SB Nation User Blog: achiappanza

Giants memorabilia auction this Saturday to benefit Rocket Dog Rescue

achiappanza — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 00:57:13 -0000

Giants fans might be interested in the following auction of Giants memorabilia this Saturday. Rocket Dog is a great non-profit that saves dogs from kill situations (often shelters) and places them in good homes.

I happen to know the way they get the Giants stuff is that one of the benefactors is cousins with the Giants' equipment manager Mike Murphy, so the Giants donate these items and Mike acquires the autographs himself. As such, there is no authentication procedure or documentation, but I personally believe them to be legit.

Come on down if you're interested in this stuff. Usually these are only attended by fewer than 50 people, so there isn't that much competition.

______________________________________________________________________
SPECIAL AUCTION OF SIGNED SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS’ COLLECTIBLES!

Join Rocket Dog Rescue for a fun-filled evening this Saturday to raise funds and and help us continue saving innocent dogs. Our silent auction starts at 6:30pm. Come on out and bid on signed baseballs, caps and bats by these great San Francisco Giants players:

Pablo Sandoval
Tim Lincecum
Matt Cain
Bengie Molina
Barry Zito
Johnny “No-Hit” Sanchez
Juan Uribe
Brian Wilson
Aaron Rowand
Plus Former Giant & Future Hall of Famer Omar Vizquel!

All proceeds benefit: Rocket Dog Rescue of San Francisco, Every dollar goes to help the dogs! Every auction item is a true Giants’ collectible!! Come early to avoid disappointment.

DATE: Saturday, October 17, 2009
TIME: 6:30 to 9:30pm
LOCATION: Terra Mia Studio
ADDRESS:1314 Castro Street (at 24th Street) San Francisco, CA 94114
INFORMATION:(415) 370-6900
www.rocketdogrescue.org

--
Pali Boucher
Founder,
Rocket Dog Rescue
www.rocketdogrescue.org

read some of what we have been doing lately:
http://www.northsidesf.com/june09/pets_jasminestails.html

Rocket dog Rescue is an all volunteer run 501c3 registered nonprofit.
We are dedicated to saving animals from death at shelters, in cases of extreme neglect, abuse, serious trauma, or where there is no hope of rescue.

"No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted"

MCC exerts its power

achiappanza — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 06:07:02 -0000

There is a lot of considered thought and consensus fan will on this site that seems to me should be heard by Giants ownership. Today's entry on what Bengie represents is a good example. Those are some good points that a rational person would be nuts to not even bother reading.

We joke all the time about what crazy wackadoo perspectives the fellas in charge must have, but I'm suggesting we do the opposite. We know that Bill Neukom has been a Giants fan longer than most of us, has enough brains to amass a significant personal fortune, and seems to genuinely care what happens to the team. Let's assume that he's open to hearing intelligent perspectives from his customers, and that he doesn't have the time to personally follow this site.

What then would be an effective means of influencing the future of the Giants?

Let's say we start with this: We collectively decided the most effective posts of the year through a thread (after agreeing on what a readable length is), and someone offers to print 'em out and either hand deliver or mail them to Bill. Follow-up options could include:

Option #1: We include some contact information, but other than that, we've said our piece and call it a day.

Option #2: We offer ourselves as a pretty good focus group for his target market and offer to meet with him or his people to explain how they can best market the team to us.

Option #3: We attempt to quantify our market power in the form of dollars spent and committed to his enterprise, and behave as though the only language these people understand is money.

Could be more, but I for one would like to do more than howl at the moon.

The value of this virtual community to you

achiappanza — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 20:38:21 -0000

I am amused by the sheer volume and energy of tangents taken in the conversations on this blog. Without actively trying to do so, Grant and the other mods have built this site into a genuine virtual community.

I'm curious about the significance of that community to everyone. Just because I've been into this sort of thing since 1986 and I'm always interested in how it works. Please answer the poll below, ranking McCovey Chronicles in your personal heirarchy. (Note that I'm interested in your answer with regard to the community aspect - online conversation - separate it if possible from the attraction of the stand-alone blog post writing.)

Poll

How highly does McCovey Chronicles rank in your personal web-surfing list of online communities? That is, if you had a minimum number of sites in which you participate in (or lurk through) banter between users, how low would you go before cutting this?

McCovey Chronicles is my most important community. If I had only one place to talk to people publicly online, this would be it. Topic drift rules!

78 votes

Does Facebook count? If so, I guess I gotta make this #2.

33 votes

There are at least two other places I would miss more if user posting was eliminated as a web concept.

28 votes

This place is Playboy. I only look at it for the articles.

11 votes

Real time Giants game chat is what I hunger for. This place happens to have the most action.

22 votes

172 votes | Poll has closed

The Giants should retire jersey #22

achiappanza — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 15:07:15 -0000

Every time I see Eli Whiteside wearing #22, I think about how wrong that is. Jack Clark and Will Clark were the faces of their teams. Both of them were Giant All-Stars on the strength of their bats, while adding good defense as a bonus. Giving Jack's number to Will, while obvious enough to not be genius, was the absolutely right thing to do. Seeing it now on someone else, regardless of whether or not either of them made the Hall of Fame, strikes me as wrong.

Some of you will say that only HOF numbers get retired and that's that, but when I see the numbers at the stadium, I think of the Giants through the ages. With this one number, you bridge the sad gap of the mid-70's to early 90's. The Giants did a great thing when they gave Barry Bonds his dad's #25. They should honor #22 by retiring it.

The Case Against the Case Against Barry Bonds

achiappanza — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 21:54:22 -0000

The Case Against the Case Against Barry Bonds

Dayn Perry talks about why he thinks the case against Bonds is dead in the water.

Plummeting free agent prices

achiappanza — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 05:02:34 -0000

It figures that *this* is the season that Sabean decides to run out ahead of 
the pack and sign free agents early.  This, the year of plummeting free agent prices.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/blog/index?entryID=3783423&name=olney_buster

Sabean's got to go.  He's had his chance to prove he had something going on without 
Barry Bonds, and he's proved that he doesn't.  I'm happy that he used to be
good.  But he's not any more.

Liriano sent down to AAA

achiappanza — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 14:48:09 -0000

Francisco Liriano was sent back down to the minors following both Tommy John surgery and an 11.32 ERA start. "He could be there for awhile."

http://www.startribune.com/sports/twins/18220564.html

All of a sudden I'm feeling like the worst trade ever could turn out to be simply a normal just bad one. Nathan and Bonser for Pierzynski doesn't look that horrid given their performances since the trade.

The parts that make it bad are that AJP didn't play that way for *us* and that Nathan's success as a closer had a lot of uncertainty considering he wasn't even tried that way before.

The career HR record: A-Rod's chase

achiappanza — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 09:27:32 -0000

We've all read about how A-Rod's now the favorite to get Barry's career HR record. But in addition to the fact that he'll have to age as "well" as Barry did, I just looked up this interesting fact:

Over the last three seasons, A-Rod got 27 intentional walks. From 2002-2004 Barry got 249. I still think A-Rod can't get the career HR title without some serious longevity, durability, and more cooperation from the opposing pitchers than Barry got.

Barry Bonds appreciation day (8/24, Justin Herman Plaza)

achiappanza — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 21:06:09 -0000

I just got back from the celebration down at Justin Herman. Very nice day, and a good party.

First: Opening band - Whitebread 5 or something like that. Did decent cover tunes ("Don't Stop Believin', Disco Inferno") to get the crowd warmed up.

Second: Replay of all the video tributes from sports notables to Barry. Not sure if they all aired before... Joe Montana, Wayne Gretzky, Lou Brock, Ernie Banks, Willie Mays, someone I didn't recognize, and Hank, of course.

Third: Introductions by hostess Renel... Kruk and Flem, Barbieri, Willie Brown, Gavin Newsom, Bochy, Magowan and Baer, Omar and Richie, a whole passel of other politicians, Mays and McCovey, Barry and his family including his mom.

Fourth: Speakers

Kruk - "I might be nervous because I played at Candlestick and we're not used to big crowds."

Ralph Barbieri - "Barry's good with kids. When he first met my boy, he grabbed him from my arms and said, 'Give him to me, I know how to handle kids.'"

Flem - Glad to witness all the history.

Magowan - Pander pander pander, pat self on back.
Baer/Bochy/Sabean - Present Barry with home plate from 8/7.

Omar - "He's fun to talk to in the dugout about cartoons and whatever. He's just a regular guy. How many guys can say he took a shower with Barry Bonds?"

Richie - Usual "great to be on the field for 73 and 756."

Gavin - As always, the best speaker of the lot. "I can't get that image of Omar and Barry in the shower out of my head. Omar, if you want to say anything, now's the time. Hey, it's San Francisco. It's all good." "Barry, here's the key to the city."

Barry - "All San Franciscans have always had the key." Thanked everybody in sight.

Yowza yowza yowza! Well it was fun to be rallied. I took some cell phone pictures but I can't get 'em off the phone.

How will Bonds be remembered?

achiappanza — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 18:33:47 -0000

I was asked this question on a Dodger forum, and wanted to share my answer here.

----
How do I think Bonds will be remembered? I think better than most people are saying now. It also depends on whether or not he gets passed by A-Rod or anyone else any time soon.

The main reason is that the big number (career homers) is the most memorable number in sports. It's a number so important, that it wrongly transcends time... everyone who's been in MLB gets measured against that number regardless of the homer-friendliness of the era. (I should admit that I have predicted before that fans will start to gravitate towards era-adjusted numbers, which is kind of an argument against what I'm saying here.) If Barry's still #1 in 20 years, I expect that the natural inclinations of fans will return, which is number first, circumstances second.

In the long run, I don't see any reason why the steroid era will be viewed any differently than the dead ball era, or a live ball era, or any other pocket. Barry will always be a part of that, maybe even the first example, but he'll be tied to the era, not set apart the way it's happening now. People forget to hate assholes... look at how Ted Williams is revered today. (Ty Cobb is an exception because racism was a big part of it, and that's still a sensitive issue for the world, unfortunately.)

In fact, if the steroid era is viewed differently, I predict it will be even less anomalous. That is, it's entirely possible that performance enhancers are here to stay... that technology will always be one step ahead of Johnny Law, and in fact Bonds' transgressions will stand out even less, being reduced to an early adopter of a permanent change, rather than the King of a limited aberration.

I don't think this is a Giants fan talking, I think this is rational. How does it sound to you guys?