Tag Archives: matt cain

October 3, 2012 · 8:41 pm

5 Things I Loved About 2012 in San Francisco Giants-Land

The season is over.  The Dodgers beat the Giants 5-1 and now Theo Epstein And Other Losing GMs Whose Names I Can’t Remember are going into their war rooms/man caves/boring offices and getting ready to tackle the offseason.

Not Sabean.  Not us Giants fans.  The horchata ice cream is on steeping right now – horchata is a cinnamon rice drink from Mexico and it’s divine – and I am celebrating.  Because these playoffs, silly extra wildcard and all, are going to be pretty damn exciting.  There was serious drama in Oakland this afternoon with the A’s stealing the division title from the Rangers at the last moment and Emily, in the car, turning on her radio right before the last out and promptly, oh, slamming it off.

Still, it will be interesting for the Rangers.  They’ve lost in the World Series two years in a row… something had to change.  This could be just the shakeup they need, you know?

(Positive affirmations FTW.)

Anyway, as some of you (a few of you?  Yeah?  Maybe even one?) might remember, last year on the final day of the regular season, I made a list:  162 Things I Loved About 2011 in San Francisco Giants-Land.  I will go on the record as saying that was insane.  It took me a couple of days vegetating in bed and a few more days of H&M retail therapy to recover.  So, this year, I’ve decided to be do something a little… different.  5 Things I Loved 2012 in San Francisco Giants-Land!  (America’s youth is no longer ambitious.  You have proof.)

5.  The Marco Scutaro.  When Sabean picked up Scutaro, there was more than a little headshaking and whispering in this fandom – hey, you did it too, don’t even try to deny it – and then he began to hit and that was pretty much it.  The Marco Scutaro is spectacular.

4.  The Bullpen.  Believe it or not, Brian Wilson went down this season, even though it feels like ages ago now.  And this bullpen has stepped up big time.  Sure, there were bumps in the road, but overall?  I feel good about ‘em going into the postseason.  And that’s huge.

3.  The Buster Posey.  ‘Nuff said.  Also, huge congrats to him winning the batting title.  Hunter Pence is keeping secret what present the Giants got him, but I sure know what I would get him if someone would, um, donate the funds.

2.  The Matt Cain.  Who pitched a perfect game.  (Hey, that rhymed!)  Not only did that provide us bloggers with endless jokes about his perfection, all season long, but it also was, you know, a perfect game.  So there’s that.

1.  Making the playoffs.  There’s a foggy year in there somewhere (every year is a foggy year in San Francisco, but you know what I mean), but the Giants have bounced back big time and I think they’re seriously, seriously poised to do some damage in the coming weeks.  And if possible, I like this team even better than 2010.  Playoffs, here we come.

Also, antlers, here I come!

Diamond Girl

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September 28, 2012 · 11:55 am

A Consolatory Beanie and Some Conspiracy Theories

Hello, people, and apologies for my absence!  I’ve had a bit of a crazy few days/been quietly enjoying the fact that we have meaningless September baseball/Green Day has a new album out and so there’s that/my silly sister is moving halfway across the world and making me all weepy.

Meaningless September baseball is surprisingly fun, though – especially when the team knocks my sparkly flip-flops off and makes it seem like it is completely meaningful.  It’s a bit like Spring Training, except with cinnamon gingerbread lattes and a guaranteed playoff spot.  They just finished up their last homestand, taking two out of three from the Diamondbacks (who are the Diamondbacks, but that’s a different story) and are hitting San Diego and LA one last time to wrap up the season.

Matt Cain did everything and then some, Barry Zito did everything and then some and Tim Lincecum kind of floundered and made us all feel badly for criticizing him because, guys, he missed the celebration when they clinched and looked altogether like a sad puppy.

I mean, he always kind of looks like a sad puppy.  But now more than ever.  I want to hand him a consolatory beanie and say, It’s meaningless September baseball!  You’ll be fine!  (Or you won’t be.  And you’ll develop a massive chip on your shoulder about it, a la Barry, and then be fantastic a few years later so, lo, everything I said was true and you will be fine even if it’s not necessarily all that soon.)

The Giants were a sight to see travelling yesterday evening, because it was rookie hazing day.

One question, though.  A few people said they hazed the rookies and sophomores, because they didn’t do it last year.  Is that true?  Because you know how I love a good conspiracy theory.  And this one is too good to pass up.  Maybe… they were possessed by magnetic-drawn robots that love metal, but mysteriously hate dress-up.  Maybe… they had someone on the team who had a fear of clowns (common phobia!) and for a reason to be named later, that was the only costume they could have done.  Or maybe Sabes was in a nasty mood and rained on their parade.  Which isn’t all that good a conspiracy theory at all.

Or maybe it was reported on at the time and I just have the memory of a goldfish?   Yes.  That seems likely.

Diamond Girl

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September 8, 2012 · 6:11 pm

The San Francisco Giants Cupcake Shop & Café

I started doing yoga in front of the television around the eighth inning.  Buster Posey was throwing all these people out and the FOX broadcasters were mispronouncing everyone’s names and it was a tie game against the Dodgers in the middle of September.  I was doing Triangle Pose and drinking my banana-mango smoothie because, as you all know, baseball games make me nervous.  Vah-ree nervous.

This is triangle pose.  It’s a great pose for lazy people like me who don’t actually do yoga.

Anyhows, this was a good game all around:  close, good pitching and some nice bits of situational hitting.  It didn’t go the Giants direction, in the end, but Matt Cain was almost entirely dazzling and Buster Posey was marvelous, marvelous, marvelous.  He was involved in both of the Giants runs and threw out a career record three runners.  Two of them were back to back, Hanley twice and Ethier once.

This game was that example of a time when the team just has to be that much better.   That being not that much at all.  And it’s not exactly something you can pinpoint or try to fix, because some days one team will be there and the other won’t be.  The Giants have made some choices of offense over defense and it’s paid off.  It didn’t, today, but that doesn’t mean we should scrap the whole idea, of course.  (Although if they decided to scrap the whole idea in favor of turning the San Francisco Giants into the San Francisco Giants Cupcake Shop & Café, I would totally be down for that.)

In other news, Matt Kemp was out today and tomorrow with a shoulder injury.  We can add him to the long list of causalities on opposing teams that the Giants have left in their wake.  I haven’t ruled voodoo out yet.  I think I’m going have to open up a research project, this offseason, to analyze that ever-so-slightly-disturbing trend.

Diamond Girl

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September 2, 2012 · 8:24 pm

Jed Hoyer Went Home to the West Coast

Chicago treated us awfully well.  (And San Diego scored 10 runs today, so although they lost, the Jed-Hoyer-ditching-the-Cubbies-for-a-West-Coast-vacay theory still seems increasingly likely.)   He was probably all, “I miss you, I’m going back home to the West Coast!” and the Padres were all, “Yay!  Come!  We’ll make you cupcakes!”

I’m a good hipster.  That was the first thing I thought of when I wrote that.

So he did (go back home to the West Coast, that is).  He also snuck some magic potion in Xavier Nady and quite probably Matt Cain, too.  In case you’re wondering, that’s not a doping reference.  It was a reference to the greatest series of comic books that have ever been created, Asterix and Obelix.  They’re French comics, but they’ve almost all been translated into English and if you haven’t read them, you seriously need to go do it now.

Alternately, read all the statistics about the records the Giants and Dodgers would have to have to end in a tie for first place.  It’s a little mindblowing.  In a good way.  A very, very good way.  Additionally, the A’s have the same record as the Yankees now and Bud Selig is more in love with the second wildcard than ever.  Needless to say, he and I are going to have a little talk.

But I admit it: this second wildcard is a lot of fun, even if it’s kind of morally abhorrent or whatever.

Anyway, have a lovely Labor Day, peoples!  The Diamondbacks will be in town tomorrow and over in Oakland, Billy Beane is in a fabulous mood.  (But he still looks nothing like Brad Pitt.)

Diamond Girl

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August 11, 2012 · 7:52 pm

What, One Can Simply Score More Runs?

I may have said something along the lines of “One does not simply score more runs,” the other day.  My blog is the virtual equivalent of a fascist state, so you can’t confirm whether or not I actually said that.  (Okay, fine.  You can.  That’s what the neat “scroll” feature on your computer is for.)  Anyhows, Friday, it sure looked like it and the Giants went down quietly, 3-0.  Silently.  But then today rolled around and… things were different.

Nine runs, thirteen hits different.  This team has kind of morphed to a point that it’s creepy, except not creepy because it’s completely wonderful.  Actually, still creepy.

Boromir is happy.

A lot of different pieces fell into place.  Matt Cain delivered what was probably his best performance since the perfect game way back in June – June was also, incidentally, the last time a Giant other than Buster Posey hit a homer at home, so there’s that –, Hunter Pence started to look a little bit like the Hunter Pence we know and love and, um, traded our souls to the devil for and Buster Posey kept hitting ‘em homers at home.   Angel Pagan also had a lovely little two-run triple.  He can do everything except, you know, catching a ball in a sensible fashion.

I love the Rockies.  I really do.  If Dan O’Dowd ever comes to the Bay Area to catch a game, I will gladly invite him over for tea and thank him from the bottom of my heart for creating such an, ahem, fun team to play.

Diamond Girl

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