The Bonds Trial is Asinine & You Know it

Barry Bonds is a lot of things... a baseball player, father, and polarizing figure.

He is also a surly, mean guy that makes even the douchiest ambulance-chasing news reporter look like a sympathetic figure.

There are a lot of people that flat out DO NOT like the guy... and I get that. But the Bonds perjury trial has reached a pinnacle of asininity.

The Federal government doesn't enjoy being made a fool of... and I get that. The basis of our legal system is people telling the truth. The fear of God is enough for most people to tell it the way it really happened, but for the select few that are able to lie to entire courtrooms, punishment should come.

Look I get it. Barry probably lied. But you know what? I don't give a shit.

Neither do you. And neither does the Chinese lady on Sacramento Street cutting the heads off live chickens Or the douchebag hedge fund guy with the expense account walking down New Montgomery with a $7.00 coffee in hand and $300 silk tie fluttering in the San Francisco breeze. 95% of Giants fans don't approve of this trial, and I'd be willing to bet that nearly as many taxpayers, baseball fans or not, feel the same way.

And unless this dog and pony show is part of President Obama's economic stimulus package, spending millions of taxpayer dollars on this absurd trial is not only irresponsible, but in direct conflict with what the population wants.

This isn't about Bonds lying. This is about the government and IRS agent Jeff Novitzky not looking like idiots. They were the ones that spent a minimum of $6MM on this trial (although the figure could be as high at $60MM including BALCO investigation).

Imagine how bad it'd look if they spent all that money and they only managed to slap a couple dudes on the wrist, and let Adolf Hitl---- I MEAN Barry Bonds off on an acquittal.

I remarked on Twitter at the beginning of this trial, "I wonder when this pissing contest is going to turn into a shitting contest."

It already has. The prosecution, the defense, Novitzky and his powertripping IRS bretheren-- every one of them comes to the courtroom with a ruler, measuring their johnsons every chance they get.

It's just ridiculous.

Imagine what that money could've been spent on! How about solving murders? Maybe funding a Boys & Girls club in the inner city. Beautifying parks. Painting the Golden Gate Bridge to save Fastrak users 50 cents to cross it for 6 months.

Instead, they're going after a guy with everything they've got just to save face. The government is already a wasteful laughing stock, I'm pretty sure knowing when to walk away from an unnecessary money pit of a trial would be seen as a small step in the right direction.

And lest we forget, as Giants fans, what Barry Bonds did for us:

-- He with Peter Magowan saved this franchise from moving to St. Petersburg, Florida and becoming the Devil Rays

-- He always gave us hope when he came up to bat, even when we were down by a seemingly insurmountable lead
-- His presence on the roster made us relevant every year

-- He, with Willie Mays, were two of the 3 greatest baseball players of all time, and were both Giants, through and through. Not even the Yankees can say they that.

-- He always put people in the seats, even when the team sucked

-- Even when opposing teams took the bat out of his hands, he started rallies from first base

His biggest contribution however, was that he had a huge part in our stadium known as AT&T Park being financed and built.

Without Bonds, would the Giants have been able to secure the massive financing needed to privately build our jewel of a ballpark? Probably not. Without Bonds, would the right field wall be as close as it is? Would there be a "Splash Hit" counter? Would people be floating in McCovey Cove? Would there even be a McCovey Cove?

As much of an asshole as Barry was to teammates, the press, and fans, he truly was the best thing to happen to the Giants since Mays. Without the guarantee of people in the stands for years, the loans to Magowan and Company would have been extremely risky. From there, the options would've been to move to San Jose, desperately seek public assistance for a new park, or relocate to another area for good.

And that nice, burgeoning area known as China Basin? That new UCSF complex wouldn't be down there. Neither would those nice condos or Momo's or any of that. The man may be a bad person, a liar, and totally unlikeable, but what he's done for the Giants organization, us fans, the game of baseball, and the City of San Francisco is totally immeasurable.

I will never forget what he did for our fine organization and neither should you. This trial is asinine and it shouldn't be happening. They should've reached a plea deal 2 years ago. Put the guy on probation for 10 years, make him pay $500,000 toward court fees, and let this be over with.

With opening day around the corner, we shouldn't be talking about this.

Free Barry!

Too good: Dallas Reporter Smells Weed

This guy is hilarious. I you can't see these two videos, click here. It's truly hilarious.

This Dallas reporter outside of AT&T is appalled at "people smokin' weed!" beyond McCovey Cove. Too funny.



And the followup:




Again, click here if you cannot see the videos.

The system is definitely effed up

For those of us out there confused about how, exactly baseball's revenue sharing/lack of salary cap system works, you are not alone. Until this article came out about 10 days ago from ESPN's Jayson Stark, it's really never been totally spread out in front of you.

As you know, (for better or worse), MLB has no salary cap. Teams like the Yankees can spend whatever they can, and that's just fine with Bud Selig. We all complain about it-- those of us that are fans of teams not located in the Eastern time zone or Orange County, CA-- but as Stark and Scott Boras point out, we need to look at these losers with the tiny payrolls.

Yes, Florida and Pittsburgh, we're looking right at you.

These teams make excuses to their fans about small markets, weak economies, small populations, etc.

The real truth of the matter is that the system is set up in a way that truly would benefit these teams if they wanted to succeed. They choose not to. These teams collect a fat check from the rich teams, lay around in a puddle of their own Triple A filth of a roster, and cry poor.

I encourage you to read this whole article on ESPN, but I'm gonna just have to copy and paste some of it here:

"Your team (Pirates/Marlins) collected more money this season -- before it ever sold one ticket -- than it spent on its entire major league payroll. In fact, it collected more than it spent on its major league payroll and its player-development system combined."

Stark goes onto explain:

• "Central fund (includes national TV, radio, Internet, licensing, merchandising, marketing, MLB International money): Each team, from the Marlins to the Yankees, gets the same central-fund payout. And that check comes to slightly over $30 million per team if you deduct the $10 million in pension and operations fees, or just over $40 million if you don't.

• Revenue sharing: Only income-challenged teams get a revenue-sharing check. But you should never forget that those checks are a lot larger than your average rebate check from Target. This sport shared $400 million in revenue this year -- more than the gross national product of Western Samoa. Now every club's payout is different. But the five neediest teams -- which we believe to be the Marlins, Pirates, Rays, Blue Jays and Royals -- averaged somewhere in the vicinity of $35 million in revenue-sharing handouts per team. And that still left over $200 million -- more than $20 million a club -- for the rest of the "payees" to divvy up.

• Local TV/radio/cable: Good luck getting these exact figures. But we know that 29 of the 30 teams make at least $15 million a year in local broadcast money, and no team rakes in under $12 million. Obviously, some clubs collect much, much more than that.

Add $30 million, plus $35 million, plus $15 million, and what do you get? That would be $80 million. At least. Before these teams spin their turnstiles once."

And as we know, there are about 12 teams last year that spent right at, or less than $80MM: Kansas City, Oakland, San Diego, Tampa Bay, Pittsburgh, Washington, Minnesota, Cincinnati, Arizona, Cleveland, and Baltimore. For those of you keeping track at home, that's 40% of the teams in baseball that are collecting checks for intentionally being non-competitive.

Each of those teams has its issues. With the A's, it's attendance and a horrific stadium. For the Rangers, it's their owner running out of money. For the Padres, it's an impending sale after an ugly divorce. The point of this whole thing is that there are huge checks being thrown these teams' way in order to make them competitive with the New Yorks and Bostons of the the world, and rather than seize that opportunity to bring a little joy into their fans' lives, they choose to cry poor and collect checks.

I was going to make an Obama socialist joke, but I decided against it. In fact, this socialist system in MLB under Selig is such a welfare state that it makes even the Scandinavians jealous.

As for the Giants, they officially had a payroll of about $94MM last year, good for 14th highest in the league-- ostensibly "middle of the road".

As the fans'/local media personalities' drumbeat to spend more money gets louder and louder, we must ask ourselves exactly why ownership cannot or will not spend more on free agents.

An "educated rumor" that I've heard (ie. second hand information from an unnamed someone by way of another unnamed someone in the organization) is that the Gyros lost close to $30MM this season. Now, to be fair, I didn't hear it directly from anyone in the organization, and I don't know if that number was before or after different revenue streams or lack thereof were factored in.

So regardless if that large number is real or not, I believe it.

The Giants get a significant amount of money from local TV and Radio deals. They have decent attendance and solid revenue streams from stadium concessions, etc.

The only possible way I see that they could've lost that kind of sum is from the following:

-- An annual mortgage payment on AT&T Park of $20MM+
-- Little or no revenue sharing check (not including money from the "Central Fund" that Stark described above

It's kind of like the Giants are too well off for a cut of Selig's welfare check, but not well off enough to be able to afford a $110MM payroll. Kind of like that family out there trying to get Financial Aid because they actually need it, but is told they make too much money, even though they have three college aged kids and live in Marin County.

At the same time, because the Giants have a legitimate revenue stream of our own (Stadium, tickets, concessions, TV/Radio), we're somehow at a disadvantage when compared to teams that don't.

Take the Reds as an example. They spent $72MM on their payroll in 2009. What do you want to believe that they were a prime candidate for a big revenue sharing check? Here's how they work out:

-- Central Fund: $30MM (40 minus 10 for pension, etc.)
-- Revenue Sharing: $25MM (Estimate)
-- TV/Radio deals: $15MM (Est.)

That equals $70MM. What was their payroll again? Oh yeah, $72MM.

So then, you factor in Cincy's 5 year old beauty of a ballpark with its 22,000 per game attendance, $8 Miller Lites, $20 parking, $35 Bronson Arroyo T-Shirt jerseys, subtract operating cost and minor league development, and I bet they doing no worse than breaking even.

With the Giants, they're stuck. We live in a big market. We don't get that extra $25MM from sharing like 'Natti gets. That $25MM right there is a mortgage payment, and nearly the exact amount of money they'd need to spend to land a precious bat like Holliday or Bay's and have enough left over to re-sign Juan Uribe.

I'll take a line from the movie Red Dragon:

"Now do you see?"

If I sound like a raving lunatic, please let me know, because I'm not sure anymore....

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.