A Long Overdue Post: The Best Games of The 2009 Season
by rhys on Jan 21, 2010 3:08 PM PST
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PrintAs some may recall, I wrote two similar mid-season posts (which can be found here and here) and this post will serve as a final review of the positive bits of the 2009 season. Whether or not you pessimist nerds who know nothing about any athletic endeavor requiring teamwork under physical stress like to admit it or not, it wasn't all bad. I'll be depressing y'all soon with the dark brother of this post anyway. Enjoy it while it lasts. There are eight nominees, four from each approximate half of the season. Enjoy!
THE BEST GAMES (CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER)
1. May 12th, 2009 – Giants 9, Nationals 7 – Pablo Sandoval hit a walk-off 3-run HR on a 2-2 pitch with two outs, complete with iconic bat-flip, and the Giants scored 7 of their 9 runs with two outs. This was the runaway winner at the season's halfway point.
2. June 12th, 2009 – Giants 3, Athletics 0 – Tim Lincecum pitched a complete game shutout and the offense was good enough. Scott Hairston was not present.
3. June 29th, 2009 – Giants 10, Cardinals 0 – Tim Lincecum pitches a complete-game 2-hit shutout, running up his record to 8-2, and the Giants offense exploded, touching a mysterious white pentagon many times.
4. The first two games of the Astros series, July 3-4th, 2009 - Giants 22, Astros 0 - Tim Lincecum and Ryan Sadowski (remember when he was good?) combine for 14 shutout innings, the Giants offense becomes suddenly potent, as Pablo Sandoval and Travis Ishikawa each go yard and 27 hits are produced. The Astros sputter in every possible way, creating a perfect storm of delicious baseball.]
5. August 17th, 2009 - Giants 10, Mets 1 - Joe Martinez (gamer) pitched 5 effective innings, and received the win. The Giants beat up on the Mets mercilessly. Aaron Rowand was 4-5.
6. August 30th, 2009 - Giants 9, Rockies 5 - AKA the "Renteria grand-slam" game. His salami changed a 5-2 downer to a 6-5 thriller. He went 3-4 with 5 RBI. The wild-card race was tied after this game, and we had just swept the Rockies at home.
7. September 15th, 2009 - Giants 10, Rockies 2 - After this game, the Giants were on a 3-game win streak, and the Rockies were on a 4-game losing streak. The Giants trailed by only 2.5 games in the Wild Card. Todd Helton went 0-3 with 3K's. It was all so good...
8. October 4th, 2009 - Giants 4, Padres 3 - Admit it. The Giants may have been out of the playoffs, but the final game of the season was a fun one. Pablo Sandoval got his 25th home run in dramatic fashion, as it proved to be the winner in extra innings. Jeremy Affeldt finished his excellent year with 2 shutout innings. And the Giants finished 14 games over .500. 14.
SPECIAL CATEGORY
The Jonathan Sanchez no-hitter. For so many reasons.
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Sanchez’s no-hitter is tops, but the Aug 30th game will hold a special place in my heart because I was at the game, and it meant a lot at the time as far as the Giants playoffs hopes were concerned..
I know you nerds know NOTHING about the real game of baseball, or any other athletic endeavor requiring teamwork under physical stress.
Mr. F! | comics | art | New Nattowear | Unofficial McImage Directory
I looked for you. What did you look like? I might have seen you and not known it.
"I don’t know why people feel the need to come up with reasons 'why' for everything..." - Missing Barry
by victor frankenstein on Jan 22, 2010 11:52 PM PST up reply actions
I was the guy wearing the Giants cap and Giants jacket.
I know you nerds know NOTHING about the real game of baseball, or any other athletic endeavor requiring teamwork under physical stress.
Mr. F! | comics | art | New Nattowear | Unofficial McImage Directory
What about the Uribe walk-off against the Dodgers? Eugenio Velez made Russell Martin eat shit, Pablo cleared the benches, Timmy pitched a gem (and was robbed of a win by the umpires), and if I remember correctly Affeldt did some awesome fist pumps coming off the mound.
I like cats. Wings is the greatest show of all time.
Tyler Graham is my favorite San Jose Giant because he has smart balls.
Btw, the iTunes store only offers the May 12th game and Dirty’s no-hitter for sale. The other four or five Giants games there are all loses, so I don’t count them.
That is total bull shit.
I like cats. Wings is the greatest show of all time.
Tyler Graham is my favorite San Jose Giant because he has smart balls.
Yea I think of non no-no games this one has to be it. It had everything. It might have been the only game in which i was completely out of my mind flashing white with anger and completely ecstatic at the same time. It was the dodgers, it was Timmy being Timmy, it was the giants not scoring, it was eugenio taking out the d-bag martin, it had benches clearing and panda turning into a grizzly, it had the unsung hero uribe walking us all off. It even made john kruk poop himself.
But the no-no was a little (lot) better.
by giantsguy25 on Jan 21, 2010 10:22 PM PST up reply actions
Oh Lordy
I remember that game. I haven’t felt that mad at a baseball game in a long, long time.
STEVE HOLM! refuses to be the odd man out.
by UnleashTheGore on Jan 22, 2010 1:50 PM PST up reply actions
I loved that Uribe HR
If I’m thinking of the right game, the AB went like this:
1st pitch: slider low and away, Uribe swings wildly and fouls it off.
2nd pitch: slider low and away, Uribe swings wildly and misses.
3rd pitch: fastball high and inside, Uribe swings wildly and hits a 500 ft. HR.
Teaches you everything you need to know about Juan Uribe.
I was promised lasagna.
And Juan Uribe had been fucking horrible in that game too
Then he did that one awesome thing and all was forgiven.
GROUGTHINK ALERT
The first Chester Arthur fanboy ever.
http://sanfrancisco.giants.mlb.com/media/video.jsp?content_id=6062729
"People ask me what I do in winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring."
and this
Tommy Joseph is the Dingerzball Wizard
by SoFa King Mike on Jan 21, 2010 4:37 PM PST up reply actions 1 recs
The No-No game
Besides that, definitely the walk off by Pablo. The Renteria slam was fun, too.
Giant Dirtbags: John Bowker, Steve Hammond. MIA List: Todd Jennings, Brian Anderson
Jeremy Affeldt induces DP's
by Giant among Angels on Jan 21, 2010 7:11 PM PST reply actions
Wow, still can’t believe that no-hitter was on my birthday! What a present.
I speak fluent English and Arabic and have a working knowledge of Spanish. Yet a certain GrahamCrakalaka cannot distinguish me from Mike Fox. Man...
We …ha “we” … Mr. Merope, recently cleaned off the dvr in preparation for the move to Comcast. The games we had saved from the 2009 season were:
July 6 a Cain start vs. the Marlins – I think that’s the “Vote for Pablo” homerun call.
July 7 Zito start that is entitled “The Good Zito”
July 9 Lincecum vs the Padres -the game before the no-no that was showing no-no potential
and
July 10th of course
(the other games we had saved were from ‘08 and were all dodger games: August 9th – Rowands walk-off single in the 10th; August 10th – the WTF walkoff by Zorak; and September 28th- Timmy’s last start of that season)
I was at 3 games that week. Would’ve gone Friday (the 10th) if I wasn’t seeing a bestie for the first time in years. Sigh, good stuff.
go rowand
by lincypoo i wuv u on Jan 21, 2010 10:47 PM PST up reply actions
I remember Tim’s near no-no. The inning before he got a hit, I was debating whether or not to call my dad to “make sure he was listening to the game.” The next day I’m watching TV and he calls and says, “So, you might want to turn on the ball game,” and I thought he was fooling with me. Now, the last half inning remains on my DVR for ever and ever. Good times.
STEVE HOLM! refuses to be the odd man out.
by UnleashTheGore on Jan 22, 2010 1:54 PM PST up reply actions
Went to the games on 9th & 10th. Timmy’s no-no attempt ended in the 7th when it dropped into LF. I was probably a bit too harsh on Bowker that night after that but I returned the next day see the no-no. A very good week to be sure.
Crazy Crab despised in the 20th century and beloved in the 21st century. Hey it only took over 20 years, so don't give up hope.
I voted for the Renteria GS over Dirty. Just realized I missed most of both games. No-hitter = my birthday. Renteria GS = son’s birthday.
The Giants Way™"If anybody deserves credit for this year’s turnaround it’s these two people, Brian and Bruce," Neukom said. "The encouraging thing is we think we’re back to playing baseball the way it ought to be played."
I was at the Renteria GS
It was especially amazing because I brought five friends who didn’t really give a shit about baseball, and when that happened the stadium when ape shit and they were just sitting there going “WHAT HAPPENED??”
Could you please celebrate a birthday during every game next season?
by kimmyg on Jan 23, 2010 1:36 PM PST up reply actions 1 recs
What about that home series vs. the Phils?
I remember that that was around the time that they got Lee and every commentator was saying, “UNBEATABLE THEY WILL NEVAR LOSE AGAINNNNNN!!!” and those next couple of days they came to SF and we gave up like maybe 1 HR in all 4 and took the series 3-1.
Making the 8/29 and 8/30 games was the high point of my year.
Hearing 47,000 people all going batshit for San Francisco made me grin like the idiot I am.
You people are SO spoiled!
"I don’t know why people feel the need to come up with reasons 'why' for everything..." - Missing Barry
by victor frankenstein on Jan 22, 2010 11:56 PM PST reply actions
No kidding
While watching that game with some friends I had been talking shit about Rent from the moment he stepped into the on-deck circle, predicting a passed-ball as the only possible positive outcome from the AB and then BOOM, pure delirium and jumping and screaming around the house.
by snafu on Jan 23, 2010 7:47 PM PST up reply actions 1 recs
I think pretty much everyone who watched the no hitter live and/or were participating in the game day thread will rank that not only as the best of the year but as one of the best of all time. It was magical.
by positiveuphemism on Jan 24, 2010 11:26 PM PST reply actions
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