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This blog is written and maintained by a full-throttled Giants fan. From extra inning night games at The Stick to Game 7 clinchers in the rain at Oracle, I’ve seen it all. This blog isn’t for the ho-hum baseball fan. This is for those that watch every game, home or away. Those that have to rely on game tracker instead of HD video because you’re on a mountain top. Those that said “Yes. I will watch this game on Facebook Live.” This blog is for you. I’m going to go in depth and talk about some of the details of games as opposed to writing recaps. I don’t want to scare you away but there will be numbers! And stats! Obscure ones! This is what I live for.

Each Team’s Wildest Opening Day Win of the Last 20 Years

Given the circumstances, it still doesn’t feel like a true Opening Day. In fact, this was the first Opening Day morning that I forgot to put on Giants socks, underwear, shirt, jersey, and hat. I put on regular clothes and walked around like some normie. But how can you have a meaningful Game 1 without…

by John Ruddock

MLB Needs To Forget 2020 Or Use This Time To Try New Rules

What better time to use real MLB talent for experiments like this? Maybe some players want to try stuff they’ve never done before in a big league game. Perhaps Aaron Judge tries batting left handed for a series. Maybe Mike Trout can try pitching. Bring Scherzer in to close, stick Molina in center field, and…

by John Ruddock
  • Each Team’s Wildest Opening Day Win of the Last 20 Years
    Given the circumstances, it still doesn’t feel like a true Opening Day. In fact, this was the first Opening Day morning that I forgot to put on Giants socks, underwear, shirt, jersey, and hat. I put on regular clothes and walked around like some normie. But how can you have a meaningful Game 1 without fans in the seats? What about the jet flyovers and the giant American flag? With no fans, the smell of hot dogs and garlic fries won’t float over the field either. Other than fresh cut grass, it will lack the sights, sounds, and scents of baseball. It’s baseball in a sterile environment (which I guess is a good thing).
  • MLB Needs To Forget 2020 Or Use This Time To Try New Rules
    What better time to use real MLB talent for experiments like this? Maybe some players want to try stuff they’ve never done before in a big league game. Perhaps Aaron Judge tries batting left handed for a series. Maybe Mike Trout can try pitching. Bring Scherzer in to close, stick Molina in center field, and put Barry Bonds in the Hall of Fame. Let’s see some wild stuff!
  • Ranking The Top 10 Openers At Oracle Park
    Let’s rank the 10 best home openers at Oracle Park! The Giants have been really good in the home opener going 14-6 and outscoring opponents 94-76! In two different stretches they won 6 in a row: 2001-2006 and 2009-2014. There’s been 3 walkoffs and even a 1 hitter thrown into the mix. Let’s count them down.
  • End Of An Era
    Everyone will remember the Conor Gillaspie 2 run triple in the bottom of the 8th off of Aroldis Chapman, but few will recall what happened in the very next at bat. Anytime you’re facing Aroldis Chapman you don’t just have an at bat, you survive an at bat. They should hand you a t-shirt when you get back to the dugout.
  • Getting Familia With Gillaspie
    The first thing Gillaspie does is walk into the box, spit on his hand, and rub it the dirt. No batting gloves. A man’s man. Familia is at 17 pitches now and he’s only got 1 out. Giants have guys on 1st and 2nd. Conor takes the first pitch at 96 mph on the inside corner for strike 1. All he’s seen is gas tonight. He steps out of the box and rubs his right hand in the dirt again. Long time between pitches here.
  • Magnificent Madison’s Game 7 Masterpiece
    Now things get crazy. Buster calls for the offspeed low and away and Bum puts it there, but Gordon is able to get good wood on it and he flips it into shallow right center field. Blanco comes charging in but decides too late that he can’t get there and the ball skips past him! Perez wasn’t really backing him up, instead was next to him, probably hoping he was about to hug him. Instead, he finds himself sprinting after the baseball that’s rolling all the way to the wall. He finally reaches it up against the fence but then drops it and it rolls 6 feet away from him!
  • A Royal Shutout
    The difference between Bumgarner’s pitching and the rest of the Giants rotation was stark. With Bum on the mound you knew the Giants were going to win. It was the other days that made you pull your hair out. If he was a Disney character, he’d be Beast of “Beauty and the Beast”. Game 1 proved the Royals couldn’t hit him. But this was their second chance. Now they’ve seen him and can adjust. In Bum’s career he’s never pitched twice in the same World Series. To this point in October, Bumgarner’s started 5 games and has held opponents to a bleak .162 average. In those 38.2 IP his ERA is an incredible 1.40. I think the scientific world calls that Absolute Dominance.
  • The Best Game I Have Ever Been To
    I recall this moment fondly. I was with my dad and 2 family friends in our seats in section 105. We had had those seats since the ballpark opened in 2000 and little did we know that we were about to witness the greatest moment in the history of AT&T Park.
  • Marathon
    The innings would roll by as pitching started to take over. Neither team looked like they wanted to win this game anymore. I’m a fairly superstitious fan, especially in the postseason. Once I sit down, I can’t move anything or change the way I’m sitting, or as it turns out, turn any lights on. This game started at 2:38pm on a lovely Saturday afternoon. By the time we reached the top of the 18th inning, it was about 8:30 at night and dark out. So here I was on the same part of the couch sitting in pitch black as Brandon Belt dug into the box.
  • Pirates Get Bummed Out
    What an at bat from the short stop. I’ve never seen a HR shut more people up instantly than Craw’s 4th inning slam. Volquez went change up, fastball, curveball, curveball and B Craw was all over that second curve. That place was absolutely silent as Brandon rounded the bases but I, and thousands of Giants fans across the country were jumping in unison. That’s all MadBum would need.
  • Top 10 Hunter Pence Shots
    It was announced on February 7, 2020 that Hunter Pence had resigned with the Giants in a move that caught all of us off guard. In celebration of this glorious day, here are my Top 10 photographs of Hunter Pence as seen from section 105.
  • A Giant Sweep
    Theriot disappears into a mob of teammates slapping his helmet and high fiving him. A moment Theriot, Scutaro, and Phil Coke will never forget. Scutaro ends up taking 2nd base on the throw home and was now in scoring position himself. However, Sandoval grounded out on the first pitch, ending the inning. Can’t that guy ever just hit a home run? Sheesh. But the damage was done. Now the Giants just needed to get 3 outs.
  • Top 10 Photos Of 2018
    The 2018 baseball season was a good one for me as I crossed off two new parks on my list (bringing me up to 16 different yards) by traveling to Cleveland and Pittsburgh. Progressive Field did not make the Top 10 but PNC Park didContinue reading “Top 10 Photos Of 2018”
  • Panda Preys On Tigers
    If you created a poll before Game 1 and asked people who they thought was the most likely player to hit 3 home runs in this game, you’d probably hear Miguel Cabrera’s name the most. He lead the AL in average, home runs, RBI, slugging, extra base hits, multi-hit games, and total bases. In fact he won the triple crown this year and was easily the MVP. With 44 big flies, he was a threat for sure. Just not tonight. Tonight belonged to Pablo Sandoval (#ForeverGiant).
  • Top 10 Photos Of 2019
    I have so many photos over the last 5 years of great Giants moments and I feel like they’re going to waste just sitting on my hard drives. So I’m going to make some Top 10 lists!
  • Dancing In The Rain
    So when it started to rain in the 9th, it was as if 43,000 fans were cleansed of the blood, sweat, and tears they were covered in over the last 12 games. A shower to end all showers. The rain that fell that inning was the hardest I had ever seen it in any baseball game ever, but I also didn’t really care. No one did. 43,000 people were completely soaked but there were also 43,000 orange towels in the stadium so they were covered.
  • #RallyZito
    On December 29, 2006, Barry Zito was signed by the Giants to a 7 year $126 million contract, the highest ever paid to a pitcher at the time. Zito won the AL Cy Young in 2002 and was a 3 time All Star before comingContinue reading “#RallyZito”
  • Giants Slam Latos
    re no stranger to Latos. He was a well known Giants hater and if that doesn’t already piss you off, he spells “Matt” with one “t”. Two years earlier after the Giants beat him in Game 162 of 2010 (when he was with Padres), he autographed a baseball for charity and included the phrase “I hate SF” under his signature. What a dick.
  • “I Want One More Day With You”
    Boy if you were nervous before this game started the bottom of the 1st must have cut your life expectancy by 3 years. Remember, this was the Division Series and the Giants were one loss away from being eliminated. The Reds just destroyed us at home and now here we are in Cincinnati trying to win three in a row. The Reds never lost 3 consecutinve games at home all year and Homer Bailey, the Giant slayer, was on the mound.
  • For The First Time In 56 Years
    If you’re Edgar Renteria, you think you just bought yourself a fastball that you can sit on. Edgar digs in and boy does he look hitterish. Cliff Lee winds and deals. He throws Edgar an 86 mph cutter that caught too much of the plate. Renteria puts a nice swing on it, keeping his hands in and drives it to deep left center field.
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