Hey - Where's The Sports Talk?

I know I've been slacking - life does that sometimes & I'm not getting paid as well as most major leaguers for producing at only 30% like they do. I'm not getting paid at all come to think of it, so stop with the nagging emails about how "so much is happening in the sports world & I haven't weighed in on anything" Jeez!

I still don't have time to address everything, but here's what I shot out earlier when an old baseball buddy mentioned in an email that "Barry Bonds is toast":

Barry is beyond toast. He's toast crumbs. If this case goes forward, he'll either be found guilty & go to jail for a long time, or a short time & either way, will be suspended forever by the league when that's over. He'll never play again (unless he makes a Longest Yard-The Baseball Version situation in the pen) which is fortunate, because I can only take so much hate in this sport I love, & I'm completely consumed with hating A-Fraud right now. Barry Bonds doesn't even exist to me.

Of course, if I'm honest, he never really did. I only tried to be a decent Giants fan for friends who liked them - but deep down, I always, always, always knew it would come to this extreme with Bonds. The G's are lucky to have cut their ties with him just in time. Makes me wonder if the Mitchell Report got leaked to them a bit early so they would have time to put some substantial space between them.

I think Frisco has a real chance to make something of themselves now & I truly hope this could be Barry Zito's banner year (although I'm fairly sure that won't come til 2009 at the earliest.) But think about it: What better way is there to flip Bonds the bird than to win it all & rub that ring right in his face?

Bitter? Moi? :-) Not too bad as far as these things go. I'm more upset about Super Marco getting traded from my A's more than anything else. Although our AAA mounds needed attention & this will open up a nice spot for Donnie Murphy.

I swear I can remember being at at least 15 games where Scutaro knocked out a walk-off game clincher, including 1 I wrote about here, but his stats show he only did it 9 times in his career here. I guess I'll have to wait & see how it all works out. I just have this nagging suspicion that Marco won't be as lauded in Canada. He barely makes Ingles words okay, how's he supposed to pull off French!?!

Barry Bonds Is Leaving San Francisco Giants (Finally?)

The Giant organization is about to announce that they will not be offering Barry Bonds a contract for 2008 (surprise, surprise, surprise eh?)

Bonds is now saying he’s disappointed & ticked off that he didn’t have more time to ‘say goodbye properly”. He thinks the front office planned this a long time ago & I’d bet he’s right. In all seriousness, what did he think was going to happen? The way I see it, there’s really not much either side has to offer one another now.

I would have said the same thing at the end of his last (injury hampered) season, but with that darned record looming, what choice did the G’s have but to keep him & enjoy all the money that would inevitably flow their way. Knowing that kind of cash would be coming in allowed them to offer the most expensive contract ever for a pitcher, who they said they wanted to specifically keep the media off Bonds’ back – which Zito did by sucking rotten eggs for the first half of the season.

So any thoughts on this out there? He says he’s not going to retire. He wants to try & get a World Series Ring which probably means he’ll be a frickin’ Yankee. Then I’ll get to officially hate him so that makes me happy. J

Must people take me so literally?

So Miss Mish Mash informed me that that DorkBloggers are looking for a few good 'Dork Moments' for Friday the Dorkteenth... I just happened to have had one just lastnight:

So, my girlfriends & I have this fun lil habit of referring to our favorites ballplayers as our 'fiancé’s', because, well, we honestly fully intend to marry these sexy super studs someday 'if only'... You know, if only we ever actually met because of course the moment our eyes lock they'll realize there's no other women in the world for them right? My friend Katie is 'engaged' to Huston Street; my roommie Mandy is apparently 'married' to Mr. Timberlake; my roommate Alyssa is 'engaged' to Rich Harden; & I, of course, am 'engaged' to Zito (although I am having quite the imaginary affairs Nick Swisher & Travis Buck!)

Anyway, enough with the background, I'm sure you get it... So lastnight at the bar that I frequent (not exactly often, but enough so the regulars do know me), this one guy that sees me there all the time comes up to me while I was watching the Giant's game. What transpired next I so had coming. My favorite bartendress thought this was pure magic...

Him: "Shouldn't you be at the game?"

Me: "Duh, but I just got off work & besides, my fiancé’s not pitching tonight."

Him: "So it's true, you really are engaged to Zito?"

Me: (choke) "Well, uh, er, um, technically? Oh boy."


Oopsies! I got so embarrassed that I turned red... Now I'm forever known as the

Now Zito needs a new glove

MLB Rule 1.15
(a) The pitcher’s glove may not, exclusive of piping, be white, gray, nor, in the judgment of an umpire, distracting in any manner.
(b) No pitcher shall attach to his glove any foreign material of a color different from the glove.
(c) The umpire-in-chief shall cause a glove that violates Rules 1.15(a) or 1.15(b) to be removed from the game, either on his own initiative, at the recommendation of another umpire or upon complaint of the opposing manager that the umpire-in-chief agrees has merit.

Sunday a rep from the commissioner's office showed up to take a picture of Barry Zito's glove. Apparently they saw a photo in Sports Illustrated that showed his glove with the laces looking a tad ‘distracting’. The funny thing is that the photo in the magazine is actually of his old leather, the one he’s used for at least the last 2 years with the A’s without a single complaint.


While searching for photos to make up my own mind, I found some through the AP that show his new super pretty one. It’s fairly fancy, & much, much more distracting with it’s tan ties & burgundy smoothness.

Either way, & with either glove, I seriously can imagine how a little issue like laces could ruin a guy’s swing. Then again, I’ve never been at the plate facing a 77 MPH slurve. I’ll let you judge for yourself:










UPDATE: The commish did come down on him about the laces after all & this week they were replaced with new BLACK laces... How the F is that any different I wonder?

Zito’s got a new bag!

After arriving to his first Spring Training session with the Giants, Barry Zito made three rather goofy moves on just his first day. He arrived to the clubhouse & his new locker (2 away from Bondsy’s with an empty one in between) carrying his usual Oakland A’s bag. Seems to me the highest paid pitcher in all of baseball can easily afford a new gear bag, so I’m just guessing that was his not-so-subtle way of showing his respect for his old club. I like to think he’s that cool in my head.

But things get funnier still… While being interviewed, someone asked him if he realized he was sitting in Bondsy’s chair. He didn’t, of course, & while he didn’t stress about it, he did acknowledg that the other Barry probably would & got up to find the chair with his name on it. Bondsy’s going from 5 to 1 lockers this season & losing his paid entourage he normally has tagging along with him so I’m dying of curiosity here wondering how he’s going to react having Zito so close to him all season (or at least til he breaks hanks record & retires.) I’m guessing it’ll be like having a cool little kid always around that everyone but you completely adores. He won’t be able to find a reason to hate him, but I betcha he won’t been too friendly either.

Then things got real screwy. Zito took to the mound for his first throwing session pulling a camera on a tripod! He set that up then measured out his new, longer step. Then he started to throw and all around everyone was asking each other “What the H-E-Double-Hockey-Sticks was that?”

His new pitch took off way faster, way harsher, & um, kinda dorkier too. He pushed off hard & his legs looked really weird. You just gotta see this new toss for yourself. It’s so very, very different. Much like Zito himself.

Zito‘s been quoted as saying he put on 10 lbs. of muscle into his legs this Winter, which shows in the funky lil jumpy-thingy he did to start his push off. Then he pushed it all the way through delivery without a pause. It kinda looks awkward, but the ball comes off sharply.

The G’s bossmen were the most surprised. He’d had told them he’d done some tinkering, but this was the first they’ve seen to hint that there’d been a major change. The camera pretty much threw them for a pretty good loop too: “I guess you haven’t seen that too much, have you, Bruce?”

“Not only not too often,” Bochy said, “I’ve never seen that.”

“Tiger changed his swing a couple times when he was at the top of his game,” Zito said. “If he can pull it off…” (Let's just not mention to Sabean that it took Tiger a year & a half to get back on track after that adjustment k?)

Of course, maybe Zito's just messing around with them since they did have him show up on Wednesday, just after he just found a possible new Valentine… (So far the only confirmed rumor is that he & Miss Duff were seen leaving a trendy Hollywood club together a couple weeks ago, but she is quite the lil cutie!)

If the Giants didn’t make sure he had a new gear bag by the end of the day, I’m sure his new lady could set him up with a lil something from her brand line:

Thanks to GiantsFan9 for the info thats always more interesting that the guys getting paid to write come up with...