LA 9 SF 1
That was yucky. No hitting, no pitching, no fielding. Jaylin Davis hit a homer--that's some good news. The Giants called it Spring Training 2.0 instead of Summer Camp. This opening series in LA looks like Spring Training 1.9 and it hurts to write that. I suppose you can tell a lot about a team by how it faces adversity. You lose, you look bad, what do you do? You put your big boy pants back on the next day and play some goddamn better baseball, that's what you do.
The Giants are going with TBA again. The Dodgers have Alex Wood. The game is part of the Fox Saturday broadcast and it starts at 1:10 p.m. PDT.
Go Giants!
--M.C.
10 comments:
Yay for Jaylin. I like that kid. He put out a quality comment about the whole situation and I was impressed. Maybe he can get hot/lucky and get that boost of confidence that youngsters sometimes convert into greatness. I mean everyone at this level has oodles of talent, Jaylin clearly does. But sometimes luck or something triggers a career of note. I figure that is what this whole “season” is about for us. Waiting!watching for the next breakout.
Sure isn’t anything good about the team in general to report yet... got a real minor league feel so far...
Yeah I want to find some guys who can stick around and play good ball! There is going to be a lot of competition for spots and I'm eager to see who will emerge.
So since we all agree there isn’t much actual baseball to discuss, ok if I get a little political? Promise to make it Giants related.
So on the opposite end of class from Jaylin Davis would appear to be Sam Coonrad. This douche bag must be removed from my team. He was the ONLY person on both teams to refuse to kneel and hold a long black fabric during a BLM moment before the opener. He claimed as a Christian he only kneels to god, no disrespect intended. No room for some one on my team like that. Refusing to join in a team activity and then acting like it wasn’t a Political statement. Kapler is acting all cool (which is why he is the manager) but why keep an easily replaced mediocre scum bag on a team desperate for unity and identity. No plus to keeping him around, but good PR to shit can him. Plus it is the right thing to do.
But they won’t do a thing...and I guess I have another Giant to boo. Heavy sigh
I look it as a teachable moment. The guy is ignorant. Ignorance is curable. Maybe he will learn. Maybe he will understand and appreciate his teammates a little better. Isn't that what we all want?
I like the way Kap handled it.
The Cubs, with a veteran infield, blew a rundown play this afternoon, and the Brewers got a run out of it when the next batter got a hit. So this stuff doesn't just happened to inexperienced teams!
I don't know if you guys followed MadBum's start against San Diego last night. He loaded the bases with two out in the 6th and then gave up an 0-2 double to Eric Hosmer. That was his 100th pitch and it broke the 0-0 tie. He was facing Hosmer for the third time and he'd given up a long single and a fly out in the two previous at-bats.
I'm guessing he would have been pulled before then if he had been pitching for the Giants! And I suspect that's why MadBum prefers to pitch in Arizona!
I would have pulled him before then. I don't mean to criticize Lovullo, his team is in a different place than the Giants. MadBum is an accomplished veteran as well as the big acquisition for D-Backs. He's their workhorse ace starter. That's a different scenario and a different set of calculations for that team. But if it was a Giants game I would have done the saber-move and not let MadBum face a guy the third time with that many pitches thrown. I think Kap would do it that way, too.
Cueto did not like getting pulled early but at least there is an excuse--he has not pitched much in the last two seasons! I think MadBum knew how things would be different on a rebuilding club under a new regime and he wanted something else.
It's all good. I wish him all the best (except against the Giants) and I hope he destroys the Dodgers whenever he gets the chance!
Calling him ignorant is making an excuse for him and his racism. He willingly displayed his “ignorance” and to think he is open to learning from his teammates is absurd. He is lucky if they speak to him.
I'm not going to assume he's a racist. (I suspect racists would have a hard time lasting in today's game.) I'm not making excuses for anyone. I'm just viewing it differently. Neither of us really know. We both rely on the same info sources, after all. If his teammates come out and say "you're a dick and we don't want to play with you" then I will change my tune. Hey, I was a teacher. I always assumed the kid could learn, even if he couldn't (or wouldn't)!
I obviously believe that the issues raised by the BLM movement are of deep importance. Systemic racism, police brutality (esp. against people of color and poor people), lack of opportunity, education, and health care in African American and other marginalized communities, the list goes on and has been going on for decades. It's a national fucking shame!
But I don't wear a BLM shirt. I don't have a bumper sticker. I don't kneel. I don't give them money. I don't know who their leaders are. I don't protest. I don't read their website. I don't make overt political gestures. Does that make me a racist?
I'll answer that: certainly not. Sam Coonrod is under no obligation to kneel to anyone for anything. If his team doesn't like it I'll bet they'll let him know. And if he can't grow and learn then he'll face the music about it. I'm just not going to throw stones over a man's personal feelings. I did not hear him come out and directly say he does not like or disapproves of people of color or anything like that. One thing about baseball, it is a meritocracy. If you can play, you can stick. We'll find out.
Two quick points: 1. Coonrad took his stand and deserves to “face the music.” Every coach and player of the Giants ,doggers, Yanks and Nats (at least) joined their teammates in the rather significant display.
2. You are a very nice person, as you prove with your tolerant stance. Because of that you owe it to yourself to find out about the BLM leaders, to read their stuff ( which is incredibly well written) and maybe even get a bumper sticker. How hard is that? That effort would be much better spent than defending Coonrad for a second.
Thanks for the non baseball discussion, which I know is not your favorite.
Love ya dude
I have no hostility to BLM--that was not my point. I believe in much of what they seem to be about. I'm just not the bumper sticker type as well you know. And I read piles of stuff. It just does not happen to be their stuff.
I don't like to make assumptions about people I don't know. It is nothing more than that. It has nothing to do with "defending" anyone. It's not specific to what-his-name, it's my general POV.
And I love you too and I hope you will always speak your mind here.
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