Umps on the take? Russell Martin a bitch? A series to forget.

The headline there says it all.

It's truly difficult to stomach what happened in this three game disaster. Despite our triumphant middle finger of a win today in extras, it still feels like we got swept. We endured the WORST umpiring I think I've ever seen in my life over a series. It was ONE CALL AFTER ANOTHER. If Gary Darling's crew was on the take, they sure as shoot did a terrible job of hiding it... which is why I think they just suck, instead of having zero integrity or decency.

By my count, there were between 8 and 10 HUGE blown calls this weekend... the most egregious of which occurred today.

You all probably saw the games, but there were two obviously blown calls at first when Dodgers hitters should've been out-- one of which tied up the game in the 9th inning and took away Lincey's gem of a game away.

There was one questionable call that could have had Manny picked off at first (which got Bochy ejected). After A.U. Henio upended Russell Martin at home, Kung Fu was blatantly hit on the elbow by McDonald... and after the ensuing brouhaha, he ended up with a strike on him. Then, later after Pandoval did a Saturday Night Fever disco splits move to avoid a tag from Castro, he was called out, and Schierholtz appeared safe at first. Well, Gary Darling reversed the "out" call on Sandoval, but then forgot to watch first base, calling Nate the Great out.

Kruk and Kuip were livid. After the game, Krukow said it was "...absolutely the worst umpiring I've ever seen in a series... and I've seen a lot of games."

Even Greg Papa was pissed in the CSN studios.

---------------------------Quick Side Note--------------------------------

I love JT Snow and he was a great Giant. That being said, he looks worse than Obama up there reading the teleprompter. He's like a zombie on TV. Get this guy a couple of whiskey sours before he goes on. Loosen up bro, you talking about baseball on TV... I hate to say this, but you could really learn something from Bip Roberts. (I know... I can't believe I said it either.)

--------------------------End Side Note----------------------------------

Anyway, the series was pretty much a disaster, and it could've been worse, if the Giants hadn't been able to overcome the terrible umpiring, their own buffoonery in the field, and ineptitude with runners in scoring position. They left 13 guys on base. Not good.

On a more positive note, Timmy once again was the stopper we needed. I love Roy Halladay, but Lincecum is the best pitcher in baseball. The guy literally needs 2 runs to win and will give you at least 8 innings every fifth day.

I sure hope that the victory that Gary Darling & Co. cost him today doesn't leave him a couple votes shy of his second Cy Young. That would be a travesty.

Also, A.U. continues to hit. He stroked one into Mirabelli/Finley alley today and managed to score AND take out the waste of space named Russell Martin.

Yet another dirty French Canadian on the Dodgers who totally sucks. That's right. You separatist jerks are in Canada. You don't get your own country. Go back to France if you don't like it.

A.U. undercut him with gazelle-like speed and wildebeest-like power. Martin ended up on his ass in obvious discomfort. Martin should ride the bench more often, considering he only has 3 HR and 33 RBI on the year. What a loser.

On the next pitch, tempers flared when Pandoval was hit on the elbow by James McDonald. Pablo was about to Kung Fu his ass before being led away.

In a moment that made me fired up to be a Giants fan, the benches cleared and craziness ensued.

Despite no punches being thrown, it was a great moment-- one of the best this season. The crowd went nuts and went into a "Beat LA" frenzy.

The best part could have been Edgar Renteria.

Not hitting much and severely declining in range, Edgar (who wasn't playing) made a beeline for the out of control Russell Martin and attempted to take him downtown to Chinatown.

Hey, he's got the right idea. Giants fans will ease up on you when you go all out like that.

Just like Juan Uribe, who made yet ANOTHER retarded error in the field today. What did he do? He slammed a dong halfway the bleachers in left. And showed up Guillermo Mota...

Expect Mota to drill someone next time... remember he's the guy who sent Prince Fielder into a bloodlust after he nailed the burly Brewers slugger last week.

On to New York.

If I had the money, I'd be there, drunk in the stands telling all the Mets fans to go back to Jersey. (They hate that).

Quick Notes:

-- Russell Martin was wearing a jersey today that said "J. Martin" on the back. What is that about? I guess the Dodgers just suck so badly that they can't even get their own uni's right.

-- The Giants made up another injury so that they could spare the embarrassment and PR nightmare of releasing Rich Aurilia. They probably put a bunch of injuries in a hat and drew "ankle tendonitis" out. Probably more believable than "swine flu" or "lacerated tonsil."

I thought it was over a few weeks ago, and wrote a nice little piece about him that you should check out. I don't expect to see him on the field again. Sorry Rich.

-- I've said the following, out loud, about A.U. Henio twice: "He seriously looks like an alien had sex with a gazelle".

Both times, he's homered. Swear to God.

--Umpire Bill Hohn (the jerk with the moustache) who blew two plays at first base on Monday and called a terrible game behind home plate on Tuesday, has drawn the ire of Atlanta Braves fans as well. This "Bleacher Report" article rails on him too.

He's ejected 5 Atlanta Braves in two games behind the dish this season, including the mild mannered Chipper Jones and Brian McCann.

The McCann incident was particularly absurd, because "Stache" as the article calls him, "...followed B-Mac to the dugout."

-- The Mets have a spot starter brought in from the bullpen to start the series opener. Sounds good. Maybe we can tee off on the SOB.

--A third umpire of Gary Darling's crew, Bruce Dreckman, has also pissed off the masses a time or two. This article details how Dreckman is a hothead who is known to accelerate and exacerbate problems and arguments.

I say break up this hellraising crew.

-- So Bochy and Ron Wotus get tossed... what's the succession if everyone gets thrown out? I guess it would go like this: Bochy, Ron Wotus, Tim Flannery, Dave Righetti, Carney Lansford, Mark Gardner, Roberto Kelly, Billy Hayes. Then what? Player manager? Bullpen catchers? Do Zito and Cain strap on helmets and coach first and third base like kids in Little League? Would they have to forfeit? Very interesting scenario.

I tried to find something about it here in MLB's Official Rulebook, but I don't think they have anything about it. Could this ever happen?

I could've happened today.

With Bochy already tossed, it is conceivable that all of the coaching staff could have been ejected during the brawl for fighting... leaving only a flustered Roberto Kelly to manage his first game.

Kelly would have argued several of the blown calls at the insistence of Aaron Rowand, and gotten tossed. God I hope that happens someday.

It would be AWESOME.

Keep rooting against the Rockies! Onto Queens!

Brian Murphy Article from 2001-- Giants, Dodgers & AT&T Park

This may be unethical or maybe not even legal, but I'll take my chances since this article is from 2001. It was in the SF Chronicle and written by KNBR morning host Brian Murphy-- a huge longtime Giants fan.

I for one tend to agree with a lot of aspects of this piece, and found it especially relevant for this year.

Games will never be like the sparsely populated drunken anger fests like we had in Candlestick way back in the day. The new park is the most gorgeous thing we've laid eyes on, but with that, as Murphy points out, came with a new set of clientele and codes of behavior.

With that being said, I really think that these last few years of ugliness has helped sort out the garbage fairweather fans. If anything, these growing pains have helped reinvigorate the real fans.

Make it a hostile atmosphere. Make Matt Kemp hate playing in San Francisco. Make their fans feel uncomfortable. Get loud and rowdy. Act like a Raider fan without being inappropriate around kids and stabbing people.

Plain and simple, bring back the old attitude that Giants fans used to exhibit. Burn a Dodgers flag by the cable car in right center, make these people think twice about coming into our yard.


Here is the article. It can be found here.


Beauty of a ballpark might end ugly rivalry

Brian Murphy

Wednesday, April 18, 2001

I WILL attend tonight's Dodgers-Giants game as a fan, but will do so with a pain in my heart -- and not because of the half-dozen Krispy Kremes I plan to wash down with a couple of Anchor Steams. That kind of pain is different, and will last well into the night before the Mylanta kicks in.

I speak of a deep, cutting pain. A pain that mourns the death of the Dodgers-Giants rivalry. A death perpetrated by, of all things, that monument to beauty, Pacific Bell Park.

Now, I'm not bagging on Pac Bell. Hell, I've seen the Roman Colosseum and I'm still waiting for a sight to top our little miracle on Third Street, the place that forces me to weep every time I see it -- though if anybody accuses me of going soft, I'll say it's my allergies.

But the one unfortunate casualty of Pac Bell is the Spirit of Dodger Hatred.

Not only has Giants geography changed, but so have demographics, and with them, attitudes.

A Dodgers-Giants game at Candlestick used to mean so many things, but mostly it meant an unmistakable scent of passion. (Or perhaps that was the storm front of marijuana smoke that accompanied every Dodgers tilt at the 'Stick.) Regardless, fists flew, traffic was terrible, the weather was abysmal and we loved every pitch of it.

The conditions bred toughness. It was awesome. It was a buddy following Tommy Lasorda down the right-field line in 1986 and bellowing, with all his might: "Hey, Lasorda, is that your belt, or THE EQUATOR?" It was Lasorda responding: "What mental institution did they let you out of?"

It was high-fiving a drunken stranger by the fourth inning, as if you had met your soul mate, and he was a bearded Hells Angel from Gilroy. It was watching a 7-year-old boy in Dodgers regalia get showered with peanut shells. The kid was wearing a Dodgers jacket and hat to the 'Stick. His old man should have known better.

It was marveling at the mayhem of Black Tuesday in '88, when the lads in the outfield seats went Soccer Fan on Kirk Gibson, forcing the Giants to put up metal barriers between the seats and the fence. Metal barriers, man! That's the stuff you read about on Reuters dispatches from Amsterdam!

Then it changed. Last year, the Dodgers played a night game at Pac Bell. The game featured a stunning development in the bleachers: Dodgers center fielder Todd Hollandsworth played the third inning while sucking on a Tootsie Pop, a display that would have unleashed havoc in the bleachers at the 'Stick. Two fans sitting near me understood. They roasted Hollandsworth without mercy. One tried to lead the crowd in the old '50s ditty, "Lollipop." The masses were mute. The other pleaded with a throat-scratching roar: "Dude, could you hook me up with one next inning? No, seriously! Get me, like, a cherry! Or an orange! But none of that stinkin' ROOT BEER!" That the fan channeled the Hanson Brothers from "Slap Shot" was funny enough; that he was devoting every ounce of his energy to ripping Hollandsworth was worthy of tribute from the surrounding fans. At most, a parade of the fan on shoulders; at the least, a round of beers.

Depressingly, the crowd's only response came from a guy sitting behind them who spoke the following words into a little machine: "No, look one section over. No, closer to left field. Yes! I'm wearing a yellow jacket! Yes, I'm waving to you!"

Now. I have nothing against cell phones. I have one. I use it for critical cases, like being all lost in the supermarket and calling my wife. I just can't see using it at a Giants-Dodgers game so, like, your friends know exactly where you are! And you can wave!

Bottom line: At Pac Bell when the Dodgers come to town, there is too much Chavez Ravine, not enough Hunters Point. And I've seen dozens of Giants- Dodgers games down there at that baby-blue stadium, witnessing Giants fans show up in full Giants uniforms, trying to incite anarchy. They go virtually ignored. Yet I fear that tonight, if some cat walked through my section wearing Dodger white and his back read: "GARVEY 6," he'd go as unnoticed as the guy next to him on the cell phone, directing his friends to his general area, so he could wave!

Let me be clear. I don't want Pac Bell razed. I adore the place. I don't want to move Giants games back to C-P. I just want to bring a little of the old ghosts up Third Street. I want some guy in a Mike Ivie jersey (No. 15, of course), to lead a rhythmic clap. I want some guy in a Dodgers hat to be shamed out of his seat, or, at the very least, to leave muttering: "Man, Giants fans, those guys are animals."

You know, I used to hate the "Beat L.A." chants. I thought the chant was a little provincial, a little sad, a little lacking.

Now, I miss them.

Heard they came back last night as Robb Nen was doing his overpowering job in the ninth.

Here's hoping they stay.

Dodgers in town: Bring it on

Hating the Dodgers is something we all do-- and especially this year.

Since they've sucked for so long, we haven't had to worry about them. But now, since they've righted their ship the past two seasons, the hate has been reinvigorated in the veins of Giants Nation.

Everything from their disgusting city and air to Manny Ramirez and the rest of it-- the Dodgers are to be loathed. It's not very hard.

Unfortunately the MLB Scheduling jerks decided that the Giants and Dodgers didn't need to play each other once between May 10th and August 10th. We've been waiting, chomping at the bit to make up games for months now. The time has come.

I for one am extremely excited. There is a buzz around this Giants team that simply has been absent for years, even the latter Barry years. We've got character... we've got flair.

Quite simply, we're cool. Certainly cooler than the Dodgers.

The semi-ugly Cincinnati series notwithstanding, the Giants are playing good ball. The Friday debacle was the most upsetting game I've seen live since the 1993 Solomon Torres disaster at Dodger Stadium. It is unfortunate though that they were unable to win Sunday, as the momentum would've been nice.

This is going to be a great series, and let's hope the good things from our boys continue.

People are fired up in this city about this team. And with good reason. See you there. Get loud, and get proud.

BEAT LA.

Check out this great article from Sports Illustrated on Kung Fu Pandoval.