MLB All- Blizzard team

This is probably written by an East Coast MLB writer who has nothing better to write about during the snow storm.  

Catcher, Jarrod "Salty" Saltalamacchia
First base, J.T. Snow
Second baseman, Ski Melillo
Shortstop, John Shovlin
Third base, David Freese
Left Field, Coco Crisp
Center field, Devon White
Right field, Cool Papa Bell
Designated hitter, Chili Davis
Starting pitcher, Sandy Koufax
Closer, Tom "Plowboy" Morgan
National Anthem, Frozen's Idina Menzel
Ceremonial first pitch, Vanilla Ice

BTW, J.T. Snow was also the answer to the trivia question on MLB.com: Who was the last Giants first baseman to win a Gold Glove Award?

Sports highlight: the Giants won it all again

Hopefully writing about this topic will become my every-other-year ritual. I posted this two years ago and this four years ago. Once again I am linking to Peter Gammon's writeup for the 2014 victory. Similar to last time, the Giants' great pitching was a key. Madison Bumgarner wrote another chapter in playoff history since 2010: 2 Win (Game 1 and Game 5, a complete game shutout) and 1 Save (Game 7, with 2 day rest and pitched as reliever for 5 innings!) in the World Series. And Tim Lincecum struggled as a starter in the regular season, too bad he was only able to pitch 1 2/3 inning as a reliever in "garbage time" (Giants was behind by 5 runs) and left because of injury in game 2 of the World Series. There were quite a few key hits from unexpected players in 2010, like Cody Ross and Edgar Renteria. In 2012 they have Marco Scutaro and Ryan Theriot. In 2014 they have Travis Ishikawa and Juan Perez. And of course great defensive plays from the rookie Joe Panik and the stud Brandon Crawford helped. I guess more things change, more things stay the same. The management has proven they know how to run the organization the right way. Both Brian Sabean and Bruce Bochy will join the hall of fame someday for sure. I gotta admit I have doubts in many of Sabean's decisions during his earlier days as the GM. I felt that he tended to sign over-the-hill/over-priced players like Barry Zito (yeah, everybody could cite this one) Randy Winn, Aaron Rowand, Armando Benitez ...... and hang on to older players for too long, like Ray Durham (see this analysis of the 2008 team and this 2010 breakdown of Sabean's success and failure, before he won the 1st WS) That's why I was so skeptical when the Giants signed Edgar Renteria, Pat Burrell, Aubrey Huff, Andres Torres and Cody Ross. Well, turned out they all helped with winning the 2010 championship, one way or the other. Now I become believing in whoever they signed, like Angel Pagan, Michael Morse and Tim Hudson (the last 2 were the only "big names" signed before the start of the 2014 season) They have certainly contributed a lot to the early season success (team W-L record for the first 60 games) which piled up enough wins to make up for the poor showings later and barely made it in as the last wildcard! Morse even had a few key kits in the playoff! The mid-season signing of Hunter Pence (and Jake Peavy to a certain extent) almost made me forgotten about Carlos Beltran.

I would have enjoyed this year's WS even if the Giants didn't win. Why? Their opponent Kansas City Royals certainly qualify as a Cinderella: one of the least likely team to make it to the WS in years IMO. (Check out this list of unlikely winners) Some pointed out this Giants-Royals matchup as the worst ever. In fact, the TV rating of game 1 was the lowest ever, which is understandable given the small size of the KC TV market (However, Game 7 had pretty good rating.) My friend who dislike baseball cited the low rating to support his argument that baseball is boring. Well, does it really matter? Parity in MLB was actually good to the business overall speaking. It's because more fans are likely to tune into broadcasts of the local team, which are making $$$ for all these regional sports network (this model is different from NFL's) I guess it all comes down to the fact that there are just not enough superstars in the games these days. Some say there are way too many teams (30) to compete for the talent. 

I can't wait for the 2015 Spring training!

"Breaking up" with the SF Giants

This has nothing to do with their players and the recent slump, and of course not the management (which could do no wrong because they did a great job building a team that won 2 world series in 3 years) I just don't want to be associated with this fanbase and deal with the greedy bloodsucking businesses near the ball park (or I should say remotely close to) I have been driving to SF to work for years. My office building is ~1 mile from the ballpark and in the past the parking lots here do not charge extra on game day. I guess most people went to the games chose to park closer to the ball park. Well, things started to get crazy last season. The parking lots and garages near the ball park started to charge >$50 and it has a ripple effect: the not-so-close-by parking lots were jacking up the price to ~$30 as well, including the ones near work. Only 1 parking lot sticks with the regular $15 and of course that one got full quite fast (I arrived at 9:45 the other day and almost couldn't get in. They still need to reserve a few spaces for the monthly parker, which I am not)  And it's not just parking. The traffic near the park got busy at that time already but the game wasn't started until 12:30 (or later?) My co-worker who took CalTrain to the city told me the train was jam packed when he was getting to work! That's why I still glad that I drove instead. It would have been crowded on the train back home too. Some riders who left the games were drunk, high or loud (or all of the above) and I wanted to avoid them at all cost. Still, driving away from the city at 3pm could only help so much: the streets outside the ball park was already filled with people leaving the game, less than 3 hours after the game started, in the 7th inning with a 1-1 tie! No way I would call these people true supporters of the team. Why do they even bother to come to the game? Just stay home next time, OK? BTW, it was a really exciting game: the Giants fell behind soon but came back in the bottom of the 9th. Too bad they couldn't win in the end. More home fan support might have helped. Who knows? 

Sports highlight: World Baseball Classic

Not sure if we are one of the very few families in the States that are following this tournament, even after USA was out! Baseball is on the top (tied with several others) of my long long list of favorite sports and I actually paid attention to this "World Cup" for baseball that is played every 4 years. I checked the ticket price when I found out the final 4 will be here in SF but decided $75 was too much (It has been dropped to single digit, reflecting the fact that a lot of American fans simply don't care) We followed both of the last 2 games of USA (in which they just needed to win one and advance to semi) hoping they got some of Giants vibe from last WS (in which they won every elimination game) Giants pitcher Ryan Vogelsong actually started and lost in the final game that eliminated Team USA. I agree with some writers that the team didn't show enough determination to win like their opponents. Playing baseball for national pride is not in our culture, yet. Oh well, now I'm rooting for a Puerto Rico vs Dominican Republic final. These teams do have some big MLB names on their rosters: Yadier Molina, Alex Rios, Angel Pagan, Robinson Cano, Alejandro De Aza and Jose Reyes. (Pagan is from the Giants while Rios and De Aza are from the White Sox)

It's deja vu all over again!

Sports fan would know the title was one of the famous quotes by 金句大師 former Yankee great Yogi Berra. I read some of my old posts and found this from 2010:
1) University of Texas football team lost to Oklahoma that year. Same thing happened in 2012.
2) University of Wisconsin lost to Michigan State. Same in 2012.
3) Will Power couldn't win the IndyCar championship in spite of a good chance entering the final race. Same in 2012.
4) US lost to Europe in Ryder Cup. The 2012 version was worse: US had a huge lead before the final day and blew it.
5) Tiequan Zhang will fight again next week, this time with UFC in Macau. Hope he will win again!
6) Last but not least, SF Giants won NL West (and went on to win the World Series)

[Update:  Turned out Tiequan Zhang didn't win in Macau. Too bad, but at least he was competitive in that fight.]

Sports highlight: the Giants did it again

I posted this two years ago when the SF Giants won the world series and I linked to an insightful article written by Peter Gammons. Of course I am linking to his writeup for the 2012 victory here again. Similar to last time, the Giants' great pitching was a key. With Tim Lincecum struggling as starter in the regular season, his move to the bullpen during the postseason by the management was a brilliant one. There were quite a few key hits from unexpected players in 2010, like Cody Ross and Edgar Renteria. In 2012 they have Marco Scutaro and Ryan Theriot. I guess more things change, more things stay the same. The management has proven they know how to run the organization the right way. Even the big contract offered to Barry Zito was vindicated!

Memories of Yoshi's

Read an article on the Downbeat magazine about the 40th anniversary of Yoshi's. I still remember going to its old location on Claremont Ave in Oakland. And that's where it got started! I guess I qualified as old-timer these days. The most interesting quote came from musician John Santos:

In 2010, we played a show on my birthday at the San Francisco location. That also happened to be the same day the San Francisco Giants won the World Series. The win came just before we went on, so I had the pleasure of announcing that the Giants has won. The crowd went berserk, and we had a party all night. To throw a little numerology in: I was born in 1955, I was turning 55, and my favorite Giants player, Tim Lincecum, was number 55. That night was in the stars. 

Game 5: Giants vs Reds

I didn't start watching baseball until the heydays of the Cincinatti Reds were over. I like some of their players. I also thanked their current manager Dusty Bakers for the success he brought to the Giants when he managed them. However, when it comes to playoff time and playing against the Giants, my loyalty is obvious. This game got me a bit worried, especially with Mat Latos on the mount for the Reds. This pitcher has a long history disliking the Giants. I still remember he practically accused the 2012 Giants for buying the championship when his own team at the time, Padres, did some upgrades mid-season too. Glad to see him appears in the loser column today!

Sports highlights: IndyCar championship, NFL

This was what I wrote about IndyCar last year around the same time: Will Power had the point lead with hopes to win the championship. We all knew the final race of last season was the sad one in which Dan Wheldon lost his life. Will Power was also involved in the same accident and the title went to Dario Franchitti. In the same article I also wrote about 5-time champ Jimmie Johnson not winning that NASCAR race and ended up failing to defend his title. Similarly, this year 4-time champ Dario Franchitti has a down year, who was the major rival of Power. Looks like it's finally the year that Will Power could win it all. On the other hand, his track record on oval, especially for the last race of the season, didn't look good. He crashed 2 years in a row. So, with a point lead going to the final race of the season at Fontana California on 9/15, I was still quite unsure about his chance. Unfortunately, what all Will Power fan worried about, namely, another crash, indeed happened, while he and the eventual champion Ryan Hunter-Reay raced for position. Will Power's car lost control during the turn. Fortunately he didn't get hurt and no other car was involved so basically he lost the championship on his own. The only "saving grace" for IndyCar fan like me was that Hunter-Reay is an American (I also wrote about American not doing well in the sport.) He was the first American winning the championship since Sam Hornish Jr did it in 2006! (Apparently IndyCar was too comfortable for Hornish and he had to moved to NASCAR and endured some hard times there.) Ryan Hunter-Reay really deserved to win. He fought hard after the 2 poor performances late in the season. Even with Will Power crashed, Hunter-Reay still had to move up positions to gain enough points over Power and he did just that. Congratulations to the new champ.

It's September and it also means another new NFL season has started. I have not been a happy NFL fan for a while. However, I still enjoy watching the highlights as most games were still exciting (close games, spectacular plays, etc) It has been a good weekend because:
1) All those talks about 49ers going 16-0 has stopped after they got beaten up by the Vikings.
2) The Cowboys barely defeated the Bucs.
3) On the day former Raider Marcus Allen lighted the ceremonial flame that honored legendary (and controversial) owner Al Davis, the team won one for Al again, beating the mighty Steelers with a last minute field goal. Most people disagree with Davis picking kicker Sebastian Janikowski in the first round but Janikowski has indeed helped the team winning quite a few games. So Al may be right after all.
4) A few other games were also decided by last minute FG, including the Ravens beating the Patriots, the Jets beating the Dolphins (Reggie Bush is not going to be the RB with most yards this season, BTW), the Titans beating the Lions, the Chiefs beating the Saints (I was laughing so hard when the Saint's players cried "Justice! Fairness!" after the suspension of those involved in the bounty-gate was overturned. Going 0-3 is real justice and real karma, man!)

Last but not least, so happy to see the Giants winning another NL West title. They did it with chemistry and without ego.

Sports highlight: 由1993等到2002，等到星期一

講的當然就是新科棒球World Series冠軍三藩市巨人隊。我由92年左右開始追Baseball，看得最多的是Rangers, Astros, Braves, White Sox, Cubs。（前四隊都在近十五年打入決賽。）不過92年球季最令我印象深刻的是當時在Pirates的年輕巨星Barry Bonds，在季後賽對Braves失利無緣打入決賽！此後Bonds加盟巨人隊，由於經常到SF/Oakland遊玩，也漸漸對巨人隊及A's產生好感。該球季初至中段，巨人隊勢不可擋，暑假我在香港，最期待姐姐寄來巨人隊及A's新聞的剪報(Thanks!)，誰知季尾竟然又被Bonds的死敵Braves追過，連季後賽也無法打入！2002年WS Game6功虧一簣，又再次失望。今季不被看好，竟然就是成功的一季。要分析，十萬字也寫不完，還是看專家Peter Gammons吧（我覺得很有見地）

Sports highlights: Iowa, NASCAR, F1, LCS

What a weekend for sports fan like me! The Saturday didn't get off to a good start: Texas was upsetted by Iowa State after upsetting Nebraska the week before. I guess this team is just inconsistent. Wisconsin beat the other Iowa team though, in a really close game. Then came the news that the Giants has finished off the Phillies in Game 6 of the NL Championship Series. Finally, while waiting for the rain-delayed Korean Formula 1 GP, I have time to watch my taped NASCAR Nationwide race, featuring Danica Patrick and Justin Allgaier, who drove very well but couldn't win because of poor pit stops. It's sad to see that he might not get a ride next season. I thought with his good image and talent he should have been signed for the Sprint Cup series for next season already! I heard it has to do with his sponsor (Verizon Wireless) has to drop out because NASCAR has exclusive sponsorship deal with Sprint! BTW, Danica had another solid finish (22nd place)

I have waited and waited for hours for the start of the F1 race. Finally it's green flag and the championship leader Webber crashed with Rosberg and yellow flag flew again. Then I gave up and went to bed. I like the outcome though. With 2 races remaining, the championship is still wide open.

Nothing could have been more surprising than the Oakland Raiders beating up its rival Denver Broncos though. The Raiders was leading 38-0 in the 2nd quarter! I was interested in this game enough that I turned it on while driving (not enough to stay home and watch though)

Finally, I watched another taped NASCAR race. Fell asleep at the 400th lap (out of 500) Again, I like the outcome: Denny Hamlin won and is only 6 points behind 4-time defending champ Jimmie Johnson. So there's no guarantee that JJ will win it all again (boring!) but I think he's still the favourite (BTW, I read some fans comment that NASCAR helped JJ to win by choosing race tracks that favors him last week. I don't agree at all. JJ was simply GOOD! Last week he spun and got a flat tire. He didn't panic at all. All he did was patiently got in and out of the pit and gradually move up to the front again. I haven't seen another driver like that. Not even Jeff Gordon today)

Sports highlights (and lowlights): football, auto racing, baseball and golf

It has not been a very good weekend because almost every team/player I rooted for lost:
Texas losing to Oklahoma was kinda expected but they dropped out of Top 25 for the first time since 2000!
Wisconsin losing to Michigan State was not too surprising because they usually had a good start and then start losing to some semi-decent teams.
Will Power losing the IndyCar Racing League championship was not too surprising either given his not-too-great performances on the oval. It was disappointing to see his car hitting the wall and was not even able to finish the race.
As far as US losing the Ryder Cup to Europe is concerned, I wasn't even sure which team was the favourite. I was glad that Tiger won a few of his matches though. Give him some time and he will be back.
I didn't feel too bad to see St. Kilda losing the Aussie Rule Football grand final to Collingwood because I didn't root for either of them. It was just that the loss was too lopsided.
Man U didn't lose, but tying Sunderland while Chelsea beat Arsenal equalled to 2 points loss in the standing.
For a while I thought the Giants would suffer the same fate. In fact, they lost the first two games of the San Diego series to pave way to the dramatic finish: winning the division by winning the last game of the regular season! It was their first title since 2003. To be honest, before the season starts, it's hard to predict them to win without a premier hitter, which make this title an even bigger achievement!
Another exciting event was Chinese fighter made history in MMA in US. Tiequan Zhang, nicknamed the Mongolian Wolf, won his debut fight in WEC in US. Wish him more success!

Sports highlights: Green, Zito and Allgaier

Barry Zito beat his former team, the A's, for the first time on Sat, and has now defeated every MLB team, which I think is quite an achievement! According to Sportsnet Central, his record was 109-6 when he has 4 or more run support. His overall record for the current reason is 7-2. So, I feel bad for rooting against him in his down years as a Giant. He might not deserve that huge contract but he probably deserves more credit than given to him.

I think giving English goalie, Robert Green, a green jersey for the England vs. USA world cup match was a big mistake. He didn't need the constant reminder for his inexperience. Maybe the Apple Daily analyst is right: the best goalie on this team is worse than the worst one on the German team.

I don't have much time to watch sports this weekend but I did catch the NASCAR Nationwide race. Can you believe a pro racer would shift to a wrong gear? Well, Justin Allgaier did that in his #12 car by shifting from 2nd to 1st when he meant to shift to 3rd! Too bad 'coz he could have done much better than finishing 8th.

Finally, a big applause to NBC for broadcasting the first ever NCAA Rugby 7 championship. I think they did a good job in educating the audiences about the game. I have been watching for almost a year but still learned a great deal. Congrat to the Utah Utes for upsetting the Cal Bears in OT and won it all. What an exciting game!

Star of the day: Barry Zito

The Giants have a pitcher who beat the reigning World Series MVP, Cole Hamels. In fact, he has won as many games and has a better ERA as Hamels. Who would that be? Our former Cy Young winner of course!

Star of the day: Jonathan Sanchez

He is the first Giant pitcher who pitched a no-hitter since 1976! And he is not among the top 4 pitchers on the team. What a confidence boost for him! Go Sanchez. (And his dad should come visit him more. This is the first time he saw him pitching here.)