A Holiday Baseball Outing

Today we went to see the SF Giants play the Oakland A’s in SBC Park in San Francisco. We drove to Vallejo and took the ferry from there into San Francisco. The ferry ride is a very pleasant 55 minute journey, and it was crowded with people going to the game, both A’s and Giants fans. The boat even docked at the pier nearest the ballpark, owing to some temporary problems at the Ferry Building. This was convenient allowing us to arrive in time to catch some of the batting practice. We got some lunch, and then went to our seats high above home plate (see my sketch at right).

The A’s were dominant all day, and ended up winning 9-6. Mark Mulder pitched well and won the game, bringing his record to 11-2. Eric Byrnes had a banner day, hitting two three-run home runs. We saw Barry Bonds break a record: he walked twice and thus became the all-time career walks leader, passing Ricky Henderson. But he didn’t get a hit today, and struck out on a 96-mile-an-hour Octavio Dotel fastball (the A’s new closer from Houston) to end the game.

It was a long 10-hour outing. The kitties were hungry when we got home, but seemed to harbor no resentments at our extended disappearance.

Perfection

I’ve always been a bit curious about the term “perfect” when applied to a pitched game—”no hitter” is much more descriptive and, well, gritty sounding. For all you non-baseball fans, a perfect game is when the pitcher allows no hits, no walks, nobody at all to get on base. In any way. A no-hitter can include walks, errors, and all kinds of fumbling.

Randy Johnson was the oldest (40) player to pitch a perfect game in the major leagues last night for the Arizona Diamondbacks. He’s a gangly, 7-ft character whose nickname is the Big Unit, he doesn’t say much, doesn’t smile much. But he was smiling last night. He joins only 14 others who have accomplished this feat in 100 years. Congratulations Randy Johnson. Now will ya go and join your buddy Curt Schilling over at the Red Sox??
——
In non-baseball news, there’s a great new place blog to explore: The Where Project by Boston College graduate student Tim Lindgren. As the Ecotone Wiki approaches its first anniversary as a collaborative exploration of place in the blogosphere, it’s heartening to see the arrival of newcomers such as Tim. Stop on by!

Night At The River Cats

We just came back from a baseball game, going to watch the Sacramento River Cats, the Triple-A team for the Oakland A’s, play the Salt Lake Stingers. The River Cats played well and won 5-1 in a game that was over quickly. It was UC Davis group night and we ended up sitting near one of Pica’s coworkers. The Cal Aggie Marching Band-Uh came and performed too, a few of them still wearing their customary sunglasses.

At left we see Dinger, the River Cats’ mascot, known for getting into lots of mischief.

Baseball In Verse

Thanks to an article on Slate today about the plethora of baseball blogs, I’ve discovered Humbug, written by Score Bard, that features many verses about current events in baseball. For instance from his prognostications for the NL West this season, we have:

Padres

It came to me once in a dream:

The Padres will have a good team.

I will trust this strange vision;

They will win the division

Or I’ll pinch myself, sit up and scream.

Giants
Maybe Alfonzo will hit,
While possibly Durham and Schmidt
Along with Robb Nen
Will be healthy and then
They won’t just be Bonds and that’s it.

...

Meanwhile Bonds hit No. 661 this evening, to move into third place on the all-time home run list. Two home runs in two days, both splash hits into San Francisco Bay.

First Game Scored this Season

The difference between scoring baseball and scoring cricket is the length of the job, but I always find myself tiring of scoring a baseball game early in the eighth inning. The Giants are playing San Diego in their new park, Petco Park (Bark Park, the Doghouse, etc.), which is getting its major league debut today.

Thirty years ago today, Hank Aaron beat Babe Ruth’s home run record with his 715th long ball. He was in Atlanta today, enjoying pre-game festivities with his old club, the Atlanta Braves.

Numenius is kindly finishing up scoring this game for me. The Giants are losing 1-0. Barry Bonds had the chance to tie Willie Mays’ home run record. No luck so far….

Season Underway

This notion of having a couple of regular season games in the week before everyone else gets started is pretty silly, but the regular baseball season is finally underway for good. Already there’s excitement. The Detroit Tigers, the biggest underdog team in all of baseball, given their performance last year, opened their season by shutting out the Toronto Blue Jays 7-0. And the San Francisco Giants won in familiar fashion. Down 4-1 in the eighth, Barry Bonds hit a three-run home run. The Giants scored another run in the ninth to win 5-4. In the game Barry Bonds went 3-for-3 with a walk.

One down, 161 to go.

Season Approaching

The regular baseball season opened today with a game played abroad in Japan. The Tampa Bay Devil Rays beat the New York Yankees 8-3. So for the moment the Yankees are in last place with a record of 0-1. Alas, I don’t think it’s safe to extrapolate this to the rest of the 162-game season, but we can enjoy the standings while they last. The Yankees and Devil Rays play another game tomorrow, and then the regular season begins in earnest next Monday.

Meanwhile, the Giants today acquired left-hander Wayne Franklin from the Milwaukee Brewers. Franklin is a pitcher we remember from Triple-A games. We have some friends who for some unknown reason loved to razz him when he came to pitch against the Sacramento River Cats: “What’s the mattuh with Franklin? He’s a BUM!” Now that he’s a Giant, we may just have to root for him.

The Execution Of A Baseball

An unfortunate baseball is being destroyed tomorrow in an attempt to relieve the Chicago Cubs of a curse. This would be the foul ball that a Cubs fan reached out for in Game 6 of last fall’s League Championship Series that would have been caught by the Cubs’ outfielder. The Florida Marlins then went on to win the game, and then go to the World Series. The ball was bought at auction by the owners of Harry Carey’s restaurant (named after a famous Cubs announcer) who immediately announced plans for its demise. The event will be televised nationally, and don’t expect any clemency.

But will they go on to win the World Series they’ve been waiting for since 1908?

Take Me Out To SBC Park?

Granted at one level it is just trading one corporate name for another, but I can’t get used to the fact that the San Francisco Giants’ ballfield will now be called SBC Park. Pac Bell Park has a much better ring to it, no pun intended, given the park’s proximity to the Pacific Ocean. The unsurprising story to the name change is that the Pacific Bell phone company got bought out a couple of years ago by SBC, a phone company whose initials formerly stood for something but now don’t.

Oh well. SBC still has a reputation for lousy DSL service, ballpark sponsorship notwithstanding.

Baseball News

The Eck, as Chris reminds me, was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame yesterday. Dennis Eckersley pitched for Boston as a starter, had a break and a bout with alcholism, and had a second career with the Oakland A’s as a fabulous closer. Doc Rock used to watch him at the Coliseum and said he only had two pitches but he always nailed them.

Paul Molitor was also inducted into the Hall of Fame yesterday and is apparently miffed that Pete Rose, the Bad Boy of Baseball, chose this week of all weeks to admit that he had, in fact, yesiree bob, bet on baseball while a manager for the Cincinatti Reds. For this crime he has been permanently barred from baseball and the Hall of Fame.

Pete Rose was possibly the greatest hitter the game has ever seen. He certainly had the most hits. But his gambling habits got the better of him, as he admitted on Monday. He also made some dubious decisions as a manager.

The Hall of Fame is an American oddity and, in my opinion, an anachronism. There’s a Basketball Hall of Fame, a Football Hall of Fame, a Tennis Hall of Fame, and no doubt a Trivial Pursuit Hall of Fame. This is the place where the ball that was someone’s 300th strikeout is housed and on display; where the boots worn by some fabulous base runner are kept; and on and on to the nth degree. But it is also the bastion of morality in sport, and gamblers and low-lifes are not welcome.

The fact that Shoeless Joe Jackson, who is supposed to have “thrown” the World Series (against the Cincinnati Reds, of all teams) along with seven of his teammates in 1919, is disbarred from baseball and the self-righteous Hall of Fame so long after his death is a scandal. So, I would argue, is the barring of Pete Rose. If Ty Cobb, a wife-beating, racist, homophobic maniac who routinely maimed his opponents on the field is in the Hall of Fame, I see no reason to barr the others. Paul Molitor, shut up and take your place gracefully. Like the Eck.