world series 2012

World Series 2012 starts tomorrow night at AT&T Field in San Francisco, California. The Giants missed the playoffs last year after winning the World Series in 2010, the club's first since moving from Manhattan in 1958. Historically, the club is one of the most decorated in all of baseball. The team has won 22 National League pennants and appeared in 19 World Series, while sending more players to the Hall Of Fame than any other team.  They also boast  five World Series championships, tying them with the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers for second in the National League behind the St. Louis Cardinals, who were just dispatched from this years playoffs by these very Giants. Great players have came and went, from player-manager John McGraw, superstar Willie Mays to Hall of Fame knuckleballer Hoyt Wilhelm. Then it happened. The end of the golden age of New York baseball, and New York was a one team town until 1962 when the Mets came in as an expansion franchise. Team owners were originally looking at moving to Bloomington, Minnesota, home of their farm team, but in favour of maintaining the rivalry with the Dodgers who were in the middle of negotiations at the same time to move to Los Angeles, the Giants announced they were relocating to the Bay Area. 

Things looked good early on in San Fran, with Orlando Cepeda and Willie McCovey winning back to back Rookie of the Year honours, a new field, Candlestick Park, opening up after two years playing in the home of the San Francisco Seals (a Red Sox PCL affiliate) and appearing in the 1962 World Series. It was after a great pennant race with the hated Dodgers, then they faced off against a familiar foe: the New York Yankees. The Yankees triumphed in seven games over their former neighbours and that would be that last time the Giants reached the World Series until 1989. The earthquake series. The 89 Giants had a powerful offence with the likes of Will Clark, Kevin Mitchell and Matt Williams but they had a patchwork pitching staff, using 15 different starters throughout the season. Manager Roger Craig led the team to their second World Series appearance since moving to California after dispatching the Chicago Cubs in the NLCS  in five games. With their Bay Area rival Oakland A's taking the first two games in Oakland, the scene shifted to San Francisco. Then during the pre-game warmups, about a half hour before first pitch there was a major earthquake in the San Francisco area, making it the first major earthquake ever broadcast on television due to the telecast already on live for game 3. Houses were destroyed, highways and bridges collapsed and it took ten days for the World Series to continue, where the A's completed the sweep of the Giants. Here's the clip of the game 3 earthquake telecast:

They played another Cali rival their next World Series in 2002, the Anaheim Angels. This time the Giants beat the Mets in the LCS before ultimately falling to the Angels in 7 games. The Giants outscored the Angels in total runs over the series because of huge offensive numbers by Barry Bonds and Jeff Kent. Enter the 2010 team. A young pitching staff with some great veterans manning the positions. The staff was anchored by 2 time Cy Young award winner Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain, Madison Bumgarner, and Jonathan Sanchez (all but Sanchez remain with the team for this years run). Edgar Renteria, Cody Ross and Bengie Molina took care of enough offence for San Francisco to trump the Texas Rangers in five games for their first championship in San Francisco. The 2012 edition of the team boasts 12 (13 if you count the injured closer Brian Wilson) holdovers from the 2010 championship team, and should have enough pitching to defeat the Tigers in 7 games (although chalk up at least 2 wins for Detroit when Verlander is on the hill). GO GIANTS!

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Their American League counterpart Detroit Tigers had an  easier road to the Series after sweeping the New York Yankees in their League Champioship Series. The Tigers have won the World Series 4 times, the most recently being in 1984. The Detroit Tigers were a charter member of the AL and along with the Red Sox, White Sox, and Indians they still are in their original city. The Tigers found success early on during the early 1900s with the fearless (and mean) Ty Cobb leading the Tigers to the World Series three straight seasons from 1907-1909. The Tigers ultimately lost all three series, two to the Cubs and one to the Pirates. The team played well through the remainder of Cobb's run as player and later as manager, including a 100 win second place campaign in 1915 to the 101 win Red Sox but a World Series championship still escaped them. After losing the 1934 Series to the Cardinals, the Tigers finally won it all in 1935 with a lineup that featured four future Hall Of Famers. They were world champions once again ten years later, 1945, when a World War II depleted lineup beat the Cubs (the last time they were in the World Series) in seven games. The Tigers suffered through many subpar years, then a heart breaking one game second place finish behind Boston again in 1967 before being crowned champs again in 1968. 

Then their last championship, the 'Roar Of 84' came about after destroying the competition in the AL East, finishing a remarkable 15 games ahead of the second place Toronto Blue Jays. The Tigers steam rolled over the Kansas City Royals in 3 games to advance to the World Series against the San Diego Padres, marking their franchises first appearance in the big dance. Tigers starter Jack Morris threw two complete games in games 1 and 4, and Alan Trammell and Krik Gibson each had two home run games to lead the charge in Detroits  five game Series victory. Game 5 was the last World Series game played at that old nightmare Tiger Stadium and the Tigers last appearance in the Series until 2006 where the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Tigers 4 games to 1. 

The acquisition of Prince Fielder in the offseason made a team that already had reigning Cy Young Award Winner/MVP Justin Verlander and Triple Crown Winner Miguel Cabrera made them World Series contenders since Opening Day. They started off slow, with the White Sox leading the AL Central for most of the season, before playing hard down the stretch (coupled with a White Sox collapse) to win the Central by 3 games. The faced a tough Oakland team before dismantling the New York Yankees in the LCS. They will be facing the best pitching they have seen in the playoffs. This is the first time the Tigers and Giants have met in the playoffs, despite their lengthy baseball lineage, and I think we are in for a terrific Series!

GAME 1: OCT 24, 8 PM @ SAN FRANCISCO

GAME 2: OCT 25, 8 PM @ SAN FRANCISCO

GAME 3: OCT 27, 8 PM @ DETROIT

GAME 4: OCT 28, 8 PM @ DETROIT

GAME 5: OCT 29, 8 PM @ DETROIT (if necessary)

GAME 6: OCT 31, 8 PM @ SAN FRANCISCO (if necessary)

GAME 7: NOV 01, 8 PM @ SAN FRANCISCO (if necessary)

GIANTS ROSTER

TIGERS ROSTER

news feeds oct 22

Tonight is the third and final debate leading up to the November election between  incumbent Barack and challenger Mitt Romney is what has already been dubbed "Get It On In Boca Raton," named after a popular local slogan. Obama was much better prepared for the second town hall style debate after being shown up pretty bad at the first one. The third one they will be sitting at a table with moderator Bob Schieffer (CBS News) acting as referee. The key issues will be on foreign policy (in particular current situation in Libya and Iran) with most experts saying Barack to have an edge on the issue since incumbents have access to more privileged intelligence and get more comp trips than senators. If you can peel yourself away from the Bears and Lions Monday Nighter game then take in a minute or two of the debate. Or switch over to the Giants and Cardinals game.

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If you use AT&T, Cablevision, Comcast, Time Warner or Verizon as your internet provider and you enjoy downloading episode of Seinfeld via Bit Torrent, you could be getting a threatening letter. That's right.. after years of trying to impose legislature against illegal downloads, they have taken their first step. First time offenders get a mild warning which also includes information to steer the guilty party away from a life of crime (what? really?). After the 'educational' phase of the warnings, if material is still downloaded illegally then they slow (throttle) your internet connection down so you can't download large files. Terminating the internet service to a customer does still appear unlikely however since copyright infringement is alright so long as you don't miss paying the bill by two days (in which case it will be promptly cancelled.)

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I had to make sure that I finished the entire series of Peep Show (seven seasons) before November 9th since, hallelujah, there is going to be a new season debuting on that very day. The show is basically a take on old Odd Couple premise with David Mitchell's Mark Corrigan playing Jack Lemmon's Felix, and Robert Webb's Jez (Jeremy) playing Walter Matthau's Oscar. Throw in the best bits of the British version of The Office (after all Mark works in a similar work place, JLB Credit), and constant interior thoughts of the two main characters and you have absolute comedy gold. From pee dripping through floorboards at a wedding, to eating a semi-charred dog or even helping a bandmate score some crack this is definitely one of the funniest shows I have ever seen. Again, season 8 starts November 9!

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Say it ain't so Lance! I have tried to years to always take him at his word. He seemed honest enough, and you always seem to have sympathy for a man with one testicle. It appears the evidence is stacked too highly against him, and in the wake of him stepping down from his own charity, being stripped of his Tour De France titles and losing his endorsements, his credibility seems to have been blown to hell. Too bad, he was a real source of inspiration for, well for people looking for that sort of thing in a cyclist. "Lance Armstrong has no place in cycling and he deserves to be forgotten in cycling," said Pat McQuaid, the president of the Union Cycliste Internationale. Remember Lance's scene in the movie Dodgeball? It was great.

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The Red Sox have gotten their man, finally. After their worst record since the 60s, Boston axed skipper Bobby Valentine after one nightmarish season. John Farrell had been Boston pitching coach prior to being named as Blue Jays manager before the 2011 season. Boston had tried to hire him before this season but the Blue Jays were reluctant to let him go to a divisional rival. But after the Jays had a season almost as bad as the Red Sox (and with just one year left on Farrell's contract) Jays GM Alex Anthopolous was more open to the lateral divisional more and picked up Mike Aviles from Boston as compensation. Farrell pitched for the Indians, Angels, and Tigers over his seven year career cut short by injury. Welcome back to Boston, John!

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The American League champion Detroit Tigers are waiting to see whether they are headed to St. Louis or San Francisco for the start of the World Series on Wednesday night. Game 7 of the NLCS between the Giants and Cardinals goes tonight in San Francisco to see who gets to represent the National League in a face-off again the powerful Tigers. Pitching for the Giants tonight is ace Matt Cain facing off against St. Louis Cardinals' right-hander Kyle Lohse who, over 18 innings has given up four runs of a tidy ERA of 1.96 while Cain's number show he's been roughed up a bit more to the tune of 9 earned runs allowed over 17 innings. First pitch is tonight at 8:07 at AT&T Park.  In a semi-related note: Remember the season Melky Cabrera was having for the Giants? He was leading the league in batting average and was the All Star Game MVP then he got a 50 game suspension by the MLB, and despite eligibility to be reinstated, he was left off the Giants playoff roster. The interesting part is that his heroics in the All Star Game guaranteed home field advantage for the National League champions, possibly the Giants. So he's even helping them while not being in the line-up. That's a dynamic player. Just saying..

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There's no hockey on. We know that. One year ago tonight, was a night the Leafs played the Canadiens in Montreal and Toronto won 5-4 on a gorgeous goal by Grabovski in overtime. Other Leaf scorers were David Steckel, Phil Kessel, Dion Phaneuf and Nik Kulemin. Anyways, here is some highlights from the game for a mild hockey fix.

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