August 15, 2011 in Atlanta, GA

"Sometimes I think it's a sin when I feel like I'm winning when I'm losing again."  Gordon Lightfoot

On August 15, 2011, the San Francisco Giants were in Atlanta, Georgia, to play the Braves. Game time was the time I started getting ready for school (6pm-9:50pm).  My dial was tuned in to KNBR680AM.

This is how the game went for me on Monday:

The Braves had Tim Hudson on the hill.  Cody Ross led off for the Giants and hit a roller to an infielder who made the throw to first-base in time for out number 1. Jeff Keppinger beat out an infield hit to the third baseman.  Pablo Sandoval came up and promptly fouled a pitch straight down off of his foot. He managed to tough it out and was able to hit a grounder the fielder caught but made a poor throw to get the force at second base. One out, two men on.  Huff got out. I don't recall how but he was out number 2.  Nate Schierholtz walked to load the bases. Up came Brandon Belt, fresh off his two-homer game in Florida. He promptly popped out to shallow center field. Giants-0  Braves-coming to bat.

Braves would be facing Madison Bumgarner.
Brian McCann, the third place hitter hit one out of the yard. At the end of one inning, Braves-1  Giants-0.

It was time to shower. When I got back it was Jon Miller saying, "At the end of two innings it's the Braves-2  Giants-0."

While I'm getting dressed all I remember hearing was Jon Miller and Dave Fleming bantering about Joe West's strike zone, or lack thereof.  (Joe West is the same skeebozo who umpired behind the plate at AT&T on July 22 with the Brewers in town. On that night West struggled with the strike zone much the same way a one-legged person would be at a disadvantage in an ass-kicking contest.)

The game became secondary when I began to get dressed for school.  I know I have approximately 30-45 to get to school at 875 Howard Street in San Francisco. I supposed the fifteen minute difference in guesstimation has to do with what is being wired into my ears through the walkman radio I hold in my hands.

As I'm walking down Valencia toward 16th, 15th, 14th streets the loose connection in the wire of my headphones didn't allow me to keep a pitch-by-pitch account of the game. All I knew is when I stopped to fuss with the wire and had to hold the radio a particular way so the wire worked, it was still Braves-2  Giants-0.

Meanwhile, I'm crossing over to South Van Ness under the overpass to where Howard runs into Van Ness and I am told by Dave Fleming that the Giants have a couple of baserunners.  Moments later Brandon Belt was hit by a pitch.  Bases loaded. I didn't know how many outs there were until after Orlando Cabrera flew out to deep left field and Fleming said it was good that Schierholtz moved from second to third on the play because the Giants could get another run by doing the same thing.  And sure enough, Eli Whiteside flied out deep enough to allow Nate to skate home for their second run. I'm not sure of the inning but when the Giants made out number three it was Braves-2,  Giants-2.

I arrive at school to talk to a couple of people to get my plans updated.  When I was done updating my information it wasn't quite 6pm, so I turned the game back on.  At the end of blah-blah inning it's Giants-3, Braves -2.  Didn't know the inning, but it had to be past the 6th, and the Giants were ahead.

Our first break in class is usually after the first hour. So I brought up SFGiants.com and saw that the Giants had a 4-2 lead over the Braves and it was the 8th inning. My first thought was, 'We need 6 outs."

After the next break I see, FINAL SCORE  Braves-5  Giants-4.  Look up the line score and see that the Bearded One , as Jon Miller is wont to call him, got lit up in the 9th.  Brian "Help Me Rhonda" Wilson gave up 3 runs. That's going to happen.

I was thinking what Mike Fontenot would do now that Pablo was removed because of the foul off the foot.  But then I thought of how many times an opponent of the Giants would be removed from the game and his replacement came in and tore it up. So I thought Fontenot was capable of contributing.  Sure enough, it was Fontenot's homer that made it 4-2.

This team has a lot of heart.  They are under-manned due to the injuries but they put up the good fight.

Go Giants!

Kevin J. Marquez