“As World Series between Rangers and Giants open, Bill Gallo readies for more heroes and goats - New York Daily News” plus 2 more |
- As World Series between Rangers and Giants open, Bill Gallo readies for more heroes and goats - New York Daily News
- Key matchups will determine Series winner - New York Post
- Giants over Texas in 6, and other World Series scatter-shots - San Jose Mercury News (blog)
| Posted: 27 Oct 2010 01:50 AM PDT  Gallo/News Baseball fans, I invite you to pick the Hero and Goat of this year's World Series. All you need do is cut out the above cartoon and each day jot down your Hero and Goat. At the end of the Series, check my picks and see if we agree. No cheating, put down your picks at the end of each game. No prizes, just let's see how good you are at making a chump out of me. And, maybe you will get your name in the paper. For the sake of history, in 1958, the Hero-Goat World Series feature was installed for the first time in this sports section, despite some disgruntled voices from baseball's ivory tower. That first year, one of the brass in the National League condemned it and sent me and then-managing editor Bob Shand this message: "It's not dignified to be putting horns on baseball stars." The editors and myself saw it as a fun thing, and since they and our readers seemed to enjoy it, the feature took flight and has flourished for 52 years. It became so popular that, after every series, The Sporting News in St. Louis ran an entire page reprinting each drawing with explanations on why I chose each Hero and Goat. That first year, the Yankees vied with the Milwaukee Braves in the Fall Classic. The Braves won the first game, 4-3, and Warren Spahn was the Hero and there was no Goat recorded for this beautifully played, 10-inning game. In Game 3, Hank Bauer, who delivered three timely hits in the 4-0 Yankee win, was the Hero while Red Schoendienst, always a steady Eddie, came out the Goat because of his overly cautious base-running, which killed what might have been a big inning for the Braves. The Series went seven games, the Yankees taking the title with Bob Turley on the mound, wearing the Hero's laurels. Frank Torre, Joe's brother, got the horns when he was charged with two errors. He balked at being the Goat, because on both occasions he threw the balls for what should have been outs to Lew Burdette, who dropped them. There was never an explanation as to why the scorer gave Torre the errors. The business of picking a Hero-Goat is not always that definite. This is why your eyes have to be peeled on every pitch. Some years ago, I discovered that during a World Series the players went to the Hero-Goat before the box score. Mickey Mantle once expressed concern about Hero-Goat. He had written in his book that he feared, "Gallo putting horns on my head." He never wore them, but one time, after his playing days were over, I was sitting with him in his restaurant, "Mantle's," when he confessed to me that he was indeed worried about those horns. "You came close a couple of times," I told him. Mickey gave a big chuckle at the thought and put up fingers on the sides of his head. In all the years I've done this feature, at least a half-dozen players told me directly that they were furious to see the horns put on them. One guy said that he felt like I slapped him on the back of the head and called him "dopey." He's no longer with us so there's no sense telling who he is because his wife, a lovely lady, might be offended. So, all you "Geezers" (65 and over) and you "Wheezers" (13 to 55), have yourselves a little fun and write down (or if you like to draw, go ahead) your picks in the squares. Have fun at being a reporter of each game. That's the idea. One last thing: Who was the Hero for the first game in last year's World Series? Why it was none other than the guy who's starting for the Texas Rangers in Wednesday night's opener. He was with the Phillies then. At right is last year's Game 1 Hero-Goat: This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
| Key matchups will determine Series winner - New York Post Posted: 26 Oct 2010 09:32 PM PDT The Rangers win with Cliff Lee and big bats. The Giants counter with a deep rotation and options in the bullpen. The Giants have never won a World Series representing this city. The Rangers have never won a World Series, period. Something has to give. A look at the key matchups in the 106th World Series: Neftali Feliz vs. Brian Wilson The 22-year-old Feliz hasn't succumbed to the postseason pressure, but he still hasn't been thrust into a save situation. What happens tonight if he's asked to preserve a 2-1 lead in the ninth inning with thousands of orange towels twirling at AT&T Park? Feliz saved 40 of 43 games in the regular season, but has been relegated to mopping up in the postseason because of the lopsided nature of the Rangers' victories. You could make the case that Wilson has been the Giants' postseason MVP. The bearded righty has five saves, including a gem of 1 2/3 innings against the Phillies that finished the NLCS. Manager Bruce Bochy won't hesitate to use Wilson for four or five outs if needed -- similar to the philosophy the Yankees have used in October with Mariano Rivera over the years. Josh Hamilton vs. Javier Lopez No member of either lineup has the potential to change a game like Hamilton, who hit four homers against the Yankees in the ALCS. That was when the Yankees bothered to pitch to Hamilton -- he walked 10 times in the series. If the Yankees had a trusted lefty option in the late innings to deal with Hamilton, it certainly could have helped. The Giants have that weapon in Lopez, who is 1-0 with a 1.80 ERA in seven appearances this postseason. Bochy didn't hesitate to use Lopez against the likes of Chase Utley and Ryan Howard in the NLCS. Expect to see plenty of Lopez against Hamilton in this series. Bengie Molina vs. Buster Posey Molina spent 3 ½ years with the Giants before getting traded to the Rangers on July 1. He certainly knows what to expect from the likes of Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain and Jonathan Sanchez. That will be valuable information for the Rangers, as they attempt to solve this deep Giants starting rotation. Molina has been a menace with the bat this postseason, batting .333 with two homers and seven RBIs. Molina was expendable because of Posey's emergence. Posey is a legitimate contender for NL Rookie of the Year honors and has delivered in the postseason. His biggest hit might have come against Roy Oswalt in the ninth inning of Game 4 in the NLCS, when he slashed a single that moved the lead runner to third, allowing the Giants to win on Juan Uribe's sacrifice fly. Ron Washington vs. Bruce Bochy You can't tell that Washington is a postseason rookie based on how he's handled the last few weeks. He appears relaxed and has made all the right moves. Bochy, who guided the Padres to the 1998 World Series, loves hearing how these Giants are misfits. Bochy has made all these odd pieces fit together nearly perfectly. Colby Lewis vs. Jonathan Sanchez If you subscribe to the theory that Game 3 is the biggest in a best-of-seven series, this will be a key pitching matchup. Lewis had a solid regular season and has been among the Rangers' postseason heroes, with a 1.45 ERA. Sanchez stumbled in his Game 6 start against the Phillies, lasting only into the third inning, but was a steady No. 3 pitcher for the Giants this season. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
| Giants over Texas in 6, and other World Series scatter-shots - San Jose Mercury News (blog) Posted: 26 Oct 2010 07:31 PM PDT * Hold on tight: Lots o' stuff due to hit the blog in the next 12 to 16 hours (Warriors tip-off!) … and then there's Game 1 coming up, too. I wrote two columns for tomorrow's paper, and now this blog post. Yep, this is just the start. No use dilly-dallying here. Right to the World Series prediction. This is no jinx or anti-jinx attempt, this is just how I feel and pretty much how I've felt since the Giants wrapped up the NLCS in 6 street-fighting games: I'm picking the Giants to beat the Texas Rangers in 6 games. And win the World Series. Yeah, that, too I can't quite quantify this pick in stats or raw logic, because the Giants' season has moved so far beyond numbers that hard-grained analysis seems superfluous at this point. The Giants are riding the tide here, and they know it. They have every morsel of confidence that they will be in tight games, that their pitching will keep it tight, and that they will find a way–a bloop, a grounder through somebody's legs, a late HR–to win the game in the end. Against whatever opponent baseball wants to provide. It so happens that the Rangers are a very, very good opponent–definitely the strongest, hottest team the Giants have faced in this long journey. Infinitely better than San Diego, much more well-rounded than Atlanta, and in a much more comfortable place than Philadelphia was when the Phillies entered the Giants Torture Zone.
I just think the Giants are in a perfect spot for a World Series underdog counter-attack–the way the Dodgers were in 1988 against the A's, and maybe St. Louis in 2006 against Detroit. Texas will win two or three games, no doubt–Josh Hamilton, Nelson Cruz, Michael Young, Elvis Andrus, Vladimir Guerrero and all those pitchers are too good to get pummelled in any series. The Rangers will run, pitch well, and put enormous pressure on the Giants in every facet. But I don't see the Rangers blowing out the Giants in more than a game or two–and it will take a series of blow-outs, in my mind, for the Giants to get knocked out by anybody. If the games are close–and they almost always are with the Giants' pitching (my column tomorrow will get into GM-types talking about how the pitching sets up the "peripheral" heroes)–I now totally go by Brian Sabean's "street-fight" theory. In a street-fight game,or a street-fight series, you pick the team you can envision using knuckles, elbows, knees, hip-slams and any other means necessary to succeed. That's the Giants. That is soooo the Giants. I think the Rangers must win Game 1 tomorrow with Cliff Lee, or else they'll be crushed. I think the Giants want to win Game 1 with Tim Lincecum, but wouldn't be in total disarray if they lose it. I like the Rangers' other starters–especially Game 2 starter C.J. Wilson–but I think the Giants can scrap together 3 or 4 runs against any of the non-Lee guys, and maybe even 5 once or twice, which almost assures the Giants of victory these days. I think the Giants go up 2-0 here, lose two of three in Arlington, but come back for Game 6 leading 3-2 in the series, with Matt Cain ready to close it out. Somewhere in there, I'm picking Aubrey Huff to hit his first HR of the postseason (39 AB's so far) and his first since Sept. 25 in Colorado. That's a long time. I think Huff will hit 2 in this series, actually. Giants in 6. Could be wrong, but if I'm wrong, that might mean Giants in 5. * If I had to pick one word to describe the Rangers during the media availability on Tuesday, it'd be: Coiled. Just a little different than the Phillies–who had just as many or more headliners than Texas, but didn't seem quite as… prepared. The Rangers looked ready to spring, from manager Ron Washington to Hamilton and throughout the roster that I saw. "I have a team of athletes that can do many, many things," Washington said, "and I just let them go. "We can beat you with the long ball, we can beat you with small ball, we can run the bases, we can play defense, and no one wants to talk about it, but we can pitch… "They play their style, we play our style. They like to play close ballgames because of their pitching, but we can also play close ballgames because of our pitching." * If I had to pick a word to describe the Giants during their media availability, it'd be: Stable. Javier Lopez knows he'll be brought in at some point in the late innings of a close game to face Hamilton. Knows it. Lincecum and Cain know they're the bellwethers. No doubt about that. Buster Posey knows he's directing the traffic and he'll also probably get to the plate in a monster moment three or four times in this series. Unquestionably. By this point, the Giants have been playing mania-ball since August–almost three months of pure intensity. You either drop or you get stronger in the middle of that, and the Giants have stabilized while in the middle of the mania. That's a special thing, right there. * Baggs has the news: Barry Zito,once again, is not on the Giants' roster for this series. And there are no more series. * Lincecum, as you'd expect, was about as emotional as he gets when he was asked about Bengie Molina's contribution to his career. (Molina said he's probably going to retire after this season, though he allowed that something could happen in the offseason that might change his mind.) "I've said it before and here I'm going to say it again, he's been half of the reason why I got there outside of my dad and my family and my other teammates," Lincecum said. "He's the one calling the pitches. He always seemed to hit that game-leading home run to put us ahead when I was pitching. We had a pretty good connection there, and we still keep in touch away from ball. "Yeah, he's meant a lot to me, and he's meant a lot to this team. He's a part of the reason why we're here and obviously part of the reason why they're there, too." Molina mentioed that he sent Lincecum a text-message during Lincecum's struggles in August. "Yeah, he was just reaffirming in me that I should just be confident, don't forget what I've done, and just keep remembering that because I'm still the same pitcher," Lincecum said. " He is just a very emotional person, so I'll just leave that aside. But like I said, just telling me again, "Don't worry about it. You're going to be fine." Just always pulling for me regardless of what was going on, whether I was doing well." * What did Lincecum think of his relief appearance in Game 6 in Philly, and will that stint–only four days before this start–affect him in any way? "Don't think it threw me off anything approaching the start," Lincecum said. "I'm still ready to go. It's nothing. "But as far as getting in there, for me it was — yeah, it was pretty exciting. I rarely get into the games out of the bullpen with the exception of that one first season start against LA (when Bochy held him back because of the threat of rain, then put him in later). "Just trying to make the right pitches and got into a jam, but obviously Brian got in there and saved my butt. Yeah, it was fun and nerve-wracking, but like I said, we got out of it." -Q: Are you concerned about Jonathan Sanchez after what he did in Game 6? -RIGHETTI: Yes. I am. -Q: So what do you do about it? -RIGHETTI: We'll talk. And talk. He'll throw a little bit. Jonathan, he's an interesting personality, he really is. He's somebody that… some games are hard to read. You're not sure what you're going to get. But all part of that is a tremendous talent, as we know. And somebody that wants it so bad sometimes he gets in his own way. Every bit of him wants to be out there in every big game. He wants to be part of it. You can tell. He just loves it. But when you love something so much, sometimes you've got to be careful how far you go. It's a tough dynamic. A starting pitcher, I don't care how good you are—the greatest—the first inning can make you look like a… And once it gets a hold of you, and you don't know how to handle that, next thing you know you're making phone calls (to the bullpen) real early. He's been through a lot of scenarios. And that was definitely one of them. Does it concern me? Yeah. -Q: What about it was most concerning—the yelling at Utley or the wildness or everything? -RIGHETTI: You know what? I didn't see (the Utley confrontation). I turned around to the telephone. I knew he was coming out, so either way, I was concentrating on the next guy. I was just… a little bit… because the way he warmed up, he was ready. He came into that game, I think he just wanted it too much. I just saw him—I don't want to say tighten up—but I saw him not let his stuff go or flow. I thought he tried to hold onto the ball a little bit and just made pitches that back-fired a little bit. He tried to calm himself down, and I said no, take your emotions and go, man, just go. I think guys try to calm down, too much. I think at the end, he was embarrassed a little bit. He knew in his mind he felt he let the team down and I think he was ready for anything at that point. He was going to fight, or… He knew he was coming out. He saw Boch coming. -Q: Now he's going Game 3 in Texas and possibly Game 7… -RIGHETTI: Yes, he is. Well, he can't pitch in Game 1 or 2 (because of rest issues). You make these rotations so early… Jonny's had experience, too, in the bullpen. Bumgarner's done it. These two guys are absolutely guys if something weird happens in the first two games… There's adjustments that can be made. * Lee was quite entertaining in his turn at the podium, particularly when he was asked if he considered the Giants a dangerous line-up to face. I don't think Lee meant to take a shot at the Giants, but I also think he didn't mind if that's the way it was interpreted. "I think they're dangerous because they've got really good pitching," Lee said. "I mean, when you've got Lincecum and Matt Cain and the way Sanchez has been pitching and then their bullpen, you're limited to the runs you can give up because they're not going to give up many runs. Because of that they've won a lot of really close games. "Yeah, you've got to give credit to their hitters for scoring those runs and Cody Ross, especially the way he's been swinging it, but I think you can give more credit, if not — whatever, give more credit to the pitching. "I mean, they're the ones that are out there pitching in those one-run games. That's tough to do over and over, and they did a lot of that this post-season, and rightfully so." This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
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