Marty–Here’s something I wrote about a long-time friend of mine who died yesterday. Bob Giron worked as our equipment manager at USF for over 36 years, and his career in the Army I think went back to when Ike suited up for West Point. But he’s one of those characters you meet around sports who brought a timeless quality to every conversation and delivered genuine warmth with every handshake!

George Devine, Jr.

George thanks for the thoughtful article about a good man in the world, not just the world of sports.

Marty [Read more →]

Marty; The series with the Mets last week was encouraging in many respects, discouraging in others. The Mets are concededly one of the strongest teams in the league. The Giants more than held their own with them. They took two out of three, with a little luck could have swept them. On the other hand, Benitez almost blew two of the winning games.

Before the season began, it was the informed opinion that the West Division was the weakest division in the league. Almost sixty games have been played and the two leading teams are Arizona and LA, with the Giants tied for third, four games behind Arizona. Arizona and LA are improved clubs. If Gagne shortly comes back healthy, LA will be the club to contend with. This division has four teams over the .500 mark; the Central and East divisions have two. Arizona, last week, swept a four game series with Atlanta, on the road. The West has shown it can compete successfully.

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Rick Kaplan
Staff Writer

OAKLAND (June 6) – Oakland is 9-14 in one-run games (games decided by one run) in 2006.

The A’s have had difficulty scoring thus far, and in holding leads when they do.

Knowing this, Frank Thomas, of all people, “manufactured” the Oakland Athletics’ first run on Sunday against the Minnesota Twins.

Leading off the bottom of the second, Thomas lined a ball into the left field corner. Hustling out of the box, even if in slow motion, the Big Hurt surprised everyone at the Oakland Coliseum, including Twins’ leftfielder Lew Ford, when he set off on a gingerly jog to second base, arriving a hair before the ball.

Then, in a relative burst of speed, Thomas scored from second without as much as a throw from right field on Bobby Crosby’s line single.

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Rick Kaplan
Staff Writer

OAKLAND (June 3) – It was the 1950’s. We worshipped our baseball heroes.

We wanted to be just like them.

But to my grandfather, a tireless curmudgeon who hunted up prospects as a birddog for the Yankees and the Giants in his day, my stars were all unworthy, lazy bums.

I quietly suffered while he complained about Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, and Hank Aaron.

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I know, I know the Senate recently voted
English as the’National Language”in the
United States of America. When I arrived
in this country back in 1961 I never
thought otherwise. But anyway, Bonds
historic 715th was on the air Live in Spanish on
powerful (50,000 Watts)KLOK 1170 AM
for 62 games this season the Spanish
radio station for the San Francisco Giants.
With Erwin Higueros, Tito Fuentes, engineer
David Liu and yours truly. Tito was not working
that game.

By Amaury Pi-González [Read more →]

What’s Wrong With A’s
by Glenn Dickey
May 31, 2006

WHY ARE the A’s struggling after being picked by almost everybody to win the AL West this season?

Think of the team as a chair with just three legs intact. The fourth leg is the pitching, which should be the foundation of the team but has been racked by serious injuries. Two of the five starters are on the disabled list, Rich Harden and Esteban Loaiza. The loss of Harden is especially critical because, when he’s healthy, he may be the best pitcher in the league. But Loaiza’s loss hurts, too, because he was expected to firm up the rotation as the fourth or fifth starter. He was totally ineffective early, probably because he was injured and didn’t want to admit it.

With two starters out, the A’s have had to bring Kirk Saarloos back out of the bullpen and even use Brad Halsey, who was in Sacramento when the season began.

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Rick Kaplan
Staff Writer

OAKLAND (May 30) – Measuring greatness is tricky business.

Bill James, writing in his epic New Historical Baseball Abstract in 2001 called Craig Biggio “the best player in major league baseball today.”

Not Barry Bonds. Not Ken Griffey, Jr. Not Ichiro. Not fellow Houston Astro Jeff Bagwell.

James instructs us that we can dismiss Griffey’s 56 home runs in 1998 – Biggio had 20 – and concentrate on Biggio’s lead in doubles (51-33) and singles (137-88). By the time we are done with Biggio’s margin in steals and hit-by-pitches, Griffey has practically retreated to journeyman status on James’ mysterious index of true baseball value.

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Major League Baseball is seriously thinking of retiring Roberto Clemente’s #21 uniform
and installing the number in all 30 MLB parks
(just like Jackie Robinson’s #42).
The idea is good and this is why I think it will happen.

By Amaury Pi-González [Read more →]

Rick Kaplan
Staff Writer

OAKLAND (May 25) – If you want to get a sense of what the crowds will look like at the proposed new mallpark in Fremont, take in an Angels’ game in Anaheim, or even go right over to the Giants’ Phone Bill Park . . . But bring your sunglasses, because the white-out is more intense than in the middle of a blizzard in the High Sierra.

The Oakland Coliseum, on the other hand, hosts crowds that are among the most integrated, and least gentrified, in all of baseball . . . On May 15, The Oakland Tribune gave front page space to a sleazy voice known as asbaseballofremont.com which claims there is concern in the burbs about “the A’s bringing crime with them to Fremont” . . . Considering that many A’s fans from the Coliseum – presumably the souce of “crime” this website refers to – won’t be able to afford the tickets and the gas to get to Fremont, imaginary crime from Oakland is one thing the I-880 Athletics won’t have to worry about . . . Unless they happen to be referring to some bases getting stolen, which is even less likely at an A’s game now, since Jason Kendall suddenly seems to be able to reach second base regularly and the A’s offense has no speed to speak of . . .

Rather than calculating how to cater to the suburban paranoia, the A’s owners could identify their urban market and do a lot more to fill the Coliseum with these loyal fans . . . And don’t think that the A’s are running some kind of charity operation in Oakland.

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May 23, 2006

BARRY BONDS’ problems with the media – or, vice versa – began early in his Giants career.

Early in the 1993 season, Sports Illustrated assigned a writer to do a cover story on Bonds. SI writers are accustomed to being treated like royalty when they come to town. Athletes who are uncooperative with the local writers will talk effusively to the magazine writers, because they know it will be a national story.

Not this time. Bonds kept the SI writer waiting for six days before he was willing to be interviewed.

The result: The magazine the next week featured a picture of Bonds on the cover with the headline, “I’m Barry Bonds and you’re not.”

Click below for more of Glenn’s excellent perspective on Barry Bonds..Marty [Read more →]