A couple of friends and I got SRO tickets to the All Star Game.  I've never been to an extremely crowded game with SRO tickets before - usually I try to find a seat in the bleachers or upper deck, but that will probably not be possible tomorrow.  I was thinking it might be hard to even find a place with a view to stand.

Any tips on enjoying a crowded game with SRO tickets?

This is a general question to all baseball fans.  It's supposed to pretty light-hearted - all teams go through them though this season the Giants have had more than their share.

What is the worst way to watch your team lose?  I'm looking for which is the most frustrating, gut-wrenching, fist-through-the-wall type of loss and why.

The candidates:

A. Complete blowout.  A never-ending parade of opposing baserunners knocks our starter out early and it goes downhill from there.  The opposing box score is full of lines like 4-for-6 with a walk.  Meanwhile, the Giants are three-hit.  Lots of 1-2-3 innings then running back out to the field to get shelled.

B. Pitch well and lose.  The Matt Cain 2007 special.  Starter throws an eight-inning complete game loss, allowing only an unearned run.  The Giants never manage to punch through for some run support.

C. Hit well and lose.  The Giants' bats come alive for 9 runs on 15 hits, but the pitching staff can't hold a lead.  All our crooked numbers seem to have a bigger crooked number under them and in the end we lose 11-9.

D. Bullpen blows late lead.   Plenty familiar with these.  Giants enter the ninth with a two-run lead and the guy we put out there gives up a couple of walks and a walk-off dong and they celebrate like they won the World Series.

E. Late comeback falls short.  We get down big early, but the offense and bullpen keep it together.  The Giants claw almost all the way back only to leave them loaded in the ninth.

My personal vote is for E.  Your head fills with all these images of a walkoff win then you get yanked back to reality by a couple horrible at-bats.  Is there a worse feeling in baseball than taking off your rally cap and turning it back rightside-out?

Alternative:  what is the most satisfying kind of victory?

This is from David Pinto over at baseballmusings.com (a great general MLB blog).

The Cleveland Indians are solid offensively at every position but second base. Barfield sports a .281 OBA coming into the game. That's bad even for a middle infielder. Now, with the strength of the rest of the team, the Indians can afford to let the young Barfield develop. But if they want a little extra oomph, maybe they can make a deal for Ray Durham? He's not having a great year, so his cost shouldn't be high. And maybe the Indians can send the Giants something they need, a young position player. Plus, moving Durham makes room for Kevin Frandsen, and make the team younger.

Check out this list, pitchers sorted by strikeout rate.  (Min 300 IP)

http://www.baseballmusings.com/cgi-bin/ComparePitchers.py?StartDate=04%2F15%2F1957&EndDate=05%2F 20%2F2007&GameType=all&PlayedFor=0&PlayedVs=0&Park=0&SortField=Case+When+Fractio nalInnings+%3E+0+Then+27.0*Strikeouts%2F%28FractionalInnings%29+ELSE+0.0+END&SortDir=desc&Mi nPA=300&MinDEC=0&MinG=0&MinGS=0&MinCG=0&MinGF=0&MinW=0&MinL=0&MinSV= 0&MinSHO=0&MinH=0&MinR=0&MinER=0&MinHR=0&MinBB=0&MinK=0&MinHP=0& MinBK=0&MinWP=0

Steve Kline is the second-worst all-time!

Well maybe not all-time, as the database "only" goes back 5 decades.  It makes me wonder how he has been so successful (career 3.26 ERA!) even though he never strikes anyone out.  His walk and HR rates are good, but not off-the-charts like his K rate.

Some more trivia: #1 all-time is Brad Lidge, and our buddy Mando is #6.