On Torrealbas and Loftons

Andrew Tam

Back in 2000, I hated baseball. I remember one Saturday morning when I was 8, I got out of bed because I was excited to watch a new episode of Pokemon. Instead, Fox was playing baseball on TV. I figured twenty minutes would be enough for them to finish playing “baseball.” Two hour later, they still weren’t done. I punched our CRT. I was furious. Remember when TV's were CRTs? I still don't own an LCD. I'm furious. 

A few years later, I begin hearing this whole bunch of hubbub about the Giants. Apparently, San Francisco had a baseball team and they were playing in the World Series. Maybe because everyone was talking about it was why I got into it. Maybe I was looking for a sense of solidarity and a sense of pride for my city. Well, I didn’t know what I was thinking at the time, no goofy eleven year old did. Game 6, I grabbed the nearest monkey and punched the stuffing out of it. Game 7, I flipped my cap inside out and waited for a miracle. Then I watched Troy Glaus strut his valuable ass around the stadium when they won.

From what I understood, the Giants had it in the bag. I hopped on the bandwagon and started rooting for a guy named Rob and a guy named Kenny. Thoughts of Ash Ketchum's Pokeballs were replaced by Barry Bonds’s (insert: juiced or juicy) balls that he hit into a raucous crowd of frenzied fans. I thought I could be all cool and stuff by going to school the next day and saying, “the Giants won!” Present me would ask young me, “Name the back-up catcher on that team.” Except I wouldn’t have been able to. I still can’t. It was Yorvit Torrealba. Future me knew that. So, young me was a sucker, present me is critical, and future me seems like an intelligent fellow. The Giants didn’t win that year. End of that story.

Like many other fans today, I hopped on the bandwagon. I hopped on the bandwagon because they were good. I hopped on the bandwagon because I wanted to celebrate. But does it matter if I would've hopped off? Every crazy fan's devotion has to start somewhere. Some begin because their parents or grandparents take them to games. Mine began on the wagon, and I just happened to like where the wagon was taking me.

Who cares if people bandwagon? Maybe like me, they’ll find something they like about this team and become a hardcore fan where the tone of our night rests solely upon whether the Giants win or lose. They’ll start watching more and more games, and they’ll just be like one of us. Maybe they won’t. Maybe they’ll just find that baseball is dull. Either way, when the Giants win it all, they will throw confetti and all sorts of fans - casual, hardcore, or bandwagon - will watch confetti fall on each others’ heads. They will buy hats, they will wear their orange and black, they will scream. Most importantly, they will represent the San Francisco Giants. And when they disperse throughout California, they will remind those folks in Los Angeles who wear blue caps that their team has won two less World Series titles than we have in the past three years. In the end, we will hug each other and we will like it, because that is what shiny objects do to people. 

Hey! Another one!

That would be two World Series titles in three years. Thank you very much.
Lost in all the euphoria last night was any semblance of perspective given to the enormity and significance of what your San Francisco Giants have done.
So I took a day to think about it, and here we go.

Before the beginning of the 2011 season, I was strolling into Dodger stadium with a couple of friends decked out in Giants gear. We were pretty excited. Who wouldn't be?
We just won the 2010 World Series and it didn't appear that anything was going to stop us now.
Another year of Aubrey Huff? Why not, he brought us all the way the year before. Maybe some more magic will happen.

Top prospect Brandon Belt was given a chance to play and the lineup had depth that hadn't been seen since 2002. With the vaunted pitching staff returning, there looked to be sunny skies forever.

Then Scott Cousins happened.

One year isn't the same as 50 years. But holy fuck, do I remember Buster Posey writhing in agony, hearing his screams even though there was pure silence in my living room.

And the season came crashing down. The pitching staff was superb. Bullpen great, but there was no constant. The stability and the overwhelming sense of certainty that is Buster Posey was gone. And so 2011 passed.

I couldn't help but to think that our window had passed. How many more great years will we get out of Ryan Vogelsong? TIm Lincecum? And now a big contract for Matt Cain? This could be disastrous.

There wasn't much to dissuade from that notion when Brian Wilson threw out his arm, Timmy finally showed he was human and Barry Zito was still Barry Zito.

With Belt struggling, Huff suffering anxiety attacks, Freddy Sanchez always a couple weeks away, and Buster playing mediocre baseball (for him), this looked like a good but not great year.

I'd have taken 83-81.

Then Melky Cabrera happened. He came, he hit, and then he left. There were Milkmen, MelkMaids, or something. It was Milk everything. The All-Star Game gave fans a bit of hope.

Then as fast as Khloe Kardashian eating a burger, it was gone.

Melky caught for steroids and gone for the rest of the season.

And honestly, that's when the season really began.

I love stats. BABIP is great. WAR is cool. wRC+ is neat. UZR is confusing and doesn't make sense.

But what Buster Posey got his team to do, cannot be measured with any funky looking numbers. He rose up, told his team that what Melky did wasn't tolerated and let's move the fuck on.

Umm, yeah. They moved on.

All the way down to the Sergio Romo hanging slider to Scott Rolen to end the NLDS. To Zito spinning 7 2/3 shutout innings in the NLCS. To Marco Scutaro screaming at the rain before winning the MVP of the NLCS.

So many moments, but I'm sure you know them all.

But take a moment to look back, realize the immensity of what Brian Sabean and Bruce Bochy has done.

They took a team that didn't have a good farm system and translated that to a near-threepeat squad that starts Brandon Belt, Brandon Crawford, Buster Posey, Pablo Sandoval and Matt Cain on the mound.

Finding the Andres Torres', Cody Ross', Marco Scutaros and Gregor Blancos of the world. Remember when Shea Hillenbrand, Tyler Walker, Scott Munter and John Bowker were a thing?

Two out of three. Erase Scott Cousins and we would be hard-pressed to deny the possibility of a three-peat.

But don't think about it that.

Now's not the time.

We have all the key pieces back for next year. It'll be another offseason of optimism as we wait for the reigning World Series champions to take the field yet again.

Sit back. In your spare time, turn on a replay of Sergio Romo guiding a fastball right down the middle to the Triple Crown winner.

Or one of Pablo turning on a 96 mph fastball from the great Justin Verlander.

Or watch another Timmy splitter and feeble swing. Those never go out of style.

How about Zito rearing back and unleashing a furious 84 mph fastball past Carlos Beltran?

Another bare-handed save by the local kid Brandon Crawford wouldn't hurt either.

Or a predictable Marco Scutaro at-bat in which he always takes the first pitch and always finds a way to get on base on the last one.

Hell, if you really want to self-spite someone, turn on commentators (ANY!) and listen to them spiel about how the Giants are going to lose this and lose that.


Affledt curveball. Cain RBI single. Panda hearts. Pence eyes. Belt nut-punching. Huff running. Pagan saluting. Blanco roaring. Theriot celebrations.

Get out there and celebrate. If you aren't in San Francisco, get there.

Two in three years.

We might not be back in 50.

Two in three years.


Someone just remind me not to start a season by walking into Dodger Stadium with Giants clothes on ever again.

The Potential 25-Man Playoff Roster of the SF Giants

by Andy Liu

Per the recent devastating news, the news that has gone unnoticed is that the San Francisco Giants are actually still in the middle of a pennant race and a half game out of first place despite the loss of Melky Cabrera and essentially 2/5ths of their pitching staff in Tim Lincecum and Barry Zito. 

The Giants went from slight favorites at 52.6 percent to win the division to slight underdogs at 43.8 percent (according to Dan Szymborsk of ESPN) after the the Melky Cabrera suspension. 

However, the Dodgers will have to play tougher teams like the Nationals, Reds, Cardinals and Braves in the next few months while the Giants only play one team (Atlanta Braves) above .500 and instead playing cellar-dwellers like the Padres and Rockies. Also the 9 games between the two bitter rivals will play a significant part in the crowning of the NL West champion. 

If the Giants do indeed make the postseason, be it as the second wild card or division winner, they will need to set up a 25-man roster. Two years ago, they famously left their highest paid pitcher Barry Zito off the roster and went on to win the World Series. Let's set up the pitching staff and rotation:

Bullpen:

Jeremy Affeldt - Closer-by-Committee

Sergio Romo - Closer-by-Committee

Javy Lopez

Jose Mijares

George Kontos

Guillermo Mota

Heath Hembree

Santiago Casilla

Clay Hensley

This bullpen leaves off current call-up Eric Hacker in favor of Mota. Seeing that both are used for long-relief, the Giants seem to want to bring back Mota and he has more experience for the playoff run. 

With the two closers up top, the rest of this bullpen roster holds only one more surprise: the addition of Heath Hembree, who is currently recovering from an elbow strain. If he is okay by September call-ups he will be able to add his mid-high 90s fastball and a nasty slider to the bullpen. The rest of the bullpen shakes out to the lefty specialists Jose Mijares and Javy Lopez, groundball-pitcher Hensley, set-up man Casilla and rookie George Kontos who can get a strikeout or a grounder with a tight slider. 

Rotation:

Matt Cain

Madison Bumgarner

Ryan Vogelsong

Tim Lincecum

Once again, Barry Zito is left off the rotation in favor of the 4 man-committee the Giants can throw out there. Even though Zito has had a solid year, Lincecum's track record and pedigree as the face of the franchise will catapult him onto the roster. Simply put, if both keep pitching the way they do, neither deserves to start a single playoff game. 

Catchers:

Buster Posey

Hector Sanchez

No surprises here. It might be a decision between Eli Whiteside over Hector Sanchez if the latter is unable to hit for the rest of the season because Whiteside is superior as a receiver. However, the Giants seem to value Hector's bat off the bench enough to make him one of the 25 despite his defensive shortcomings. 

Infielders:

Brandon Belt

Brandon Crawford

Ryan Theriot

Pablo Sandoval

Marco Scutaro

Joaquin Arias

Another position where no changes will be made. The only one that may be in question is Arias' spot but he has held up well as a spot starter and defensive replacement for Pablo Sandoval. 

Outfield:

Hunter Pence

Gregor Blanco

Angel Pagan

Gary Brown

I have a feeling that, despite GM Brian Sabean's unwillingness to rush Gary Brown's development, that he will be able to jumpstart the offense--especially on the base-paths-- as a September call-up and force his way onto the roster. If Blanco can hit and get on base like he did in the beginning of the season, he will lessen the need to get another below-average bat in Jeff Francoeur or Xavier Nady. 

This roster is a little different from the one 2 years ago--the World Series winner had a better bullpen but less offense--but as long as they can make the playoffs, their dominant starters will be set up to make another deep run into October. 

Growing Up as a Sports Fan

by Andy Liu

I grew up watching sports as a little kid. My dad brought me to football games as much as he could. I can remember Terrell Owens catching Jeff Garcia's pass in the end zone to cap one of the biggest playoff comebacks of all time. I remember hugging a random guy next to me who I hadn't talked to all game. I was sitting so high up, I thought I could touch the clouds by simply pointing my index finger towards the sky. I didn't care that I could barely make out the quarterback from the 300-pound defensive lineman. I didn't care that the score was 38-14 after three quarters of atrocious football. I stayed because sports is fun. I was carefree and innocent. 

Then I started watching basketball. My dad had built a room just for my brother and I. A 50 inch TV graced with surround sound speakers lining the sides of the walls so we could watch whatever basketball games were on that night. I still remember when Derek Fisher hit that shot with .04 seconds left. I screamed so loud--along with my brother-- and hit the ceiling of my small basement TV room so hard with my head, I started seeing stars. Again, I didn't care about hating the Lakers or how "boring" the Spurs were to watch. I still remember when Sprewell made a halfcourt shot and my dad told me it was worth 5 points. Speaking of which, that'd be a nice rule change wouldn't it? 

Then I started watching baseball. Combating the quick, hectic pace of football and basketball with the deliberate, and sometimes downright boring trek of a baseball game and season seemed tough on the eyes at first glance. Then I started to appreciate all the intricacies that a full season can bring. From the broader strokes of the minor league system to September call-ups and the micromanagement of daily lineup changes, I started to love the game of baseball. 

Not once did I ever, in my young adolescent mind, think about cheating. 

I guess the point I'm trying to make is that the give-and-take I've felt so far as a sports fan has been as tough as one can imagine, and ultimately more painful that I could have ever realized.

 Obviously, at the end of the day, its just sports and there are far greater problems with the world than whether Buster Posey is playing out of position today to stick a below-average catcher behind the plate or that Andris Biedrins has stolen as much money from the Warriors as the Kardashians from the world. 

In order to gain understanding, knowledge, and perspective of each individual sport: from baseball to golf, I've lost some of that innocence that so pushed me into becoming the fan I am now. Life just keeps chipping away at it. If I were still 10, Melky cheating wouldn't matter at all, I wouldn't even know him. I'd watch the game tomorrow rooting for his replacement, Gregor Blanco to keep hitting, not knowing that we had lost one of this year's best hitters forever. 

Each sport is different. Performance-enhancing drugs hurts my baseball fan side much more than had a player on the 49ers had taken PEDs. That's just the nature of the game. In football, if you drink water during conditioning--and I played for about a summer and a half, making it through conditioning and about one game before I realized I hated contact-- you were considered soft. Not once was the logic of hydration for better exercise come up. 

If Buster Posey took PEDs, it would be absolutely devastating to the fan-base in the Bay Area and lose me as a fan forever. If Patrick Willis did steroids? Fine, but the destruction would not come nearly as close. 

As for basketball, let's just hope Curry and Bogut can stay healthy long enough to even consider taking them. 

After the 18242525 stages of grief I went through after I heard about Melky's suspension, I decided to put into perspective the way I feel about sports growing up and into the present. This being-a-fan shit isn't easy. Sometimes it is, re: 2010 World Series. But most of the time, we have to put up with the 2009 Giants offense, chronic Curry ankle injuries, Mike Dunleavy, Mike Nolan, Ken Dorsey, and a whole bunch of nonsense. Throw onto that with the sobering realities of concussions in the NFL, steroids in the MLB, and the already sickening lockout in the NBA, the fun of sports that so enthralled me as a little kid has been relatively drained away by the constant reality checks by sports and life. 

Growing up is tough. 

Growing up as a sports fan may just be a little tougher. 

Melky Cabrera. 

by Andy Liu

Today is my birthday. Not just any birthday, it's my 21st. Pretty damn good day. Just woke up, hanging out, enjoying the fact I'm legal..then..

HOLYFUCKWHATTHEFUCKJUSTFUCKINGHAPPENEDMYFUCKINGBRAINJUSTGOTCRUSHEDBYAFREIGHTTRAIN

yeah then that happened. 

I've written and tweeted ad nauseam about the potential of a Melky/Posey/Pablo/Pence middle of the lineup . With Melky out 50 games, that won't happen. And when it did, it looked good--no great against the NL ERA leader Jordan Zimmermann. Throw in Brandon Belt getting hot, Scutaro providing a steady number two up at the top of the lineup, and the Giants were set at making the playoffs for the first time since their World Series run. 

Oh, how shit changed. Less than 24 hours later, Melky is out and Timmy has seemingly reverted back to his yo-yo pitching techniques from earlier in the season, alternating between great and shitty innings in a single start. 

Can Melky still play in the playoffs? Yes, if we win the NL West and win the NLDS in 5 games, we will then be able to add him to the roster for the NLCS. But honestly, what are the chances that the Giants, in the house that the most infamous PED-abuser built would actually let another player, not to mention left fielder to ever hit again in that uniform?

Can they resign him? Probably. Will they resign him? It just wouldn't make sense. 

Who would actually want to pay him 100 million now? 

There is no way of knowing whether the testosterone Melky has admitted to taking, has directly affected his on-field numbers. His BABIP (batting average of balls in play) has been extremely higher than that of years before, perhaps meaning he has gotten lucky all year long. But he also hit over .300 with 18 homers just last season. Did he also juice last season as well? 

At this point, it doesn't matter. Whether it has helped or not, the Giants are still in a position to win the West. It probably won't happen now. It should never have happened. The Giants are lucky to be in the position they are in now. 

So why does it feel like the fans have gotten a collective sucker punch from the baseball gods themselves? We will still love Melky. If he were to magically appear tomorrow and bat third, we'd forgive him and cheer. It won't happen. I keep telling myself we can still win this thing. But it's something more. 

You cheated us, Melky. I don't want you back. But if you do, I'll be the amongst the thousands cheering you on. 

A Little Venting

by Andy Liu

As a self-proclaimed die-hard San Francisco Giants fan, I aim to attend all the games. This, of course, is an unrealistic goal and I merely want to achieve a minute fraction of it. So far, I've gone to 4 Giants game this year. Two were walkoffs, and the other two relative blowouts--the first one came close to a comeback but fell just short. 

Why is this important? When the games were close, the fans were into it and everybody was cheering after every strike and booing after every "bad call". When the game is good, the fans are one of the best in the country. But looking out into the stadium today, man it was bad. By the third inning, fans around me were already packing their bags full of prepared foods and sprinting to the exits. 

Maybe just a small amount of people, you say. They probably have flights to catch or things to do, you say. But no, this was an inordinate amount just getting up and walking out. I know the seats weren't too expensive--view reserve and bleachers-- but still come on. I was left watching with what seemed to be knowledgeable fans behind me and an annoying but into-the-game-screaming-at-every-bad-call fan next to me. As an aside, that fan actually said fire the GM because Theriot missed a bouncing ball, and to bring in the bullpen after Vogelsong allowed his second run. He wasn't kidding at all. 

An inning later, the seemingly hard-core fans next to me were gone. 

Really, Giants fans always call themselves the best fans in the country. And they are, when they're in the playoffs. I remember watching games in half-empty stadiums in 2009-2010. Maybe I'm being picky. Maybe I have too much time on my hands. No one actually cares if Brandon Belt swings at a 3-1 pitch, working the count in the 9th inning in a 14-2 ballgame. I cared. 

I probably shouldn't ask for more from the fans. They paid for the tickets, they can do whatever they want with it. I don't know how Wrigley works, how Fenway works, or how Yankee Stadium works, but I'm going to take a gander and proclaim that their fans don't form a mass exodus after the third inning.

Or maybe they do.

It's probably me. I care too much. 

What to Watch For Team USA V. Spain
by Andy Liu

Gametime in less than 7 hours so of course I'm going to jot down a few thoughts before watching the gold-medal game between the Yanks and the Spaniards.

Thought #1: Will Team USA go cold from three? As is well documented, the United States have shot an inordinate amount of threes not because of the great interior defense of the other teams but because...they can. And also because the line is well short to that of the NBA line. One of our great shooters may well go cold, but it's tough to see KD, Kobe, and Melo all going cold at the same time.

Thought #2: Serge Ibaka has barely played throughout the whole Olympics and this could become an issue for Spain if he keeps sitting. Are we just missing something here? Scott Brooks, the OKC head coach, also benched Ibaka at the most inopportune times as well. Should we start questioning what is going on there? Whatever it is, he certainly has the talent to be a game-changer in the paint.

Thought #3: This may be the last game for the senior U.S. team and the last time we see players like LeBron, Kobe, Melo, and CP3 play together. Savor it. There won't be a better team for the foreseeable future.

Thought #4: 7AM? Really?

Thought #5: I really despise Duke but I have always enjoyed watching Coach Krzyzewski (obviously google spell-check, in my defense I was only two letters away, fucking Zs are tricksters) man the sidelines and according to reports this will be his last Olympics. Hopefully, no more Larry Browns. Coach K has done a masterful job the past 8 years as he is able to manage all the egos and not restrict them to intricate plays so the USA talent is allowed to spill out all over the court.

Thought #6: I actually think Ibaka plays, and plays well. Gasol brothers are superb, and Juan Carlos Navarro plays his best game of the tournament. Also, Rudy goes off as well. Guess what?
Won't matter. USA in a rout through an absolutely extraordinary shooting performance by KD, Kobe, and Melo with LeBron gathering 15 assists.

Homer-ish? Nah, just praying for excellent basketball.