Tag Archives: San Francisco Giants

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Linceblog: Filipino American fans see great game, but no San Francisco Giants victory on heritage night

The Giants should have taken a cue from the tinikling dancers.

You just can’t afford to make errors in the field when you’re a tinikling dancer.

Same goes for a baseball team.

Bowls, gloves, you can’t mess up–not on the field.

Playing the field, dancing with a bowl on your head, errors are costly.

 

The Giants made three deadly errors, that pretty much made the difference in the night’s 6-4 loss.

From the first play on a Parra groundball that led to the first run, to the last inning. The Giants made it exciting by tying the game in the 9th, 4-4. But in the 11th, a series of miscues gave the Diamondbacks the go-ahead runs. There was a misplayed ball by Torres in left that allowed a runner to second. Then a bad throw by Sandoval at third , dropped by Belt at first, followed by a wild pitch that scored a run.  For good measure, the Diamondback’s Parra doubled and another run scored.

A tough night considering the Giants staged a rally as if on Filipino Time, i.e., late.

Two-runs in the eighth, and two-more on a home run by Belt tied the game and thrilled the chilled crowd. But it wasn’t  enough to send fans home happy.

Those with theFilipino Night tickets got special scarves with the number of baseball’s premier Filipino American player, Tim Lincecum, No. 55.

Fan holds up scarf that features number of the premier Filipino American ball player in the majors

There may not be many Filipino American ball players in the “beeg leegs.”  And that makes diversity nights like this one at the Giants’ AT&T Park are important.  There was even a Filipino American ball dude–No. 6, Vince Gomez, retired music teacher.

 

Heritage nights bond the team and the game to the community, and makes a public event like a baseball game a special one. This is what sports does for us these days. It’s the reason the Boston Marathon bombs were so jarring, and why it was important for baseball as a game to respond the way it has to that tragedy.

 

When you include the fans in the stands, baseball really is a reflection of the country, even to how we’re somewhat stratified by where we sit and the ticket we can afford. But we’re all watching the same game, and cheering for the same team.

 

Better yet, though seasonal, it happens everyday, just like life.

 

When you win, you celebrate. And when you lose, you reflect, and get back up.  No time to get down. There’s another game today.

That’s baseball.

 

 

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Linceblog:Tim Lincecum speaks candidly about his Filipino roots; SF Giants Filipino Heritage Night at AT&T tonight

For Tim Lincecum and the San Francisco Giants, it’s another Filipino Heritage Night, an homage to a fan base that represents the second largest Asian American group in the nation (Four million based on 2011 Census estimates, with Northern California the largest concentration of Filipino Americans outside of Hawaii).

 

And they all love Lincecum, whose mother was Filipino, making the Giants’ star the son of a great-granddaughter of a Filipino immigrant.

 

Lincecum is a 4th generation Filipino American.

 

Far from an accidental, or the reluctant Filipino, Lincecum always seems interested when I’ve mentioned Filipino history to him. One of his recent starts actually was on Bataan Valor Day, the surrender of Bataan and the start of the death march.

 

After a recent game, when he struggled and gave up 7 walks, I asked him about superstitions since ballplayers, like Filipinos are notoriously superstitious. I thought this might get him to open up about being Filipino.

 

But any discussion of being Filipino always goes back to his mother.

 

 

He certainly doesn’t deny his “Filipino-ness.” But like many half-Filipino, or multi-racial Filipinos (21.8 percent of U.S. Filipinos), one’s  comfort level is based on a continued connection to family. Certainly, that’s a private matter–to a point. It’s just that when you take the mound on such a public stage as Major League Baseball, you lose some of that privacy. Filipinos see a game where there are zero Filipinos on the field. And when someone like Lincecum comes along, naturally, he becomes, whether he likes it or not, a kind of global hero to Filipinos everywhere. Sports and identity politics go together.

Just like Venezuelans love Sandoval, Scutaro and Blanco, Filipinos love Lincecum.

Lincecum isn’t pitching tonight. The starter is Matt Cain, not even 1/32nd Filipino, but still beloved by Giants fans.

 

Lincecum might make a cameo as he did on what I believe was the very first Filipino American Heritage night in 2009. The coincidence of Manny Pacquiao promoting his fight with Ricky Hatton made it practically a community event.

 

When pound-for-pound champ Pacman threw the ceremonial first pitch to a catcher named Lincecum, it was probably the first major league Filipino battery in history. (Not in all of baseball, of course. When I caught Marcelino Dumpit as a youth player for Dolores Park and Everett Jr. High in the ’60s, we had a nice Filipino battery going in the city leagues).

Fast forward to 2013, and an older Pacquiao has lost twice, his star not quite as bright as in 2009.

 

Lincecum? He’s had it even tougher. From double-CY winner to statistically being the worst starting pitcher in the league, Lincecum’s last two years have been a mess. He’s struggled to find the rhythm that made him into one of the game’s premier pitchers.

 

Then last Saturday, on 4/20 (coincidence?), Lincecum was brilliant. Throwing with control, Lincecum walked just two batters, and used his low-nineties fastball primarily to challenge hitters, striking out eight. Even more significant, he didn’t give up the big inning that has raised his ERA to over 5.  Does pitching to Posey at catcher really make that much of a difference? It sure seems to. The Giants won the game 2-0, courtesy of a Sandoval homer.

 

Lincecum earned his second win for the season and gained a lot more confidence as continues to get back to his 2009 form.

 

Giants fans, Filipino or not, left that night with big smiles on their faces.

 

The “Preak” was back.

 

 

Read more about Lincecum on Inquirer.net, the major daily newspaper of the Philippines.

http://globalnation.inquirer.net/72569/in-major-league-baseball-tim-lincecum-is-still-the-filipinos-champ

 

http://globalnation.inquirer.net/columns/columns/view/20101102-301073/In-SF-Giants-star-the-story-of-Filipino-America

 

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Linceblog: Giants celebration weekend like baseball’s version of Wagner’s Ring Cycle; Posey’s MVP day, a little on the game, and if Posey catches Lincecum

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Saturday was about connecting greatness.

 

Giants Greatness: Past and Present

 

We didn’t exactly have that for the game though.

With the Giants, winning is always about timing. And playing  perfect baseball, for now. Later, when they’re sharp, they can be more human. But this early in the season, when you’re not so sharp, you’ve got to get a little luckier.

On Saturday’s game, the hits came at the wrong time, the defense failed when it needed to be perfect, and the starting pitching–which had been perfect with no earned runs through four games and 26 innings—finally showed its human side.

Ryan Vogelsong talked about not throwing enough good pitches at the right time after the 6-3 loss to the Cardinals. 

It’s tough. With a few breaks in that rough first inning that featured a passed ball and a wild pitch, a timely strike on a 3-2 count to former Giant Carlos Beltran would have gotten Vogelsong out of a jam unscathed.

The Giants got back the run with a Pence home run, and Vogelsong settled down. But  in the fifth, a hit, a walk, a dropped ball at first, and again Beltran stepped in to hurt the Giants with a two-run single.  

Early in a 162-game season, it’s a good thing they play another  150 or so. 

You can’t have another celebration.

Oh, wait.

You can.

And today it’s the rings. Not Wagner’s Ring, but three days of celebrations do make the Giants opening week comparable to a Wagnerian Cycle.  (Baseball has a cycle too, but I don’t think it includes a few bars from “Ride of the Valkyries.”)

More on the rings in a later post.

The Giants are great nostalgists.

And when another layer of achievement is recorded, they gladly bring in the past to welcome the new glory.

It makes the Giants one of the more humanistic baseball organizations in MLB. Sure, in baseball, the numbers tend to dehumanize things, from stats to salary figures. But in the end, it’s the human connections that make the difference.

The Giants are good at connecting greatness.

 

So for me, seeing MVPs like Kevin Mitchell (he of the one-hand-bare-handed grab see it on YouTube), and Jeff Kent (late of “Survivor”), next to the legends, McCovey and Mays…that was a sight. (Incidentally, no, Bonds sighting, and he won three of those MVPs).

Posey stayed off the field until the appropriate time.

 

Posey hears the cheers as he emerges for the celebration

 

 

A baseball star’s relationship to fans isn’t bonded in words. When the player takes great actions, the cheers are what it’s about.  And as Buster emerged from the dugout, they showed the love.

 

Posey with the 2012 MVP award

 

 

Posey held his award, and then as Mays and others looked on, he gave an appropriately short, gracious speech, thanking his family.

And his teammates.

There in the dugout were three that have been the other end of his battery. In between Cain and Zito, there was Lincecum looking on.

 

Posey was great last year, but with a grueling season the talk has been if he’ll get enough rest to do it again this year.  And that always leads to speculation about whether Posey will catch Lincecum, or take that day off. This coming week, Lincecum is scheduled to start Tuesday night, and then comeback for a Wednesday.  Bochy told CSN BayArea’s Andrew Baggerly that Posey will likely rest Tuesday.

So will the schedule dictate Posey rest when Lincecum pitches?  

Maybe, but from this observers eye, it seems to be a coincidence—at this point.

I do think Posey has to be out there catching, especially Lincecum.  If I were Tim, I’d want the best. And Posey is right now.

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Championship wetness: The Giants win the Pennant and no one is dry

Normally, only the players get to bathe in championship wetness after a successful championship run.

Not so the San Francisco Giants. With impeccable timing, the Giants secured the final out of their 9-0 Game 7 NLCS  victory – appropriately a pop fly by series villain Matt Holliday to the man he ran over in game 1, Marco Scutaro—and the celebration was on for everyone.

The skies opened up and showered players and fans alike with a drenching, cleansing rain, a massive pour from a magnum of some Veuve Cliquot in the sky.

Congratulations, Giants.

It’s sweeter when no one expects you to be there in the end.

I write this more as a San Francisco native and as a season ticket holder. I don’t get to play the game, but I’ve watched all the games, physically attended about 60 of them, and dutifully wave an orange towel as well as the next guy. Maybe better.

Can’t help it. I’m a Giants fan.

Still, it’s interesting how little respect from the national media the Giants get. Who cares right? But it does matter. People who don’t see this team play, might read a few stats, see a couple of games, and think they know who will win the World Series.

They don’t know.

This Giants team is special. Talk about overcoming adversity. At every point in the season there was some event or issue that changed things.

The closer Brian Wilson is out with Tommy John? The All-Star left fielder Melkey (the other) Cabrera is suspended? The Dodgers are loading up for bear? The Giants end up with Marco Scutaro? 

This was an evolutionary season, where despite it all the Giants overcame to climb what could be the highest mountains in sport. To win six straight elimination games? Ridiculous. It’s like the NCAA tournament, only in baseball.

Down 2-0 in a 5 game series, the Giants stave off elimination to won three in a row against the Reds.

And then it happened again. Down three games to one, the Giants won three in a row against the Tigers.

And the stars were all the improbable guys. Marco Scutaro on offense, Brandon Crawford and Gregor Blanco on defense, and the $126-million dollar man Barry Zito, who did a Dutch boy number in game five in St.Louis, pitching a gem that stuck a big finger in the dike and kept the Giants alive for games 6 and 7.

So what happens when Buster Posey and Hunter Pence start getting into the act for real?

Unlike the national observers, I don’t see the Tigers able to stop the Giants karma.

Think of how Hunter Pence made his presence felt in game 7 with that ridiculous catch-me-if-you-can ground ball that deked it’s way past the St.Louis shortstop Pete Kozma.  That was no seeing-eye grounder. The slow-mo replay shows Pence’s bat hit the ball three times, changing the spin and direction that totally faked out Kozma.

How do you explain it? The ground ball cleared the bases and put the Giants up 5-0 in the third.

The game was over. But I remembered how the Cards snatched victory from the Nationals who were up 6-1 in the final game of their NLDS series. Was a five run lead safe? Not to worry.

I knew the Giants would win when my adult daughter, who was wearing her Giraffe hat for Brandon Belt (he’s nicknamed “Baby Giraffe”), actually called Belt’s home run shot.

What’s going on here?

There’s something special going on at AT&T.  Like 2010, but different. Better. And maybe even divine.

When the rains came it was practically biblical. Not a dry guy or gal in the house.

The World Series is next. And now that some time has passed, and I’ve parked my ark,  it’s plain as day.

The Giants, appropriately, in 7.

see also www.aaldef.org/blog