IN HONOR OF BILL TERRY

The greatest first baseman the Giants ever had before moving to San Francisco...

The man who in 1930 batted .401, had an OPS of 1.071, hit 23 homers with 129 RBI while striking out only 33 times. A good guy to have on your fantasy team...

The man who had the unenviable job of replacing John McGraw as Giants manager...

In his first full season as manager he led the Giants to the 1933 World Series, which they won against Washington 4 games to 1. Not a bad start...

He would later manage the Giants to the 1936 and 1937 National League pennants...

He ran a car dealership and a minor league franchise when he hung up his spikes...

The Hall of Famer and the last National Leaguer to hit over .400 has his number retired at AT&T Park...

In his honor I announce

THE GIANTS MAGIC NUMBER IS 3.

IN HONOR OF MEL OTT

The first National Leaguer to hit 500 homers...

A devastating power hitter despite his small 5'9" frame...

Would be the envy of Sabrmetric fans because along with his homers, he also constantly was among the league leaders in walks...

Posted a 1.222 OPS, hit .389 with 2 homers in 1933 World Series win for the Giants...

One of those homers came in the top of the 10th of Game 5 that put the Giants ahead in the clinching game...

And has his number retired in San Francisco despite never having played in the city...

In his honor...
THE MAGIC NUMBER IS 4!

3 is a big number for the Giants right now

The number 3 is retired at AT&T Park in San Francisco for former New York Giant great Bill Terry. He was a Hall of Fame first baseman and was the player/manager for the 1933 World Champion Giants.

I bet most Giant fans have no clue who he is.

But they should be thinking about his number in regards to the playoff push.

They were sunk tonight in Los Angeles... down 4-0 in the 7th... down 4-3 in the 9th inning... they were on the verge of letting wasting another chance to take advantage of the Padres struggles.

Then Juan Uribe did his best Brian Johnson impersonation and slugged a gigantic homer against L.A.

It was a big one... one of those if the Giants DO win this Division, it will be shown again and again on the Diamondvision by China Basin.

The standings say the Giants are 2 games back of the freefalling Padres.

Actually they are 3 back in the loss column, which is probably a better barometer of what the Giants have to do.

They are also 3 games behind the Phillies for the Wild Card. Now granted, the Phillies look like a run away freight train. Good luck stopping them.

But the Giants have 26 games to make up 3 in the loss column to these two teams.
They come to San Diego for four games next weekend.

And how does the season end? With a series between the Giants and the Padres in San Francisco.

How many games in that series?

Three.

A Correction and Honoring The Moon Man

In the off season between the 2008 and 2009 seasons, I wrote my blogging Opus... The Home Grown Vs. Acquired Series.

I made 62 twenty five man rosters (with bios) for each team's best All Time Team made of only Home Grown players and another one for only players acquired from other organizations.

That's 1,550 bios written.
And forgive me, I was bound to make a mistake or two.

My rules for what makes someone acquired is simple:

If they played a single game in another organization before joining the team, he must be considered acquired.

Roberto Clemente was in the Dodgers organization before joining the Pirates.
Carl Hubbell played a handful of games in the Tigers organization before becoming a Giant. They are on the acquired club. I had to be a tight ass.

Why? I wrote 1,550 bios.

Well an anonymous reader pointed out that the great Christy Mathewson, who I had in the Home Grown Giants team, was originally a part of the Reds organization and acquired in a trade involving future Hall of Famer Amos Rusie.

The reader was right.
So I made the correction and moved Mathewson to the Acquired Team.

Now that was good news for Gary Lavelle who I put into the Home Grown bullpen... but bad news for Greg "Moon Man" Minton. I moved Johnny Antonelli to the bullpen (he DID clinch the 1954 World Series as a reliever) and put Mathewson in the Acquired Rotation.

And that left Minton as the odd man out.

So while I feel the roster is more accurate, I felt the need to honor the Moon Man here.

This is the bio that originally was in the Home Grown Roster for Minton...



GREG MINTON

The Moon-Man was an All Star in 1982 when he went 10-4 with 30 saves while posting a 1.83 ERA over 123 innings, all in relief.

He threw 270 1/3 innings without allowing a home run before hanging a pitch to John Stearns in 1982.
I bet Stearns was due.

He had 5 solid seasons before wearing down and had the bad luck of being cut just before the Giants would finally win a division title in 1987.


And here is the UPDATED AND CORRECTED ROSTER.

Enjoy... and if you have any other corrections, let me know.

For Bobby Thomson's sake... Let's pick it up Giants!

On August 11th, I wrote about how the Giants had about as good a chance as any to win the NL Pennant assuming they made the post season.

None of the other NL Teams were powerhouses and San Francisco could steamroll them through the NLCS.

The Giants have dropped 4 of the next 6 games including the brutal first few games of the Phillies series.

So now the Giants have fallen out of a playoff spot... they look lost and even my dad, the biggest Giants fan I know declared them dead.

But guess what? They looked dead in 1951 as well.

While I wrote about the Giants hopes on August 11th this year, on August 11th 1951 the Giants were 13 1/2 games behind the Dodgers before they completed the Miracle at Coogan's Bluff and Bobby Thomson hit the Shot Heard 'Round The World.

Thomson passed away this week and while that was nearly 60 years ago, the home run still resonates in baseball lore and should be looked on as hope for the current Giants club.

OK, there's no Willie Mays or Monte Irvin on this squad. And yeah, their starting pitching is in a huge slump.

There's no 13 1/2 deficit to overcome. In fact if the Giants and Jonathan Sanchez can beat the Phillies and Cole Hamels this evening, they'll be only 2 games back in the loss column with 40 games to play.

Making up 2 games in 40 games isn't a miracle. It's focus.

Come on Giants. You can still win the Pennant! You can still win the Pennant!