Results tagged ‘ diamondbacks ’
Three Game Fives! Plus Gloomy, Apocalypse-Is-Coming Stares
Guess what, people? (If you guessed that Apple is in mourning you would be right, but wrong. Right because it’s true, but wrong because that’s not at all what I meant.) There’ll be three game fives this year for only the third time in MLB history (others were, in case you’re a geek and you’re wondering, 1981 and 2001)! Yankees/Tigers will fight it out tonight and tomorrow all the National League stuff will be decided.
Yep, I’m seriously considering heating up my flatiron for the occasion. All this drama necessitates some stress-relief and what better stress relief than roasting my hair within an inch of its life? I think that came out sounding weirder than I meant for it to.
Anyhow, stress aside, I’m really totally stoked about all these games. Around the league, and this may just be me, this season felt a bit lackluster so it figures and is awesome that these playoffs have been nothing short of thrilling. Just good baseball all around, you know? It’s been tons of fun to check the scores as the games progress, because I really genuinely have no idea which way they’ll all go.
I’ve also really been surprised by the fight the Diamondbacks have put up. I mean, I still think the Brewers are going to take this, hands down (I know, jinx alert!) but I had this belief during the regular season that Arizona was a world-class fluke and would be crushed out of the playoffs at the first chance anyone got but apparently that was irrational. I will say now with a gloomy, apocalypse-is-coming stare that I was wrong and they really have something going. And (repeats the gloomy stare) that it’s pretty great that they overcame all the last place predictions and took the division.
All that said, BrewCrew f-o-r-e-v-e-r! And I’m glad Texas clinched earlier. Because as much as stress gives me good hair, four game fives would have been a little much. Thank you, Rangers. For preserving what is left of my sanity. You rock. And so do the playoffs.
Diamond Girl
p.s. In other news, Timmy likes to trash nice apartments and then deny he did it. Huh.
The Verdict, So Far
My accidental blogging vacation (read: I was sleeping all weekend and forgot to write anything) is over and the playoffs and their pumpkin/cinnamon/cranberry scent are gaining steam. And yes, making me hungry. All things considered, it’s going pretty well, from my perspective. As it stands:
Milwaukee leads series again Arizona, 2-0
Verdict: Very good! Awesome! Fantastic! And other words of a blissfully affirmative nature.
Philadelphia is tied with St. Louis, 1-1
Verdict: Well, whoever wins this, can get crushed by the Crew in the NLCS. Ideally, that would be the Phillies. (Picture: Braun going 3-3 with 3 homers against Cliffy.)
Tampa Bay and Texas are tied, 1-1
Verdict: Texas has momentum now. It’s only going to get better from here on out. Repeat that 100 times and then come back to me, okay?
Detroit and New York are tied, 1-1
Verdict: Good. Because this is a good matchup and one that makes me question my loyalties for (nearly) every waking moment. So a tie means more good games. And more indecisiveness on my part. Decide for yourself if that part is good. Jorge Posada’s triple- by which he proved my belief that age only matters if you’re wine or cheese or something- certainly helped the Yankees cause in my eyes. Doesn’t he just rule?
Overall verdict:
I would give this whole thing so far four and a half stars, except for the bizarre start times. I am sorely tempted to write Bud Selig a new post-it, demanding that he change the start times so I don’t continually miss the beginnings of games, but I am trying to spare y’all. You’re welcome.
Diamond Girl
p.s I still love u, Ryan Braun. And if Kirk Gibson picks on you and claims you didn’t tag third again, I will totally fistfight him.
Epic, Massive, Total Buzzkill
My Saturday and Sunday were spent doing things like adding new Pandora channels, watching The Dark Knight, browsing earrings with text on them on etsy.com and watching my fish eat. Which is to say, anything but thinking about the Giants.
I’d be lying if I said I was excited to write this post. In fact, I’ve kinda-sorta been putting it off. Because I’m more than a little bit crushed. I can deal with losing. No, really. Don’t raise your eyebrow at me like that. I can. But this season has just been a heartbreaker. Especially that beautiful surge right at the end that made it impossible not to hope. Mathematical elimination hurts in any case. 2010 and the organization “having something good going” feels a long way off right about now.
So I am just gazing at my antlers on my dresser (almost that time of year again! Almost It’s Time time!) and trying to muster enjoyment for the last three games of this year and then the postseason.
Once the sting of this all wears off, I’m sure this season will look like a fabulous example of resilience, because the Giants made a hell of a run despite tons and tons- and did I mention tons?- of injuries.
There are, of course, some unfortunate things to come out of this year, foremost in my mind right now being Tim Lincecum’s (and probably Cain, too) dissatisfaction with the Giants and the offense and all that and desire to leave. Really, it was also disappointing to finally get the Bat that Will Save the Offense and have it be a letdown. The Beltran trade was that move every team wants their GM to make at the deadline and this is just an example of it not working out real well. Total buzz kill.
Then again, wasn’t that whole series in Arizona massive, total buzz kill?
I need cupcakes. Pronto. That is all.
Diamond Girl
Very Literal Snake Watch and the Whole Machairi-Champourgker Phobia Thing
Well, so, seeing as the Giants are 8.5 games out of first place we’re not really doing a Snake Watch on dem Diamondbacks. But I did make friends with snake today! (Don’t worry, it wasn’t a diamondback. It was a non-poisonous, non-Giant-beating sweetheart who licked my hand and left me totally in love with snakes.)
The first two games against Los Angeles on Friday and Saturday marked borderline season lows for me. I guess I wanted to hold out hope that this team was still contending until the actual elimination and those games drove home that fact that this season is probably not going to culminate in any playoffs for the Giants. It was a bit sad. It that was all made better, of course, by today’s game, though. Contending or not contending, March is a long way off and there would be any number of slightly heartbreaking changes this offseason. Today was just a fun September game, with them all playing their hearts out and it was decidedly smile-worthy.
And now a word about Affeldt. Two words, actually. 1) Ouch! 2) Oh. My. God. No.
Well, that was five words in the end. But you know what I mean. I have actually developed a strange phobia of knives and frozen hamburgers over the past few days. To make this all legit and Greek, that would be machairi-champourgker. Jeremy has scarred me for life with that injury.
On the upside, Zito will be getting one more chance at life- I mean, pitching- because of it. He was activated today and will probably work out the bullpen. I am most definitely intrigued.
Diamond Girl
Your Choice
Apparently, the Giants failed to notice the part of yesterday’s blog post where, after I detailed how they could train wreck the rest of the season, I put a disclaimer. In case you missed it too, it was: “Note: I am not endorsing this or recommending this.”
They are rather stubborn, this bunch, and they don’t hit ever, in the same way that Facebook doesn’t crash ever. (Yep, I quote The Social Network when I’m depressed.)
Bochy named this as the Official Low Point of the Season, though frankly, I could think of some other ones, like the day when everyone got injured or the day when… well, you get the point. This has been a season with a few ups and a whole lot of downs.
It’s not over, of course. There are still a fair number of cold hard baseball games to be played and the Giants still have some great pitchers and, you know, Carlos Beltran. None of that has changed. They’re not brilliant, but in my opinion, they weren’t last year either. There are the obvious differences like lack of Buster and Freddy, but stranger things have happened.
As much as a part of me wants them to just quietly slip off the map now, another part of me thinks that I’d sure as heck like a good show in the last month of the season, whether or not they end up in the playoffs.
I don’t think the team has changed that much. I think it’s our perception. The orange-tinted glasses have fallen off in a hurry and the Giants need to clean up the pieces.
I’m sure there are a lot of people who are just settling in for the wait until Opening Day, 2012, but that feels beside the point. The season isn’t over until the last pitch is thrown, bottom line, as this team proved last year and until then we just need to ride with it as fans.
Or find an ocean paradise and sunbathe without a radio/TV/internet connection for a month and just forget Giants baseball exists. Your choice.
Diamond Girl
3 + 3 = 3 Wins + Mandatory Low Point In Trailer When Main Character Cries Or Almost Cries If He Is Tough Guy Brad Pitt So He Can’t Actually Cry
I don’t drop “Baseball Gods” a whole lot. But when people hit triples, they always feel like little gifts from Baseball Heaven. And has anyone else noticed that they do tend to come to people who really, really need them?
Like Pat Burrell who is rumored to be the odd man out later this year and Eli Whiteside who has, well, big shoes to fill. And he isn’t really fillin’ them. Then Billy Hall’s (am I coining Billy?) magical half hour with Bam Bam seems to have paid off, which comes at a nice time when Freddy pessimism is at a 2011 high. I am all for the holistic, natural approach and have (some amount of) total confidence that the shoulder can heal on its own but it’s good to have some, ahem, backup.
Which means that this night of three basers notched MadBum his third win of the year and a 3.21 ERA. Sometimes I have the urge to bang the heads of the offense together but then I remember that they do things like hit key triples and I go to my punching bag (laptop keyboard) instead.
We are on our way to sweeping the Diamondbacks, which is a phrase I would have been petrified to utter a few days ago. This is good.
Zito is moving up in the world and will be starting in AAA Fresno tonight. I guess this must be his first time pitching for the Grizzlies and I think he’ll fit in. No snarky-ness there. Barry and Chuckchansi Park just seem like a match made in heaven. Still, I’d be lying if I said I don’t feel like the clock is ticking down to doomsday.
The first Moneyball movie trailer hit the web yesterday my skepticism about it is fading.
I think it looks really good, actually. The hairdresser captured Billy Beane’s vaguely volumized hair perfectly and even if they look nothing alike otherwise (yeah, that’s a big cause of mine) they do kind of make the same expressions.
And am I the only one who thinks doing this looks incredibly fun? Even if that is the mandatory Low Point In Trailer When Main Character Cries (Or Almost Cries If He Is Tough Guy Brad Pitt So He Can’t Actually Cry). So I don’t think it’s supposed to look fun. But it does.
Someone else commented that the field looks suspiciously dark in this walk scene and why doesn’t the stadium have any lights?
True.
I will be in the theater opening day, I think. I’ve only done that for one other movie, Takers, and it was unwarranted. That was a terrible movie (not to mention Hayden Christensen’s character was the first of the bank robbers to die, which tempted me to demand my $8 back, but that seemed petty). I have hope, though. I kind of think this might be my first baseball movie love.
Diamond Girl
p.s. Congratulations to former Giant/Grizzly Jesus Guzman on his call-up to San Diego!
I remember seeing him during his two weeks up at AT&T Park in 2009 and enjoying watching him play. Wishing him much success. I mean, some success. Enough for him to have a happy career but the Padres to keep on their last place, sub-.500 ways.
5 Best Tim Lincecum Moments
Yesterday was a strange day. I forgot there was a Giants game. I think I actually forgot the Giants existed. Somewhere around the fourth hour of The Fellowship of the Ring director’s cut at AMC Theaters, it all came back to me. But I was too engrossed to care.
Evidently, the Giants squeezed out a win against the Diamondbacks in this as-super-important-as-June-series-get series. Since I spent the evening a several realities away, I’ll leave the breakdown of that game to others.
I woke up to see happy birthday messages to Tim Lincecum everywhere. Which reminded me…
He signed that ball for me last June 15th and the whole crowd of autograph seekers sang Happy Birthday to him. It was loads of fun. So in honor of his big day coming around again, I’ve made a list of my personal top 5 favorite Tim Lincecum moments.
5. August and Beyond
In 2010, Timmy faced adversity… but it was storybook adversity. The kind where there’s a clean, simple problem with a clean, simple, perfect ending. Sure, it didn’t feel that way while it was going on. But looking back? Couldn’t really have gone down better.
4. A Day In The Life
I absolutely loved this Comcast SportsNet show. It didn’t feel overly rehearsed or corny but it wasn’t boring either. It was just a nice little slice-of-life. Well done.
3. The Kiss
Remember her? The girl who said she wanted her first kiss from Tim Lincecum? And he totally gave it to her. Too sweet.
2. Beanies Galore
The beanies have gone rather MIA recently. But remember when he wore them all the time? To his first Cy Young press conference even? Those were the days. I love ‘em.
1. 15 Strikeouts
Everyone has baseball games they attended that they will never, ever forget. Timmy’s career high 15 strikeouts against the Pittsburgh Pirates is one of those for me. Orange K after orange K going up on the wall and him just never slowing down.
Happy Birthday, Timmy. You’re named The Franchise for a reason.
Diamond Girl
p.s. Can my cake which won me the Ultimate Tim Lincecum Fan award get an honorable mention? I think there’s, you know, a striking resemblance.
</aa127 Hours? You Got Nothing On Me.
Okay, you have something on me. But not a whole lot. After watching 3 ½ hours of the draft and a 4 hour, 29 minute Giants game I had just enough mental capacity to squeak out, Yes, I would like a saltwater taffy. My arms are, thankfully, still connected to my shoulders, though.
Now that the hangover is starting to wear off, I am ready to break it all down. It was a great baseball day.
The first round of the draft is good and bad. The five minutes in between each pick give the hosts time to break down each player and even interview a few of them. I had a good sense of just about all the 33 players who were picked. The compensation round, with a minute in between each one, was a little bit painful because the hosts were talking just as much, but with no time, and the representatives who announced the picks instead of Selig didn’t seem really suited to public speaking. Today, it’s all audio, no show, and it’s going down so fast I can’t keep up. It’s good and bad. I dig the brevity, but it’s so impersonal.
The people who stood out to me in the draft? (Disclaimer: I know nothing about any of these people. These are just guys who happened to stand out to me. )
Number 1, overall, was Gerrit Cole who’s reportedly Brandon Crawford’s sister’s boyfriend. Keeping this in the family, are we?
Number 3, Trevor Bauer, went to the Diamondbacks. He’s being called Tim Lincecum 2.0, both because his motion is similar and he’s known for his quirky personality. I was kind of pumped to have him in the NL West until Andrew Baggarly suggested that he could potentially come to the Majors in late 2011, if the Arizona is making a playoff run. Against the Giants. Forget it. I wish he was in Kansas or something.
Speaking of Kansas! The sweet story of the first round was Bubba Starling, a KC kid who was drafted by the same team. The media was eating it up. I was much more interested in Brandon Nimmo, the highest draftee ever from Wyoming (11th, to the Mets) and Jose Fernandez “Bunny Tales: Behind Closed Doors at the Playboy Mansion(14th, to the Marlins) who is a Cuban defector, who has already faced a lot of adversity to get here. I am calling a majorly successful career for him. He seems to have a head on his shoulders.
Oakland had the 18th pick and they went with Sonny Gray, a right handed pitcher who I fell in love with after a minute long feature by MLB Network. A) He’s 5”11. At first claimed to be 6”0, then 5”11 ½. I love little guys. B) He sings. He was in High School Musical. C) He has a contagious smile and seems comfortable in front of a camera. The only thing that put me off was his affinity for the movie Sandlot. I hated that movie. I know that’s a terrible baseball fan sin, but it’s true. Sorry.
And then the Rangers pick at 37th, Zach Cone, intrigued me because he was the only guy in the whole draft whose photo was not of him in a baseball uniform. He was wearing a suit. Interesting. You know how Teen Vogue does “style icons of the future”? I have an inkling that he could be a baseball style icon of the future. At least he’s off to a good start.
Then, of course, the important one. Our newest Giant. Joe Panik, a shortstop “with power” out of St. John’s University. Other than his hard nose (thanks, Baseball America! Useful info.) and his unfortunate (well, fortunate for the people who write headlines) last name, I don’t know a whole lot about him. Except that I’m not panicking- sorry, I had to- and he deserves a nice big hug and welcome to this family. Bye-bye, Brandon Crawford. You were fun while you lasted but we have a new shortstop now! Just kidding.
I’m at 650 words here and so my analysis of the game is going to be sort of second round draft-ish. I.e., fast. Timmy’s 1000th strikeout, while glowing and exciting, was overshadowed in my eyes by eight beautiful shutout innings from the bullpen, the birthday boy (Jeremy Affeldt) swinging for Mars and then getting a walk and, of course, the eventual walk-off hit by Freddy Sanchez. He is so underrated it’s not even funny. I love him to death and am reconciling myself to a summer of walk off wins. Could be worse, right?
Now it’s time to plug in my earbuds and get back to the grainy audio of the 500th round. Draft week is too much fun. Congratulations to all who have been picked.
Diamond Girl
sfdiamondgirl
Recent Comments