A Giant Quickie

I watched a little of the Giants game early, but then got distracted. The Doc was there, though not without a problem: I gave him the tickets for Tuesday, not Monday, but he was able to talk his way in after leaving 3 totally bleepable messages on our home phone, my work phone and my wife’s cell phone.

At 9 PM I sat down with Sue to watch 24, a family ritual, during which we do not answer the phone. At 9:05 the phone rang, and we ignored a call from my mother. A minute later, it rang again. At the first commercial, I checked the messages, and the second was from the Doc. I called him back, and it turns out he was in his car, driving home from the game which had already ended. Our boy Brett Tomko mowed them down (give some credit to Mark Redman, too), and the game was wire-to-wire in 1 hour, 49 minutes.

Now that’s baseball. Gary Radnich asked his audience today if the people at the game felt cheated. What in the hell is he talking about? A 2-1 pitchers’ duel in less than 2 hours? It doesn’t get better than that. As if the 13 inning game in the rain on Sunday that ended with 4,000 people in the stands is some kind of bargain.

So the bullpen is now rested for “Bullpen Night” tonight, starting with 42 year old Jeff Fassero. Jeff Busch couldn’t waive him fast enough after that was announced. Fassero is 10 months younger than Bullpen Coach Mark Gardner. Now that’s a game fans should feel cheated paying for.

We’ve held onto 1st place for another day. We had another big power day, with 4 more homers. That makes 16 homers and 49 RBI’s for the week, which led BABI. Jose Cruz is back, and Werth is only a week away, which means we are that much closer to more regular 50 AB days. At bats – the single most important batting statistic in rotisserie.

Larry called today. He says it has to be Bonds. If you’re trying to make the connection (when he said it, it took me a minute to figure it out), that was yesterday’s question about what player has the most games with both a homer and a steal. It’s logical, but I still think it may be Rickey. Anyway, it’s nice that Larry finally looked at this blog, though I doubt he’ll ever think of himself as a “fan”. BTW, he insists Schmidt’s arm trouble started when Felipe made him pitch 131 pitches in one of the early games after an off-season with rehab. And Larry also insists that the baseballs have been dejuicified, resulting in lower homers, lower doubles and lower ERA’s. Man, Larry’s an insistin’ kind of guy. Glad you’re checking it out here, pal.

Mark and Lou made an interesting deal yesterday. Mark’s betting he traded Turnbow at the top of his value. No doubt, this moment could be just that. It also might be the premature trade of Gagne, who Mark traded to the Busch Leaguers. At least this time he got some value. Klesko hit #8 yesterday, Morris is looking way better than anticipated, Reuter might lead the Giants in wins this season and Burroughs, well, he’s young and doesn’t suck. All cheap. He got rid of the overrated Dave Roberts, the phony baloney Rick Dempster (looked good yesterday as the Cubs closer, didn’t he?) and the washed up Jeff Cirillo. If Klesko continues to hit and Morris’ arm holds up, this deal is a small win for Mark even if Turnbow turns out to be the real thing. But not to knock Lou, he went out and got steals and saves, which are almost impossible and quite expensive to trade for right now. He’s workin’ it.

I got responses about first/early games from Mark, Kevin and the Elder Barry which I will post later this week. Thanks for the contributions and keep them coming.

And one last thing you can’t say often enough: thanks to Hank and Noel for taking care of the league accounting. You guys are doing a great job. As I always said last year, I enjoyed doing it, and offered to do it again this year. It keeps me closer to the league and in touch with you all, and it makes BABI more fun. That said, it can be a royal pain in the arse.