Tag Archives: AT&T Park

by | June 17, 2013 · 10:27 AM

The Padres Are Not Like Anne Hathaway

padresprincess

Let me explain.

Remember that horrible movie from 2001, “Princess Diaries?” Yeah, the Padres are just discovering that they are some long-lost royal blood line and just needed a little make up, hair, and braces removed to be noticed.

Well, they have my attention.

They are sitting just a half game back of the Giants, and two games behind the first-place Diamondbacks, whom they just swept. This is not a typo. I thought my iPhone was crapping out on me, so I referred to my desktop. Same standings. I triple-checked that it wasn’t 2010. Yep.

An alternate title to this post was, “The Padres are Like Your Ugly Ex-Girlfriend From High School,” but I thought it was a little harsh for a tag line. Therefore, you can send me your hate mail now, but of course, you’ve had to have read this far, so  hell, I just thank you for taking the time out of your day to do so. We haven’t seen the Padres over .500 since 2010 when the Giants were battling them down to last day of the season to seal that fateful ride to their first San Francisco World Series Championship. So, we forgot about them. Dumped them after the season since we had our shiny new rings and Tiffany-made trophy. The Padres became an afterthought, left to their single life of living with their parents and getting on and off Weight Watchers about as often as Pablo Sandoval fractures small bones in his appendages. But alas, they have pulled off the transformation, without the 90 second movie-montage.

Wait, I’m comparing the Padres to a woman?

Back on track for a moment. The Giants blew a golden opportunity on Saturday, but two walks and an error in the 9th tend to lose ballgames for you. That win would have secured a winning road trip, and what a tough road trip it was. Instead, they played flat yesterday, and couldn’t pick up Lincecum and is technically-qualifying “quality start.” With the starting pitching woes this year, the offense has been their saving grace, and we’ve mentioned it many times before, but there’s only so long the Giants can overachieve with their run production while their number 1, 2 and 3 batters are all out. Pagan might require surgery, and Marco just may “tough it out” and live with a deformed finger, and Panda, well, he…never mind. Let’s just say he has a “slim” lead in NL All-Star voting and leave it at that. Although they hit .315 on the last roadie, that level cannot be sustained. The pitching will have to return, and let’s hope Zito can extend his home dominance (4-1, 1.94) tonight against the Friars.

Otherwise, the Giants will be looking at three teams above them.

Chad

PS – All three of us will be in the press box during tonight’s game versus the Padres, so expect the twitter account (@Torturecast) to blow up. At least one of us will be at the pre-game Bochy press conference. Any questions you’d like to ask him? Send them our way!

PPS – Giants are 2-0 when we’re in the press box

Leave a comment

Filed under Articles

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

by | June 4, 2013 · 9:25 AM

Episode 50: Scott Garrelts y Jose Mijares

garrelts_y_mijares

Click the player above to listen to the Episode!

Download the episode

Listen on iTunes

Listen on Stitcher!

 

The Week in Review

  • 2-5 since our last recording (lost 3/4 to A’s, lost 2/3 to STL)
  • Somehow they’re still in 2nd place, only 2 GB of AZ
  • After 57 games in 2012: 32-25 (2 Games ahead of where they are now), and 4 GB of LAD
  • Our first game of 2013 in the press box on Thu vs. A’s. Hey, Giants are 2-0 with TC in the box!

Talking Points

  • Once again, horrible starting pitching, only Gaudin and Zito saved the day

The Big Question

“Extra Baggs: The Giants would turn Lincecum into a late-inning reliever “in a
heartbeat,” according to one club source, if they had another starting
pitcher in the system ready to take his place in the rotation.

How would he feel about that?
“I’m always open. It’s just, right now I don’t want to be open to
it,” said Lincecum, adding he is committed to remaining a starter for
the rest of this season. “I’m sure if my career takes that turn, I’m
definitely open to changes, especially if it’s beneficial to the team
I’m playing for.””

 

Armchair Manager

  • Do you keep Gaudin in the rotation?
  • How do you set up the coming weeks?
  • More rest for starters or skip the 5th spot when possible.
  • Skip Lincecum in AZ?

On Deck

  • Quick 2 games at home vs. Toronto, then a 9 game road trip through AZ, Pit and ATL, all winning teams
  • June is going to be rough: 18 of 27 games are on the road

Tweet At Me, Bruh

  • Willie: @TortureCast: I’ll keep on this juice fast as long as Lincecum remains a starter. #mightlose30pounds
  • Chad: ‏Tom Tolbert – ‏@byronjr23: Halos 6 outs from being swept by the Astros..It would be a 4 game sweep no less..Fun fact: Astros payroll 17 mill..Hamilton salary 17.5 mill”

Our New Favorite Guy

  • Chad: Chad Gaudin
  • Willie: Bengie Molina

We Should Hate This Guy

  • Willie: Every Cardinals player
  • Chad: Yadier Molina

Why We Will Win It All

  • Chad: We won’t if the starters don’t shape up
  • Willie: Yeah, I’m not feeling it right now

Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook and Twitter!

We also have a new TortureCast Mug for sale on Zazzle!

Leave a comment

Filed under Episodes, Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

by | March 30, 2013 · 1:02 PM

Your #28 Giants Jersey is good through 2021

Posey can buy lots of jerseys for us, probably every fan to walk through the gates of AT&T.

Yesterday the Giants made sure that my Buster Posey jersey will not go out of date until the year 2021. Who cares about the money? It’s financially the equivalent to me as earning the Nobel Peace Prize; it’s out of the realm of possibility and into fantasy.

(view our interview with Buster Posey in February below)

Inevitably people will know the value of this deal, but I’ve had a completely opposite visceral reaction that I had to the Zito signing in 2006. At that time, I assumed Zito was on the downtrend of his career, and the Giants were overpaying for a “former” Cy Young award winner. However, even though Posey’s contract is bigger that Zito’s, I completely approve of it, as do many Giants fans and national baseball writers. How can you say no to the reigning MVP, batting title winner, Comeback Player of the Year, and Rookie of the Year. This often used stat really rings true, the SF Giants are 2 for 2 in World Series championship years with Posey and 0 for 53 without him.

I’m sure that later in his tenure with the Giants, he’ll be playing first base and DH in interleague games, and perhaps he won’t be today’s Posey in year 9 of this deal. However, even if the Giants don’t win another World Series while Posey is here, and even if he performs under our expectations in the second half of his deal, it’s still a worthy payment to a man who has helped bring 2 championships to the great city of San Francisco. That’s worth something, isn’t it?

Chad

Leave a comment

Filed under Articles, interview

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

Video

Brandon Belt is a “low-energy” guy, Still Loves Olive Garden

Chad and Willie talk to San Francisco Giants first baseman, Brandon Belt at Giants’ “Media Day” about the Olive Garden, his nickname “Sparky,” the sight of all the baby giraffe hats in the stands, staying consistently calm, and the influence of Will Clark and JT Snow in the clubhouse.

Leave a comment

by | February 17, 2013 · 8:21 AM
Video

Zito Still Won’t Tweet, but Likes #RallyZito

Willie asks San Francisco Giants’ Pitcher Barry Zito about his awareness of #RallyZito, the fan support during the playoffs (Twitter is still not for Zito), and how the hell he got a hit off of Justin Verlander in the World Series.

Leave a comment

by | February 10, 2013 · 9:58 AM
Video

Sergio Romo has a “rubber band” arm…or so he says

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

Leave a comment

by | February 9, 2013 · 12:57 AM
by | February 9, 2013 · 12:52 AM

SF Giants Media Day

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

 

 

Leave a comment

Filed under Articles

Tagged as , , , , , , , ,

by | September 26, 2012 · 11:36 PM

TortureCast Goes to the PressBox…wait…WTF?! And “Bonusode” 38.5

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!

 

Confessions of a Press Box Rookie

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.

Leave a comment

Filed under Articles, Episodes

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

by | July 31, 2012 · 11:08 PM

Giants Not “Pence”-ive as a Free Agent “Hunter”

Right park, different uni (manginphotography.net)

First of all, I apologize for the title, but I was in the NY Post spirit with the Mets in town.

Hunter Pence is the player that many Giants fans have been drooling over for quite some time, and in all honesty, the Giants didn’t give up as prized of a prospect as they did last year as they jettisoned Zach Wheeler for a Beltran rental (btw, can we have him back, now?)

It’s not generally recommended to react to trades completed by your divisional rival, but in this case the Giants had to put at least one more bullet in the chamber as the Dodgers put a few (Ramirez, Victorino, and almost Dempster). Alas, the gaping bleeding hole in their lineup is a right handed bat, and much as I like him, Brett Pill ain’t the medicine for that ailment. Pence is a nice fit, an energetic player with pop and speed. He reminds me a little of Eric Byrnes; very awkward in the field, not majestic in his mechanics, but god damn if he doesn’t just get the job done, he does it better than most.

Shierholtz had a nice tenure with the Giants; a player that always aspired to do more, yet was solid in his contributions, despite not getting as many opportunities as he’d hoped for. His comments in the Chronicle a few weeks ago essentially put an “X” on his back regarding trade bait. His comments may not have been detrimental to the clubhouse, but perhaps you want to change the scenery for that player in the interests of both parties. Heck, he’s even reuniting with one of his best buds, Kevin Frandsen, who was recently promoted from AAA. Frandsen was even in Shierholtz’s wedding. Tommy Joseph is a promising talent, but the Giants are flush at catcher, a position that teams generally have a paucity. San Francisco still has Hector Sanchez, Andrew Susac, and some guy wearing number 28.

Unfortunately, the Giants will have to deal with arbitration with Pence this offseason, and if Beltran is any indication of how he feels that AT&T Park is a black hole that just sucks power numbers away from any bat that lingers near its center, Pence may come to find that the next 30 odd games played in this pitcher’s haven are not kind to the stat sheet. Nonetheless, if they get into October, he could smell the allure of a triples record next year?

-Chad King, @chadk21

 

 

Leave a comment

Filed under Articles

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

by | February 11, 2012 · 12:18 AM

FanFest 2012

I’ll admit, as a lifelong Giants fan, I had never made the trek up to SF for FanFest. In its 19th year, I decided to give it a shot and bring along my 6 year old daughter, whom I’m brainwashing, er, instilling in, a serious Giants’ passion. I assumed that the 40,000 that attended FanFest 2011, glowing after their World Championship, would certainly dwindle to a more management number. It dwindled…by a measly 4,000 people. So, me, my daughter, and 35,998 additional Giants fans packed into AT&T Park over the course of 5 hours on February 4, 2012. See some video highlights below.

Note to those Giants fans who arrived right at opening, and did not wait in line for 90+ minutes like the rest of us and decided to “play dumb” as you just conveniently merged with the rest of the patient crowd: please go jump off of Lefty O’Doul Bridge, you’re an embarrassment to our kind.

Now that I have that PSA out of the way, let me continue. Once we entered AT&T Park, it was fairly chaotic; I had a vice grip on my daughter’s hand as we nimbly navigated the park concourses. Eventually, we made it down to the field, where it was even harder to figure out where each of the dozen lines started, ended, or if waiting in any particular line would deposit you to a random assortment of Giants players or a jumpy house.  Good thing I’m not an autograph buff. Apparently some autograph lines were in excess of 2 hours. I did wander up to several booths, and was told that the players would rotate ever so often. I empathize with the Giants fans that waited for more than 2 hours on the 3rd level concourse ramps to get the John Hancocks of…Dan Runzler and Roberto Kelly. Ouch.

After a $10 purchase of stale chicken and fries, I decided to sit down with my daughter and take in a bit of the KNBR interviews that were happening at home plate. Shortly after we watched and listened to a hooded Tim Lincecum answer dully to standard questions from Murph and Mac, a distinguished gentleman approached us and asked if he could take our picture for his baseball blog. It turned out to be quite an interesting conversation with Michael, who grew up in Queens, his father a rabid NY Giants fans before they moved west in 1958, watching games at the Polo Grounds. In fact, his father wouldn’t take him to the Polo Grounds when the Mets started playing there, as it was Giants’ turf, not Mets. That would be kind of like the SF Giants moving, and then an expansion team, say the SF House Cats, taking up residence at AT&T Park. I wouldn’t go for that, either. Anyway, after a nice chat and a short interview, he posted his musings of FanFest, including our picture and interview at the “Grubby Glove.” The article is here: http://grubbyglove.wordpress.com/2012/02/05/san-francisco-giants-fanfest/. Check out his blog, it’s an entertaining read. The man has passion.

Unfortunately, with nothing fun to do (without waiting in 3 hour lines), my impatient daughter and I high tailed it out of there before the crowd dispersed. It was enjoyable considering it was my first FanFest, and the weather couldn’t have been better. However, unless I can get a press pass for next year, this may be my last FanFest for quite some time.

Chad

Leave a comment

Filed under Articles

Tagged as , , , , , , , , ,