All-Star Hecklers

All the star players will be there. Former all-stars, too. And some veteran hecklers will be just behind the American League's bullpen mound. We'll get to razz every AL pitcher that pitches, because each of them has to warm up, and maybe a few more that don't get the nod. I just realized this a few days ago. It will be the heckling experience of a lifetime. My heckling line of choice this year to visiting pitchers has been, "I'll be at the All-Star Game and you won't!," but I won't be able to use it during the game, obviously.

I just hope that all the regular hecklers in our area will be there to put on an All-Star heckling show and won't have sold out to special event groupies that will whine to ushers about our time-honored, traditional baseball conduct of heckling the opponents. People like that really suck.

Got All-Star Game Tickets?

Tickets just arrived today for the All-Star Game in San Francisco. They look pretty cool. It'll be interesting to see what the Giants have in store for the day of the game. I'm betting that Mays, McCovey, Perry, Marichal and Cepeda will be on hand, most likely together for a pre-game ceremony of some kind. Stay Tuned.

Giants Invade Fenway

Fenway Park is the oldest ballpark in the major leagues. It was built in 1912. The last time the Giants played the Red Sox in Fenway Park was in 1912, the year it was built. And in the World Series at that. The Giants did play some games in Fenway in 1914 and '15 because the Boston Braves leased the park before building Braves Field, but they didn't play the Red Sox those years.

So this interleague series between the Giants and Red Sox was one of the original promises of interleague play. Too bad it took 11 years to occur.

Nothing Like Fireworks in SF Fog

Friday night before last, I took my kids to the Giants game. It was fireworks night. The fog level was about half way up the vertical range of firework blasts. The ones that went off in the fog were truly spectacular, lighting up the entire sky with an eerie, all encompassing glow.

Balk-Off Benitez Balked Out of Town

The Giants' "closer" Armando Benitez had one of the most bizarre and stupid ways of blowing a save and the game the other night against the Mets. Taking the mound to save a 4-3 lead in the bottom of the 12th, Benitez walked the leadoff hitter, balked him to second, the Mets sacrificed him to third, then in a play that is always tried in Little League, but never seems to work even there, the runner danced off third base in a feeble attempt to distract Benitez. But his attempt wasn't so feeble after all.

He got Benitez to flinch into a balk, and the tying run trotted home. Carlos Delgato, who was up at the time, promptly deposited a subsequent pitch into the night for the walk-off homer. Two balks in one inning? During the post-game show, the Giants radio announcers reported that the Shea stadium security guards saw Benitez leave without getting on the team bus for Philly. A few minutes later a rumor of his being traded surfaced. Later that evening it was confirmed.

Good-bye Armando. It's not been fun. In fact, it has really sucked. Brian Sabean pulled off a miracle by getting something in return for him, when peace of mind would have worked just fine.