Tag Archives: giants

December 13, 2012 · 8:56 pm

Baseball Teams Do Not Care About Their Fans.

Baseball teams do not care about their fans.  I came to this realization today.

And I don’t say this for the reasons you think – it’s not the jawdropping prices on tickets and water (HUMAN NECESSITY, by the way) or the fact that they trade everyone’s favorite players or only give away their junky bobbleheads to a completely arbitrary number of people just so they can watch us get trampled/kill ourselves after all that time surrounded by raw and horrifying humanity.

No.  I’m not talking about any of that.  Although on second thought…

Still no.  I’m talking about the alarming way that they all do things on the same day in the offseason.  Weeks (okay, it’s actually days, but it’s the offseason and we’re baseball fans and it feels like weeks) go by with nothing happening except for the odd rumor about a player you may or may not have heard of going to a team you may or may not have heard of.  I am partially kidding and partially looking at you, Indians.

And then suddenly they all decide on one day they’re going to tear up the World Wide Web and make all their moves and make their fans’ heads spontaneously combust.

Ahem.  Josh Hamilton signed with the Angels today much to his surprise and her surprise and meanwhile, the Giants were all, LOL, that was just a joke, of course we want Andres Torres.  And they signed him again.  We fans responded, “Yes, duh, we were wondering what getting rid of him was about.  Glad it was a joke.  LOL or whatever.” 

While I’m happy about the Torres move because hell, how could you not be, I am really hating the world because of the Josh Hamilton thing.  Baseballisabusiness, but signing within the division is not a nice move under the best of circumstances, which are not Josh Hamilton’s, and if what the Rangers are saying is true, that Hamilton didn’t call them until the deal was all inked, then that doubly does not make Hamilton look very good.  I am unusually angry at him.

I think Hamilton is an extraordinary player, but I think the Rangers will be all right without him.  Likewise, I don’t think either of the cash-happy LA teams will finish in first place next season.  Not even second place, if you peek in my crystal ball.  The Rangers are in a very interesting position right now and I think they will certainly make some significant moves either now or at the trade deadline, while in the NL West, the Giants are eying the Dodgers but pretty much staying put, but I am of the opinion that both teams will be just fine.  In addition to being the new Moneyball, in a strange turn of events.

But I can say with certainty that everyone will do silly giveaways for the first 20,000 fans and sell $8 water.  It’s nice that some things never change.

Diamond Girl

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December 6, 2012 · 4:47 pm

Not Your Mother’s Winter Meetings Round-Up

(I don’t know your mother.  No promises.)

The Winter Meetings are coming to a close and the path for the Giants has been surprisingly – eerily – straightforward?  They leave Nashville with 2012 heroes Marco Scutaro and Angel Pagan resigned for a comfortable three and four years respectively and now we’re left to decorate our Christmas trees and negotiate a long-term extension with our catcher who, yeah, just won an MVP and stuff.  Of course, the offseason is far from over and neither of the biggest free agents, Hamilton and Greinke, have signed anywhere yet, but for the Giants, the payroll is close to maxed out and aside from a platoon outfielder to rev up Gregor Blanco or a backup cupcake baker to… make cupcakes, I guess, they seem pretty much set.  (I volunteer for backup cupcake baker.)

Against some odds, it looks like nearly the entire 2012 team will be back for another go at it, which is exciting and definitely different than the offseason after the 2010 championship.  I am terribly excited about this.

Meanwhile, pretty much everyone else is in mega-rebuild mode which, if you’re the Yankees, means grabbing old Giants players and if you’re the Cubs means sitting back and being all, We got this (I sure hope they do – I have a running wager that they will win a World Series by 2016, so it better happen).

I think the most interesting development by far from these meetings, though, was the growing possibility that Hamilton will end up back in Texas after all.  I mean, the attraction of DFW obviously made Yu Darvish choose the Rangers, but still, if it happens, it will be unexpected, considering early signs.  I am secretly (well, not secretly anymore) hoping it does happen.  Hamilton in any other colors would be too weird.  People changing teams confuses me.  Yeah, I’m obviously perfectly suited to being a baseball fan.

Speaking of which?  Michael Young: Stay the hell put.  Remember the kid you made cry when you and JD had a catfight?  Yeah.  That kid is a few years older and probably a few years cuter, too.  Not a good idea to not be a Ranger anymore.  Viral Video Land would have a field day.

Diamond Girl

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December 2, 2012 · 6:08 pm

Happy Eve-of-Winter-Meetings!

Hello, everyone!  I spent the better part of today defrosting and cutting up frozen peas for my sick fish only for him to give me as near as someone without an eyebrow can to a quizzical eyebrow and be all, “I don’t know what you’re smoking, Emily, but there is no way.”  So I gave up on him and went to Starbucks for a peppermint mocha.  He seems okay now.  Still hasn’t eaten the peas, though.

fish with giants hat

This little guy is a Giants fan, so I’d have to take care of him.

Also, the Winter Meetings start tomorrow, which means all is doubly well.  For those of you who have never taken the time to read my bio a) do it now b) it helpfully informs innocent passersby that the Winter Meetings are my favorite part of the year.  No joke.  I mean, the World Series is pretty rad and all, but seriously, nothing is better than all the heads in baseball getting together to feud and make trades and stuff.

There’s also the inherent hilarity of sending hundreds of media people to hang out in the lobby while the GMs hide out upstairs.  It sounds like the opening to a joke, because… it kind of is.

Us Giants fans will be on the lookout for deals with Pagan and Scutaro, a potential extension on Posey and maybe one for Hunter Pence, although Sabes made it sound like that is only happening in yo dreams, yo.  I don’t reallyatall trust him, though, so I’ll still be in the lookout for it.

Them Rangers are linked to pretty much every big name on the market, because that’s just how JD rolls, so I honestly have no idea what direction they will go.  But they will go one direction.  One Direction.  Get it, guys, get it?

Ahem.

The Josh Hamilton rumor mill is as busy as ever.  My guess is he’ll go to one of 30 teams, but who knows, could be wrong.

Happy Winter Meetings, everyone!

Diamond Girl

p.s.  Stop talking about football, silly people.  Hibernation is looking like an increasingly attractive option.

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November 30, 2012 · 1:37 pm

David Stern is a Helicopter Mom and Other Facts of Life

One of the (few) upsides of the offseason is that it reminds me why I am a baseball fan and not a fan of these other crazy sports.  Like the sport with the helicopter mom for a commissioner.  Looking at you, David Stern.  Or the sport where the fans turn on their starting quarterback after one game, one game, and call for him to never-evah be started again.  Looking at you, Niners fans.  Now look, I’m not a fan of these sports.  I follow them very tangentially.  So you can argue that Colin Kaepernick is the greatest thing to happen to the planet since Peter Jackson decided to make the Hobbit movies a trilogy until you’re blue in the face and you probably won’t convince me of anything.  A) Because they tried to fine Alex Smith $25,000 for wearing a Giants hat and he drove in the parade, which forever endeared him to me and also because I think fans should be a little less, ahem, fair-weather.

Let’s not even argue about David Stern.  I found a list of signs you might be a helicopter parents on a site called Momservations and the #1 sign is:  “You run out on a field of play during a time-out to apply sunscreen.”  Which is, like, totally a David Stern thing to do.  I mean, I can just imagine it.

Also, this sign: “Your kid can’t hear what the coach is telling them to do because of your yelling from the stands.”  This is getting eerie, people.

Anyway, in kinda-sorta-not-really-at-all baseball news, I went to the CJM yesterday for The Radical Camera exhibit and if you’re in the area, it’s really a fascinating portrait of early to mid 20th century America, not to mention it’s side by side with an exhibit about the picture book writer and illustrator Ezra Jack Keats, which is amazing.

And guess what postcard I came home with?

Zito Bakery

That one.  #RallyZitoSanitaryBakery.

Diamond Girl

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November 27, 2012 · 7:06 pm

Brian Sabean is Not Tender

I have a feeling that if I got a dollar for every person who laughed at my little pun in the title, I would be… exactly as rich/poor as I am now.  But there was a point, I promise.

As Henry Schulman explains in the Chronicle, “Friday is the deadline for teams to tender contracts to all unsigned players. Under the Collective Bargaining Agreement, any contract offer must be at least 80 percent of what a player made the year before. Wilson earned $8.5 million, so any offer for 2013 would have to be at least $6.8 million.  The Giants do not intend to offer Wilson a $6.8 million guarantee after he missed the 2012 season (save for two games in April) with an elbow injury that required his second Tommy John surgery.”

Santiago Casilla is in the same situation as Wilson, so his future will also be up in the air.  Wilson, of course, had his second Tommy John surgery and I think I speak for most Giants fans when I say I’m not nearly as convinced as he is that he’s going to be closing for the Giants on Opening Day.

And even if he could (barring a health setback, which is more than a distant possibility)… would we want that?  Sergio Romo took the closer role so decisively during the latter part of this past season and did a damn good job with it.  It’s hard to get inside the head of the management, but as a fan, no, I don’t.  I don’t have any love lost for Wilson and I think Romo’s a better closer.  I’d rather see Wilson walk.  But the Giants may be miles away from that… and only time will tell.

We’re creeping closer to the Winter Meetings, but the Hot Stove is sort of completely and utterly silent.  Apparently all the other GMs are as non-tender as Sabes.  Better leave before I make more of those jokes.

Happy Tuesday, everyone!  Why didn’t any of you warn me that putting a strap on a camera is like rocket science and would suck away an hour of my time?  I would have warned you.  If I had known.  I didn’t, obviously.  Hence that half hour that just disappeared

Diamond Girl

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