The world of baseball will never be the same
after this the “steroid era”20 years later
we remember the first home run by the
man that introduced steroids to Major League
Baseball, born in Regla(a little town on the other
side of Havana Bay) Cuba, José Canseco.

José Canseco was named the Minor League
Player of the Year in 1985 when he went from
AA Huntsville to AAA Tacoma batting .333
with 36 home runs and 127 runs batted in
in just 118 games. His home runs in Huntsville
were legendary.

By Amaury Pi-González

Click below for more of Amaury’s interesting retrospective article.
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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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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.
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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 →]

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.
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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 →]

I agree with Felipe Alou,manager of the
San Francisco Giants in turning down
Larry Krueger’s apology after what he
said about Caribbean Giants players
and talking about Felipe Alou
and in the same sentence Cream Of Wheat.

By Amaury Pi-Gonzalez [Read more →]

Marty; No one will contend that this has been an enjoyable year for the fans, management, or the players. Very early on, this page offered the opinion that the team was going nowhere this season. Clearly, looking at 13 games under five hundred, that opinion was justified. However, at the end of the day, August 6th, there is reason to continue watching this team, with interesting speculation concerning the future.

Click below for more on the Giants and their renewed optimism.

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Here is one way of solving the Athletics
attendance problem.
Just get Barry Bonds to play for the
A’s and make him the Designated Hitter,
he will be playing at 42 years old
in the Bay Area and drawing many
fans from all corners of the Bay.

By Amaury Pi-González [Read more →]