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Hello and happy Tuesday.
Yesterday you watched the San Francisco Giants and Oakland A’s play the first exhibition game of the season (which the Giants won!). I’ll happily admit that I was excited to watch baseball again, despite being apprehensive and critical about MLB’s plan to resume play.
Still, despite my excitement, I expected the game to feel ... weird. There would be no fans. There would be no high-fiving. Players would be wearing masks while mingling. The broadcasters would be in a remote location which would hinder their ability to call the game in a normal fashion.
Nope. Perhaps it was because the coronavirus has gone on so long that it seems weirder to me when people aren’t wearing masks and socially distancing. Perhaps it’s because the game was at the Oakland Coliseum, so there were no fewer fans than you expect to see at a July baseball game.
Whatever it was, it felt normal. It felt like a good, standard baseball game.
We’ll see what the coming months bring in terms of safety, coronavirus test results, and quality of the product. But yesterday’s game felt entirely normal, and as much as I was looking forward to it, that wasn’t what I was expecting.
Did Barry Bonds hit a home run today?
He did.
July 21, 2000: Against the Los Angeles Dodgers, Bonds hit a solo home run in the 8th inning off of Matt Herges. It gave the Giants a 5-3 lead, but they would lose 6-5. It was his 32nd homer of the year.
Giants links
- Roger Munter plays a game of “Swing/Take” with Alex Canario (There R Giants)
- Grant Brisbee on the Giants best-case scenario (The Athletic, subscription required)
- Chris Haft on Gabe Kapler talking about the late, great John Lewis (MLB)
- Kerry Crowley on what we learned during Summer Camp (Mercury News)
- Hank Schulman on the bond between Jalynne Crawford and Jessica Trout (SF Chronicle)
- Andrew Baggarly on the potential for managerial etiquette to change this year (The Athletic, subscription required)
- Bruce Jenkins on Jon Miller’s worst home run call (SF Chronicle)
- Alex Pavlovic on Farhan Zaidi’s decision about Joey Bart (NBC Sports Bay Area)
- Steve Berman on crowd noise but no crowds (The Athletic, subscription required)
- Paul Sporer on the Giants having the 28th-ranked rotation (Fangraphs)
Have a great Tuesday, everyone. Enjoy more baseball!