Barry Bonds

  Do we really blame Carney Lansford for a bunch of over-anxious, free-swinging hitters?  The stats certainly don't lie.  Only the Padres, Pirates, and Astros scored fewer runs than the Giants' 657 runs in 2009.  San Francisco's 122 home runs was second-to-last in the N.L., behind only the Mets, who stroked just 95 homers with a half-injured team in their brand-new, spacious Citi Field. Walks: 392 for the Giants was dead last in the league (the Rockies had 660 walks to lead the league). And that leads us to on-base percentage; where the Giants ranked last at .309!  That is just dismal, anemic, pitiful....any other good adjectives to throw in there?

Continue reading ""Carney Lansford the Scape Goat for ..."

Renteria - Saves Suppan by hacking a pitch almost a foot over the strike zone and gives the Brewers a perfect double play ball. Earn that paycheck, Edgar.

Continue reading "Brewers at Giants, Bottom of the Second"

Continue reading "Injury to Ortiz is Bad News for Boston"

I'm a Ryan Braun fan, and it's not hard to see why. He homered tonight for the fourth time in two games--two two-HR games in a row. Ever since he was brought up early last season, that's what he's done: hit the heck out of the ball. Doubles (he was second in the league last year with 13), home runs (his 34 last season put him in fifth place in the NL, and his 43 through the past two seasons is the fastest pace ever), both of these in spite of fewer than 500 ABs last year.

Continue reading "The Brawn of Braun"

As the hurricane of destruction that is Roger Clemens' personal and professional life gathers strength like a tropical storm reaching the balmy waters of the Gulf of Mexico, the storm has enveloped its latest victim: country star Mindy McCready. The Daily News reported last week that Clemens had carried on a decade-long affair with McCready, a family friend, ever since she was fifteen and he twenty-eight. (I should add that I'm following the media designation of McCready as a "star," even though I couldn't pick her out of a lineup of McSteamy, Matthew McConaghey, and the McDonald's McRib. Then again, I don't really follow country music--more to the point, I run far, far away from it at every opportunity).

Continue reading "Defending Clemens--Sort of"

For the first time in 15 years, the Giants will play a season without Barry Bonds in the lineup. Early word from Giants camp is that the clubhouse is looser and th

Continue reading "MLB 2008 Preview Part One: National League West"

 For 15 years, the focal point of the Giants was Barry Bonds.  No one knew who was on the Giants because they were never able to sign free agents with big names because they did not want anyone interferring with Bonds image.  Or Bonds did not want anyone to take the spotlight off of him.  When they did sign free agents, it was underachievers.  The Giants let Jeff Kent get away because he was getting in the way of Bonds.  Papers quoted the team as "Bonds and the 24 other players."  Since 2002, the Giants were never able to contend because they spent all their money on Bonds.  These are new days now.

Continue reading "Gone Bonds Gone: Giants Now able to Relax"

       WHO WILL PLAY? 

Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens are two people that changed the sport of baseball forever.  One might look at this statement and say, “Of course they did.  Bonds took down the most prestigious records in baseball by hitting more dingers than good Old Hank.  He has given the sport more publicity and has made it more popular.  Clemens is a superhero for all of us.  A man whose career was falling apart, quickly changed turned it around and showed the 40’s were the new 20’s.  With all those Cy Young’s, he is one of the best pitchers in history.”  I would tell you, “Nope, that isn’t how they changed it.  That is how they ruined the sport.”  You would then look at me funny and walk away.  Go ahead, walk away from the truth.  The truth is these men have tainted this sport and have embarrassed the players in the generation before them.

Continue reading "Bonds or Clemens? Who Will play in 2008?"

That man, ironically, is the very poster child for cheating himself: Mr. Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants.

True, Bonds's name was one of the 86 current and past ballplayers cited by Senator Mitchell as having doped up, but at this point, after already being indicted on federal charges of lying about not juicing, that didn't turn any heads. Think about how shocked we'd have been if his name wasn't on the list. 

Continue reading "BAD DAY FOR BASEBALL, GOOD DAY FOR BONDS"