Peter Gammons Giants Love Parade

Wow,

This, of course, has led to the “They’re not Barry Bonds’ Giants” theories for their popularity. However, this franchise wouldn’t be what it is if not for Bonds. And, more important, if Peter Magowan hadn’t signed Bonds, Pac Bell never would have been built sans public funding. Thus, we would be deprived of the best ballpark in America, not to mention Cha Cha Bowls.

Someone should put this on billboards across the US

Ross on Halladay: "I’d tried everything against him…going the other way, taking pitches, trying to walk…and nothing worked. I’d never tried going up there and just trying to hit a home run off him."
My boy has mad hops
I rant on Twitter

by scout6 on Mar 17, 2011 4:01 PM PDT reply actions

I’ve always liked Peter Gammons.

by Natto on Mar 17, 2011 4:21 PM PDT up reply actions

Plus the dude can shred!

by Natto on Mar 17, 2011 4:21 PM PDT up reply actions

/points to avatar he’s been using since avatars here became a thing

by chilibean_3 on Mar 17, 2011 4:36 PM PDT up reply actions

I’m pretty sure he can hit, too — a few years ago, I read somewhere that he had a really powerful stroke.

Too soon?

"This is a street fight, and we win those." -- BRIAN SABEAN, 10/23/10

by Josh from Hollywood on Mar 17, 2011 5:28 PM PDT up reply actions

WE ARE FIRING YOU FROM VOICING OUR ANIMATED MASCOT.

Dad of Ryan Rohlinger: world champion.

by shanghaijim on Mar 17, 2011 5:29 PM PDT up reply actions

Having Gammons rave about the Giants is like getting blessed by the Pope.

by Dingoes Ate My Baby on Mar 17, 2011 7:14 PM PDT up reply actions

Peter Gammons drops truth bombs wherever he goes.

by chilibean_3 on Mar 17, 2011 4:09 PM PDT reply actions

I still dislike him

which says a lot because I hate most everyone else at ESPN.

Honorary parent of Duane Kuiper, beloved solar powered broadcaster and power hitting coach for the Giants.

by Giant Voodoo on Mar 17, 2011 4:39 PM PDT reply actions

he’s not at ESPN, right?

Thing A

"Correlation between inability to use the reply button and general crappiness of analysis: pretty high." -Sleepy Freud

by sam23 on Mar 17, 2011 5:14 PM PDT up reply actions

He left and went to MLB! Don’t know why. After the stroke?

Dad of Ryan Rohlinger: world champion.

by shanghaijim on Mar 17, 2011 5:28 PM PDT up reply actions

I thought they canceled the love parade. Much to my disappointment.

2010 World Series Champions!
Adopted 'nephew' to the ever avuncular and always awesome Jon Miller

by Johnny Disaster on Mar 17, 2011 6:24 PM PDT reply actions

Dang, this article is so sugarcoated.

There's a First for Everything:
Edgar Renteria, The First World Series MVP in Giants History.

by Unitard on Mar 17, 2011 8:21 PM PDT reply actions

List of things Peter Gammons points out here that other media figures don't believe

1. Barry Bonds was good for the Giants in pretty much every sense of the word. On the field, at the gate, everywhere. He was a baseball god.

2. Madison Bumgarner is REALLY FUCKING GOOD. I feel like this doesn’t get enough attention; he’s overshadowed on the pitching side by Lincecum and Cain, and on the rookie side by Posey, so people kind of forget about him. Dude’s awesome. Let’s appreciate him.

3. The Giants are PRETTY FUCKING GOOD. You’d think after winning a World Series we’d get a little more respect, but there are still the persistent questions about the offense and insistence that the team is too pitching-heavy. Pitching is our strength, but it’s not like we have a Seattle offense. Outside of Huff and Posey, there are no really threatening hitters (unless Pablo and Burrell continue to rebound), but Miguel Tejada is a pretty good eighth-place hitter. And with a few defensive superstars, the mediocre gloves on the left side aren’t so bad.

4. The Giants have a LOT of fans. It may seem incredible to those focused on East Coast baseball, but SF brings it when it comes to attendance. Even when we were losing we drew close to three million.

5. Barry Zito isn’t bad, he’s just overpaid.

Seth Rosin can hit the side of a barn with a baseball. From space.
Giants baseball: We're stupid enough to WIN that (TM)

by quincy0191 on Mar 17, 2011 10:47 PM PDT reply actions

Point 1 is well taken.

Point 2 is to me understandable. Madison Bumgarner was very good in limited time, but he’s yet to pitch a full ML season, and his minor league track record is good, but a little mixed, and short. He deserves to be overshadowed by Lincecum and Cain, who have been better for longer.

Point 3 is a matter of perspective. I’ve read a lot about how good the Giants are. The amount of “respect” you think we get is subjective.

Point 4 is… yeah? I welcome all the fans, new and old. I mean, we don’t really hear a ton about the attendance of any team in the majors unless it’s really low or really high. The Phillies sold out their home games for like 3 straight seasons. Call me when we do that.

Point 5 is EVERYONE SAYS THIS EXCEPT BRUCE JENKINS.

Gigante. Campeón. Andrés Torres.
Dursh nerf darsh narf. Poop.

by GiantPain on Mar 18, 2011 12:20 AM PDT up reply actions

Sorry

I was a bit on the high end – the Phillies had a streak of 100 sellouts going into the middle of last season, which I assume continued on through the playoffs, which means they’d have sold out something like 120 games or so in a row? Not three seasons, but still very impressive.

http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/sports/Phillies-Fans-Sellouts-101076234.html

Gigante. Campeón. Andrés Torres.
Dursh nerf darsh narf. Poop.

by GiantPain on Mar 18, 2011 12:23 AM PDT up reply actions

If I had you’re number I’d ring you up because we have indeed already done that.

MY DAD WAS WRONG!
MY BOY NEEDS TO THROW HARDER!

by Roger on Mar 19, 2011 6:32 AM PDT up reply actions

When the stadium was built, you mean?

I mean recently.

Gigante. Campeón. Andrés Torres.
Dursh nerf darsh narf. Poop.

by GiantPain on Mar 19, 2011 5:24 PM PDT up reply actions

Lopez limited lefties to a .338 OPS

Good gravy. That might as well be .000.

Anagram of "SF Giants World Series Champs" = SHARP, ORGASMIC, ENDLESS SWIFT

by Stuttering John Tamargo on Mar 18, 2011 12:32 PM PDT reply actions

Peter Gammons and Harold Reynolds

the two guys I grew up listening to, the others are just talking heads

Trade Sabean/jk...Overthrow the Ydorks...
I am not a "real" Warriors fan because I don't have season tickets.

by Regulus on Mar 18, 2011 4:57 PM PDT reply actions

I’m never going to be one of his biggest fans, but I think the real travesty is that he’s spent so much time entrenched in the East Coast Bias/ESPN think tank that he’s only now just beginning to break away from it. Which is a shame because I think he’s a good writer, and I think he genuinely cares about and tries to be a good authority on baseball, which isn’t something I say about most scribes.

The San Francisco Giants: 2010 World Series Champions
MCC: Serious thought provoking questions don’t come flying out of our sarcastic brains quite as quickly as flippant answers

by Prussian Creole on Mar 18, 2011 8:42 PM PDT reply actions

I used to read Gammons back when he was still just a columnist for the Globe (in myold college days) and I have never list the affection I gained for h then. Aside from just knowing baseball he completely broke the mold on sports writing and in a lot ways created the new one. With his dizzying mash ups of crazy inside baseball stories and pop culture references he was like the Tarantino of sports writers. Or maybe since Pete was doing it first I should say Quentin later became the Gammons of screenwriters.

MY DAD WAS WRONG!
MY BOY NEEDS TO THROW HARDER!

by Roger on Mar 19, 2011 6:37 AM PDT up reply actions

I agree completely. I started reading Gammons’ column in 1978. Understand how much he completely broke the mold. Reading his column (before the Internet, before ESPN, before you could even get a Giants score on the east coast, before everything) was a glimpse into a world no one else gave. Suddenly, a Giants fan in Boston could actually get information about the Giants- how is Mike Ivie’s arm healing? Where will Jack Clark hit in the order? Will the Giants call up this kid, Chili Davis? Did you know that Bob Knepper was the leader of a group of evangelical Christians on the team?.

Access to this type of information is something we take for granted now. At the time, it was revolutionary. That is why he is in the Hall of Fame.

by JKGiants on Mar 20, 2011 1:06 PM PDT reply actions

Gammons works his ass off at his job (he’s at Fenway Park pretty much every day) and tries hard to stay relevant. He’s easily in the top 10% of knowledge about sabermetrics among baseball writers, which magnifies what a troglodyte Bruce Jenkins is. Jenkins is actually a couple years younger than Gammons. He wrote about Bill James when very few people took him seriously and is actually a voting member of John Dewan’s Fielding Bible Awards along with Rob Neyer and Joe Posnanski.

Gammons wrote a terrific book about the late 70s Red Sox called Beyond the Sixth Game. You can probably find it on Amazon for a couple bucks. It’s a combination of funny stories, strong personal profiles and good analysis and accounts. It gives a good perspective into what a zoo the Red Sox were back then.

by Bitter Fan on Mar 21, 2011 12:11 AM PDT up reply actions