Taking One for the Team

The Doc and I were out last night to see the Giants blow an ugly one, losing 4-3 to the Rockies. More on the game in a bit. My season record at SBC is now 5-7.

The people in our season ticket group organized a group night by buying up 10 seats in our row. We’ve sort of known one another over the past five years, meeting annually to split up our tickets and occasionally semi-annually to split up playoff tickets. It’s a good group, all connected through the Colonel, who had the ticket rights, but we had never gone to a game together, so at our ticket distribution dinner in January we planned this. You notice we actually ended up doing it in August, because agreeing on a date among that many people is nigh impossible. Even with the tickets in hand and the date inked in 8 months in advance, two people couldn’t make it because of a death and an illness. We found suitable replacements, met at the Brickhouse on Brannon for libations and walked over to the park for the game. Except for the game, we had a ball.

There were a number of interesting observations we had last night. First, the Doc noticed that the 8 position players in the Rockies’ lineup were ALL first or second year players: Sullivan (1st), Quintanilla (1st week), Holliday (2nd), Atkins (1st), Bigbie (2nd), Shealy (now a Pickled Peckler-1st), the other Luis Gonzalez (another Pickled Peckler, 2nd), and Closser (sort of 1st as he came up in September last season). This is one young team. Then, on the other side, were the Giants, with Vizquel and Snow and Alou, and the young guys like Alfonso and Durham. Sabean should note that they may not be good, but the Rockies have the right idea when it comes to rebuilding.

The Giants started their new catcher last night, Yamid Haad. Yamid comes from Columbia, but he sure seems to have an Arabic name. The Colonel thinks he may be a potential terrorist. Are there any Arab players in baseball? In any sport other than soccer? Haad has that story about this being his first game in the majors in 6 years, having had one at bat for the Pirates in 1999. Anyway, in addition to going oh for three, he made one of the plays of the game, dropping a pop foul right in his glove. The batter proceeded to hit a triple, leading to a 3 run inning that won the game for the Rockies. Of course, Mr. Tomko poured gasoline on the fire by not covering first base on what would have been the third out of the inning. So despite ringing up the loss with 8 hits and 3 walks in a WHIP crushing 6 innings, he only gave up 1 earned run.

Anyway, getting back to Yamid Haad, we think that the Bums kept that last $5 to buy this guy, because they simply MUST have the Giants’ backup catcher. It’s a jones. Doug can’t live without the Giants’ backup catcher. Well Doug, he’s your guy. And he got the start because Matheny went on the bereavement list, unbeknownst to everyone in the stands. This became an issue in the desperate bottom of the ninth. After a Feliz double, an Ellison sacrifice, and a Cruz popout, with Latroy Hawkins scheduled to hit, Felipe turned to the last pinch hitter in his dugout, a name never heard by anyone in the stadium. Justin Knoedler. His announcement produced the biggest “WHOOOO?” in the history of baseball.

Now there are very few players in the National League that the Doc and I have never heard of. The Rockies had David Cortes warm up last night, which had the Doc and me shaking our heads. But the idea that the Giants have a player that we’ve never heard of just seems impossible. For the record, “Canoodler” is 25, a 5th round pick by the Giants in 2001. The crowd just loved him. Here he is, in his first major league at bat, there as an emergency move, with the winning run on 3rd with 2 out in the ninth. Casey at the Bat. He looked completely overmatched on the first 2 pitches, waiving futilely. Then on a 2 strike count, Fuentes threw one inside and just like a veteran, Canoodler took one for the team. The crowd (or what was left of it) went wild. The man now has a 1.000 OBA. After Vizquel walked, Randy Winn, with a chance to create a headline today “Randy Winns Game”, didn’t. He hit a feeble grounder to the shortstop (or maybe 2nd baseman) for the force at 2nd. No 1st Giant game heroics.

So Canoodler’s great moment was for naught, and he may head back to the minors with that perfect OBA. Or maybe he’ll get his big chance to start today or tomorrow, before Matheny comes back. I hope so. I’m on the Canoodler Bandwagon. And maybe the Bums should spend that last fin on this Giants' backup catcher. Justin has got to be the most obscure player I’ve ever seen, the start of the Giants’ rebuilding process. The motto: Canoodler Can!