World Series Champion San Francisco Giants

Brian Wilson/Tim Lincecum Interview:

FOX...

  ...is baaaaack!!

  And I'm not sure where the Giants are that won the first two games.

  Cody Ross is unconscious, by the way.

Happy Birthday's

  Just browsed a list of today's famous birthdays (courtesy of www.famousbirthdays.com) and found it interesting that there are no interesting birthday's today.  This prompted me to google "today's sports birthdays" and although I have yet to view the results, I'd imagine I can round up some pertinent information on at least 1 or 2 of these athletes.

  1.  Happy Birthday to Joliet, IL native Jesse Barfield.  51 years young today, he was once a featured gun out in right field, known predominantly for a cannon otherwise knows as his right arm.  He led all outfielders in assists from 1985 to 1987 - surprisingly, people kept trying to take an extra base on him.  He finished his career with 162 outfield assists - well short of Tris Speakers 449 career assists, but still a huge number for a 12 year career.

  Some of his on-field accomplishments included making the 1986 AL All-Star team (0-3, 2K), winning 2 Gold Glove Awards (1986, 1987) as well as a Silver Slugger Award (1986).  For his   After 8+ seasons north of the border, he was traded to the NY Yankees for left-handed pitcher Al Leiter.  He remained with the Yankees until after the 1992 season, when he took his game overseas and played for the Yomiuri Giants for a season in 1993.

  Barfield can still be found at Yankee Stadium for the yearly Old Timer's Day - throwing old dudes out at home with regularity.

  Over his 12-year MLB career, he amassed 241 HR, 716 RBI's, and 1,234 strikeouts (in 1,428 games).  He wasn't so much known for his bat, but he had an arm that base runners of his era will not soon forget.

  2.  Former NY Islander defenceman Denis Potvin turns 57 today.  He was the 1st overall pick in the 1973 NHL Draft and was inducted into the NHL Hall of Fame in 1991.  Although he is currently one of the voices of the Florida Panthers, it might best be remembered when the Islanders and Rangers played at the Garden, Ranger fans chanting, "beat your wife Potvin, beat your wife." over and over and over again.  Unless you've been to a Rangers game, you don't know the tempo or cadence of that chant, but you get the picture.  Another favorite of Ranger fans, albeit less original, were the "Potvin Sucks!" chants that bellowed from the rafters of MSG.  They were all jealous of his beard.

  I was brought up an Islanders fan (it gets harder and harder to root for them) but I will stick by them.  They play in a dump, so the end product really is no surprise.  He and Brian Trottier are the only two players Islanders to play 1,000 games for the team, a list that isn't likely to grow anytime soon.

  Let's Go Islanders!  Let's Go Islanders!  Potvin helped lead the Islanders to an unprecedented 4 consecutive Stanley Cup victories from 1979-80 to 1982-83.  (even though on the 1980-81 Cup, it reads "Ilanders").

  3. NY Mets right handed knuckle-baller RA Dickey is 36 today.

  4. Former Ohio State standout RB and current criminal Maurice Clarett turns 27 today.

  5. Puerto Rican boxing great Wilfredo "Bazooka" Gomez (44-3-1) turns 54 today.

  SF Giants are two wins away folks.  SUCKA!  All you Rangers fans with that stupid air high five or magic fist or claw, whatever you wanna call it.  Doesn't seem to be working thus far.  Still a ways to go, but it's a good start for the renegade Giants.

Sounding off on the NBA

  I've rarely (read: I can only remember one) wasted time formulating thoughts about the NBA here on WRT (besides that one time I remember in April, when the Spurs were about to TKO the dimwitted, Mark Cuban-led Mavs), and this story I just came across backs my decision to ignore the NBA altogether in this type of forum.

  Time to sound off.

  Yahoo! Sports writing Kelly Dwyer reported yesterday that the NBA has banned players donning their headbands upside down - a trend apparently started in 2007.  Apparently, you aren't ballin' unless you flip that Jerry West logo upside down.  I am still trying to wrap my head around how the hell this actually constitutes a story in this early NBA season. 

  Here's two things I'd rather write about concerning the NBA:

  1. The fact that the Celtics original and older Big 3 defeated Miami's new and improved Big 3 in Boston on opening night and the very next night, the LeBron-less Cavs beat the original Big 3 in Cleveland.  Parity. 

  2. The Knicks and Nets won their openers and are sitting atop the Atlantic.  The last time this happened?  Funny enough, it was only the 2008-2009 season (NYK def. Mia 120-115; NJ def. Was 95-85).

  I digress.

  Rajon Rondo (known primarily for being a great PG and secondly for his headband-wearing) has decided against sporting his headband - simply because he wants to wear it upside down.  Maybe in some past life, he was a ninja (see: SF Giants closer Brian Wilson's 12-minute ninja class) and was able to stand on his head, but something inside me highly doubts that.

  Wearing the logo of the league you play for, the one that includes the team that pays you millions of dollars a year to dribble, pass first, and shoot second, is straight disrespectful.  Utterly disrespectful.  Wear it right or don't wear it at all (which is exactly what he did).  The equivalent of this is Josh Hamilton out in center field wearing his Texas Rangers hat backwards.  It's something that just doesn't belong.

  Ms. Dwyer's final light reads like this - "Why? Because, yes, the NBA is that petty."

   Petty?  Really?  Petty?  Defined:  Petty [pet-ee] -adjective 1. of little or no importance or consequence.  2. of lesser or secondary importance, merit, etc.  3. having or showing narrow ideas, interests, etc.

  In my opinion, this is absolutely the right thing for the league to do.  Many, many years back, they traded in the Larry Bird/John Stockton shorts for the modern day baggy, looser fitting garb.  They changed the pre- and post-game dress code a few years back in an attempt to clean up the league's image.  The league needed a facelift and with all the nonsensical bullshit that surrounds this league (Gilbert Arenas' gun problems, Chris Anderson's tattoo problem, Kobe's alleged rape years ago, yada yada yada) it seems to me that it's players have a hard time controlling themselves off the court.  It gives the players like Dwayne Wade a bad rap who always does community service projects (built and renovated church for his mother) and genuinely seem like decent guys.  I could be totally off the mark with my thoughts on DWade, but I'll back him. 

  Maybe all this behavior starts from what goes on between the lines.  There are rules, and I applaud the league for putting an end to this degradation of an NBA legend and logo.  Well played David Stern, well played.

  I can go on with this for another four hours and address plenty of other topics I haven't even begun to talk about.  But I won't, because this dog crap of a sport will not consume any more of my time.

  Jerry West, you will always be standing on your feet if (and that's a big if) I even wear NBA gear (or a headband).

Crosswords

  Just knocked out the crossword in about 14 minutes.  Granted, it was from Monday, but still, I am rather impressed with myself.

  Time for practice and a team run.

  Oh yeah, way to show up last night Cliff Lee.  Freddy Sanchez is a man.  Josh Hamilton pulled a disappearing act.  And my man, Brian Wilson, came in and shut it down!

 

Shut out and Shutouts

I sincerely apologize to my loyal legion of followers (the three of you) for my lack of posting recently.  I have been busy with work and trying to find a new look for my blog spot.  I hope you can bear with me, I will be sure to make it up to you.

Heading over to the diamond, there has been an awful lot of shutouts lately in the MLB.  Thursday featured three (CWS 2 ATL 0 // MIL 5 MIN 0 // TOR 5 STL 0).  Wednesday night there were four (CIN 3 OAK 0 // KC 1 WSH 0 // STL 1 TOR 0 // NYM 5 DET 0).  Tuesday saw only one shutout (SEA 2 CHC 0).  That's eight shutouts in three days.  There have been 127 shutouts in the big leagues this year already, and we still have just over two weeks before the 2010 Midsummer Classic in Anaheim.

It is shaping up to be the "Year of the Pitcher".  More specifically, it's the year the NL West's pitching staffs are dominating baseball.  Four teams rank in the top 6 in shutouts - Padres and Rockies (9) lead the majors, and the Dodgers and Giants (6) are both tied for 3th. 

Breaking it down, 2009 and 2010, 1st Half statistics:
--2009 - 14 SP's with 80+ IP with ERA < 3.00
--2010 - 23 SP's with 80+ IP with ERA < 3.00

--2009 - 12 pitchers with 10+ wins pre-All-Star break.
--2010 - 23 with 8+ wins (2+ weeks before All-Star break)

--2009 - 24 pitchers with 80+ IP with WHIP < 1.20
--2010 - 30 pitchers with 80+ IP with WHIP < 1.20

--2009 - 32 hitters with 17+ HR (Albert Pujols, 32)
--2010 - 8 hitters with 17+ HR (Jose Bautista, 20)

--2009 - 16 hitters with 60+ RBI (Albert Pujols, 87)
--2010 - 1 hitter with 60+ RBI (Miguel Cabrera, 61)

Call 2010 the "Year of the Pitcher", I know it's still early, but I see no end to this dominance in sight.  The proof is in the numbers.  And with Stephen Strasburg on the scene tearing up opposing lineups like Nathan tears apart napkins, look out.

You think there's a coincidence that HR numbers are down since the Steroid Squad (McGwire, Canseco, Bonds, Sosa) stopped playing?  I think not.  Those guys are dirtbags - and not in a good way.  They ruined the way casual fans look at the game - me, I'm a professional fan.  (If there's such a thing)  These guys should get shut out of the Hall of Fame.  They're losers.  Scumbags.

Time for some dinner, gonna whip something up for LMD, Julia, and myself.  LMD is cleaning, I'm banned because all I do is get in the way.  Gonna go get some prosecco to mix with elder flower for the women, and some beers for myself.  The ladies can pretend they're high class.

Later!