Giants chatter

Game 6 of 2011 World Series… AMAZING

Nikki — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 21:30:05 +0000

I just returned from Italy this past Monday. I must say it was exhausting though i managed to rush home after leaving the airport and catch the last 4 innings of game 5, which wasn’t a pretty sight for the Cardinals.

I have said this before i do love the Cardinals, i know its weird to like 3 teams but just get over it. Anyhow with Tuesday being a travel day, Wednesday was postponed, it was kind of a itch to wait since i haven’t seen a game in almost three weeks! Italy is all about soccer (yawn) sorry soccer lovers!

Finally Thursday comes along and its freezing but clear n sunny in St Louis so that means there’s gonna be a game played! The start of the game seemed like it was going really quick & the Cardinals weren’t all that sharp, i honestly didn’t think after the errors we were gonna blow this.

Amazingly enough in the 8th and 9th they’re down to the last strike like in ’86 with the Red Sox & Mets. It seemed like a game at Coors field, each side keeps scoring and its still a very close game til the end. By the 11th inning, after the Rangers got out i hoped this would be the last inning because i was about to fall asleep, and my cat is asleep on my lap so i can’t move anywhere.

I had stopped keeping score because the card only went 10 innings. Anyhow David Freese who is one of those common players you don’t expect much from, comes up first i think it was the first pitch and it was all over and i hear Joe Buck going “we’ll see you tomorrow night!” It was so loud i only actually heard “night” I was going to jump up and down screaming but my folks were asleep. But instead i threw my fists in the air and grinned from ear to ear.

I don’t think I can compare this to the last game of the regular season. They were both amazing nights in baseball history. The Cardinals were 8 games back from the Brewers in August it didn’t seem like they had much hope. The game starts in under 3 hours, i think the Cardinals will win and Freese will hands down be the MVP.

I am done for now & i’ll try and remember to blog afterwards if i am not too tired.

regular season is over, but here come the playoffs!

Nikki — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 00:07:56 +0000

I can’t believe I haven’t been here all summer! I have my other blog and just talk about everything there. I wasn’t too fond of the change to wordpress.
Sadly the Giants struggled all season long with injuries, including Buster Posey & Freddie Sanchez who were a big part of our lineup in 2010. The Posey injury was a big blow to all of us. It wasn’t a fair play, Scott Cousin’s didn’t have to ram across home plate like a linebacker. The good news is he is healing well and hopefully he’ll be good as new for spring training. They fell out of the playoff race during the last weekend of the season, so close! I don’t understand how the D’backs were better than is, i still don’t see it. Though they are down 0-2 in the NLDS with the Brewers!
I would really like to see the Brewers & Cardinals in the NLCS, so far the Cardinals & Phillies series is tied. As for the American league i’d like to see the Rays or Tigers make the series. The Yankees may make it, their pitching isn’t very good right now so i don’t know how far. I’m gonna be in Italy for the rest of the playoffs! ;( Hopefully a lot of places will have wifi so i can keep up via MLB at bat app on my iPod. I know it’ll be fun and worth it, i love traveling and seeing more of the world!
Bye for now! Probably my last post for a while but i will be back on here when i get back. Take care all!

Struggles in SF

Nikki — Wed, 04 May 2011 01:23:13 +0000

Hi Giants & all baseball fans The SF Giants are on their last series in this long road trip. Probably the longest of the season. They did okay in Pittsburgh, winning 2 out of 3. Sadly we have been plagued with numerous injuries and Madison Bumgarner isn’t what he was last year, he probably could use a few months down in Fresno & bring someone else up. He hasn’t received his first win thus far. We had seen a major improvement with Sandoval since losing nearly 40 IBS over the offseason. Sadly he just broke a bone in his hand from practice swinging the bat. He may have lost his chances in being an all star, the ballots have already been started, I am putting in a lot of votes for Buster Posey and Cody Ross (write-in)
Though I usually disagree with SI’s picks for the standings results, they had predicted the Cardinals 4th.. i understand that with Wainwright out all season they’ll struggle with starting pitching but they have a ton of offense. They did pick the Giants first but as of right now that is hard to see, its hard for anyone to make predictions in March or April. Til next time! Please keep praying for Bryan Stow, the Giants fan who was critically injured by two cowards outside of Dodger stadium on opening night. I think he is improving but still has not awaken from the coma. The two idiots aren’t even baseball fans, they’re thugs and hopefully one day they’ll pay for what they did!

Finally 2011 season is here!

Nikki — Sat, 09 Apr 2011 00:43:53 +0000

I know i say this a lot but i have been bad about not updating! Sorry for my absence to whoever likes reading this. I’ve been through a lot personally in the past two months, i am doing a lot better now since i’ve been to the dr’s and gone through 5 tests. I can finally sleep well at night, and more importantly watch my Giants
They have gone through a rocky first week especially being on the road, going 2 and 6. Today’s home opener was pretty exciting at the beginning and end but not so much the top of the 9th. I don’t think Brian Wilson is 100% ready since he almost blew Wednesday’s game. Perhaps he can have another day or two off. Though the home plate umpire & Tejada had some of the blame. But I got over that real quick when they rallied to tie the game and finally winning in the 13th like last years home opener. It is super hard getting opening day tickets, i have tried buying them for several years though i think its better off just getting season tickets. I may eventually do that when i am older and have saved up a lot of money. Of course it was a lot harder this year since they had won the world series, i did get some nice tickets for May, June & August.
I’ve been impressed with Brandon Belt’s rookie year so far, i know it has only been a week and he is replacing injured Cody Ross. I am hoping Belt doesn’t have to go back to Fresno when he Ross returns and Bochy will make smart adjustments and get Aubrey Huff out of right field somehow Belt did have a great spring as well as last years rookie Buster Posey. I am hoping that he will make the all star team this year i don’t think he has too many guys to compete with other than McCann from Atlanta & Molina from St. Louis. Another improvement of course has been Pablo Sandoval who has lost nearly 40 pounds and is so far looking impressive defensively & offensively. I am hoping this is a completely different year for him.
I do want to go into the Dodger vs. Giants rivalry thing. As many of you know there was a fan beating at Dodger stadium on opening night. Hearing this really outrages me. Yes its okay to be a Dodger fan and live up here, or be a SF Giants fan living down in LA. WHO CARES! Really, people need to grow up. I truly hope the poor Giant fan (Bryan Stow) will be okay, i’ve been praying every night since the incident. I know the Dodgers & Giants go way back into the late 1800′s and have been going at each other ever since. If you are a true fan you certainly shouldn’t lay a hand on another baseball fan. You’re a fan of the same sport and this is America’s Pastime, not a boxing match. I hope they catch the two cowardly assailants & they’re gonna be punished big time for this.

Spring Training is finally here & a little fanfest story

Nikki — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 23:29:46 +0000

Hello everybody! Its been exactly two months since my last entry! Y’all gotta remind me to blog, but that is understandable when the season is on hiatus. There hasn’t been much going on except for a few trades, Cliff Lee going back to Philly was one of the big surprises to me. I had thought he would stay in Texas, but i guess they don’t have the money for his demands. The Giants did pick up Tejada and dumped Uribe (to the Doyers!) & Renteria.
At fanfest, we had noticed Pablo Sandoval had lost A LOT of weight during the offseason, hopefully this will improve his game for the season. I can’t wait for opening day since the pitchers & catchers just reported to their camps a week ago. I will be going to two games so far i bought tickets for a game in May against the Dbacks & in June against the Twins.
As surprisingly crowded fanfest was going to be this year, i went anyway since i don’t do all that much & is quite boring where i live. My father & I left the house about 8 and there was some traffic on the 101 but first had to stop at Safeway for sandwiches because I remember last year we were starving because we didn’t bring any food with us. But anyway I got to the park around 10:20 and there was already a line of cars trying to get into the parking lot & a line of people all the way up to the east bay bridge, i think that line was to see the trophy, so i went into the marina gate but there wasnt much of a line at all & the ticket line was just about as long as the trophy line was, but only a few people knew to go through the marina gate up to the club level. A friend had advised me to start at the club level because there would be a slight chance players would sign autographs, no luck there but i did get close to the players, like Matt Cain, Brian Wilson, Buster Posey, Madison Bumgarner & Bruce Bochy. I stood up most of the time on the right side of the stage listening to Cain, Bochy, Mullens, Lincecum, Sanchez & Wilson then after that Timmy had gone up to someone and signed a autograph for her but it made the place a fiasco and i was bumped up front. I felt really bad because someone had pushed me onto an old man in a wheelchair. ;( I said sorry like 10 times and he just looked at me like “wth” but what can i do other than say sorry?? Well anyway there wasn’t anyone really sitting up the front of the stage so i went up there & sat at front listening to the knbr guys before Posey, Bumgarner & Sandoval showed up. I had a good footage of their conversation & took hours to get on youtube because it was like 17 minutes long. check it out even though its shaky, i did have caffeine & a lot of it that morning. www.youtube.com/angelsbaby42 Anyway after Posey, Bumgarner & Sandoval had left i got up and went down to the press box and sat there & listened to the knbr stage as i ate my sandwich. When i was done i had gone to the field & toward the dugout but it was much more packed unlike last year. So i tried going into the clubhouse that way but the old man wouldn’t let me & by the time i got to the other side around 2:30 the guard said they were closing up ugh!! ;/ Anyway it was a bummer since i heard they were selling buster posey posters inside & there was a line for EVERYTHING. ;O So i started walking away from the park on embarcadero & saw Andres Torres in his very fancy new car, a porche maybe? i dont really remember & not good at recognizing cars by their make, plus his bodyguard was telling us to go away & we were trying to get autographs. But it was a pretty fun day but hectic since there was way too many people there, i am afraid all the bandwagon fans from oakland had come over. Anyway the spring training games will be starting in about a week or two! Im very excited for 2011 season, this has been a long offseason not as long as usual since my team won.

5 Giants win Gibby awards (this year in baseball)

Nikki — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 19:47:13 +0000

Its been more than month since my last entry, that’s obvious since there isn’t much going on during the off season, except of course the meetings and all the trades. The Giants recently acquired SS Miguel Tejada & re-signed Burrell & Huff. The Giants tried to offer Renteria a 1 yr $1 million offer but he is whiny about it for some reason. He did not do all that much for us, just the world series in game 5 and opening day. Anyway last night they finally revealed the winners of the This Year in baseball… Of course i’ll highlight the Giants.. Buster Posey, Tim Lincecum, Brian Wilson, Bruce Bochy, Brian Sabean are among the 5 winners in different categories. Hope everyone is having a happy holiday season so far!! I’ve got my SF Giants championship ornament at the very front of our Christmas tree.

Player

40 — Josh Hamilton
29 — Joey Votto
13 — Robinson Cano
10 — Miguel Cabrera
8 — Albert Pujols

Starter

57 — Roy Halladay
30 — Felix Hernandez
6 — CC Sabathia
4 — Adam Wainwright
3 — David Price

Breakout Player

50 — Carlos Gonzalez
36 — Jose Bautista
6 — C.J. Wilson
5 — Trevor Cahill
3 — Mat Latos

Dependable Player

43 — Ichiro Suzuki
39 — Roy Halladay
8 — Felix Hernandez
6 — CC Sabathia
4 — Neftali Feliz

Setup Man

49 — Joaquin Benoit
21 — Mike Adams
20 — Hong-Chih Kuo
5 — Daniel Bard
5 — Luke Gregerson

Defensive Player

27 — Elvis Andrus
26 — Franklin Gutierrez
22 — Ryan Zimmerman
15 — Yadier Molina
10 — Mark Teixeira

Executive

66 — Brian Sabean
29 — Jon Daniels
3 — Walt Jocketty
1 — Andrew Friedman
1 — Jed Hoyer

Manager

64 — Bruce Bochy
14 — Bud Black
8 — Ron Washington
7 — Ron Gardenhire
7 — Bobby Cox

Rookie

68 — Buster Posey
16 — Neftali Feliz
8 — Jason Heyward
5 — Austin Jackson
3 — Jaime Garcia

Postseason MVP

56 — Tim Lincecum
35 — Cody Ross
4 — Matt Cain
3 — Colby Lewis
2 — Robinson Cano

Closer

58 — Brian Wilson
20 — Neftali Feliz
11 — Mariano Rivera
8 — Heath Bell
3 — Rafael Soriano

X-Factor

46 — Carlos Ruiz
26 — Pat Burrell
12 — Omar Infante
11 — Brett Gardner
5 — Danny Valencia

Oddity

53 — Roy Oswalt
36 — Brooks Conrad
6 — Golden Knights
3 — Adam Jones
2 — Nyjer Morgan

Play

89 — Mark Buehrle
5 — Josh Hamilton
3 — Ryan Braun
2 — Nyjer Morgan
1 — Asdrubal Cabrera

Moment

49 — Dallas Braden
41 — Bobby Cox
5 — Chris Nelson
3 — Daniel Nava
2 — Trevor Hoffman

Fan Moment

61 — Bo “The Bailer” Wydler
22 — Yankees Fan
8 — Ian Driben
7 — Ichiro Suzki
2 — A’s Fan

Performance

64 — Armando Galarraga
31 — Roy Halladay
2 — Carlos Gonzalez
2 — Dallas Braden
1 — Ubaldo Jimenez

Game

65 — Strasburg’s debut
20 — Rockies comeback
9 — Halladay’s perfect game
5 — Conrad’s walk-off slam
1 — Price-Sabathia duel

Postseason Moment

69 — Halladay’s no-hitter
21 — Renteria’s clinching homer (World Series Game 5)

8 — Giants win the Series! (World Series Game 5)
1 — Uribe’s go-ahead blast (World Series Game 3)
1 — Lee’s ALDS Game 5 gem

Buster Posey 2010 NL Rookie of the year!!

Nikki — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 20:00:12 +0000

I was not surprised at all they gave Buster Posey the rookie of the year award at all. He truly deserved this, though Heyward had a pretty good season too but Buster’s numbers were a lot better, including the 21 game hitting streak in July. As for the AL it went to Rangers closer Nefali Feliz. Its pretty cool to have two rookies that both played in the world series & win ROTY.
I’ve been voting for this year in baseball awards on mlb.com i have voted once or twice in each category but most of my votes have gone to the Giants players. Rookie of course i chose Buster Posey, Brian Wilson for closer, Pat Burrell for X-factor , Buster Posey for postseason moment and Matt Cain for postseason mvp, of course brian sabean and bochy get the manager and gm credits. some categories are hard to choose especially post season mvp, which has Cain & Cody Ross.
I am just gonna list the rest of my choices, i haven’t been voting constantly for these except for the Giants players like i said.
Hitter:Carlos Gonzalez, Rockies (may even win mvp too)
Starter: Adam Wainwright, Cardinals (i know he’s an underdog and he deserves some credit since Halladay won the Cy Young award. or tim hudson, hes had one heck of a comeback year.
Setup–Arther Rhodes, Reds (didn’t really know who to pick here.. )
Rookie — Buster Posey
Closer- Brian Wilson
x-factor– Pat Burrell
Defense– Troy Tulowitzki, Rockies
Breakout- C.J. Wilson, Rangers
Dependable–Wainwright or Feliz from Rangers
Executive– Sabean
Manager- Bochy
Post Season MVP- Matt Cain or Cody Ross
Post season moment -Buster Posey or Tim Lincecum
Play of the year- Josh Hamilton
Moment– Bobby Cox
Performance- Armando Gallaraga, Tigers pitcher who was robbed of a PG thanks to the 1st base umpire Jim Joyce.
Oddity-Dexter Fowler, Rockies, jumping over the wall to get his glove that was pretty hilarious
Game- Cards vs Mets going 21 innings and mets win 1-0.
Fan- Astros fan who chickened out of the way so the foulball hit his girlfriend.

What do these guys win for this? Anyone know?

I’ll try and blog later on when more of the awards are announced . Halladay won the NL Cy Young award, and i think for AL it’ll be Price or Sabathia.

Victory! (still at loss of words)

Nikki — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 22:35:51 +0000

You people may be wondering why i’m writing two days after the Giants won the world series championship. Obviously i’ve had no words and this is just unbelievable. They took the Rangers 3 games to 1 , winning game 5 in Arlington. Edgar Renteria who has not showed us much during the season came through in the World series and won mvp. It was an incredible call by Dave Flemming. After Brian Wilson threw that final pitch to Nelson Cruz i started
shaking, i couldn’t believe what i was seeing or hearing. I love how
this team stayed together there wasn’t one guy who thought he had the
team to himself. After all the torture, rally thong, fear the beard & Timmy’s famous f*** yeah rants, we’ve sure come along way! Seems like fanfest & the first day of spring training was yesterday. It’s truly amazing how fast the season comes and goes. The Giants sure had one heck of a season, they had a rough June with inter league play and some of July. They have been bouncing in and out of first behind the Padres throughout the end of September. They finally put up their strength and beat the Padres on the 162nd day of the season to clinch the division title. I honestly didn’t see this coming, really.. who did? like in July when we were 4th before the Dodgers started tumbling. The Rockies were trying to rally and had a hot streak going but also were flushed at the 2nd to last week of the season.
The awards are gonna be announced in about a week, starting with the gold glove, i think Torres will win, he was just amazing out there playing every position in the outfield. Also Buster Posey but perhaps he’ll win rookie of the year instead, he really deserves that. I have been voting again for this year in baseball awards, Giants players include Buster Posey (rookie of the year) Brian Wilson (closer) & Pat Burrell (x-factor)

Is this real life??

Nikki — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 18:33:11 +0000

I am still in shock that the Giants are contending for a world series crown. It is about time for the city of San Francisco to celebrate a championship, it’ll be the first since the Warriors (NBA) in ’75, who were playing in SF back in those days. If we win the town will go insane, hopefully not Los Angeles style! I don’t want to start getting too carried away right now, they’ve only played and won the first two games and now heading to Texas. It is a great sign winning the first two and the other two pitchers for Texas aren’t all that dominate as the SF Staff, well except Cliff Lee & Wilson who have been pretty decent all year and surprisingly we beat Cliff Lee, who’s has not lost a post season game yet & had shutout the Rays & Yankees in the first two rounds. I think the Giants will win in 5 or 6. I am not sure about a sweep, especially that they’re going to be in the ballpark in Arlington. But who knows! If our pitchers keep on shutting them down like Cain last night & Ross, Burrell, Uribe & Posey keep their bats hot. I gotta go i know this is short but i keep getting off track and talking on twitter hah.

GIANTS WIN THE PENNANT!

Nikki — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 17:53:34 +0000

I am still quite speechless about the fact the Giants are IN the world series! Torture all paid off! Nobody can really predict what will happen in the series but hopefully the Giants offense wakes up a little more than they did with the Phillies. The Rangers have an awful lot of sluggers so depending on how the Giants starters perform hopefully we can pull this off! I know the Rangers never won but i want this drought to end and bring a championship to SF! I was so worked up last night i could barely sleep. Its exciting to listen to knbr guys because i cannot stand joe buck and tim mccarver on fox. Anyway hopefully these four days go by fast!