys in suits who made secret decisions but got to write everyday in the newspapers about what people should think
He Was Just A Ballplayer
He was a just a ballplayer and all these people were mad at him for being good. I told my dad that they just sounded like a bunch of jealous old guys. I asked him if Roger Maris broke Babe Ruth's record, did that mean Babe Ruth didn't get to stay in the Hall of Fame? He laughed and said no. Records are meant to be broken. It doesn't mean Babe's record was any less great. It just meant that another really good ballplayer did something just as special in hitting that many homeruns. Nothing more. Nothing less, and that writers had to find something to write about or they would lose their jobs. I couldn't understand what the big deal was if Maris broke Ruth's record.
I had always been taught that you were supposed to be happy for your teammates when they did something good. Even if it was a younger bratty brother. Which leads me to the Hall of Fame and the arrogance, and ignorance and pettiness and selfishness and spitefulness of the jackasses who make up far too much of the voting base of the BBWAA. Like petty personalities everywhere, too many of them believe that the only way to build themselves or somebody else up, is to tear somebody else down. As if achievement and recognition were a zero-sum game..
Joe Posnanski - About the HOF
Joe Posnanski is a voting member of the BBWAA. He is a smart guy and a fair guy and nice guy. If you don't much follow the meanderings of the admissions process to the Baseball Hall of Fame and wonder why it is so bollixed up and inconsistent, read his post here. The crux:
In many ways, this pattern has repeated ever since. The writers have held to their ridiculous standards in some cases -- passing on Yogi Berra one year, not voting for undeniably great players for uncertain reasons*, passing on Jim Bunning and Ron Santo -- while in other cases just voting in their favorites like Kirby Puckett and Catfish Hunter, despite some serious questions. Number of writers who did not for for: Bob Gibson, 64; Juan Marichal 71; Willie McCovey 79. ......
Often, it seems to me, people will lose their minds when they are given a little area to protect. You will see it best, perhaps, in the parking lots of sporting events, especially the biggest ones. Every single year at events like the Indianapolis 500 or the Super Bowl or the World Series (but also at particularly busy high school football game) you see people in orange vests running around the parking lots -- people who, just the day before, were as friendly and generous as anyone else -- only they have suddenly and temporarily turned into mini-tyrants. Hey, watch it buddy. You can't go there. You've got to turn around. I don't care who you know. You are not allowed in here. That's not my problem. Your parking pass isn't being displayed properly. You are not welcome here. And so on. They say power corrupts -- well, I suspect even a tiny jolt of power can do it.
That, I think, is how some writers get when it comes to the Hall of Fame -- they may not see themselves exactly as part of a fun process to celebrate the greatest players in the history of the game. Instead, they may see themselves as the GUARDIANS of the Hall, the orange vests who make sure that the unworthy and unclean, the players without the proper parking passes, are kept out.
The BBWAA Should Be Mortified. But They Aren't Because That is Not the Nature of their Membership.
You know. Isn't that what it always come down to? Power. Little men and little women with a little bit of power huffing and puffing and waving people around the parking lot? The BBWAA have a lot to say on their voting. So far there are 80 online columns from voters lecturing folks on the eternal righteousness of their Hall of Fame admissions process. But not so much on the moral or ethical terpitude of one of their bigger blowhards, a repugnant personality physically and temperamentally even before he was outed for being a sexual predator and assailant of the small children in his immediate family
Child Molesters In Their Midst - "We Know Nutting Mein Osbert-Fuehrer"
So an organization that has 80 widely distributed self-absorbed rationalizations for their bizarre voting patterns, have only a two sentence statement regarding one of their most "honored members" committing one of mankinds most heinous of crimes against children.
Here is a two sentence statement from the BBWAA concerning Bill Conlin. In cas you don't know who Bill Conlin is, he is the HOF honoree and Hall of Fame Voter who quit his job after it was disclosed by nieces and nephews that he had sexually assaulted them when they were little children.
The BBWAA statement said that it would leave the matter to authorities. Except. Guess what? There are no authorities. The Statute of Limitations has expired. In other words they are saying, tough shit, he got away with it, and there is nothing you or anybody can do about it. Let that settle in for a minute. They are telling you as an institution, they do not care about sexual predators and crimes against children. They are more Nixonian than Nixon himself. And if that is not irony, there is no such thing.
And In Conclusion - Bob Costas
Here is more from Joe Posnanski's excellent piece. Disclaimer. I haven't cared much for Costas since he appeared on Ken Burns Baseball some 17 years ago. He tries too hard to impress his audience with his saccharin soul for the game. Guys like that remind me of televangelists couples whose whole schtick revolves around telling people how into each other they are, because they are the only ones who know how to appreciate themselves; but they can teach you for a price. Like when Al Gore jumped up on a stage on National TV to tongue his future estranged wife. That was before he started giving tongue to Prius exhaust pipes.
I get it Costas You and Baseball broadcasts have been together since Jesus was filming the pilot for Deadliest Catch on the Sea Of Galilee. Really I do. You are the Grand Poobah of Major League Baseball (even if you do throw like a little girl) and we should all worship the institutions the same way you should, even if we are just slobbering blue-collar cyclops.
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Joe Posnanski's Take On Bob Costas' Take
Costas' problem with steroids in baseball is not moral, no, it's a baseball problem. He thinks the use of steroids made those players unnaturally strong and made their BASEBALL FEATS inauthentic. I asked him if thinks Mark McGwire would have been a Hall of Fame player without steroids -- and he says that, yes, if McGwire could have stayed healthy he would have had a chance to have a Harmon Killebrew type of career. But Costas doesn't know if he could have stayed healthy and doesn't think he would have had ANY shot to hit 70 homers followed by 65. To him, that's just inauthentic.
My Take On This
So Bob Costas thinks Mark McGwire's accomplishments are inauthentic because his ingestion of certain pharmaceuticals and supplements enabled him to recover from injuries, pain and fatigue. Costas also thinks Barry Bonds accomplishments are inauthentic for the same reason. Bob Costas is also full of shit. Like the BBWAA HOF voters who deign to sit in moral judgement of the players and impute their own warped self-serving envy-ridden sense of values upon the voting process.
Because everything players do off the field has and is designed to help them recover from injuries, pain and fatigue. And its always been that way, even before the BBWAA accepted African American players as being comparable to white players. (Even Jackie Robinson came up well short of unanimity on his HOF vote if you can believe that) MLB players who play deep into the playoffs will play 200 games per year. 1800 innings of Major League Baseball crossing time-zones, hotel and fast food and all manner of conditions and weather and uneven hours. All designed to break a players body down. Millions are at stake, and this little man with a big megaphone has the audacity and arrogance to claim the accomplishments of great athletes who prevail under these conditions are inauthentic?
True Authenticity
Let me tell you something. No matter what you think of performance enhancing surgery, conditioning, nutrition, physical therapy and other 20th and 21st Century advances in medicine, the accomplishments of all those players are more authentic than what appears to be the color of Bob Costas hair. Besides, do you really want your opinions of greatness shaded by a guy who wears makeup for a living?
Thursday, January 05 2012 @ 05:11 PM PST
Contributed by: E
Views: 174
 Sour Grapes And Ass-Clowning
As day follows night, the Giants front office throws yet another quality player away. Now that the Giants best hitter from last season, Carlos Beltran (OPS+ 156) has signed with long time rival St. Louis, the Sabean/Baer/Sour Grapes Spin machine are at it again using their shills at KNBR, SFGate, etc to spread crap about a player that rejected them and their ways.
Taking Shots At Carlos Beltran
This time the player was Beltran and the accusation that a wrist injury that took him out of the lineup, was jaking and malingering -- something ludicrous on its face. Supposedly according to the media lapdogs, the only reason Beltran accepted the trade to begin with, was because Bruce Bochy personally convinced him during the All Star break, the Giants were all in to win again in 2011 and thereafter. Either way, Bochy is either a fool, a liar, or both. I'm sure Beltran has really warm feelings for both Sabean and Bochy as a result.
Freddy Sanchez - Limp Like A Man (Sung To The Frankie Valli Tune)
Remember that Freddy Sanchez literally limped over to the Giants clubhouse at 24 Willie Mays Plaza when traded. Freddy is a nice guy and tries hard. He went on the DL and was immediately useless to them for the rest of the 2009 season. Sanchez was a good soldier; stoic and in need of a contract extension. He kept his mouth shut, and received a big fat multi-year contract in return. He played well in 2010, and broke again in 2011.
He's 3 years older now, hurt more often, yet the crack-addled fairytalers see Freddy as being key to making up a 100 run shortfall in 2012. Baer referred to 2012 Freddy Sanchez as better than signing a free-agent. I cannot make this up. I am ashamed to say I graduated from the same high school as Baer. If I had only known, I would have burnt it to the ground on my way out. (Bridges for sale over there ---->)
Aubrey Huff - Pass the Beer, Chips, Tequila, Wings And Excuses - Skip the Salad, Workouts and Gatorade
You might also want to remember the "discarded by the Rays, O's and Tigers for being a shirker" Aubrey Huff's 2011 efforts. An attempted replay of Babe Ruth's 1925 season. The one where Ruth, beginning in Spring Training, damn near ate and drank himself to death on beer, hot dogs and the night life. The Yankees almost rid themselves of Ruth as a result. Were it not for a rebound in 1926, they would have. Not Brian Sabean though. Sabean had just signed Huff to a $20 Million two-year contract with his masters' money, as a reward for resurgent 2010, so nothing was said until Huff copped to his malfeasance publicly a short time ago. So the phony whitewashing was all for naught anyway. Huff the malingerer is excused, and Beltran the impact player is shown the door.
What they Did To Nathan And Jeff Kent Is What They Did to Jonathan Sanchez
Spread the out-of context factoids out. Write the narrative for the lapdogs: "Bad Attitude. Malingering. Won't Follow Directions. Complaining. Selfish."Same was written about Nathan by Bruce Jenkins of the Chronicle at the time while he praised the heavens for A.J. if you recall. Dusty Baker got similar treatment. The rumors about Jeff Kent being a selfish player? Right. He's going to the Hall of Fame because he didn't get along with Bonds.
Sabean Sit Spin
That was part of Sabean's spin to excuse the disastrous signings of other one and two tool players, that took his place, but were loyal to Sabean and his style of leadership. This year, Sabean went after Jonathan Sanchez, a kid who got in the doghouse under Alou, and never really escaped. The kid that saved their 2010 season and Sabean's ass on the hill and at the plate on the last day of the season, after Sabean-signing, extraordinaire Barry Zito capped a maximum two-month effort to choke out the Giants 2010 chances by humiliating himself and his team on the last Friday night game of the season. Sabean usually reserves his pique for younger guys who don't have any contract or agent leverage and as I recall, nary a word of criticism or scolding in the press about Zito almost single-handedly destroying the season.
Calling Out Young Players To Show Who's Boss
Recall his caustic comments about Lincecum mid-2010 season about his conditioning? Or the forced press-conference in the off-season after he got a ticket in his hometown for some grass? Bumgarner's "lack of maturity and off-season conditioning" during Spring Training 2010. You know the offseason where he got married and had to bury his sister?. Belt is just not that good apparently. Never mind that scouts and other organizations think he is. Posey putting up numbers in PCL? "The pitching is lousy and his stats don't mean anything" while Bengie Molina threw temper tantrums? And Eli Whiteside going in at catcher before Posey? And Sabean defended Molina? Why some folks continue to be blind to his bullishness and his blatant partisanship is beyond me. There's nothing in it for them.
To The Bloggers, Commentators, And Fans of San Francisco Baseball Associates.
Being a fan of SF Baseball Associates does not mean you're a fan of the SF Giants necessarily. The first is a collection of one-percenters personally approved by Bud Selig to launder money; ticket sales, merchandise, TV revenues, real estate, and distribute negotiated sums to players throughout the organization. Ownership groups change about once per generation. The SF Giants on the other hand is an institutional part of the National Culture as defined by the players on the field. People who actually play the game and/or know the culture. Respect the culture. Respect those who understand the culture. Watching Lonesome Dove, and Dances With Wolves does not give you standing in understanding Native American culture. It just means you saw some really well done Hollywood productions. The same for baseball. You may know numbers and been entertained, but that does not mean you understand the culture, it just means you appreciated some baseball games.
The Game Is Defined By The Players
Players define the game. Not stats for your fantasy teams. Not suits who smile at you and you swoon in return. Sabean is not your friend and he and Baer are not going to reward you for being an apologist. They are not fans of players. To them players are disposable commodities. They will continue to sneer at you and laugh harder at your gullibility when you continue to support their cynicism just like the bums who sneer at the "volunteers" who get them elected to office. Baer and Sabean are not much different in their disrespect for the baseball acumen of the average joe, than the typical Congressmen or Senator has for the average citizen's sense of right and wrong. All you are going to get for your brown-nosing is a brown nose.
Pro-Tip - The Niners
If SF Baseball Associates treated their fans half as well and with half as much candor as Jed York (the opposite of his deadbeat father) and his uncle Eddie Debartolo treated 49er fans and players, they would have no need for the services of a career propagandist like Larry Baer. They would not have to try and bully players in the media like Carlos Beltran, Joe Nathan, Jonathan Sanchez, Tim Lincecum, Buster Posey, Madison Bumgarner. Ever. Only the penis-challenged act on their needs to push people around. Its not the ballpark that keeps the impact players away; its the management. If it were the ballpark, which they built and own, they would simply move the fences in, sell more seats, and proceed with signing impact players. But they haven't changed anything. Watch what they do, not what they say as the saying goes.
Why Bullies Are Bullies In the First Place
Which by the way is why bullies are bullies in the first place. To cover up their own fears, and shortcomings. A look here and here gives the powers that be plenty of reason to want to cover things up and deflect attention from the problems their fans and players want addressed. An examination of your school days, volunteer organizations and/or workplace will call to mind many of these folks at a personal level. To expect that bullies do not exist and thrive in a much bigger stakes environment is to ignore reality and take comfort in the fairy tales of the sports pages and internet.
Good Cop
Larry Baer likes to play the good cop through the media. Carefully phrased and parsed interviews that are fluffy, puffy and mostly unchallenged. They are little more than verbal press releases, that would have made Axis Sally jealous in their silkiness.
Bad Cop
Brian Sabean is the bad cop. He is the face of the Giants on those rare times when fans actually call out ownerships shortcomings. When it comes to player transactions and player performances that quite often result in shortfalls, Sabean is the designated bus driver. Never ever will he take responsibility upon himself or admit a mistake when it comes to player personnel. And because of the thousands of apologists cultivated by the lap dog media, and ever-whirling turnstiles, he never will either.
Some Truth About Injuries
So back to Carlos Beltran. There is a world of difference between playing injured and playing in pain. Playing with an injured wrist is like pitching with index and middle finger blisters. Its like trying to track down line drives in flip-flops. The injury interferes with performance just enough to affect the players competency and render him ineffective and in the process hurts the teams' efforts. It has nothing to do with "gutting it out."
Rule of thumb. Players are trained from adolescence on that if pain stays the same or gets better, keep on playing. If the pain gets worse, stop. Barry Bonds was able to keep playing with a bad wheel because he could still hit better than anybody else on the team. Yes there were many balls he could not track down in the field, but if you look at the Chances a LF gets in a game the odds were still heavily in favor of keeping his bat in the lineup. If Bonds had a similar wrist injury, chances are he would have been just as ineffective and out of the lineup too.
Typical San Francisco Baseball Associates Driven Prevarications
That Beltran jaked is a canard. The Giants, like most organizations that are run old-school, have a reputation for spreading crap about players who don't fit "their Giants way" mold. Yet one more reason that Sabean is left to deal with the dregs in the F/A market when trying to field a team. Steve Finley was the first player to come right out and declare his lack of belief in the Giants commitment to winning. Beltran was the most recent and why he was reluctant to accept the trade to SF in the first place. Only the absence of a compensatory draft pick allowed him to agree to waive his no-trade clause to the Giants.
Another Sabean Miscalculation
In the end, Sabean gave up the Giants top pitching prospect for a two month rental. I guarantee you thats not what he had in mind. The plan was for Beltran to come back and resign if he was convinced the Giants were seriously committed to winning, as was Steve Finley in 2004. Apparently Beltran in signing with rival St. Louis, agrees with me and others who are convinced the Giants are about counting beans, and not winning.
The End Might Just Be Beginning Too
Lincecum and Cain might be on their way out the door. Reportedly there have been made contract demands that Sabean is really upset about. Lincecum wants 8 years or two years, preferring to take it a year at a time until he can walk away as a free-agent to a team that is committed to offensive run support, if the Sabean and the owners doen't fix things. While Cain's demands are not quite as quantified, he is very unhappy as hell. He has watched every single one of Zito's appearances over a 5 year period. He's about at the end of his rope too I would suspect. The lethargic approach to roster repair and recuperation and their apparent contentment to financially maximize the 2010 Series and no more is going to at the very minimum exploring opportunities elsewhere.
And just today, the San Francisco Baseball Associates official MLB website propagandist in chief, Chris Haft dropped a speculation bomb on how the Giants might trade Lincecum and Cain mid-season.
If Cain and Lincecum Are Run Out Of Town It Will Be Because They Got Fed Up With Front Office Weasel-Wording and Lack of Commitment
Cain and Lincecum took the first shots at management. Four and five years respectively of no run support is enough. They are demanding top dollar no holds-barred contracts it seems. Can you blame them? Almost every time Barry Zito takes the hill he embarrasses himself, his team and wastes the bullpen.
One, maybe two seasons in view of his contract, other players will tolerate it. He has started 143 games in 5 seasons in a Giants uniform. He has completed 2 of them. Then when its implied it will be better next year they are told: "Sorry, but because of Sabean's signing Zito and Rowand they will have nothing but rookies and retreads for offensive help" You think Cain and Lincecum are predisposed to cut San Francisco Baseball Associates even more slack this season? Are you out of your mind?
The Big Two Might Have Had Enough It Seems
Cain and Lincecum it seems have apparently had enough. And the Front Office is firing back. Thats how it starts and builds. A drop in a blog frequented almost exclusively by front office followers and apologists by a front office mouthpiece. Once its dropped there, the mainstream is free to pick it up, speculate and spin their own stories. Every time either Lincecum or Cain sneezes, the back story will be about greasing the skids to getting them out of town with as little damage to San Francisco Baseball Associates as possible.
Its Worked Before And Will Work Again Like It Always Has. Its Big Business Against Employees Even if the Employee Is Well Paid
Its how they got rid of Dusty Baker, Jeff Kent, Jonathan Sanchez, why they didn't sign Vlad Gurerrero (who hated Baer's Golden boy Felipe Alou) Joe Nathan, Jonathan Sanchez, Andres Torres and anybody and everybody who dares speak out against Sabean's or Baer's way of doing business.
Tuesday, December 27 2011 @ 07:36 AM PST
Contributed by: E
Views: 611
 Time Travel - Not Really
That's the thing about, time. There is no going back. Maybe thats why we are fascinated with the age old speculation of what life would be like if we had the ability to travel back and forth in time at will. I'm pretty sure that things would not be the same.
Time On Your Side
The passage of time though, allows us to look back at what was seen and unseen, told and untold, and heard and unheard with the perspective of hindsight. Now of course looking back six months is going to give us a different frame of reference from what we might see six or sixty years further out.
Lots Of Events
More events take place and are known about every year than the year before. There are more people, communication is instantaneous, if not substantive, and a guy can be in his parents penthouse, speaking via webcam to a guy in his parents' basement 5,000 miles away at little to no cost. There's a lot of damn foolishness and jack-assery in the public view as a result. And rather than bringing clarity, it oftentimes confuses, diffuses, and distorts. A lot of it is trite, petty, has no redeeming social value, and appeals to the lowest common denominator.
Brilliance and Conscientiousness Occasionally
Should we be concerned; maybe. Alarmed; not really. I think thats just normal human behavior, and we've made it this far, and there are more of us now than at any time in our evolution. The flip side of all of this is that along with millions of foolish and random thoughts circling the globe, there are thousands of conscientious, thoughtful men and women on the web sharing their talents and gifts in real-time. I would like to think I fit somewhere in between occasionally. Thats for the folks who take the time to spend it reading what I have to say.
Finals
Its customary for people who write walls and walls of text to put together some sort of a year-end ribbon on their intellectual gifts to humanity, such as they are. And I'll guess I'll allow myself the dubious pleasure of doing the same thing. Like you and everybody else, I just want to be heard even if its only for a few seconds. If even one person is encouraged to open their mind, change their mind, or reinforce an existing set of principals and values, then I can believe that I have made some sort of contribution to the public discourse, no matter how small.
I wonder what Joe DiMaggio would have thought about all of this. Probably nothing. There was no internet.
The Game Begins Again
"It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone. And so goes the opening lines of Paul Giamatti's father's, epic essay; "The Green Fields of The Mind". And for 52 years the San Francisco Giants broke a lot of hearts.
For Remember - Saving Darwin
The film is 3 minutes long. It starts by asking a question that seems to get asked whenever life seems to be all too much. What do people live for? "For Missing Someone?" "For Keep Living?" "For Live Longer?" -"Or For Leaving?" Jim Morehead, that young gent standing in front of his P-40 - "L'Ace"" (a plane the Secretary of War referred to as a piece of junk) in the Southwestern Pacific in 1942 was 24 years old when this picture was taken. He is an extraordinary man, though he won't say that.
A Kids Game
When I was kid growing up in San Francisco, amongst other things, E the Elder, had a collection of ink drawings he drew to chronicle his experience as a bomber pilot during the second world war. His drawings were different than the typical diary or memoir in that they were funny drawings about an unfunny time. And if you knew him, you would understand why. But like the personal mementos of many others from that time, his drawings were lost.
Bill James - Being Smarter
I don't like spending too much time with people who are far smarter than me. I don't mean just a little bit smarter Or a moderate amount. I mean way far more much much smarter. I mean by tons, miles, acres, blocks and any way you choose to measure. Why? For the same reason I don't like stuffed grouse, frog legs, or birds nest soup. I don't have to have a reason. I can have a porterhouse steak and a bowl of chili instead. Its personal. Not business.
Mays - May 6, 1931.
Today 80 years ago, Willie Mays was born. Fifty-three years ago today, I was sulking after watching the Giants lose to the Pittsburgh Pirates 11-10 along with 5505 other people including my dad the day before at Seals Stadium.
Out Of The Ashes - NCAA Version
Maybe it was the pre-season coaches poll where they were picked to finish fifth in their own conference after a losing 2010 season in which the end could not come soon enough. Or maybe it was losing three games in one day to a perennial bottom-feeder that had hired away a couple of long time assistant coaches.
Giant Fans - Fortunate Children
One of MLBs 6-8 centerpiece franchises the Los Angeles Dodgers turns out to be a Delaware Corporation. Not bad. Just strange. Which is what the Dodgers have become ever since Frank and Jamie McCourt rode into town in a highly leveraged limousine.
Enough Of The Bullying
Update June 24, 2011: The federal government since Bonds was indicted has us in three wars in countries most Americans can't find on a map. Judges in California are mandating early release of prisoners due to "over-crowding". Law Enforcement is in the process of kicking gangbangers under GPS surveillance loose due to "budget" issues. Yet the multi-million dollar, human resource-intensive prosecution of Barry Bonds continues as John Perricone points out.
Ryan Vogelsong - Lazarus Man
This is Ryan Vogelsong's rookie card. He was 22 years old. This is his 12th season since his debut with the Giants. It is his first All-Star team. He has put together a remarkable first half of the season, by anybody's standards. There is nothing in his career to indicate anything like this.
Why No Negro League Uniforms In Kansas City Affects Us All.
But you think that getting humiliated in print once would be enough. Apparently not. Joe Posnanski writes here about it in a post entitled "Blunder From the Past" and it begs the question on why stuff like this happens. And I have my own ideas on why idiocy reigns supreme at times like this. Because Bud Selig allows it.
Celebrating Bud, Derek, And Fox Sports - Well, Maybe Not.
Baseball news centers around the All Star Game this time every year, and every year there is some trivial or not-so-trivial event or non-event that becomes the center of media attention. This year it was Derek Jeter and "will he or won't he show up for the All Star Game" in view of his 3000-hit milestone. To be honest, I'm glad he wasn't around. Fox Sports is insufferable, even when there really is something newsworthy. Like Bud Selig canceling the '94 World Series.
Barry Zito - Circa 2011
Update: July 17 As my good friend and high-tech consigliare texted me at about 7:30 last night - "The Barry we all know and love is back!" We were in the middle of dinner and Saturday night is Lady E's night (well every night actually) to play program director on the new 100,000:1 Contrast Ratio, Star Trek-Millennium Falcon, Flat Screen, so we were not witness to Zito's PETCO carpet bombing. Mychael Urban said it was the bad location of the fastball, not anything else.
Clear Eyes, Full Heart, Can't Lose
I must be losing it; scribbling about a television series that I haven't watched with any regularity since the first season, some five years ago. I wasn't quite sure what the fascination was. Just like millions of others my age, I'd been to high school, played some ball, goofed off, chased girls, and graduated about the time Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys were releasing their third album. Nothing special about that.
Malaise
My thoughts. The game has reverted back to the young man's game in toto it seems. Whereas six years ago, (an MLB generation) in 2005, guys in their mid to late 30s could still pound the ball like Rocky Balboa on a side of beef, changes in strike zones, the ball, and dope testing seem to have turned back these older guys like Huff, Rowand, Zito, Tejada, Cabrera, Burrell and even Torres.
Roll Call
The average baseball career is 6 years; a generation if you will. 2011 marks the end of the generation from 2006 to 2011. Those 24 players were all signed as free agents or traded for by the Giants to be starters and impact players starting in 2005. Each of them was paid $ Millions to do so. Other than Bonds, can you find a player there who was not over-the-hill and/or beat-up when the Giants signed/re-signed them? And I'm not even including the mystery signings of "Marquee Pitchers" Barry Zito, Matt Morris, Brett Tomko, and Armando Benitez
Where Have You Gone Joe?
I wrote this up last year and never really proof-read it. Its been updated, but is basically the same. This was the first post about how Joe came about.
The Ugliness That Is Budness
That's Jose Reyes. He's the Mets shortstop. On top of his head is a special hat that the New York Mets had made up to honor their friends and neighbors who died a long stones-throw from their new stadium, exactly 10 years ago on Sept. 11, 2001.
Home At Last - For The Last Time This Year
In about 3 hours, the best story of many years will be in the books. Ryan Vogelsong will have pitched his last game of the 2011 season. As an All-Star. As one of the ones that kept hopes alive during the dread days of the seasons back half.
Curt Flood - His Number Deserves To Be Retired
Steve Berthiaume posted a picture from inside the new Busch Stadium last night. Displayed jerseys of players whose numbers have been retired by the St. Louis Cardinals. Red Schoendiest, Stan Musial, Ozzie Smith, Enos Slaughter, Dizzy Dean, Bruce Sutter, Lou Brock, Gussie Busch. And no Curt Flood. I started grinding on this again, so I just needed to get this off my chest because of the unfairness of it all. I don't even know if what follows makes any sense, really.
Mischief, Mayhem, Murder - PSU Football
For those of you who think the Penn State/Child Rape scandal is a recent development brought about by Jo Pa's encroaching age and isolation from reality lets take a look back to see if that computes with the past. For instance this Sports Illustrated piece from 30 years ago, Paterno's 14th as Head Coach. In the Summer of 1979 former player Todd Hedne was arrested on a series of rape charges. Good kid gone bad? Nine years later Todd Hedne was convicted on two counts of murder. He is currently serving two life sentences in New York State and was denied parole in 2009.
Steve Palermo vs Joe Paterno - The Difference
"Nothing is stronger than the heart of a volunteer." Lt. Col. James H. Doolittle, April 18, 1942. His words the day he gave America heart by leading a doomed and desperate mission of B25s against Tokyo. Jimmy Doolittle was a genuine hero in World War II. Last summer Joe Posnanski talked abut his memories while he was in Kansas City. One of them was about another hero, Steve Palermo, though he is not yet in American History books. I am going to reprint Joe Posnanski's little story here, because it is poignant and appropriate.
Emperor Norton Sabean - Previously Owned Centerfielders
This is a Brian Sabean Analytical Calculator. If you think it resembles a 1980s era artifact sold in novelty shops under the aegis of "Bullshit Grinder" you would not be wrong. For those of us who pay attention to such things and are contrarian in nature, especially when digesting the pieties of the one-percenters who run professional baseball teams, we have a tendency to engage in the making of presto logs from man-cave furniture.
San Francisco Baseball Associates
A little while ago, (Nov 16 to be exact) I scribbled a little something about our guy, Brian and his predilection for trying to corner the global market on centerfielders. Like most of my stuff, its different and more amateurish than what you're used to reading from the usual suspects who cover the Giants for a paycheck.
December Football - It Matters Again.
BMW - Before Montana & Walsh Years ago, the 49ers were the personal speed bags of the Los Angeles Rams. They played in Kezar in those days. Right outside the stadium off Stanyan Street was Park Police Station. And the emergency hospital. Both were put under extreme duress on those Sundays when busloads of drunken Ram fans would fill the West End zone
Monday, December 26 2011 @ 04:14 PM PST
Contributed by: E
Views: 237
 - Update Jan 16, 2012. Since this was written the day after Christmas, the 49ers beat the Rams and earned the right to host New Orleans on January 12. As exciting a football game as you will see. Three quarters of methodical and brutal football with the score at 20-14 in favor of the 49ers. About what a lot of us expected. Alex Smith doing just enough to keep the Niners in control of the game in which they led every step of the way to that point.
And then it started raining footballs. The Brees storm was expected, but not to the extent in which his receivers were running amok like one of those electric vibrating football games. What was jaw-dropping unexpected, except by the 49er coaching staff and players themselves, was the torrent of Joe Montana, Steve Young types of play not seen since the last century as Alex Smith put the team on his back and brought them back twice from sure defeat.
Even when the Saints went ahead with 1minute 37 seconds to go. Play after play until finally with 9 seconds left, he connected with former Maryland standout, Vernon Davis at the Goal line who did to Rolando Harper what Dwight Clark did to Everson Walls. Beat their teams in their last defensive play of the season.
And so Sunday January 22, 2012 waits for the New York Giants. Just like it waited for them in January 1982. It was a Divisional game then. A conference championship now. We shall see.
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BMW - Before Montana & Walsh
Years ago, the 49ers were the personal speed bags of the Los Angeles Rams. They played in Kezar in those days. Right outside the stadium off Stanyan Street was Park Police Station. And the emergency hospital. Both were put under extreme duress on those Sundays when busloads of drunken Ram fans would fill the West End zone. There were no seats; just benches. Benches consisted of three-deep 2x4s so a "seat" was about 12 inches deep and 15 inches wide. And no leg room either.
Not The House On Pooh Corner.
As an 8 year old it was a great adventure to sit on the top row of the Christopher Milk Section and watch slack-jawed as cops and fans clashed in the opposite end-zone, beer bottles, billy clubs, and bloody noses.
Mix in unlimited amounts of alcohol, and little security and voila! - Ireland vs Britain in Liverpool! And there the 49ers dwelt from 1946 to 1970, finally moving to Candlestick in 1971. They had a few good years there, losing to the Cowboys three years in a row in the playoffs. They went South for 10 years until the two guys on the left showed up for the 1981 Season.
San Francisco And the NFL Would Never Be The Same.
The 49ers dominated football in the 1980s and for a good part of the 90s.The reign covered the coaching careers of Bill Walsh and George Seifert; Joe Montana and Steve Young. Steve Young spent the early part of his career backing up Joe Montana. This would have been like Mickey Mantle backing up Willie Mays. A legacy in the NFL is very short, because the careers are so short, and player contracts are rarely guaranteed. Domination for two consecutive generations was and is unprecedented.
The Most Unique And One OF The Best Teams There Ever Was
The Forty-Niners of the 1980s and early 1990s were the Babe Ruth Yankees of the 20s and early 30s. Some will claim equality for the 70s Steelers, 60s Packers, 90s Cowboys, and 2000s Patriots. None of those teams had two different head coaches and two different Hall of Fame QBs during their reign at the top. Much less a Hall of Fame Quarterback serving as an understudy to another Hall of Fame QB.
Some Deja Vu on Christmas Eve
So Christmas Eve, after more than a decade has passed since the last era of 49er dominance, another former Stanford coach runs roughshod over an old rival from USC. In the process he took over this season, as Coach Walsh did, a horrible 49er team from another young DeBartolo who made a lot of mistakes early in his presidency. Going into the last game of the 1981 season, they were 12-3 seeking to claim home-field advantage from the terrifying Dallas Cowboys who they beat in the regular season, but who owned them in the post-season the way Dave Stewart owned Roger Clemens in October. The 49ers won that last game of 1981 to clinch home field advantage and of course the rest was history.
A Most Impressive Victory
A great victory in Seattle Christmas Eve. Most impressive one of the 2011 so far. I just don’t think there is any such thing as a sure thing in December against an improving, fired up rivalry opponent in his house who hates your guts. The Carroll and Harbaugh feud has carried over from Stanford and USC to the NFL. These games are every bit as bitter as anything I can remember with the LA Rams, ever. Carroll and Harbaugh while new to the head coaching ranks, have lots of prior NFL experience, Carroll an early disciple of Walsh, and Harbaugh of course 15 years as an NFL QB.
Walsh always talked about how important December games were. He wanted his teams peaking going into the playoffs, unwrapping little new wrinkles along the way, showing just enough to cause concern for opponents. His patented ways of wrinkling the plans of even the most respected opponents.
A Lot of Us Want Harbaugh to be Every Bit as Successful as Coach Walsh.
A lot of media guys find Harbaugh to be irritating and condescending. Word. If your questions consist of an extended self-referenced statement ending with a yes-no question, he's going to respond with a very terse and impatient answer. As would anyone who spends a lot of time in preparation for his job, and expecting in-kind professionalism from his inquisitors. Fools need not raise their hands. Coach Walsh may have been a little more gentile, but he did not suffer fools either.
Harbaugh is very much in that mold. Those that study history are deigned to learn its valuable lessons. Those that don’t are doomed to suffer the consequences.
Walsh-Seifert-Harbaugh and the DeBartolos.The Journey Continues. The adventure has resumed.
Thursday, December 22 2011 @ 06:02 PM PST
Contributed by: E
Views: 255
 Niner Power
A friend of mine, who used to breed and race thoroughbreds out of Santa Rosa in the 70s, had a nice racehorse called Niner Power. Niner Power's birth place was built over by real estate developers years ago. It is now the typical 20th Century aging subdivision built with marginal materials and is fraying around the edges like most quick-buck cookie-cutter houses.
Niner Power won a nice Stakes race at Santa Anita in 1974. Niner Power was foaled when the 49ers were still in Kezar and were in the business of losing post-season games to the Dallas Cowboys three years running.
The point of all of this, was that after years of being the doormats of the old All-America Conference, and the NFL when they came in, the best thing that could happen for Giants fans is for the 49ers to keep winning. The more they win, the more the contrast between the two organizations. There are a ton of people like me who have had it with Larry Baer, Brian Sabean, Bruce Bochy and a never-ending assembly line of yes-men they surround themselves with.
The 2010 World Series is History.
I got my World Series championship in 2010. If SFBA doesn't want to repeat those results, thats their business. But their business is not going to get any of my business. Once again and into the near future, the SF 49ers with Jim Harbaugh and a greatly humbled and appreciative Jed York, are going to dominate the Bay Area Sports scene and do what Eddie Debartolo Jr. did to Bob Lurie, and thats make the Giants irrelevant. Niner Power is in the ascent again. And not the four-legged kind.
San Francisco Baseball Associates - Not Paying Attention
It seems Jed York is intent on knocking San Francisco Baseball Associates (the Giants ownership group whose members own the stadium and player contracts, numerous waterfront and downtown properties including the parking lot by the Third Street Bridge) off their smug asses to reclaim their twenty-year dominance as THE Number One sports team in Northern California.
A lot of folks forget that except for brief periods in 1987 and 1989, the Giants were not relevant from the 70s until the arrival of Barry Bonds and a change in ownership in 1993. Bob Lurie learned the hard way when, after the 1989 pennant winning season, fans rapidly turned on him when it was perceived he was taking them for granted.
The 2010 World Series was in 2010. The St. Louis Cardinals are the current World Series Champions and National League Pennant winners with nine appearances in the last 16 seasons. In a much smaller market than San Francisco I might add too. But then again, the Cardinals do not make a habit of taking their fans for granted.
St. Louis Cardinals Getting Busy with Carlos Beltran
San Francisco Baseball Associates is going backward in the talent and fan-appreciation department, apparently not interested in investing significantly in their baseball team. Carlos Beltran just signed a very affordable two-year contract with (drum roll) the St. Louis Cardinals.
So how do you like them apples, Mike Krukow. Bet that one tastes real good. (For those that don't remember the 1987 season and post-season, Mike Krukow was just as big a Cardinal nemesis as Jeff Leonard. He forever endeared himself to Giants fans for shoving it up the Cardinals ass in a complete, game-four gut-job. He had nothing left at the end, yet he sacked up and scattered nine hits over 9 innings. The Giants had let one get away the night before to go down two games to one, and Kruk put the whole damn franchise and city on his back that day.
San Francisco Baseball Associates Getting Busy with Golden State Warriors
It appears that Giants ownership and management is more interested in spending time and resources in their partnership with the new Golden State Warriors ownership group in a downtown arena and surrounding retail property. At least according to Damon Bruce over at KNBR 1050.
Glenn Dickey the most senior sports journalist in the Bay Area claims similar and cites the Giants Parking lot as the probable location. Damon Bruce has gone on the record saying he has business contacts around AT$T who have been approached by none other than Larry Baer himself to gin up interest for a Golden State Warrior Arena, amongst local merchants. So there's always that when you wonder why the Giants are so disdainful of impact players.
One Percenters - A SFBA State of Mind
It went downhill in a hurry for Bob Lurie and he was forced to sell by the end of 1992. San Francisco Baseball Associates is not even trying to mask their intentions after the 2010 World Series win. Ticket prices up. Artificially capping payroll. Firing the only general partner to win a World Series after 3 years at the helm. Waving goodbye to the key components of that team. Extending penultimate yes-men Sabean and Bochy.
Absurd contracts to below average position players and middle relievers. Not even faking filling positions that have been black holes for years with available impact players. Even after years of the worst offense in Major League Baseball. Publicly smearing outbound players in the press with a willing media who seldom report anything other than the ownership narrative.
Financial One Percenter - Ninety-Nine Percenter In Practice
It appears Jed York has picked up the bit and sees an opportunity to reclaim the 49ers rightful position as one of the great sports franchises of all time by making the Niners, once again, the franchise of destination amongst NFLers. Jed York responds by thanking fans daily and seeking them out, freezing ticket prices, giving away tickets personally, crediting them for being loyal while he was struggling. You won't hear Jim Harbaugh or anybody else in the organization blaming their facilities for offensive failures. "Who Has it Better Than Us?...Nobody!"
Now when is the last time you heard anything even remotely resembling that from the San Francisco Giants? Thats right. Never. Always complaining. Always making excuses. Always whining. To listen to Baer and Sabean, you would think they were victims of Jerry Sandusky the way they carry on about how unfair life is.
Respectability and Self-Respect Are Not Taken For Granted
There is real leadership at 49ers HQ now. As long as you have that, you have a great chance to be successful in professional sports. So even if the post-season ends in one and done, the foundation is now in place for the future.
That's a lot more than I can say for the sports farce over at 24 Willie Mays Plaza. Where the emphasis seems to be on getting a downtown multipurpose arena done in concert with the Golden State Warriors.
The Reality
SFBA gave away Zack Wheeler for a two-month rental of Carlos Beltran only to see him sign a contract with the Cardinals today. They have traded for two arbitration eligible, non-impact outfielders. In the process, Jonathan Sanchez who apparently complained out loud once too often about the crappy run support was smeared by a San Francisco Baseball Associates narrative similar to that which accompanied Joe Nathan and Dusty Baker on their way out of town.
Middle relievers are given Closer and Starter like contracts. They have promised the chronic black holes at shortstop and first base will be amply filled by Brandon Crawford and Aubrey Huff. One, a guy who has yet to demonstrate any ability to hit, and the other a guy who used to hit; a long long time ago
Some Folks Won't Deal With Reality
The irrational mumblings have reached epic proportions when the CEO of SFBA goes on the radio and pronounces Freddy Sanchez and Buster Posey coming back from injuries to be the same as free-agent signings. Worse, the Bay Area media hacks glibly pass this along, and worse yet, SFBA sycophants who do not understand that the goals and objectives of management versus fans and players are very often completely at odds.
Larry Baer knows this too. He knows that if fans figure out that they are being played for "entertainment purposes", there are going to be a lot of empty seats and remote controls changing channels. Not many people are going to be interested in Mike Fontenot jerseys if and when Timmy and Matt Cain start speaking out about too many years of no run support.
Don't forget. The Giants scored 3 runs or less in almost 2 out of three games last year. Swapping out Torres and Ross for Cabrera and Pagan is not going to change that. And with Barry Zito in the rotation? I can't speak for any of the Giants players. Maybe Zito gives them money or provides them with women. But after several years of watching him steal money at the expense of run support, he sure as hell wouldn't be my best friend forever. I couldn't even stand to be around him, he might be contagious.
The Usual Suspects
Mark Fanny Wada, Lance Williams, and the usual suspects were in court frothing away on Twitter, breathless descriptions of Bonds, Novitsky. Blah blah blah. ".. prosecutors “clenched jaw, crew cut”. Feds insisting on a minimum 15 month prison sentence. Judge Illston goes: blah blah “foundation of justice system blah blah bleet, snore, zzzz” 30 days mansion confinement, two years probation and about six weeks worth of community service.
Defense stands up, says they’re going to appeal. The Judge says no problemo muchachos and stays Bonds' sentencing (silly as it is) pending appeal.
Merry Christmas. Its over. And in the process, MLB, Bud Selig, Congress, George Mitchell, the US Justice Department, the Federal Bench, Numerous media hacks, both local and national, not to mention the paste-eating, window-licking, mouth-breathing TV and Radio idiots; all made complete asses of themselves. How? By making Barry Bonds the most popular athlete in San Francisco history after Joe Montana.
And just to put a thumb in the eye of baseball fans with a conscience, Bill Conlin, the morbidly obese, self-important Philadelphia wind-merchant who was given a MLB award at the HOF induction ceremonies last year, has been outed by his adult niece and several others as being a serial child molester. Looks like Cooperstown's version of Caddyshack's Judge Smails is as despicable as Jerry Sandusky or worse, as two of his victims were friends of his children. And that doesn't include molesting his niece. And it went on for years. Banishment to the Arctic Circle seems too kind.
But Barry Bonds, Pete Rose, Curt Flood, Marvin Miller, Joe Jackson are not worthy. Beautiful.
Monday, December 05 2011 @ 12:25 PM PST
Contributed by: E
Views: 609
 A Little Background
A little while ago, (Nov 16 to be exact) I scribbled a little something about our guy, Brian and his predilection for trying to corner the global market on centerfielders. Like most of my stuff, its different and more amateurish than what you're used to reading from the usual suspects who cover the Giants for a paycheck
I get to belabor points at will, throw up walls and walls of text, offer non-sourced opinions at random and otherwise play shoot-em up with the Giants and others. I don't pretend to be a skilled writer (or thinker now that I think about it) so journalism is something I know little about except its supposed to be truthful and compelling. And that doesn't mean random semi-salacious factoids from space splattered about with little perspective, without context, many times while advancing a private undisclosed agenda.
Its Not My Job
To be fair, I pick and choose what I want to write about, when I want to write about it, and how I want to write about it; without quotas, deadlines, credentialing, perks, access or bosses. I would rather greet shoppers at Walmart on two-buck toaster night, than have to cover a professional sports team for a living. I can't imagine how difficult it would be to have to defer to folks who at best tolerate me and my work, yet I am somehow to go about daily life being scrupulously fair and objective in all serious matters. To me that takes a very special individual, so I want to give credit where credit is due.
Radio And TV Guys
And that brings me to the radio and TV guys. These are men and women who can talk coherently for hours at a time without drooling, sputtering, while being enthusiastic in a professional manner. That there is a subset of these guys that actually know what they are talking about, can articulate that knowledge on the fly better than their competition and come across as pleasant and friendly on an ongoing basis boggles the mind. Like hitting a baseball, I think it is a gift; it can be tinkered with and improved upon, but if you don't have "the gift" don't waste your time. That so many are willing to try amazes me to no end.
Blast From The Past
Now that we have dispensed with the disclaimers I want to look at some things from awhile ago and contrast them with current goings-on. Its a reminder that our truth-keepers are supposed to be the memory of the public. Recently Sabean traded Jonathan Sanchez to the Kansas City Royals for yet another mediocre outfielder from the American League; Melky Cabrera. While fans forget, and rightly so if they are otherwise occupied with life, the media is supposed to keep track of events and include them in their reporting so as to provide context. It lends perspective for the reader/listener/viewer. But it rarely happens on any broad basis except for a couple of guys.
Tokyo Rose Could Not Have Said It Better.
Here's what I mean. This is what one of the so-called deans of Bay Area Sports Journalism wrote about the infamous Joe Nathan deal eight years ago. A guy that is featured regularly in print and on the San Francisco Baseball Associates affiliated broadcast outlets.
Moving swiftly and boldly, in his usual fashion, Giants GM Brian Sabean crossed a major issue off his list with the acquisition of A.J. Pierzynski. Like Benito Santiago, Pierzynski is a respected catcher, a character and a strong clubhouse presence. He's also in his prime, with two . 300 seasons behind him. Giants fans won't miss Joe Nathan, about to experience the horrors of Metrodome pitching, or a guy named Boof Bonser (seriously), who went a combined 8-12, with a 3.87 ERA at two minor-league levels. It's a steal ... Nathan's last act as a Giant: Shelled in Game 2 of the playoffs against Florida, he came on for the start of the eighth inning of Game 3 in a 2-2 tie, walked Luis Castillo on four pitches, got a richly deserved trip to the showers, then bitterly complained .
Tokyo Rose Junior With A Blast From the Present
Sound familiar? Here's another one of the local writers who is also featured regularly on SF Baseball Associates broadcast partners and lauded as an "authority", carrying Sabean's water eight years later. Only instead of Joe Nathan, its Jonathan Sanchez getting the attitude forearm shiver..
"....(Sabean) said he began shopping Sanchez immediately after the season ended. He lamented that Sanchez’s inability (or unwillingness) to pitch again after spraining his ankle in August “probably dampened other opportunities.”... Anyway, Sanchez’s time with the Giants had passed. He’ll be 29 soon and he remained as frustrating as ever with his lackadaisical attitude and high walks totals. I know he received a lecture from coaches in July after telling me he felt “unappreciated here” and that he didn’t expect to come off the disabled list till September." "...Numbers by themselves don’t win games, and if you watched Sanchez pitch, he didn’t always compete so well. "
Single Vision Lenses
That kind of writing is San Francisco Baseball Associates press release material at the expense of a twenty something year old. Its the front office take, with no counterpoint. Its worse for Sanchez than it was for Nathan because they have tightened their stranglehold on Bay Area media even more in the last eight years as their main competitors (A's and 49ers) have seen their popularity fall until very recently. There seldom seems to be a fair competing narrative vying for the public's attention. The message is the same whether its in print, radio or TV. with little if any counterpoint or perspective. Anytime an organization that consists of very wealthy owners on one side and insulated gifted athletes on the other, and there is only one narrative and that is the narrative of the ownership, the public interest is being neglected
I've been following the Giants since the 50s and damn if I can tell the difference between any of the writers/talking heads at ESPN, AP, SFGATE, BANG on any given story that involves San Francisco Baseball Associates, including the op-ed pieces. With rare exception, its looking through a monocle at management's narrative almost to the letter. One is hard-pressed to find any difference between a front office press release and the medias ongoing Giants narrative.
Misdirection
Some of these guys who are friendly to Sabean continue to insinuate that Barry Zito and Aaron Rowand were deals initiated by ousted Managing Partner Peter Magowan. Nothing could be further from reality. The only player transaction Magowan ever initiated was Barry Bonds and that acquisition technically took place when Bob Lurie was still the owner.
FIbbers And Other Latent Canards
Magowan has tried to clear the air on this several times. Don't take my word for it.You can contact Bill Walsh's personal biographer and sports journalist of choice, who has been covering Bay Area Sports for almost 50 years, and ask him yourself. He's gone over this many times with Peter Magowan in one on one interviews, so the fact that a few of Sabean's pals in the media are trying to portray Sabean as a victim of Magowan's dealings, rather than perpetrator tells you all you need to know. I know this because it got thrown in my face several years ago and I had to admit I was wrong. And now that we know that Sabean has been behind the wheel all along, then the context of these transactions over the years makes sense if you follow the timelines as depicted throughout several posts here and elsewhere.
That this "Magowan Myth" gets repeated by SF Baseball Associates sycophants makes it worse. Magowan was criticized for those deals by the other partners, not because they were his deals, but because he gave Sabean a virtual blank check. Those contracts originated and ended with Sabean. And they still do. And if you can't see the similarities between Sanchez and Nathan deals eight years apart, then you are being willfully obtuse.
The Myth Continues
But you're not going to read that from the beat guys or the guys who confuse "San Francisco Baseball Associates" the owners, with "The San Francisco Giants", the players. The truth has to be pried out of San Francisco Baseball Associates, same as it would for Citibank, Allstate, AT&T or other one-percenters whether they be individuals or businesses. Its also my opinion that the local guys don't want to pry too much; after all, the fans are happy, games are sold out, access to players and others within the organization is free and easy, why rock the boat; they did win a world series and thats all anybody cares about.
In my opinion thats what happens when the guy in charge seems to think, talk and act like he has a monopoly on a particular brand of high-demand entertainment, uses it to fund his real estate business, which in turn provides cash flow to the partners and then eventually funds the baseball business with the leftovers. Not much different than the Marlins except Loiria depends on MLB welfare to fund his real-estate deals and generate cash flow.
Half Measures Avail You Nothing In The End
Apparently the folks in Miami are not willing to overlook half-measures as much as Giants fans, and have stayed away in droves for years, in spite of two World Series Championships in their short existence. Giants fans' acceptance of squandered opportunities, implausible excuses for failure, and a willingness to be flattered by the SF marketing ans public relations machines, much like emotionally driven voters, prevents them from seeing the distinction between San Francisco Baseball Associates and the San Francisco Giants.
Hey Man, They Let Us Eat Cake; So What's The Problem?
Its a good money plan and a good power consolidation plan because it maximizes revenues, and minimizes risk. It enables San Francisco Baseball Associates management team to allow themselves the luxury of injecting personalities and favoritism into the player equation without penalty. Most fans don't care, as long as they get a good show and nobody in mainstream is critical. They must be doing it right. Right?
Journalistic Disservice
Traditional media does a disservice to the public and fans, by not delineating and informing them of the real world differences between SF Baseball Associates and SF Giants. Players are not the front office.They do not set policy, prices, schedules, roster sizes, game times, transactions, teammates or anything else. They have no say-so in uniforms, grounds keeping, field dimensions, mound height, visitor passes, or anything else except when its part of a labor agreement or personal services contract. Everything is decided by ownership except the action on the field between the first pitch and the last pitch. And even that is interfered with by TV timeouts.
Create Nothing - Simply Own
Yes, there is labor peace. But that's merely an armed truce not much different than the MAD policy of the Cold War. A mutually beneficial stand-off. What fans do not understand is that baseball players only need management to sell tickets and distribute income from revenues. Management and ownership is parasitic. They do not produce anything. They are "The Wall Street Gordon Gekkos of Professional Sports.They create nothing-they simply own. In this case they own property, and player contracts. The "Giants" will continue on long after each and every one of them is dead, so in effect they are merely temporary paper-holders. I am not impressed and neither should you.
Its About The Game - Not Owners, Agents, A Handful of Diva Players Or Their Suffocating Sense Of Entitlement
See I'm one of those guys who appreciates the game itself, the skill and determination of its players whether they play in Golden Gate Park, or AT&T Park. I don't care about concessions, exploding scoreboards, kiss-cams, french-fried stink beans and erectile-dysfunction awareness nights. Fame and notoriety brought about by the explosion in mass media are over-rated, over-exposed, short-lived and over-indulged
In Conclusion - (Its About Time)
San Francisco Baseball Associates is responsible for the horrible contracts that Brian Sabean has created, including 2012 boat anchors Barry Zito, Aaron Rowand and Aubrey Huff. As a result they have wasted some of the best years of the best pitching staff ever assembled by the Giants farm system since Juan Marichal and Gaylord Perry were brought up. And it looks like they will continue to waste them.
One-Third of the Payroll This Year Is for Zito, Rowand, and Huff
San Francisco Baseball Associates is a landlord and contract holder; it is not a baseball team. SF Baseball Associates owns the finest stadium in all of baseball, complete with taxpayer subsidies, with 81 sellouts per year, merchandise sales in the millions, a protected market that covers two major metropolitan areas, and their own cable network. They then break out the crocodile tears, and declare they cannot compete with less prosperous organizations for the players needed and available because they need all their money to pay for Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain. Wrong. They need twice as much as what they are going to pay Cain and Lincecum to pay off Sabean's contracts to Zito, Rowand, and Huff.
You'll Get Nothing And Like It.
This year's free agent market includes five of the best players in the game at positions the Giants have been pathetic at for years. Shortstop and First Base. The Giants could only get within 8 games of first place with Carlos Beltran, and now San Francisco Baseball Associates wants you to believe that getting rid of Jonathan Sanchez and adding Melky Cabrera is an improvement. You can place the blame for that directly on Sabean's shoulders, he's the guy who went out and outbid the world for Zito and Rowand, then decided to sign the aging vagabond designated hitter Huff to a $20 Million contract.
Its The Same Folks, Folks.
The same people who are shoveling this narrative off the compost pile, are the same people who committed $42 Million to Barry Zito, Aaron Rowand and Aubrey Huff and are blaming Peter Magawon for their own incompetence while they're at it. Lincecum and Cain are going to cost nowhere near that amount in 2012. Rowand has been cut, so his repulsive $12 Million has been acknowledged as a sunk cost. Zito is simply a welfare queen contemplating his naval while he talks to himself in Gregorian chant for at least two more years. Huff is so bad, he wont' even do a phone-in radio interview until the season starts. At least Huff is mortified enough to realize his contract is a license to steal.
Do Not Ask Inmates To Run The Asylum And Expect A Cure for Schizophrenia
So the simple fact of the matter is the guy, Brian Sabean, who is responsible for that blown $42 Million in 2012 is whining that he can't spend any money on actual impact players for the fifth year in a row because he has to come up with $20 Million for Tim Lincecum and he barely has that. Classic case of the guy who killed his parents, than begs for mercy because he is an orphan.
Selling Out For Pizza And Parking
San Francisco Baseball Associates is looking after the interests of their closed circle because thats what one-percenters do. They over-sell, over-promise, over-state and under-deliver and count on their customers' lethargy and tolerance for failure and squandered opportunities. That's why the media is supposed to fill in the blanks and play devil's advocate once in awhile. But for the most part, we get guys who appear to sell themselves out to the Gordon Gekko's for pizza and parking. Thats why when it comes to San Francisco Baseball Associates, the narrative you hear is the narrative the owner's want you to hear.
Just Ask Yourself This:
San Francisco Baseball Associates sold out all 81 games last year. They went to dynamic pricing and higher ticket costs, increased parking fees, concessions, and they increased revenues dramatically across the board by $ Millions, far over expectations all because of the World Series win. They had windfall profits so to speak. They grossly disappointed in 2011, with an everyday lineup that was virtually unwatchable, putting up 3 or fewer runs 98 times while finishing with the 6th best record in the National League, 8 games behind the Arizona Diamondbacks in their own division. As a token of their appreciation, Larry Baer and San Francisco Baseball Associates is raising ticket prices in the vicinity of up to 20 percent.
And you will not read or hear or see those facts in that, their true context from the Bay Area lapdogs.
Jed York on the eve of the SF 49ers resurgence to capture the NFC West for the first time in years announced a ticket price freeze for next year. Thats right. Read his lips. NO INCREASED TICKET PRICES. Thats what a class act does. Thats what a guy does when he knows he screwed up in the past. It takes a guy trying to be an honest man to do that.
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