On The Other Hand...

Well, he didn't totally suck.

On The Mound Today...

Uh, Oh – It’s Jonathan Sanchez pitching for the Giants today. Well, at least it's not an important game.

Jonathan Sanchez was pretty horrible in his last outing, leaving everyone freaking out as he heads to the mound in Game 3 of the Series today. It’s not that we’re freaking out about Game 3, not with a 2-0 lead.

We’re freaking out that if the Series goes to Game 7 next Thursday, it will be his turn again.

Hey, everyone: get over it.

OK, he stunk last time. He went 2 innings and got yanked. His Game Score (as computed by Bill James, which you can read about here) was 28. Hey, it wasn’t a Bullinger (defined as a game score of 11 or less).

But it was pretty bad. Pretty bad.

In that article, it was computed that Lincecum had a Game Score of 96 in his first playoff game against the Braves, the fourth highest such score in playoff history. Halliday’s no hitter against the Reds scored 94.

So here is today’s trivia question: what was the 2nd highest Giant Game Score of the 2010 playoffs? Here is a hint: it wasn’t pitched by Matt Cain, whose three games with an ERA of zero point zero had game scores of 62, 75, and 71 (in that order).

Nope. It was Sanchez in Game 3 against the Braves in the NLDS, when he went 7-1/3 innings, giving up 1 earned run on 2 hits and a walk, striking out 11. Game Score - 86, considered a superb game.

Just a note to you Nervous Nellies as we hit the final countdown to Game 3.

No Respect

“With my dog I don't get no respect. He keeps barking at the front door. He don't want to go out. He wants me to leave.” – Rodney Dangerfield

The Giants are up 2-0 in the World Series, having first beaten the Braves and the Phillies convincingly, and yet no one is actually convinced. They remain underdogs to everyone but themselves, and should they lose game 3, they’ll probably be underdogs to cop the series title in Vegas despite leading 2-1. Even Giants fans keep pinching themselves – they can’t really believe it. There must be magic inside.

Baloney.

The Giants are a hell of a baseball team. They have the best pitching staff in baseball, and possibly the best bullpen in baseball. And 20 runs in the first two games is proof that they have enough hitting – not Yankee hitting, and maybe not Rangers hitting, but enough hitting to get the job done. They aren’t lucky. They are earning this.

They are deep – both hitting and pitching. Everyone plays, everyone gets a moment in the sun, everyone is important. There are no every day playing stars except the kid behind the dish. They’ve got pitching stars who nobody recognizes, like Matt Cain with his zero ERA in the post-season, like Brian Wilson with his orange shoes and like Mad Bum in his bar mitzvah suit. It’s just a bunch of guys who have figured out how to win together.

Let’s give them credit.

And yet, even when the series is over, no matter the final score, this team will be remembered as flukes, winning the title because other teams lost it. A bunch of castoffs added to some good young pitching has created a great Cinderella story. Watch – next season they won’t be picked by anyone to win the World Series, or go to the World Series. There will be some local prognosticators to pick them to win the NL West, but many will pick them to finish fourth.

And 20 years from now, they will be completely forgotten, despite a title, despite the great comebacks, despite being underdogs at every step.

Does this sound familiar?

I’m going to be the first person in America to write the following words. The team that these Giants remind me of most is the 1974-75 NBA champion Golden State Warriors.

They were the most quickly forgotten Cinderella champions ever. They had one star, Rick Barry, who was so badly thought of that he didn’t win the MVP award that season despite leading a team of unknowns to a miraculous championship. They were huge underdogs to the Chicago Bulls in the Western Conference finals, and even bigger dogs when they faced the Baltimore Bullets in the NBA finals led by Hall of Famers Wes Unseld and Elvin Hayes.

By the way, the Warriors, like the Giants, led 2-0 in the finals to the astonishment of everyone. They then went on to polish them off in a four game sweep.

They played deep – generally 11 players played in virtually every game. Barry was a star every night, but everyone on that team had their moments – whispy rookie Keith (now Jamaal) Wilkes, forced to play power forward, their two headed center Clifford Ray and George Johnson, Butch Beard, Charles Johnson, Derrick Dickey, USF unknown rookie Phil Smith, Jeff Mullins at the end of the line, and my personal favorite, Charles “Hopper” Dudley. Like the Giants, they played great defense and adequate offense.

And like our Giants, the Warriors have never gotten their due. There has never been another team like them. And they weren’t particularly good for national TV ratings.

But they can never take away what they accomplished, as long as there are guys like me around who attended those 2 games in the finals that were played at the Cow Palace because the Ice Follies had been booked in the Oakland Arena that week. Late comebacks, game after game, staged by men who never knew when to quit. And they were a true team, comprised of guys who loved to play together, and win together, for each other.

So like the Warriors, the Giants are going to finish this thing off, and they’ll get disrespected from coast to coast. Well, everywhere except right here in San Francisco, where they will be remembered and celebrated forever as the guys that finally, finally, finally, after 53 years, brought a championship to the most glorious city in America.

Strike Three Called

Before we move on to the World Series, I just want to point out a glaring similarity between the NLCS and the ALCS. Both series ended with the losing team's best hitter at the plate taking a called third strike. That would be Ryan Howard for the Phillies and Alex Rodriguez for the Yanks.

How embarrassing.

Literally the entire season is riding on your final pitch, and you leave your bat on your shoulder? Howard: "I thought it was a ball."

OK, now go think about that ball for the next five months on your living room couch.

Realistically, A Rod and the Yankees had no chance - two outs in the ninth, bases empty, down by 5. But the Phillies were only down a run, the tying run was in scoring position and the winning run was on base.

Ryan! What a choke. We're so proud of our Pickled Peckler!

Game 4

Ooooh! Reeebay!

Yes, I was there. NLCS, game 4. Giants win 6-5 with a walk off sac fly by Juan Uribe.

I'm still high, and still have no voice.

What makes this Giants team so fun to watch is that there were so many people who had a hand in that win. Rowand, the forgotten man in the Giant outfield, had his signature moment with the Giants, throwing out Carlos Ruiz at the plate. Pablo, lost at the plate virtually all season, had his signature moment, blasting a double in the gap to score two after being robbed by a blind umpire of a double down the right field line. Huff Daddy, who had a hard time even finding a job this season and who the Giants signed only after they were spurned by Nick Johnson, had 3 hits and scored the winning run, sliding across the plate with a flourish.

Babe Ross. Sergio Romo. Brian Wilson. Andres Torres. Hell, even Santiago Casilla, after blowing the lead. They all had moments last night, moments that were instrumental in creating that great team win.

Of course, there were 2 more guys, Juan Uribe and Buster Posey, who will forever be remembered for this game, like Brian Johnson is for his game, like Rob Beck is for that same game, and like Will the Thrill is for his single up the middle off Wild Thing. Hey, Will threw out the first ball last night, along with Matt Williams and Robbie Thompson, celebrating that wonderful and ultimately earthquake rocked 1989 NL Pennant winning team.

I could tell the moment Uribe made contact on a low and away pitch from Roy Oswalt (it was a pitcher's pitch) that the game was over. As the ball went up in the air, before it had left the infield, everyone around me was already jumping up and down for joy, their hands and fists punching the air, knowing he had done it. We had a perfect angle for the moment, looking straight down the left field line.

For me, the moment was in slow motion. It was a seminal sports moment to attend, and it will go on my all-time list of great sports events I've attended, along with Bunning's perfect game, and Secretariat at the Belmont, and Affirmed at the Belmont, and the Brian Johnson game, and the Will Clark game and earlier this year, USF's huge upset of Gonzaga. It is, without doubt, the #1 game in the history of Telephone Park.

Posey's play on Rowand's throw home was incredible. he had to pick up a strike to home plate on a short hop, looking down on the ball, knowing he was about to get blasted by another catcher with a true catcher's body. He caught that ball with a catcher's glove, but it was a play by a guy who used to play shortstop. I wonder how many catchers could make that play.

I have a Posey story. I met him briefly 2 years ago at a little event the Giants put on at the end of the 2008 season. They had some of their minor league guys, plus Pablo who had just come up to the majors, all of 22 years old. Posey was there, and all the young guys were given an opportunity to address the fans. Afterwards, people stood in line to get autographs.

I was there with the Colonel and C. Lo. We weren't interested in the autographs, but we wanted to say hello and shake hands. Posey was standing next to Pablo, at the time mostly playing as the backup catcher. As I shook Posey's hand, I told him he needed to develop a real catcher's butt like Pablo, and he should start eating cheeseburgers. He looked at me like I was an alien.

If he had listened to me, he probably wouldn't have been able to make that play last night.

By the way, the kid had 4 hits including the opposite field single off Oswalt in the 9th that set up the winning run. He's clearly the real NL ROY, no matter if he wins it or not.

Oswalt's presence in the game in the 9th was proof that it was a huge moment in a huge game. Charlie Manuel was playing all his cards. The Doc had already noted that if necessary Bochy could send Jonathan Sanchez out for an inning. Manuel did exactly the same thing.

So tonight it will be Halliday v. Lincecum as the Giants try to finish them off at home just like Will Clark did in 1989 and Kenny Lofton did in 2002. Who will we remember if it happens? Who will we name the game after? There are lots of guys to choose from - it could be any of them. That's why we love this team.

A Bite at the Opera*

A week ago Friday I met the Colonel and my Giant seat mates Dale and Susan at Puccini and Pinetti's (129 Ellis) for lunch to split up our playoff tickets. We were all pretty upbeat that day, though at that point the regular season was still on. At that moment the Giants were 3 up with 3 to go. It got a little hairy when they lost the first two games of the Padres' series, but it all worked out as I've already written about.**

*My opinion (which makes it fact): A Night at the Opera was the funniest movie ever made. And it has a little baseball joke in there too - the orchestra during the opera, which is being sabotaged by the Marx Brothers, breaks out in "Take Me Out to the Ballgame. One of the biggest laughs in any movie ever.

And if you haven't figured out my theme here, Puccini wrote Pagliacci. For the record, the Marx Brothers lampooned Il Trovatore. I saw that once. I kept laughing out loud where all the jokes were in the movie opera.

**I'm going to write about going to game 2 last night, but it's still just too painful.

Anyway we had a pleasant lunch, and it occurred to me to give their cheeseburger a try. I was breaking my one per week quota, but what the hell.

I ate there once before. The Colonel is a regular there. They know him, though being a modest man, I don't think they know about his great bravery in defense of our country. I think he likes the drinks, and I think he likes that the young waitresses know him.

I can't imagine he likes the food. It's known for Italian food, and when I was there a year or so ago I ordered the chicken marsala. Feh. Let's put it this way. It wasn't as good as mine, and mine isn't all that good. It is better than the boss' version, but only because she doesn't know how to make it, and if I'm hungry, I guess I can try to gag the P&P bucket o' chicken down. I can't really believe anyone orders food at that place.

Their lunch menu does have the following item:

Pinetti Burger
gorgonzola, avocado, butter lettuce, tomato, onions, spicy aioli on ciabatta bun

There is a clue here. Puccini refuses to put his name on the house burger.

I asked the waitress how the burger was. She said it was great. I asked, "Great?" She replied, "Good."

Bad sign.

But I'm on a mission to my maker. I ordered it anyway. I specifically asked for medium rare. I always ask for medium rare. Good burgers are, by definition, medium rare.

Medium well.

To be honest, that's enough, but holy aioli, that sauce was pretty lousy. The onions weren't grilled. I didn't cut it, but it was still a mess to eat, because it just didn't fit.

I liked the bun. There, something nice.

It was $13, so although it wasn't stratospheric, it wasn't cheap. And it wasn't good.

Don't even think about it. I know why that clown is crying.

Connie told me she went to Epic Roasthouse with her mom today and ordered their highly touted cheeseburger. She refuses to write it up, but she said despite it being messy, it was delicious. I do see a lot of good comments, so it's definitely on my list.

By the way, I have a theory that the secret is the grind of the meat. I'm going to ask about that wherever I go, and I'm going to try some combinations at home. That said, I don't care what they grind at P&P.

Bullinger Defined

This is your biggest fantasy nightmare.

You have two starting pitchers starting in the same game for the Cubs and the Nationals one day. You’re watching something on ESPN that night and you see the following scrawl across the bottom of the screen:

Chi 14, Wash 8.

There is just no getting around it. You are going to feel pain.

Joe Posnanski wrote a great blog item (see it here) this week comparing Halliday’s no hitter and Lincecum’s 14 strikeout game. As a point of reference, he used a formula called Game Scores developed by Bill James. Game scores is a way of evaluating the quality of a pitching performance, and is scored, fairly simply as follows:

• Start with 50 points.


• Add one point for each out.
• Add two points for each inning completed after Inning 4.
• Add one point for each strikeout.
• Subtract two points for each hit.
• Subtract four points for each earned run.
• Subtract 2 points for each unearned run.
• Subtract 1 point for each walk.

Pretty simple. An average game is 50. A truly great game, virtually perfection, is 100. Lincecum’s game scored 96, the 4th highest ever in post season play. Halliday’s no hitter scored 94, an awesome score, but lower because he did not strike out as many batters. Read Joe’s piece to understand and see some of the great outings of all time.

Meanwhile, I want to go the other way. I immediately thought about the scores of those really nightmarish games. I experienced the above nightmare once, and I have never forgotten it. I’ve written about it. And I’ve named it.

In 1997 two of my starting pitchers faced each other. That was Jim Bullinger for the then Montreal Expos against Steve Traschel for the Cubs. The Cubs won 14-8. Here are their pitching lines:

• Bullinger – 3.2 IP, 9 H, 8 R, 8 ER, 2 BB, 2 K
• Traschel – 5 IP, 8 H, 7 R, 7 ER, 3 BB, 9 K

Traschel just lasted long enough to get the win.

Jim Bullinger’s game score was 11. Steve Traschel’s game score was 29.

Off and on we’ve awarded Bullingers, but the award process was subjective. I aim to make it objective and calculable.

From here on, a Bullinger is defined as a game score for a starting pitcher of 11 or less.

May your fantasy team be blessed with many Bullingers.

Game 162

There was no tomorrow. Well, for Giant fans that wasn’t really true, but it was true for the Padres, who won 90 games and for that got to go home to their good weather for a few months. But for the Giants, well, if they lost there would have been today, and if they lost today, there would have been another tomorrow.

When I got to the ball park for the big game yesterday, the scoreboard showed the Braves up 8-4. This meant that if they held on to win, the Giants were not the automatic wild card. Then in the 8th inning the Phillies put up a 3 spot to make it 8-7, but that was as close as they came. The Braves had their 91st win fairly early in the Giants-Padres game. That’s when everyone started to sweat, and not just because the sun had finally come out.

It was Jonny Sanchez on the mound AGAIN against Matt Latos, a guy who despite a poor September had dominated Sanchez along with the rest of his teammates all season. Latos is only 22, and he is a keeper. He’s also a tattoo nut, and I understand he loves to go to the tattoo parlor with his mother. Really.

Sanchez led the NL in walks. This is reminiscent of Roger Craig’s comments about losing 20 games for 2 consecutive seasons with the Mets. Craig always insisted that to lose 20 games twice you had to be a very good pitcher. I think that would also be true of a starting pitcher on a good team who leads his league in walks.* If you walk too many, you won’t get that many chances to walk a huge number.

*BTW, who leads the major leagues in career walks allowed? It’s actually kind of an easy question, and it’s not Cy Young with his eight hundred something decisions. It’s Nolan Ryan, and it is an ABSURD record - 2795. Second place is Steve Carlton with 1833. Look at that difference. I’ve always said that his strikeout record is untouchable (5714 to 4875 for Randy Johnson), but this one is in a different galaxy. That’s even a bigger percentage increase (52.5%) than Rickey Henderson's stolen base record (1406 to 938 for Lou Brock, 49.9%). You have to be really great to walk that many guys.

Back to Sanchy. He pitched well yesterday, but only went 5 innings because he walked too many guys. Guys on the radio were praising him to the heavens after the game, and yes, he didn’t allow any runs. But like most of his late season starts, he didn’t last as long as he should. Sanchez finished the season 13-9 in 193.1 innings pitched. His ERA was an excellent 3.07, and his WHIP a much improved 1.23, but he walked 96 in those 193 innings. But he finished strong - he was 4-1 in his last 7 starts, with an ERA of 0.99 in those starts. Yet only went more than 6 innings 3 times during those 7 games, and he walked 21 in those 45.2 innings. It is to be seen if that kind of pitching can survive against the playoff teams.

But the Giants utilized their real secret weapon, a bullpen that was just untouchable at the end of the year. Yesterday we saw almost all of it – Santiago Casilla, Ramon Ramirez, Javier Lopez, Sergio Romo and Brian Wilson went 4 innings, giving up 1 hit, no walks and no runs to finish the game. These guys looked shaky at mid-season, but down the stretch, they were unhittable. Here are their ending season ERAs: 1.95, 0.67, 2.34, 2.17, and 1.81 for Wilson. Yikes! Giants pitchers only have to go 5 or 6 innings, and then the supermen take the mound.

And with pitchers like Lincecum, Cain and Sanchez, knowing they don’t have to pitch 8 or 9 innings, the Giants are going to be dangerous. Nobody wants to face them. And unlike most of the teams in the playoffs, they’ve had to go out there day after day after day under playoff conditions, right to the last day, #162.

It was fun out there yesterday, and at moments, it was like the 2002 World Series. It got LOUD when Pablo turned the 5-4 double play. He says he was trying to start a 5-4-3 triple play, and I saw him do that once. But what he did was a thrill, with runners on first and second and no outs, the only real threat the Padres were able to mount.

And it was LOUD when Buster hit that ball out in the 8th. The insurance run was not necessary, but it was a national statement by the guy who will be the NL ROY. This kid is the real deal. We all know it here, just like we knew it about Lincecum. Check him out during the playoffs.

And of course it was LOUD when BWeasey came in to close it, with his absurd beard and his semi-legal orange shoes. He tied the Giants save record at 48 yesterday, tying a true Giant legend, Rod Beck, whose family was in the house. And he said he was happy to share the record with Shooter.

So the Giants will get to participate in the playoffs for the first time without Barry since the earthquake in 1989. It’s a likeable team full of characters like Aubrey Huff and Juan Uribe and Lincecum and Pablo that the country doesn’t quite know yet.

As for no tomorrow games, well they are special. Hey, Knicks fans, remember game 7 in 1970, with Willis dragging his bad leg onto the court? Red Sox fans certainly remember game 7 against the Reds in 1975 and against the Yankees in 2004.

I previously wrote about my favorite sports moment, which was a no tomorrow game 7. Warriors v. Chicago Bulls, 1975, NBA Western Conference Championship, played here in Oakland. The Warriors came back from 19 down to win it* and head to the finals to win their one and only championship. That game made me a Californian – I had only lived here for less than a year. But that great team, and that great season, and that deafening, thrilling game made me a local fan. I no longer cared about New York teams, even the Knicks.

*Al Attles, who has been with the Warriors for 50 years, said it was his all-time favorite game. And remember - Al was in Hershey, PA the night Wilt scored 100. In fact, Al and Wilt hold the record for most points by two teammates in a game - 117.

That was 35 years ago, and the Warriors haven’t been back to the finals, and for the most part, they haven’t been back to the playoffs. That’s because you never know when a team is going to come together in just the right way to make it possible.

For the Giants, who have never won a World Series for San Francisco, we get another shot. If yesterday’s game is any indication, it’s going to be fun.