Category Archives: Detroit Tigers

There’s a new kid on the block, the result of a terrific website that literally outgrew itself. Jam-packed with over 400 audio clips and several thousand photo’s its popularity as an online baseball library continues to grow.

“Sounds of Baseball” is the dream of Steve Contursi, a teacher and non-apologetic baseball aficionado from Catskill, New York, and is the culmination of years of work on an archaic system of programming known as “coding”. It involved the ideas around what it could, should, and would be, and eventually ended up as an informative website that was like no other.

Most of the data on the website could be found somewhere else in the blogosphere, but it would have been a real challenge to find a website that contained all of this specific type of data in the same place.

This was and this is exactly what he did. Over time and with much patience, “Sounds” reached the level of top-rated baseball websites by the top search engines.

However, change was occurring fast in the internet world and with that came many challenges. A call was put out to the baseball community for someone to help with a transition to a more user-friendly website.

Along came Ronni Redmond of Santa Cruz, CA, a baseball blogger with a small amount of baseball knowledge, and not a lot of computer experience. But she wrote a decent blog, had an insatiable appetite for anything baseball and lots of chutzpah and opinions.

This is the new “Sounds of Baseball”. Its foundation is the original “Sounds” with a few little ditties thrown in and published in a Word Press format that’s much easier to maintain. The Site will be evolving as new material becomes available. Goodbye to coding and hello to the formation of an unlikely pairing of a fan of the New York Yankees and a fan of the SF Giants and all teams in-between.

We hope you’ll visit the site. So please grab a cup of coffee, pull up a chair, and turn up the volume.

This one’s for you!

“SOUNDSOFBASEBALL.COM“

Sounds of Baseball, Inc., is a 501(c)(3) Non Profit Corporation.

T

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Posted in A1 Baseball, A2 Ballparks, Arizona Diamondbacks, Atlanta Braves, Baltimore Orioles, baseball dress, Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, Cincinnati Reds, Cleveland Indians, Colorado Rockies, Detroit Tigers, Florida Marlins, General, Houston Astros, Kansas City Royals, Los Angeles Angels, Los Angeles Dodgers, Mets baseballs, Milwaukee Brewers, Minnesota Twins, New York Mets, New York Yankees, NY Mets baseball dress, Oakland Athletics, Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates, San Diego Padres, San Francisco Giants, Seattle Mariners, St. Louis Cardinals, Tampa Bay Rays, Texas Rangers, Toronto Blue Jays, Washington Nationals

Tagged baseball audio clips, baseball photos, catskill ny, harry carey, joe diaggio, lou gehrig, lou pinella, ronni redmond, santa cruz ca, steve contursi, TED WILLIAMS

2014 World Series ….. How Much Did they Make?

Posted on November 25, 2014 | Leave a comment

2014 World Series Parade

Reposted from ESPN, Tuesday, November 25, 2014. NEW YORK — A full postseason share for the World Series champion Giants was worth a record $388,606, topping the previous mark of $370,873 set by San Francisco two years ago.

San Francisco’s total was up from $307,323 for the Boston Red Sox last year. The players’ pool of $62 million was down from $62.7 million last year and a record $65.4 million in 2012.

The Giants split $22.3 million into 47 full shares, partial shares equivalent to another 9.65 and 17 cash awards, the commissioner’s office said Monday.

A full share on the AL champion Kansas City Royals was worth $230,700, up from $228,300 for the St. Louis Cardinals last year and down from $284,275 for the 2012 AL champion Detroit Tigers.

The players’ pool included 50 percent of the gate receipts from the two wild-card games, and 60 percent from the first three games of each division series and the first four games of each league championship series and the World Series.

Full shares were worth $125,288 for the Baltimore Orioles, $115,481 for St. Louis, $31,544 for Detroit, $31,543 for the Los Angeles Dodgers, $29,845 for the Angels, $29,418 for theWashington Nationals, $16,556 for the Pittsburgh Pirates and $15,266 for the Oakland Athletics.
Copyright 2014 by The Associated Press

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Posted in A1 Baseball, Baltimore Orioles, Boston Red Sox, Detroit Tigers, Kansas City Royals, Los Angeles Angels, Los Angeles Dodgers, Oakland Athletics, Pittsburgh Pirates, St. Louis Cardinals, Washington Nationals

Tagged AL Champions, Associated Press, cash awards, espn, Giants, NL Champions., partial shares, players pool, World Series Pay

Veterans Day and Every Day ….. Thank You!

Posted on November 11, 2014 | Leave a comment

Note: This is a re-post of my 2014 Veteran’s Day Blog.

Arlington National Cemetery

“But the mainstay of the big leagues was the reservoir of 4-Fs – males of draft age who had been rejected on physical grounds by the Armed Forces. Not since harem attendants had gone out of style were men’s physical deficiencies so highly prized. Ulcers, hearing defects, and torn cartilages were coveted by team owners.” – Frank Graham, Jr. in Farewell to Heroes (1981)

This and the following list of Hall of Fame Members Courtesy of Baseball Almanac.

Baseball Hall of Fame Members who Served in the Armed Forces.


The Civil War
Morgan Bulkeley	United States Army
World War I
Grover Alexander	United States Army
Happy Chandler	United States Army Continue reading →

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Posted in A1 Baseball, General, Arizona Diamondbacks, Atlanta Braves, Baltimore Orioles, Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, Cincinnati Reds, Cleveland Indians, Colorado Rockies, Detroit Tigers, Florida Marlins, Houston Astros, Kansas City Royals, Los Angeles Angels, Los Angeles Dodgers, Milwaukee Brewers, Minnesota Twins, New York Mets, New York Yankees, Oakland Athletics, Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates, San Diego Padres, San Francisco Giants, Seattle Mariners, St. Louis Cardinals, Tampa Bay Rays, Texas Rangers, Toronto Blue Jays, Washington Nationals

Tagged Arlington National Cemetery, MLB Veterans, United States, United States Army, United States Navy, Veteran, Veterans Day, Veterans in Baseball

MLB SALARIES ~ DID THEY GET WHAT THEY PAID FOR?

Posted on October 31, 2014 | Leave a comment

Here’s a list of the 2014 salaries for the Major League Baseball teams. You can get a look at the individual player salaries from USA Today’s website. Individual rankings are interesting because you have to look past 65 players to get to the Royal’s top paid player, James Shields at #66. To find the highest paid “active” player on the Giants roster you’ll go to #29 for Tim Lineceum and further down to #89 for Buster Posey. But the real surprise was Madison Bumgarner who’s way down the list at #271. I’ll bet that’s going to change in the near future huh? Of course, you have to look at the total number of years in the individual contracts to see what the actual value is.

So the question is “Did they get what they paid for?” I’d say the Kansas City Royals management is feeling pretty good about themselves right now, ranking #18 out of 30 for highest salaries and still producing the top American League team in the nation.

RANK	TEAM	CURRENT	DIFF	AVG SALARY
1	Dodgers	$241,128,402	$ –	$7,778,335
2	Yankees	$208,830,659	$ –	$8,031,948
3	Phillies	$179,521,056	$ –	$5,791,001
4	Tigers	$163,078,526	$ –	$5,824,233
5	Red Sox	$154,380,395	$ –	$5,717,792
6	Giants	$148,239,158	$ –	$5,490,339
7	Nationals	$134,366,735	$ –	$4,798,811
8	Rangers	$132,491,596	$ –	$4,140,362
9	Blue Jays	$129,427,700	$ –	$4,793,618
10	Angels	$128,046,500	$ –	$4,415,396
11	Reds	$112,378,771	$ –	$3,405,417
12	Diamondbacks	$111,798,833	$ –	$3,726,627
13	Cardinals	$108,020,360	$ –	$3,857,870
14	Orioles	$105,084,121	$ –	$3,389,810
15	Brewers	$102,724,338	$ –	$3,804,605
16	Rockies	$99,579,071	$ –	$3,688,113
17	Braves	$97,855,673	$ –	$3,156,634
18	Royals	$90,481,500	$ –	$3,351,166
19	Padres	$89,881,695	$ –	$2,899,409
20	White Sox	$89,551,982	$ –	$3,316,740
21	Mariners	$89,539,642	$ –	$3,087,573
22	Twins	$84,912,500	$ –	$3,396,500
23	Mets	$84,281,011	$ –	$3,121,518
24	Indians	$82,500,800	$ –	$3,055,585
25	Rays	$82,035,490	$ –	$2,828,810
26	Pirates	$77,845,999	$ –	$2,883,185
27	Athletics	$77,220,900	$ –	$2,490,996
28	Cubs	$74,546,356	$ –	$2,662,369
29	Astros	$44,985,800	$ –	$1,606,635
30	Marlins	$41,836,900	$ –	$1,549,514

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Posted in A1 Baseball, Arizona Diamondbacks, Atlanta Braves, Baltimore Orioles, Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, Cincinnati Reds, Cleveland Indians, Colorado Rockies, Detroit Tigers, Florida Marlins, General, Houston Astros, Kansas City Royals, Los Angeles Angels, Los Angeles Dodgers, Milwaukee Brewers, Minnesota Twins, New York Mets, New York Yankees, Oakland Athletics, Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates, San Diego Padres, San Francisco Giants, Seattle Mariners, St. Louis Cardinals, Tampa Bay Rays, Texas Rangers, Toronto Blue Jays, Washington Nationals

Tagged BUSTER POSEY, james shields, Madison Bumgarner, mlb player salaries, MLB Salaries, mlb team salaries

Ethics Hero: American League Batting Champion Jose Altuve

Posted on September 29, 2014 | 1 comment

Jose Altuve, Houston Astros

Ethics and sportsmanship. Two of my favorite topics and my favorite blog dealing with the subject is “Ethics Alarms”. This isn’t a baseball blog, or even a sports blog for that matter, but I find myself quoting it often and I’m always able to learn from it. In this blog he talks about doing the right thing and what interested me most was, even if he hadn’t done the right thing, most fans would never have noticed. Chalk one up for another great article from Ethics Alarms’ Jack Marshall, ethicist, lawyer, and the president of ProEthics, Ltd., trying to keep us on the straight and narrow and reminding us there still is such a thing.

Ethics Alarms

There was another baseball Ethics Hero who emerged on the last day of the regular season yesterday. File it under “Sportsmanship.”

Houston Astros secondbaseman Jose Altuve (at less than 5′ 5″, the shortest athlete in a major professional sport) began the day hitting .340, three points ahead of the Tigers’ Victor Martinez, who was at .337. Even with all the new stats and metrics showing that batting average alone is not the best measure of a baseball player’s offensive value, a league batting championship remains the most prestigious of individual titles, putting a player in the record books with the likes of Ty Cobb, Ted Williams, Rogers Hornsby, George Brett, Ichiro Suzuki and Tony Gwynn. It’s still a big deal. If Altuve didn’t play in Houston’s meaningless last game, Martinez would have to go 3-for-3 to pass him, giving the DH a narrow .3407 average compared with Altuve’s .3399. By…

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Posted in A1 Baseball, Detroit Tigers, Houston Astros

Tagged batting championships, Character, courage, David Schoenfield, ethics alarms, Ethics Heroes, fairness, History, Houston Astros, integrity, jack marshall, Jose Altuve, proethics ltd, Sports Tagged as baseball, sportsmanship, Sweet Spot

Name Origins of all 30 Major League Baseball Teams

Posted on September 22, 2014 | Leave a comment

Cincinnati Red Stockings. 1st Professional Baseball Team

Cincinnati Red Stockings Photo Courtesy “www.todayifoundout.com” Daven Hiskey.

I “Stumbled” on this great post that lists the origins of all 30 Major League Baseball Teams. It appears the Boston Red Sox hold the oldest named team dating back to the 1860’s, popularized by the Cincinnati Red Stockings from 1867-1870 and used by Boston’s National League franchise from 1871-1876.

But the actual team name origin that’s with the same team is the San Francisco Giants, formerly the New York Giants, that dates back to 1885.

Read the original Post Stumbleupon.com, written by Scott Allen.

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Posted in A1 Baseball, A1 Baseball, General, Arizona Diamondbacks, Atlanta Braves, Baltimore Orioles, Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, Cincinnati Reds, Cleveland Indians, Colorado Rockies, Detroit Tigers, Florida Marlins, General, Houston Astros, Kansas City Royals, Los Angeles Angels, Los Angeles Dodgers, Milwaukee Brewers, Minnesota Twins, New York Mets, New York Yankees, Oakland Athletics, Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates, San Diego Padres, San Francisco Giants, Seattle Mariners, St. Louis Cardinals, Tampa Bay Rays, Texas Rangers, Toronto Blue Jays, Washington Nationals

Tagged arizona diamondbacks, Atlanta Braves, BALTIMORE ORIOLES, baseball name origins, Baseball origins, boston red sox, Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, cincinnati red stockings, Cincinnati Reds, cleveland indians, Colorado Rockies, DETROIT TIGERS, florida marlins, Houston Astros, kansas city royals, los angeles angels, Los Angeles Dodgers, Milwaukee Brewers, minnesota twins, New York Giants, new york mets, new york yankees, Oakland Athletics, philadelphia phillies, pittsburgh pirates, San Diego Padres, San Francisco Giants, Scott Allen, seattle mariners, St Louis Cardinals, Stumble, Stumbleupon, tampa bay rays, Texas Rangers, toronto blue jays, washington nationals

It Pays to Win A World Series !! How Much Did they Make??

Posted on November 29, 2012 | Leave a comment

Reprinted from SI.COM.

NEW YORK (AP) – A full postseason share for the World Series champion San Francisco Giants was worth a record $377,003, breaking the mark that had stood since the 2006 St. Louis Cardinals.

In the first year of the expansion of the playoffs from eight teams to 10, the players’ pool was a record $65.36 million, Major League Baseball said Monday. The previous mark of $59.1 million came in 2009.

The Giants split $23.5 million, voting 50 full shares, partial shares equivalent to another 11.1, and 12 cash awards. All-Star outfielder Melky Cabrera, suspended for the final 45 games of the regular season and the division series, automatically received a full share without his teammates having to make a decision.

Under baseball’s joint drug agreement, he was eligible for his share because his suspension ended in time for him to be on the active roster for a majority of the Giants’ postseason games, even though San Francisco decided not to use him. Under Major League Rule 45, he gets a full share because he was with the team from June 1 on.

Cabrera, the All-Star game MVP, became a free agent last week and agreed to a $16 million, two-year contract with Toronto.

San Francisco’s full share was up from $323,170 for the 2011 champion Cardinals and $317,631 on the 2010 Giants.

A full share on the AL champion Tigers was worth $284,275, up from $251,516 for last year’s Texas Rangers.

The players’ pool included 50 percent of the gate receipts from the two wild card games, and 60 percent from the first three games of each division series and the first four games of each league championship series and the World Series.

Full shares were worth $122,558 for the Cardinals, $115,065 for the New York Yankees, $37,865 for the Cincinnati Reds, $37,045 for the Washington Nationals, $34,826 for the Baltimore Orioles, $34,325 for the Oakland Athletics, $19,609 for the Atlanta Braves and $16,999 for the Rangers.

Shares are split among the 10 postseason teams. In the past, they were divided among the eight playoff teams and the four second-place teams that failed to reach the postseason.

Giants Players Get Record $377,003 World Series Share (sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com)
Giants’ World Series Share A Record $377,003 (philadelphia.cbslocal.com)
6 Things You May Not Know About the World Series (history.com)
Giants’ World Series share a record $377,003 (espn.go.com)

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Posted in A1 Baseball, General, Atlanta Braves, Baltimore Orioles, Cincinnati Reds, Detroit Tigers, Oakland Athletics, San Francisco Giants, St. Louis Cardinals, Texas Rangers, Washington Nationals

Tagged Cincinnati Reds, Major League Baseball, Melky Cabrera, new york yankees, Oakland Athletics, San Francisco, Texas Rangers, World Series, World Series Salaries

“Comeback Kings” The San Francisco Giants

Posted on November 12, 2012 | Leave a comment

“Comeback Kings” The Book

I couldn’t wait to get my hands on this book; it arrived Saturday and I read it in its entirety Sunday. All of the 2010 World Series “picture books” are in my library so this was a welcome addition. The full-page color photo’s are worth the price of the book and if you live in the Bay Area you’ve probably seen them before in the Mercury News or Oakland Tribune. Good stuff! Back in 2010 Andrew Baggarly, or Baggs as he’s fondly referred to by the locals, was the lead sportswriter and his monument to the season is captured in his book “Band of Misfits”. But Baggs is nowhere to be found in the “Comeback Kings” since he left the organization and is now part of the Comcast group. He’s replaced by Alex Pavlovic and a troupe of other sportswriters who definitely hold their own.

“By the time the Giants were done throwing haymakers, their hands were being fitted for championship rings.”

This is a great line by Pavlovic. Wish I could write like that.

: SF Chronicle “Torture to Rapture” Book

My favorite 2010 World Series pictorial was from the SF Chronicle “Torture to Rapture”. And it’s still probably my most favorite. I’m sure they’ll come out with another for the 2012 season, but for sure the “Comeback Kings” is a great read for those of us who can’t get enough of these kids and quite simply just don’t want the season to end!

I mean what are you supposed to do when your main source of entertainment is put on hold? If you’re Rogers Hornsby, you stare out the window and wait for spring. And that’s just about it folks.

But don’t forget the added bonus this year ~ 2013 World Baseball Classic, March 2 thru March 19 at AT&T Park in San Francisco, CA.

“Comeback Kings” Bay Area News Group. Published Nov 2012, Available from Triumph Books and Major Book Retailers.

Giants Complete Huge Comeback (aol.sportingnews.com)
Giants victory parade set for Halloween (sfgate.com)
Tim Kawakami: San Francisco Giants’ Barry Zito, Tim Lincecum find redemption (mercurynews.com)
World Series: San Francisco Giants get the ultimate thank you (mercurynews.com)
City of San Francisco Sure Knows How to Parade!! (garlicfriesandbaseball.wordpress.com)

World Series: San Francisco Giants get the ultimate thank you (mercurynews.com)
City of San Francisco Sure Knows How to Parade!! (garlicfriesandbaseball.wordpress.com)

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Posted in A1 Baseball, General, Cincinnati Reds, Detroit Tigers, San Francisco Giants, St. Louis Cardinals

Tagged 2010 World Series, alex pavlovic, Andrew Baggarly, AT&T Park, Band of Misfits, Comcast, Oakland Tribune, San Francisco, San Francisco Bay Area, San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Giants, San Jose Mercury News, Torture to Rapture, World Baseball Classic

The Morning After ….. from a Fan’s Perspective.

Posted on October 29, 2012 | 2 comments

I love the morning after. My morning coffee and the sports page ~ one of the joys of my life. This morning I read the sports page with great intensity, devoured every word and then turned to my trusty PC, starting with the major sports media and ending up with the baseball blogs. And here’s the one that really struck my fancy. “Letter from a Disappointed Fan.” It was a good read and I could relate. I’ve been there. But in 2010 my team won the World Series and my perspective changed. I was ecstatic, in heaven, loved everything and everybody. Life was good, no it was great! I’ll never forget that feeling because I still have it, it’s still there. So this year to be perfectly honest when we made the playoffs it was really nice, but it wasn’t the same, especially when we were down 3-1 to the Cardinals and it was okay. I mean we’d already won the World Series so I was okay with that. I really thought the Nats or Reds would take the Division this year anyhow and that was my mindset and it was okay, since they had the better records.

Miguel Cabrera 2004 World Series

So we made it to the World Series again and, to tell you the truth, I really like the Detroit Tigers. I like their players, their manager and their fans. I’ve been a Miguel Cabrera fan since, as a rookie with the Florida Marlins, he helped whoop the Yankees into submission in the 2003 World Series, and now this year he’s won the Triple Crown. How cool is that? The same goes for Justin Verlander. I think he’s a real asset to baseball. He’s a great role model for our kids and his persona during the first game of this World Series says it all. I wrote about him last week “Paper Tigers Tamed by a Panda and a Bear”. And of course Prince Fielder. Seems like he’s always been around, always has and always will be. Just a lot of fun to watch. And these Detroit fans are the same ones who gave Umpire Jim Joyce a standing ovation the day after he blew a call that cost the Tiger pitcher, Armando Galarraga, a perfect game, because he was forthright and honest to immediately ‘fess up to his error. Class.

So last night during the post game shows (sometimes they’re more fun than the game) I heard Jim Leyland say this.

“They were better than we were,” Leyland said, “and you can’t say anything different. I mean, if it goes seven games and you lose the seventh game on a freak play or something, you might say, well, we were as good as they were. But in this series, we were not as good as they were. The Giants beat us. They did a fantastic job. They’re the world champions and they deserve to be the world champions.”

Detroit’s Jim Leyland

And you can’t forget Jim Leyland. How can you not love these Tigers? Did you ever during one play, one at bat, during this World Series see or hear anything negative or unsportsmanlike out of any of these guys? I sure didn’t (well, maybe after the game or in the dugout, but nothing for public display). Here’s a team that beat the stuffing out of the New York Yankees in the ALCS chase for the pennant. They beat them bad. They beat them four games in a row in a best of 7 series. So of course there was genuine disappointment on the Tigers team but they played with class and they lost with class.

So this morning I was really super happy that my San Francisco Giants had won their second World Series in three years. It was great! And, from this fan’s perspective, it was equally great (well, almost) witnessing the first class Detroit Tigers standing tall in their defeat, gentlemen to the end. And,really, isn’t that what it’s all about? It is from this fan’s perspective.

Leyland’s career comes full circle (triblive.com)
Leyland: This Is What You Try To Get To (detroit.cbslocal.com)
Game 1. Paper Tigers Tamed by a Panda and a Bear (Barry Zito that is)! (garlicfriesandbaseball.wordpress.com)

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Posted in A1 Baseball, General, Detroit Tigers, San Francisco Giants

Tagged 2012 World Series, a fan's perspective, class act, DETROIT TIGERS, florida marlins, Jim Leyland, Justin Verlander, Miguel Cabrera, new york yankees, Prince Fielder, San Francisco Giants, World Series

Game 2. Waiting for the Ball to go Foul!

Posted on October 25, 2012 | Leave a comment

Sung to the tune of “Waiting for the Robert E. Lee.

See it rolling along, See it rolling along. Now watch it roll left, and roll right, and roll right up the middle, I said right up the middle.

We’re waiting for the ball to go foul. Waiting for the ball to go foul.  By god it’s changed course, yes, changed course. And isn’t that just dandy? The fans are yelling grandly.

We’re waiting for the ball to go foul. Waiting for the ball to go foul. But the umpire calls it fair and we’re all standing there, while Gregor Blanco’s standing on first!

                                                     Ronni Redmond

In the end, there were no Tigers or Pandas or Barry’s. Just a couple of Giants scoring a couple of runs while a couple of pitchers showed us a fine duel right up to the 6th inning. Actually we spent most of the game holding our breath, waiting for something to happen. And it finally did, in the 8th inning. The Giants won a slow and lazy Game 2 by the score of 2-0.

But that crazy foul ball fiasco in the 7th inning was pretty funny. The ball rolled slowly off Gregor Blanco’s bat, up toward the 3rd base line with Detroit’s catcher Laird trotting along behind, and then joined by the pitcher, the 3rd baseman and the shortstop all bent over, waiting for the ball to go foul, watching the little baseball slowly weave it’s way up about 40 feet where it came slowly to rest ~ inside the base line. Fair ball. Blanco’s safe at first and, at least to this Giants fan, it was really pretty comical.

And except for the fact that both Madison Bumgarner and Doug Fister pitched outstanding games, it didn’t have the same intensity as Game 1, which is a good thing. I mean, who can keep up that pace? You can read the highlights below. But you’ll have to sing my little song above to really enjoy that foul ball scenario.

Game 3 moves to Detroit on Friday with the Giants leading the Series 2-0.

Giants edge Tigers to take 2-0 World Series lead (cbc.ca)

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Posted in A1 Baseball, General, Detroit Tigers, San Francisco Giants

Tagged Foul ball, Gerald Laird, Robert E. Lee, San Francisco Giants

Game 1 Continued. “Will Bamboo Be Declared a PED?”

Posted on October 25, 2012 | 1 comment

“Verlander Meets the Panda”

Whoa! Sorry. I just couldn’t resist this picture sent via Facebook by Dan Schlossberg with his caption “Wonder if bamboo will be declared a PED?”

Don’t worry though. We know Justin Verlander is safe and sound in the Visitor’s Dugout at AT&T Park tonight. But I thought I should post this for the benefit of tonight’s starting pitcher, Doug Fister. You just can’t be too careful these days.

Game 1. Paper Tigers Tamed by a Panda and a Bear (Barry Zito that is)! (garlicfriesandbaseball.wordpress.com)
Panda-monium reigns as Giants win opener (1070thefan.com)
HBT: Don’t blame Tigers’ layoff; blame Verlander (hardballtalk.nbcsports.com)
Sandoval’s 3 homers lead Giants to Game 1 win (scores.espn.go.com)

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Posted in A1 Baseball, General, Detroit Tigers, San Francisco Giants

Tagged AT&T Park, bamboo, Barry Zito, DETROIT TIGERS, Doug Fister, Facebook, Justin Verlander, Pablo Sandoval, panda, San Francisco Giants

Game 1. Paper Tigers Tamed by a Panda and a Bear (Barry Zito that is)!

Posted on October 24, 2012 | 4 comments

So today I’m making a huge batch of caramel corn getting ready to settle in for the first game of the World Series, and still pinching myself trying to figure out how the Giants ended up in the series. It wasn’t supposed to be this way. I had it all figured out a few months ago that either Washington or Cincinnati would be representing the NL this week and I was fine with that. I mean spread it around. I’m still reveling in our 2010 World Series victory and nothing will ever take that away.

But fate intervened and the San Francisco Giants survived the regular season and so it begins. Tim McCarver was in usual form and talked non-stop for five minutes about the miraculous powers of the unbeatable, unstoppable Justin Verlander, pitcher for the Detroit Tigers, and the additional weapons in the form of Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder. And I agreed. I figured we’d lose the first game for sure, and probably the next two also, and then win the last four in a row. I don’t know why, but that’s the way the Giants have been doing things in San Francisco lately.

“Barry Zito 1st Game 2012 World Series”

You all know I don’t write about the game per se, or the scoreboard or statistics because they’re so readily available but there’s always some little thing that stands out, something that grabs my attention. And there was a lot of that surrounding those wild and crazy Giants tonight; Pablo Sandoval’s incredible first three at bats ending in three home runs, Barry Zito’s revival with one of the best curve balls in the game (what a performance!) and Gregor Blanco’s two incredible diving catches in right field and much more as they came together perfectly as a team.

“Verlander with pitching coach, Jeff Jones, in 3rd Inning”

But I’m still smiling when I think of Justin Verlander standing on the mound in the bottom of the 4th inning, when Manager Jim Leyland walked out of the dugout, to the mound, and asked Verlander for the ball. All the time Leyland was walking from the dugout towards Verlander, the cameras were on Verlander and all that time he had a smile on his face. And it wasn’t a smirk. It was a smile as if to say, “Wow, where the hell did these guys come from?” because I think he was just as surprised as the rest of us were. I’m a Giants fan and I’m sure I’m supposed to act like I knew they were going to do this, but I didn’t. I don’t think anyone did, except maybe the Giants themselves. I’ll bet the bookies in Vegas were sweating through the entire game because when I read the odds in the paper this morning it said “Tigers over Giants ~ Odds: -178, or something like that. I don’t even know what that means? Who’s ever seen odds like that anyway? This is the same Tiger team who beat the New York Yankees in 4 straight games in best of 7 this year to win the AL Pennant and get to this World Championship Series.

What I liked about Verlander’s attitude was his calm, cool and in-control demeanor. Here’s a guy that’s a two-time Cy Young winner, had an incredible season and is probably used to everyone patronizing him and agreeing with everything he says and does. But he didn’t appear angry or upset or anything, even though I’m sure he was disappointed. He appeared to take it all in stride, like “It’s okay. I’ll get them next time”. And there’s a good chance he will. And with a smile he walked to the dugout to watch the rest of the game.

I love my Giants and they played a fantastic game tonight, and I’ll watch it again, maybe twice, before I go to bed. And tonight they beat the Detroit Tigers fair and square by a score of 8-3. But I sure wasn’t expecting it. It was a surprise.

And I sure hope I’m surprised three more times just like this in the remaining games of the 2012 World Series. Way to go and thank you Giants. Whatta game it was!