Remembering and Not Recognizing

Todd Jones, a closer, who has a weekly column in the Sporting News, gave thanks to Jerome Holtzman in the August 4, 2008 edition of TSN.

For you movie buffs, Jerome Holtzman looked like a cross between Ed Begley and Sheldon Leonard. He was a Chicago-based writer who also wrote for the Sporting News, when it was strictly a baseball paper. Back then it had baseball card like photos of the hottest player in the game, each week. In fact, the phote was so good it would have been a great idea had I saved the covers because they were far better than baseball card photos and those phony stances with the bat and awaiting a ground ball that used to be in vogue. These photos were in such living color that you felt like you were there and could smell the freshly mown grass of the field.( Note: If the photo was taken on astroturf, you could smell the nearest hot dog and cigar.)

Todd Jones goes on to say: Relievers are indebted to Mr. Holtzman because he introduced the save statistic to baseball.

Mr. Holtzman was ahead of his time. He realized just as many games were won or lost late as early. He noticed that some guys were coming into games a lot more often than others when the outcome was on the line. He decided there needed to be a way to quantify what those guys were doing. And finally, he was able to sell his idea to Major League Baseball (MLB).

In a way, the save laid the groundwork for the entire evolution of the bullpen. The save shed light on the guys in front of the closer because without the 8th (inning) there is no 9th (inning), without the 7th there is no 8th...

I agree with everything Todd Jones says. Unfortunately, Holtzman's fellow writers are having a tough time assimilating this because the closer isn't getting a whole lot of love when it comes time to vote for Hall of Fame stoppers. How can this be? Are they jealous of Holtzman because they think the save stat ruined the game because starters barely pitch 6 innings nowadays? Why let that fact get in the way of what is happening and judge a player by his standards between the lines of play because that's what being Hall of Fame worthy is all about. The complete game will come back, give it time. (San Francisco has a pitcher, Tim Lincecum, who will see to that.)

The writers just prove how inept they are when they don't vote for a player based on how that player changed the game or made those playing with him change their game because of said player. Only players know which players did this to them and their peers. That is WHY I say remove the writers from having the authority and privilege in saying who is and is not worthy. Because the majority of writers aren't worthy of such a privilege as voting for who belongs in the hallowed halls.

Most writers vote based on popularity. They don't care that batters had to constantly make adjustments or change their whole approach because of what a particular pitcher did to their comfort level when facing that pitcher. Or vice versa, if that player was a batter, the pitcher may have had to change his whole philosophy because everything he tried seemed to fail. So at long last the pitcher either elected to intentionally walk the batter or made sure no runners were on before that batter came to the plate.

When you play the game of baseball differently than what brought you success - just to avoid having to challenge this particular opponent- you cannot possibly be comfortable in your surroundings therefore unusual results are bound to happen. Usually in unfamiliar and uncomfortable settings an athlete doesn't get his/her desired results. This brings up the question: How many players would have had a real good shot at being Hall of Fame worthy had they not ran into these type of players often enough where all of these unnatural adjustments affected the numbers necessary to even be considered for the Hall of Fame?

You cannot vote a player into a hallowed place like the Hall of Fame based on popularity. Politics and voting for Hall of Fame worthy candidates do not mix. Please, leave your hurt feelings at home or in the closet- with all your other disjointed personal problems-where they belong, you cry baby writers.

Isn't it enough that your whining (about certain ballplayers) finally gets some owners, those Good Ole Boys so near and dear to you because you all grab each others ass until finally these ballplayers aren't allowed to play in the Big Leagues ever again.

Big Leagues, wow, what a misnomer that is. Because there is nothing Big League about the behavior of Good Ole Boy owners and cry-baby writers who couldn't get the respect of the player because the player wanted no part of playing any game other than baseball.


Kevin Marquez

Tyler Walker To Most Fans is The FLUSH

Mike Krukow, former pitcher who is currently the Giants' television broadcaster and contributor to the post-game Wrap, refers to Tyler Walker as the Bulldog or Polar Bear 'out there on the mound.' Not me. All I can think of -when his name is announced- is the FLUSHing of the toilet. Because it's time to relieve myself.

Robb Nen had "Smoke on the Water" piped in over the loud speakers upon his entrance. Perhaps it's a bit of a takeoff from the movie Major Leagues. Whenever Ricky Vaughn was called upon for relief the song Wild Thing (by the Troggs...I prefer the Jimi Hendrix version) was played. Shortly thereafter, many pitchers took note and picked a song they felt best described them on the mound.

Tyler Walker doesn't deserve the right to make a choice. His efforts make this fan, yours truly, think the Polar Bear should hear the sound effects of several toilets flushing as he approaches the mound. Lose the name of Polar Bear because he's Tyler "the FLUSH" Walker. When he toes the slab, the Giants' chances of staying in the game or remaining in the lead generally get flushed down the drain.

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In blogging baseball, a weekly section of Sports Weekly, the August 6-12 edition talked to a blogger about the Colorado Rockies. One of the questions was: Are you embarrassed by the quality of the NL West? The answer: The folks who should be embarrassed are the front offices: The Diamondbacks for trading Carlos Quentin, the Padres for not realizing you have to score runs to win games, the Rockies for not reinvesting all the extra ticket money last year's run brought and the Dodgers for persistently shooting themselves in the foot despite much greater financial resource.

A page over is MLB report. Power rankings.
At #27 is the San Francisco Giants. It merely states: scored fewest runs in baseball in July.

No mention of the Giants only proves nobody expected much from the orange and black. That's why it is imperative the Gigantes come out of this season with a couple of every-day players out of it and it looks like they got their closer. No longer is it Brian Wouldn't It Be Nice Wilson, it's Brian Don't Worry Baby Wilson.

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Finally in the Giants' minors watch it mentions something about Garrett Broshuis, 26, had won six consecutive decisions for Class AA (Norwich) Connecticut before suffering a loss Sunday. He fell to 12-7 with a 3.60 ERA in 22 starts. Last year at Connecticut he went 3-17 in 26 starts despite a respectable 3.88 ERA.

What it didn't mention was that Garrett Broshuis is a part-time columnist for Sporting News who just so happened to face David "Big Papi" Ortiz during Ortiz' rehab stint and struck out Big Papi.

As it says in the Sporting News...for more of Garrett Broshuis' experiences in the minors, go to sportingnews.com.


(thanks to Sports Weekly and the Sporting News)

Kevin Marquez

Trade Deadline IS a Misnomer

Sports Weekly's August 6-12, 2008 issue did an article on the top 5 LOPSided trades, not including the Orlando Cepeda to St.Louis Cardinals for Ray Sadecki trade (which was on May 8, 1965).

1) June 15, 1964: Cubs trade Lou Brock to the St. Louis Cardinals.

2) July 28, 1995: Blue Jays trade right-hander, David Cone, to the NY Yankees for Marty Janzen and two minor league prospects. Damn, if they name Marty and not the other two one can only imagine who the other two guys were. Bet they aren't talking about it unless some obscure trivia buff happens to know who they are... (Jason Jarvis and Mike Gordon). Whoa! that's scary stuff, eh?

3) 7/31/1997; The A's trade Mark McGwire to St. Louis Cardinals for RHP's: Blake Stein, T.J. Mathews and Eric Ludwick (the brother of Ryan, #47, on the current Redbird roster).

4) 7/18/1993; Padres trade Fred McGriff to Braves for OF-Mel Nieves, RHP-Donnie Elliott and minor league OF (why'd he get that rap?): Vince Moore. If any Giants' fan ever wants a reason to despise the Padres, or Madres per my buddy Rook, just check out this trade. It was as if the general manager had a bug up his ass where the Gigantes were concerned. He just couldn't let the orange and black run away with the division so he did what he thought he had to do to prevent that from happening. And Fred McGriff was so unbelievably hot that this run of McGriff's just may get him a key to Cooperstown, NY.

5) 7/30/2004; Mets trade LHP Scott Kazmir and RHP Jose Diaz to DevilRays for RHPs Victor Zambrano and Bartolome Not So Fortunato.

(thanks to Sports Weekly and Baseball Reference for knowledge on the David Cone and Mark McGwire trades.)

Kevin Marquez

Umpire Phobia...Coping with the Men in Blue

Is it possible today's player will have to go through periods of Umpire Phobia? A condition caused by having to cope with the inconsistent, tenuous, unconscionable, arbitrary, irresponsible, undependable, unpredictable and incompetent game officials known in baseball as umpires.

Who would have thought of such a thing? But umpiring has become such a faltering skill that these high-priced athletes are having to deal with something no generation before them has had to be mentally prepared for. Used to be you had to have a book on the opposing players but now, especially if you are a pitcher, you had better have an idea of the umpires' tendencies or you will have a difficult time coping with his antics on that day.

This may be young Giant left-hander, Jonathan Sanchez' biggest problem. He has a most difficult time accepting the attitudes of these arbiters in blue.

I have no access to the locker room. I am just a casual observer and I can see the ever-changing facial countenance of Jonathan Sanchez when he throws a pitch that makes a strike on K-Zone but not from the fellow behind the catcher. Sanchez is young and still perfecting his craft and he has to ask himself, is that erratic strike zone always going to exist? Why can't the people assigned the task of adhering to the rules, those deemed to be the ambassadors of the rules, whose sole purpose of existing is their assurance that the rules WILL be followed according to the book, do what they were hired to do?

Managers, more than ever have to pay close attention to the attitudes of their players and seek help whenever necessary. With all the money involved in this kids game the pressures are enormous. And if your livelihood is being determined by some calorically-challenged-buffoonery-in-blue you just might flip.

It's the 21st century and the times they are a changing.

Kevin Marquez

Charles Theodore Davis was Chili with a "Y" in San Francisco

Charles Theodore Davis, "Chili" in the baseball world, born in Kingston, Jamaica, was Chilly and not Chili while wearing the orange and black.

I got to thinking about this when viewing one of the Giants' greatest games as voted by their fans. So I looked up his career statistics and they are impressive but not worthy of Hall of Fame induction. Although, Chili Davis did come away with 3 World Series rings.

In Chili's career during the regular season these are his totals:
G-2436 AB-8673 R-1240 H-2380 HR-350 RBI-1372 AVG. .274

His postseason record was immaculate sans the 1987 loss by the Giants to the Cardinals in 7 games.

In 1991, as a Minnesota Twin, the Twins defeated the Atlanta Braves in 7 games.
In 1998, as a New York Yankee, the Yanks swept the San Diego Padres in 4 games.
In 1999, as a Yankee, the Yankees again swept their opponent, America's team per their Superstation plug, the Atlanta Braves.

But as a Giant, this player with a solid career was just Chilly Davis.

(thanks to Baseball-Reference.com for the numbers)

Kevin Marquez

A Couple of Phenoms are Opening Special Assistant-Felipe Alou's Eyes

According to Felipe Alou, the one-time player and later manager of your San Francisco Giants, Angel Villalona needed to gain some familiarity with the team concept. After all, he was signed as a 16-year phenom with no knowledge of such things needing to occur for him to put his bat on the ball or use his glove to snag an on-coming ball off the bat of an opponent.

You know how that is, we all learn things according to how it befits our part in the matter. Not until we realize it's necessary do we even bother with such things.

"There's a lot of stuff they don't know they have to learn as professionals," said the elder statesman, Felipe Alou.

Villalona was signed as a 16-year old two years ago, entered Monday (July 28th) batting .247, with 12-HRs and 43-RBI. A more impressive stat was that he only struck out 92 times in 344 at-bats.

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Pablo Sandoval, who went from dominating Class A pitching at San Jose (.359, 12-HR, 59-RBI in 68 games) to crushing Double A (AA) at Connecticut (.342, 6-HR, 26-RBI in 27 games).

As for the future of the San Francisco Giants...Hope Springs Eternal.

(thanks to the Giant's web site for the aforementioned info)

Kevin Marquez

No Habla Means I Did Not Know, to Some...For Shame (Nobody Signed Barry Bonds)

How ironic that in a season where it may appear to paying customers, also known as fans, that they aren't getting what they paid for (when entering AT&T Park) that a story about the Giant's Triple A club, has Fresno Grizzlies' pitcher Julio Mateo, being arrested for paying his cab fare with a counterfeit $100 bill.

According to a police report, officers later found other $100 bills in Mateo's room. As they approached Mateo, before saying a thing as to why they were approaching Julio Mateo, Mateo blurted out how he knew nothing about the hundred dollar bills. In the words of a schoolmate, Busted!

As a check casher I encountered this situation on several occasions. And in every one the customer claimed to "not know English" as if they misunderstood something I said or throughout the whole process of us calling the police (to come into our store and apprehend these "innocents") they begged for the bogus bill back.

This story about Julio Mateo is exactly what happened in every one of our incidents. The police know a few tricks to get the guilty to incriminate themselves so as to be implicated of a crime. Years of practice has taught them just how to set the bait and wait. How's the Wham song go... guilty feet have got no rhythm (or patience).

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I just cannot understand why a team who says they want to win would not give Barry Bonds a shot to help them to the promised land. All the nonsense with Manny Ramirez being Manny is so tired and the idea that Manny dogged it just to get his way and he got it... I don't know why Barry is so disrespected. My only thought is that Barry has the respect of the players just not those anal retentive people with pens, known as writers. People who never knew what it was like to put on a uniform or were jealous of those who did, even if it went as far back as the athlete getting out of school early.

The Yankees, Rays, and La Russa's Cardinals (earlier in the year LaRussa gave us his 'I talked to the front office but...' statement, just so he could be "in the clear." Politics in sports, you must be leary of those who practice it because they are the ones who cause the congestion that turns into traffic that goes nowhere.

Writers have too much say if they can convince the Good Ole Boys of Baseball to avoid the plague that supposedly, to the hacks, is Barry Bonds.

It's a shame. If Ted Williams were alive he'd tell all the writers and people of influence what an injustice they were doing just as he did in his Hall of Fame induction speech. 'Cause all you hacks know the Splendid Splinter didn't care for your conduct since you weren't out there between the lines giving it your all like you were sucking down the sudsy libations and choking down cigar after cigar. Your blurred perspectives somehow got some Good Ole boys' attention because you've been riding that cab, at their expense, ever since.

What is truly unfortunate is that even though the Big Leagues goes out of its way to kiss the African-American's buttocks -what with the retirement of Jackie Robinson's jersey number (42) and posthumous inductions of Negro League ballplayers- the fact still remains that the BIG LEAGUES is still very prejudiced over who it takes care of and who it could care less about.

For shame, major league baseball. Not allowing Barry Bonds to play any more because your narrow-minded, short-sighted GOOD OLE BOYS colluded to keep Barry from doing something he loved. You kept a man from something he did better than most because you couldn't stand the fact that he was so good he didn't have to kiss your buttocks, whatever color ('cause I'm sure there are other ethnicities besides the lily white variety).



Kevin Marquez