Category: San Francisco Giants

2014 World Series Commentary: Strickland will not be the goat for Giants going off track

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by Michael Duca

SAN FRANCISCO–Giants relief pitcher Hunter Strickland and the near brawl in Kansas City in game two last Wednesday has nothing to the do with the Giants losing game two or having anything to do with the Giants going off track and losing game three either.

The Giants have not lost their poise due to Strickland’s actions and the Giants turned on six pitches and the Giants Hunter Pence was thrown out stealing. Pence who had a base hit and the Giants only had four hits and they have to capitalize on it and there was no problem with Pence’s steal attempt and it was done at the proper time and they just threw him out by a fraction of a foot.

It was a great performance by both pitchers the Royals Jeremy Guthrie (1-0) and the Giants starter Tim Hudson (0-1). Guthrie and the Royals bullpen of Kevin Herera, Brandon Finnegan, Wade Davis, and closer Greg Holland stopped the Giants after the sixth inning. The Giants Javier Lopez gave up a hit that wound up allowing the third run. Lopez though continues his streak with 19 straight post season appearances until reliever Jeremy Affeldt past him up with his 21st post season appearance.

Affeldt got charged with a run that puts him behind only former Yankee releiver Mariano Rivera on the all time list in 21 games. The Royals pitched well in game three on Friday night there are no two ways about it. They located their pitches, Herera had difficulty with his command and it was surprising that they doubled switched and they pinched hit for Herera when he came up with a runner at first base with two outs.

Royals manager Ned Yost said that Herera’s arm bounces back a little faster and he can sit between innnings and come back and throw and Davis cannot. Their absolutely commmitted to going with Herera, Davis and Holland in that order and not letting anybody else break into that sequence. So that’s what the Royals did and it worked well for them. More power to them they have the better team.

They were ready from the first pitch when Hudson threw it to start the game and the Royals hit it hard scoring the opening run of the ball game in the top of the first to get things going. Then after that it was a lot of ground balls until the Royals picked up two more runs in the top of the sixth inning. It was rock solid in the middle of the game between Guthrie and Hudson.

20 straight batters came to the plate and they were scored outs from both sides of the dugouts. It was a well played, well pitched game. The Giants third baseman Pablo Sandoval made an brilliant play on a ball that was hit by a shattered bat. Pieces of the bat and Sandoval had to bare hand the ball and it nearly eluded his arms reach. Panda was able to reach out and pluck it in the air, juggle it, get a grip on it and throw it to first base. It was an absolutely top notch World Series play.

Michael Duca is doing commentary on the 2014 World Series for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

photo credit: google images

The only other time Kansas City played in S.F., neither the Royals or Giants were dreaming of a World Series appearance

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By Morris Phillips

In June 2005, the only other time the Royals played the Giants in San Francisco, neither team was anywhere near a World Series appearance.

The Royals were 20 years into a playoff drought that would stretch to 28 before this miraculous run that has the confident bunch three wins away from a world championship heading into Friday night’s Game 3. The Giants were in the midst of a horrible season that would see Barry Bonds play just 14 games—all in September–and hit only five home runs following multiple knee surgeries.

The Giants entered that series in fourth place in the NL West, already nine games off the pace of the San Diego Padres.  But that seemed optimal when compared to the Royals, who were already 20 ½ games behind the White Sox in the AL Central.  The White Sox would go on to win the World Series that year while the Royals would win just 56 games, which still ranks as the poorest one-season win total in their history.

Prior to the series opener in San Francisco that year, the Royals were 21 games below .500 and already on their third manager after Tony Pena resigned on May 11, and was replaced by bench coach Bob Schaefer on an interim basis.  By the time the Royals got to San Francisco, Buddy Bell had been hired to lead the club and they were playing well, winning four of their first six games in late May.

But the 2005 Royals were a team of youngsters and castoffs, and things would turn sour again a month later when they would lose 19 straight starting on July 28.  After the first nine of those loses, the Royals made eight—count ‘em eight—rosters moves before their Saturday night game at home against the A’s.  Then the Royals went out and lost 16-1 to Oakland in a game in which four Kansas City pitchers issued a combined 10 walks.

Jose Lima was the starter that night, and the emotional pitcher’s 2005 season may have been his worst.  Just one season after he won 13 games for the Dodgers, Lima signed as a free agent with Kansas City and lost 16 games.  Against the A’s that night, Lima walked four, allowed a home run to Oakland’s Dan Johnson and didn’t survive the fifth inning.  The home run given up to Johnson was the major-league leading 24th Lima had allowed to that point.  He would go on to serve up 31 gopher balls in 2005, which shockingly dwarfed the total of 48 home runs he allowed in 2000 when he was 7-16 for the Astros.

Lima’s battery mate that night, John Buck summed it up when he said, “Losing is never easy.  It ruins your day.”

Among the players on the Kansas City roster that season were the humorously named Jimmy Gobble, pinch-hitting great Matt Stairs, J.P Howell and Terrence Long, a pair of veterans who had been pretty good players previously for the Dodgers and A’s respectively.  Reliever Jeremy Affeldt was just starting to establish himself as lefty specialist, a role he continues to fill for the Giants.

Rookie Mark Teahan was a high draft choice of Oakland’s that was traded to Kansas City after just two years.  Teahan made his major league debut with the 2005 Royals and did some good things, but couldn’t establish himself defensively at third base.  After an impressive April, Teahan cooled, hitting .240 for the season while his fielding percentage (.947) was the lowest in the American League that year.

The Giants had their own issues with veterans and young players that year.  Kirk Reuter was smashed in the series opener against Kansas City, which the Giants went on to lose 8-1.  Reuter was removed in the fifth inning that night after allowing runs in each of the first three innings.  Reuter would finish that season 2-7, his second straight losing season in San Francisco.  In August that season, the Giants parted ways with Reuter after nine seasons.  After Reuter complained about his role in the bullpen after being demoted as a starter, the Giants felt they could no longer deal with the distraction as well as the declining performance, which explains how one of their all-time great San Francisco players was so ceremoniously released.

The 2005 season was Felipe Alou’s last as Giants’ manager and promising starter Matt Cain’s first with the club.  Alou managed three seasons in San Francisco and was on the cusp of being embroiled in the controversy that started with KNBR talk show host Larry Krueger saying the Giants employed “brain-dead Carribean hitters,” mostly in reference to then third baseman Pedro Feliz.  Krueger was initially suspended for the remarks, but then was fired when he and his producer took on Alou, who complained vociferously, with a series of veiled, on-air gags.

Among the other Giants on that 2005 club: the ill-fated Noah Lowry, classy veterans Ray Durham, Omar Vizquel and J.T. Snow.  Current St. Louis manager Mike Matheny was also on that club, as were pitchers Jerome Williams, LaTroy Hawkins and Kevin Correia, all three of which were still pitching at the big-league level in 2014.

Thats Amaury’s News and Commentary: All Royals need to do is win one game over the weekend to send it back to KC

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by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

SAN FRANCISCO–As all of you know I’ve broadcasted most of my career in the American League making me an American League guy and I have been covering American League teams for a long time although years ago I broadcasted with the Giants in the National League. I have said this all year, I said it in L.A. on Fox Sports, on the Angels Spanish network, the best bullpen in baseball is the Kansas City Royals.

The Giants have a very good bullpen with Jean Machi, Javier Lopez a specialist for lefties, then you have Sergio Romo who is not good this year let’s face it. The best bullpen in baseball is the Kansas City Royals. If the Royals get a starting pitcher for 5.1 or six innings like what happened on Wednesday night with Royals pitcher Yordano Ventura.

The Royals have the best relievers in the game in the sixth you have Ventura who throws 101-102 MPH, then in the eighth you have Wade Davis another flame thrower who has a great slider and a splitter. Then in the ninth you have closer Greg Holland one of the best closers in baseball. So the formula for the Royals is to have a decent starter.

Of course it’s tough to come back for the Giants in a game like Wednesday to come from being five or six runs down in a World Series. We saw what the Royals did on Wednesday they scored five runs and Giants starter Jake Peavy just got tired. These things happen the Giants have a very good bullpen. They used Tim Lincecum on Wednesday night and he has back problems.

According to Giants manager Bruce Bochy Lincecum is not that serious, but they have a problem in the bullpen. The Giants need to have their pitcher last a little bit longer than KC. The Royals have pitchers that can throw and get out of an inning and they have a potent bullpen.

The Royals have been winning with that bullpen all year long and they have centerfielder Lorenzo Cain. Cain is a tremendous athlete. Cain is the best athlete amongst these two teams. In the line up the Royals have Alex Gordon, Billy Butler who hit pretty well especially against guys like that. This going to be a very interesting rest of the way in this series.

If the Giants win the next three games in San Francisco they win the World Series but all the Royals have to do is win one out of three to take it back to Kaufman Staidum. This may go six or seven games maybe all the way. It’s going to be a game to game World Series, the Giants want to sweep over the weekend in AT&T Park but it’s most likely that the Royals at minimum can win one of the next three games at AT&T forcing a trip back to Kaufman.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is doing News and Commentary on the World Series for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

photo credit: google image

Giant meltdown: Royals bounce back in Game 2 with big sixth inning rally

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Game 2 WS

By Morris Phillips

The anxious Royals needed a win Wednesday night, but they also were looking for an emphatic showing to get even with the streaking Giants.

Thanks to a big sixth inning, they got both.

Salvador Perez’s two-double and Omar Infante’s home run highlighted a five-run explosion that broke a 2-2 tie and allowed the Royals to even the World Series at a game apiece.

With the series moving to San Francisco for three games, the Giants retain a slim advantage, but they also got a good example of how distasteful a return to Kauffman Stadium for Games 6 and 7 could be.

“We showed them that we have fight in us,” Billy Butler said.  “We feel confident going in there 1-1.”

“I hope that no one doubted us,” outfielder Lorenzo Cain said.  “Understand that we have a really good team.”

While the Royals showed fight, Giants’ reliever Hunter Strickland lost his cool and wanted to fight after allowing Perez’ double and Infante’s homer in a span of three pitches.  Strickland was one of four relievers to pitch in the sixth, when the Royals bunched a walk, three singles, a double and Infante’s home run into a once-in-30 years World Series rally for Kansas City.

Strickland’s immediate reaction as a visiting rookie in the face of sold out post-season crowd, was to berate himself with an audible yell.  Perez heard Strickland while rounding the bases and thought his menacing words were meant for him.  Their exchange may have been the most ridiculous sequence to precipitate a bench clearing standoff in recent World Series history.

“I don’t know if he thought I was yelling at him or not,” Strickland said. “I was frustrated with myself.  He must have thought I said something to him.”

“I don’t know what he said to me,” Perez said.

What was clearer was the performance of the Kansas City bullpen in comparison to San Francisco’s.  Three Royals’ relievers followed starter Yordano Ventura and allowed one hit in 3 1/3 innings while striking out six. Beyond Strickland’s latest meltdown, San Francisco’s bullpen wasn’t sharp. Tim Lincecum pitched well, but left with an injured back.  Billy Butler’s laser hit just past shortstop Brandon Crawford was thrown by reliever Jean Machi and allowed the Royals to take the lead for good.

And two remarkable streaks ended, one for each team, on Butler’s single against Machi.  The Giants’ relievers had retired all eight hitters they’d faced with runners in scoring position since the post-season began.  And the Royals had gone 17 at-bats without a hit with runners in scoring postion, despite winning three of four contests during that stretch.

The Giants started fast on Gregor Blanco’s home run to start the ball game.  But the Royals answered off Giants’ starter Jake Peavy with single runs in the first and second.  Peavy steadied after that, until he allowed the first two hitters in the sixth to reach.

Giants’ manager Bruce Bochy was questioned in the post-game press conference for allowing Peavy to face the heart of the Royals’ order for a third time.  The veteran pitcher has struggled in the post-season with a 7.05 ERA in eight career starts.  But Bochy stood by his decision, and instead pointed toward Friday night.

“It just got away from us there in the sixth… but you go home, and I think you take a split,” Bochy said.

The Giants have 39-year old Tim Hudson in Game 3, his first ever World Series appearance, in which he will face Kansas City’s Jeremy Guthrie.

NOTES: Both opening games of the Series were decided by at least five runs, the first and only time that’s happened besides the 1937 World Series in which the Yankees beat the Giants by seven runs in each of the first two games…  The Giants saw each of their nine starters get exactly one hit, the first time that’s happened in post-season history.

Thats Amaury’s News and Commentary: World Series party at Crespo’s, Giants fans act like they’ve never been in a series

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by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

During the past two times the Giants have won the World Series, I have worked during the games at San Francisco as reporter inside AT&T Park and outside doing live shots,(you know the ones you see all the people behind the reporter with signs and screaming, most of them heavily sedated by alcohol) and then in early November I have narrated the Victory Parade from the television-media area in front of San Francisco City Hall, as I got the call from Telemundo.

Although this year I am not doing the media work I had experienced the “ambiance”of the Bay Area during the World Series. I know a group of “real baseball fans”, you know the ones that support their team even when they are in last place, not the ones you see today at AT&T Park buying Pandas and Giraffe’s; if you didn’t know they sell Panda’s for Sandoval and Giraffe’s for Belt at AT&T, I recommend you do not continue reading this column.

These are real baseball fans and they all are unanimously disgusted with the party atmosphere in the Bay Area when it comes to the Giants. As I watched Game One in Crespo’s home in San Leandro, Ucho, an tells me about the Giants fans: “they act like they never been there”, Jorge says during the first game last night: “I bet you 99 percent of these Giants fans today, didn’t know who Travis Ishikawa was.

Jorge is right, they probably thought he was an Olympic Figure Skater, rookie learning from local (Fremont)USA Olympic Champion star Kristi Yamaguchi. And then Juan (he is from Costa Rica and not versed in baseball) posted a very interesting question for all of us: “What is harder to understand, baseball or women?”, we all paused, for myself I find baseball easy to understand I have seen it and played it since I could walk.

Women, now that is just another animal. When Ned Yost, K.C. Manager signals a bunt, there should be a bunt play coming, when Bruce Bochy of the Giants signals a hit-and-run play, you will see his team trying to execute. When women say Yes, they mean No, they send all these mixed-signals, if you are a man you know what I am saying., if you are a women, then it is simple; it is your fault guys. Ah… the never ending fight of the sexes! But that will be another topic for another day, and not on a sports site.

As I was driving to my friend’s house yesterday in the East Bay, I was listening to a sport-stalk show in a local radio station, one lady called and said “This is the best Giants team in their history”, she probably had no idea that in the 1960’s the Giants had guys like Juan Marichal, Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Orlando Cepeda, these four by-the-way are in the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. But,I will bet you she has bought all the souvenirs the Giants have to offer and all the Orange and Black she could afford.

It has been Halloween since early October for her! On this Giants team there is nobody, except maybe Buster Posey with a possibility of making it to Cooperstown. The others will probably make it someday as tourists visiting with their families. So, you know, there are these types of “fans”that have no idea of what they are talking about. Driving the Nimitz I saw cars with Giants flags hanging from their windows, which by the way were very hard to find, when the Giants collapsed in the second half of the season and the Dodgers passed them at 105 miles per hour to win the National League West. I think the Giants ordered another 150,000 of these flags. Around AT&T Park if only Oscar de la Renta was alive, it is a fashion show….not a baseball game.

I went to buy some flowers to give to my friends first lady of the house, which I was invited and in a Safeway in San Leandro, there were about six kids (early 20’s) buying a few cases of Blue Moon beer. I spoke briefly to one of them, he said “I am throwing a party at my house… it is a party you know”, I then asked him, any of you are real baseball fans, like you follow the Giants all year? Nah, not really he pointed to his other friends behind and said: “these two are Raiders fans, and the other two are 49ers fans, I am the only guy that follows the Giants, finally I asked him: “what do you think of this Giants team?” he responded: ‘In a way they have been lucky, they basically have only one pitcher with a winning record Madison Bumgarner, a good bullpen, but a bunch of players that you do not know what they are going to do”. I left on my way to my friend’s house.

It is all a party these days, but this is nothing new, the Bay Area has become now more than ever a real “front runner” kind of place, and not only for the Giants, this can also be applied to the other teams. Nothing new here. But I thought, for a change, instead of talking about hanging sliders, batting averages and bullpens, and since I have the time to absorb some of the ambiance that we are living here in the the Bay Area, I should write about this.

Finally, since I do go to Southern California to call the Angels games, since the A’s still cannot do more than 70 games in Spanish per season. I remember a guy at an Angels game, who was visiting during the Dogers vs Angel inter-league series, who told me that he hated Halloween, because it has the colors of the Giants. So you see, the hate between Giants and Dodgers fans go far reaching from baseball.

Wait until the day the San José Sharks make it to the Stanley Cup, we will have 6 million hockey fans in the Bay Area.

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

photo credit: google images

Giants, Royals by the numbers with Game 1 on tap Tuesday

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By Morris Phillips

In a World Series of underdogs, unknowns and the unlikely, fascinating numbers and facts abound on the eve of Game 1 in Kansas City’s Kauffman Stadium.

For the first time in the wild card era, neither team, Giants or Royals, have as many as 90 wins.  And while that suggests it’s a World Series without a great team, it really depends on how you look at it.  A 100-win team emerges if you take the Giants first 64 games, in which they were 43-21, the best start to a season over that number of games since 2003, and the Royals final 98, in which they went from a .500 team (32-32) in the middle of the pack in the AL Central to the lead wild card (57-41 finish).

Nine Giants (Madison Bumgarner, Buster Posey, Sergio Romo, Javier Lopez, Pablo Sandoval, Jeremy Affeldt, Santiago Casilla, Tim Lincecum and the injured Matt Cain) are looking for their third World Series ring.  Bumgarner and Posey are attempting to win a third championship in their first five full seasons as major leaguers which would put them in even more rarified company.

Meanwhile, the Royals figure (with veteran Raul Ibanez not included on their WS roster) to have just two players that have played in one Series.  Omar Infante was a member of the 2012 Tigers that were swept by the Giants, and James Shields pitched and won a game in the 2008 Series for the Tampa Bay Rays.  Of course, that means 23 other Royals’ roster members will enter the 2014 World Series with perfect post-season records (8-0).

Manager Bruce Bochy is attempting to win the World Series for the third time, which would put him the company of eight other managers who have won three with all eight enshrined in the Hall of Fame.  Bochy also managed a fourth series with the Padres, which means he’s attempting to be an all-time great, but also trying to avoid being a manager with a .500 winning percentage (possible 2-2 if the Giants lose) at the game’s grandest stage.

This series shows that age and big-league experience aren’t much of a measure of post-season exposure and success.  The Giants’ 39-year old Tim Hudson has won one post-season game in his career, and 35-year old Jeremy Guthrie of the Royals with 183 career decisions has appeared in just one post-season game.   Meanwhile 26-year old Buster Posey has two rings, eight World Series wins and a World Series MVP award.

Thats Amaury’s News and Commentary: The 2014 WS The Second All Wild Card World Series

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PHOENIX, AZ - SEPTEMBER 17: Andrew Susac #34 of the San Francisco Giants reacts in the dugout after scoring a second inning run against the Arizona Diamondbacks during the MLB game at Chase Field on September 17, 2014 in Phoenix, Arizona. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
PHOENIX, AZ – SEPTEMBER 17: Andrew Susac #34 of the San Francisco Giants reacts in the dugout after scoring a second inning run against the Arizona Diamondbacks during the MLB game at Chase Field on September 17, 2014 in Phoenix, Arizona. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)

by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

KANSAS CITY–Last time the San Francisco Giants went to a World Series as a Wild Card, was 2002, and they lost against the Anaheim Angels. For the Kansas City Royals, this is their first World Series since 1985, period. They are the Cinderella team.

The 2002 World Series was a real thriller, a seven game roller coaster; as I recalled, as I was doing the Giants Spanish play by play. We stayed at the team hotel the Anaheim Hilton, right on Katella Ave, across Disneyland. It was the first World Series for the Angels franchise, who have played in Anaheim since 1961 and had Gene Autry, The Disney Company and Arte Moreno as owners.

The San Francisco Giants were the favorites to beat the Angels. The Giants had Barry Bonds, Kenny Lofton, Rich Aurilia, Jeff Kent(not Bonds best friend) J.T. Snow, Benito Santiago, Reggie Sanders, Shawon Dunston, it was a good team.

Games one and two were played at the new Pacific Bell Park(today AT&T) my good friend and co-broadcaster in the 1990’s with the Golden State Warriors, named this park “The Phone Booth” which I think is a perfect name, since it has been Pacific Bell, SBC Park, and AT&T Park -a telephone company thing. First game was won by the Giants 4-3,the Angels won the second game 11-0.

The series then went to Edison Field(Today Angels Park) at Anaheim. The Angels took the first game there(Game three of the series) 10-4, the Giants came back and won the next one(Game four) by score of 4-3. It was a weird series, tight games and then blow outs, one after another. The Giants were leading the series three games to two, when they played Game six) and that’s when the series completely turned around.

The famous home run by Scott Spiezio off Giants reliever Félix Rodríguez in the seventh inning is forever engraved in the memory of Angels fans. In that game six,the rally from five runs down marked the biggest comeback in the World Series by a team facing elimination. Spiezio kept fouling sliders from Rodríguez until he finally deposited one over the short right field fence-down the line.

In the booth to my right at Edison Field was a galaxy of Hollywood celebrities Pierce Brosnan (007) who that same year had the hit movie “Die Another Day”, actress Cameron Díaz, Pat Sajack of Wheel of Fortune, they all dropped by Jackie Autry’s luxury box, which was to my right.

Game six turned the whole thing around. That same night after the game I was on an elevator with Kenny Lofton and other players and Peter Magowan the owner; you could not hear a pin drop, it was like everybody knew this team was done. After leading by five runs the gave up six runs in the last two innings. The next day, game seven and final the Angels sealed the deal and beat the Giants 4-1,to win their first and only World Series.

After that game seven, I went into the party room for the Giants, at the mezzanine of the Anaheim Hilton, it was like a cemetery. I remember there was only one Giants player there, affable Rick Aurilia, the shortstop, today working as commentator after Giants games on Comcast. Rich is a classy guy and he answered a lot of questions to some of us in the media that were there.

Later in that same lobby I ran into Benito Santiago, the excellent Giants catcher and won previously the Rookie of the Year for the San Diego Padres; he was extremely sad and dissapointed. Sometimes in not losing a game, but they way the Giants lost that 2002 World Series, when they had it in their pockets with a 5 run lead later in the game just needing six outs to win their first World Series (at that time) in 44 years since they moved from New York to San Francisco.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the Spanish TV voice for Angels baseball and is doing commentary throughout the 2014 World Series for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

photo credit: google images

2014 World Series commentary: Giants and Royals open game one tonight Mad Bum vs. Shields

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by Michael Duca

KANSAS CITY–The thing that jumps out at me is were going to know fairly early in these games whose going to win them. There shouldn’t be a lot of lead changing hands late in the game. You got statistically one of the if not the best bull pen back ends in baseball history with the Royals against statistically one of the if not the best post season bullpens with the Giants.

Javier Lopez the Giant reliever has not allowed a lot of runs since John Kennedy was in office. Lopez and the Giants who faced the St.Louis Cardinals in the NLCS faced Cards pitcher Matt Carpenter who was clearly the Cards best hitter coming down the stretch and probably all season. It’s going to come down to the middle of the game.

It’s going to come down to whether or not if they can get the starters out before the bullpens can get to their lockdown position. That means getting to the Royals starters in the fourth or fifth innings at the latest. The Giants don’t have the seventh, eighth, ninth inning guys, that are as devestating as Kansas City does but but they got more guys in the sixth inning as KC does.

Not the line up persay but the innings for the bullpen seventh, eighth and ninth innings are stronger for the Royals than it is for San Francisco. The sixth inning maybe the fifth inning are stronger for the Giants than they are for KC certainly for no other team in the playoffs and maybe no other team in baseball has a pitcher like Giant reliever Yusmeiro Petit.

Petit has been kind of the secret weapon that Giants manager Bruce Bochy has unleashed only when needed but Petit has answered the called as anybody possibly could. In the running game the Royals in the ALCS didn’t try to run very much against the Baltimore Orioles and Bochy said it best first of all it’s not on your catcher it’s on your pitching staff that needs to make it more difficult for the Royals.

If you look at the Giants starters Madison Bumgarner 42 percent of the time had attempted base stealers thrown out. Pitcher Jake Peavy’s numbers are almost as good from the right side, Tim Hudson doesn’t hold runners on very well, Ryan Vogelsong doesn’t hold runners on very well, the Giants pitching staff knows how to draw in their running game.

The Giants didn’t neutralize it worth squat when they went back to KC in August the Royals ran wild on them. They stole eight bases in one game you obviously can’t let that happen the Giants were also swept by the Royals in that series. Bochy explained that as simply as possible how you stop the KC running game “don’t put guys on.”

Michael Duca is covering the 2014 World Series for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

photo credit: google images

2014 World Series Commentary: Third trip to fall classic in five years for Giants, Royals awaiting SF

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(Photo by: Tyler Orsburn)
(Photo by: Tyler Orsburn)

by Michael Duca

SAN FRANCISCO–This is an interesting post season no favorite has won yet and it’s good news for Giants fans all 50 states in the union seemed to believe the Royals have this World Series won. Here’s my breakdown of this World Series number one it’s the first World Series in history that features two teams that didn’t win 90 games during the season.

Number two, the two teams competing against each other against each other have the best playoff record in the history of baseball. Combined they have won 16 of 18 games, combined they have played 89 ball games in the post season, somethings got to give. When I try to figure out what it is what is going to give, it’s my belief you can get this far without really realizing where you are.

A regular season game in Kansas City is not that massive of a media event, but the World Series is another thing entirely. When you wake up on Monday morning and you go down to media day and there’s 3,000 credentials for the media at Kaufman Stadium and you have your own table in your own name and you have 400 reporters sitting there asking you questions that your working with.

Everybody is going to have something to say and when you go away from that as a journalist you think to yourself regarding covering such an event you say “oh my God it’s real.” One team has done it twice and one team has watched it on TV several times and this is where experience begins to pay. With the San Francisco Giants this is the third time the club has made the World Series in five years.

For me being an ordinary working stiff this is the fourth World Series they’ve been involved in for me to cover as a journalist and the sixth overall that I’ve attended. I actually tallied it up and I have a chance to hit 20 World Series games this year as a lifetime total. I’m very fortunate to have that opportunity and this one is going to be fun.

Nobody expected the Royals to be here, their a good organization and nice people that I’ve worked with most of them in spring trainning every year. So it will be fun to renew aquaintances when shall we say when they were kittens and they have grown up and these cats have big paws.

I also have to tell you about how the fans of the Royals celebrate here, a friend of mine is in KC and after the four game sweep over the Baltimore Orioles he sent me a 20 second video and he said “pray for me there’s rioting in the streets of Kansas City” and I ran the video and in 20 minutes as I watched four sets of fans calmly walking by out of the stadium with each other. Nobody wearing foam fingers, nobody screaming or yelling “Royals rule” nobody yelling “bring it on” they were just very quietly soaking in the scene. Just wait until the Royals fans get to San Francisco and get aload of the San Francisco fans.

Michael Duca is covering the 2014 World Series for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

photo credit: google images

That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary: TV Network wise Royals and Giants slated to be lowest rated World Series in history

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worldseries

by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

KANSAS CITY–The Oakland A’s were leading the Kansas City Royals 7-3 in the wild card game at the end of September with A’s ace Jon Lester on the mound the Royals came back and they won it and they haven’t lost since. They have won eight games in a row a new playoff record, beating Oakland in one, sweeping the Angels in three and sweeping the Orioles in four. I like it now when you have to play wild cards.

The Royals are really scoring, they have great pitching and they own the all time new MLB playoff record for consecutive wins in the post season and their headed for the series. They have timely hitting they can steal more and this will be a very interesting World Series. The San Francisco Giants have more experience in the post sesaon on their side coming into the series with Pablo Sandoval, Tim Lincecum, Buster Posey, Madison Bumgarner, and Sergio Romo guys like that who have been with this team when the won the World Series two years ago.

The Royals have their act together and everybody is playing to their potential like the Royals outfielder Lorenzo Cain who might be the best athlete on both of these teams. Your talking about a team that is in good standing they’re undefeated in the playoffs. The Royals have home advantage opening up at Kaufman Stadium on Tuesday and this being their first series since 1985.

So it’s a beautiful story really and Kansas City is a small city, it’s in the middle of the country, it’s a small TV market. People at the TV networks are not going to be happy at Fox and why is that? Because they didn’t want a San Francisco-Kanas City World Series. These are two regional teams and if you walk in the streets of San Francisco everybody is wearing their orange and black.

You might see that in the East Bay and in Marin County too, but when you leave the Bay Area the Giants don’t have that many fans. In Kansas City it’s the same thing, their in the middle of the country, what the network wanted was teams like the L.A. Angels against the Washington Nationals or the Dodgers and the Angels it’s the big rivalry of L.A. and the number two TV market.

Baltimore a team on the east coast might be a club that they would like to have on TV, but believe me the networks did not want the Royals and the Giants in the World Series. I’m going to come out and make a prediction this is going to be one of the lowest rated TV World Series in history. Not a lot of people are going to watch it. People around the country have already said they’ve seen the Giants twice now in the last four years and here they come back on again (yawn) and the Royals are small town baseball.

Nationally you have the Bay Area team the Giants and then you have small town Royals and it doesn’t have that appeal. I want to make this point the St.Louis Cardinals they have a lot of fans in this country and their a traditional team. They never moved, they’ve played in St.Louis forever and you talk about the Cardinals they do have more fans than the Giants and the Royals and it’s too bad they didn’t make it.

It would have been a wonderful story if the Cards made it to the series it would have been the Royals versus the Cardinals because both teams play in the same state of Missouri or the I-70 series. It would be a repeat of the 1985 World Series. It would be a better television draw than these two teams this season the Royals and Giants so let’s hope they have a good series.

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

photo credit: google images