Big players step up in big games. There are no bigger games played during the baseball season then the contests played during the stretch drive.

In 2000, Jason Giambi carried the A’s through the final month leading the team to its first division championship since 1992.

In 1967, Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski hit over .500 in an out- of- this- world last twelve games leading the Red Sox to its “Impossible Dream” pennant. [Read more →]

Marty; It is past time to stop dreaming about the chances of the Giants competing in the playoffs. They aren’t going to sweep their next twenty or so games and that is what it would take. Is there any hope for next year?

It is too early to contemplate with any reasonable degree of certainty what 2006 will look like. However, it is not too early to examine the evident weaknesses of this team and the steps needed to turn it back into an interesting club. It doesn’t take one with a graduate degree in some sort of analysis to talk about this year’s failings.

Click below for more of Ed’s realistic analysis of the Giants.
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There is no more exciting time in sports than the stretch drive in baseball. It’s the time of year that the tension built up over the grind of the six month season is at its highest.

A fan lives or dies with his or her favorite team on a daily basis as the clubs head for the finish line.

A world series berth seemingly hanging in the balance every game.

With that in mind let’s take a look at which teams are in the hunt and what it will take to keep them there down the stretch.

Click below for more! [Read more →]

When fans arrived for all 3 games of the recent series between the San Francisco Giants and St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium, they encountered “Sold Out” signs at all the stadium entrances. For thousands of Cardinals’ faithful, that message resembled the one they’d seen on the club’s website.

The old Busch Stadium, is sold out, shall we say, forever!

Click below for more of George Devine’s excellent story. [Read more →]

Marty; Yesterday’s game against a good St. Louis team, a game in which the Giants blew a four run lead in the ninth inning, once again raises meaningful questions. Alou’s handling of his pitching staff inevitably continues to be questioned. Additionally,and not as inevitable, from a fan’s perspective, not the perspective of a beat reporter covering the team, one questions the established trend wherein starting pitchers are not expected or even desired to go the route, and a bullpen has so-called sixth inning pitchers, seventh inning pitchers, eighth inning setup men and closers.

Clicl below for more of Ed’s story.
[Read more →]

Chicago has long been self-conscious about its
second-class status,vis-a-vis”The City”of New
York, with 4 World Series in over one hundred
years among its two teams compared to a
robust 28 World Series titles to the two teams
in the Big Apple.

By Amaury Pi-González [Read more →]

by Glenn Dickey
Aug 18, 2005

THE OAKLAND A’S started miserably, 17-32 for their first 49 games. In their next 65 games, they won 49, a .753 pace. Now, they’ve lost four straight and five out of six.

What’s happening? It’s called baseball, the most unpredictable of our major professional sports. A team can score 12 runs one game, none the second. The best pitcher can be knocked out in three innings, and the best hitter can strike out four times in a game. That’s why they play such a long schedule because, in 162 games, the best and worst will average out. [Read more →]

Marty; In the most recent article here about the Giants as a team in transition, omitted from consideration was the team’s most urgent need, to put together a farm system that will produce players capable of winning at the major league level. This is not a one year effort nor is it designed to immediately come up with results which will guarantee success in the immediate future. It must be a long term commitment.

The place to look, if one is contemplating a change in the way this franchise has operated in the past and the radical new look demanded is Atlanta. Rather than using the Giants as the example of how not to operate let’s take a look at the Mets, by way of comparison. The Giants’ problems this year are too easy a target with which to make a comparison.

Click below more.
[Read more →]

Only three games under his belt the 19 year old
native of Valencia,Venezuela has won his first
two starts at Safeco Field and in 16 innings
he has pitched at home has allowed only 1 run and
fanned 17.
There is a buzz in Seattle when this kid pitches
and that is good and for the Venezuelan teen
is “muy divertido” -a lot of fun-.
This kid doesn’t pitch like he is 19, he
throws a 98 mph fastball then he comes
in with an 80-something change up and
“adios hitter” gone !
This is important here. The Mariners finished
last in 2004 but they still had the record
setting season of Ichiro Susuki who finished
with 262 hits a new MLB record. So this season
the Felix Hernandez story brings some excitement
to another lost season and this is good for the
team, the front office, the fans in Seattle.

By Amaury Pi-Gonzalez
Seattle [Read more →]

The 2005 playoffs promise to be better than ever.

Just imagine this.

The A’s win the West. The Angels are the wild card team. Boston and Chicago claim the final two October spots.

Red Sox – A’s open in Oakland. What a match up. The big booming Boston bats against the dynamic duo of Rich Harden and Barry Zito.

Click below for more! [Read more →]