Can't Blame Everything On Cepedes

The good news for all baseball fans was that Bruce Bochy was back in camp Sunday.  It all started a few days ago when Bochy had just confirmed  his starting rotation for the coming season putting an end to the speculation on this blog.  The future Hall of Fame manager relayed to the press that  his starters would be 1. Bumgarner, 2 Cain, 3 Hudson, 4 Peavy and 5 Lincecum.  He must have thought to himself, 'Oh if it was only 2012'.  Suddenly reality hit that it is 2015 and Bruce's heart started to send  him a message.  The Giant manager recovered quickly after spending a restful night at the hospital and perhaps dreaming about a miracle drug that could prevent further aging, injuries and loss of velocity on fast balls. The Giants could certainly use one this year.

Poor Pablo Sandoval has made the headlines before spring training.  Writers from other parts of the country got a good look at him at the Boston spring training  camp and announced to the world he was out of shape.  Giants fans know better.  In fact he looked relatively slim in the picture.  You hope he stays at 240lbs which is impossible, but he plays very well at 260lbs.  However the problems regarding fielding and injuries really hits when his weight is around 280 lbs. He's got a long ways to go to reach that figure this year but history has proven that Pablo can put it on easier then he can take it off.  In the end the 'Green Monster' at Fenway Park will make Pablo a hero.

The 'shocking' news out of Green Bay Wisconsin was that Packers TE Brandon Bostick was cut.  He was the player that fumbled the on-side kick that allowed Seattle to get into the Super Bowl instead of Green Bay.  Remember we chronicled recently what happened to the 49ers Preston Reilly back in the early 70's.  Same thing.  I  blamed the head coaches Nolan and McCarthy for their conservative play calling that provided the opportunity for the on-side kick.  The Packers special teams coach was also fired.

This does remind me of Billy Bean of  'Money Ball' fame.  Remember last season he traded Cepedes for the great left hand pitcher Lester from Boston who was going to propel the A's to the World Series championship. The Giants had proven to Billie that you needed a strong starting staff to win the series then the Giants proved everyone wrong including themselves and won it all last year with one starter.    All of sudden the protection of Cepedes in the lineup was gone and the power hitters Donaldson and Moss became easy outs.  Bean was blamed in the press that made him furious.  He didn't like it and guess who got traded this winter?  The very popular All Stars Donaldson and Moss meaning that the once very potent 3, 4, 5 lineup  for the A's was history.

Speaking of Cepedes - Remember the great play he made last year when he was still a member of A's catching a foul fly against the left field fence and throwing the ball on a fly to catch an Angel runner at home plate who had tagged up from third base.  I must have seen it 30 times on television so I am sure Pagan also saw it. It was the very next night at AT&T with the Giants leading the Rockies by two runs in the top of 9th inning.  Romo was in to pitch and first two batter got on base.   The next batter flew deep to Pagan in center field.  Instead of throwing to second to keep the tying run at first he shows off his arm by throwing on the fly to third trying to get a runner whose run meant nothing.  The entire inning blew up on Romo who eventually lost the game and soon his closing spot and the Giants went into a tail spin for about six weeks.  That was the start!

I know its a generation gap but I will say it  anyway.  Watching video of players reporting to spring training makes it look like some of them spent the winter on skid row.  Hats off to the New York Yankees!

Granddaughter Emi - 2012 

When I was younger back in the 1940s after World War II the San Francisco Seals night games use to start at 8:15 and normally they were over close to 10 o'clock.  Rarely did a game go over two hours. Last year major league games averaged over three hours.  This is great for the concession stands but bad for the game.  Major league baseball announced some speed up moves for the coming year one of which is the player is to keep at least one foot in the batter's box instead of constantly stepping out of the box and waving to friends in the stands. I would have also limited the number of times a player can tighten his batting glove in a plate appearance to three. The new rules also allow a manager to ask for a replay from the dugout.  Wasn't the time the manager took to walk slowly towards the umpire last year used for the coach in the clubhouse to review the replay to see if the team wanted to challenge the call?  How are they going to stall this year?   There are many culprits for the longer games including television commercials and replays but in my opinion the relief pitchers are the most guilty of slowing the game down to a snails pace and since almost every game includes at least four, the games this season will continue to be very long.

 More NFL News

The cities of Oakland, San Diego and St. Louis continue to be held hostage by the NFL.  Now its the city of Carson who would build a $1.6 billion stadium with private funds to house the Raiders and Chargers.  Living in the south land for 17 years I have never heard one person say they wanted an NFL team.  Some old Rams and Raiders fans might want their teams back but the rest could care less. It's the NFL looking for more welfare from taxpayers.  In case you missed it the Rams want to leave St. Louis and build a new stadium at Hollywood Park just a few miles north on the 405 from Carson. Its been so long since LA had a pro team and the fans think they can buy a ticket for $25. and go to a game.  Are they in for a shock! My solution is to tear down the Coliseum before USC waste too much money renovating the historic site and build a state of the art stadium that can house the Trojans and as many NFL teams that want to make LA their home.  With games now played on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday scheduling would be no problem.  Many do not know that there is a large four level parking garage below ground right in front of the Coliseum.

Pete Carroll Out At Seattle?

An email was sent to me by a good friend Tony G that ESPN said,  " Pete Carroll, head coach of the Seattle Seahawks, is reported to be very near signing on as a special consultant to the Pope in Vatican City. The Pope looks to recruit Carroll to be a spokesman for the Catholic Church because he is the first man in history that made 100 million people jump up and yell 'Jesus Christ' at the same time." 

When I decided to take on this blog I was warned to keep it to sports.  Some of you know when I get into politics and religion I can get into big trouble. So I have classified this as a sports story.

Older Catholics would remember that using the name of Christ in vain like in the above situation is a  sin against the second commandment of God.   We also did our research following  Pete's famous Super Bowl call and using a computer program model designed at Stanford University we figured over 50 million people yelled, "What in hell are you doing?"  So even if the Pope wants him, Carroll may already been spoken for.  Regardless 'come hell or high water', Pete will be coaching the Seahawks next year.