Throw it from the mound

I have a few pet peeves in life and one of them is throwing the ceremonial first pitch from in front of the mound. One good thing you could say about former President Bush is that he threw his first pitches from the rubber. Obama made his left-handed pitch from the rubber as well.

If you ever get the chance, be sure to throw from the rubber.

Is it Fenway or Dodger Stadium?

I spent a fantastic week in Boston and one of the better experiences was going to see the Red Sox play the Rangers on a cool Friday night. The old ball park is a great experience and the Sox have done a great job giving it a true "throwback" flair. The signs are crisp and clear but still have a 50's decor. The brick is pretty and the Monster looks good as new. I'd been told the ballpark felt really old and was quite dirty, but other than the fading paint on my wooden chairs, it was very well maintained and a fun place to watch a game.

However, I was disturbed by the sense that this was another Dodger stadium:

1) They both have organs. I still can't get behind these things. Old timers love them, but I'm clearly not an old timer. I just don't get excited by hearing "When you're happy and you know it clap your hands" at a baseball game. I love churches with organs but not ballparks with them.
2) They both have beach balls bouncing up the stands (but not onto the field on Friday). It seems like every Dodger game has a few 1 minute beach ball stops.
3) They both have the wave (some view this as cool for football, but clear a mistake in a baseball stadium)
4) Fans come late and leave early in both places. I was surprised how many empty seats there were at first pitch and last pitch. Granted, it was raining and the Sox lost 5-1 in a game that wasn't as close as the score would make it sound.

Fenway had a lot of vendors, selling everything from chowdah to hot dogs. We were on the aisle, and it was hard to see past all the people running up and down the walk way. I loved the walk ways on the roads leading into the stadium and the positive vibes all the Sox fans had. They cheered passionately for slumping star David Ortiz every time he came up to the plate. Barry Zito doesn't quite get the same positive support. The scoreboard in the Green Monster is seriously cool.

To be honest, I also love Dodger Stadium (other than the 4 points mentioned above), so any true baseball fan needs to make their pilgrimages to both ballparks.

Giants Year-in-Review: 2008

Now that we've had some time for the accomplishments and failures of the 2008 baseball season to soak in (and that it look like the Dodgers are on their way out of the postseason), lets take a look at the 2008 season.

Two goals were not accomplished, Bary Zito did not lose 20 games and the team did not lose 100 games. Zito got his act together in the second half and pitched like a serviceable 3-4 starter. The team, inspired by Pablo Sandoval, played very well in the second half of the season to finish with 72-90 record, or about 10 games better than I could have hoped. Perhaps I underestimated how hard it is to lose 100 games, even San Diego only lost 99 games.

Given my low expectations, I have to call this season a success. The Giants played 24 rookies, many of whom were rushed to the big leagues from the low minors. Much of the Giant's tallent still lives in the low minors so the end of next year should also be a good chance to see more tallented guys coming up. A good number of the rookies will see significant time next year.

Offense: The offense severely lacked a lot of things. The Giants were 14th (of 16 teams) in the NL in on base percentage, 15th in runs scored, 15th in slugging precentage. They were the only team in the majors that did not hit 100 home runs and the next lowest homerun total for a team hit 17 more bombs than the Giants. The preception that the team used its speed well is also a bit incorrect as the Giants, lacking any great base stealers on a team with a lot of fast guys, only had a 70.1% stolen base percentage (effective stealing is around 80%).

Power makes up for a lot of problems with an offsense, but from what I've shown you above, they also need to find good on-base guys. AT&T Park is a tough place to hit homeruns, but the Giants are going to have to do better. They are more than "one bat" away from having a solid lineup. Prince Fielder or Mark Teixeira would help a lot, but they won't be able to carry the whole offense.

Pitching: The pitching was 9th in the NL in ERA, 2nd in strikeouts, 12th in WHIP (because they allowed the 2nd most walks in the league), and 8th in runs allowed. I can imagine those numbers would be a lot worse without Tim Lincecum's unbelievable year. The media rightfully so blames the poor bullpen performance as one of the key areas of weakness for the Giants, but it would also be nice to have a 5th starter.

One through 4, the Giants have a good if not great rotation. Zito makes a good 3 and Sanchez is a flakey 4 who has flashes of brilliance. The fifth spot is a big hole, which will get bigger if the Giants trade Cain for a serious bat. Looks like its a good thing the Giants didn't trade Lincecum for Rios last winter.

The bullpen has a lot of work to do. I think it is tough to break young guys in in the bullpen, and the Giants certainly did that, calling up all sorts of parts from Fresno to pitch the 6th-8th. Romo has earned a spot in the bullpen for next year, but other than that things are a mixed bag. Hinshaw and Sadler walk too many people (29 in 39.2 innings and 27 in 44 respectively) to be dependable bullpen guys (who by definition must come in and throw strikes). In spite what everyone says, I'm still not a big Brian Wilson fan (1.44 WHIP, .263 BAA). Thats not to say he's a lot better than some of the guys they've had in there recently, he's just no Joe Nathan. That being said, he has a strong upside and I hope he can keep anchoring the back of the Giants bullpen.

Keep in mind as you see offseason moves that relief pitching is a crapshoot. Many relievers are effected by their previous years workload. Robb Nen would alternate average and exceptional years, even in his prime. I'm not a fan of ever giving big contracts to relievers, especially not 7th and 8th inning guys (see Scott Eyre). That being said, the Giants need to add one veteran relief pitcher who can fill a 7th-8th inning role and mentor the young arms.

So all things considered, I think the Giants are in as good a position now as I could have hoped. The offense was as bad as I thought they would be, but the Giants managed to win a lot of close games. Things will only be better next year as the younger players get more seasoned.

Age, its always too high or too low

We all know there are two things in live that are inevitable, getting older and being worried about getting older. However, this is not always the case. There are lots of times in your life you wish you were older.

1) In high school, before you leave high school.
2) In college before you turn 21. Probably don't need to explain this one.
3) If you are a Chinese gymnast at the Olympics. It would have been great to be 16, but I think things turned out just fine anyway. There is nothing better than a government issued fake-ID! They should buy the whole world a round.

That being said, getting older isn't all it is cracked up to be. There is also a list of timesit would be great to be younger.

1) When you go to a birthday party for anyone over the age of 29.
2) On Broadway, to be in the Spring Awakening cast, you have to be under 24 because you are supposed to look like a teenager. I can say, I wasn't really fooled into thinking anyone up there was 16, but I guess this is another time to fudge your name to get a big role on the Great White Way. No sleep in Heaven, or Bethlehem for those over 24!
3) In the Little League World Series. I thought we had laws against exploiting children, but I guess we make an exception if they are playing baseball or spelling long words. Anyway, there is no way that every kid on every team is under age 12, unless most 12-year-olds are 5 feet tall. Yeah fake birth-certificates created by parents abusing their kids!
4) Staying in the sporting world, if you want to play in the Majors, it helps to be 16 instead of 19. So this is another great chance to use your little brother's birth certificate. Miguel Tejada is a good example of "age doctoring". Heck, I'd do that too if it meant I could get of an island and go to the US.

Until there is a way to cut off someone's finger and count the rings, people will always be lying about their ages. I guess after we figure out how to do drug testing, we can figure out how to do age testing. The moral of the story is that you will never be happy with your age, so you will be happiest if you learn to enjoy each of life's ages in spite of its failures.