Fighting Hydrants

Those of you who date back to Giants Vision, long before it became FSN, know that those who announce the game have fun with everything.

Right around the time there was a sign in right field counting down the number of days until moving to PacBell /AT&T Park, Duane Kuiper and Mike Krukow came up with a nifty label for a couple of spark plugs on the then Giants roster. Marvin Benard, (Dusty's boy) and F.P. Santangelo were always hustling and crashing into walls so the Kruk/Kuip combo came up with the Fighting Hydrants.

In one of my old VCR tapes there was a sign: Fighting Hydrants and on it was a sketch of FP, Marvin and Stan Javier. Kruk and Kuip laughed and said how Stan Javier wasn't considered a Hydrant because he was of regular stature and not sawed-off like FP and Marvin "appeared" to be. (All in good fun is the mantra for those yuksters' Kruk and Kuip. Listen to the Rap after each game on the radio. It's a hoot, especially when the Giants are winning. Jon Miller, Dave Fleming and Greg Papa all get into the act. It's Vaudevillian)

I agree with the sign maker. It's not about the height, it's all about the effort.

Tom Seaver: "If you don't think baseball is a big deal, don't play it. But if you do, play it right."

This 2007 Giants has some young Hydrants breaking onto the scene. They are contributing and its fun to see the diving and zipping around done by Dan Ortmeier, Freddie Lewis and Kevin Frandsen. And ya know, when Pedro Feliz is hitting his defensive game is solid. He has this swagger that exudes hydrant. It's as if nothing can stop him and that "no think" thing goes away. It's fleeting, as is fame, but it sure is fun to watch.

Ortmeier reminds me of Kenny Henderson. A player who came up in the mid 1960s along with Downtown Ollie Brown. A couple of years later, Barry's dad, Bobby came onto the scene. Henderson was a switch-hitter who could fly. His arm was pretty decent too!

kevin marquez