On Monday morning, just as news of former All-Pro linebacker Patrick Willis’ plans to retire from football surfaced on television and social media, I rolled out of bed and trudged to my closet. It was early, and the television graphic that read “Patrick Willis to retire” were the first words my bleary eyes scanned that […]
You know this isn’t supposed to happen, right? Baseball is a game of both unparalleled skill and unforgiving randomness, sometimes not necessarily in that order. It’s swinging a wooden stick at a piece of horsehide flying toward you at 95 miles per hour and trying to hit it like a piñata. If you treat baseball like it’s […]
There is something about the passions you discover during childhood that sticks with you for the rest of your life. New ideas and interests join the stream as you grow older, but what you learn to love and hate as a kid generally forms a foundation that you return to, if only occasionally, for the remainder […]
Barry Bonds turned 50 this week. For any fan who grew up watching him launch baseball after baseball into San Francisco Bay, that must be strange to consider. At the peak of his power, when he was the greatest team sport athlete any of us had ever seen (or likely will see again), I was convinced […]
“We must believe in luck,” said the French poet Jean Cocteau. “For how else can we explain the success of those we don’t like?” This well-researched piece from the Colorado Rockies SB National blog “Purple Row” does not like the Giants. Its author, through some advanced metrics and usage of the phrase “where unicorns fart […]
God bless whoever thought of a 162-game season. It’s a perfect number, not only because it allows for so many twists and turns but also because it is divisible by three. Baseball is nothing if not statistically driven, and the 54-game mark allows for some fourth grade math to determine where everyone will wind up […]
“Don’t worry, it’s still early.” It’s the line used to salt away the sadness that follows every excruciating loss in April and May. Baseball is such a long season, they argue, that this game–the one that just caused you to kick a chair clear across the living room–is essentially insignificant. Just one out of 162. Just […]
Matt Leland: Alright we’re gonna take a look at the 49ers draft prospects for Thursday and beyond with Bobby Glasspole, who probably knows as much or more about this stuff as any empty talking head on TV. Thanks for taking the time, Bobby, Bobby Glasspole: Thanks for having me here, Matt ML: Alright, so a lot of […]
CSN Bay Area’s Andrew Baggarly penned a terrific column earlier this week that brought back a buzz phrase from the depths of recent San Francisco baseball: the 2007 season. The term was “whipping boy”, and it was the moniker that GM Brian Sabean bestowed upon beleaguered closer Armando Benitez after the latter’s trade to the then-Florida Marlins. Benitez […]
When the Giants signed Tim Hudson to a two-year, $23 million contract in November of last year, most of the reaction to the deal followed a similar line: San Francisco was getting a consistent, veteran right-hander–who had aged better than many of his mid-2000’s heyday contemporaries–at a reasonable price. Hudson might have commanded more money and […]
Bay Area Bluster 