Arizona Premiere Sports

Luck of the draw….

jmurph16 — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 01:15:10 +0000

This weekend Stanford’s Andrew Luck will play his final college game (except for the annual college all-star games of course). With the end of his college career will come high expectations. Barring some unforeseen circumstance Luck will be the No. 1 pick in the 2012 NFL draft. At this point the Indianapolis Colts are the front runners to get that No. 1 pick. However, if the Colts win and the St. Louis Rams win on Sunday, the Rams would end up with the No. 1 pick. Regardless, Luck will carry with him hopes of Super Bowls future.

We’ve seen this scenario play out in the past. But contrary to popular belief, top drafted quarterbacks are neither sure things, nor are they always busts. When we look at the past couple of decades worth of quarterbacks who were drafted high we get a mixed bag. Eli Manning, now considered one of the top tier QB’s in the league was a No. 1 pick. Ryan Leaf, long gone from the NFL ranks was also a No. 2 overall and a complete bust. Of course Eli’s brother, you know that guy from the Colts, um uh, oh yeah Peyton, was the #1 pick behind Ryan Leaf that year. And what has he done? Tom Brady was drafted in the 6th round out of Michigan, Matt Stafford #1. Both are doing quite well these days.

Even we go further back in time we see that drafting a quarterback in the NFL is a crap shoot. Joe Montana wasn’t drafted until the 3rd round by the 49ers. And we all know what he went on to do. Joe Namath was highly touted out of college and drafted #1 by the then AFL New York Jets. Meanwhile Steve Spurrier, he of the successful college coaching career was drafted in the first round by the 49ers and never amounted to much.

The point being, evaluating a college quarterback and extrapolating his talents on to an NFL field is an in exact science. As every rookie quarterback will tell you the speed of the game is so much greater at the NFL level, and the complexities of the offenses AND defenses cause their heads to spin.

So although Colts fans will be ecstatic to get the No. 1 pick in the 2012 NFL draft, it doesn’t guarantee that happy days will be here again. It’s all in the luck of the draw.

At ArizonaPremiereLiving.com, we don’t just talk about Phoenix real estate, but we talk about the things we have a passion for, and that’s the whole reason for ArizonaPremiereSports.com. For more information about us and the things we enjoy, check out our blog and visit our Arizona Premiere Living Resources Page and check out the Sports Resources section.

Here comes the NBA, here comes the NBA, right down lockout lane.

jmurph16 — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 02:29:13 +0000

I’m a Golden State Warriors fan. So for me the NBA is only that time of year between the NFL football season and the beginning of Major League Baseball. But I still follow the game. I’m really looking forward to those great match ups between Bird and Magic. Is Dr. J still playing?

But I digress. This year’s NBA lock out illustrated one thing to me. The NBA needs to adopt the hard salary cap that the NFL instituted back in 1994. Otherwise all we will see in the foreseeable future are finals between L.A., New York, Boston, Miami, and Chicago. Oh sure you’ll see a smaller market team like San Antonio or Cleveland get in there once in a while. But if you’re looking for a model of parity and maintaining fan interest in the smaller market teams you can’t go wrong with the NFL salary cap model.

Now I know basketball is different. Their ball is round and they wear shorter pants. Although since the days of Michigan’s Fab Five the difference in pant length has shrunken to near immeasurable levels. Again, I stray. Basketball only has a 12 man roster versus 53 for football. So one player can make a HUUUUUGE difference in the NBA. Not that it can’t in the NFL too, but Tom Brady only plays on one side of the ball and thereby only gets to touch it half the time. LeBron James or Kobe Bryant are in on almost every play, except when they’re being spelled for a rest. But as we saw this off season, (namely the Chris Paul trade-not trade-trade debacle)the NBA needs to adopt a different pay structure.

For almost 20 years now the NFL has operated under a hard salary cap and a draft selection process that allows small market teams like Green Bay and Pittsburgh to compete, and succeed, against the larger markets. I understood why David Stern put the kibash on the Chris Paul to the Lakers deal. If left to their own devices every great player will end up in either Los Angeles, Boston, New York, Chicago or Miami.

The other thing the NBA could take from the NFL is revenue sharing. Again, this allows the smaller market teams, who may not get the radio and television deals that the larger market teams get, to compete.

And lastly, get rid of the draft lottery in the NBA. I understand that a team may try to tank it at the end of the season in order to get the “can’t miss” college player coming out. But these are professionals. And I’m sure the NBA would be able to recognize when teams do try to throw games in order to get a better draft selection. The lottery has become a joke. It’s a marketing gimmick who’s time has passed. Let the worst team have the first pick in the following season’s draft. Without contingencies.

I think if the NBA adopted these methods to their salary cap madness teams like my beloved Golden State Warriors would have a better shot at someday winning another championship. Instead of going another 36 years without one.

At ArizonaPremiereLiving.com, we don’t just talk about Phoenix real estate, but we talk about the things we have a passion for, and that’s the whole reason for ArizonaPremiereSports.com. For more information about us and the things we enjoy, check out our blog and visit our Arizona Premiere Living Resources Page and check out the Sports Resources section.

The College Bowl Games Are Here — All 35 Of Them…

azpremiere — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 04:05:53 +0000

This year, the list of well-known and the obscure bowl games has swelled to 35. It’s crazy, I know. The hardest part for me is trying to remember who now sponsors what — it seems as though the sponsors change every year. Obviously, some games are more important than the others, most of which I’ve never even heard of, and it seems that more than ever, there is a growing chorus of commentators and former coaches calling for a new system to determine a national champion due to the inequities in the current system. In any event, we can talk about the current system at some future date, but lets get to the games — some of which have already been played. Don’t try to watch all of them; you’ll go mad…

Xavier and Cincinnati: “We gotta whole lotta gangstas in the locker-room”

azpremiere — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 18:57:45 +0000

“That’s what your gonna see from Xavier and Cincinnati.” That’s what Tu Holloway had to say about the brawl that erupted at the end of the Xavier Cincinnati game. That’s not all he had to say about it — we’ll talk a bit more about that in a minute. One of my favorite things he had to say was the line I used in the title of this post, “We gotta whole lotta gangstas in the locker-room.” When coach Chris Mack was asked by a reporter for his take on the ‘gangsta’ comments, he, in my opinion dismissed the criticism by saying that they may not always represent themselves in the best way. Why, in God’s name, would you put them in front of the press if you felt that way?!?! When you put them up there, they are no longer just representing themselves poorly, they are representing the University poorly, and, to a larger extent, the NCAA.

I have been in a rage since I saw that press conference. The fight was one thing — deplorable is the only word that comes to mind — but that press conference made it even worse, and when I thought it couldn’t get worse, coach Chris Mack not coming out and flatly condemning the statements made by his ball players in the press conference really was the cherry on top.

This, for me illustrates a couple of things I’ve been talking about lately: Obviously it illustrates the lack of discipline among players (of all sports), but it also illustrates the utter impotence of coaches when it comes to dealing with discipline — some of it imposed upon them, and some of it self-imposed.

Look at the NFL, specifically at the Detroit Lions, and some of the problems we’ve seen with those guys on the field recently. A Thanksgiving (Thanksgiving!), Ndamukong Suh stomping incident, a coach vs. coach post-game shoving and screaming match, an incident where a referee was shoved in a game where the Lions were flagged 11 times for a total of 107 yds of penalties. Is this how we measure conduct in the top tier of professional athletics?

The Lions are yet another example not simply of loss of control by the coaches, but them fostering an environment that seems to encourage this type of behavior. The NFL must compel the ownership to step in at this point and impose punishment with some teeth. If I want to see this kind of stuff, I can tune into any number of mixed martial arts tournaments that are aired throughout the week, but don’t give me this crap during an NFL game.

If we condone this kind of behavior in the professional ranks, why would we be surprised to see it rear its head in collegiate athletics? Tu Holloway’s comments that, “we are a bunch of grown men over here” could not be further off the mark. It is the very fact that these over-sized children have not been turned into, nor have ever been asked — let alone, told — to grow-up that is the problem. This is a real problem, and when we excuse this behavior as, I’ll assume, it has been for much of Tu’s life, how or why should we ever expect it to get better?

The answer to this question is really pretty easy in my mind: eliminate his scholarship. If it were handled this way, do you think there would be another fight in Xavier and Cincinnati’s cross town rivalry the next time they met? I don’t think so. It is easier to deal with these kinds of discipline issues at the collegiate level than at the professional level and I think that if you dealt with it firmly at the collegiate level, you wouldn’t have to deal with it at the professional level nearly so often.

Xavier should be ashamed. Sure, they suspended a few guys for a variable number of games — gotta’ get ‘em in before conference basketball starts — and Tu Holloway who may not have thrown an actual fist, but who may have delivered the biggest blow with what he said was suspended for a mere 1 game. Great message to send to aspirant high school ball players around the country: If you wanna be a gangsta, go to Xavier. To their credit, Cincinnati who may have been more at fault for the physical altercation, did not say anything stupid after the game and suspended 3 players for 6 games, however I feel this punishment did not go far enough.

The scholarship is the ultimate leverage against a collegiate athlete, and it should be treated as such. It is a privilege that, in my mind elevates their behavior putting them against an even higher standard, and when you simply wag your finger at their transgressions, you hold them to no standard at all. It is time to deal with these problems now rather than later. If the purpose of college is to prepare young men and women for the professional world, whether that be in sports or otherwise, a message must be sent that this kind of behavior is not tolerated in any other professional environment, and it will not be tolerated here.

10 years for Albert Puljos? Crazy? Or not?

jmurph16 — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 23:51:22 +0000

Let me preface this post by saying that I am a huuuuuuuge (said in my best Donald Trump voice) Albert Puljos fan. Even though I’m a Giants fan, I can still appreciate greatness, even that player is not a Giant. So this is not a criticism of him.

Today the Los Angeles/California (whatever they’re called this year) Angels reached a deal with Albert Puljos in the amount of $254 million over 10 years. My issue, unlike many people, is not with the amount of money Albert is receiving. He is a unique ball player. One of the greatest ever. His like doesn’t come along that often. So I say he deserves the money. No, my issue is with the length of the contract. 10 years.

Albert will be entering his 12th major league season next year. He will be turning 32 before spring training starts. Although Albert’s numbers have not tapered off recently, and I fully expect him to have several (4 or 5) more great seasons in him, by the time this contract expires Albert will be 42. And we all know 42 year old baseball players don’t hit 40 homers, drive in 100, and bat .300. In fact, very few players over 35 continue to put up those type of numbers.

Now, in order for the Angels, or any other team to secure Albert’s services this year they HAD to give him a ten year deal. So I don’t blame them necessarily. But we are reaching a point in sports where GM’s don’t seem to look at the long term consequences of these type of deals. What I think will happen is in about 5 years Albert’s numbers will start to slide. One only needs to look at Alex Rodriguez (Albert’s only contemporary equal) to see how this deal could hamstring the Angels in the future.

Through A-Rod’s first 12 seasons, and the age of 32, he averaged 43 HR’s and 123 RBI per season. Since then he has averaged only 28 HR’s and 98 RBI. Quite a steep drop off. But not unexpected for a player on the downside of his career. But the Yankees can afford to carry A-Rod’s hefty salary, even if his production doesn’t match it. The question is, can the Angels do the same when Albert’s numbers fall off? And they will. You can bank on that.

Hope. Energy. Life.

azpremiere — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 22:26:52 +0000

This Sunday, December 19th, I, along with my wife and kids, will be participating in a short 3k walk at Kiwanis Park in Tempe to benefit Mitochondrial Disease research, and namely, to benefit this amazing little girl pictured here. This is Mylee Grace, and she has Mitochondrial Disease, a disease for which there is no cure.

Mitochondrial Disease limits the the mitochondria’s ability to convert food into energy. To me, Mitochondrial Disease was obscure, but when I found out that mitochondrial dysfunction is an underlying cause behind Alzheimer’s Disease, Parkinson’s Disease, ALS, Autism, Spectrum Disorders, and some Cancers, I realized that Mitochondrial Disease is anything but obscure.

Mylee and her parents have shown tremendous courage throughout this trial, and there will undoubtedly be more obstacles further down the road for this family and others who are experiencing similar challenges. I ask that, if you have the opportunity please support this little girl; this family; and those like them who may be going through the same things. If you can be in Tempe, on Sunday morning between 8 – 9, go and register, but if you can’t, no donation is too small.

Put yourself in this family’s shoes: What if this were your little girl? Short of going through what this family goes through on a daily basis, I urge you to figure out a way to show your support by either participating in this event, or by making a donation to this most deserving of causes.

Please visit the event information page HERE, join the team and/or make a contribution. Remember, no donation is too small–everything makes a difference.

http://www.energyforlifewalk.org/c.clKTIeOZIjJ4H/b.6153607/siteapps/teampage/ShowPage.aspx?teamid=3883734

Hey Jeetah! (pronounced like Cheetah) Fuhgitaboudit!

jmurph16 — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 16:28:22 +0000

Sorry, but that’s the best Bronx accent I could muster electronically.

Anyway, on to the subject at hand. Which is, Derek Jeter and the New York Yankees.

But before I delve into the never ending Soap Opera that is the New York Yankees and their superstar shortstop and the ever increasing self import that the fans of that team and the city that hosts them (I think it’s New York, right) foist upon themselves, let’s talk about aging athletes and contracts. And the dumb owners that award the aging athletes huge contracts.

You see, sports/athletics is unlike any other industry in the world. Whereas out in the business world a person’s value increases with the invaluable experience, knowledge, wisdom, and increased intellect we all acquire as we age (hopefully), in the sports world things tend to work in the opposite direction. And yet athletes garner ever larger and larger contracts as their production, skills, and value, diminish. It’s a strange occurence. And one that has been going on for decades.

And you would think that the sports franchise owners, many of them previously, or currently, successful businessmen/women themselves would realize this disconnect. But alas, they don’t.

Which leads us back to Messr. Jeter and the New York Highlanders, I mean Yankees (sorry, I’m old school. I still refer to them by their ORIGINAL name).

Senor Jeter is a 37 year old shortstop. Senor Jeter has posted many a fantastic season with the High…Yankees over a stellar 16 season career. And he’s been part of 5 championship teams during that run. (Notice I didn’t say “HE has won 5 championships. He HIMSELF did not win those championships). So Mr. Jeter has quite a resume. AND he’s approaching 3,000 career hits. Another milestone that will probably assure him of Hall of Fame status.

But the thing is…HE”S 37 YEARS OLD!!! Now color me stupid if I missed this, but when was the last time a 37 year old shortstop IMPROVED upon his previous 16 years of production? I would gather a guess, and that guess would be never.

So why would the Yankees/Highlanders be inclined to offer Jeter more than the $45 million over 3 years they have on the table right now? In my opinion that is MORE than a fair offer for a 37 year old shortstop. And Jeter and his agent need to realize that. Jeter needs the Yankees more than the Yankees need Jeter at this point.

What value does Jeter, I remind you, a 37 year old shortstop, have to ANY other team in the league? Not a whole lot. Jeter’s glory days are behind him, and they were with the Yankees. It would be a different story if this were the year 2000 and we were talking about a 27/28 year old Jeter who had just been on a team that won 4 World Championships. But this is not Bizarro World and we cannot turn back the clock.

So, my advice to Rico Suave, I mean Derek Jeter, and his agent, is to stop posturing and take the damn deal. Jeter will be happy, the Yankees will be happy, their obnoxious fans will be happy, and I won’t have to listen to my wife pining for Derek Jeter (sorry hun, but that chick he’s engaged to is pretty hot) while wearing another uniform.

At ArizonaPremiereLiving.com, we don’t just talk about Phoenix real estate, but we talk about the things we have a passion for – like sports – and that’s the whole reason for ArizonaPremiereSports.com. For more information about us and the things we enjoy, check out our blog and visit our Arizona Premiere Living Resources Page and check out the Sports Resources section.

Diary of a Giants fan…

jmurph16 — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 17:12:28 +0000

Game 3 of the 2010 World Series will be played tonight. And as a life long Giants fan I’m filled with a reserved excitement. I say reserved because we’ve been here before, as recently as 2002. That series ended in heartbreak, just as so many Giant seasons preceding it. So you can understand my trepidation. We Giants fans have endured our share of disappointment, only surpassed by that of the Chicago Cubs fans (my business partner Ben’s team, maybe that’s why we’re business partners). And oh sure, the Indians have not won a Championship since 1949, but they haven’t had as many opportunities for disappointment as the Giants have had over the years.

As I mentioned, I’ve been a lifelong Giants fan. My earliest memories are from about the 1974 season. I was about 7 years old. My first favorite player on the Giants was Bobby Murcer, having been traded to the Giants from the Yankees for Bobby Bonds (Barry’s father, for those who don’t know), during the off season.

Those were not good times for the Giants. Willie Mays, Juan Marichal, and Willie McCovey were gone. Instead we were left with the aforementioned Murcer, Von Joshua, Chris Spiers, Gary Matthews, and some young pitchers, John Montefuso and Ed Halicki, who would show some promise (each pitching a no-hitter early in their careers), but never measuring up to their potential. Our claim to fame back then was that we had Randy Moffitt, Billy Jean King’s brother-in-law on our team. Whoopeeee!

But beyond that the Giants played in the same division as the Big Red Machine and the vaunted Dodgers of Garvey, Lopes, Russell, and Cey fame. There was just no way they stood a chance against those teams filled with would be Hall of Fame players. So we as Giants fans were relegated to aspiring to a third place finish every season, 20 games out by mid-July (remember, this was before the Wild Card). With one exception, 1978. That year the Giants at least made it interesting, with a young Jack Clark (my next favorite player. I used to rub dirt on my pants before each at bat as a little leaguer just like Jack used to), Bill Madlock, a returning aged, yet resurgent Willie McCovey, Mike Ivie, and Vida Blue leading the way. They ended up winning 86 games that year and finishing in, you guessed it, third, six games out. But they made it interesting. It was my first taste of a pennant chase. And I wanted more.

But alas, these were the Giants. In the subsequent seasons they floundered, not even making interesting. Until 1982. Jack Clark was still with the team, but now we had a rag tag bunch of guys assembled through free agency, (Joe Morgan, Reggie Smith, Milt May) and a few minor league call ups, notably rookie Chili Davis. We still had no-hit, no field Johnny LeMaster at shortstop, who was so despised by Giant fans at one point in his career that he actually wore a uniform with “Boo” stitched across the back of his jersey (Johnny Boo). That was a fun season as well, going down to the final weekend in a series against the Dodgers. Again the Giants fell short BUT we did enjoy the spectacle of Joe Morgan blasting a late inning home run in the final game of the season to knock the Dodgers out of playoff contention. Such was life as a Giant fan back then. Our little world was relegated to spoiling the season for other teams.

Then more drought. Jack Clark was shipped to the Cardinals in 1985 for David Green (Giants fans, remember him?) who was supposed the next great five tool player in Major League Baseball. But as you can tell from your never having heard of David Green, he didn’t pan out. Instead Jack Clark went on to lead the Cardinals to the World Series that year. Oh, in 1984, Darrell Evans, long time Giants third basemen, was part of that great Detroit Tigers team that went on to win the Series. And that illustrates another running theme of the San Francisco Giants of the 70′s and 80′s. Players who were groomed in our system would invariably go on to have great success with other teams.

In the late 80′s the Giants finally started to build a team of young exciting players under the tutelage of Roger Craig. The phrase “Humm Baby” started rippling through the Bay Area like a California shaker. Will “The Thrill” Clark, Jeffrey Leonard, Robby Thompson, Rick Reuschel, and Caveman Don Robinson led the team to it’s first NL West title in 16 years. It looked this might be the year. The took a 3-2 lead in the NLCS against the St. Louis Cardinals on the back of Jeffrey Leonard’s (the only player on the losing team to win the NLCS MVP) 4, one flap down, home runs. But, as you might guess by now, disaster once again reared it’s ugly head. This time in the form of a mis-judged Jose Oquendo line drive to Candy Maldonado out in right field in Game 6. The flood gated opened, and the Giants couldn’t get them closed. The Cardinals went on to the World Series having beat the Giants in 7 games. “Candy F’ing Maldonado” was the refrain that held up through the off season for Giants fans.

1989. THIS Giants team was one that had expectations upon it. Will Clark was now a seasoned veteran player and one of the most feared hitters in the game. Kevin Mitchell, who was acquired in a trade during the 1987 season, put up the best season at the plate ANY Giant player had since Willie Mays. Mitchell would go on to win the NL MVP award in 1989. Matt Williams wa a promising, albeit struggling, young third basemen. And the chant of “Uuuuuuuu-Riiiiibay” that you hear in the stands now for Juan Uribe. Well that was originated by Giant fans of the late 80′s in honor of our little plucky shortstop Jose Uribe. We even had a bit of tear jerking drama as Dave Dravecky, fighting cancer which required removal of part of the ulnar muscle in his pitching arm came back to pitch for the Giants that season (side note: I took off work that day and went to that game). Sadly, Dravecky’s arm could not hold up, snapping in a ugly moment on the hill up in Montreal a couple of weeks later. Dravecky would later have the arm amputated.

The Giants of 1989 were a fun bunch to watch. They won the NL West handily that year, then met the Cubs in the NLCS. Will Clark and Mark Grace both put on hitting clinics in that series, but it was The Thrill coming through in Game 6 with a game winning RBI single off Mitch Williams to propel the Giants and we fans to the our first World Series in 27 years. The town was electric. And we were going to face our cross bay rivals, the Oakland A’s.

I don’t think ANY Giants fan, deep down in their hearts, truly thought we were going to beat the A’s that year. Sure, the Dodgers had done it the previous year. But that was a fluke. That A’s team was LOADED! Canseco, McGwire, Dave Henderson, Carney Lansford, Dave Parker, Dave Stewart, Bob Welch and Eck. They were monsters. Only an act of God could come to the Giants rescue. And lo and behold….

You couldn’t have written a more cornball script. Two California teams squaring off in one of the biggest sporting events, with all the world watching, and then, what tha!!! Shake, rattle and roll. An earthquake hits. And not just any old earthquake. A big F’ing, hold on for dear life, type of earthquake. I was getting ready to watch Game 3 in my high rise apartment, 10 floors above ground when it hit. I, being a native Californian had lived through many an earthquake in my life, but this one, well, it was the only time in my life I thought I was going to die. My building swayed and bounced and crack like I thought no building could. Luckily it was a brand new building fitted with all the modern anti-earthquake stuff. So after everything settled down, I got my bearings, got my priorities straight and tried to find out where the game was on (the electricity in our building having been shut down). Only there was no game. And there would be no game for a while. This was devastation on a mass scale. And it put the Giants eventual loss to the A’s, a sweep, in perspective. Sports are entertainment, not life and death.

So, the next few years would see a Giants team that was competitive, but we just couldn’t get over the hump. We needed something. Something big, to get us to the promised land. And in 1993 we got it. The something BIG was the two-time MVP, the prodigal son returning to his roots, to play in the shadow of his father and God father. Barry Bonds was coming to the Giants!!!!

That 1993 season was probably the most memorable season I’ve ever experienced as a Giant fan. Finally we had a big gun in our arsenal again. And they kicked ass! The Giants proceeded to roll through the National League season like a runaway freight train. At one point they opened up a 10 game lead on the second place Braves. We were in like Flynn man! This was our year. And then the Braves got Fred McGriff. And everything seemed to change. The Giants continued to play well, but the Braves played out of their minds. Unbelievably the Giants ended up falling behind the Braves at one point in late September. They caught up, and the season boiled down to the final game, against the dreaded Dodgers. Rookie Solomon Torres was on the hill that day, and you can guess the rest. 103 wins, and we didn’t make the playoffs. What the F!!!!!

1994 and 1995 were strike shortened years and Giants fans didn’t have too much to cheer about, except maybe Matt Williams chase of the home run record which was cut short by the strike.

1996 was one of the worst seasons in Giants history. However, Barry Bonds, surrounded by what amounted to little more than a AAA squad around him had one of the best seasons of his, or anyone’s career, becoming only the second player to hit 40 home runs and steal 40 bases (42 and 40 respectively), driving in 129 runs, scoring 122 runs, and hitting .308. with Mark Carreon and Glen Allen Hill as his “protection”. (Matt Williams got injured mid way through the season).

With the bad taste of the ’96 season behind us Giants fans wanted the Giants brass to do something to turn this team around. But wait! You’re trading Matt Williams?!!! For who?!!! Who the F is Jeff Kent? He’s not of Matt Williams caliber!!! Boy were we wrong. Coupled with the acquisition J.T. Snow, the Giants had revamped their lineup and given Barry Bonds some hitters around him. Led by Shawn Estes (19-5) and our closer Rod Beck, the pitching staff was much better now too. They won the NL West again, but unfortunately ran into a buzz saw that was the “upstart” Florida Marlins in the NLCS. The use of the word “upstart” to describe that 1997 Marlins team was a joke, how a team comprised of virtually all high dollar free agent acquisitions could be construed as “upstarts” is beyond me. But they kicked our ass, so…

1998 was another solid season for Bonds, Kent, and the gang, but we lost out in a one game wild card playoff game to of all teams…the Cubs. For once the Cubs got to dish out some heartbreak on another teams fans.

Barry Bonds single handedly made the next few seasons interesting as his chase of the record books started to mount.

The 2000 season brought us Pac Bell Park. Finally, a stadium worthy of the city hosting it. 40 years of, excuse my language, shit hole Candlestick Park over and done (except for 49ers games). Yeah we had some great memories Candlestick, but your charm lied not in your beauty, but in how much OTHER teams hated playing there. My 26 years of wearing Long Johns under my jeans, a heavy winter coat, and sometimes ski gloves to view night games in July was over. Thank God!

Pac Bell Park was, and still is, one of the prettiest stadiums in Major League Baseball (another side note: I got to play a couple of games on the field myself, it gives one a whole new appreciation or the balls Bonds hit). And offers the unique aspect of home runs hit out to right field getting “moist”, and the spectacle of kayakers jockeying for position to get one of Barry Bonds blasts in the bay. Resplendent with McCovey Cove out in right field and the address of 24 Willie Mays Plaza, the stadium truly captures the essence of one baseball’s treasured franchises.

The 2000 season itself, the inaugural for Pac Bell Park, was another good one. The Giants won the NL West easily. But then their bats went silent in the divisional series against the Mets.

2001, a season for the record books. They played it tight with the Diamondbacks for the entire season, falling 2 games back in the end. But this was Bond’s season. ‘Roids or not, the dude put up one of the greatest seasons ever and put Mark McGwire where he belongs in the annals of baseball history. Yeah, you could hit home runs Mark, but you were no Barry Bonds. 73 home runs later the only question was not IF Bonds could break Hank Aaron’s record, but when.

2002. Ahhhhhh 2002. Another monster season for Bonds. This time he showed the world he was not only a great slugger, but a great hitter, leading the league with a .370 average and 198 walks and still cranking out 46 home runs. We were a Wild Card team that year. But hey, it’s the playoffs man. We’ll take it. And the Giants did take it, all the way to the World Series. This would be Bonds’ first. And he put all the criticism of his prior anemic playoff performances to bed, mounting one of the greatest World Series hitting displays in history (.471 BA, 4 HR’s, 6 RBI, and 13 walks). But Barry doesn’t pitch. And Barry doesn’t make the on field decisions.

The Giants went into Game 6 with a 3-2 series lead on the Angels. They jumped out to a 5-0 lead going into the 7th inning. Russ Ortiz was cruising. It looked like they were finally going to do it. Then, one runner on. Another runner on. Out comes Dusty. “Leave him in Dusty! Let him try to get out of this” was my comment to the T.V. as he promptly gave Ortiz the hook and the infamous “game ball”. Then Felix Rodriguez. Felix Rodriguez!!! All that can be said was that by the time the inning was over that 5-0 lead had been shrunk to 5-3, and we Giants fans could feel the momentum slipping away. That sickly feeling in our stomach, the one that all Giants fans are intimately familiar with, returned. “No, come on guys! Not this time! Not again!” Yes, again. Game 6 was the killer. Now the series was tied.

Game 7, and Dusty decides to go with Livan Hernandez to start. Giants fans knew we were doomed. Livan Hernandez was not a good pitcher at this time in his career. And this exemplified the downside to Dusty Baker. His loyalty to certain players on his teams. Livan was scheduled to go in Game 7 and Dusty was not going to change his mind.

First inning of Game 7. Hernandez IMMEDIATELY gets in trouble with a base hit and a hit batsmen. He luckily got out of the inning unscathed with a fortuitous line drive double play that ended the threat. I was screaming at the T.V. “get him out of there Dusty! We dodged a bullet. Don’t tempt fate!” But oh, Dusty knew better. And fate, well, she can be a bitch sometimes. 4 Angel runs later Dusty finally decided that Livan “didn’t have it”. Really Dusty?!!! You couldn’t have surmised that after the first inning like the rest of us? Kirk Reuter (who SHOULD have been the starter for Game 7) proceeded to shut the Angels down for 4 plus innings, but alas it was too little too late. Another opportunity lost.

Dusty ended up leaving after that season. The Giants brought in Felipe Alou, a blast from the past. And Felipe did a nice job, getting the Giants back in the playoffs in 2003 with a 100 win season and another NL West title. But again they met up with the Marlins in the division playoff series. Now THAT Marlins team was a bunch of upstarts. A very young, but talented team that took it to the Giants.

With Bonds entering his 40′s and no new stud on the horizon we Giants fans knew times were going to be tough for the next several seasons. And they were. The only remarkable event coming when Bonds surpassed Hank Aaron as the all time home run leader. However, as with all things Giants, even this feat was tainted with negativity. The allegations of Bonds steroid use had many baseball fans dismissing the achievement. It was a bittersweet moment for Giants fans, and it marked the end of an era. One of the best eras San Francisco Giants fans had ever seen.

Which brings us to this year’s team.

When the season started I didn’t expect this team to do too much. 85 wins maybe. They had great pitching, but they didn’t have the hitting. You still gotta score runs to win. But somehow, someway, they scratched, and kicked, and pitched, and got some timely hits, and won the NL West. And yet, I still thought, “well this is great, anything else from here on out is gravy”. And with a few lucky breaks and some great pitching they beat the Braves. “Wow! That was cool. But Phildelphia is just too damn good.”

Holy S! They beat the Phillies!

And now here we are. Up 2-0 on the Rangers. Our boys have put up 20 runs in two games. Which is about a normal week’s worth of scoring for this team. I’m cautiously optimistic. If you’ve read ANY of this diary you’d understand why.

So, I’ll watch game 3 tonight with my dad. Just like I watched Game 6 of the 2002 Series with him. And hopefully fate will shin brightly on our beloved Giants. And even if they do win Game 3 tonight, my optimism will still be guarded. Because, after all, I AM A GIANTS FAN!!!!

Go Giants!!!!!!!!!!!

Early Observations from the Begining of Baseball’s Post-Season

azpremiere — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 18:24:29 +0000

This is a big one for me guys. I haven’t had the energy for the last ten years or so to follow baseball during the regular season, so I get kind of excited when it is time for the October Classic: October. Well, it’s here–October–and I’m excited, and I got a chance to make few observations. None of thes is in order, and they are just one man’s opinion. Here we go…

I finally figured C.C. Sebathia’s pants situation out: They are made from high-altitude weather balloons–it’s the only thing that would explain the extra baggy-ness on the sides of his hips. It’s either that or he’s trying to bring Jodhpur pants back, but I’m pretty sure it’s the weather balloon thing.
I know I’ve wondered aloud about this before, but what’s up with the flat bill on the hat? I mean, when I was a kid playing ball, you would have been made fun of for not knowing how to wear your hat.
How slick was Roy Halladay’s no-hit pitching performance in the series opener vs. the Reds? I heard someone describe him as Greg Maddux with power, and that may be an apt description, but he pitched unlike ANYONE I’ve seen. Kudos to Halladay, and I hope he gets an opportunity to show-off his wares in the World Series.
The TBS broadcast crews that I heard really sucked…except Dennis Eckersley–he’s funny and has a sense of humor. I like Cal Ripken, and maybe sitting next to David Wells knocked him off his game. I probably shouldn’t get started on David Wells… Let’s just say this, he’s got my permission to take the rest of the series off.
I saw a man and a woman in the stands of the Yankees/Twins game last night. The man was leaning-in and pointing out something on the field to his wife–how do I know it was his wife? She wasn’t listening to him. In any event, I see this all the time and used to laugh at it when I was younger while I still played the game, but now I look at it a bit differently. You see, these are guys who still long for the smell of the grass, the pop of the ball against leather, or the rush of the head-first slide, and they just want someone to listen to them talk about it. So, ladies, if your husband or your boyfriend wants to bore you half to death at a baseball game by lecturing you on some of the nuanced, finer points of the game, please let him.

Stay tuned; there might be other posts related to the League Series going on right now–that is, if my kids will permit it. I would love to see if anyone else has any other observations. Is anyone out there? Feel free to comment.

Can we now end all discussions about momentum and the playoffs?

jmurph16 — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 16:00:37 +0000

All week leading up to this weekend’s divisional playoffs in the NFL all I heard amongst the talking heads was how New Orleans had lost three consecutive games going in, and how Indianapolis had lost their last two, and how neither team had played a “meaningful game” in about a month, and how all of this was going to play into their opponents hands.

Well, we saw how things turned out didn’t we. Here we are Monday morning and three of the top four teams won their games. And not only won, but won handily.

Sports talk (radio or televised) oh these many years seems to be directed at the misguided betting sports public. Always trying to find some angle to predict the outcome of games. Well let me tell you something betting folks: IT DOESN”T WORK!

That’s what makes sports so great, their unpredictability. You wouldn’t want them to be predictable. It would be boring!

What cracks me up though is that anyone was believing the crap from the talking heads. I could bring up plenty of examples of teams over the years who lost their last couple of games and ended up winning the Super Bowl, or at least appearing in the big game. It doesn’t mean a damn thing.

And regarding the bye week, when did that all of a sudden become a negative for a team? Isn’t that what the playoff teams play for? A week off to rest, regroup, and plan. Seems to me that would be an advantage. But in this black is white, up is down world of punditry these days, nothing surprises me.

All I know is this: next year I’ll be hearing the same stupid prognostications about some of next year’s playoffs teams.

THAT you can bet on!