tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-68585845067717311632024-02-18T18:51:38.861-08:00Where Did You Go Joe DiMaggio ? Baseball Purist LamentsThe site pays homage to REAL baseball, when players played for the love of the game more than money - a time when the strongest drug on the field was coffee or an occassional belt, ie booze. We've seen , in particular one team continue to pull the wool over the eyes. It probably couldln't happen in any other city. It took a couple of brave reporters to temporarily slow the progression of illicit drugs in the game but it's all back again. Media Watchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07453784438197421474noreply@blogger.comBlogger57125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6858584506771731163.post-76223069766530832452023-03-30T10:18:00.001-07:002023-04-01T08:50:24.832-07:00REFLECTING ON 'OPENING DAY' and STATE OF BASEBALLl<div>REFLECTING ON 'OPENING DAY' and BASEBALL</div><div><br></div><div><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div></b><i>Even before the pandemic, baseball attendance was in a free fall</i></div><div><b><br></b></div><div><b>Baseball is not what it was.</b></div><div><b><br></b></div><div><i><b>Take for example just this week... Baseball's never been this bad where two teams and four umpires could overlook that there were only two outs in an inning, not three, as players left the field . This happened on March 26th in The game between the San Francisco GIANTS and Oakland A's. Long-time Giants announcer John Miller said he's never seen this before in his long career 'and hope (he) never will again' . HERE Not one or two But 18 players and four umpires didn't keep track of the outs and walked off the field prematurely. It was someone in the media , reportedly, that noticed the miscarriage. Does this reflect a lack of interest or what- by players themselves on the brink of opening day?</b><br></i></div><div><b><br></b> In an effort to improve the game,</div><div>'Baseball' HAS MADE IT WORSE. Baseball has greatly altered the traditional game, <b>changing rules</b> that once gave managers and players more flexibility but not any more, perhaps one reason for the above seemingly indifference. No excuse for not paying better attention but a reflection on the 'new' game.</div><div><b><br></b></div><div><b>Then also Reliance on ANALYTICS has now all but removed the human element from the game, giving it a more generic quality. Teams are now almost interchangeable in many ways, playing that same 'style' of 'computerized' baseball</b> . One noted that the manager hardly matters anymore- also interchangeable. Robot umpires MAY BE next .</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>Is Nothing sacred anymore? The great game of baseball-' mom, America and apple pie'- has allowed steroids and cheating to become acceptable, much like we see in much of society today. It's true that baseball may not be as reflective of the current 'aggressive' society as football and basketball, but there still was a large base of fans- but much of that base is dwindling due to these new digital ('artificial' if you will) changes and non-common -sense changes. Thought maybe baseball, at least, could be saved from 'wokeness,' if you will- which also includes politics entering baseball, e.g. the great All Star game move from Atlanta for 'racist' reasons later proven false and the result a $100 million loss to Atlabta businesses.</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div> Now <b><i>they're</i></b> greatly altering a proven sport that needed little, if any, changing. No surprise Baseball is losing a lot of its older , traditional fans while not gaining many new ones.</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div><a href="https://theinterwebs.space/c/p/5344/c/219085/s1/">CLICK HERE</a></div><div><br></div><div>Baseball is losing its old personality-and personalities- which once made it stand out among sports. </div><div><b><i>Today it's more about science, money and gambling than NATURAL competiton and human interest</i></b>. In addition, </div><div>It is becoming a foreign sport. we welcome Japanese, Venezuelan and Korean and other foreign players much at the expense of American kids who are now opting for football and basketball. Blacks were once synonymous with baseball but Today <b>Less than 6.7% of players are AfroAmericans</b> and the great majority of players are immigrants. (MLB saw its highest-ever Black representation IN <b>1981 at 18.7%</b>, according to SABR.)</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>Maybe the current baseball 'boycott' will make powers that be rethink and bring baseball back to more of it what it once was- but more likely, with so many changes, including those in general society, it may be too late. </div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div>most recent pre-pandemic stats</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div><a href="https://greencoupons.me/mega-millions/">CLICK HERE</a> </div><div>Mega Millions Winning Ticket- now up to $322 Mil, Comp Tax Prep, Mustard Backroads, Rest of Story</div><div><div><a href="https://greencoupons.me/mega-millions/">https://greencoupons.me/mega-millions/</a></div></div><div><br></div> Media Watchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07453784438197421474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6858584506771731163.post-90981171804375081772019-08-11T13:36:00.001-07:002019-08-11T13:40:41.831-07:00Soul-LESS new Malls <div align="center">
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'The Lot' at Bishop Ranch, San Ramon, CA August 2019<br />
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Woman orders her food at a kiosk<br />
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Sun-less eating area surrounded by drab, factory-like walls and soul-less structures<br />
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Diners are encouraged to 'Eat Happy'<br />
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Soul-less, Modern malls like The Lot are replacing<br />
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Indoor Malls like Hilltop in Richmond<br />
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Media Watchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07453784438197421474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6858584506771731163.post-43241221306986054032018-08-27T01:13:00.001-07:002018-08-27T01:13:40.333-07:00Finally, A Solution for Ringing Ears - Learn How 3 Simple Methods Cure Tinnitus<img src='https://i0.wp.com/healthfitness.ws/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/2018-08-27_0-56-38.jpg?fit=465%2C342'/><br/>Here\'s How I LostEverything and Everyone...Then Accidently Stumbled Upon The 100% Natural TinnitusSolution the World’s Been Begging For..<br/><a href=\"http://healthfitness.ws/finally-a-solution-to-ringing-ears-learn-how-3-simple-methods-have-cured-tinnitus-for-good/\">http://healthfitness.ws/finally-a-solution-to-ringing-ears-learn-how-3-simple-methods-have-cured-tinnitus-for-good/</a> Media Watchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07453784438197421474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6858584506771731163.post-3547414769884502262018-08-27T00:41:00.001-07:002018-08-27T00:41:12.248-07:00SKIN TAGS? The All Natural, Pain Free Way to Remove Unsightly Skin Tags<img src='https://i1.wp.com/healthfitness.ws/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/SKN-TAGS-BEFORE-AFTER.jpg?fit=267%2C216'/><br/>REMOVES SKIN TAGS IN JUST HOURS -SAVE THOUSANDS ON EXPENSIVE MEDICAL TREATMENT - No Chemicals, Skin Tags Quickly Fall Off<br/><a href=\"http://healthfitness.ws/skin-tags-the-all-natural-pain-free-way-to-remove-unsightly-skin-tags-fast-less-cost/\">http://healthfitness.ws/skin-tags-the-all-natural-pain-free-way-to-remove-unsightly-skin-tags-fast-less-cost/</a> Media Watchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07453784438197421474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6858584506771731163.post-72466000386127024542018-07-06T18:03:00.001-07:002018-07-06T18:03:26.174-07:00Trump's Tariffs Will Raise Prices on Televisions for US Consumers, Study Shows - Save NOW on HDTVS<img src='https://bayareacoupons.info/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/SPRING-INTO-SAVINGS-WITH-JACK-BENNY.jpg'/><br/> Trump's Tariffs Will Raise Prices on Televisions for US Consumers, Study Shows - Save NOW on HDTVS Televisions will cost U.S. consu<br/><a href="http://bit.ly/2NwPhuN">http://bit.ly/2NwPhuN</a> Media Watchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07453784438197421474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6858584506771731163.post-83469583622509992352018-07-06T17:13:00.001-07:002018-07-06T17:13:20.721-07:00Save on Gas! Win FREE Gas!<img src='https://s3.amazonaws.com/attachments.onlywire/support/post_image-jjanmitq-gas%2520staion%25201042.jpg'/><br/>Save On Gas! Find Cheap Gas Prices Near You – Win FREE Gas https://buff.ly/2ucVK5v #gas #cheapgas #free #gasoline #fuel #FuelPriceHike #tariffs #tarriff<br/><a href="http://bit.ly/2NAdbG2">http://bit.ly/2NAdbG2</a> Media Watchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07453784438197421474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6858584506771731163.post-51621906849456928802015-07-30T17:33:00.002-07:002015-07-30T17:33:59.042-07:00LOOKING BACK AT BONDS TRIAL-KEY WITNESS GIANTS FORMER TRAINER STAN CONTE<h1 class="articleTitle" id="articleTitle" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 33px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px 0px 11.326px; orphans: auto; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;">
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LOOKING BACK AT BONDS TRIAL-KEY WITNESS GIANTS FORMER TRAINER STAN CONTE (March , 2011)</h1>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Mark Purdy: Former San Francisco Giants trainer Stan Conte looms large as witness in Barry Bonds perjury trial</span></h1>
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<a class="articleByline" href="mailto:mpurdy@mercurynews.com?subject=San%20Jose%20Mercury%20News:" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-out 0s; color: #5278ae; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-out 0s;">By Mark PurdySan Jose Mercury News columnist</a></div>
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POSTED: 03/22/2011 08:36:59 PM PDT<a data-disqus-identifier="ci_17677390" href="http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_17677390#disqus_thread" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-out 0s; color: #39547a; float: right; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-out 0s;">0 COMMENTS</a></div>
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Be patient. None of the good stuff has happened yet. The Barry Bonds perjury trial was a slow starter Tuesday. Everyone largely went through the motions.</div>
First, attorneys gave their opening statements. No surprises. After that, Bonds' former trainer Greg Anderson appeared before the court and again refused to testify, as expected. Anderson was immediately led off to jail, going from free man to inmate in less than five minutes while making no eye contact with Bonds, seated just a few feet away.Next came the pro forma testimony of government investigator Jeff Novitzky. Defense attorney Allen Ruby then tried to rattle Novitzky under cross-examination and failed. Once more, no shock.Just wait, though. The compelling sit-up-straight-and-listen witnesses lie dead ahead. And here is a semi-bold prediction, after hearing the initial remarks of prosecutor Matthew Parrella, in which he outlined the government's general game plan:The most crucial witness in the Bonds case will be someone whose name has barely created a blip on the radar so far.That would be Stan Conte, the former Giants trainer.Do not confuse Stan Conte with Victor Conte, the former head of BALCO who ignited this whole mess. Stan Conte is no relation to Victor. Most importantly, Stan Conte has far more credibility than Victor -- or others on the witness list who have scuzzy back stories.<div class="articleEmbeddedAdBox" style="display: inline-block; float: left; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 336px;">
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Stan Conte is essential to making the government's case for two reasons. One was his access and relationship to Bonds during the BALCO era. And the two men talked about drugs. According to Parrella, Bonds and Conte had a conversation in 2003 before Bonds' disputed grand jury testimony so that Bonds could "get his story straight" about steroids. Whatever that means. We'll find out when Stan Conte takes the stand.<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif !important; font-size: 1.07em !important; font-stretch: normal !important; font-style: normal !important; font-variant: normal !important; font-weight: normal !important; line-height: 1.76em !important; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">
The second reason Stan Conte looms so large is that he has zero slime in his background. Those of us who dealt with him during his Giants tenure always figured him to be an honest and forthright guy. Nothing has happened since to mar that perception.</div>
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Conte is definitely no Steve Hoskins, who is scheduled to testify as soon as Wednesday. Hoskins is Bonds' former business partner. They were in the autographed-memorabilia racket together before a falling out. Hoskins will testify that Bonds admitted to drug usage and also will produce a taped conversation between Anderson and Hoskins in which Anderson allegedly confirms Bonds' steroid usage.</div>
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But there are problems with Hoskins himself. After their breakup, Bonds accused Hoskins of theft and forging autographs. The FBI became involved. Bonds' attorney, Ruby, spent part of his opening statement suggesting that Hoskins has held a grudge against Bonds ever since. Ruby also suggests the government gave Hoskins a break in the FBI case in exchange for his testimony against Bonds.</div>
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The government's other star witness is Kimberly Bell, who was Bonds' mistress from 1994 to 2003. She is going to talk about how Bonds admitted to her that he used steroids and describe the changes in Bonds' body during that time (including changes in the size of, ahem, certain organs).</div>
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Bell's past, however, is also tainted. She has capitalized on her relationship with Bonds by posing for Playboy, writing a book manuscript and appearing on television talk shows.</div>
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Needless to say, Stan Conte has done none of the above. He has no business beef with Bonds. He has not posed nude anywhere or profited from writing exposés. He left the Giants to work for the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2006 and has continued to build a reputation for being a standup guy -- as is proved by passages in the Mitchell Report, the official Major League Baseball investigative report on performance-enhancing drugs.</div>
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According to the report, during a 2002 road trip by the Giants, an "unidentified player" asked Conte about anabolic steroids. The player said he was thinking about obtaining the drugs from Anderson and wanted Conte's opinion. Conte tried to nuke the player's plan by describing the health hazards of steroids. Subsequently, Conte expressed concerns about Anderson to Giants officials, who essentially did nothing.</div>
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Also in the report: In 2003 -- the same year as Bonds' grand jury testimony -- Conte was interviewed by a federal law enforcement official about the Giants' steroid usage. Conte sadly told the official that "the horse had already left the barn."</div>
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Hmmmmm. A jury would be inclined to believe a guy like that. If the government has any chance to win the case, Conte's words will be its best weapon. Just a hunch.</div>
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Contact Mark Purdy at<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="mailto:mpurdy@mercurynews.com" style="-webkit-transition: 0.1s ease-out; color: #5278ae; text-decoration: none; transition: 0.1s ease-out;">mpurdy@mercurynews.com</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>or 408-920-5092.</div>
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morning report</div>
The government portrays Bonds as a liar, and his lawyer insists he "told the truth."<br /></div>
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Media Watchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07453784438197421474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6858584506771731163.post-33757263112576115232015-04-27T16:59:00.000-07:002015-04-27T18:26:07.223-07:00Candlestick Park - I Went To Say Goodbye To An Old Friend<span style="background-color: yellow;"><span style="color: purple;"><i><span style="font-size: large;"><b>I wondered if the sun was shining so brightly at the new shiny downtown stadium they rave about so much, </b><b>where the Giants announcers always proclaim a 'beautiful day' or 'beautiful night' </b></span></i><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">even if the temperature is 58. It gets cold at the new place, too. </span></i></b></span></span><br />
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<a data-mce-href="http://wheredidyougojoedimaggio.downloadebooks.me/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Candlestick-Crumbles-view-from-cracked-parking-lot.jpg" href="http://wheredidyougojoedimaggio.downloadebooks.me/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Candlestick-Crumbles-view-from-cracked-parking-lot.jpg" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;"><img alt="Candlestick Crumbles view from cracked parking lot" class="alignnone wp-image-593" data-mce-src="http://wheredidyougojoedimaggio.downloadebooks.me/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Candlestick-Crumbles-view-from-cracked-parking-lot-300x225.jpg" src="http://wheredidyougojoedimaggio.downloadebooks.me/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Candlestick-Crumbles-view-from-cracked-parking-lot-300x225.jpg" height="452" width="603" /></a><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;"><i>Not -so -Welcome to Candlestick anymore, as demolition is in progress 4-20-15. Gates are closed for good, now, as guards make sure nobody gets in for one final closeup. But, perhaps, getting too close might hurt more. Can probably see all we want from afar</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Candlestick Park - I Went To Say Goodbye To An Old Friend</b></span><br />
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<b>I went to visit an old friend the other day. It had been more than </b><b>10 years since I'd seen him, yet he was looking as good I remembered him, </b><b>except for a few parts missing. No signs of any cancer, yet his days </b><b>are numbered. </b></span><br />
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They say my friend had a 'cold heart' unlike the 'new kid' uptown where<br />
the sun shines all the time, or so they say...<br />
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<a data-mce-href="http://wheredidyougojoedimaggio.downloadebooks.me/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Candlestick-Crumbles-view-from-cracked-parking-lot.jpg" href="http://wheredidyougojoedimaggio.downloadebooks.me/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Candlestick-Crumbles-view-from-cracked-parking-lot.jpg"><img alt="49ers sign and stadium back small" class="alignnone wp-image-586" data-mce-src="http://wheredidyougojoedimaggio.downloadebooks.me/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/49ers-sign-and-stadium-back-small-300x97.jpg" src="http://wheredidyougojoedimaggio.downloadebooks.me/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/49ers-sign-and-stadium-back-small-300x97.jpg" height="199" width="615" /></a></div>
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<i>Road to Ruin - Where 49ers last played, Candlestick parking lot reminder of good times for 49ers and Giants fans.</i></div>
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<b>Something called to me from within to go visit my friend this day, telling me</b><br />
<b>there wouldn't be many more. I took a crowded freeway Monday, </b><br />
<b>April 20 , suddenly deciding to get off busy #280 at the old Silver Ave exit in</b><br />
<b>an effort to not only save time while recreating the old bus route I took as a kid .</b><br />
<b>At least I would catch the tail end of that bus route. It looked like nothing had changed on the last leg to Candlestick... the </b><b>bumpy roads amidst blocks of small, multi-colored matchbox homes abutting one another.</b><br />
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<b>Then, suddenly, there it was, right before my eyes. An empty but still <i>inviting</i> ballpark</b><br />
<b>with the SUN BEAMING DOWN ON IT,<i> surprisingly(?)</i>. It was a vision to behold, nothing like all the </b><b>bad stuff you hear about in the media. This is the park they're </b><br />
<b>getting rid of in favor of the shiny, new one downtown, now already</b><br />
<b>in its fourteenth year. </b><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
While the security guard wouldn't let me get too close the park, as the large <b><i>ORANGE</i></b> cranes<br />
took <b><i>GIANT</i></b> bites out of my friend, I was still able to go all the way around the stadium<br />
to see all that was being done to my friend. I don't know if it was better to see him go bit by bit, as sanctioned by the neighbors rather than one big explosion which would upset a lot. But, who could be upset more, as it was to slowly lose a friend. Maybe fast would have been better.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizXMD4g2OaRT56rs8IoPY0EUp21jOyTCPtZh9GyyCg-e-xATLUDVepQ1C01cQYka3l02tNpc9TS6mB_eneZ0b7NyoHQAO3gvrWHR0DZW5NAb4ceQNV1REWW30tKrxGAJ74o50qpt6wXIw/s1600/paul+mccartney+billboard.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizXMD4g2OaRT56rs8IoPY0EUp21jOyTCPtZh9GyyCg-e-xATLUDVepQ1C01cQYka3l02tNpc9TS6mB_eneZ0b7NyoHQAO3gvrWHR0DZW5NAb4ceQNV1REWW30tKrxGAJ74o50qpt6wXIw/s1600/paul+mccartney+billboard.jpg" height="360" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<i> And there was Paul McCartney</i><br />
<i>looking down from a large billboard left over from last August when he celebrated the 50th year</i><br />
<i>since the Beatles' last concert at Candlestick Park .</i><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<h6 style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;">
<a data-mce-href="http://wheredidyougojoedimaggio.downloadebooks.me/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/candlestick-crumbles-from-center-field-parking-lot-view.jpg" href="http://wheredidyougojoedimaggio.downloadebooks.me/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/candlestick-crumbles-from-center-field-parking-lot-view.jpg"><img alt="candlestick crumbles from center field parking lot view" class="alignnone wp-image-589" data-mce-src="http://wheredidyougojoedimaggio.downloadebooks.me/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/candlestick-crumbles-from-center-field-parking-lot-view-300x169.jpg" src="http://wheredidyougojoedimaggio.downloadebooks.me/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/candlestick-crumbles-from-center-field-parking-lot-view-300x169.jpg" height="339" width="602" /></a></h6>
<h6 style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;">
<i>Candlestick becoming a distant memory</i></h6>
<h6 style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;">
<i> </i></h6>
<b><br /></b>
<b>In the bright sunlight my friend looked very good, from the various vantage points</b><br />
<b>I visited around the park .Perhaps it was a good thing they would't let me get any closer</b><br />
<b>to see the actual blood and guts. Why destroy a beautiful last image/memory any further.</b><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
As I gazed out at my friend he didn't look quite as big as he did as when I was a kid.<br />
Seeing my old friend again, for the first time in years.began to trigger old memories like<br />
seeing the players leaving the clubhouse after the game, going to their cars. There was<br />
'Sad' Sam Jones, relief pitcher extroadinaire - at least for a year or two - getting into his<br />
'59 Caddy El Dorado with the big fins. So what if he didn't sign his autograph. It was Sam Jones! Then, it was the second game of the 1962 World Series - the first and only the Giants would appear in<br />
during their first decades in San Francisco. My neighbor was nice enough to make this little kid (me) to that game, which I'll never forget and some of the events of that day. There were many<br />
other games I attended at Candlestick,,most of which have become a blur. I don't remember the cold<br />
weather everyone complained about. The Giants were winners in the early 1960s. I did collect every Giants baseball card that year except Willie Mays (see sample below).<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSmD7zIczVscH-JV-irE8Oi_q54BSHOcvQPVYZ9tADjsQMUBgn8VZBv44O2Y6vCnVvsP2M0HCLdyQPQ3j0Ju9QNrA16qCBpqkuNebvEN_znJwUFzBs3bne-mSk0IvigjaVaskr5uAD6NM/s1600/giants+circa+1960.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSmD7zIczVscH-JV-irE8Oi_q54BSHOcvQPVYZ9tADjsQMUBgn8VZBv44O2Y6vCnVvsP2M0HCLdyQPQ3j0Ju9QNrA16qCBpqkuNebvEN_znJwUFzBs3bne-mSk0IvigjaVaskr5uAD6NM/s1600/giants+circa+1960.jpeg" height="520" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<i><br /></i>
<b><i>Remembering a simpler time, the 'black and white days' of the early 1960s. Can you name these Giants greats?</i></b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b><br /></b>
<b><br /></b>
<b><br /></b>
<b><br /></b>
<b>Remembering a great team of stars no cold weather could interfere with. I can remember</b><br />
<b>the names like yesterday without looking it up. Mays, McCovey, Marichal, Cepeda, the</b><br />
<b>Alou brothers Felipe and Matty, Hiller, Haller, Davenport, Miller, Pierce, Sanford, Bailey.</b><br />
<b>I think Perry came a little later. For a minute I forgot what day it was as a day dream</b><br />
<b>was taking over me. But it wasn't a dream.More like a reverie. There was Candlestick Park</b><br />
<b>once more. I would have probably stayed a Giants fan for life if the team hadn't run into</b><br />
<b>hard times in the late Sixties and Seventies, hiring less than stellar managers and players</b><br />
<b>as the Dodgers were beating our butts. After Alvin Dark, who managed Giants to the world series </b><b>was fired, ten years of Herman Franks as manager was enough for</b><br />
<b>me. I switched allegiance to the new team across the Bay in Oakland. 1968. Of course</b><br />
<b>I lived in Oakland so I couldn't be called a traitor</b>.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
As I came out of my day dream I became sad. Thinking in modern, marketing terms - as we all<br />
seem to do these days - I wondered if Candlestick had been built right on the water where<br />
the parking lot was and the parking switched to where the stadium was would the Giants<br />
have attracted bigger crowds back then? Would that have even made a difference<br />
or were attendance numbers such a big thing in the Sixties? Maybe it was yet people<br />
weren't so hung up on attendance as I recall. An owner could still make money with a half<br />
empty stadium when costs were much less. Stadiums cost perhaps one-twentieth of what they do today. And ticket prices were rediculous. $1 for a bleacher seat, $3 for a good first deck 'box seat'<br />
in the early 1960s, as I recall.<br />
<br />
<br />
<a data-mce-href="http://wheredidyougojoedimaggio.downloadebooks.me/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/candlestick-crumbles-from-top-stands-50s-era-stremlined-curved-backing.jpg" href="http://wheredidyougojoedimaggio.downloadebooks.me/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/candlestick-crumbles-from-top-stands-50s-era-stremlined-curved-backing.jpg" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 10.7200002670288px; font-weight: bold;"><img alt="candlestick crumbles from top stands (50s era stremlined curved backing" class="alignnone wp-image-591" data-mce-src="http://wheredidyougojoedimaggio.downloadebooks.me/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/candlestick-crumbles-from-top-stands-50s-era-stremlined-curved-backing-300x225.jpg" src="http://wheredidyougojoedimaggio.downloadebooks.me/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/candlestick-crumbles-from-top-stands-50s-era-stremlined-curved-backing-300x225.jpg" height="455" width="607" /></a><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">Up in smoke, once distinguished, 50s-stylish curved upper deck now in ruin</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>I wondered if the sun was shining so brightly at the new shiny downtown park they rave about so much, </b><b>where the Giants announcers always proclaim a 'beautiful day' or 'beautiful night'</b><br />
<b>even if the temp is 58 - and it can get cold at the new park, too. </b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b><br /></b>
<br />
<br />
<br />
It was time to leave my old friend, now, and get back to work and reality, but I thought<br />
that, yes, it would be interesting to go by the new stadium, which was just off the freeway<br />
on my way home. I do remember going to my first game at AT&T , then called Pac Bell Park,<br />
in the early 2000s. It was the coldest night I can ever remember going to a game, and that<br />
included Candlestick. Maybe it was because I was no longer really into the Giants, but, no,<br />
it was plenty cold that night. My friend Tom will vouch for that... and I remember the weather<br />
more than I do the game, which wasn't the case at Candlestick for me.<br />
<br />
<br />
<h6 style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;">
<a data-mce-href="http://wheredidyougojoedimaggio.downloadebooks.me/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Candlestick-still-looking-good-from-this-angle-parts-intact-Copy.jpg" href="http://wheredidyougojoedimaggio.downloadebooks.me/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Candlestick-still-looking-good-from-this-angle-parts-intact-Copy.jpg"><img alt="Candlestick still looking good from this angle, parts intact - Copy" class="alignnone wp-image-594" data-mce-src="http://wheredidyougojoedimaggio.downloadebooks.me/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Candlestick-still-looking-good-from-this-angle-parts-intact-Copy-300x225.jpg" src="http://wheredidyougojoedimaggio.downloadebooks.me/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Candlestick-still-looking-good-from-this-angle-parts-intact-Copy-300x225.jpg" height="454" width="605" /></a></h6>
<h6 style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;">
<i>Still looking good from this angel, er, angle</i></h6>
<b><br /></b>
<b>Looking out from Candlestick's warm climes on this day, it looked like the rest of San Francisco was </b><b>overcast and cold. Driving back 101 I passed by King Street the not-so-new Kid in town and </b><b>saw not a drop of sun.The temperature on building read '58,' which had to be a half dozen degrees </b><b>lower than over at Candlestick. I began to get mad. Why are they hurting my friend. Why are they </b><b>getting rid of him. This is a con job, I told myself. On this day it certainly was much warmer </b><b>and more beautiful looking out at Candlestick than AT &T. Was it just a coincidence that on this </b><b>day things were colder and gloomier downdown? I'll have to try this again another day soon, and </b><b>see if the downtown location is really that much warmer and less windy. I'm going to do my own</b><br />
<b>little investigation. </b><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
In the Eighties and Nineties the Forty-Niners were football winners at Candlestick. Nobody complained about the cold weather then. Maybe the winters in San Francisco ARE warmer than the summers , as Mark Twain once reminded us, but how much could that be? If the Giants stop winning you can bet they'll come up with some excuse . The Giants have no KNOWN PED players currently on the team, which may explain part of their drop off this year, 2015. If they continue to lose, there will be some excuse. Can't build another ballpark already. We'll see.<br />
<br />
<h6 style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;">
<a data-mce-href="http://wheredidyougojoedimaggio.downloadebooks.me/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/from-car-view.jpg" href="http://wheredidyougojoedimaggio.downloadebooks.me/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/from-car-view.jpg"><img alt="from car view" class="alignnone wp-image-601" data-mce-src="http://wheredidyougojoedimaggio.downloadebooks.me/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/from-car-view-300x169.jpg" src="http://wheredidyougojoedimaggio.downloadebooks.me/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/from-car-view-300x169.jpg" height="331" width="588" /></a></h6>
<h6 style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;">
<i>One last gate remains open for demolition trucks to come and go - but not for fans anymore.</i></h6>
<br />
<br />
<b>I am going to say one thing that a lot of today's younger fans and some older ones</b><br />
<b> might not like. There wasn't the political correctness on the Giants and any second guessing </b><br />
<b> about players back then. You saw what you got. A homerun was a homerun - and the M and M boys hit a lot </b><b>of them, as did the rest of the Giants. No second guessing whether a player was 'legit' or 'enhanced.' </b><b>Players drank more booze back then, were more overweight and even took some greenies to stay 'up' </b><b>during long road trips. But, even the greenies didn't affect the outcomes of ball games.</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<br />
<br />
<br />
We weren't overrun with media and political correctness back then,either. Players we rarely saw on TV were brought to life through the 'color' radio of Lon Simmons and Russ Hodges. Our imaginations took the place of 'in your face' social media. Maybe a little mystery was better than reading 140 character word-bites. The focus was more on the games, themselves. Besides, there were no 'designer' anabolic steroids or PEDs to speak of back then. It was a simple, more honest world that didn't call for drug testing. With long-term,multi-million dollar contracts today brought on by stronger players unions, the pressure is on players to produce. Now, it seems that players are even being rewarded for taking enhancements as we see PED indictments being overturned (Bonds) and players making more money the second drug offence around (Cruz, Peralta, etc). The Giants won there first three world series in sixty years with KNOWN PED users and key players (Torrez, Cabrera and Morse in 2010,2012, and 2014 respectively) and have seen 23 indicted players come through town since Bonds opened the flood gates in 1997. Today we're living in an era where a player like Bonds , basically, can control a team as we saw his presense directly or indirectly force out key NON-PLAYING members of the Giants family,e.g. Bill Newcomb, Stan Conte, Dusty Baker, Hank Greenwald and even some players like Brian Wilson. Interesting that with Bonds, the Giants still didn't win a world series. Only when 'team CHEMISTRY' got real good, if you will, did the Giants start winning.<br />
<br />
<br />
<a data-mce-href="http://wheredidyougojoedimaggio.downloadebooks.me/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Ironic-orange-monsters-destroying-old-orange-and-blacks-stadium.jpg" href="http://wheredidyougojoedimaggio.downloadebooks.me/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Ironic-orange-monsters-destroying-old-orange-and-blacks-stadium.jpg" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 10.7200002670288px; font-weight: bold;"><img alt="Ironic orange monsters destroying old orange and black's stadium" class="alignnone wp-image-602" data-mce-src="http://wheredidyougojoedimaggio.downloadebooks.me/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Ironic-orange-monsters-destroying-old-orange-and-blacks-stadium-300x225.jpg" src="http://wheredidyougojoedimaggio.downloadebooks.me/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Ironic-orange-monsters-destroying-old-orange-and-blacks-stadium-300x225.jpg" height="449" width="599" /></a><br />
<i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 10.7200002670288px; font-weight: bold;">Ironic</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 10.7200002670288px; font-weight: bold;"> orange 'monsters'</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 10.7200002670288px; font-weight: bold;"> </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 10.7200002670288px; font-weight: bold;">destroying the old orange and black stadium, home of the OLD orange and black of another era, when the Giants played like GIANTS without aid of any special enhancements. Cold weather didn't matter. In fact, when they were winning nobody seemed to notice cold weather.</span></i><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Sure, some players could be surly and avoid signing autographs back then. But, they certainly never charged money for them as they sometimes do today. Today, players are paid extra so that they will interact with fans, do interviews, etc. Wasn't the case back then. Players got one year contracts back then and that was it. And it wasn't a lot of money, where most players had to work during the off season.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<h6 style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;">
<a data-mce-href="http://wheredidyougojoedimaggio.downloadebooks.me/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Take-down-the-lights-the-parties-over.jpg" href="http://wheredidyougojoedimaggio.downloadebooks.me/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Take-down-the-lights-the-parties-over.jpg"><img alt="Take down the lights, the parties over" class="alignnone wp-image-603" data-mce-src="http://wheredidyougojoedimaggio.downloadebooks.me/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Take-down-the-lights-the-parties-over-300x225.jpg" src="http://wheredidyougojoedimaggio.downloadebooks.me/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Take-down-the-lights-the-parties-over-300x225.jpg" height="449" width="599" /></a></h6>
<h6 style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;">
<i>Take down the lights, the party's over</i></h6>
<div>
<br /></div>
<br />
<b>It's a different world today where fans will come religiously out to the ballpark - with </b><br />
<b>smart phones in hand. It make take take half price Goldstar tickets or nightly promotions </b><br />
<b>or roided or suspect players to draw them -</b><b>and they may be staring at those phones rather than watching the game. But, they're there and part of the, </b><b>in Giants case, hundreds of straight 'sellouts.' Meanwhile Giants management does all the politically correct things,</b><br />
<b>from holding ring ceremonies to inviting back the former players . Meanwhile, good old Candlestick Park (before </b><b>ballparks had corporate names) where REAL, honest baseball ruled, is quickly becoming a forgotten friend from a time when players were loyal</b><br />
<b>to their teams and teams were loyal to their players (and not just with multi-million dollar contracts).</b><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
A year from today Candlestick will be no more. If you grew up in THE era, you, too, may want to to say goodbye to a good, old friend, the likes of which you'll never see again , nor what's took place inside.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<a data-mce-href="http://wheredidyougojoedimaggio.downloadebooks.me/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Thanks-for-coming.jpg" href="http://wheredidyougojoedimaggio.downloadebooks.me/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Thanks-for-coming.jpg" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 10.7200002670288px; font-weight: bold;"><img alt="Thanks for coming" class="alignnone wp-image-604" data-mce-src="http://wheredidyougojoedimaggio.downloadebooks.me/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Thanks-for-coming-300x225.jpg" src="http://wheredidyougojoedimaggio.downloadebooks.me/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Thanks-for-coming-300x225.jpg" height="451" width="601" /></a><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;"><i>Yes, thank you for having us , Candlestick. You did the Giants and 49ers proud and most fans loved you, at least when their teams were winning.</i></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<a data-mce-href="http://wheredidyougojoedimaggio.downloadebooks.me/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/CANDLESTICK-THRU-FENCE-Copy.jpg" href="http://wheredidyougojoedimaggio.downloadebooks.me/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/CANDLESTICK-THRU-FENCE-Copy.jpg" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;"><img alt="CANDLESTICK THRU FENCE - Copy" class="alignnone wp-image-596" data-mce-src="http://wheredidyougojoedimaggio.downloadebooks.me/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/CANDLESTICK-THRU-FENCE-Copy-300x169.jpg" src="http://wheredidyougojoedimaggio.downloadebooks.me/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/CANDLESTICK-THRU-FENCE-Copy-300x169.jpg" height="338" width="600" /></a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidfgiIRqd7U8zLIWGrStAbYwXfjHnEAfQIghRMpb7rjgSKeof-9ZrTtfZe3G6AEgh-oDKHF6sHr7jiF8T8FDVyThKF-gWDi8M1sq0sTfQ4bXeuV1WiCz4W_bZ7ViT-7UlZcei86Mg0qdg/s1600/bye+bye+baby.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidfgiIRqd7U8zLIWGrStAbYwXfjHnEAfQIghRMpb7rjgSKeof-9ZrTtfZe3G6AEgh-oDKHF6sHr7jiF8T8FDVyThKF-gWDi8M1sq0sTfQ4bXeuV1WiCz4W_bZ7ViT-7UlZcei86Mg0qdg/s1600/bye+bye+baby.jpg" height="199" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>In the immortal words of Russ Hodges 'Bye Bye Baby'to Candlestick Prk</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>or as Lon Simmons might say, 'Tell It Good Bye.'</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCBa4TF11uh0WphBBKPL7qizTJUX5-Ot2WWplne0iNgxnsc_4M1JlrVE9g5jb8xdfipo1riYa3IUtntIRza4bTUb5yWiLU2HEW3fZoulxvDBFR8kYDo5mvcJBKne0u7PA_JSGvk8q6EP0/s1600/NEVER+FOGET+CANDLESTICK.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCBa4TF11uh0WphBBKPL7qizTJUX5-Ot2WWplne0iNgxnsc_4M1JlrVE9g5jb8xdfipo1riYa3IUtntIRza4bTUb5yWiLU2HEW3fZoulxvDBFR8kYDo5mvcJBKne0u7PA_JSGvk8q6EP0/s1600/NEVER+FOGET+CANDLESTICK.jpg" height="203" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://wheredidyougojoedimaggio.downloadebooks.me/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">MORE CANDLESTICK MEMORIES </a></span></i></b></div>
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<b><i>Candlestick Park - I Went To Say Goodbye To An Old Friend</i></b></div>
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<br /> Media Watchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07453784438197421474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6858584506771731163.post-1063832723490371842015-04-14T19:43:00.000-07:002015-04-14T19:54:08.953-07:004 New PED Suspensions First Week, Bonds Promotes ARod Passing Mays<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="297" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xGPjTwDmAXA" width="528"></iframe><br />
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<em><strong>BASEBALL REALLY CLEAN? 4 New PED busts opening week of baseball more than all of last year </strong></em></div>
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From Mike Oz, Big League Stew...</div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #888888; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;"><i>#Giants PEDs, #PEDs, #steroids, Alex Rodriguez, Arod, Barry Bonds, Mays, peds, steroids</i></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Alex Rodriguez is five homers away from tying the great Willie Mays for fourth on the all-time list with 660. Just what happens after that ball flies over the fence might be one of the season's best dramas. The <a class="yom-entity-link yom-entity-sports_team" data-rapid_p="11" href="http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/teams/nyy/" style="color: #1b70e0; text-decoration: none;">New York Yankees</a> are acting like the milestone doesn't exist — partially because it will help avoid <a data-rapid_p="12" href="http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-league-stew/report--yankees-don-t-want-to-pay-a-rod-s--6m-home-run-bonus-182933136.html" style="color: #1b70e0; text-decoration: none;">paying A-Rod's $6 million "milestone" bonus</a>.</span></b></div>
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If he's at home, Yankees fans will probably cheer A-Rod, since they've given him <a data-rapid_p="13" href="http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-league-stew/alex-rodriguez-gets-a--warm-hand--from-yankees--fans-in-first-at-bat-181021437.html" style="color: #1b70e0; text-decoration: none;">warm receptions thus far</a>. If he's on the road, you can expect a chorus of boos. We'll wait and see what sort of media coverage it gets, whether folks act like it's as real as spring-training stats or they give it "milestone" coverage.</div>
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Despite all that, you know who will be happy for A-Rod? Another shamed slugger — Barry Bonds, who is a particularly interesting person in this matter because Mays is his godfather, A-Rod is <a data-rapid_p="15" href="http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-league-stew/alex-rodriguez-has-an-interesting-new-trainer--barry-bonds-061054572.html" style="color: #1b70e0; text-decoration: none;">a recent pupil of his</a> and, like Rodriguez, he knows what it's like to chase a milestone without the public's support.</div>
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Bonds <a data-rapid_p="16" href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2015/04/12/barry-bonds-alex-rodriguez-willie-mays-record-yankees-bonuses/25676015/" style="color: #1b70e0; text-decoration: none;">spoke to USA Today's Bob Nightengale</a> about the chase for 660 and his comments were certainly polarizing. Bonds says everybody — you, me, the Yankees, etc. — should be happy for A-Rod. Something tells us not every baseball fan is going to heed Bonds' word.</div>
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"My godfather means the world to me. I love him to a T,'' Bonds told USA TODAY Sports in an hour-long telephone interview, "but when Alex hits No. 660, I'll be happy for him. Willie will be happy for him. Everybody should be happy for him.</blockquote>
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"Any time anybody in the game does something that's a great accomplishment, the game of baseball should celebrate that. No matter what. Baseball is benefiting from that person's hard work, so baseball should at least celebrate."</blockquote>
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But it won't. And neither will the Yankees.</blockquote>
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"Why the hate?" Bonds said. "Why hate on something you're paying to see? I don't understand it. He's entertaining us. I wish life wasn't like that."</blockquote>
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<img alt="Bonds and A-Rod, circa 2007. (AP)" class="editorial" src="http://l3.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/0IfpQe5OI88L01X1Yp70Uw--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7cT04NTt3PTYzMA--/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/Sports/ap/201501211624590664318" data-preembed="image" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.3333s ease 0ms; background-repeat: no-repeat; border: 0px; display: inline; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; min-height: 1px; opacity: 1 !important; transition: opacity 0.3333s ease 0ms; vertical-align: bottom; visibility: visible !important; width: 630px;" title="Bonds and A-Rod, circa 2007. (AP)" width="630" /></span></span></figure><br />
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<span class="yui-editorial-embed" id="yui_3_0_0-2-1428946880773"><span id="schemaorg">Bonds and A-Rod, circa 2007. (AP)</span></span></div>
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Why the hate? Barry, you know why the hate. You've been dealing with that question yourself since 2007. While Bonds is talking about A-Rod here, you have to figure he's talking about himself too. He<a data-rapid_p="18" href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2015/04/12/barry-bonds-alex-rodriguez-willie-mays-record-yankees-bonuses/25676015/" style="color: #1b70e0; text-decoration: none;">further told USA Today</a>:</div>
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"This guy is not running for president of the United States," Bonds said. "He's not running for commissioner. We're not running for political office. We're just ballplayers. We're not God. We're imperfect people. We're human beings."</div>
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So are fans. They'll react from their heart, for better or worse. Some people will call A-Rod's spot on all-time list hollow (as is their right) and others will talk about how great of a talent he is, PED issues aside (also their right).</div>
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But as Bonds knows well, there will be no shortage of opinions.</div>
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<i style="background-color: #e06666;"><a href="http://succeed1.typepad.com/blog/2015/04/candlestick-crumbles-but-great-memories-still-live-for-this-kid-of-the-sixties.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">CANDLESTICK CRUMBLES BUT GREAT MEMORIES STILL LIVE FOR THIS KID OF THE SIXTIES</a></i></h3>
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</section> Media Watchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07453784438197421474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6858584506771731163.post-84845007988918099632014-09-08T16:04:00.003-07:002016-07-16T17:10:28.263-07:00WHY NO LONGER GREAT TEAMS IN BASEBALL? WHY NO 100-GAME WINNERS?<a alt="Enter your email address to see if you quality for an $250 McDonald's Gift Card!" href="http://track.flexlinks.com/a.ashx?foid=1033553.1129282&fot=9999&foc=2" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Enter your email address to see if you quality for an $250 McDonald's Gift Card!"><img border="0" src="https://content.flexlinks.com/SharedImages/Products/1129282/1002046.gif" /></a><img border="0" src="https://track.flexlinks.com/i.ashx?foid=1033553.1129282&fot=9999&foc=2" /><br />
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<i>2001 Seattle Mariners led by Ichiro was the last team to win 100 games with a MLB record </i><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;">116-46</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;"><i>No team since has managed to win 100 games </i></span><span style="background-color: #fff9e7; color: #888888; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Greatest Teams, steroids in baseball, drug use in baseball, #Giants PEDs, #PEDs, Banned substances in baseball, baseball drug testing, baseball players on drugs, cheating in baseball,The History of Baseball, Best Baseball Teams</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><i><b>WHY NO LONGER GREAT TEAMS IN BASEBALL? NO 100-GAME WINNERS SINCE 2001.</b></i></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><u>Top 100-Game Winning Teams:</u></span><br />
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1928 New York Yankees 101-53 (154 game seasons)<br />
1929 Philadelphia Athletics 104-46<br />
1927 New York Yankees 110-44<br />
1932 New York Yankees 107-47<br />
1939 New York Yankees 106-45<br />
1941 New York Yankees 101-53<br />
1954 Cleveland Indians 111-43<br />
1942 St. Louis Cardinals 106-48<br />
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-teams only played 154 games prior to 1960-<br />
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1961 New York Yankees 109-53 (162 game seasons)<br />
1968 Detroit Tigers 103-59<br />
1969 New York Mets 100-62<br />
1967 St. Louis Cardinals 101-60<br />
1970 Baltimore Orioles 108-54<br />
1975 Cincinnati Reds 108-74<br />
1976 Cincinnati Reds 102-60<br />
1984 Detroit Tigers 104-58<br />
1995 Cleveland indians 100-44<br />
2001 Seattle Mariners 116-46<br />
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(above courtesy of Bleacher Report's 50 Greatest Teams)<br />
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<b>Bleacher Report has ranked the top 50 teams including ones winning less than</b><br />
<b>100 games. Not surprising they don't include either of the 2010 or 2012 Giants</b><br />
<b>teams but they do include some, like the 1989 Oakland Athletics, for, which we would NOT include or give a PED-aided askerisk </b><br />
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1927 New York Yankees, backed by the Sultan of Swat won 110 games - in only 154 games. (Teams prior to 1961 only played 154 games.)</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Interesting to note the dearth of great teams today. Sure, it's great to have competitive </span><span style="font-size: large;">races but this is ridiculous. Only one team, the Los Angeles Angels currently has a record</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">over .600 on a pace to win 100 games - and that could change in a flash, just as have teams' records this year. If it does, it would be the first team since 2009 to win 100 games. </span><span style="font-size: large;">What's even more shocking is that teams play more games now (162 per year) vs. 154 </span><span style="font-size: large;">prior to the mid- 1960s. This makes all the pre-1960s 100-game teams that much more </span><span style="font-size: large;">amazing. In the prior 4 decades before 2009 (1969-2009) 45 teams have won 100 games but in the last five years NONE have won 100 games</span><br />
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<b>Since 2009, no teams have won 100 games, yet prior to that 45 teams had 100 wins in the four decades prior - that's over 10 teams per decade. </b><b> There have been no dominant teams since then, only </b><b>sporadically effective ones during seasonal streaks. Even those that have won over 100 were usually by one or two games. Why such a drop-off in quality teams, despite </b><br />
<b>the advantages of free agency and no salary cap? </b><br />
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<b><br /><i><br />FOR FUTURE UPDATES: </i></b><b><a href="https://my.leadpages.net/leadbox/1408779f3f72a2%3A129b18d92b46dc/5656058538229760/" target="_blank"><img height="174" src="https://lh3.ggpht.com/sA59GSfAnpicYd4pIgwDtgsFs0iPLjhHOdn8G6djXYnccWj5OZcm_G5M7Dq7rHUJElipMlDQarPIQWfnfPqDjTk=s0" width="400" /></a><script src="//my.leadpages.net/leadbox-765.js" type="text/javascript"></script></b><br />
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If anything , one would think there would be more disparity among teams since free agency. When wealthier teams today CAN PAY - as we have seen most recently in the Los Angeles Dodgers and its $220 million payroll faring less well than, say, the Oakland Athletics with a payroll in the low $100 millions.<br />
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<b>In recent years we've never seen such mediocrity,or , shall we say, ups and downs, in baseball,</b><br />
<b>where teams will have great streaks only to suddenly drop off to bad losing streaks, ending up</b><br />
<b>with so-so records - no longer any 100 game winners. This is especially surprising that even</b><br />
<b>since free agency in 1975 the richer teams and lack of salary cap are not necessarily performing better. Richer teams are not necessarily faring better than than lower salaried teams. </b><br />
<b>One might expect just the opposite, that there would be a much greater discrepancy than pre-free agency baseball. </b><br />
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<i>So, again, why no great baseball teams in over a decade?</i><br />
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<b>The only theory we can come up with focuses on the steroid or PED era.</b><br />
<b>Since the 1990s - or even the late '80s - estimates of up to 50% of major leagues players have</b><br />
<b>been using performance enhancing drugs. (We saw 20 players CAUGHT through the Biogenesis leak last year, without </b><br />
<b>benefit of effective MLB drug testing - no major leaguers have been caught in years to our knowledge, not due to a lack of tainted players.) Players must go off and on the drugs around</b><br />
<b>testing times, resulting in spikes of lower performance . With slightly more frequent testing and stronger penalties today, </b><b>players must be more careful and when they temporarily go off the drugs, the performance drops. </b><b>The drug tests are - for whatever reasons - usUally announced ahead, and this is likely </b><b>why we may see mass drop-offs by teams weeks before and after testing. It may take </b><b>some time for a player to get back to his 'enhancement' , thus, the prolonged </b><b>drop-offs of sometimes 2-4 weeks or even months - as we saw with the Giants.</b><br />
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With new baseball rules, testing is required a minimum of two times during a baseball<br />
season (to our knowledge) - it used to be only required in spring training. So, once<br />
tests are given , say, for example early and mid-season, players can go back on<br />
the juice knowing they probably won't be tested again and, if they are they'll usually<br />
be given advanced notice, anyway. This is how we see the Giants go on their late season<br />
surges with even the weakest players hitting 30-80 points above their non-enhanced<br />
(prior) averages.<br />
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<b>The trend has never been more apparent this year than with the San Francisco Giants. People actually thought the Giants had the NL West wrapped up after the first two months of 2014</b><br />
<b>with a better than .650 record and eight games ahead of the second place Los Angeles Dodgers.</b><br />
<b>But as quick as they could do no wrong, the team could do no write, finishing with</b><br />
<b>the worst losing streak in baseball over most of June and July. Once again,</b><br />
<b>the Giants turned this around with one of the best records during late August and</b><br />
<b>early September as they closed the gap to two games behind the Dogers as of September 7.</b><br />
<b>The Giants have done similarly in recent years they won the World Series, 2010 and 2012</b><br />
<b>finishing with majors' best win loss records in September both years. </b><br />
<b>Other streaky teams have included the Boston Red Sox, Detroit Tigers, BalTimore Orioles,and Washington -depending upon what you call a streak.The San Francisco Giants have had the longest overall streaks of any team as described above.</b><br />
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What happened to consistency by teams? A good team should stay generally 'good'<br />
through the season without drastic ups and downs. Even a blockbuster trade or<br />
acquisition shouldn't make that much difference in baseball where you have teams<br />
of 25 players including strong backups. Nor should injuries make that much difference - all<br />
teams have injuries - and with good backup players it shouldn't be a problem. <a href="http://wheredidyougojoedimaggio1.blogspot.com/2014/09/no-2014-ped-indictments-result-of-mlb.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">And, we see similar trends happen year</a> <a href="http://wheredidyougojoedimaggio1.blogspot.com/2014/09/no-2014-ped-indictments-result-of-mlb.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">after year as described</a> elsewhere.<br />
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<b>Now with numbers of KNOWN PED users allowed back in the game after their 50 (now 80) game suspensions, we've seen most of teams with 'PED' players making the playoffs, perhaps thanks to at one or two of those players. It's not to say they're all still 'using,' but one doesn't have to be blind or '<i>dumb or dumber' </i>(to quote Balco's Victor Conte) </b><br />
<b>to see some of these players continue to hit well above their career averages - and getting</b><br />
<b>away with it, propelling their teams often to playoffs and World Series victories. So, PEDs not only make for an uneven playing field , they pose a threat to player health and now, also seem to be bringing mediocrity to the game.(Perhaps the powers that be and others like the </b><b>more even distribution we're now seeing but baseball without great teams - or real weak ones, for that matter - is NOT baseball. It's ARTIFICIAL baseball - in more ways than one, in our opinion. </b><br />
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<b><a href="http://www.sportsonearth.com/article/68601534/calculating-the-best-time-to-be-a-fan-of-every-mlb-team" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">GOLDEN YEARS OF BASEBALL - Which were the truly greatest teams</a></b><br />
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Giants' Juan Marichal with Willie McCovey, 1962 World Series runner-ups, Runners-up best team<br />
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<i style="text-align: start;"><b>WHY NO LONGER GREAT TEAMS IN BASEBALL? NO 100-GAME WINNERS SINCE 2001.</b></i><br />
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<br /> Media Watchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07453784438197421474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6858584506771731163.post-69318543754338697172014-07-23T08:31:00.001-07:002014-10-07T10:23:55.724-07:0020 Reasons #SFGiants Won World Series with #PEDs <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6858584506771731163" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6858584506771731163" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">20 NEW </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">REASONS </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">GIANTS </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">USED </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">PEDS</span></span></h1>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">TO WIN </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">WORLD </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">SERIES</span></span></h1>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: x-large;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">20 NEW REASONS GIANTS</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); font-size: x-large;">USED #PEDS TO WIN WORLD SERIES</span><br />
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">No one thing alone spells #PEDs but when you add them all up plus previous, well it’s pretty convincing stuff</span><br />
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">1) #Foxgun RT @dmill885: @hankschulman: According to FanGraphs, Vogelsong’s fastball in 2012 averaged 90.8 mph. During playoffs and world series He was 92-94 Ryan Vogelsong’s 1.09 ERA in 24.2 IP this #Postseason is lowest since Orel Hersheiser had 1.05 in 42.2 IP in 1988 (min. 24 IP). #PEDS</span><br />
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">2) Two teams have won 6 straight elimination games. Both – the 1985 Royals and 2012 Giants – got win #6 with a shutout of the Cards in Game 7</span><br />
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">3.) Detroit had not lost a game at home in the last month and now the Giants SHUT THEM OUT 2 GAMES IN A ROW</span><br />
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">4) The Tigers were only shut out twice ALL SEASON. Now they are shut out TWO GAMES IN A ROW by the #Giants</span><br />
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">5) Lincecum FB suddenly up to 93 mph</span><br />
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">6) Are Detroit fans on to it – booing Sandoval?</span><br />
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">7) Only 10 pitchers have ever posted a lower ERA in a single #Postseason (min. 13 IP) than Tim Lincecum’s 0.69.</span><br />
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">8) After Sandoval’s 3-HR Game 1, no HRs at all in 2 straight #WorldSeries games for 1st time since 1996 Games 5 & 6. Not so supprising last two games without homers in tough, cold park but SAYS ALOT ABOUT SANDOVAL’S 3 HOMERS in game 1</span><br />
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">9) Two consecutive shutouts in #WorldSeries for 1st time since 1966 (Orioles shut out Dodgers in Games 2, 3 & 4). RT</span><br />
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">10) The @SFGiants have now won 6 straight #Postseason games for 1st time in franchise history. #WorldSeries RT</span><br />
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">11) The @SFGiants have not trailed for 54 straight innings, 6 full #Postseason games since NLCS Game 4 loss. This against some excellent competition that blew by Yankees and A’s, Cincinatti and Atlanta</span><br />
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">12) The @SFGiants have not trailed for 50 consecutive innings, since losing Game 4 of NLCS.RT</span><br />
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">13) RT If @SFGiants go 7 innings tonight w/out trailing, will be longest streak in #Postseason history (at 54 now, ’04 Red Sox went 60).</span><br />
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">14) Buster Posey was the only Giants player NOT to defend Melky Cabrera and his rather extreme violation of the drug test and his subsequent attempted coverup. Posey may be the only Giant , himself, not using PEDs</span><br />
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">15) MARCO SCUTARO and his otherworldly numbers since joing GIANTS: .362 in over 200 at bats since August 1 which is leading the league, only 15 strikeouts as compared to batting .271 the first half season at Colorado where he struck out twice as often in the same amount of at bats.</span><br />
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Even though Scutaro has (purposedly?) cooled in the Series – actually striking out twice – it could be to make things look a little more respectable after his rather unbelievable prior three months to now.</span><br />
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">16) PABLO SANDOVAL : What can you say about this guy who only hit 12 homers all season and now near-recordbreaking 6 in the postseason and 3 in one game against the best pitcher in baseball. Announcers also commented that Sandoval’s batting practice clouts in Detroit were Ruthian,hit further than perhaps anyone else.</span><br />
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">17) PITCHERS SUDDEN SUCCESS in PLAYOFFS - Giant pitching .089 ERA in post season. After opening two blowouts to Cincinatti, the Giants have unnaturally ratched it up and dominated with eveyone pitching otherworldly, with higher radar readings and all.</span><br />
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">I mean there hasn’t been one pitcher NOT doing well.</span><br />
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The guys who weren’t doing well in September, eg BumGardener, Vogelsong and even Zito are outperforming ace Matt Cain, perhaps one of two Giants most likely not using.</span><br />
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">18) HITTERS who hadn’t been doing well are suddenly becoming the big guns. While Posey is holding his own, Sandoval, Pence and Blanco are suddenly getting the key hits, very reminiscent of</span><br />
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">2010 when the Giants brought in Ross, who suddenly and inexplicably hit 5 homers in the playoffs.</span><br />
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6858584506771731163" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"> </a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6858584506771731163" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"> </a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6858584506771731163" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"> </a><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Scutaro had been doing spectacularly until Detroit and the rest of the time since coming to Giants.</span><br />
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">19) SAME PATTERN for GIANTS in 2010 repeated in 2012: Sabean brings in a couple of journeymen, cheap, other teams don’t want who are suddenly transformed into stars, ie Jose Guillen (until drug suspension) and Cody Ross in 2010 and this year Scutaro (.362 since coming to Giants after hitting only .271 at Colorado)) and now Pence hitting big in World Series. Meanwhile, team suddenly performs like world beaters late season – in 2010 they were .500 before August and this year they’ve become unstoppable in September-october with mostly same players who couldn’t hit a lick in June.</span><br />
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Would have probably won Series in 2011 , too, if it werent for losses of Posey and Wilson (not that Wilson, or Cabrera for that matter have hurt them. they just go out and get another body to use, if you know what we mean…I.E.:</span><br />
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); font-size: 17px;">20: PERFORMANCE</span></h1>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); font-size: 17px;">ENCHANCING DRUGS! (PEDs)</span></h1>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">20 New Reasons Giants Used PEDs To win World Series</span> Media Watchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07453784438197421474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6858584506771731163.post-21855960433752949882014-07-08T15:08:00.000-07:002014-07-09T16:22:34.393-07:00Why #SFGiants Big Drop Off - Past Catching Up? <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="background-color: yellow; font-size: 15pt;"><strong><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>"To
me, personally, I think you should be out of the game if you get
caught...It takes away from the guys that are working hard every day and
doing it all-natural."</i></span></strong></span><br />
<span style="background-color: yellow; font-size: 15pt;"><strong><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> -MIKE TROUT, Los Angeles Angels interviewed on Boomer Esiason's ESPN radio show</span></strong></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong><br /></strong>
<strong><br /></strong><span style="font-size: x-large;"><strong><br /></strong></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><strong>Why #SFGiants Big Drop Off - Past Catching Up? </strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong><br /></strong></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong><br /></strong></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>How does one explain the #SFGiants nearly unprecedented drop </strong><b>(from 10
games ahead in first place to one game behind in the West in a 22 day period). We need to look at current symptoms as well as review the past few years to see what led up to where the Giants currently stand. </b><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> </span><span style="font-size: xx-small;">#Giants PEDs, #Michael Morse, #PEDs, #steroids, . Tim Lincecum, Balco, baseball PEDs, baseball steroids, baseball without drugs, Bruce Bochy, Jose Guillen, MARCOS SCUTARO, san francisco giants, steroids, </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong><u style="background-color: #f9cb9c;"><br /></u></strong></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong><u style="background-color: #f9cb9c;">1) PREDOMINANCE OF INJURIES - PED RELATED? </u></strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong><u><br /></u></strong></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>First, before we look back, It's unusual to see so many current back injuries including serious
ones to Angel Pagan and Marco Scutaro, which have kept them out of the
lineup for long spells, and lesser back problems for Michael Morse, a
previously indicted #PED user. Others on the team, like Sandoval and
Vogelsong, have been out of the lineup often, too, with nagging
injuries. Certain back problems have been tied to steroid use, where the kidneys are affected, leading to lower back pain. Other nagging injuries are also often the result of PED use. </strong><strong><u>PED use <i>could be</i> a factor in the sudden Giants drop off, in our opinion, especially when on looks at the history of, i.e.San Francisco Giants and its large number of indicted PED players. </u></strong></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a data-leadbox="1408779f3f72a2:129b18d92b46dc" href="https://my.leadpages.net/leadbox/1408779f3f72a2%3A129b18d92b46dc/5656058538229760/" target="_blank">Click here to subscribe to mailing list</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b style="background-color: #f9cb9c;"><u>2) LARGE NUMBER OF PED USERS ON GIANTS</u> - Their Game Winning Hits Alone Enough to Have Put Giants into both World Series</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Perhaps the Giants' <strong><em>luck</em></strong> has run
out. Despite lack of a deep farm system, the Giants were able to skate
to two world series victories in 2010 and 2012 with marginal players
and two great months at seasons' ends both in 2010 and 2012. . While other teams were feeling
the summer heat, the Giants were playing with <em>extra bounce in their collective step</em> <em>August through October with almost two complete different teams 2010 and 2012.</em> The Giants benefitted enough to put them ahead with players of PED pasts, such as <strong>Melky Cabrera</strong> in 2012 and <strong>Jose Guillen</strong> and <strong>Guilllermo Moto</strong>
in 2010 plus likely other users not yet caught . How else does one
explain the Giants' sudden surges in August - October, both years, with
newly acquired players like<strong> Cody Ross</strong> and <strong>Marcos Scutaro,</strong>
in 2010 and 2012 , respectively, who would see their numbers skyrocket
once with the Giants? Remember Ross' astonishing eight homeruns in
October, 2010 while Sandoval did it in 2012, hitting three in one game
against Detroit after only hitting six the entire season and Scutaro
raising his average 100 points to .350 after leaving colorado mid-season
for the Giants?</span><br />
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><u style="background-color: #f9cb9c;">3) ENTIRE LINEUP MAY HAVE BEEN USING PEDS IN PLAYOFFS/SERIES</u></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><u><br /></u></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Even the regular lineup may have joined in the Giants drug culture</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">for the<b><i> late season heroics including the playoffs and World Series.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Even the older players on the Giants, such as Sandoval,as noted, got hot late season and in the playoffs, interestingly after Jose Guillen (2010) and Melky Cabrera and Scutaro (2012) joined the team. As with any <i>culture </i><b style="font-style: italic;">where there's smoke there's fire </b>and there were too many mediocre players suddenly getting hot at season's end - both years with largely two different teams - to call it a coincidence, what with the Giants history. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You had pitchers past their primes like <strong>Vogelsong</strong> and <strong>Lincecum</strong> suddenly making a joke out of top hitters on Detroit and Saint Louis in the World Series. Much like Huff and Burrell, Even the estranged <b>Barry Zito - </b>left off the World Series Giants in 2010 - somehow<b> </b>got off the deck and suddenly went from the Giants doghouse with a 6.00 ERA to World Beater for a few short weeks in the 2012 playoffs and Series, only to go back to his old self the following year, before being released. </span><br />
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<blockquote>
<strong><span style="background-color: #ffffbf; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15pt;">"Some
people are just trying to find that extra edge," Trout told Esiason. "It's tough as a guy that goes out there and plays hard every
day and puts [in] 110 percent effort ... to wake up, see there's a list
of guys that are on the list (of indicted PED users)."</span></strong></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><u style="background-color: #f9cb9c;">4) MLB TESTING HAS NOT KEPT UP WITH LATEST PEDS, Making it Easy To Get Away and Succeed with Performance Enhancers - Giants Have Had Most PED players since Bonds</u></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<strong><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">MLB has still not implemented the available test that
can detect the new 'designer' testosterone PEDs players are using.
Players can simply inject the steroids into their bodies the day of a
game and the drug can be out of their systems hours later. Under latest testing rules, MLB only has
to do as little as one test during the season and usually lets players know in
advance of testing. So, as Victor Conte of Balco fame said , players
have to be <i>'dumb or dumber' </i>to get caught. It's become somewhat of a
tradition since steroids came into baseball in the 1980s but became
especially popularized with Barry Bonds for players to go to steroids
late in their careers to give them one final boost and help with nagging
injuries. The sad part is that the steroids, themselves, often result
in more nagging injuries down the line. Remember first baseman Ken
Camaniti, one of the early (admitted) steroid users who lost his life,
in part, to PEDs.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></strong>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Note: Different Steroids affect players in different way with different results. For example, 'Cream'and 'Clear' Testosterone , as used by Barry Bonds, could put bulk and greatly enlarge some party parts and shrink others - and contribute to baldness and impotency while giving a hitter more power , ie homeruns. Barry Bonds took a great variety of other drugs, in combination, that may have exagerated to his extreme change. Newer 'designer' Testosterones appear to do the opposite, helping one stay in shape and not putting on bulk or affecting homeruns so much as helping to improve bat speed and batting average. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b style="background-color: #f9cb9c;">5) GIANT QUICK FIXES FINALLY AT AN END</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Giants had made a habit of getting quick fixes for holes
on their rosters with known and suspected PED players - largely
Venezuelans - and in 2010 and 2012 it worked for them. It's amazing how
GM Brian Sabean was able to know so much about the underground PED use
because seemingly every 'no name'player he acquired went on to have at
least temporary success with the Giants - enough to help their cause.
Kansas City was like the Giants' 'minor league' source for such players ,
from where they aquired pitchers like <b>Mijares, Machi, Gutierrez and
Petit</b> (Machi , Gutierrez and Petit all have had that sudden success
once with the Giants and continue to this day). Other players like
<b>Torrez, Huff and Burrell </b>would come to the Giants at advanced ages and
have '<i>carreer seasons' </i>only to <b><i>suddenly </i></b>drop off the radar only after
helping lead the Giants, in this case to a 2010 World Series.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b style="background-color: #f9cb9c;"><i>6) 'IF YOU CAN'T BEAT THEM, JOIN THEM'</i> : OTHER TEAMS NOW FOLLOWING GIANTS LEAD, PURSUING PED USERS, SHRINKING AVAILABLE PED POOL FOR GIANTS</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Today, after over a decade of playing the PED
game,the Giants may finally be slowing down. Due to the lack of REAL testing and Giants' lead, other teams have finally sai</b><i style="font-weight: bold;">d 'If you can't beat them, join them </i><b>' and are now going after the tainted players only the Giants once pursued. (Note, every team in Final Four last year had indicted PED user(s) on their team.) President of the
Giants Larry Baer , while not saying the team would stop
going after PED players, did express a note of caution (SFGate) because
of the team's reputation for having had so many players on PEDs. </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now
would be about the time of year the Giants would normally start going to
their bag of tricks following their June swoons but, so far, we haven't
seen it; it still may be early. Knowing Sabean, never a great trader
but one to go for the occasional big name and overpay his current <i>
better performing</i> players , if the Giants continue to crumble he will
once again resort to the easy way out - that of finding low-cost,
tainted players other teams may not want <b>- IF THEY ARE AVAILABLE. Like with any trend that catches on, perhaps Sabean now has competition for PED players and has </b><i style="font-weight: bold;">LOST HIS EDGE - for now,anyway. </i><b>But don't give up on him. Knowing the Giants, they'll find a way back, illegal or otherwise in their liberal town - and nobody will seem to notice or care.. So, the Giants are down now but they're not out. They've just got NEW competition.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How long Sabean and company can get away with what they've been
doing for over a decade is anyone's guess. As Esiason noted, many fans don't
seem to care anymore. Yet, as he also noted, Cooperstown <b><i>still does</i></b>,
fortunately , as do some baseball writers who may not say so publicly.
<b>But, with time and more and more kids brought up on the PED culture,
this may fully change in time with steroids and PEDs becoming a totally
acceptable part of baseball and all sports, perhaps like the
legalizaition of marijuana in more and more states . </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A good number of the players that Sabean has brought in have been using PEDs and that's why Bochy has often looked like a magician with the pitching staff and lineup. But, take away the drugs or lose these players to injury and Giants and Bochy become mortal. In fact, if you look at Bochy's overall managerial career he is exactly at .500 as a manager, .490 at San Diego and .510 at San Francisco. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(opinion)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><u style="background-color: yellow;">SF Giants Players Linked to Steroids and Human Growth Hormone (HGH) </u></span><u style="background-color: yellow; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">Admitted Steroid and HGH Users and Implicated Players and</u><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><u style="background-color: yellow;">MLB Positive Tests/Suspensions: (</u></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mitchell Report, http://www.baseballssteroidera.com/ and other sources)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Matt Williams 1986-1997</b></span><br />
<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">*Barry Bonds 1993-2007</span></b><br />
<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Rich Aurillia 1995-2005 and 2007-2009</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Marvin Bernard 1995-2003</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Glenallen Hill 1995-1997</b></span><br />
<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">FP Santangelo 1999</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Wilson Alverez 1997</b></span><br />
<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Bobby Estalella 2000-2001</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Armando Rios 2001</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>David Bell 2002</b></span><br />
<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Benito Santiago 2001-2003</span></b><br />
<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Matt Herges 2003-2005</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Alex Sanchez 2005</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Abraham Núñez<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 2006</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Yamid Haad<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>2006 </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Matt Kinney 2010</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Eliezer Alfonzo 2006-2008</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Jose Guillen 2010</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Guillermo Mota 2010-2012</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Miguel Tejada 2011</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Melky Cabrera 2012</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Mike Morse 2014</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">*Affect of steroids -example: Barry Bonds had never hit more than 34 homeruns and batted over .300 only twice in his seven years at Pittsburg (1986-1993). After coming to San Francisco he only hit LESS than 34 homeruns once and only batted UNDER .300 twice in his thirteen years except for his last three years when he was injured</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u><b>Not Implicated but Very Possibly on PEDs with Giants</b></u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">JEFF KENT 1997-2002- - Power numbers suddenly soared when coming to Giants in 1997, peaking <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>in 2002 World Series year with 37 homers and .313 average (career year) </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ANDRES TORRES 2010 - Had career years in 2009 and 2010 once coming to Giants at age 30</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">MARCO SCUTARO - Most surprising increased numbers, this for a 37 year old player playing in the difficult San Francisco hitter’s park. Batting average up an otherworldly 90 points in a full half season since coming to Giants from Colorado, again hitting in an unfriendly hitters park. But even perhaps more amazing is Scutaro’s strikeout ration, indicative of possible PED use with increased vision and hand-eye coordination ala Bonds; he cut strikeouts down less than half with only 14 strikeouts since coming to San Frnacisco in July – that’s only one strikeout per 37 at bats!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> ANGEL PAGAN power numbers up since coming to SF with Melky Cabrera – from 24 to 38 doubles and from four to 15 triples this year with homers about the same (8 vs. 7).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> GREGOR BLANCO who was red hot, ala Torres (2010) in 2012 for first half of season, hit more homers this year(5) than in all previous seasons combined</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> SANTIAGO CASILLA suddenly halved his ERA after coming to Giants in ‘magic’ year, 2010 – from 5.96 in 2009 at Oakland to 1.95 his first year , 2010 with the Giants – and it’s remained there ever since.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">PABLO SANDOVAL - Unlikely huge spikes in performance late seasons 2010 and 2012 and World <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Series and since. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> JOSE MIJARES 2012 - Relief numbers up dramatically after joining Giants</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> CHAD GOUDIN 2013 - Near all-star pitching numbers after joining Giants</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> JEAN MACHI - Sudden success with Giants</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> YASMEIRO PETIT - Cut his ERA in half and raised strikeouts, one per inning after joing SF from Arizona </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">References: Mitchell Report, http://www.baseballssteroidera.com/ and other sources</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(Opinion column) </span><br />
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San Francisco Giants - Interesting look back at Bruce Bochy Era - Bochy Over-rated?</h2>
<a class="asset-img-link" href="http://succeed1.typepad.com/.a/6a0134889e6d91970c01a511dc3462970c-pi" style="display: inline;"><img alt="Boche padres jpg" border="0" class="asset asset-image at-xid-6a0134889e6d91970c01a511dc3462970c img-responsive" src="http://succeed1.typepad.com/.a/6a0134889e6d91970c01a511dc3462970c-800wi" style="float: left;" title="Boche padres jpg" /></a> <br />
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<a class="asset-img-link" href="http://succeed1.typepad.com/.a/6a0134889e6d91970c01a73de786f8970d-pi" style="display: inline;"><img alt="Caminititi cropped" border="0" class="asset asset-image at-xid-6a0134889e6d91970c01a73de786f8970d img-responsive" src="http://succeed1.typepad.com/.a/6a0134889e6d91970c01a73de786f8970d-800wi" height="212" title="Caminititi cropped" width="218" /></a></h3>
<b>Ken Camanitti, Padres</b><br />
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How Did Bruce Bochy Become Giants Manager? Bochy Overated?</h3>
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<b>Tony Gwynn's recent passing brought to light some interesting connections</b><br />
<b>between the Giants and Gwynn's long-time San Diego Padre team.Bruce Bochy</b> SanFrancisco Giants, Pablo Sandoval, med peds, san fran giants<br />
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Giant manager <b>Bruce Bochy</b> was <b>San Diego Padre's </b> and Gwynn's manager from 1995 to 2001, when Gwynn retired. It was also during those years that Gwynn, then in his late thirties, had three of his five best years, hitting over .350 at an age most players are retired. <b>Ken Camaniti,</b> an admitted steroid user who lost his life at 35 due in part to <b>performance enhancing drugs,</b> had among his best years, certainly his best power numbers with as many as 40 as a Padre when he had never hit as many as 20 before; he received MVP and propelled the Padres to the World Series in 1998. Caminitti took advantage of the emerging drug culture in the San Diego clubhouse, then largely a<b> steroid</b> called<b> creatine</b> that would become popular with Oakland A's player and San Diego native <b>Mark McGwire</b>. The trend would escalate especially to the San Francisco giants, though the drug s of choice would change. Barry Bonds and at least seven other (later indicted) Giants would favor a testosterone-based steroid known as the 'clear' and the 'creme' <br />
the Mitchell reports).<br />
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<b>Bochy , as manager, would witness cartoon-like numbers in Camaniti and Gwynn and later Bonds when Bochy came to the Giants in 2007. Bochy likely <i>knew</i> he was coming to a team featuring another cartoon-like character, both in <i>changed appearance</i> and statistics in Bonds, who was having his best seasons and breaking homerun and other records and doing things never done before , again, <i>at an age when most players were either retired or nearing it.</i></b><br />
<i>(Note: We don't believe Gwynn used PEDs most of his career but became caught up in the team culture with Caminiti and perhpas others in his later years when he could most benefit , much like his friend, Barry Bonds on the Giants</i><br />
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<b>It's possible at the time Bochy wasn't aware of a drug culture while Caminitti was still with San Diego, but he would find out a few years later while still managing San Diego when Camaniti came out with his own book in 2002 about his admitted steroid use in San Diego that would , in part, end up killing him . </b><br />
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When the Giants tabbed Bochy to replace <b>Dusty Baker</b> as manager in 2007 he certainly knew , post facto , if not before , what had happened around him during his San Diego days, yet Bochy would accept the managerial position with the Giants <i>knowing</i> of the controversary surrounding Bonds' astonishing late -career numbers . If anyone should have drawn connections between his own <i>now-deceased</i> ex-player, Camaniti, and Bonds , it was Bochy. <b><i>No doubt the Giants knew something when they hired him</i></b>, i.e. as a sympathetic figure who would put up with Bonds - and even let the Giant's star player <i><b>control the clubhouse</b></i>, including what trainers could come in to work with him. The Giants own team trainer, <b>Stan Conte</b> - no relation to Victor-would later leave the team for the hated Dodgers, just to get out of a toxic situation. <br />
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In a much forgotten or overlooked interview in 2002 , Bonds promised to share his 'secrets' with teamates. That he did , we would later find out, with seven Giants indicted for illegal drug use (Mitchell Report). Other players that may NOT have joined Bonds, such as Jeff Kent, would have nothing to do with Bonds.<br />
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<b>When Bonds propelled the Giants into the World Series in 2002 with his 'bag of secrets' , Giants management no doubt would overlook negative Bondsian antics so much they rather lose a popular manager in Dusty Baker than a .370 power hitter (2002) who seemed to keep getting better with age!</b><br />
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No doubt Baker had had enough of a dysfunctional clubhouse, and the Giants of him - and Baker was sent packing. Thant's when, in 2007, Bruce Boche came on the scene. Recently fired as manager of a dysfunctional San Diego Padres team, no doubt with similar problems as the Giants, in Bochy no doubt the Giants figured there was a match. On one hand one would think Boche would run the other way fromthe Giants, but, heck, it was a job - and managerial positions in major league baseball don't come up often.<br />
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<b>In Bochy, the Giants management found a tolerant manager who didn't mind playing second fiddle to Bonds; one who would look the other way when the Bonds' entourage appeared. trainer and drug guru Greg Anderson in tow</b>. A couple of brave and astute San Francisco baseball writers writers would eventually expose what was lurking in those <i><b>shadows</b></i> of AT&T Park and finally put an end to a decade of Giants <i> </i> and Bonds living a lie, Bonds walking away with a bunch of MVPs and the Giants nearly pulling off a World Series in 2002. Pressure mounted and the Giants begrudgingly said goodbye to the man for whom AT&T was built -<i> or who built AT&T</i>- Bonds, then 41 and still capable of hitting more homers than anyone half his age. But the <i><b>fun</b></i> down by McCovey Cove was far from over...<br />
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The loss of Bonds proved a mere blip on the radar as the Sabean and the Giants would take what <b><i>knowledge</i></b> they had gleaned from Bonds and -<i>without much of a farm system and nary a World Series victory in 50 years </i>- parlay that into <b><i>a couple of unlikely World Series victories</i></b> in 2010 and 2012. This time they didn't rely on one man alone, but a cast of characters...<b> Melky 'Milk Man' Cabrera, Jose Guillen, Guillermo Moto</b> and many more... <i>and , with ownership , fans and a Commissioner willing to look the other way, the Giants haven't stopped since . <b>Despite the problems and expense he may have cost, Bonds may bave been the Giants best deal ever,</b></i>for those concerned most about the profit movtive.<br />
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<br /><i> </i><br /><br /><br /><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Bochy .500 manager</span></h2>
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<br /><span style="font-family: times new roman,times;">Bruce Bochy seems a very likeable guy and certainly a '<i>player's manager</i>' but is he truly one of the premier managers of baseball?</span><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman,times;">He has been given credit especially for his handling of the pitchers and bullpen. But, when one looks at his record <span style="text-decoration: underline;">he is a .500, (.501 </span></span><span style="font-family: times new roman,times;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">to be exact as of 7/5) manager</span> with as many losses as wins over his 20 year managerial career. </span></h4>
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<span style="font-family: times new roman,times;">Even with the Giants,who have been helped out with both natural and unnatural talent, he is only .514 , with a winning record only the two world series years of 2010 and 2012 plus 2011 of his seven years in San Francisco prior to this one.</span><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman,times;">And, again, those winning years were certainly aided by at three known PED users (People may have already forgotten or don't care that the Giants have had, since Bonds, a notorious reputation for having PED players, morseo than any other team.) In 2010, indicted PED users Jose Guillen and Guillermo Moto gave the Giants probably 5-10 wins between them, enough to propel them into the series that year.In 2012 it was Melky Cabrera leading the way, giving the Giants more</span><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman,times;">winning hits than any other player during his half season before getting suspended - again, enough to propel the Giants to thte World Series.</span></h4>
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<br /><span style="font-family: times new roman,times;">Teams not hesitant to take aboard PED players are likely to perpetuate the trend - now having gone on so long it's hardly a trend anymore.</span><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman,times;"> It's likely, in our opinion, that there were others, too, like Marco Scutaro,</span><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman,times;">who came to the Giants from Colorado about the time Cabrera was suspended; he raised his average nearly 100 points,. from .267 to about .350 </span><span style="font-family: times new roman,times;">where it remained the rest of the season. As in 2010, the Giants had unlikely late season surges with players like new acquistioni Cody Ross</span><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman,times;">and Pablo Sandoval each hitting 8 homeruns in their respective years of 2010 and 2012 - more than they'd hit the entire year. Sandoval hit three </span><span style="font-family: times new roman,times;">home runs in one playoff game against Detroit after only hitting three homeruns the entire year. </span></h4>
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<br /><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman,times;"><i>“It helps late in the season,</i>” says Rangers designated hitter Mickey Tettleton, in Pete Williams’s 1997 USA TODAY story titled “Lifting the game: Creatine is baseball’s new gunpowder" (thanks to FanGraphs recent reprint http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/ken-caminitis-goody-bag/) he does not bother with nutrition supplements.</span><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman,times;"><i> “When you feel sluggish, it makes you feel like you have a little left in your gas tank.”</i></span></h4>
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<br /><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman,times;"> So, we're saying, we believe that manager Bochy got some significant help to his managerial career .514 record with the Giants and even with San Diego where he was . 494 when he had Camininiti and Gwynn and others.(As reported before, we don't believe Gwynn used PEDs his entire career but became caught up in the culture when he could most benefit in his later years, much like his friend, Barry Bonds on the Giants.) </span></h4>
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<br /><span style="font-family: times new roman,times;">Interesting to note that the Giants-despite team President Larry Baer's comment that the team doesn't like to go after PED players </span><span style="font-family: times new roman,times;">for the very reputation the team already has- continue to sign known PED users such as Michael Morse this year. This strategy may be catching </span><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman,times;">up with them as we note in a coming article. </span></h4>
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<br /><span style="font-family: times new roman,times;">Way back in 1997, Sabean in his second year as GM with the Giants already was virtually sanctioning the use of PEDs, believing </span><span style="font-family: times new roman,times;">that players were going to use anything that would give them that edge. Ever since then we've seen Sabean and the Giants resort to the </span><span style="font-family: times new roman,times;"><i>'if you can't beat them join them'</i> philosophy and has accepted that so-called inevitability of steroid use by signing many a known and suspected </span><span style="font-family: times new roman,times;">player.</span></h4>
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<br /><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman,times;">From Pete Williams’s 1997 <span style="text-decoration: underline;">USA TODAY</span> story titled “Lifting the game: Creatine is baseball’s new gunpowder" we have this key quote, </span><span style="font-family: times new roman,times;">reprised in Fan Graphs (http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/ken-caminitis-goody-bag/)</span></h4>
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<br /><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman,times;">In my mind, the most important quote comes near the end from Brian Sabean, then in his second year as Giants general manager (notable in itself):</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman,times;">Steroid use <i>“wouldn’t surprise me,”</i> says Giants general manager Brian Sabean. <i>“If it gives somebody an edge, guys are going to use it. Look how it’s affected other sports. We’d really have our head in the sand if we thought it wasn’t here in baseball.”</i></span></h4>
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<br /><span style="font-family: times new roman,times;">Again, that was back in 1997. Nowhere has Sabean said the team would not bring in players with a PED history and he's been doing it ever since.</span></h4>
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<br /><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman,times;"> The list of Giants who have used PEDs since then is longer than that of any other team. Rather than working against such an acceptance, Sabean </span><span style="font-family: times new roman,times;">and the Giants have lead in the open-door policy for drugs which has, in our opinion, severely tarnished , if not ruined baseball. Now, PEDs are commonplace</span><span style="font-family: times new roman,times;">in baseball. If not 50% of players are using, per the late user, Ken Caminitti, himself, or Balco's Victor Conte in more recent times, a good percentage are</span><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman,times;">due to MLB''s continued weak or ineffective drug testing program, which has not caught a single player in the past two seasons, to our knowledge -</span><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman,times;">and not because the sport is clean. </span><span style="font-family: times new roman,times;">All or at least four of last years division winners had indicted PED users on their teams. We could name names but we won't get into that;</span><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman,times;">hopefully that will come to light sooner than later by authorities higher than ourselves. <i>And, the PED beat goes on...</i></span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></h4>
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performance enhancing drugs in baseball, doping in sports, peds,#peds, Giants peds, #SFGiants, #peds in baseball, playoffs, #playoffs</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> San Fran Giants - Interesting look back at Bruce Bochy Era - Bochy Over-rated?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Bruce Bochy, SanFrancisco Giants, Pablo Sandoval, med peds, san fran giants, doping in sports</span> Media Watchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07453784438197421474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6858584506771731163.post-30900149731934196632014-06-25T16:59:00.001-07:002014-06-26T13:46:17.959-07:00#Tim Lincecum #No Hitter - 5 Reasons Unlikely Coincidence - Tim Lincecum Fangraphs, Tim Lincecum Twitter, Tim Lincecum<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It seems like whenever the Giants are on a skid, something like this happens, eg Lincecum no-hitter, the second in two years and against the same team. One just has to wonder at least a little bit... </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Giants had just lost 10 of 13 and two in a row to San Diego and suddenly Lincecum, now 30, blows away San Diego, this year more with cut pitches more than the fastball. Last year he was suddenly throwing mid-90s fastballs and 140 total pitches, unheard of for most pitchers, especially the diminutive Lincecum. This year he did it with the cut stuff and <i><b>seemed to do it effortlessly and as if he knew it it was coming. </b></i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Tim Lincecum No Hitter , Tim Lincecum Fangraphs, Tim Lincecum Twitter, Tim Lincecum, SanFranciscoGiants.com, SFGaints, No Hitter, #PEDs?</span></span><br />
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<u><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">WHY UNLIKELY TIM LINCECUM NO HITTER?</span></u><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1) First Pitcher in 100 Years to Throw Two No Hitters for San Francisco Giants</span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> (Christy Mathewson through the other). Even the great Juan Marichal didn't throw two.) </span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2) First Pitcher to Throw Two No Hitters Against the Same Team</span></b><br />
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<b>3) One of Only a Handful of Pitchers to Throw No Hitter After Age 30</b></span><br />
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> On the Downside of His Career </span></b><br />
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<b>4) Perhaps the only Pitcher to throw Two No Hitters Despite a near 5.00 ERA</b></span><br />
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<b>5) Threw No Hitter Almost Effortlessly, Almost Expected </b></span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Lincecum is only the second pitcher in the history of the Giants to throw two no-hitters...and he nearly threw a third last year against Chicago and he's doing it well past his prime Cy Young seasons, which makes things seem even more odd. This year he's been able to throw 93 mph on occassion but used other pitches, too. In addition, Lincecum got two base hits, more than his total for the whole year.</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Again, one just has to wonder at least a bit how this could happen. We've seen Sandoval suddenly hit three homeruns against Detroit top pitching in playoffs and more homers in October than the rest of the season. We've seen other late career players like Cody Ross, Aubrey Huff and Pat Burrell suddenly <i>ramp it up</i> for the playoffs and World Series -in fact the entire Giants team has almost</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">magically 'caught fire' late in seasons with different cast of characters. It was very unlikely and perhaps unbelievable to see the Giants, led by players like Lincecum to blow out much better teams in those 2010 and 2012 playoffs</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and series. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>And, again, this time, when the Giants needed a lift, almost magically, probably the Giants weakest starter(near 5,00 ERA for the season) puts up a no-hitter, something he couldn't even during his prime - and now he's done it twice in two years at age 30.<br />San Diego may be the weakest hitting team in baseball but they've been hot lately, beating the Giants twice. </b>Tim Lincecum No Hitter - Unlikely Coincidence?, Tim Lincecum Fangraphs, Tim Lincecum Twitter, Tim Lincecum, SanfranciscoGiants.com, SFGaints</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Giants are known to look for things like this to spark not only the team but the fan base - and have long turned the other way concerning the use of <b>Performance enhancing drugs</b>. No , we're not saying Lincecum used them, yet there are<i> too many coincidences here</i>. We can't say for sure - the fastball wasn't a key factor here by which we often use to help measure performance trends and likelihood of PED use - but PEDs work for other pitches, too, adding dip, curving action, etc. NOW WITH THE LATEST DESIGNER DRUGS- FOR WHICH MLB HAS STILL NOT INSTITUTED TESTS (WHICH DO EXIST) THAT CAN DETECT THEM - PLAYERS CAN GO ON AND OFF THE DRUGS ON A WHIM AND HAVE THEM OUT OF THE SYSTEM WITHIN HOURS, eg Lincecum can take a dose before the game and have it out of his systems hours later. Why do you think players like Sandoval and others have sudden spurts of success amidst failures. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Furthermore, we can look at empirical data of known #PED users such as <b>Bartolo Colon,</b> comparing F/X (FANGRAPHS) (velocity) stats with those of Lincecum. We DON'T see an expeced increase in velocity, but a natural age-related decrease in velocity. For Colon, the fastball showed a drop from 92.1 to 90.9 and for Lincecum the fastball dropped from 93.6 mph to 89.8 in a seven year period from 2007 and 2014. No, we can't be sure Colon and LIncecum were users the entire seven year period but we can assume that Colon<b><i> probably</i></b> was. And, instead of an expected increase of velocity from the PEDs we actually see a drop. Likewise with Lincecum. Then, of course, there are different types of PEDs. Steroids such as creatine used by Mark McGwire , popular earlier, add mass and bulk, thereby especially enhancing one's bat speed, ie power, while also aiding in hand-eye coordination, ie seeing and hitting the ball better. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i>SO, HOW DO THE NEWER DESIGNER PEDs HELP PLAYERS?</i> Today , the newer designer drugs like testosterone may not add the bulk but ,rather, still improve accuracy/hand-eye performance , ie we may not see a huge rise in homeruns but we see improved batting averages and reduce strikeouts while on the PEDs. In pitching , with the newer drugs , we would see similar changes, including ball movement. Pitches will do unusual things such as giving exaggerated movement to the pitch/ball. Players have become smarter and have learned to 'hide' their improved performances. No longer do we see cartoon-like homerun totals but higher batting averages, take known PED user Melky Cabrera who suddenly raised his batting average 50 points when he joined Kansas City / San Francisco before being suspended as a Giant. </b>The above is our take / opinion on a subject that we hope we can stop writing about one of these days , but for now we feel, as 'old-school' baseball fans, needs to be brought before the public.</span><br />
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<a href="http://succeed1.typepad.com/blog/tim-lincecum/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">SEE LINCECUM FIRST NO HITTER: Unlikely 148-Pitch No Hitter, Giants Up to Old Tricks Again?</span></a></h3>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">SEE MORE <a href="http://wheredidyougojoedimaggio.blogspot.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">GIANTS</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Tim Lincecum No Hitter - Unlikely Coincidence?, Tim Lincecum Fangraphs,
Tim Lincecum Twitter, Tim Lincecum, SanfranciscoGiants.com, SFGaints</span><br />
<br /> Media Watchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07453784438197421474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6858584506771731163.post-67941987420753617722014-05-21T20:36:00.000-07:002014-05-21T20:50:44.149-07:00 A's Win On One Hit and Three Runs in Bizarre Game for the Record Books<div style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"> First - Ever Regular Season A's Win With Only One Hit</span><br />
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<strong>If Your Team Gets Nine Hits and the Opponent Gets 1 Hit You Would Expect Your Team To Win. Not so for the poor Tampa Bay Rays, May 21.</strong></div>
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<strong>Furthermore, your team gets two runs but the 'one hit wonders' still beat you. How is that possible? And, we're not talking music here...</strong></div>
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The Oakland A's won their 11th in 12 games in unlikely fashion in one bizarre game at the Tampa Bay Dome, or whatever you call the indoor stadium. The A's were able to bunch their one hit , a homerun by Brandon Moss with walks and errors by Tampa Bay;.</div>
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Meanwhile, Tampa Bay was NOT able to bunch their NINE hits.</div>
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Credit Oakland relievers Abad for getting out of a bases loaded jam in the eighth and Doolittle for blowing his fastball by the Rays after a ceiling-aided single in the ninth. </div>
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<strong><span style="font-size: large;">CEILING-AIDED SINGLE</span></strong><br />
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<strong>That's right. Even with the assistance of a 'sky rule' base hit in the ninth inning, Tampa Bay was unable to beat </strong><strong>the dominant Oakland A's , who seem to find new ways to win. Tampa Bay's second batter in the ninth hit a high popup that hit the dome ceiling ring cross bar, altering the downward flight of the ball, causing John Donaldson to miss the ball. Perhaps an odd baseball book ruling allows such balls in play.</strong><br />
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Oakland has never before won a regular season game when only scoring one hit and they managed to still win when the other team scored two runs. They did win on one hit in the 1974 World Series when Catfish Hunter - who else? - was pitching for them. Only four teams have one a game on one hit in the last five years, but none scoring as many as three runs on one hit.</div>
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The A's also managed to win against their old closer, Grant Balfour, who closed out the ninth inning for Tampa Bay. A game for the books...The Oakland A's have been called many things before and now they can be called One Hit Wonders.</div>
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Hopefully ,for the A's - who now have the best record in baseball - they'll get more hits next time and not count on such an unlikely game. </div>
Media Watchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07453784438197421474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6858584506771731163.post-38643456794478713152014-05-13T10:25:00.000-07:002014-05-19T14:38:16.707-07:00INSTANT REPLAY IN BASEBALL BECOMING A JOKE WITH GIANTS 'STALL BALL'<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://tracking.goldstar.com/aff_c?offer_id=23&aff_id=3089" rel="nofollow" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6MqT9YeoPHUT4mC6kiuzZTtZFFnlJe-0oI_jedTTbeIDviEJwjdFMG8UwugK6aGgTBGlYTGIE34Hf7nO7hqQCaNNmT3e8_fU_l3sDguBkhvY26vOfF5HQVFyfYBewujQ7NdeZFtg0ZKg/s1600/oakland+a's+free+tuesday+parking.jpg" height="223" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When at Goldstar site, go to 'Find Events' or Search 'Oakland'<br />then scroll down to find Oakland - Texas June game offering<br />discount tickets PLUS FREE Parking!</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br />INSTANT REPLAY IN BASEBALL BECOMING A JOKE WITH GIANTS 'STALL BALL'</span><br />
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<blockquote>
<i>Bruce Bochy didn't get mad. He got critiquin'. The Giants manager went into his studious mode, getting a signal from his first-base coach, Roberto Kelly. Watching the body language of his runner, Juan Perez. Most of all, waiting for his video guy on a walkie-talkie, Shawon Dunston, to confirm the umpire got it wrong. In other words, in the Giants' first spring-training crack at exercising their replay rights, Bochy took his sweet time alerting the umpires he was challenging the call. On that front, the new replay system is over the top. It allows teams to use replay to determine whether to go to replay. Is that...<a href="http://www.sfgate.com/sports/shea/article/Replay-in-baseball-could-launch-stall-ball-era-5329092.php" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">more » *(SFGate 3-18-14, John Shea)</a></i></blockquote>
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<span style="font-size: large;">SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS FIRST TO WORK INSTANT REPLAY IN BASEBALL TO ITS BENEFIT</span><br />
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<b>Leave it to the San Francisco Giants to figure out the latest loophole/cheat in baseball - and Major League Baseball either not notice and/or not do anything about it...
First it was the Giants popularizing illegal PEDs with Bonds and friends while continuing to seek out known tainted players to this day, then 'selling out' 250 straight games
without really selling them out and now beating the replay game while stalling games and continuing to make a mockery of the grand old sport . </b><br />
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<i> It goes something like this, in case you haven't noticed, eg: </i><br />
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<b>A close call happens late in the game with the score tied 1-1, eg a runner is called out at first base on a close call. Manager Bochy SLOWLY walks out to complain while the Giants video department is looking at it's own video replay of the close call. Only after the Giants video people see close up and personal that the umps blew the call does Bochy speed his step and lodge a complaint with the umps. The umps then check with MLB video headquarters in New York. Of course, the call is overturned. The Giants win all these replay challenges because they see it first! </b><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">INSTANT REPLAY IN BASEBALL MAKES FOR UNEVEN PLAYING FIELD</span><br />
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On one hand, slap the Giants for , again, taking unfair advantage but on the other hand give the Giants credit for taking advantage of the loophole that MLB continues to allow - again, falling down on the job as it has done for years with it's lax drug testing, failure to take a position on the Bay Area baseball stadium issue , etc. Perhaps other teams have fallen in the Giants footsteps by now but the Giants didn't HAVE to go to the extreme measure, whether one calls it cheating or not - and baseball should have caught and tightened this loophole by now...<br />
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Now, that the Giants have got this 'stall ball' tactic down to a science they are , not surprisingly, winning all of their replay challenges, which have resulted in a number of wins they wouldn't have had last year before replay . Lets see how long it takes until other teams finally wake up and either play the stall game with their videographers, themselves, or MLB comes out of its latest stupid, er, stupor... . REAL accurate, effective Drug testing STILL hasn't been actuated more than 10 years since Bonds made PEDs vogue (see previous posts in these pages), so this replay flaw could go on indefinitely. You'd think other teams would either complain about the Giants or join the stall game themselves if MLB continues to allow this unfair 'loophole 'and the Giants , of course, happily taking advantage of it. Media Watchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07453784438197421474noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6858584506771731163.post-47039904284135347382014-05-03T20:46:00.001-07:002014-05-03T21:36:24.131-07:00MICHAEL MORSE SF GIANTS LATEST TAINTED ACQUISITON TO RISE ABOVE PAST RECORD<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnvJ7CYmIe81H3GOvkJvz2-m5C58YA2HSspyQZSyniEZhuUX3n4o3LRQ40zxxBh7JGrBIQYqBwXE_MirbKvgFRfxcdSHbPo51UbZ0k_blaIPqAFrZEfdrtmbpdMn-5vtEm913W_OvHAQw/s1600/michael+morse.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnvJ7CYmIe81H3GOvkJvz2-m5C58YA2HSspyQZSyniEZhuUX3n4o3LRQ40zxxBh7JGrBIQYqBwXE_MirbKvgFRfxcdSHbPo51UbZ0k_blaIPqAFrZEfdrtmbpdMn-5vtEm913W_OvHAQw/s1600/michael+morse.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;">MICHAEL MORSE SF GIANTS LATEST TAINTED ACQUISITON TO RISE ABOVE PAST RECORD</span><br />
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<b>Giants owner, Larry Baer and his 'trustworthy' GM Sabean of the SF Giants are full of it when they say they 'try' to stay away from PED tainted players per recent SFGate (3-19-14) .. Baer just admitted he took on another player with steroid background in Michael Morse, who other teams weren't so interested in because of that. Suddenly, the normally .250 Morse is hitting .300 with mammoth, league leading homers - playing in AT&Ts difficult hitters ballpark, no less - (similar to Marcos Scutaro, sans homers,when the Giants brought in the .262 37 year old from Colorado who raised his average almost 100 points after joining the Giants. So Morse hasn't been caught since 2005 with PEDs. Few have been caught with the league's still weak drug testing that still can't detect the new designer testosterone. <a href="http://wheredidyougojoedimaggio.blogspot.com/2014/03/obermann-sees-folly-in-new-mlb-drug.html#.U2W7TFdDZSQ" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> ( SEE HERE)</a> Even one conviction of a player is enough for a team to stay away from . But the Giants just keep on loading up with normally average, suspicious players they get cheap because other teams aren't so interested in their background... e.g. the string of Venezuelans such as Machi, Petit, Sandoval (who has hit amazing when he's on drugs and lousy when off them, like now... Scutaro, whose transgressions may have caught up with him and the 'late' Melky, back on the stuff with Toronto and getting away with it again, despite his PED conviction with Giants.. Telltale PEDs (performance enhancing drugs) include Anabolic steroid, Banned substances in baseball, Blood doping, Bodybuilding, Ergogenic aid, Ergogenic use of anabolic steroids, Steroid use.</b><br />
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<b>But don't let the Giants kid you . I believe the Giants just like I do their 250 straight 'sellouts' (with hundreds to thousands of empty seats at most games). If Baer was serious he would say 'We don't want tainted players , period.'... not this, 'leave the door open' stuff..</b>. Now , suddenly , the Giants aging starters are pitching amazing after starting the season terribly. And, of course, the no name bullpen continues to thrive- players who did very little before coming to the Jints only to become world beaters! The Giants are by no means the only team continuing the 'dirty little secret' but they are , by far, leading the way with even Baer admitting as much but only with lip service and not actions. When another player goes bad he and old Sabean will be right back there looking for the guys other teams don't want, only to see them become sudden late-career stars. Who was Petit before he came to the Giants - and so many others? ... If ever caught, they get fined and suspended - big deal?- and the Giants continue the San Francisco Treat - and we're not talking about Rice a Roni; the Giants but the most liberal team in most liberal town in baseball. Problem is Sabean couldn't make a legit trade for a legit player if he wanted to. He got Hudson as a free agent only because he overpaid him - more than any other team offered. That's why he continues to go after tainted players, including re-signing his own; they only succeed , at times, because of this sad state of affairs in baseball - with the Giants , again, leading the way. Take away convicted Melky and Jose Guillen -mnot to mention the non-convicted from the 2010 and 2012 Giants wouldn't have come close to the World Series.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> MICHAEL MORSE SF GIANTS LATEST TAINTED ACQUISITON TO RISE ABOVE PAST RECORD</span><br />
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<br /> Media Watchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07453784438197421474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6858584506771731163.post-83783389225275347642014-03-30T15:08:00.004-07:002014-05-03T20:56:07.568-07:00 OLBERMANN Says New MLB Drug Testing Misses the Mark <a href="http://www.pntrs.com/t/SEFFR0hJSkVBSUZGSERBSE1NREc"><img alt="Click Here For the Official Online Shop of Major League Baseball" border="0" src="http://www.pntrs.com/b/SEFFR0hJSkVBSUZGSERBSE1NREc" height="82" title="Click Here For the Official Online Shop of Major League Baseball" width="640" /></a>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>OLBERMANN Says New MLB Drug Testing</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Say what you will about Keith Olbermann, there's one guy who actually read the new Major League Baseball (MLB)
drug testing rules, unlike most of the reporting media, and didn't hesitate to tell 'This Week's George Stephanopolous March 30 why the new rules will do nothing to reduce drug use in baseball - similar to what this column said yesterday (see previous post below). </b></span><br />
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Olbermann is the only sports commentator to date, to our knowledge, to have come out against the tests, again, for much the same reason as we pointed out (below) yesterday: <b>THE ISSUE IS NOT THE LENGTH OF PENALTY BUT <u>FAILING TO </u> PUT IN PLACE A TEST THAT WILL CATCH USERS OF CERTAIN PREVALENT DRUGS,</b> IN THE FIRST PLACE. You can make the penalty any length and it won't help. Sure, it looks good on paper to the average person, not<br />
really observant or paying attention.<br />
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<b>Olbermann notes - <i>the video from the news show has yet to be posted on the internet -</i></b><br />
<b>that the 19 players caught up in the Biogenesis indictments last year did NOT result from testing but came about only because of an informant, as we also previously noted, below. </b><br />
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The new drug policy does nothing to change the test for catching players using the new synthetic testosterone and other to now undetectable drugs, according to the provisions noted in the Hardball.com quote, below (Hardball is the only source to have actually outlined the new drug policy, in full - and even they failed to note the folly in the policy)<br />
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<b>According to Oberman, the Biogenesis convictions actually work against the Commissioner, who claims baseball has 'cleaned up' the use of drugs, pointing out</b><br />
<b> </b><span style="background-color: yellow;"><b>1) that players are still using PEDs</b></span><br />
<span style="background-color: yellow;"><b>2) that players are 'beating' the current drug tests (at least for the most prevalent drug, testosterone, for which the tests were not changed, to our understanding, from the Hardball information</b></span><br />
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It's a pretty clear cut matter to which even the top sports critics have either turned a blind eye<br />
or simply aren't paying attention / doing their job. Even before the new testing measures were announced you had writers like Huffington Post's Len Berman claiming, in regards to the then-prospective new policies,<br />
'This is huge...They'll also increase their efforts to detect increased levels of testosterone. ...'<br />
Not so. Please find us another critic who sees the light - or tell us we're all wet, with proof. <br />
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<b>Previous to new MLB drug test rulings, Olbermann chastised Barry Bonds and the San Franciso Giants
on Bonds' one week return to the Giants as Spring Training hitting coach. Again, say what you will about
Obermann he stands up for the Grand Old Game and is probably speaking for a lot of 'old timers' like dethroned home run king Henry Aaron (by Bonds) and even Willie Mays, Bonds' God father, who might like to say what Olbermann felt more comfortable saying. It seems there are two opposite camps reacting to Olbermann's comments, as you can see by viewing the <a href="http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/03/13/keith-olbermann-really-hates-that-barry-bonds-is-coaching-the-giants-for-a-week/">site's comment section . </a> Younger fans, who grew up with the drug culture, generally feel Olbermann
is out of line while older fans who grew up on Aaron and Mays don't appreciate how Bonds 'blew past them' (to use Obermann's words) to the all-time homerun title.
To quote Olbermann, opening his sports commentary program in a late March episode, in what he called ' the shame of San Francisco Giants,' comparing Bonds use of performance enhancing drugs to the 1919 Black Sox Scandal. </b><br />
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He goes on, first charging the Giants as a team that has 'sanitized his history and pretending there is nothing at least controversial about his performance in a major league uniform and resumed what they had been doing seven years later as marketing hims as one of baseball's most noble assets and not the symbol of baseball's darkest time sine the 1919 Black Sox scandal. And now he's back without an apology, without an acknowledgement...
And, the latter point is the key. Others have been brought back, such as Mark McGwire, current Dodgers' hitting coach, who, as Olbermann noted, made at least a 'half -hearted attempt' to apologize and rehabiliate his image. As you see in the video, Bonds appears pretty much the same aloof, joking figure, hardly concerned about what he has done to the game, in our opinion.
Again, the primarily younger fans commenting on the video, which appears on Youtube, mostly castigate Olbermann, rather than Bonds, for his strong rebuke. We see this reaction much as a similar split that seems
to divide the nation, politically.<br />
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Olbermann has also backed up his words with some science, noting that without PEDs Bonds would only have had 611 career homeruns , well down the list of career homerun leaders , extrapolating his pre-steroid era homerun output (when he only hit as many as 46 homeruns one time) to his full<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> <b>OLBERMANN Says New MLB Drug Testing </b></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Misses the Mark</span></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></b></span>
<a href="http://www.pntra.com/t/SEFFREhKREhBSUZGSERBSUdFRkY"><img alt="Free Shipping on all orders over $99 BaseballExpress.com" border="0" src="http://www.pntra.com/b/SEFFREhKREhBSUZGSERBSUdFRkY" height="79" title="Free Shipping on all orders over $99 BaseballExpress.com" width="640" /></a> Media Watchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07453784438197421474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6858584506771731163.post-61632498675971023002014-03-29T14:50:00.000-07:002014-03-29T15:03:47.307-07:00NEW DRUG TESTING CHANGES WILL HELP LITTLE<a href="http://forms.aweber.com/form/57/1073915257.htm" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><img alt="http://forms.aweber.com/form/57/1073915257.htm" border="0" src="http://www.shareasale.com/image/6304/Chromebook-win.jpg" /></a>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">According to limited news sources, Major League Baseball announced changes to the MLB drug testing program for 2014 March 28. There was little coverage of this in the media, only a few sources including NBC's Hardball.com, the Los Angeles Times and a few local newspapers which ran stories largely innacurate and incomplete. Which makes us wonder if people really care or are burned out on the subject of #performing enhancing drugs (#PEDs) and drug testing in baseball.</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>News sources like the Los Angeles Times report general player happiness with the new plan, of which the main feature considered by most is the added 30 game suspension (from 50 games to 30 games) for a first conviction.<span style="background-color: yellow;"><u> </u>The problem is that if the tests are lacking it doesn't matter how many days the suspension; players will not be caught if these tests cannot detect the designer drugs</span></b><span style="background-color: yellow;"><b> (like the most popular one for testosterone) players have been using of late which are said to be undetectable to current MLB drug tests. There was a reported upgrade in the test for #HGH (#human growth hormone), as only the Hardball article even bothered to consider, but nothing to address the testosterone, which besides being undetectable is also said to be gone from ones system within hours after use. On top of that the test for testosterone was noted to be given as little as once to each player once during the entire season, last year, and we see nothing changed</b></span><br />
<span style="background-color: yellow;"><b>there. </b></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Note that were were ZERO suspensions last year on the major league level after only 5 the previous year(two against the San Francisco Giants players). Baseball Commissioner Selig and MLB will tell you that this is because baseball is cleaner now, but we see it as because baseball testing has still not caught up to the players' designer drugs, particularly the testosterone. The man perhaps most knowledgeable of PEDs and who went to jail for dispensing them himself, has admitted, himself that baseball has lagged behind and even suggested the appropriate test for testosterone. To our knowledge, still nothing as been done.As a result you see World Series in recent years being affected by players likely using PEDs. San Francisco, Detroit and Boston all likely benefitted from drug use; one player, Jhonny Peralta was allowed back for the playoffs with Detroit after a mid season drug suspension, only to .417 in the playoffs, perhaps single-handedly knocking out the Oakland A's from the playoffs. Note also players well into the latter stages of their careers recently getting huge contracts based on stats likely inflated by drug use, in our opinion (and should be anyone's opinion when one looks at the unlikely stats ala Barry Bonds achieving sudden late career success. Then there are the younger players, like Peralta, who don't have track records to compare. <br />
<br />
<br />
<b> In reacting to the new drug laws , players interviewed , such as Manager Bob Melvin and Jed Lowrie of the Oakland As, seemed to express positive reactions, noting , again, the lengthened suspension. No comment from the San Francisco Giants. Certainly players who are still using testosterone will be happy, as they will not have to worry about 80 games or 50 games since they will likely never be found out. </b><br />
<br />
<b> According to the article in Hardball.com,</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>'The enhanced testing procedures</b><br />
<ul>
<li>The number of in-season random urine collections will more than
double beginning in the 2014 season, from 1,400 total tests to to 3,200;</li>
<li>Blood collections for hGH detection will increase to 400 random
collections per year, in addition to the 1,200 mandatory collections
conducted during Spring Training;</li>
<li>Carbon Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometry tests will be randomly
performed on at least one specimen from every player. Basically, this is
an enhanced analysis of blood samples which are considered more
effective in detecting hGH in blood and are tests endorsed by the World
Anti-Doping Agency.</li>
</ul>
<b>The enhanced punishment</b><br />
<ul>
<li>A first-time violation of the Joint Drug Program will now result in
an unpaid 80-game suspension, increased from 50 games. A player’s
second violation will result in an unpaid 162-game suspension, increased
from 100 games. A third violation will result in a permanent
suspension from Baseball.</li>
<li>A suspension of 162 games will result in 183 days worth of pay
docking, to account for the fact that players are paid baed on a 183-day
schedule as opposed to being paid per game. This was implemented in
reaction to Alex Rodriguez still receiving some pay this year despite a
162-game ban.</li>
<li>Every Player whose suspension for a performance-enhancing substance
is upheld will be subject to six additional unannounced urine
collections, and three additional unannounced blood collections, during
every subsequent year of his entire career.</li>
</ul>
<div style="padding-left: 30px;">
<b>MORE</b><i>: To read the full summary of the MLB-MLBPA joint drug program modifications, <b><a href="http://nbchardballtalk.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/modifications-to-the-mlb-mlbpa-joint-drug-program_0328141.pdf">click here'</a></b></i></div>
<div style="padding-left: 30px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="padding-left: 30px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="padding-left: 30px;">
<i><b> The hardball article goes on:</b></i></div>
<div style="padding-left: 30px;">
<i><b><br /></b></i></div>
'<span style="background-color: yellow;"><b>There are also some advantages to players under the new system.
Specifically, if a player tests positive, he can argue to an arbitrator
that his use of PEDs was not intended to enhance performance. This
changes things from the “zero tolerance” policy which previously existed
and under which someone faced first-time discipline even if their PED
use was accidental.</b></span><br />
<br />
<br />
Many anti-doping experts already viewed Major League Baseball as
having the toughest drug testing regime in all of U.S. team sports. This
only increases baseball’s lead in this regard.<br />
<span style="background-color: yellow;"><b>It does, however, present some reasons for concern. <a href="http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/03/28/report-drug-policy-changes-will-bar-players-from-postseason-even-if-theyve-served-their-suspensions/">As we at HBT argued this morning</a>,
the playoff ban for those players who tested positive and have already
served their entire suspensions seems somewhat draconian and will result
in harsher penalties for players on winning teams than those on losing
teams. It also punishes innocent players on playoff teams in ways the
previous system did not before. Moreover, merely adding games to first
and second offenses may make everyone feel like the system is tougher,
but it must not be assumed that the same basic incentive to cheat — if a
player can get away with it, it could mean millions of dollars — will
always persist. We execute murderers yet murder still occurs.'</b></span><br />
<br />
<b> HGH, #steroids, Drug Testing, #PEDs, peds, testosterone, MLB, baseball drug testing, Human Growth Hormone, Drug Testing, Biogenesis, New York Yankees, Alex Rodrigues, san francisco giants, </b><br />
<br />
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<br />
<br />
The San Francisco Giants are trying to bounce back into the World Series.<br />
They've purportedly sold out the past 150+ games but you can -amazingly - get tickets NOW<br />
for this big game and others for a remarkable price of $10. <a href="http://tracking.goldstar.com/aff_c?offer_id=6&a" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color: red;"><i><b>Click above banner or here, then scroll down one or two offers until you see the banner as above</b></i></span></a><br />
<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>INSTANT REPLAY BIG NEWS</b><br />
<b>Baseball season is back. The big news this season will be the instant replay that will finally make it into this last bastion of major league sports after being a big part of football for many years . Teams awill be given one option per game to challenge umpire calls. If they get the call reversed in a team's favor, they are allowed a second such challenge.</b><br />
<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>NO CHANGES IN DRUG TESTING*</b><br />
The 'bad news' for baseball purists is that there was no tightening of baseball's PED testing<br />
for the new season. As last year, testing is given as little as one time during a season.<br />
With designer drugs' ability to leave the system quickly and no new advanced tests,<br />
players using such PEDs will likely continue to skate free and rack up big numbers -<br />
while pulling down escalating salaries.<b><i>(*The day after this writing MLB did make changes</i></b><br />
<b><i>to baseball drug testing and penalties for convictions, however, from our understanding</i></b><br />
<b><i>these new modifications don't amount to a hill of beans.See updated blog, above</i></b><br />
<br />
To the best of our knowledge no players were suspended from MLB last season,<br />
after five were suspended the prior season including two San Francisco Giants<br />
Commissioner's office will point to this as evidence that baseball has cleaned up,<br />
but, in fact, nothing in the drug testing has changed - and we know from the prior<br />
year when the few players WERE caught by simply being stupid and not following<br />
'the plan.' Former steroid lord Victor Conte calls those players ' dumb and dumber<br />
for not getting away with such a beatable test. The Biogenesis fiasco in Miami was not<br />
a matter of players being caught by drug testing but the commissioner's office paying off<br />
a disgruntled employee of Tony Bosch - thereby getting Bosch to name names.<br />
There were some 20 players there who passed baseball's tests in 2012 so we imagine at<br />
probably a lot more around the country who continue to use. Just look at the world series<br />
teams the last three years and you will note aberrations in players numbers - eg older players<br />
suddenly raising numbers after down years. We can name names but we won't at this time.<br />
We've been over this many times in these pages.<br />
<br />
<br />
Much like the world at large, living in an unreal universe of genetically modified food and<br />
supplents we put into our bodies , we approach a time when our lives will be fully artificially run by comp uters-robots-drones.Why should people care about some drugs in the system. Performs lip synch to computer-refined vocal tracks. Why not ball players get a little help, too? <br />
<br />
<br />
<b>PLAYERS SALARIES THROUGH THE ROOF</b><br />
Players are now signing 10 year contracts into their 30s for tens of millions of dollars. Take the most<br />
recent one, Miguel Cabrera of Detroit, signing for just under $300 million for 10 years.<br />
He'll be 42 at the end of that contract and likely in a figurehead position at that point just to fill<br />
out his contract , long after the body gave out. But, who's to say that a little 'help' might keep a<br />
player going a few extra years. It worked for Barry Bonds, who played to age 42 with some of<br />
his best years at the end. That's why the players take the drugs - to extend their playing day (with<br />
greater performance) . Perhaps MLB is all too aware of this and thereby teams are willing<br />
to sign players to longer contracts knowing the 'effectiveness' of such PEDs in not only<br />
improving player performances but extending careers. (But then, there are those players who<br />
suddenly break down as we've seen this season with the Giants and other teams... Not to say it's cause and effect,<br />
<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>'NO NAME' A's May Be Stronger Than Higher-Salaried Giants</b><br />
<br />
No longer does money necessarily buy success. Witness last year's Yankees not finishing the playoffs- or the Dodgers for that matter, getting cut down two rungs below the finals, Then<br />
you have a low-salaried team like Oakland, finally playing up to it's 'Money Ball'<br />
reputation, nearly going all the way while their cross-Bay rivals, the San Francisco Giants-<br />
it's team salary $100 million higher than the A's - not even making the playoffs. Perhaps<br />
Giant 'strategy' of over-paying and keeping players too long is taking it's toll now, as well<br />
as, perhaps , the affects of aging and so-called- magic coming off the bloom.<br />
<br />
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<br /> Media Watchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07453784438197421474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6858584506771731163.post-74338889234774796442014-03-23T16:06:00.000-07:002014-03-31T17:21:55.392-07:00Imagine Today's Players Working Odd Jobs During Off-season?<a href="http://www.gopjn.com/t/R0BGSElHSkBIRUVHQ0BIRkRFRQ"><img alt="Baseball Express" border="0" src="http://www.gopjn.com/b/R0BGSElHSkBIRUVHQ0BIRkRFRQ" height="60" title="Baseball Express" width="234" /></a>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDV3sZJKb-A6yjc23hYVKOlh4voMSwF-HkKDFBnd0C8FAxOhQ4M28_1FvwcPAL2DbczOss8T9Ge3lEHG1wXts5J5CaW8k2blnVb6RP_aIBTjiK35gYFWHyb_U4-7cOTeNp3vnwa5ZzoCM/s1600/stan+musiam+from+1943.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDV3sZJKb-A6yjc23hYVKOlh4voMSwF-HkKDFBnd0C8FAxOhQ4M28_1FvwcPAL2DbczOss8T9Ge3lEHG1wXts5J5CaW8k2blnVb6RP_aIBTjiK35gYFWHyb_U4-7cOTeNp3vnwa5ZzoCM/s1600/stan+musiam+from+1943.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">STAN MUSIAL selling Christmas Trees during the off-season</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<h4 class="article_author">
By
<address class="article_author-info">
<a class="article_author-link" href="http://bleacherreport.com/users/531058-rick-weiner" title="Rick Weiner">
Rick Weiner
</a><span class="author-rank">, Featured Columnist Bleacher Report March 4</span>
</address>
</h4>
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">Imagine Today's Players Working Odd Jobs During Off-season?</span><br />
<br />
<br />
Can you imagine buying a used car from Brandon Phillips?<br />
<br />
<br />
How about going to buy a Christmas Tree from Miguel Cabrera? Insurance from Derek Jeter?<br />
<br />
<br />
Need
a suit for your buddy's wedding? Your salesman, Clayton Kershaw, would
be happy to help you pick out something that's stylish yet tasteful.<br />
<br />
For
as absurd as the above scenarios sound, it was a way of life for major
league players of years past, who weren't making the kind of money that
even borderline major league players pull down in a season today.<br />
<br />
In
2012, the average major league salary was just over $3.2 million, with
the minimum salary sitting at nearly a half-million dollars, $480,000
per season, according to <a href="http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/8724285/mlb-average-salary-38-percent-32-million">ESPN</a>.<br />
<br />
Making
that sort of money allows today's player to make baseball a year-round
job, training and working out during the offseason.<br />
<br />
Without
question, the ability to train year-round has something to do with the
increased size and strength of today's player as compared to those who
came before them—but it demands that some questions be asked that simply
can never be answered.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b> </b><a href="http://forms.aweber.com/form/55/1005656855.htm" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><img alt="http://forms.aweber.com/form/55/1005656855.htm" src="http://pixxur.com/151484/76058-120x120.gif&s1=&s2=&s3=" /></a><br />
<br />
<br />
<b>How much better would Stan Musial have been if he didn't need to sell Christmas trees during his time off? </b><br />
<br />
What about Roy Campanella, the Hall of Fame backstop for the Brooklyn Dodgers?<br />
How
good could he have been—and how much better would the Dodgers pitching
staff have been as a result—if Campanella could have worked with those
pitchers during the winter instead of running his liquor store in
Harlem?<br />
<br />
In 1966, 20-year-old Jim Palmer helped lead the Baltimore
Orioles to a World Series victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers. Less
than a month later, Palmer was back at work—folding clothes, not firing
fastballs, as he told <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/24/sports/baseball/for-baseball-players-finding-work-in-off-season-is-no-longer-a-necessity.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0">Andrew Keh of the <i>New York Times</i></a>:<br />
<blockquote>
<b><i>“I was the youngest player to ever throw a shutout in a World
Series. Next thing I know, I am selling men’s clothes at Hamburgers.”</i></b><br />
<br /></blockquote>
Would Palmer, who went on to win three American League
Cy Young Awards and be enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame, have been
better had he been able to focus on pitching instead of clothing in the
offseason?<br />
<br />
How would today's major league player handle having to
work a "regular job" as well as their high-profile one—and more
importantly, how would that impact their production on the field?<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi45n7dQ_NK9DUkdjbuNG6naFz9pXTdtxLYVmYr-8Z2CeNA_wPYgOTj7V3T-pLNO56bf8r5HNvXsTSismrepvBX6CTRcnk_DOTDymmk0934pJRiTZTw6GtreZhO5E77sn9eech_kcbpIGw/s1600/whitey+ford,+yogi+berra+cut+from+a+different+cloth+than+today+ws+players.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi45n7dQ_NK9DUkdjbuNG6naFz9pXTdtxLYVmYr-8Z2CeNA_wPYgOTj7V3T-pLNO56bf8r5HNvXsTSismrepvBX6CTRcnk_DOTDymmk0934pJRiTZTw6GtreZhO5E77sn9eech_kcbpIGw/s1600/whitey+ford,+yogi+berra+cut+from+a+different+cloth+than+today+ws+players.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">White Ford and Yogi Berra cut from different cloth than today's ball players</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br /></div>
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<a href="http://www.cbs.com/shows/60_minutes/video/u2urDtDAqI6HyoBnSM4lXSIi46d2UdBH/the-case-of-alex-rodriguez-memory-wizards/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="376" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM7eCoVhtc8eBn3uZbLQFAJRNQBi87r9Mt8w9U0W2GtIsP4he4zXFhOu-JpeAO9xD3S3e46ys62Kkuu0_yQrqWd3XHroFC6tGhHNseewL7Kyh8GBi_wkQmZHMIR3N-XUbtlrvKzdJxYp0/s1600/alex+rodriqez+has+day+in+court+ON+tv++1-12-13.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: yellow; font-size: x-large;">ALEX RODRIGUEZ FINALLY GETS HIS DAY IN COURT - ON TV's 60 MINUTES</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Alex Rodriquez never did get the trial he probably</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>deserved. So, his case went before TV's 60 Minutes</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Sunday night, January 12.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Rodriquez has sued the Commissioner of baseball</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">calling his suspension of 211 games (later</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">reduced a still whopping 162) 'a witchhunt.'</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>When Selig is questioned by 60 Minutes whether Rodriquez</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>is being 'singled out' Selig simply replies</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>that Rodriquez'actions were 'beyond comprehension,'</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>without giving specifics.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Well, there certainly was no trial and</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>not a whole lot of justice as we could see it.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Now, mind you, we're not defending Rodriquez purported</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">use of PEDs, by any teams; in fact, we're vehemently against</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">their use , which we feel has been the ruination of baseball today.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>It is our belief that Commissioner Selig,</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>who appears to be a very nice man, personally, never</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>was able to control performance enhancing</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>drugs in baseball. The problem has gone on</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>probably as long as Selig has been commissioner -almost </b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>two decades-</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>and doesn't seem to have improved, though</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>he tells us that he is now proud to have </b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>'the strictest drug policy in all major sports.'</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">As far as singling people out, others, such</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">as Barry Bonds, have tried to obstruct justice.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">In fact Bonds was even convicted in his court</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">case NOT for using steroids but for OBSTRUCTING JUSTICE.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Others like Rafael Palmeiro lied under oath</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">during the Mitchell Hearings.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">As for Rodriquez, guilty or not guilty as he</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">may be of steroid use there were no court hearings</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">of which we know. If the man wants to appeal</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">that group (Biogenesis) conviction, he should be</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">allowed a fair trial.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>With the commissioner's reign coming to an end</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>he no doubt wanted to finally put an end to</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>what has ruined baseball in the eyes of many,</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>including our own. He thought he could pick</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>on one man, Rodriquez, and scare off everyone else.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>By so doing, Rodriquez has had to ratchet</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>up his case and say some of things that probably</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>should have been saved for the court room. What's </b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>had to come out in the media, instead, has probably</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>infuriated Selig, but it's his own fault for the willy nilly</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>way he has handled PEDs in baseball.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Sure, there's a good chance that Rodriquez</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">used steroids but just because he's the 'golden boy'</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">big name </span><span style="font-size: large;">of the 20 or so Florida lab cases, he shouldn't\</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">have been singled out with a stiffer penalty</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">(players normally get 50 games for one PED</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">infraction and 100 for two). </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Rodriquez, to our knowledge, has not been</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>personally convicted of PED usage. He was </b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>just one of many whose name was turned over by the Biogenesis</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>lab in Florida, after its owner , Tony Bosch,</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>was ratted on by a disgruntled employee. </b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>As Bosch feared for his life he came forward</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>to major league baseball. There was no</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>court case for Bosch, either. He could be</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>lying for all we know.</b> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Selig has approached the whole matter in</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">a very <b><i>unscientific </i></b>manner. As the lawyer we </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">believe him to be, he should know better,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>innocence until proven guilty</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>And, as far as Selig being proud to have</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>the <i>'best drug testing'</i> in baseball, there</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>wasn't a single PED conviction at the major league</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>lever this past season, to our knowledge. </b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Don't tell us , Mr Selig , that the problem</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>is cleaned up, that nobody is still using.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Your most recently updated drug policy </b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>barely called for a single testing during</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>the regular season (2013) after testing</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>was only given during the preseason during</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>prior years - this after a decade and dozens</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>of PED convictions, including the Mitchell</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>report findings (At least the government</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>did a formal hearing, from which little</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>was done by MLB, thereafter, to change </b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>things , to our knowledge. What would stop</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>players from continuing to use PEDs -</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>especially the new designer, now undetectable</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>ones - when they knew they were</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>unlikely to be tested more than once </b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>during the season-and normally with warning</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>(the latest testosterone drug can be out of</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>one's system and undetectable within hours)?</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The main reason we make an issue of</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">the Rodriquez-Selig case is that it brings</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">to a head what's been going on for years,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">mishandling of drugs in baseball to the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">ruination of the game. Sure, some newer</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">fans, especially, have only grown up to</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">see baseball played one way, on steroids.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">But many of us vintage fans remember when</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">the Golden Era of baseball when games were</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">played on a level playing field. Living </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">in the Bay Area and having to see an otherwise mediocre San </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Francisco Giants team, sans PEDS,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> steal two World Series in three years</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">with THREE CONVICTED PLAYERS doing enough</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">on their own to put the Giants over the top has been difficult.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">(At least we had a team across the Bay, in Oakland, with only</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">one KNOWN user.)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: yellow;">ALEX RODRIGUEZ</span><span style="background-color: yellow;"> </span><span style="background-color: yellow; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: yellow; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: large;">GETS HIS TRIAL ON TV's 60 MINUTES</span><br />
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<a alt="Credit Sesame Mortgage Marketplace" href="http://track.flexlinks.com/a.ashx?foid=1040394.216540&fot=9999&foc=2&foc2=0" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Credit Sesame Mortgage Marketplace"><img border="0" src="https://content.flexlinks.com/SharedImages/Products/216540/585738.gif" /></a><img border="0" src="http://track.flexlinks.com/i.ashx?foid=1040394.216540&fot=9999&foc=2" /> Media Watchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07453784438197421474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6858584506771731163.post-38040509952397104282013-11-01T13:07:00.000-07:002013-12-15T21:08:10.851-08:00PLAYOFFS POST-MORTEM , WORLD SERIES and PEDs<div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>PLAYOFFS POST-MORTEM , WORLD SERIES and PEDs</b></span><br />
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<br />
Oakland A's maverick GM, Billy Beane- the so-called 'Money Ball' guy - says that getting into the World Series is a 'crap shoot.' He also said, a few years back, that managers don't make a difference in winning and losing baseball games, this after hiring one Bob Geren, who 'led' Oakland to four lost, sub .500 seasons before fans revolted and Beane finally fired Geren and hired Bob Melvin, who has had two remmarkable, winning seasons.<br />
<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b><br /></b>
<b>And, after Detroit and Los Angeles started off like they were going to go all the way to the World Series, the truly better teams seemed to win out in their 6 game series. There may be other factors involved, too, such as PEDs - we still believe any number of players were using during the playoffs, as reasoned in previous posts. Then there were factors like injuries to Miguel Cabrera and Dodger's Matt Kemp that had their teams scuffling a bit. Nonetheless, seeing a team like Detroit go out and throw four no-hitters in a row through 5 innings, we would have expected more out of them. PEDs or not, Boston was too smart for Detroit, playing intelligent, scrappy 'old school' ball, making pitchers work and getting Detroit's best (Scherzer, Verlander, Sanchez) out of the game and taking advantage of Detroit's weaker relief corp. Hard to say that Boston doesn't dabble in PEDs itself; when you've got one suspect like Big Poppy - popping them out when a player of his ilk would normally be on the way out - there are usually others (the 'cockroach theory') like him nearby. The truly best teams won their series this time, and the far majority of the time, especially in the longer seven game series. The San Francisco Gaints were an anomoly in 2010 and 2012 due to unfortunate (in our opinion) mitigating (non baseball) circumstances.</b><br />
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As for St. Louis, one wonders how they came up with all those 95+ mph pitchers , but , again, PEDs or not, they managed to combine smart ball with power ball which Detroit did not. Glad to see no immenent signs of PEDs on the Dodgers but they certainly lack in the smart ball department, leaving way too many on base and making poor managerial moves; don't be surprised to see Dodger manager Mattingly finally gone by next year. Here's where managing could have made a big difference. The Dodgers have the talent - they've spent enough for it - but bonehead moves denied them when they had many opportunities to score and beat the weaker hitting St. Louis team. St. Louis, on the other hand, is run more like Boston, with a smart manager in Methaney and staff. St. Louis has a winning tradition.<br />
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<b>WORLD SERIES</b><br />
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<b>While PEDs are still a scourge to baseball - there will be, no doubt , any number of players taking advantage of baseball's NO DRUG POLICY for the series (drug tests are not given in the playoffs and World series and this is one reason you sometimes see unlikely numbers put up as we saw with the normally weak-hitting San Francisco Giants in the 2010 and 2012 playoffs and Series), we're at least glad to see the better two teams in there in the Red Sox and Cardinals. It should be a good , close series, likely to go six or seven games, unless Boston can't handle St. Louis pitching; they were able to adjust to Detroit's so we think they will do similary with St. Louis</b><br />
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<br /> Media Watchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07453784438197421474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6858584506771731163.post-65989193188971616252013-10-23T14:11:00.000-07:002013-12-01T12:25:30.645-08:00NOW Javier Lopez, TIM LINCECUM and 'MORE MONEY BALL' - SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS COUGH IT UP AGAIN <a href="http://www.shareasale.com/r.cfm?b=544402&u=311686&m=45646&urllink=&afftrack=" target="_blank"><img alt="Holiday Home Decor for your Favorite Teams at FansEdge!" border="0" src="http://www.shareasale.com/image/45646/FE_Gift_Ideas_728x90_update1.jpg" /></a><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /><b>NOW Javier Lopez, TIM LINCECUM and 'MORE MONEY BALL' - SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS COUGH IT UP AGAIN </b></span><br />
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Just in - Thirty-six year old Javier Lopez signing for $13.5 million for three years. Based on his 40 innings of work last season (which translates to about 10 pitches an inning or 400) means that<i style="font-weight: bold;"> JAVIER IS GETTING $10,000 PER PITCH ! </i>Yes, like most of the Giants, his numbers seem to get better- as he gets older -hmmm! - one has to question another overpayment by the Giants. Unless he's<b><i> on</i></b> something , which is very possible being a Giant - one cannot expect a 36 year old pitcher to continue posting a 1.50 ERA. Unlike other pitchers who have to stay out there and field and hitters who have to field, Javier usually only has to come in for a batter or two and that's it! What a job! Of course Javier and others return to the Giants in glowing terms because, when you pin them down, nobody offered naively higher salaries.<br />
The Giants seem incapable of going out and getting decent, prime of career,<i> non-using </i>players so they continue to hang on to their aging players until they finally - PEDs or not - backfire on the team; think Huff,<br />
Rowand, Tejada among others. GM Sabean, the man of the 'band-aid cures' for the team. Sure, the Giants finally won the two World Series - as they will remind you- but only because of PEDs,, namely Melky Cabrera and, indirectly, Jose Guillen as previously mentioned - and a number of other 'suspicious' players we've talked about in the past... Even with the extra 'help' the Giants didn't come close this year. Now they have a couple over paid , aging pitchers in Lopez and Tim Hudson, plus , for that matter, Tim Lincecum. Why not add Vogelsong to that list, though he only got one year, amazingly.<br />
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<b>It looks like it's all about marketing for the San Francisco Giants. Frankly, the only thing thats going to give Tim Lincecum a semblance of the greatness he had in his early years is if he gets 'help' from an outside source, if you know what we mean. And, that may be what GM Sabean and President Baer -long known for espousing ' win at any cost ' - are counting on in signing their popular , thin , right hander to a $35 million, two year contract. Lincecum will be the second highest paid Giant, yet with one of the worst records. For the early part of the season and last year he had the worst ERA in the league among regular starters. So, he improved the latter half of 2013 for whatever reasons. <i>Is that still enough to throw $17 million a year at him? </i>. We never believed he would ever have been brought back to the Giants after two years in a row of below 4.00 ERA baseball. Remember how greatful local fans were when the Giants didn't have to pick up that 5 year 200 million contract? Lincecum's overall performance the past two years isn't even mediocre. Except for games, against the weak Western division teams like Houston (now in the American League) , Lincecum got lit up. He gave up 44 homers this year . Even Barry Zito had a better record than Lincecum last year - and Zito is 35 years old.</b><br />
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<b>So we have this new contract after Thin Tim comes off his third losing season in a row with a mediocre 4.36 ERA. Yeah, he had a no-hitter in which he threw 144 pitches -against the weakest link, Houston Astros -which is just one reason to suspect that he might be getting that needed 'help.' He also raised his velocity back up to 91, which is also interesting, indicative that he already started getting 'help.' But <i>help </i>or not, you can't expect Lincecum to do any better as he gets older than what he did this year. You've got only so much to work with. Perhaps the Giants don't mind over-paying since they got a good deal in Lincecum's early years.</b><br />
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<b>If the Giants will be happy with a third or fourth man starter losing more games than he wins, that's what they'll be getting in Lincecum- <i>even with that 'help.</i>' (You can't make a superstar out of a now average player, even with 'help.' ) Perhaps they feel Lincecum - a likable yet flaky guy - is the 'face of the franchise ' to whom local fans can relate in the most liberal city of San Francisco - the only place where the smell of marijuana permeates the stadium during World Series games. Of course, Lincecum is a known marijuana user, himself. And so what if it were found out he was using PEDs to bring up his velocity and game; the fans had no problem , in fact, they loved Barry Bonds for a decade - and still do, even after he admitted to using steroids and having perjured himself in court. Not to mention the band of other Gaint Taints as in Melky, Mota, Guillen and going back to Rich Aurillia, Matt Williams, Bonds - over 20 INDICTED players (Mitchell Report and recent suspensions) many of whom gave the Giants very unfair advantages in regular season and resulting in Playoffs and World Series. Take away just two of those guys , Cabrera and Guillen, and the Giants would never even have been in the the only two World Series victories they've seen in 60 years. Only in San Francisco.</b><br />
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<b>The Giants have similarly hung on to players like Pablo 'Panda' Sandoval, whom other teams would have dismissed long ago, after numerous issues (from poor performance to continually being overweight to even being involved in a sex scandal). Only in San Francisco.</b><br />
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One wonders, however, why the Giants ever let Brian Wilson go to the Dodgers. Wilson had 'San Francisco' written all over him, with the beard and his eccentricities. Fans loved him. Yet when he was gone<br />
it didn't seem to really bother the fans that much. (Wilson, at this point, would seem to have much more value to the team than Lincecum, what with his sub 1.00 ERA this year. ) Wilson, no doubt, wasn't the 'yes man' on which the Giants depend. He didn't want to have to come back to ATT for a public party - that would show 'how great' the Giants treated him - just to get his World Series ring. Similarly, there are reasons that announcer Hank Greenwald, owner Bill Neucomb , trainer Stan Conte and others quietly - or not-so-quiety- walked away from the Giants. And, if Lincecum were not re-signed, the fans would probably quickly forget and still be back for whatever it is that Baer and Co. put in their drink that lures them to the ATT ballpark. Half price tickets? Players with cute names like Panda and Giraffe? . Un-natural, win-at -all-costs (well, not always) PED baseball? The Giants management are the Obamas of baseball, pulling the wool over the eyes, purportedly giving people what they want - until something happens.<br />
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<b> Leave it to Baer and company to do whatever it takes to win. And, if they can't win, at least they got their so-called 150+ sell outs. And lots and lots of MONEY.</b><br />
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<b>TIM LINCECUM and 'MORE MONEY BALL' - SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS COUGH IT UP AGAIN </b><br />
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