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Saturday, April 10, 2010

Best. Baseball-related. Short. Subject. EVAR

Holy Jesus. Make sure you're sitting down and aren't drinking anything, because you will snork like a motherfucker.

Time magazine on this short

Snopes.com confirms story

Dock Ellis' career stats

Animator James Blagden's website

Labels: baseball, films

Monday, September 21, 2009

Panda up close and personal

In this charming interview with Giants star Pablo Sandoval -- whose nickname is Kung Fu Panda -- the infielder offers heartfelt props to Willie McCovey, mentor Bengie Molina, and his daughter, whose second birthday is today. Asked about his namesake movie, he's just as sincere:

It's a beautiful movie. It focuses on how people need to work for what they want to achieve. I liked its message.

Aww!!!

technorati: Giants, sfgiants, Sandoval

Labels: baseball, Giants

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Baseball, twit by twit

I spent the afternoon at the ballgame, where Tim Lincecum gave a spendid performance, striking out 13 over 8 innings. But the Giants still lost, giving up two runs in the 9th and scoring a total of ZILCH themselves. Ya can't win if ya don't score.

I took my Peek Pronto to the game and, having figured out how to send posts to Twitter from the thing, spent the game twittering the action. It was partly a load test of the device, to see how it would handle periods of almost constant use. I found I actually lost the signal intermittently, which would seem impossible given the fact that I was high up in the stadium. But it might well be that there were simply too many people in the stadium, where 37,000 people were on hand, and it maxed out the network. (I think ~~it's Verizon that Peek uses~~ correction: it's T-Mobile.)

When the game ended, I found I had forgotten my cellphone at home. But at a ballpark -- especially one named after a phone company -- surely there are payphones, right? NOT. There are no payphones at "AT&T Park." How silly is that?

technorati: Twitter, baseball, Peek Pronto

Labels: baseball, Giants, gizmos

Friday, September 28, 2007

Summer's over

After the unbelievably warm and comfortable evening at the ballpark on Wednesday, the summer ended for real today with a cool, cloudy day that devolved into drizzle in the evening. The radio said something shocking about low temperatures in the low 40s.

The experience Wednesday night stayed in my mind all week. There were some great articles in the paper -- a San Jose Mercury News story, a New York Times piece -- and then today I found this picture on Flickr: Bonds taking a final curtain call, and not a single teammate applauding. The same amateur photog has a great picture of Bonds' final swing.

From our seats along the 3rd base line, we watched the fly ball's flight from an ideal angle -- about 70 degrees. This allowed us to see the soaring trajectory, but it also looked from our angle as if the ball was disappearing into the night.

The fact that it was hit to the very deepest part of the park, more than 410 feet, meant it would have been a home run in many other ballparks. Alternatively, it meant that he hit it just a fraction of a second late; if he had been a bit quicker it would have gone over the right field fence and, ideally, into the bay.

But that's why it was perfect the way it was: it illustrated Bonds' declining skill. His lighting-fast swing has lost a fraction of a second; the ball is caught in center field instead of going out to right. His fielding has also declined, but much more. The eight-time Gold Glove winner was even charged with an error that night.

As illustrated by my many ambivalent (and sometimes downright hostile) postings about Bonds, I have mixed feelings about him. I appreciated his skill and I hated it when he didn't hustle, didn't get along, didn't seem to care. I cheered him Wednesday night, but I'm also glad he's gone and the Giants can get to rebuilding.

Man, a whole post about baseball.

technorati: San Francisco Giants,Barry Bonds, baseball

Labels: baseball

Thursday, September 13, 2007

In the South in September, nobody cares about baseball

"About 400" people watched a major league baseball game between the Florida Marlins and the Washington Nationals earlier ~~this~~ Wednesday afternoon at Dolphins Stadium in Miami (Washington Post story). Former SF Giants player Todd Linden, hitting .226 for the season, won the game for the Fish in the 12th inning, a game one of the players described (if you believe the article) as "friggin' miserable." I have the feeling he used stronger language.

Update: The box score shows 10,000 tickets were sold, not the actual attendance, and a total of 16 pitchers -- 9 for the Nationals, 7 for the Fish. Can you imagine being a Nationals outfielder when they stop the game for a pitching change for the seventh time??

Labels: baseball

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