Bummer of a game

The Gyros did their best to overcome a 4-2 deficit against the Mets on Thursday. I saw some great stuff by Fred Lewis and A-Row by getting on base... followed by the Travis Ishikawa sacrifice bunt! I loved it. Small ball at its best. A couple singles by Juan Uribe and Edgar Renteria, and we had another comeback on our hands!

Unfortunately the Mets had their absolute way with Brian Wilson, in his worst outing of the season by far. God, it was truly hard to watch. New York ran wild against him and lined multiple base hits off B-Wil to ground the Giants and win 7-4.

Some notes:

-- Really tough day for Bengie Molina. Poor guy allowed 7 stolen bases. 7! including 4 to David Bleepin' Wright. Not all of them can be blamed on Molina, but damn, that is one futile, frustrating night.

-- Edgar Renteria left with some sort of apparent hammy pull in the 8th inning after driving in the tying run. Hope he's okay. If he sees time on the DL, I would find it hard to believe that we wouldn't call up Kevin Frandsen to play 2B and slide Manny Burriss over to his natural position of SS.

-- Extremely classy moment in Wednesday's loss to the Nats. When Ryan Zimmerman grounded into that late inning fielder's choice effectively ending his 30 game hitting streak, the crowd gave him a standing O.

Pure class. There are very few places that would do that. St. Louis and Wrigley Field come to mind. Certainly not New York or LA.

-- Quick correction about my Jon Miller article. I said Tigers announcing legend Ernie Harwell was dead. I meant retired and no longer on the air. That was my bad. Thanks for the
comment.

The Aurilia conundrum:

What do we do with our boy Richie Aurilia? He's in the midst of his worst season ever and there is not much to look forward to. He's hitting .152 with 7 RBI and a vomit-inducing .348 OPS. In his last two AB's he's struck out with runners on in ugly fashions.

We all love Rich, he's our last remaining link to the good ol' days and he's a Giant to the core. But... at this point he's teetering dangerously close to being a detriment to the team. He signed a minor league deal in the offseason, but releasing him would be a HUGE public relations hit. He is a great guy and a valuable veteran presence, but he still needs to earn his keep.

I'm really pulling for him to get a few big hits. You should be too!

Don't forget to check out the awesome shirts on Dodgerhater.net.

Dodger Douchebag of the day: Juan Pierre, who went 0-4. Good. Serves him right. Jerk.

KUNG FU PANDA WINS IT!

Bobby Howry did his best to blow the game for the Giants tonight, but Bengie Mo and Kung Fu Panda made sure that didn't happen.

Pablito Sandoval just rocked one out in the 9th inning off Joe Beimel to win it.

God I love this guy! The Panda and Big Money make life worth living!

Postgame notes:

--The Dodgers fell on their collective ugly face in Philly tonight, and the Giants are only 3 games back of the Blue Bastards.

-- Bengie Mo took his first walk of the season. He's on pace for like 5 this year. Hilarious.

-- Nate Schierholz made some ugly plays in right tonight, but also made a great play on a Cristian Guzman drive, playing it off the wall in a Randy Winn-esque fashion and holding the shortstop to one long ass single. Fred Lewis finally got benched for his multi-faceted nutsackery.

-- Pablito hilariously fell on his face trying for a triple in the 7th inning.

-- Regarding Pablo's disastrous-looking baserunning, Matt Cain said, "Kung Fu Panda doesn't get hurt."

GO GIANTS! (And don't forget to scroll down to my Jon Miller article)

Jon Miller & Attendance

Jon Miller: Best in the business

Most of us watch the Giants on TV and are delighted to share that experience with Mike Krukow and Duane Kuiper, one of the best broadcasting tandems in baseball. I don't need to tell you how awesome they are. Their chemistry is second to none, they are hilarious, and we all enjoy listening to their homerism and baseball know-how.

However, when we're watching at home, we are missing the true genius of Jon Miller and Dave Flemming on the KNBR radio broadcasts.

Flemming, for being a young guy, is simply superb in his delivery and knowledge... he's getting better by the season because he's learning from the best in baseball: Jon Miller.

Miller's diction, knowledge, and unparalleled ability to describe even the most minute details is quite simply incredible.

We are very blessed in the Bay Area to have such excellent broadcasters. Randy Hahn, Drew Remenda, and Dan Rusanowski for the Sharks are top notch. Bob Fitzgerald, Jim Barnett, and Tim Roye are great for the Warriors. Not a huge fan of Glenn Kuiper and Ray Fosse for the A's, but they're certainly not terrible. Greg Papa does a good job with the Raiders, and Gary Plummer is an excellent radio color guy for the 49ers.

Jon Miller is on a whole 'nother level though. Just imagine his baritone voice as he described Barry Bonds's 756th homer. It is simply the most amazing literary description of anything I've ever read or heard:

"Three and two to Bonds. Everybody standing here at 24 Willie Mays Plaza. An armada of nautical craft gathered in McCovey Cove beyond the right field wall. Bonds one home run away from history. (crack of the bat) AND HE SWINGS, AND THERE'S A LONG ONE DEEP INTO RIGHT CENTER FIELD, WAY BACK THERE, IT'S GONE!!! A HOME RUN! Into the center field bleachers to the left of the 421 foot marker. An extraordinary shot to the deepest part of the yard! And Barry Bonds with 756 home runs, he has hit more home runs than anyone who has ever played the game!"

And here's Jon's call of Reuben Rivera's horrible baserunning. Gotta click on that one.

I just cannot say enough about Jon. I've said the two following things to people and actually meant them:

"I could literally listen to Jon Miller describe an almond orchard or a city sidewalk and be thoroughly entertained."

And...

"Dude, I love tunes, but if I was stranded on a desert island, all I'd need was a tape of every broadcast Jon Miller has ever done. Seriously. That's all I would need."

God bless KNBR for its "Midnight Replay" as well. They replay the day's game starting at midnight in its entirety. Many times I will set the sleep button on my radio and fall asleep to Miller and Flem.

For instance, last night, the last thing I remember was Jon Miller describing in detail how Dom DiMaggio once had a 34 game hitting streak (after Joe's mark had been set). In the game Dom's streak ended, he hit a rocketing low line drive towards his brother Joe in the outfield. Joltin' Joe made an incredible catch to save the game and end his brother's march toward 56. Just amazing stuff.

Many of the all-time greats have passed away recently, Ernie Halwell, Harry Kalas, and the like. The best radio men alive right now in my option are Bob Uecker or the Brewers, Jon Miller, and Vin Scully of the hated Dodgers.

I should hate Vin, but he is simply a legend. He does a simulcast both on TV and radio by himself in LA-- truly amazing in its own right.

That is the last compliment to any Dodger employee you'll ever read on this site.

So... anyways, appreciate what we've got here, we've got it good here in Giants land.

Attendance issues

The Giants set another AT&T low attendance mark of of 23,934 Monday night against the Nationals. The crowd looked even sparser than that on television. Granted Washington isn't a very exciting draw and it was cold as hell out there, but this is a hard thing to witness.

We all know about the economy, it is certainly a factor. Another factor is the lack of "wow" factor that Los Gigantes give us. People would show up just to see Bonds hit, and the allure of our beautiful ballpark drew even the most indifferent breed of elitist and hipster to games.

Now, it's the gamers.

Brian Murphy was talking about this on KNBR a few weeks back. He is one of the true Candlestick nostalgists out there and is a huge fan of the home field edge. He said something to the effect of, "I'd rather have 25 or 30,000 real fans out there chanting and burning Dodger pennants in the upper deck, than 41,000 fairweather non-fans out there."

I for one agree with him. Although I wasn't there on Monday, it appeared to have a Candlestick feel to it. Trash was blowing around, people were bundled up in blankets. You could hear isolated hecklers. The serenades of "What's the matter with "so and so"? HE'S A BUM!" was going on the whole game. It seemed like a throwback night, and only the most hardcore of fans show up on a Monday in blustery 52 degree weather to games.

The A's attendance situation is no laughing matter, but when you go out to the Coliseum, you'll see the same type of fanhood being exhibited. Sparse, cold, and passionate.

As for the Giants, the numbers are not what I expected. Through 15 home games last year, their average was 33,824. Guess what this year's is?

33,397.

Huh? They're drawing only 427 less fans? I was sure the figure was going to be uglier myself. The only explanation I can think of is that people with season tickets are not going to the games and are either unable to sell them or unable to give them away.

The park just seems more sparse this year, and it's more than 427 people.

The Giants are playing good baseball though, and we will continue to draw at this solid, yet unspectacular clip.

Brian Murphy and I have no problem with it at all.

Quick notes from the Dodgers series

-- Wow, that 13 inning game yesterday was a real hootenanny!

-- Anyone else throw up in their mouths when Brian Wilson blew that save? It's like, "Oh God, how are we gonna be able to score another run!?"

-- Timmy wasn't sharp yesterday

-- Please click this to see what the real definition of a Merkin is. I'm serious. Click this. You won't be able to stop chuckling when ever Merkin Valdez gets put into the game.

-- The Merc's Andrew Baggarly reported yesterday as well as Dave Flemming on the KNBR broadcast that Casey Blake mocked Brian Wilson's arm-crossing heaven point celebration in the dugout after he tied up the game. Here is a small excerpt from The Extra Baggs blog:

"I asked if he’d remember the next time he faced Blake. Wilson shrugged and clamped his mouth shut. From the next locker over, Jeremy Affeldt said, “Blake knows what he did.”"

-- I for one, love it. I know that Brian Wilson does that gesture in relation to his Christian faith and his late father. I personally, would not mess with him. So, we may have a Jose Mesa - Omar Vizquel-like public vendetta situation here.

But Wilson is too smart to announce to the world that he's going to break Casey Blake's ribs the next time he faces him. He's just going to do it. That, or the Big Unit is going to take care of it for him.

You know where you are? You're in the jungle baby. Now you're gonna die.

-- Time to option Travis Ishikawa and Eugenio Velez to Fresno. They are basically worthless to us right now. I'd rather fly with Aurilia at first for now and call up this guy...

-- Jesus Guzman, the guy we stole from the A's for free has been absolutely RAKING in Fresno. In 118 AB's in AAA, Guzman is hitting .322 with 6 HR and 23 RBI. Stick this son of a bitch at first base and hope he gets it.

-- Also bring up Kevin Frandsen who is hitting .295 with 16 RBI. Manny Burriss has been playing better, but both of these guys play better when the other is looking over their shoulder.

-- Fred Lewis is drawing the ire of Giants fans everywhere. He isn't hitting, he isn't fielding, and we're all over how cool is his reflective orange sunglasses look during day games.

-- Madison Bumgarner and Timmy Alderson are now in Double A Connecticut.

-- Get these guys ready to step into the rotation as soon as possible. Bumgarner could be ready now. We need to trade Sanchez for hitting.

--I'm assuming Big Money Molina will get the day off today after catching 13 innings. We'll probably see Holm in there today vs. the Nats.

-- Dude, the Giants just took 2 out of 3 from the Dodgers in LA. Very good stuff. This is a maddening team to follow right now, but they are somehow hanging in there. This is a scrappy squadron and with Manny out regrowing his nutsac, we've got a real chance to make the playoffs. Let's do this.

BEAT LA!