Up first is my interview with Sergio Romo, asking him about the 49ers Super Bowl loss, the similarities and differences between football and baseball, Hunter Pence’s speeches and how they helped in the 2012 playoffs, his off-season training regimen, his rubber-band arm, and he likes to crack his knuckles.
Chad
We had unprecedented access (well, at least for us amateurs) to the Giants players today for “Media Day” at AT&T Park. Willie and I were able to make it up to the park for the 2 hour speed-dating session with the players and had more access than we could have imagined.
Currently, I’m editing videos of the players that I interviewed, and they’ll be posted throughout the wee hours of the night, as you sleep, or at least, after you drank yourself to sleep, still bitter of the 49ers Super Bowl loss.
I keed.
We have video interviews of Sergio Romo, Tim Lincecum, Ryan Vogelson, Bruce Bochy, Buster Posey, Barry Zito, Brian Sabean, and maybe even the custodian.
We hope you enjoy the onslaught, we did.
Chad
Filed under Articles
We interview Bryan Srabian, Social Media Director of the San Francisco Giants
Click the player above to listen to the Episode!
Willie, Ben and I had the delightful opportunity (did I just use the word, “delightful?”) to interview the Social Media Director for the San Francisco Giants, Bryan Srabian. We could have easily talked to him for many hours (and we wanted to), but we still squeezed in about 50 minutes of very interesting talk about how social media is used as a marketing tool for the Giants and other Major League teams.
We hope you enjoy listening to this interview as much as we did!
You can follow Bryan Srabian on Twitter @srabe.
Chad
Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook and Twitter!
We also have a new TortureCast Mug for sale on Zazzle!
Filed under Episodes
This dude is inspirational and will forever be a Giant
Click the player above to listen to the Episode!
We welcome in the new year with our first TortureCast of 2013. Unfortunately, Ben couldn’t make tonight’s recording, but Willie and Chad discussed the recent deals to avoid arbitration for Posey, Pence, Blanco, Arias, and Mijares. We also bitch about the BBWAA and the injustice of not a single player being voted into the Hall of Fame, as well as pimping FanFest on Feb 9, the excitement of pitchers and catchers reporting on Feb 12, a banana in an unfortunate hole, and we dream about the possibility of Bruce Bochy driving Jim Harbaugh down Market Street with another championship trophy for THE City.
Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook and Twitter!
We also have a new TortureCast Mug for sale on Zazzle!
it burns…like a Brian Wilson non-tender
We shake off the World Series hangover with an episode to review the Giants’ moves in the offseason thus far, and we even challenged ourselves with listening to our season preview episode that we recorded at The Public House (at AT&T Park) with Thomas and Danny from Two Guys, a Glove and a Coke Bottle.
Filed under Episodes
Ashkon is one talented musician. He brought us the rally cry cover of “Don’t Stop Believin‘” in 2010, last year’s “Feeling Like a Giant,” which is our opening tune, and now today, he debuted this pearl that got some of us all teary-eyed.
From 2011:
From 2010:
Let’s hope something is in store for 2013!
– Chad
Filed under Uncategorized
These guys think it is.
2010 came out of nowhere. Don’t let anyone tell you different. Sure, some Giants fans “called it”. The same guy who says “home-run” every time Buster Posey comes up just so when he does hit one, he can say he called it and somehow take credit. Realistically though, nobody predicted that the 2010 San Francisco Giants had what it took to win it all. Then they did.
It was so very sweet because we had never experienced a World Series title before in San Francisco. We had suffered through 56 years of championship drought. We went through ’62, ’89, & ’02, not to mention the ‘Stick, losing 100 in ’85, winning 103 and not making the playoffs in ’93, our 2nd greatest player and the greatest hitter in baseball history, Barry Bonds, losing all credibility and making the Giants somewhat of a tainted organization, ’87, ’97, 2000 & 2003.
Yeah, we suffered as fans. Then 2010 came along and all the pieces just fell into place. We had a rough first half and then Jesu–, I mean, Buster Posey came up from the minors, our highly anticipated and extremely talented rookie, and everything changed. We got hot at the right time. We added Pat Burrell, Cody Ross and Javier Lopez. We saw the emergence of Andres Torres and Madison Bumgarner. Brian Wilson was “lights out” (I know he still scared us plenty but he had a sub-2.00 ERA). Uribe and Renteria came up big at the right moments. Timmy and Cain went nuts in the playoffs after solid years. It was torture, but it felt perfect.
Then we saw perfection.
Then we saw the 2012 Giants. Now we really have seen a perfect team. This team faced so many question marks before the year started. Was Buster going to be the player he once was after a horrible injury ended his 2011 season? Was Pablo going to keep his weight down and play the way he could? Was Brian Wilson going to be healthy? Was our pitching staff going to maintain their dominance? Was Aubrey Huff going to rebound from an awful 2011? Were Melky Cabrera and Angel Pagan going to provide a quality outfield? Would the Brandon’s (Crawford and Belt) prove they were big leaguers?
All of these questions were answered, even though some of them negatively. And yet, we aced this test.
Somehow we made less moves than the Dodgers at the trade deadline and ran away with the division. Everyone played a role in the emergence of the Giants as the NL West Champions. We faced elimination twice in the playoffs and came through in historic fashion. Then we swept the almighty Detroit Tigers in a no-doubter of a World Series. Spurred on by unlikely heroes like Hunter Pence, Marco Scutaro and Barry Zito, the Giants showed the world what a team that played for each other, and for the fans, could do.
This era of Giants baseball will be remembered forever in this town. After so much heartbreak and tears, the Giants fans deserve it. This team deserves it. I remember how sweet it was in 2010 and I know how much we wanted it then, but in my mind, this is so much sweeter. This year proved that we are not only a great baseball team, but a great baseball town. Take this one with you. Tell your children. Tell your grandchildren. Pass this feeling on. Who knows if this kind of team will ever come around again. I for one, will enjoy this one for a long time to come.
Now, I’ve got a parade to get to.
– Willie Dills
Filed under Articles
Pence’s magical triple double in Game 7
Willie, Ben and Chad get together for a NLCS review that just blew everyone’s pants off, followed by questioning the meaning of life and how the frick the Giants pulled off 6 consecutive elimination game wins. Oh yeah, we talk a little World Series Preview and about that Verlander guy…he’s pretty good.
Talking Points
The Week In Review
The BIG Question
ArmChair Manager
Tweet At Me, Bruh
Our New Favorite Guy
We Should Hate This Guy
Why We Will Win It All
Filed under Episodes
Didn’t think this would be happening. Courtesy of The City Graphics.
The three of us finally get together since they clinched the NL West, and it appeared that this would be a post-mortem episode they way the Cincinnatti series started. Alas, the black and orange comeback kids have extended their season against another magical comeback team, the St. Louis Cardinals.
Willie, Chad and Ben review the NLDS, criticize Dusty Baker for his managerial moves or non-moves in Game 5, and discuss how the Giants won the series, despite getting out-hit and out-pitched.
All 3 of us predict the Giants will beat the Cardinals in 6, but Chad thinks the series may go 9 games due to the nature of both teams’ inability to quit.
With magic on both sides, it may be Harry Potter vs. Voldemort.
Just your standard Willie-Chad lineup in the Giants dugout
Click above, right here, that little arrow, to play our “Bonusode” 38.5 from 9/20/12.
The article below, written by Chad King, summarizes his thoughts about the TortureCast’s trip to the Giants’ press box during the Rockies/Giants game on September 20, 2012, 2 days before the Giants clinched the NL West. Excuse the USA Today writing style, but it was written and submitted to a local newspaper.
The podcast embedded above was recorded by Willie and Chad right after the game.
Enjoy!
Chad King
So why was a marine biologist suddenly thrust into the world of sports journalism? Much like George Costanza followed his lust for a woman who was worried about a beached whale in “Seinfeld,” I was coerced by my love for writing, podcasting, and the Giants.
Podcasting is a relatively new form of media. Anyone with a recording device and an internet connection can record and upload spoken words for the potential of millions to listen to. Many are trying and become the next Walter Cronkite or Ryan Seacrest (laugh track). I aspire to become neither. I follow my passion for parenting, gaming and the San Francisco Giants through podcasting. A trained sports journalist or radio DJ, I am not. Neither are most of those who occupy those professions, however.
As a co-host of “The TortureCast,” we’ve always had a passion for the Giants. A passion that has taken me and my two co-hosts to commit hours of pre-show research and preparation, hour long recordings, and hours of audio and website editing. There’s something to be said about the passion of the knowledgeable fan.
The San Francisco Giants recognized something within this passion and granted media credentials to the three of us to cover the Giants-Rockies game on September 20. Typically, Major League Baseball teams only grant media passes to “legitimate” media. We were officially legitimate media, if only for a day. With copious notes from hours of research, we hit the press room like kindergartners on the first day of school. We didn’t ask questions of manager Bruce Bochy in the pregame conference in the dugout nor the postgame conference, and pretty much relegated ourselves to scoring the game, tweeting satirical updates while consuming massive amounts of free caffeine. We gawked at KNBR broadcasters taking seconds in the media dining room, and tried to take “illegal” photos with our smart phones in the press box while skirting Major League Baseball’s official media dress code.
And yet, this was more of a service to the fans than what I saw around me as nine innings of baseball unfolded within the confines of the press box. First, I saw some journalists playing solitaire over several innings, many seasoned professionals reporting incorrect statistics, and found the “TortureCast” crew answering questions rhetorically asked by 30 year veterans such as, “how many homeruns did Buster Posey have coming into today?”
Although this day will be one of the most memorable in the “sports” section of my gray matter, one of the reporters left me with this little nugget: “The only thing that separates the sports writer from a truly knowledgeable fan is the credentials.”
Maybe George Costanza was more qualified that we give him credit for.
The TortureCast 