We all know oodles of stories about Barry Zito. Fat-pocketed pitcher, accomplished guitarist (!), dated Alyssa Milano and Hillary Duff, 120+ million-dollar contract, satin pillows and stuffed animals on the road, and other various idiosyncracies. Retelling the tale that is to follow isn't nearly as much fun if you have to explain who the guy is to the layperson (even worse if the guy end's up being another Kevin Appier).

But I mean, how do you not know who BARRY ZITO is, Mr. Immigrant Guy at the deli? Cy Young winner, gets paid $5000 per pitch, etc. Further, with the countless stories over the past year of his signing by the Giants being among the worst ever, a little part of me dies inside.

Then again, the same guy would be scratching his head if I lived in the boyhood home of Mickey Mantle.

I live in Barry Zito's old house. OK, there. I said it.

--

Flash back to December of 2004. I was returning from my then 6 year-old son's baseball practice. With the bed of my truck loaded with baseball gear, we pulled into our driveway when a man walking up the street started toward our house. He was the man who sold the home previously, twice actually. I gave him a few words about how tired we were in an effort to shoo him away, trying to avoid whatever sales pitch he was obviously crafting.

He noticed our baseball gear and quipped, "Do ya watch much baseball on TV?"

"Yeah, probably too much." I replied.

"You know, there's a guy who pitches for the Oakland A's...Barry Zito...he used to live here years ago."

The man I was speaking with was the property manager back then and the house used to be a rental. Joe Zito lived there with his son and daughter while they attended Grossmont High School. I learned from the guy that Barry was a pretty wild teenager back in his high school days, constantly having friends over and partying into the wee hours when his dad was out of town. Apparently the La Mesa Police made many a visit to young Barry's house.

--

Oakland at Seattle, 2006

My buddy Pete in Seattle called me and told me he spoke to Barry Zito during Mariners batting practice and mentioned that I live in his old house. Although Pete wasn't able to recall my address, he told Barry that it was in La Mesa. Barry acknowledged and let him know that he stills drives by on occassion when he is in the area, and the last time he did so, he stopped to take pictures. When Pete told me this, I was floored.

--

The news came across the wire in the offseason in 2006. Barry Zito had been signed to the richest contract ever provided to a pitcher, and he was going to pitch for my beloved San Francisco Giants. This was just too perfect, an obsessive-compulsive Giants fan like myself, living in the boyhood home of my team's ace pitcher. Are you kidding me? I made it my personal mission to meet Barry at some point and let him know that his former home was being tended to by one of his supporters. I tried a couple of times during 2007 when the Giants were in playing the Padres, but to no avail. He never seemed to get within earshot, and I didn't want to count myself among many of the other jackasses barking at him. Not my style.

--

August 1, 2008

An errant throw by Jack Taschner during pre-game long toss sends Barry my way, front row on the third base side of the infield at Petco Park. Without so much as a millisecond of hesitation, I blurted out, "Barry, I live in your old house!"

"Really. The one on Xxxxxx Drive?"  (street name hidden to protect the current occupant)

"Yup." I replied, verifying the house's address.

"Since when?"

"Since October of 2004. Had no idea until the local realtor told me, and then we started junk mail with your dad's name on it."

We spoke for a few minutes as batting practice was winding down. He let me know that the smallest of the three bedrooms was his, and that he used to have a mound in the backyard, exactly 60 feet from where they had slapped down a home plate. I told him that my oldest son currently inhabits that same bedroom, and that he practices his left-handed pitching on that same stretch of soil. He let me know that it was incredible that a left-handed young Giants fan now pitches there, and said "maybe we'll see him up at this level someday!"

Here are the two lefties in question:

via farm4.static.flickr.com

In closing, I let him know that he is welcome to stop by anytime if he wants to walk the halls once again, figuring he might need to revisit his past to better propser his future (or some Zen-like crap like that). He ate it up, and said he will likely take me up on that.

August 2, 2008

Pitcher         IP H R ER BB SO HR
===================================
Zito (W, 6-13) 8.0 3 0 0   4  5  0 

Barry turns in his best outing as a Giant. Coincidence, or divine appointment?

I know of a few displaced McCovenites who live in the whale's vagina like myself. If you meet this description, do you have any tickets you might be willing to part with?

I have sweet tickets to Friday's game (Timmeh) as well as Sunday, but would like to go Saturday as well. If I can't acquire pimped out dugout seats, I prefer to sit in LF with my SF brethren.

Please let me know if you have up to 4 tickets. I live in University City near UCSD if we can meet up.

Casually Yours,
oooreebay

Story:
Dodgers send pair of prospects to Indians for Blake

If I read this article right, the balance of power has shifted in the NL West? The division is all but the Dodgers now? This equates to a rental and makes sense if either Project LaRoche or Project DeWitt pan out in the long term.

In the deal, assistant GM-turned-mole Ned Colletti sends AAA strikeout artist Joe Meloan and legendary guitarist Carlos Santana for the bearded 3B. The article irked me a bit with this pearl of tainted sportswriting from the desk of Jayson Stark: 

With the trade of Xavier Nady to the Yankees on Friday, Blake was possibly the most highly sought-after bat on the market.  

Funny, I don't recall possible deals involving Blake making headlines, but the bat of one Barry Lamar Bonds made all kinds of noise. In his world, "sought-after" doesn't equate to much.

Also, this happened:

"Casey Blake is a gamer," Dodgers GM Ned Colletti said. "His experience and character will be a plus as we head down the stretch in the final two months of the regular season."

Gamer my arse, Blake doesn't play home games in China Basin. I 'spose Colletti hasn't been watching his mandated Giants broadcasts to know gamers throw player-hating fastballs and assist you at the grocery store.

http://blogs.usatoday.com/gameon/2008/07/barry-bonds-cou.html

GM Josh Byrnes didn't exactly say no. The door is open for this to happen with their injuries, and as VIc Frank can attest, Phoenicnians will jump on any bandwagon.

As badly as I want to see Barry Back in uniform, I would hate to see him in our division attempting to douse our postseason hopes.

Could it be worse? Yeah, he could be courted by the Evils, Fathers or the Fahkin' Red Sox.

What are your thoughts about this?

If you could compose a lineup of players who never played for the Giants, but you WISH did at some point, what would that lineup look like?

This doesn't necessarily mean that these players were the greatest players of their era. It could just be that they signed a ball in a parking lot for you or dated your mom. It could be that they grew up in the Bay Area and would have made an interesting storyline if they suited up in the black and orange.

1) Players past or present
2) Never played for the Giants
3) Oddball choices  - say why! (E.g. if Tom Niedenfuer shows up, you got some 'splainin' to do.)

Here's mine:

C - Izzy Alcantara (karate-kicking cathcer, dude can fight)
1B - Mark Grace (my mom babysat him when he was in elementary school, no joke)
2B - Ryne Sandberg
SS - Barry Larkin (solid player, always seemed like a good guy)
3B - George Brett (gamer)
LF - Carl Crawford (met him at San Diego Zoo, actually took a picture of my son since he was wearing his Devil Rays Little League hat)
CF - Grady Sizemore (we have the same birthday, hustles like a MF)
RF - Roberto Clemente (no explanation needed)

SP - David Wells (was a great tipper when he came to the bar I used to work at)
RP - Turk Wendell (just for being a nut)
CP - Jeff Reardon (signed a bunch of cards for me when I was a kid...this was pre-armed robbery arrest)

Yours?

My oldest son has been collecting baseball cards for a few years now, so I figured he might be interested in seeing my collection. It was a trip down ye old memory lane for me, as I haven't looked at my cards in 10 years. I don't have any
extremely valuable cards, but I do have my favorites in the lot.

My favorite card of a Giants player:

Noosh was always my favorite player, and this always stuck out as my favorite card of his. Not the most valuable, not the best design nor photo, but this has always been on page one of my
Will Clark card binder. The picture makes you want to let him date your daughter of give him an interest-free loan.

Favorite non-Giant card:

I never really liked Griffey much, but as a kid collecting cards I had as many as 12 of these at one time, and I was able to sell them for +/- $80 each time I got one. I think I still have one left, and opening a pack of '89 Upper Deck and pulling one of these out was like hitting the jackpot for me. Same went for the '86 Donruss Jose Canseco, although that card was beastly in nature.

The picture makes me wonder why he is wearing his mom's wig on photo day.

Best card of a registered sex offender:
A few to pick from here...

So whether it's a Billy Ripken error card or a vintage Nap Lajoie cigarette card, I'm sure we all have a card or two that stand out as our favorite for different reasons.

Feel free to mention yours, or better yet, embed/link to a picture.

The beginning of February is when my wallet starts it's leather cringe as my thoughts turn towards the annual baseball video game purchase. This annual ritual had been quite joyous in the past, but nowadays it seems like I am just laying down the money out of habit. I'm not nearly as amped about picking up the "exclusive" title as I once had been.

As a 30 year-old long-time baseball video game player, I am quite frustrated by the lack of an "it" title. Baseball gamers have no Madden series to lean on...that is, a game that everyone buys every year that is the undisputed champion across all platforms. I have been waiting for the last 7-8 years for a game that I couldn't set down, a game that I could recommend to other completely.

If you beg to differ, allow me to provide a bit of background.

The Nintendo/SNES/Genesis Years
I believe that RBI Baseball (NES) was the first game I owned, followed by the Bases Loaded series, and then Baseball Stars. As the years went on, I acquired a Sega Genesis and started to get in to the World Series Baseball and Sportstalk Baseball games, neither of which completely engulfed me like Baseball Stars did. Regardless of what new release came out for the latest next-gen system, my friends and I always gravitated back to Baseball Stars for the original Nintendo.

The Playstation 1 and 2 Years
Then came the Playstation 1/2 years, when EA put out a very solid Triple Play game every spring. The improvements year after year were pretty impressive, and I was an annual customer without a second thought. The last game I bought for the PS2 was MLB: The Show, which was a fantastic game that I still play from time to time. It is a much simpler game than many of the next-gen release, with it's simple user interface and Now that we are in the PS3/XBox 360 era, the graphics are getting ridiculous. Looking at re-release screenshots puts me in an art appreciation mode. When the argument used to be, "Kent Hrbek looks exactly like Gary Gaetti - how weak", it has evolved into..."OMFG, Jose Reyes' forearm tattoo is of a RIGHT-facing dragon, not a left-facing dragon - bush league".

The PS3/XBox 360 Era
Now that 2K Sports has the exclusivity rights to MLB, I am becoming increasingly impatient, constantly waiting for that flawless grand slam release. EA Sports now produces an NCAA baseball game, but I'm not drawn to that, as my heart lies with MLB for better or for worse.

Things I love about MLB 2K7:

Graphics and MLB rights be damned, Baseball Stars (and Baseball Stars II) are still the most
enjoyable physics engines to date and the gold standard for the unpredictability a baseball game
should showcase.

If you are a baseball gamer, what are your thoughts on the current offerings?

1. What is your favorite baseball game of all time?
   
2. What is lacking from to make the "Madden" for our beloved baseball?

If you're like me, baseball has you by the shorts.

Not only is it your favorite sport, it is BY FAR your favorite. You live it, breath it and plan your vacations around it. You dig online for news and opinions about our national pastime 365.25 days a year at all hours. In the offseason, you find yourself actually watching BaseballChannel.TV, and any hot stove news takes precendence over personal hygiene.

Yet after the 2007 edition of Giants baseball, I actually felt I needed a break. A season that held such promise at the outset transformed into, well, exactly what I thought would happen. The McC gameday threads helped me survive some pancreas-weakening losses, and the "superwonderful" imagery and Photoshop skillz of howtheyscored and natto provided us with ample relief. Nobody likes playing out the string, but at least we had solid comic relief.

At the close of the MLB season, I had NFL fever for a bit, caused mostly by the promise that the 49ers were showing. That, along with a steady dose of Fresno State football success (suck it, Georgia Tech), carried me through December. As soon as the NCAA bowl season started winding down, the focus of my sporting cerebellum naturally turned toward baseball. I damn near forgot what that felt like.

My to-do list now reads as follows:

1. Wake up
   
2. Print out exhibition schedule from sfgiants.com
   
3. Renew MLB Audio subscription on MLB.com
   
4. Calculate how many days until pitchers and catchers report
   
5. Shave
   
6. Swing by newsstand to see if Athlon/Sporting News 2008 MLB Baseball Preview is available yet (shiny, shiny)
   
7. Go to work

I was lucky enough to have a customer of mine drop 6 tickets on me for tonight's game, and I only need 4 of them. Any 49er fans in San Diego who wants to go can have them - no charge.

30 yard line, press level.

I'll be tailgating in parking lot section A2 at 4:30pm with tickets in hand. Swing by if you want to grab them from me.

The last time I unloaded some $$$ on a 49er jersey, I went for the Garcia #5 jersey back in the late 90's. Then it was T.O. I could wear either jersey around San Diego (where I live) without hearing much snickering from the bandwagon Charger fans then.

Neither jersey gets much time out of the closet any more (for obvious reasons), and I am looking to invest in a new jersey of a current 49er that I can safely wear for a few years without regretting the spend. Having just turned 30, I don't have a favorite player like I did in the fanboy days of my youth.

I'm not completely sold on anyone other than Gore, but I see Gore jerseys everywhere, even here in SD. I almost went with the Manny Lawson last year.

I saw a rack full of these home jerseys (below) last time I was up in the Bay Area. Who should I go with?

Alex Smith
Gore
Lawson
Haralson
Willis
Jackson
Battle

Until then I'll continue to rock the Steve Young away jersey.

P.S. If you see an Andy Lee jersey, pick it up for me and I'll pay you back. ;)