Tag Archives: giants

March 6, 2013 · 6:35 pm

Gelato and Goats

Fortified with horchata and ready to go. What’s been happening, peoples?

The World Baseball Classic has overshadowed Spring Training in some ways because, seriously, there are few things more fun than watching teams from around the world play baseball. Not to mention that the final game of the WBC is going to be hosted right here in San Francisco at AT&T Park (well, hello, it wasn’t going to be at Candlestick), which is pretty darn exciting.

I haven’t watched much of it yet, because they play at sort of, er, odd hours and that would interrupt my late-night-must-clean-the-entire-house-before-I-go-to sleep sessions. I’m not very patriotic at all when it comes to sports (which might be why no one ever wants to watch the Olympics with me?) so I’m rooting for Team Italy. I was rooting for Team Australia, but they got eliminated, sadly. Team Australia was actually just the Oakland Athletics, as some people have helpfully pointed out on Twitter. And Team Italy, I don’t know, maybe they’ll give me free gelato/pizza/Italian soda/caprese pasta/mint green Fiat or something along those lines if they win it all? Girl can dream.

Back in Arizona, the Giants are 4-5 plus three ties – I dare you not to smile while writing those words – but no one’s that concerned with records. I’ve heard you crazy superstitious people say that a good Spring Training record means a terrible regular season, complete with ex-American Idol contestants singing concerts at your stadium and a goat hanging out in the stands. But the Giants had the best record in the Cactus League in 2010 and everything turned out okay that year, so have at it, Kansas City and Baltimore.

Worst case scenario, I mean, goats aren’t that bad. I fed some the other day and they were positively nice. I’ll bring the celery if the Royals and Orioles pay for the plane tickets.

Ex-American Idol contestants, however, are that bad.

Diamond Girl

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Eggplant and A Bruce Bochy Revelation

So I was eating eggplant this evening, which was really good, and kind of thinking about things and Angel Pagan’s hair (Bay Area Sports Guy says it’s mullet-y, but I can’t decide if I believe that or not) and then I realized I hadn’t blogged in a week and so that was the end of the eggplant and time to blog.

Ahem.

Spring Training’s been pretty sleepy so far, with a whole bunch of ties, which would be nice and football-y, except there’s no David Beckham involved. So not all that nice at all. Brock Bond has not been sleepy at all and he got Bruce Bochy to say, “He’s going to get some playing time,” which is pretty much a revelation when you consider Bochy’s usual, “Mmm something about a platoon mmm probably get back to me in like 25 years and maybe I’ll give you a straight answer.”

Kind of mind-blowing, if you think about it.

One of the things that surprises me each year about Spring Training –and evidently I have the memory of a goldfish because I don’t, you know, remember year to year –is that they let the media speak to the players while games are still going on. It’s a bit like when they grab the players at breaks in basketball games, in that a) it’s freaky b) it’s uninformative. As far as I can tell they only interview baseball players who aren’t coming back into the game, which is different. But still.

Let’s all pause for a moment now to reflect on the brilliance of Yu Darvish, who made his 2013 debut a few day ago.

Also, remember how he has Ranger-themed headphones?!

On an unrelated note, happy 40^th birthday to The Dark Side of the Moon! I know people like to listen to it while watching The Wizard of Oz, but has anyone tried it with Star Wars because I think it would blow your mind.

Diamond Girl

The Giants Had a HIMYM Marathon with Microwave Popcorn Today

Apparently the universe is a football fan. (Or is the universe a plural? The universe are footballs fans?)

Photo/@mlbPeteMcCarthy on Twitter

This was the scene at Spring Training in Arizona this morning with some rain and some hail and some, um, snow? I have a hard time wrapping by head around that, but pictures or it didn’t happen doesn’t really apply because there are pictures. Lots of pictures. Bored beat writers at Spring Training love taking photos, you know.

Anyway, it sounds like the Giants sort of kicked it and did baseball related things indoors, which I assume means a How I Met Your Mother marathon and microwave popcorn.

Closer by committee is garnering some eyerolls but I mean it did work when these guys a World Series last year, so I don’t think it’s time to panic just yet. The closer situation may become apparent in unexpected ways once they start playing games or something.

Madison Bumgarner thinks you should get your girlfriend/wife/imaginary girlfriend a baby calf for Valentine’s Day and also he hit Javier Lopez in the hand with a pitch and bruised him pretty badly. Lopez is out for a few days, but should be back pretty soon. Whether or not girlfriend/wife/imaginary girlfriend will ever be back after receiving that gift is anyone’s guess.

Diamond Girl

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Tagged as giants, himym, javier lopez, madison bumgarner, sf, spring training

February 11, 2013 · 8:32 pm

Baseball’s Hopping and the Rangers Are Having a Unique Offseason

Things are hopping in the baseball world. This thing they call Fan Fest happened over the weekend, although I wasn’t there to, uh, enjoy it, I guess? I have a hard time believing anyone enjoys Fan Fest, but what do I know. I’ve gone twice before and pretty much hated it both times, plus those post-World Series crowds scare the hell out of me, so I got Chipotle and went to the beach and have a very nice Saturday indeed.

I did follow along on Twitter a bit and saw the Q&A sessions they did, which included asking Zito what his current favorite song was. His response:

Barry… we need to talk. Man to man, or something. Unconfirmed: they lock people who like Bruno Mars out of heaven. I feel it is only right to tell you this. Okay? No hard feelings?

Speaking of the music, did you guys watch the Grammys? I thought Jack White Being Jack White was pretty rocking, but his hair-flipping made me feel kind of bad. Because my hair is still too short to flip like a rock star. Waiting patiently. Also accepting donations, should Jack be interested in giving me his hair.

Anyhow, everyone’s skipped town to Arizona now. Catchers and pitchers report to camp tomorrow and position players follow on Friday, which means we only have a few more days of unadulterated, post-World-Series-win optimism before they can go ahead and do their best to pull off our rose colored glasses.

(Kidding. I’m always a pessimist.)

Oh, and one more thing? “Unique” seems to be Jon Daniels’ buzzword over in Texas this offseason. He said the Rangers offered Josh Hamilton a “unique concept offer” – which he DECLINED, but that’s beside the point –and now he’s said that it would take a “something pretty unique” to get them to consider moving Jurickson Profar. I love JD to bits, but maybe unique sorta isn’t working for them in the way that Fun. is not working for music? Just a thought.

Diamond Girl

Eli Whiteside is Ringo Starr and Other Facts of Life

As luck would have it, my EPSN Magazine subscription (it was real paper and everything… the “dead tree version”, they call it) ended last month. Which means I’m missing out on their music-themed issue that’s coming out this month. Now let’s just forget the fact that the whole concept’s a little shaky and they’re a sports magazine doing a music issue, which is just weird. Aside from that!

I haven’t seen the magazine, so all I really know about it is that they recreate some album covers that they call iconic with professional athletes. As I said. Shaky concept. Also, Katy Perry is nowhere near iconic and neither is Beyoncé. Isn’t there like a minimum number of years – say, ten – before we can label stuff iconic? No? Well, there should be.

Another thing that should be mentioned about ESPN Magazine: they tend to forget that baseball exists. So there’s just one photo with baseball players and it’s Justin Upton, Evan Longoria, Brandon Phillips, Giancario Stanton and Shane Victorino recreating Freedom of Choice, by Devo.

I feel sort of cheated, to be honest. We (and by we, I mean MLB and by extension MLB fans) didn’t get Bob Dylan or Nirvana of MJ… hell, I would have settled for Katy Perry.

I took matters into my own hands.