Jaybird's Jottings

The Power of Baseball Blogging

Whether one writes or reads baseball blogs, it is undeniable that baseball blogging has revolutionized the way that baseball is approached and viewed. The massive amounts of information have helped to propel baseball into a new era of discussion and analysis, both at the fan end of the spectrum and at the baseball operations end of the spectrum. - By Evan Brunell, MVN, The Last Page, The Power of Blogging

Although this article isn’t anything new if you are a baseball blogger or junkie reader, and there’s the irony that because of blogs, ESPN is a site I no longer read, Evan Brunnel’s piece is definitely worth checking out.

I'm also glad David Pinto's blog, Baseball Musings, got a well-deserved mention. He does an excellent job as a one stop shopping for articles of interest and in fact, is how I found this article.

As far as what’s ahead with baseball blogging, I’d like to see more blogs that cover the history of the game. From what I have seen, there are very few out there.

A history blog could really find a niche. From my experience of talking with SABR members, I know there’s a number of them who possess specialized knowledge of some aspect of baseball history. My guess as to why these folks don’t blog is that they are intimidated by the technology and the writing aspect of it.

My advice is don’t be. While having scanned items, photos, graphs, polls and video are a growing aspect with some blogs, the written word, for the most part, is still the most valuable player.

History blogs face the challenge of not being able to write every day. But if you have something interesting to say, you'll get some readers.

Giants Memories: Chuck Nan

I’m very pleased to provide a “Giants Memories” from Chuck Nan. He is the Sports Editor of the Martinez News-Gazette and the author of The San Francisco Giants: Fifty Years by the Bay.

Chuck Nan

I remember my father listening to the San Francisco Giants on their flagship station KSFO 560, in the mid 1960s. The voices of Russ Hodges and Lon Simmons were so appealing. Their deep sound resonance was mesmerizing at times. They conveyed the essence of the game. Even though I had never been to a game, I used my imagination. That was the beauty of those classic Hall-of-Fame announcers and their style. They made the game pleasant to listen to.

Many nights I would fall asleep listening to games with my transistor radio going. When the Giants didn’t play, I would tune in to the Dodgers broadcast with Vin Scully. He is another one of the all-time greats.

I grew up just 10 minutes from Candlestick Park. I was very fortunate that I could hop in the car pretty much any time I wanted to and walk-up and buy a box seat ticket from virtually any game. That was due to the fact that the stadium was cursed with swirling winds, at times, that could really cut to the bone. Most night games were absolutely horrible. Day games were very comfortable most of the time.

My grandfather and father took me to my first game at Candlestick Park in 1970. The Giants played the St. Louis Cardinals and lefty Steve Carlton was pitching for the Red Birds. The sights, the sounds and the aroma of a professional baseball game. It was magical for a young 10 year-old.

Going to several games each season from my youth, into adolescence and into young adulthood, I was hooked immediately. The whole atmosphere was fun and appealing. This was the old days, when the game was the main reason for going to the park. There weren’t all of the peripheral activities, food courts and “kiddie” things to draw fans in. It was just the game. When I was old enough, I purchased season-tickets and have maintained them most of my adult life.

My mother is a passionate Giants fan. She was a casual fan her whole life. She would go to games with the family or even with me. I would never dream of her taking public transportation to Candlestick Park. However, when the Giants moved to AT&T Park, she absolutely fell in love with it. She now shares my season-tickets with me. It is very safe for her to take the San Francisco Muni to the game.

My wife is a big baseball fan. However, Giants fans throughout the world need to forgive me, as I married a Dodger fan. I know, I know…Enough said. She enjoys going to ballgame with me, as well.

I have always looked at and still do at being a Giants fan as enhancing three aspects of my life. Following them and the game of baseball is an outlet, intellectually stimulating and relaxing. The beauty of baseball is that there is no time limit or clock. You get to start fresh and anew each day.

Watching, listening or attending a game challenges my imagination, as well as, bring back memories of yesteryear and keeping them fresh in my mind. It is a very rejuvenating experience. I can really relax and forget about any problems that I may have or what is happening in the world, for that period of time.

Baseball is also a hobby for me, as I like to read about history, evolution, and records associated with the game. I have also met close friends and many acquaintances through being associated with baseball. It allows me to couple my favorite spectator sport with my gift of writing together in newspaper articles, short stories and even a newly published book. I like to describe myself as an ambassador of the game.

The Giants are an institution for the community of the Bay Area. For me, they are like that friend that you have had since childhood. There is parallel growth from your own childhood as you grow in age and the team is forever growing and changing too. Sometimes in life, you hit roadblocks, challenges and difficult times. The team experiences that to. The Giants are a living, breathing icon. You can focus as much or as little time, emotion and money as you want. It can and does fluctuate.

There is nothing like getting to the game when the park first opens and there are very few people around. It is very tranquil. We are spoiled with water right there and the gorgeous views of the Bay and bridge and more.

I get to see the other side of things, behind the scenes in the clubhouse, manager’s office and more. This bridges the gap between being a fan and media. I maintain professionalism and try to be neutral. My professional approach is different as a fan. I leave my personal feelings and opinions aside.

Who are your favorite players?

Willie McCovey: The most feared hitter of his generation, even more than Mays. He was the player who you wanted at the plate in clutch situations.

Bobby Bonds: Came onto the scene and was one of the first power-speed players. He was amazing to watch as he flew around the bases and covered ground in the outfield.

Will Clark: If I were a player, this is exactly the way I would be. True grit and style. Lacked an off-season training program which did not help prolong his career and avoid injury.

Omar Vizquel: The classiest player I have ever been around. He is the true professional and an example that all players should strive to be like.

Who are you favorite announcers?

Russ Hodges, Lon Simmons, Bill King, Jon Miller. Hall-of-Famers or HOF to be. They were all great and made a game interesting and grabbed your attention and helped pass the time.

Favorite seasons?

1971: “The Year of the Fox.” The aging Giants made one last push and won the Western Division without a 20-game winner or a .300 hitter. New rookies also contributed to the effort. Unfortunately, they fell short against the eventual champions Pittsburgh Pirates.

1978: The team was revitalized by a late Spring Training trade with the Oakland Athletics in which they acquired Vida Blue. He had a presence and injected the team with new energy. He combined with Knepper and Montefusco as the team came from nowhere to make a push.

1986: Will Clark and Robby Thompson came from Single-A ball and made the team. These two unexpected stars helped the team to contention. Manager Roger Craig, the “Humm Baby” turned the ship around for better days in the future.

1987: The team made some acquisitions and won the Western Division. Perhaps an even deeper team than the Pennant winning team of 1989, they lost the NLCS to the Cardinals, after holding a 3-2 series advantage.

1989: Finally, 27 years of waiting over. The Giants dominated and defeated the Chicago Cubs to get to the World Series. Unfortunately, the A’s had Stewart and Company. The earthquake hit and changed everything. I really felt we had a chance in Game 3. The delay allowed Oakland to start Stewart in Game 3 and Oakland went on to sweep. I wish they put an asterisk in the books after the two games and left it at that.

1993: Magical. The team signed Barry Bonds. The trio of Bonds, Clark and Matt Williams was dominant. The pitching staff boasted two 20-game winners, John Burkett and Billy Swift. They won 103 games and fell one game short in the NL West. The Braves won 104, after a torrid stretch run. The Giants had a chance in the very last game at Los Angeles, 12-1 and the season was over (no Wild Card).

2002: We all felt confidence after Game 5 when the Giants took a 3-2 series advantage. After six innings in Game 6, 5-0 lead, nine outs to go. Then disappointment and despair. This is really hard to deal with, even today. When you realize how hard it is to get through the playoff rounds, to even get to the Series, you wonder if they will ever hoist the trophy.

Favorite/memorable games?

All at home.

#1: Thursday, October 24, 2002 (Pacific Bell Park): Giants defeat the Angels 16-4 and take a 3-2 lead in the World Series

#2: Monday, October 9, 1989 (Candlestick Park): Will Clark singles to center field and drives in two runs to give the Giants the lead and ultimately the win and NL Pennant against the Cubs.

#3: Thursday, September 18, 1997 (Candlestick Park): Reserve catcher Brian Johnson leads off the bottom of the 12th-inning with a home run and the Giants defeat the Dodgers 6-5 and takeover first-place in the NL West.

#4: Thursday, August 10, 1989 (Candlestick Park): Dave Dravecky returns from cancer and pitches 8innings and defeats the Cincinnati Reds 4-3.

#5: Tuesday, October 17, 1989 (Candlestick Park): EARTHQUAKE! Thought I was going to die. The World Series game versus Oakland game was never played on this night and was postponed for almost two weeks until the Bay Area could recover from the devastation.

Honorable Mention: Any night game during the summer at Candlestick Park. You froze you butt off. That is memorable…almost frostbite.

Biggest thrill?

Catching a foul ball on Saturday, September 2, 1978 (Candlestick Park) Pitcher: Larry Christenson, Batter: Terry Whitfield. I was seated in Section 1, Upper Deck, First Row.

Any game with Will Clark playing.

Watching Hall-of-Famers Mays, McCovey, Marichal and Perry play, although in the latter parts of their careers, as a youngster.

Being at any game with my father (now deceased), mother or my wife.

Favorite sections to watch the games?

Candlestick Park: First-base side, Section 103, first few rows.

AT&T Park: Section 121, just to the left side of home plate, down low in the first couple of rows.

What qualities of the Giants appeal to you?

History and Tradition: The greats who have played for the franchise and their countless number of feats
and accomplishments.

Trailblazers: The emergence of the Latin American ballplayers, pioneered by the Giants. Such players as Cepeda and Marichal.

Competition: Watching players, no matter what their age, compete to be the best.

Annual Meeting of the Bob Davids Chapter

I attended the 33rd Annual Meeting of the Bob Davids Chapter (Washington-Baltimore) today in Rosslyn. The chapter is the oldest in SABR and is one of the most active. The get together was the usual great stuff. For the third straight year, over 100 members attended. The lineup of speakers has always been excellent but some members wondered when we would get a major league player.

Enter Mike Cubbage who played from 1974 to 1981 with the Rangers, Twins, and Mets. He also served as a major league manager, coach and scout. The Virginia native, drafted by the Washington Senators in the second round of the 1971 amateur draft, entertained the group with tales from the big leagues. One story involved Gaylord Perry, his teammate on the ’75 Rangers. Part of Perry's welcome kit was a jar of Vaseline. The spitballer's reply was, “That’s a two-hit shutout.”

Home run expert David Vincent (he serves as the Nationals official scorer) gave a presentation on some controversies and “bad history” surrounding home runs throughout major league history. Details will come in his much anticipated book, Home Run, The Definitive History of Baseball's Ultimate Weapon (Available in March). I was thrilled to learn it will cover 19th Century home runs.

Dave also reminded us that four sluggers are within reach of the coveted 500 HR mark (Frank Thomas 487, Jim Thome 472, Manny Ramirez 470, ARod, 464).

Brad Snyder, author of A Well Paid Slave: Curt Flood's Fight for Free Agency in Professional Sports, gave an insightful talk on Flood’s comeback in 1971 with the Washington Senators. Flood was experiencing major personal problems and fled the team. Snyder’s book is getting rave reviews. He's also a super person to talk to. He remembered me from a conversation we had three years ago.

Barry Sparks talked about his book Frank "Home Run" Baker. Giants fans need no reminding on Baker, who earned his nickname by hitting heroic homers against the Giants in the 1911 World Series. Sparks's book has also gotten good reviews for its depth of research.

Vintage baseballers Richard D’Amrisi and and Scott Rogers, who brought along their old time bats and balls, discussed their vintage baseball team, the Chesapeake and Potomac Base Ball Club. They play with the recreated uniforms and equipment of the 1860s, as well as by those rules. Clay Davenport wrote a nice piece on a game he umpired this past October.

I talked with Rogers about the almost total lack of attention 19th Century players get at the major league ballparks. His thought is the owners have a lot on their agendas and something like this is low priority. I agreed with him on that and he agreed with me when I said it’s probably also a lack of knowledge on their part.

During lunch, members mingled and caught up. Gary Sarnoff, who I met at last year's event, is at the writing process for his book on the 1933 Washington Senators. Giants fans will enjoy this one as it’s the year Mel Ott hit the Series winning home run in Game Five.

I also had the pleasure of meeting Colin Mills of the Nats Fan Club. They will host a get together this Saturday at 1 pm. After the initial business, the group will walk down and tour the Nationals' new ballpark site to see the construction progress.

Another person I met was Erik Synnestvedt. He and Ken Arnold, who played nine years on the farms of the Cubs, Orioles, and Rangers, are mike men at High and Inside, a baseball podcast. I listened to one of their programs and it is one of the better quality ones I’ve heard. It comes with a nice touch of humor and focuses on players and prospects.

Looking to the future, the Bob Davids Chapter is in the running for hosting SABR's 2009 National Convention. Also in the running is Philadelphia and San Diego. The Board will make an announcement in late July.

I’m sure Philly and San Diego are making great cases with their new parks. But I know our chapter is too. The Nats and O's might even be competitive by then.

More Than Just the Ol’ Ball Game

Owners of teams are faced with the question of how they expand their revenues and they are looking overseas, in every corner of their parks and in every related area of their business operations. The business of baseball is growing in revenues and it also is changing in a dramatic fashion. - Fred Claire, Baseball Perspectives, MLB.com

Maury Brown provides a link today to an article by Fred Claire. MLB has hired him for a Baseball Perspectives gig at mlb.com. Claire’s article touches on ways owners are expanding revenue. The Yankees, Red Sox and Giants are featured.

Mays Field hosting various non-baseball events is nothing new to Giants fans but you might find it interesting that the Polo Grounds hosted a wide variety of events. In his book, Land of the Giants, Stew Thornley lists pro and college football, (Notre Dame’s famed Four Horsemen played there in 1924), boxing matches (82,000 attended the 1923 title fight between Dempsey and Firpo), Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Show (at the original Polo Grounds), an International Winter Sports Carnival, music acts, religious rallies, grand opera, soccer, track and field, racing, lacrosse, basketball, ice skating, dog racing and a few more I'm sure I missed.

Looks like Magowan and Co. have a long way to go to match that!

Clark and Cain

At the Hardball Times, Dave Studeman has Part Two of his Historical Win Shares Above Bench, players 41 – 80. Will Clark comes in at number 73. Studeman notes, "The "Clark for Hall" case isn't ironclad by any means, but it's very strong."

Patrick Sullivan at The Baseball Analysts also has a second part for his Last Impressions Are Lasting Impressions series. Of Matt Cain he writes,

He's 22 and one of the most valuable commodities in baseball - a young pitcher with years of cheap service time ahead of him. The San Francisco Giants, and in particular their General Manager Brian Sabean, may have a reputation for assembling old teams but Cain is one of the best young players, position or hurlers, in all of baseball. I look for Cain to be a Cy Young candidate in 2007.

Other than that, it's cold in these parts and I am so ready for baseball.

Giants Fan Bequests $30,000 to SABR

Historians have done an excellent job of writing about the game of baseball. Every year we get more and more great books and research on a wide array of topics. One area that hasn’t gotten a lot of coverage is the fans. For one thing, there is not much coverage about individuals and their history as a fan.

The Giants have had and have some great fans. One was William B. James of Sacramento. He passed away in November 2004 at the age of 73. According to this note at SABR,

His baseball interests were focused primarily on the San Francisco Seals and the Pacific Coast League. A lifelong bachelor, he held San Francisco Giants season tickets for many years, and when he could not attend the games, he listened or watched every Giants game keeping score along the way.

James’s love of the game did not end when he passed away. He bequested a sum of over $30,000 to SABR. The Board of Directors is considering ways to use the gift. One possibility would be to establish funding for research into the history of fans.

Whatever path is chosen, SABR will do the right thing. It’s made up of caring individuals, past and present, like William B. James.

Happy Fourth to “Near Southeast DC Redevelopment” Blog

Perhaps never before in the history of baseball has anyone documented the construction of a major league ballpark and the surrounding area better than Jacqueline Dupree. The terms “chockfull” and “much, much more” are more than just hyperbole at her wonderful site, "Near Southeast DC Redevelopment." With news updates, commentary, local reporting, photos and links, she provides a great service to those who can’t get enough (me! me!) of what’s happening at Potomac and First, site of the Nationals' new ballpark in downtown D.C.

Yesterday JD celebrated her fourth year of blogging the ever-growing stadium and area. In addition to everything else she provides at her site, be sure and browse through her new photos of the park that are juxtaposed with the counterpart rendering. Additionally, click on the squares icon to see all photos that are available of that location. You can also browse using her new intersection map.

JD, thanks. I would say I am your biggest fan but I know there’s a legion that would say they are. We all thank you and look forward to your continuing coverage.

Happy Fourth!

Giants and Indians Together Again

The history of spring training is a history of wooing. In 1946, Cleveland owner Bill Veeck asked Giants’ owner Horace Stoneham to join him in a move of their camps to Arizona. In the first of many sunny meetings, the two clubs played each other on March 8, 1946 at Hi Corbett Field in Tucson. The Cactus League was born.

In the late 1980s, Florida lured the Indians from Tucson to Winter Haven, located between Tampa/St Pete and Orlando. Their stay there will soon end. With the sweetheart deal inked this week, Cleveland will return to Arizona starting in 2009.

The spring training history between the Indians and Giants goes back to the 30s when the two ball clubs played each other on barnstorming tours. 1954 was a particularly memorable set of games. They met 21 times with the Giants winning 13.

Major League Baseball Establishes “Real Fans Club”

From The Hard Times Gazette

If you are a baseball fan who has tried to buy a ticket to a MLB game using one of the team’s official website, you are probably aware just how frustrating that experience can be. Fans compete not only with other fans who want to go to the game, they're also up against hundreds of agents whose sole intent is to resell the ticket for a profit.

As the debate rages on about how fair or unfair the secondary ticket market is, MLB has decided to intervene. They announced yesterday a “Real Fans Club.” Members of this club will be given exclusive rights to purchase single game tickets one hour before they go on sale to the public. A special ID number will give them access to the sale of tickets at the MLB or the team site.

“We wanted to reward some of our fans for their loyalty," a MLB spokesperson said. "These are the important set of fans who can’t afford season tickets or partial plans. They will earn points based on their past purchases of single game tickets."

The pilot program will take affect in 2008. Fans can log on to MLB’s Fan Marketing section for further details.

Note: This is a "fake news" article I made up. It was born out of the frustration I had trying to get tickets to a Yankees spring training game. I signed on right at 9 am when the tickets went on sale but the wait was 5 minutes and longer and they sold out.

I know, supply and demand. Oh well, I did get us tickets to a Blue Jays game.

Fifty Years by the Bay: The San Francisco Giants 1958-2007

"Fifty Years by the Bay is a literary documentary, covering all of the significant memories in San Francisco Giants history. This detailed account commences with the move West in 1958, through the 40 seasons at Candlestick Park, to a new beginning at Pacific Bell Park, into a new millennium, and onto the 2007 season. The work relives the key moments, teams, players and figures that made the franchise great." - Press release.

In 1988, Nick Peters, a lifelong Giants fan and longtime Bay Area sportswriter, wrote San Francisco Giants Almanac, a nifty and well-researched book on the Giants. I’ve used it many times for both research and nostalgia tripping. It’s a nice combination of pictures, stats, stories and summaries.

It’s been almost two decades since that book was published. An updated fan-fun history on the Giants was sorely needed. Chuck Nan fills that void with Fifty Years by the Bay: The San Francisco Giants 1958-2007 (Paperback).

I haven’t gotten my copy yet but I can say Nan brings similar great credentials as Peters. Growing up in San Francisco, he fell in love with the Giants at an early age. Nan went on to research and write about the Giants, including his excellent article “San Francisco Giants Spring Tour of Japan, March 1970,” published in Elysian Fields Quarterly-The Baseball Review in summer 2004.

Giants fans will want to check this one out as the franchise celebrates 50 great years in San Francisco.