Dave Stewart - SJ Mercury - Ben Margot

This last week the Giants and A’s celebrated the 20th anniversary of the 1989 World Series.  They both were in it that year, and that was the same year as the big earthquake up here .  They had a reunion for the players which included such greats as Dave Stewart and Carney Lansford. 

I read a great article (click here) though on how two players were obviously missing.  That would be Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco.  The two former “Bash Brothers” have essentially been black listed from public functions due to their ties to steriods.  Jose Canseco has openly said that he did it, but he hasn’t been welcomed back.  (In fact most of his teammates are so mad at him still that they don’t even consider him part of the original team.)  Mark McGwire has stayed silent and sadly has allowed everyone to make their assumptions that he did do steriods.  His silence only seems to confirm those suspecisions.

It leads to an interesting discussion as to what baseball is going to do in the future with these steriod users.  You have a growing number of athletes who were involved in fantastic fan memories of great games, but now they are fading away like ghosts.  Barry Bonds is that way even though up here in SF they still invite him back to certain events.  Manny Ramirez will also be that way eventually.  Perhaps once everyone is exposed and steriods are cleaned up, then forgiveness can be granted, but not yet.  Not for certain players. 

It’s funny how all the teams are involved now, because just about every team has had some player who is associated with drugs.  It is sad because in some ways you want to honor the former greats…but their legacy is tarnished, and thus they can’t be invited back.

On a lighter note, I had an interesting discussion with a Giants fan this week as to whether the Giants would win the Wild Card, or if the Rockies would catch them.   It’s an interesting debate.  I think the Rockies have more offense, whereas the Giants have more pitching.  Minus Matt Holliday, the Rockies are a similar team to the team that went to the World Series a couple of years ago.  I give the edge to the Rockies, even though I have a weird hunch on the Cardinals.  I think they may squeak in yet.

What’s your thoughts, Giants or Rockies.? Till next week for Spy Game.  Go Blue.  (And yes, I’m really glad to be past the White Sox and Mariners…)

Manny Whiteboard

I had to include this picture as one of the posts.  This is the whiteboard of the cube across from mine at work.  He put this up yesterday, and has every intention of counting down the days and rubbing it in.  Yes, he’s a Giants fan.  He’s really more of a Sharks fan, but he’s from around here, so he’ll jump on anything anti-Dodgers he can.  It’s actually a pretty funny picture, but yes, life as a Dodgers fan living in Giants territory.

Great stories in the SF Chronicle about the Manny debacle.  One of the comments from my last post brought this up, but apparently what Manny took is a common drug used to recover from steroid use.  The story keeps getting worse and worse.  Here was my favorite comment from the SF Chronicle writer Scott Ostler (See article here):

“Manny Ramirez flunked a drug test because of meds he got from a Florida doctor. Ramirez isn’t providing any more info, so we’re all free to speculate on the nature of his “personal health issue.”

I’m going to go ahead and rule out dandruff.

From what drug experts say about HCG, the banned drug Ramirez used, there’s a good chance Manny used the stuff to boost his flagging testosterone production and head off embarrassing side effects.

So it wasn’t Manny being Manny, it was Manny not wanting to be Franny.

Let’s take a wild swing and speculate that Ramirez took the HCG to deal with the negative side effects of steroids. If so, Manny will no longer be known as simply a great hitter and fun-loving clubhouse guy who, by the way, quit on his team and roughed up an elderly team employee.

He will be asterisked forever.”

I’m sure every paper in the nation had stories on him today.  I guess I am just too trusting because I believed his original statement.  I’m convinced now that I was the only one in the country who did this.  He got ripped to shreds in the internet articles.  Testing is more strict now, and he still used the drugs.  We obviously have no idea of the pressure to be worth the money, but the drugs are obviously rampant.

The people thrilled right now are the Giants and their fans.  They did want Manny, but already dealt with steroids with Barry Bonds.  If they had signed him, and then this came out, it would be even more embarrassment for the organization and fans.  This also means the Giants fans will boast all the more that they made the right decision, when they really didn’t have a chance at Manny…but such it is.

I’m watching the Giants play the Dodgers tonight at Dodger Stadium.  Good pitchers duel.  I’m telling you, Barry Zito has figured something out with Pablo Sandoval, and he looks good again.  Billingsley looked good, and so did Pierre, but Martin should have never gone to second on his hit.  That really killed the rally with Casey Blake’s double.  Hopefully the Dodgers will turn it around, but we’ll see.  The bullpen blew it last night,  so hopefully they can get another chance tonight.

Until next time from anti-Manny land…

Barry Bonds with Bill Neukom at AT&T Park

When I was at the game on Monday, they zoomed in on Barry Bonds talking with the new Giants owner William Nuekom. They showed some flashbacks on the big screen, and then when he stood up to acknowledge the crowd, the stadium erupted in applause. It never ceases me to amaze me because they just love him there. I was talking to my Giants fan friend and he mentioned that no matter what is found with steroids, he still was amazing to watch and created memories there that those fans will never forget.

I thought that was a good perspective. We love those who are the hero, no matter what happens afterwards. We love to forgive because they stole our hearts by winning the game.

In either case, it made me laugh as to what they were talking about.  I mean, did William Nuekom start the conversation by saying, “Hey Barry, How’s the trial going?” 

Or did Barry start it off by saying, “Hey Bill, you’re number 4 hitter is hitting .222 for the year (Seriously they started Rich Aurilla in the 4 spot and he had an average of .222), if you sign me right now, I’ll jump in by the end of the game, and still do better than Rich Aurilla.”

Who knows what they were really talking about, but it had to have been a little awkward.  You’ve got the Home Run King without a job talking to the new owner who doesn’t want him back.  Thankfully the Dodgers and Giants gave a good game to fill the silence.

Either way, the fans do love him, and I’ll forever be able to rub it into my friend that the sad Giants are so bad this year they had to start a guy hitting .222 in the 4 spot.

Manny Ramirez - Matt York/AP

So one of the benefits of living in Giants Territory is that I do get a good window of what Giants fans are thinking.  This issue of Manny has really tripped them up.

The Dodgers would be equally torn if they were looking at him for the first time.  But since he came in and basically was the MVP for the end of the year, they can look past all of his faults.

Manny is still all the talk on the talk shows up here.  I’m heard a lot of good arguments up here, most of which are really valid.  There are definitely too camps.

The first camp says take him now and pay the money.  They believe that with their strong pitching rotation (the Dodgers can only dream of a rotation that deep right now), that they just need one bat to really contend.  Many analysts feel that getting Manny would put them favored in the division, bring in ticket sales and make them a winning team for the first time in 6 years.  (Yeah – 6 losing seasons and the natives are definitely restless.)

The other camp says that Manny would not be worth the cost.  Not just in actual dollars, but in what would happen once he got there.  The Giants don’t have a strong hitters lineup.  They have Aaron Rowand and Benjie Molina, but no one that could really protect Manny.  Because of this they feel adding Manny will just be like Bonds a few years ago, where every team just  walks him to get to the weaker better.  Honestly, I think they are totally right.  Not that the Dodgers are a ton better, but they definitely are stronger than the Giants in terms of pop in the lineup.  Adding Manny to the Giants would not be the same as adding him to the Dodgers because he just wouldn’t have the protection or leadoff guys to support Manny.

Even more, if they add Manny, it would be for a long term deal, which goes against their rebuilding with youth.  I heard Dwayne Kieper (Giants radio announcer) on the air yesterday saying that they figured last year would be the worst, this year would hopefully bring a winning record, and next year they would be in the playoffs.  Adding Manny short circuits this, but also adds an aging outfielder they have to maintain and deal with.

It is interesting too all of the rumors on how Manny is in the clubhouse.  Most ball players and announcers like him, but the Red Sox players agreed to dump him last year, so who really knows.  I’m sure he’s a driven athlete (he has to be to be Hall of Fame caliber), but he does polarize, and his baggage of faking injuries speaks loudly.

I still don’t think the Giants are major players unless it is a 1-2 year deal.  Even then, I would think the Dodgers could easily outbid them for that length of a contract.

I will say this, as much as I don’t want Manny to be Giant (it would be horrible up here), I would at least have a lot to blog about for many years.  Let me know your thoughts on Manny being walked…