Category: San Francisco Giants

That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary: Roberto Clemente A man for all ages

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by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

Today is the 42nd anniversary of the great Roberto Clemente. On Dec. 31, 1972, Major League baseball player Roberto Clemente, 38, was killed when a plane he’d chartered and was traveling onto bringing relief supplies to earthquake stricken Nicaraguan’s disappeared north of the coast of San Juan, Puerto Rico. Clemente chartered a DC-3 with some friends and was taking all kinds of medicines to the many suffering in Managua, Nicaragua after a devastating earthquake. Clemente’s body was never found, buried at sea with the plane he chartered.

Clemente was inducted posthumously to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1973, becoming the first Latin American to be enshrined. His death established the precedent that as an alternate to the five year retirement period, a player deceased for at least 6 months is eligible for entry into the Hall of Fame.

Clemente is the first Latino player to win a World Series as a starter (1960), to receive a National League MVP Award (1966), and to receive a World Series MVP Award (1971). He also won the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and was honored by the United States Postal Service with a first class stamp.

Born in Carolina, Puerto Rico(also called El Cometa de Carolina/The Carolina Comet)originally signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers as amateur Free Agent in 1954. Made his debut at the age of 20 on April 17, 1955 with the Pittsburgh Pirates and played 18 years, until 1972. His last game was on October 3, 1972, In 18 seasons with the Pirates Clemente played in 2,433 games, hit 240 home runs, drove in 1,305 runs and ended with a .317 batting average. Won the most(tied with Willie Mays) Gold Gloves by an outfielder with 12.

He is a member of the “3,000 Club”. Thought he had hit #3,000 on September 29, 1972, as he safely beat out a ball that never left the infield at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. But the official scorer rules that Mets second baseman Ken Boswell erred on the play and Clemente went hit-less the rest of the game. Clemente’s, historic hit was the next day as the was the key in a fourth inning Pirate rally with a double against the left field wall off Met pitcher Jon Matlack.

As history will have it, that double, his 3,000 hits was his final at bat of the season, and tragically, the last of his career. His defensive prowess in right field was well documented, his style of play was always 100 percent. The language barrier did him no favors, as he was often miss-quoted, and also suffered discrimination. I was writing for El Mundo News of Oakland during his last year in the Major Leagues,(1972) and as I covered a game at Candlestick Park between the Giants and the Pirates after Clemente struck out, a Pittsburgh writer in loud voice said “send him back in a banana boat!”. I would always remember that. To this day Major League Baseball Roberto Clemente’s Humanitarian Award is given to a player.

Roberto Clemente was a very talented baseball player, maybe the best “bad pitch hitter” ever, with the best arm ever seen from right field, a quiet, proud, and very disciplined gentleman, he was A Man for All Ages.

Roberto Clemente’s 3,000th Hit
Date: September 30, 1972 Location: Three Rivers Stadium, Pittsburgh
Club: Pittsburgh (NL) Opponent: New York (NL)
Pitcher: John Matlack Hit: Double
Total career hits: 3,000

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the vice president of the Major League Baseball Hispanic Heritage Museum and does News and Commentary each week for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

49ers podcast: Niners ready to move on without Harbaugh; sources say assistant coach Shanahan could be in the mix

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by Morris Phillips

SANTA CLARA–Jim Harbaugh who completed coaching his final game as head coach with the San Francisco 49ers defeating the Arizona Cardinals to close out a four year run and is headed to Michigan to coach there next season and will be the highest paid college coach in the NCAA at $49 million for six years worth of work. Harbaugh lands on his feet and he did not get along with the 49ers brass and thus one of the biggest reasons why he’s out as coach.

In a unusual way to say goodbye to someone that bickered with the head coach on and off during Harbaugh’s tenor the 49ers CEO Jed York and General Manger Trent Baalke came on the sidelines after the game to give Harbaugh a huge goodbye hug. Not bad for someone whose bosses’ felt didn’t deserve a contract extension. The 49ers have a front office of stars with Baalke, Jed York, owners John York and Denise DeBartolo, and team president Paraag Marathe.

The 49ers brass feels justly that they’ve been a big part of what the 49ers have enjoyed in the last four years under Harbaugh and they are going to challenge themselves to get a better football coach or just as good as one as Harbaugh. Kyle Shanahan the Cleveland Browns offensive coordinator whose in his first year with the Browns has been name dropped according to sources as a candidate. The choice won’t be easy but that’s what the 49ers are challenging themselves to do.

As far as the biggest distractions are concerned you just can’t get away from former 49er Ray McDonald who was arrested this season for domestic violence and eventually released by the team for allegations of sexual assault and Aldon Smith was suspended by the team for nine games for illegal weapons charges and DUI. If your trying to win a championship and if your trying to be a great football team professionalism is first and McDonald and Smith really let the team down.

The 49ers really need to do some soul searching in terms of where their heads really are at in terms of getting the job done on the field based on what their doing off the field. Distractions are huge, it’s a distraction for the team and greater than the distraction you just wonder how you play championship football when you have all this other stuff going on. The real simple observation in terms of distraction maybe what outweighed them is just that this football team is fast. The 49ers are fast based on the way that they played which was physical and just like what Harbaugh wanted them to do by injuries and it all added up. Injuries had a real cumulative effect of what the team did on the field with it’s physical play to get to where they are now.

Stanford Cardinal in the Foster Farms Bowl at Levis Stadium: With Stanford University you just feel like great things are coming head coach David Shaw has made it very clear that he’s staying on board and he’s not going anywhere. He’s coming back and his first three years as head coach have been dynamite. He got the Rose Bowl championship in 2013 and won and then a second trip to the Rose Bowl in 2014 and lost that one. The NFL are looking at the Cardinal and to see if they can retain some of those guys.

The Cardinal are going to make a run at the championship and the Pac 12 Championship next season again in 2015, this is a really solid college football program their having the game at Levis Stadium and for hosting the Foster Farms Bowl and the future is looking very bright. The size of the crowds when comparing venues for the Foster Farms Bowl hasn’t changed between AT&T Park and Levis Stadium. So with the venue change (this being the first year at Levis Stadium) your going to have a partially empty football stadium on Tuesday night.

An empty stadium doesn’t necessarily look good with the local team involved and they might draw around 40,000 fans for that game and maybe they’ll get 50,000. Once again Levis Stadium in Santa Clara is not a hotbed for college football and Maryland who faces Stanford doesn’t draw the local sports crowd. So it’s a match up on Tuesday between the Stanford Cardinals and the Maryland Terrapins at Levis Stadium for the Foster Farms Bowl.

Click below as Morris Phillips continues his podcast and covers the San Francisco 49ers and Cal Bears for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Thats Amaury’s News and Commentary: Baseball in Havana? Not so fast

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by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

SAN FRANCISCO–Cuba is the only country outside the United States that had a professional baseball team in the United States.The Havana Sugar Kings were a Cuban-based minor league baseball team that played in the Class AAA International League from 1954 to 1960 .

They were affiliated with Major League Baseball’s Cincinnati Reds and their home stadium was El Gran Estadio del Cerro(sometimes called Gran Stadium) in Havana, Cuba. The Sugar Kings began life in 1946 as the Havana Cubans, founded by the Washington Senators scout Joe Cambria. They played in the old Class C (later Class B) Florida International League In 1954, Roberto “Bobby” Maduro bought the team, moved it to the International League, and renamed it the Sugar Kings.

Several talented Cuban players and other Latinos who eventually made it to the Major Leagues donned the Sugar Kings uniform, including Luis Arroyo Pompeyo Davalillo, Tony Gonzalez, Cookie Rojas, Elio Chacon, Daniel Morejon, Preston Gómez, Leo Cárdenas, and Mike Cuellar. The Sugar Kings — led by future major league manager Preston Gómez 1960 was the last year the Cuban team played in theInternational League. That year the teams finished: 1-Toronto Maple Leafs(Clev), 2-Richmond Virginians(New Yankees), 3-Rochester Red Wings(St.Louis), 4- Buffalo Bisons(Phila), 5-Havana Sugar Kings(Cinci), 6-Columbus Jets(Pitts),7-Miami Marlins(Balt), 8-Montreal Royals(LAD).

Preston Gómez who worked for the Los Angeles Angels towards the end of his life, told me that Cuba was the perfect place for expansion if Major League Baseball decided to have a club outside the continental United States; geographical location, easy travel for most teams, just a hop from Miami. Gómez was sent by the baseball commissioner to Cuba to arrange the 1998 exhibition series between the Baltimore Orioles and the Cuban National team.

Preston also told me, that the United States will never have a team back in Cuba (at any level) unless Cuba had a totally different type of government.Just days after President Barack Obama made his announcement of the US intentions of re-establishing relations with Cuba President Raúl Castro declared victory for the Cuban Revolution,in a wide-ranging speech, thanking President Obama for “a new chapter” while also reaffirming that restored relations with the United States did not mean the end of Communist rule in Cuba.

In Cuba the 1% is the government. The leaders of the communist nation eat well, they can travel freely in and out of the island, they have all the privileges that they themselves negate the regular Cuban people. So it remains to be seen what really is going to happen between the US and Cuba. Words are just words, unless they translate to action.The fact is that in 1960 Cuba was one of the most advanced countries in Latin America.

A lot of people here in the US still do not understand, that under the current communist dictatorship of over half century in the island of Cuba, President Barack Obama is considered another capitalist pig by thecurrent Cuban government. That is the rhetoric that Cuba has been spilling, even after they lost their biggest friend, the old Soviet Union, who sponsored Cuba for billions of dollars each year, and after 1989 when that country’s system of communism went down the drain, Cuba was left alone with little support. Cuba had a lot to do in Venezuela, especially when Hugo Chávez was alive and became very cozy with Fidel Castro, who Chávez himself considered like a father to him, because of the same communist philosophy their shared.

The decline in world oil prices, today Venezuela is going through a very difficult economic crisis. There is a lot of misunderstanding about Cuba, since there has been non diplomatic relations with that country and no travel really allowed from the US to Cuba since the early 1960’s. Cuba always benefited for its geographic location, just 90 milesfrom US shores. However, the US never colonized Cuba,as a matter of historical fact, America actually liberated Cuba from Spanish colonialism, and though the U.S.influenced the island heavily for decades afterward, the U.S. President recently attempted the moral equivalence between “colonization” and communist tyranny, and that, at the least’is very disingenuous.

Cuba gained its independence from Spain in 1902. Havana had a lot of American influence until 1960, and yes the mafia had a foothold in the entertainment business in Havana, but the same was the case then in Las Vegas, Atlantic City and many other cities in the United States.Havana was Las Vegas, before there was Las Vegas, but most of the Cuban people had absolutely nothing to do with the mob. It is a chapter that Hollywood loves to recreate, but most of those big time movie moguls never visited Cuba and had no idea of the real Cuba before Fidel Castro and his gang.

In 2005 Cuban-American born actor Andy García, Produced and Directed “The Lost City”, a story of his family caught in the middle of a violent revolution,they had to leave and lost everything, but there are far and few movies of that sort. One of the reasons this movie was made is because García’s family lived it in his native Cuba, and obvioulsy he has the means and the name and the respect of Hollywood, to make the movie.

US citizen Alan Gross was arrested in Cuba in 2009 and sentenced to 15 years in prison for importing banned technology and trying to establish clandestine Internet service for Cuban Jews. After serving 5 years he was recently released and is now back in the United States.

As of today, at the very end of 2014, US. citizens arebarred from traveling to Cuba without government permission under a U.S. trade embargo imposed half a century ago that can only be lifted by Congress. The composition(balance of power) of the US Congress is changing next month, so this story still developing. Through out the years many people asked me why I have not visited Cuba. There is nothing for me to do there, I know what happened, I know the truth, my family left and I still have the deed of the illegaly confiscated property that was taken by the Castro government.

For me to visit Cuba today will bring me more bad than good memories. I know US citizens that go to Cuba, but I have yet met one that stayed in Cuba, some do not like corporations or capitalism, but they rather live here in the US, which is very interesting, because if they were honest to their core, they would stay in Cuba. If you do not want to see Walmarts and McDonalds, I would recommend moving to Cuba and be happy.

Will professional baseball be back in Cuba? Time will tell, the root of the problem in Cuba is not the Cuban people, but their government, they are the ones that have to change, The US has been a democracy for 239 years, Cuba has been a totalitarian communist dictatorship for some 55 years. You can be a communist in the US, we can see the signs in many demostrations on the street here, but you cannot be for democracy in Cuba, and if you are, and the Cuban government finds out, your next home is a prison.

Wishing you and yours a healthy, happy and prosperous 2015.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez does News and Commentary each week for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary: Normalization of Cuba with baseball

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by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

The United States of America has announced the re-establishing of relations with the country of Cuba, and the US will have an embassy in Havana, the capital of Cuba, and Cuba will have and embassy in Washington, D.C.
Many of you know I was born in Cuba. My family sent me to the United States in 1961, when I was 17 years old to live with my aunt in Miami. The Cuban system of government has been a communist dictatorship for over half a century under the Castro brothers.

True, the US embargo has not worked, but it is also true that during this past half century Cuba continues to be a big Human Rights abuser in the island, as documented by the neutral and non-profit organization Amnesty International. Cuba also trades with many other countries during the US blockade and still is a country “stuck in the 50’s”. That is a failure of their system of government, not of the United States, since (Cuba the closest island in the Caribbean to our coast) has never been a State of the U.S.

When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1989 under communism, Cuba lost its main avenue of financial support. The Soviets were supporting Cuba to the tune of billions of dollars. The repression in Cuba has continued for decades. My family had to leave the country soon after they sent me to the U.S. (in 1961) and my late my brother Jay (in 1964) to the U.S. My father used to own a mid-size plumbing company in Havana. The Castro government illegally confiscated the property, as the government there nationalized many companies owned by foreign nationals as well as Cubans.

My way of life was totally and radically changed by the communist system on the island. My dream was never to leave Cuba, but to study to become a architect. But that dream was taken away from me from a totalitarian system of government.
I was glad my parents sent me to the U.S. I could have never lived in Cuba for the past 50 years. The people there have been brainwashed to the communist lifestyle. The government tells the people what to do, or what not to do, the word Liberty=Freedom, has not existed in the Cuban dictionary for a bunch of generations now.

All of the communications/media in the island is totally controlled and centralized by the Cuban government.Whatever the U.S. does, would not work unless Cuba also changes its policy against the U.S. Is Cuba going to change to a democracy? Are they going to have open and free elections? Are they going to become a Democracy? Those are questions that the President of the United States cannot address, for it is Cuba that would have to make those moves.

For business it offers a great opportunity. American capital could invest in Cuba, and Havana would have hundreds of McDonald’s and KFC’s. And a lot of other business interest from the U.S. could return to Cuba, where to the day, no corporation from the U.S. can go there and build a Walmart,for example.As far as baseball is concerned, this is the best news for Cuban players. For decades they have been defecting from the island. When they travel outside of Cuba, asking for political exile, or many escaping the island in man-made crafts and sailing north through the treacherous Florida Straits.

Kendy Morales, now with the Kansas City Royals, tried to escape Cuba 9 different times, and wasdss apprehended, until finally he succeeded. Many of these Cuban players when they escaped, they left their families behind, and as it is well documented, these families where harassed by the Cuban government. I was a kid in Cuba when my dad used to take me to the Cuban Winter Professional League. That league was abolished in 1961 when Fidel Castro eradicated all pro-sports and declared the country a Marxist-Leninist government, I remember guys like Orestes (Minnie) Miñoso who played for the Marianao Tigers in Cuba, and then here he played with the Chicago White Sox.

Before Castro, Cuban baseball players had the freedom of coming to the U.S. to play professional baseball and then returned to Cuba in the off season, obviously that has not been the case under the Castro brothers.One of my heroes, is Minnie Miñoso, he is 90 years young and lives and still works in the community for the Chicago White Sox in the Windy City.

Do not mention Castro to Miñoso, he never supported Castro, and like over 1 million Cubans living here in the US, we all share basically the same experience. Or Rafael Felo Ramirez (about the same age as Miñoso) the Spanish Voice of the Miami Marlins and my mentor, he can tell you stories about the repression he suffered in Cuba, this is nothing new.

Will this “experiment ” work? I have no idea. I honestly believe Cuba would really change when Fidel Castro dies as well as his brother Raúl. They both share the same communist philosophy, although Raúl seems to be more pragmatic. Fidel is still living in the world of Lenin-Marx-Stalin and Mao, he might even be senile, and that would explain why nobody still believes in a bankrupt philosophy like communism.

Whatever happens, relations or no relations, baseball will continue as the #1 sport in Cuba. It is the constant of the largest islands of the Caribbean. The first Latin American country to ever send a player to the United States, when Esteban Bellán played in 1868 after attending Fordham University in New York City.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the Spanish radio voice for Oakland A’s baseball and does News and Commentary for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary: A’s and Giants at the Winter meetings

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by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

OAKLAND–The 2014 Winter Meetings concluded in San Diego, the Oakland Athletics were one of the busiest teams as far as trading players; but that is no big surprise when you have Billy Beane as your General Manager.
The Media and fans will have time to digest basically a new team that the A’s will have this next season, and of course, things will start to take shape come Spring Training next February. Josh Donaldson, Jeff Samardzija, Brandon Moss, Luke Gregerson are some of the most notable that were traded.

New Athletics in 2015 are: Billy Butler talented power hitter from the American League Champion Kansas City Royals, who got a 3-year $30 million contract from the A’s, also third baseman Matt Lawrie(came from Toronto for Josh Donalson),and first baseman Ike Davis, who came from the Pirates in exchange for international signing bonus money.
The Pirates also received the A’s first bonus slot, No. 27 overall, with $501,900 and the Pirates also sent their third bonus slot, No.86 overall at $232,000 to the Athletics.

While the A’s were ‘wheeling and dealing’ the San Francisco Giants who make a huge bid to get Jon Lester, were really one of the most silent teams during the meetings. One General Manager said, “one of the best trades I ever made, was the one I never made”. So maybe for the champion Giants it was a good thing. On the other hand there is a little secret that they need help in the starting rotation, also at third base, sans Pablo Sandoval, and another right handed hitter would not be a bad idea.

Their number one starter is Madison Bumgarner, inked for Opening Day 2015. Then Matt Cain, who should be ready for Spring Training after elbow surgery in early August, to remove bone chips from his right arm. He only started 15 games this past season won 2 lost 7 with a 4.18 earned run average pitching just 90 innings. Ryan Vogelsong who is today a Free Agent, and 37 years old, finished with 8-13 and 4.00 in 32 games he started.

Tim Hudson who will be 40 years old next season, finished 9-13 with 3.57 earned run average starting 31 games. Tim Lincecum won 12 lost 9 with a 4.74 in a total of 26 games he started plus 7 in relief. Nobody really knows what Lincecum is going to do, maybe a guy like Nostradamus, the reputed French seer might have an answer, but he died in 1566.

Venezuelan-born Yusmerio Petit continued his good work for Bruce Bochy, with a 5-5 record and 3.69, he started 12 games and came out of the bullpen in another 27 games. Petit pitched 117 innings. Petit is steady, he gets the ball (when given to him)and usually knows what to do with it. Also veteran righthander Jake Peavy who is a free agent, he has been courted by the Chicago Cubs and other teams, but he still can sign with Giants.

Free Agent starters like Mike(I want a $200 million contract)Scherzer is available, also lefty Cole Hammels and righty James Shields. I do not believe Giants will go after Scherzer, not because what he is asking(they can afford it)but because he wants to be a #1 in a rotation wherever he goes, and the only place he could be a #2 would be behind Felix Hernández in Seattle or Clayton Kershaw with the Dodgers.

So Hamels might still be a possibility for the Giants, he is one of the best left handed pitchers in the game, but the Phillies are looking for a lot of young talent in return, and Giants might not have what the Phillies need.

So that leaves James Shields, and I believe he is the best shot for the Giants. The Giants still need somebody at third base, as of today(if season opened today)Joaquin Arias is their third baseman, unless Buster Posey takes over at the hot corner by April, and that is a long shot today.

Chase Headley is the third baseman still available, he who played most of his career with the Padres played 2014 for the Yankees and made $10 million dollars in salary this season, but will be a Free Agent in 2015.As I write this article, the Yankees are still talking to him in negotiations to keep him. I do not think Alex Rodríguez is coming back to the Yankees, although Yankee manager Joe Girardi recently said the reports are A-Rod is looking good an training in the off season.

Although the Winter Meetings concluded this week in San Diego, teams still will be making trades, and it will be interesting to know what the Bay Area teams still be able to do. I do not know what more the Oakland Athletics will do, but never be surprised by Billy Beane. As far as for the Giants…

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the Spanish radio voice for Oakland A’s baseball and does News and Commentary each week for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary: Mad Bum SI Sportsman of the year

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by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

ALAMEDA–Although San Francisco Giant Madison Bumgarner wasn’t the best pitcher in the Majors in 2014. The Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kernshaw won the Cy Young Award for the National League and he also won the Most Valuable Player Award. Having said that Bumgarner may not have been the best pitcher in baseball in the regular season but he did something in post season worthy of winning the Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year Award.

In the World Series he either won or led his team to a win in the series three times and finished the series with a 1.03 ERA. He pitched when the pressure was on and what he did was not seen in my generation and maybe two generations behind me having not seen one pitcher be a huge factor in three World Series games to lead the team.

Those three unforgettable appearances he had in Kansas City was stuff of legend and even though Bumgarner was not the best pitcher in all of baseball from April to September he put on his Superman cape on in October and was a monster pitcher and without him the Giants could not have won their third World Series in the last five years.

I agree Bumgarner is the Sportsman of the Year and the athletes are subjective to all sorts of sporting awards when selected by the media. I agree to this one, Bumgarner deserved every bit of this award he can savor it this winter until spring training. When Bumgarner came on as a reliever in the seventh game of the series against Kansas City and won it that clinched the award for him and he’s not a reliever by the way.

A good reliever in those situations when the starter gets replaced can make all the difference but when that reliever is a starter like Bumgarner that’s why the Royal fans were silent when Mad Bum came out in the seventh game. I challenge anybody to go and look at that film when Bumgarner came out of the bullpen and when the P.A. announcer introduced Bumgarner to relieve you couldn’t hear a pin drop as fans were in a state of shock. The Kansas City Royal fans just couldn’t believe that Bumgarner was coming out to relieve.

Future of Harbaugh and players in question after losing in Oakland: The San Francisco 49ers locker room was depressed after the 24-13 loss at the Oakland Coliseum. It’s a loss a lot of people will remember for a long time, they looked awful dropping this game to the Oakland Raiders. I don’t want to take any credit from the Raiders who were coming off a 52-0 loss to St.Louis the previous Sunday.

The 49ers had nothing and Kaepernick was really asleep at the wheel he was a disaster in this game he was throwing to the sidelines and he was not the same Kaepernick that he was in the last few years. Then there is this soap opera with head coach Jim Harbaugh, Harbaugh will be gone after the season is over. It doesn’t look like the 49ers are going to keep him, the 49ers have a lot of problems.

On the other side the Raiders are very happy with quarterback Derrick Carr. I always liked this kid since the first day. Last Sunday was his best game of the season, Carr threw for three touchdown passes against the 49ers and granted he didn’t get a lot of pressure from the 49ers but still the Raiders got what they wanted accomplished “Just win Baby.”

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the Spanish radio voice for Oakland A’s baseball and does News and Commentary each week for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

SF Giants report: Flannery retires; second big figure to leave S.F.

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by Jeremy Harness & Morris Phillips

SAN FRANCISCO–For the second straight day an influential figure has left the San Francisco Giants first it was Pablo Sandoval on Monday this time Giants third base coach Tim Flannery has hung up his waving and sending signals to runners and hitters after eight seasons with the team. Flannery 57 is retiring after some 33 years in baseball.

Flannery was asked if it was a difficult decision to leave the game he worked in for so many years Flannery said he was thinking about leaving the game during the 2014 season and inspite of winning three championships with the team Flannery said the time has come. Giants manager Bruce Bochy said he and Flannery spent many years coaching together “I think he did some soul searching and thought this was the right decision for him and his family. I certainly respect that. I’m going to miss Flan, with over 30 years of playing together and coaching together. We’ve gone down a lot of roads together” said Giants manager Bruce Bochy.

Flannery was floated to manage in the big leagues some day after many years of coaching at third base but never wanted any part of managing and he said that he has done everything that he had to do in the show and is satisfied with what he accomplished.

“I had no desire to manage. This has all been thought out. This is not a knee jerk-reaction. So then you ask yourself, what else are you going to do? Keep coaching third till I drop over? Win a fourth championship? A fifth? What else can I do in the next phase of my life? asked Flannery.

Flannery also has been hit with various setbacks over the years as well as many different surgeries and he had knee surgery last year. Flannery also says he has double vision and he plans to take care of that soon. Flannery had suffered from double vision since spring training.

The Giants are considering two candidates to fill Flannery’s old job as third base coach Bill Hayes who is a former minor league manager and has worked coaching as a bullpen catcher and catching coach and filled in as a third base coach. The Giants could look to their Triple AAA manager in Sacramento Bob Mariano.

Morris Phillips and Jeremy Harness both are Giants beat writers for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Thats Amaury’s News and Commentary: Panda’s new habitat

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by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

SAN FRANCISCO–Pablo Sandoval had three official offers, one from the Boston Red Sox, one from the San Diego Padres and one from the San Francisco Giants. Pablo picked the Boston Red Sox. All three offers were believed to be for five years and at least $90 million.

The Giant Panda lives in a few mountain ranges in central China, mainly in Sichaun province, but also in Shaanxi and Gansu provinces, however this Panda, the one from Venezuela who plays third base is going to Boston, Massachusetts, to be more exact Fenway Park, the home of the Boston Red Sox, the same Red Sox team that finished last this season in the American League East, but won the 2013 World Series.

We can all speculate why Pablo and his agent chose Boston. Did he get tired of the same old-same-same-old story every year in San Francisco that the Giants wanted him to lose weight, but he did and he put it back on. Did he (and his family) just want a “change of scenery”, Boston is a beautiful city also, or the most obvious one (in my opinion) going to the American League he can extend his career and can always rest his legs by giving David Ortiz a brake as the Designated Hitter of the team, something he could never do with the Giants.

As good as Giants fans have been filling AT&T Park for years, Boston has the most passionate fans in all of baseball, and unforgiving fans also. Boston is a tough town to play, but if Pablo has the same regular season he had this year in Boston in 2015, the talk shows, the media, the fans in Beantown are sure to drive Pablo crazy.

On the other hand if the team makes it to the Postseason, then you have one of the best hitters in recent memory in a World Series. Pablo has an innate ability to “turn up the switch”in the postseason, and that is something that two of the biggest stars ever for these two franchises cannot say, Barry Bonds for the Giants and Ted Williams for the Red Sox; you are welcome to check Bonds and Williams stats in postseason, and they are not pretty.

So just like Panda picked the team he wanted to play, you are free to pick one of these scenarios, or maybe your own, maybe Pablo loves history and Boston has as much American history as any other city in the country. Maybe when the “dogs days of summer” arrive in Boston, with that humidity and he has a bad game, strikes out 3 times, leaves a ton of runners in scoring position, he can always go to the cemetery where Paul Revere is buried and think of American revolutionary history.

Pablo is leaving the Bay Area with three World Series rings (the third one he will probably get by courier to Boston next year) and leaves as one of the most popular Giants in recent memory; without a doubt since the 2000 season when the team moved from maligned Candlestick Park to comfy AT&T Park.

Pablo Sandoval is an easy going guy, affable with the fans and with teammates, and a guy that works as hard as anybody in baseball, you might think that is not accurate because of his weight, but it is a true statement. I have seen Pablo in Spring Training year after year. I have never heard anything negative about Pablo, from his teammates or from anybody in the media.

Boston is a different type of town for baseball, the Red Sox are more about baseball 100X100 than about mascots or Panda merchandise and souvenirs, the Red Sox fans live and die with their team, and they talk baseball all the time. With all respect to San Francisco, the Red Sox fans are way ahead of Giants fans when it comes to passion for the game. Unlike AT&T Park, there are no animal mascots at Fenway Park; as a matter of fact did you know who was the mascot of the Boston Red Sox? It is Wally the Green Monster! Now, how many people even knew that?

Common sense tells you that the Panda(nickname given to him from ex-Giants and A’s pitcher Barry Zito) would be happier in San Francisco, a city where he could do no wrong, but he has done it all in the City by the Bay, he has won enough hardware for his baseball showcase at home, as well sold enough merchandise and good will for the Giants, a team that is now advertising tickets for next season as a dynasty.

But who’s business is to say where Pablo should play? It is still a free country, and he was courted by at least the three teams that made very similar offers, and it is Pablo’s business and his family where he wants to play. As simple as that. So Giants fans, you do not have to complain from April to September anymore about the Panda anymore, but you will miss him if the Red Sox go back to the World Series next season, which for them would be their second World Series in the past three seasons.

So far the Red Sox are the big spenders this off season, also signing Hanley Ramírez from the Dodgers for 4 years and $88 million, and what I hear from Boston, is that they are not done yet with free agents. Jon Lester’s Red Sox jersey is waiting for him, just like he left it last season, nice and clean, at Fenway Park…

Felicidades Pablo y muy buena suerte!

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the vice president of the Major League Baseball Hispanic Heritage Museum and does News and Commentary each week on http://www.sportsradioservice.com

That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary: Panda will be wearing Red Sox for the next five years at a $100 M

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by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

SAN FRANCISCO–Former San Francisco Giants third baseman Pablo Sandoval has come to an agreement with the Boston Red Sox to the tune of $100 million for five years. Sandoval will be joined by former L.A. Dodger Hanley Ramirez who signed on with the Sox for a cool $88 million for four years.

The word on Yoenis Cespedes he will be traded because the Sox don’t have room for him in the outfield. The Sox said that Ramirez can play leftfield and Ramirez is basically a shortstop. This is nothing new during the Giants celebration parade I was working TV for Telemundo and the news anchor at the time asked “what are the chances of Sandoval leaving the Giants?”

I told the anchor that the chances of Sandoval leaving are excellent and now the Red Sox are going to pay Sandoval $100 million which the Giants weren’t willing to give up. That’s a great opportunity for Sandoval and congratulations are in order for him. He’s going to a team that’s going to be in the race again.

This is that time of the year when teams sign free agents and you might remember last year that the Angels signed Albert Pujols and C.J. Wilson. Well this year is the Red Sox year, their getting Sandoval and Ramirez these are two established All-Stars. These two guys are commanding $90-100 contracts a piece.

Their not done yet the Sox could get Jon Lester back and Lester is worth another $100 million at least for a few years. The Red Sox are looking to improve and their looking to move up in the standings from last place and the Sox won the World Series in 2013 and last season they finished in last place.

But guess what the Sox could be in the World Series next season and they could do what the Giants did and get to the Series every other year. The Sox are going to have the guns, their going to have the players. Pablo is going to be interesting because he had all the love in San Francisco however even though anyone who covers baseball knows that Boston is a tough town on bad baseball.

I just hate to see what those fans in Fenway would do if Sandoval strikes out at the plate and looking bad doing it in the bottom of the ninth and loosing a game for the Sox. The talk shows in Boston are going to go crazy. Yes the Giants get a full house every time they play at home at 41,000 plus but let me tell you Boston fans are the most passionate fans in the game.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the Spanish radio voice for the Oakland A’s and does News and Commentary each week on http://www.sportsradioservice.com

That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary: The Cuban invasion of the Y

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by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

OAKLAND–This week José Abreu was named American League Rookie of the Year. The Chicago White Sox first baseman won the honors as he finished the season with a .317 average 36 home runs and 107 runs batted in, if the White Sox had won the Central Division, José Abreu would have been in contention to win the Most Valuable Player, and you can make an argument that even with his team finishing in fourth place, Abreu’s performance is among the very best in baseball.

Other Cuban-born players, like the extremely talented Yasiel Puig, with the big market Los Angeles Dodgers got much more publicity than José Abreu, there is little doubt that Abreu had the best season among the newly arrived talented crop of players born in the largest island of the Antilles. A lot of the young people in this country are “rediscovering Cuba”, like it is a new place for baseball, but that could not be anything further from the truth.

For Cuba, baseball is nothing new. The first ever Hispanic player to play professional baseball in the United States was Esteban Bellán.

Bellán was born in La Habana Cuba in 1850. Bellán and his brother were sent to the United States to study at Fordham, a Jesuit institution. In 1868, after his time at Fordham, Bellán played for the Unions of Morrisania, a New York team.

In 1869 Bellán joined the Troy Haymakers for whom he played third base until 1872. In 1871 the Haymakers joined the National Association, which became the National League in 1876. The Haymakers later became the New York Giants, now the San Francisco Giants.The Esteban Bellán story is part of history as well as what happened in Cuba when Fidel Castro took over power over 50 years ago and eradicated all professional sports in the country, after declaring his government a Marxist-Leninist system of government, and since has remained a communist dictatorship. Cubans have been playing baseball,even before Fidel Castro’s father was born.

Major League Baseball has a rich tradition of Hispanic players, and Cubans are back in force, as part of the mix in today’s game. Many of these Cuban players arriving escaped in man made crafts and left the country in the middle of the night.

Many of the new crop of Cuban players had to risk their lives in order to come and play in the United States. Previous to the current system in Cuba, players like Orestes “Minnie”Miñoso, Camilo Pascual, Leo Cárdenas, Zoilo Versalles, Pedro Ramos, Tony Taylor, Octavio”Cookie”Rojas, Frank”Panchón”Herrera, Julio Béquer, Mike Fornieles and many others played in Major League Baseball, but even with previous dictatorships in Cuba, they were allowed to travel in and out of the island.

That is not possible in today’s Cuba and that is why most of these Cuban players arriving now,have to defect while they are playing outside their country, or escape in small boats looking for that opportunity of playing here, in the Major Leagues. For any baseball player the ultimate goal is to play here in the best baseball league in the world. These two countries are separated geographically by 90 miles, but in ideology by 10,000 miles.

Dozens of Cubans have defected, and not all made it to the Major Leagues, but today Yoenis Céspedes, Yasiel Puig, José Abreu, José Fernández, Aroldis Chapman, and others are part of the names in box scores during the regular season which media and fans are very familiar.

The young Yasmani Tomas is part of the new breed, the 23 year old has been pursued by at least six different teams and could be the next signing. Maybe by the time you read this article he already has a contract. Also,a 19 year old that has been working out in Guatemala, by the name of Yoan Moncada,(considered a phenom), there are reports of at least 60 Major League scouts who went to Guatemala to see the kid.

The Los Angeles Angels recently signed 20 year old Cuban-born infielder Roberto Baldoquin to a record-breaking $8 million signing bonus. In 2004 the Angels signed Kendrys Morales, making that the last time the Angels dived into the Cuban-player market. By the way, this season Yoslan Herrera pitched for the Angels, he was born in Pinar del Rio, Cuba, the land of the great Tony Oliva. Cuban Rusney Castillo, who signed with the Boston Red Sox is now going to play for the Caguas team of the Puerto Rican Winter League.

Back in 1980 the Mariel Boat-lift brought a group of players, among them Bárbaro Garbey,who played third base for the Detroit Tigers and Texas Rangers, so Cubans have been leaving the island for decades now, but what is different now is this “steady stream” of players arriving, which is more like and invasion of the “Y”< A lot of these Cuban players have first names that begin with the letter "Y".

I have asked many of them,-more of that later- and they really do not know. What we do know is that until the collapse of the Soviet Union 25 years ago in 1989, the Soviet influence was big in Cuba, since the former communist super power was supporting Cuba to the tune of billions of dollars each year. It is possible that because of the failure of that system, that the Cuban government now "looks the other way" and is just about conceding that they cannot keep these talented players in Cuba.

Yuniesky Betancourt, was one of the first I remember(with the first name beginning with a Y) when he was at the Seattle Mariners Spring Training camp in Peoria, Arizona, before his first year,(2005) I asked him,if he knew why he and many of his compatriots had names that began with the letter Y. He really didn't know. Although this is not any kind of scientific study,I came to the conclusion, simply common sense, that it was the result of these players were born during or recently after the collapse of the Soviet Union. While many of these names are not Russian, they are a combination of Russian and Cuban cultures. But there is no doubt, the Y is now a very popular letter in the baseball dictionary.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the vice president of the Major League Baseball Hispanic Heritage Museum and does News and Commentary each week on http://www.sportsradioservice.com