I came across a Herb Caen column in a letter my Dad sent me in 1971 when I was at college. Some excerpts: "With the death of Russ Hodges, the New York Giants have finally lost their voice....Russ never seemed quite at home at Candlestick (who could?) and 'San Francisco Giants' always sounded odd when he said it.  He had that New York voice, a little tired, sometimes bored, the voice of a man who was used to living with defeat. When he got excited, the manner suggested that you shouldn't take it too seriously; coming in second every season isn't all that bad. A lot of fans, this one included, sometimes made fun of his garbled sentences....To him it was part of the game that won't be the same without him. For better or worse, the team is now the San Francisco Giants."  To me, they were ours from the moment they moved in but, heck, I was just 8 at the time.  It's like having no memory of your family without a brother or sister who is a couple of years younger.

Is anybody in the McCoven thinking of heading to Trenton to catch the Flying Squirrels this weekend? I'm taking my daughter Sunday (she needs practice driving on highways). Forecast is for 80 degrees with slight chance of thunderstorms, presumably later in the day. If you haven't been, it's a nice ballpark with easy access and parking. Last time I went in 2006, I saw Wang for the Yankees affiliate and Sanchez and Sadler, among others, for the Defenders. Ort was in right and EME (LOL) in left. Knoedler was the catcher. Best thing about it was they still had Navigators hats in the gift shop. The franchise was doomed when they switched names to chase the militaristic theme.

In a rash moment last November, my wife and I committed at church auction to hosting a Best of the Ballparks dinner. We've already missed the original intention of opening day but need to deliver something soon. We'll do a version of garlic fries for SF but what stands out from the other parks you've visited?  I've got the beer taken care of but last minute suggestions are always welcome. Don't forget to specify where you ate or drank what you are recommending. thanks

I think it's been quite a while since we killed time with this question and we have a lot of new members so, flexing those mental muscles we wasted on Richmond, what would you select as a new name for the Giants if we had to switch? What criteria do you use? I respect history, so Seals would be in the running for me. I like allusions to local culture, geography, events -- the 49ers have a great name. A bit of poetry never hurts -- I wanted Richmond to be the Riddles. I wouldn't mind Fog as a name, if only for the great punning opportunities.And while we're at it, which franchise has the stupidest name?

Sorry if it has been mentioned somewhere but I haven't heard anything in a while about Joe Martinez. Does anybody know about his condition and what the plans are for him?  I wouldn't mind seeing him be given a chance to compete with Sanchez for the fifth spot. Sanchez has way more upside but he is beginning to remind me a lot of Oliver Perez in a boy-this-is-agonizing kind of way. I realize Joe is going to need a while to build up arm strength again under the best of circumstances but it wouldn't hurt Sanchez to be looking over his shoulder at someone.

It was interesting to see my suggested nickname immediately get misread as "the Baptist" . True, I was playing with the John the Baptist concept when I suggested John the Battist (as in batter) because he heralds the coming of future stars. As i recall, I listed them as: 1)the Angel of Crush (in subsequent comments, someone suggested combining his two names in the Anvil, which I like better -- for the moment, he's still Angel Baby to me) 2)The Alderman (as in Alderson has my vote to help restore sound government to the rotation, or corrupt government if that's what it takes to win); 3)Mad Bum 4)Nick "High" Noonan.... or something like that. I think I also suggested as a cruel play on his name that Castillo be called Ft. Stopgap.

My main point was a longing for more creative nicknames (whoever coined Magellan, I sing your praise!). In retrospect, considering his power, I should have proposed John the Boptist. 

And Tim shall always be The Enchanter!

It's been mentioned a couple of times on the site that we fared better without Bonds in the line up than with him this year. I have no idea if that's true and, if so, whether the right metric is win/loss percentage or average runs scored. Still, it's counterintuitive and it's a lot more encouraging than hearing we did much worse without him in the line up. I'd be really interested to see some analysis from those of you who are deft with stats that breaks down how we did without him and which lineups actually fared the best.

TV Announcer: "Experts say the prosecutors' game plan appears to have worked so far. Tomorrow, to protect their advantage, they are turning over closing arguments to newly-minted assistant attorney, Armando Benitez."
Your entries please....

I'm not all that into the home run record story (to start with, I strongly disagree with all that palaver about it being baseball's most hallowed record). I think it's silly in part because all true fans know everyone's totals have their own asterisks. Bonds will be for drugs. Ruth never had to face Latin and black pitchers. My impression is neither Ruth nor Aaron had to deal with getting walked as often as Bonds. And so forth. But if anyone has talked about the following question, I missed it and I'm curious. Aaron played 202 games as DH at the end of his career and, I believe, hit more than 20 homeruns in that time. Barry has 30 something but I don't know how many home runs. Has Bonds already passed Aaron as a position player?

Don't know why but the Seven Dwarfs come to mind watching this crew.
Roberts-Speedy
Omar -- Dreamy in the field but Sleepy when batting
Bonds -- not much left, hence Barely
Durham -- TemporRayRayly, until he gets hurt
Aurilia -- Scrappy
Feliz -- Crappy
Molina -- Windmill, for his sporadic and usually untimely power (but name on back of uniform must be covered with "Caution -- Slow -- Wide Load" sign for those moments when he is clogging the basepaths)
Niekro --Bashful (has anyone seen him on the field this year), no make that Bashless
Winn -- Who?

Seems like every time I happen to see a Cincinnati boxscore this spring, Jon Coutlangus has tossed a scoreless inning. Lately, it's been a scoreless last inning. Who's your nominee for the former Giant farmhand or scrub who will emerge to haunt us this year?

Check out the latest entry in Garrett Broshuis' blog for an entertaining take on life under Bochy:
http://www.sportingnews.com/experts/garrett-broshuis/blog/

We're not likely to ever see him on the mound in S.F. but check out Garrett Broshuis' blog for a heartwarming snippet shedding a bit of light on the real world of most of our farmhands. Best of luck to you and the other newlyweds, Garrett. www.sportingnews.com/experts/garrett-broshuis/blog.
(If this doesn't work, you can reach it from Greg's Connecticut Defenders Blog)

I thought Wotus had more nickname possibilities but now that Bochy is the clay we've been handed, let the name moulding begin. Botchy is an obvious choice, though probably not the best, for when he screws up but (I dream on) what if we start winning?