It's Arizona!

It's Arizona!  The University of Arizona that is.  My granddaughter Emily just committed to a full ride scholarship to the University of Arizona to play soccer in the year 2018.  Congratulations Emi.
I know many of our members will recognize that U of A is called the Wildcats and their school colors are red and blue.  Remind you of another school?

Giants

The Giants are also off to Arizona to play the DBacks.  They lost seven games in a row to the Cardinals, Dodgers and Rockies last week before winning the last two in Colorado over the weekend.

How do you recover from a seven game losing streak?  You win ten in a row.  The Giants have been doing this all year.  They have been very streaky.  So its not out of possibility for them to have a good winning streak.  If they can win their next eight this week and the Dodgers split eight games then the Orange and Black will be within 3 1/2 games of the Dodgers with about 15 to go.

During the past week I wrote he following but did not publish until today.

The Dodgers swept the Giants right out of Los Angeles to take a commanding lead in the NL West.  Is  it over?  Look at the math.  The Dodgers are on a path to win 92 games this season.  The Giants would need to win 23 of their final 29 games to tie them.  Give up?  Look at it this way if the Giants could sweep the Rockies four games this weekend while the Dodgers lose two then all of sudden we're only 4 1/2 out.  Didn't the Phillies lose a 6 game lead with a week to go in the last century.

As I mentioned before the Dodgers are blacked out to most of the fans in Los Angeles area including all  road games including those from San Francisco.  So I did my penance and listen to most of the three games on the radio.  The announcers Snyder and Rick Monday have their own agenda and seem to forget details of the game.  Tuesday night they reported that Adrianza got a single in the 8th inning.  When I watched the highlights on CSBA following the game I discovered it was Blanco who got the hit.  Then last night the same thing happened. I could not understand why they sent in a runner for Adrianza after he singled.  Went to the computer and discovered it was Sanchez who got the hit then I understood the need for a runner.  They did say the Dodgers won which was one thing they got  right.

Belt hit into a double play late in the second game when he broke his bat and ball went to the second basemen who flipped the ball from his glove to the shortstop.  Snyder and Monday  never stopped raving as the play of the year.  When I saw the play on CSBA after the game it was a good play but looked like a routing double play that Panic and Crawford make regularly.


The Umpires and Replays

I have said over and over again during the season that I do not agree with instant replay because in my opinion a lot more games are decided with ball an strike calls which are not reviewable.  The third strike call on the new Giant outfielder Alejandro De Aza in a crucial point of the game was at least a foot and a half outside that got Bochy thrown out the game and the next night also when a check swing by Belt was a strike. These calls unfortunately of missed ball and strikes occur a number of times and usually go unnoticed but certainly in many occasions have an effect on the outcome of the game.

It was ironic that in the last Dodger game, Posey was called safe on a pick off move to first and the  replay showed he was out and then later Tomlison was called out only to have the call reversed. 

In the Colorado Series  the first batter for the Rockies rips a ball over first base for a double.  The replay showing the ball hooking down the line and looked as if it possibly missed the base and could have been a foul ball.  The umpire Joyce noted for the worst call in baseball history ruining a perfect game  a few years ago in Detroit was not in position to make the call.  When the ball came at him along the first base line  he moved quickly toward second base to get out of the way so he was calling the ball fair or foul from an angle.  He had to guess.  The play was not reviewable.

In the 9th inning of the second game Byrd beat out an infield hit that wasn't even that close after watching the replay.  The Rockies asked for a review.  Never can tell when the umpire in New York by this time of night might have had a few brandies and could have easily missed the call on television.  As K & K commented what did they have to lose.  This makes a mockery of the game.  Krukow happened to make the  comment  during the game that as the replay system gets more sophisticated we can have more replays.   You  got to be kidding!  Wake up, can't you see what's happening.  Baseball players make errors, umpires make errors and as Bochy would say 'that's baseball.'  Leave the game alone.

Other comments

I see that the 49ers are Over or Under scoring 3 1/2 points for the Vikings game.

I know I promised not to bring religion into this blog  but I can't resist that BYU beat Nebraska with   a 'Hail Mary'.

Saturday afternoon college football is a thing of the past.  Looking at the USC schedule the game times known are at 8pm, 5pm, 5pm, TBA, 6pm and 4:30pm.  Stanford played Saturday starting at 11am Central Time. A few of our blog readers attended the game after I hope enjoying a good Cardinal Party in Chicago Friday night.

Tom O a new blog member mentioned to me that my cousin Tom Sweeney is featured with his beef eaters outfit on  in the latest Giants promotion.

I am planning on at least two more posts before wrapping it up.  One will be reviewing my thoughts in spring training about the team and what really happened.  The other post will list in priority order what I think the Giants should do during the winter.

Happy Labor Day!