Marty Lurie Talks San Francisco Giants Baseball
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I have seen then 2004 Angels and they are for real


Yes, the season is one week old, and
most teams haven’t even gone into
their fifth starters yet, but belive me
I have seen the Angels and they
are for real.

By Amaury Pi-GonzálezJust got back from broadcasting the
first three games of the season at
Safeco in Seattle. The Mariners
arrived in Oakland 3 hours after
loosing their third straight to
the Angels. Freddy Garcia was
pitching like he did in 2001 and
2003 and blanqued the Angels
for seven innings, but then
the Angels got to the Mariners
bullpen (without Guardado)
and scored 5 times in the ninth
to steal the game three 5 to 1
and sweep the Mariners in
Seattle.

Irony: Guardado, in Spanish
means something you
store away or save.

Prior to game three, the owner
of the Anaheim Angels was
introduced to yours truly
in front of our broadcast
booth by my good friend and
colleague José Mota, Spanish
broadcaster for the Angels.

I congratulated Moreno for
first buying the team and
second for going after
guys like Guerrero,Guillén,
Colón,Escobar. Fans in
Orange County are not goind
to doubt Mr. Moreno’s
desire to win this year.
He told me that he was
lucky to have the opportunity
to have signed such players
like those mentioned and
that he was extremely
proud of his organization.
Moreno introduced me to
his 14 year old daughter who
was traveling with him and
the ball club in this first
roadtrip for his revamped
Angels.

Moreno is Mexican-American
and the first ever Hispanic
to be the majority owner of
a Major League franchise.
Accordingo to José Mota
-he told me- “I believe
that the fact that Mr.Moreno
was a Hispanic owner
persuaded Vladimir
Guerrero to sign with our
ballclub”.

The Angels scored a total
of 25 runs in the three
game sweep over the
Mariners at Safeco,
pounding starters Jaime
Moyer and Joel Piñeiro
like they were “batting
practice pitchers”.
The Angels play a very
exciting type of game,
more like the National
League ‘hit and run’type
of play that their manager
Mike Sciosia loves. By the
way I interviewed Sciosia
in Spanish prior to game
two up there and his Spanish
is getting better. He told me
“Ask me in English the same
question you are about to
ask me in Spanish, this way
It gives me time to think”.
(I think he thinks in English
and then has to translate
to Spanish)
I did exactly that and we
had 2.5 minutes of sound
bites in Spanish for our
pregame show on the
Mariners Spanish Radio
Network.

This Angels team has a lot
of speed, great power, solid
pitching and still one of the
best bullpens in all of baseball.
So what will keep this team
from winning the Division?
-Injuries. That is about it.
It will be hard for any of
the other 3 teams in the
West to beat the Anaheim
Angels is they are injured free
for most of the season.
Alfredo Giffin, first base
coach told me: “Este equipo
es mejor que el del 202
cuando ganamos la Serie
Mundial” (this team is better
than our 2002 World Series
championship team)
well…. yes.
Please remember you read
it here first, Alfredo Griffin
probably will be a Major
League manager next
season. At this time there
are four Latinos that
are managing in the
Major Leagues: Felipe
Alou(Giants),Tony Peña
(Royals),Carlos Tosca
(Blue Jays)and Ozzie
Guillén(White Sox).
Not bad, considering
around 30% of all players
are Latinos.

For the Angels the first
three games of the season
in Seattle could be just
a “sneak preview”of
things to come during
this very young season.
a scary thought for the
rest of this division to
see a Vladimir Guerrero
and Troy Glaus healthy
on that same lineup. No
other team in the American
League West has two
sluggers like these.
José Guillén showed his
great arm throwing at the
plate Randy Winn who
was trying to score from
second base with a base
hit from Brett Boone.
Garret Anderson who has
over 10 doubles last
two seasons continues to
be one of the most
underrated players in
the game and then
Vladimir Guerrero in
right field, man o man.

Vladimir Guerrero is
moving his mother to
Anaheim, she will live
with him. I observed
these Angels the first
three games of the
year they seem to get
along well, lots of
Latino players in the
clubhouse, they have
a lot of chemistry going
and they are like they
say in the business:
-AS ADVERTISED-
————————————————————
Amaury Pi-González is on his second season
as the Spanish Voice for the Seattle Mariners
Spanish Radio Network(www.spanishmariners.com)
broadcasting all 81 home games from Safeco
for a 6 station network. Amaury also is on
his tenth season as Spanish Announcer for
the SF Giants Spanish Radio in the Bay
Area over KZSF 1370 AM(La Caliente)
weekend-home games, when Amaury cannot
be at SBC, ex Giants second baseman Tito
Fuentes subs for him.
Amaury who is the Vice President of the
Hispanic Heritage Baseball Museum, a
popular non profit organization established
in San Francisco in 1999 was recently
inducted into the CSHOF (Cuban Sports
Hall of Fame)in the category of Broadcaster
in ceremony in Miami, Florida.

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