Steven Rubio's Online Life

drumroll for my blogroll

Time.com has posted their “First Annual Blog Index”, what they consider the 25 best out there (along with the five most overrated blogs). While I often come across material from those 25 blogs via other links, I do not have any of them in my Google Reader RSS feed, so I guess I’m an outlier. So, using the Reader’s “Trends” function, here are some blogs/websites I actually do read:

• TV Squad (156 posts read over the past 30 days, 11% of the available posts): This is mostly for Maureen Ryan … I still call it “TV Squad” even though it has been taken over by HuffPost.
• Deadspin (135 posts, 20% of available): “Sports News Without Access, Favor, or Discretion”
• SB Nation Bay Area (130 read, 19% of available): Another sports site; “Pro Quality, Fan Perspective.”
• McCovey Chronicles (82 read, 62%): SF Giants site.
• A plain blog about politics (77 read, 82%): Smart political scientist blogging from a centrist Democratic perspective.
• Salon.com (67 read, 17%): I read Salon a lot more than this shows, because I visit the website multiple times each day, and those don’t show up in Reader.
• If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger There’d Be a Whole Lot of Copycats (64 read, 100%): You can tell how much I love this site by the 100% read figures. Everyone should have this in their feed reader.
• Baseball Prospectus (54, 18%): Like with Salon, I visit the BP site several times a day, so the % figures don’t reflect how much time I spend there.
• ESPN.com (48, 35%): This doesn’t count the ESPN baseball and soccer pages, which I visit a billion times a day.
• Feministing (44, 44%): A new-to-me blog that is already climbing my list of good reads; “Young Feminists Blogging, Organizing, Kicking Ass”.

I don’t actually know how Google Reader computes these things, so I’ll add two honorable mentions that turn up on a list titled “Clicked” … not sure what that means, but I read these whenever something is actually posted there, which is frequently in Alan’s case, not-so-frequently in Tim’s case:

• What’s Alan Watching: Alan Sepinwall on TV.
• Bastard Machine: Tim Goodman on TV.

In most cases, I recommend the above dozen sites if you are interested in the subject matter. I think “A plain blog” and “Feministing” are worth reading, even if you don’t think you’d agree with what you’d read … I find myself disagreeing with “A plain blog” on a regular basis, but I love reading it just the same. And one more time, I highly recommend “Gunslinger” … they don’t post every day, but every post is a delight, and it’s almost all photos, so you don’t have to worry about reading too much, if that’s your problem.

opening day #33

I’ve been to exciting openers and dreary openers, momentous and mundane. Today I may have seen the best Opening Day of my 33 years of attendance.

Last year was hard to beat. Before the game, we got to watch the raising of the World Championship flag. Then, Edgar Renteria’s homer tied the game in the ninth, and eventually, an Aaron Rowand infield hit in the bottom of the 13th sent Giants fans home happy.

The weather report for today was thunderstorms. But, as Mike Krukow said early in the morning, “God is a Giants fan.” There was no thunder, there was no storm, and for much of the afternoon, there were no clouds to speak of.

This year’s pre-game festivities included a tribute to the 1962 Giants. There were a lot of Hall of Famers on the field, including Lon Simmons, a Giants announcer in 1962. (Jon Miller, current announcer and himself a Hall-of-Famer, MC’d the show.) Gaylord Perry was there, and then, in the usual order in which they are presented at the park, we got Orlando Cepeda, Willie McCovey, and Willie Mays.

Throwing out the ceremonial first pitch was a 13-year-old boy named Tyler Stow. The name might not ring a bell, but you may have heard of his dad, Bryan Stow, the Giants fan who was beaten senseless at a Giants road game last season. As the entire Giants roster stood with Tyler on the mound, Bryan Stow and his mother appeared live on the big screen in centerfield. Bryan held a baseball out to the camera and said, “Good luck, son.” Giants pitcher Jeremy Affeldt then handed a ball to Tyler, who threw the ball all the way to the plate, where Tim Flannery awaited.

After all of this, the game might have been anti-climactic. But near-history was still to come. Giants pitcher Matt Cain retired the first 17 batters he faced. Then, improbably, the opposing team’s pitcher bounced a single into left field, ending the perfect game and the no-hitter. Cain proceeded to retire the final 10 Pirates he faced. Final totals: 9 innings, 11 strikeouts, one base runner, 28 batters faced. It was the best performance by a Giants pitcher since Jonathan Sanchez tossed a no-hitter back in 2009.

The Giants won, 5-0, the game took only 2 hours and 10 minutes, and we got to hear Tony Bennett serenade us out of the ball yard for the first time of the new season. A better Opening Day is hard to imagine.

Here is a video of the first pitch:

http://mlb.mlb.com/media/video.jsp?content_id=20580973

tomorrow is opening day

I will be attending my 33rd consecutive Giants home opener:

1. 4-17-80: Giants 7 Padres 3 … had broken foot (gamer)
2. 4- 9-81: Padres 4 Giants 1, 12 inn. … MLB debut for Juan Bonilla
3. 4-13-82: Giants 3 Padres 2 … Reggie Smith single, double, 2 RBI, run scored
4. 4- 5-83: Padres 16 Giants 13 … Mike Krukow lasted 1 1/3 innings
5. 4- 3-84: Cubs 5 Giants 3 … Johnnie LeMaster hit leadoff, team lost 96 games
6. 4- 9-85: Giants 4 Padres 3 … Chris Brown with walk-off single, team lost 100 games
7. 4-15-86: Astros 8 Giants 3 … Will Clark homered in first home game
8. 4- 6-87: Giants 4 Padres 3, 12 inn. … MLB debuts for Joey Cora and Jim Steels
9. 4- 7-88: Giants 6 Padres 1 … Brett Butler homered
10. 4-10-89: Dodgers 7 Giants 4 … Mike LaCoss gives up 9th-inning grand slam to Eddie Murray
11. 4-13-90: Padres 8 Giants 3 … Dan Quisenberry allows 6 runs in 1 1/3 innings
12. 4-15-91: Dodgers 2 Giants 1 … Giants 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position
13. 4-14-92: Padres 4 Giants 0 … Giants get 3 hits, all singles
14. 4-12-93: Giants 4 Marlins 3, 11 inn. … Grateful Dead sing anthem, Barry Bonds homers in first SF home opener
15. 4- 4-94: Giants 8 Pirates 0 … Matt Williams hits two homers
16. 4-28-95: Giants 4 Marlins 0 … Glenallen Hill hits 3-run homer
17. 4-12-96: Giants 4 Cubs 1 … Bonds hits homer, is intentionally walked
18. 4- 1-97: Pirates 5 Giants 2 … Kevin Elster puts Pirates on top to stay (remember that name)
19. 4- 7-98: Giants 5 Astros 4, 10 inn. … Giants starting pitcher: Orel Hershiser
20. 4- 8-99: Giants 12 Padres 4 … Last Opening Day at Candlestick
21. 4-11-00: Dodgers 6 Giants 5 … Opening of Pac Bell Park, Giants hit 3 homers, so does Kevin Elster
22. 4- 2-01: Giants 3 Padres 2 … Bonds homers, is intentionally walked
23. 4- 5-02: Giants 3 Padres 1, 10 inn. … Bonds hits walk-off homer in 10th
24. 4- 7-03: Giants 7, Padres 4 … Rich Aurilia and Edgardo Alfonzo homer in 8th
25. 4-12-04: Giants 7 Brewers 5 … Bonds hits #660, ties Willie Mays, puts Giants ahead for good
26. 4- 5-05: Giants 4, Dodgers 2 … Bonds misses most of season, Giants win opener, anyway
27. 4- 6-06: Giants 6, Braves 4 … Bonds walked intentionally twice
28. 4 -3-07: Padres 7 Giants 0 … Barry Zito’s first game as a Giant
29. 4- 7-08: Padres 8, Giants 4 … post-Bonds era begins, Giants lose 90 games
30. 4- 7-09: Giants 10 Brewers 6 … MLB debut for Joe Martinez, he gets the win
31. 4- 9-10: Giants 5 Braves 4, 13 inn. … Aaron Rowand wins game in 13th, shocked Giants go on to win World Series
32. 4- 8-11: Giants 5 Cardinals 4, 12 inn. … Rowand wins game in 12th, is released in September

ozzie and fidel

Perhaps you aren’t a baseball fan, and so, when Ozzie Guillén made the news, you weren’t aware that Ozzie tends to say whatever pops into his mind, that this sometimes gets him into trouble, but that he is a sportswriter’s dream precisely because he speaks his mind. (He is also entertaining on Twitter for the same reason.) Perhaps you now know that Ozzie, who is from Venezuela but who has become a U.S. citizen, speaks English as a second language. His English is better than my Spanish, but he tends to think in Spanish, even when he is speaking English, or so he said recently.

Anyway, Guillén is in the news because of things he said in a Time magazine interview. Guillén only recently took on the job of managing the Miami Marlins, after 8 years in charge of the Chicago White Sox, who won a World Series under his reins. Miami has a problem … let me restate that, the Miami Marlins franchise in Major League Baseball has a problem. Simply put, no one goes to their games. They have won two World Series in recent times, but over the past eleven seasons, they have finished in the bottom five in the majors in attendance, including three straight years when they were last. They have made efforts to change this, and for 2012, they have a new ballpark (built under some controversy and a lot of public funds), and a strong marketing push to the many Cuban-American fans in the area. As a popular and well-known Latino, Guillén was a part of this push.

Ah, but South Florida is also full of anti-Castroites. So it was a marketing disaster when, in the Time interview, Guillén said, “I respect Fidel Castro. You know why? A lot of people have wanted to kill Fidel Castro for the last 60 years, but that motherfucker is still here.”

He also said that he loved Fidel Castro, and there is some dispute about how he meant to use the word “love”. As he said when offering the required apology, “I was thinking in Spanish, and I said it wrong in English.”

Well, everyone is entitled to their opinion, and this would have likely blown over in a few minutes if Ozzie was still managing in Chicago. But this is Miami. So the Marlins issued an official statement:

There is nothing to respect about Fidel Castro. He is a brutal dictator who has caused unthinkable pain for more than 50 years. We live in a community filled with victims of this dictatorship, and the people in Cuba continue to suffer today.

I have no idea what Marlins ownership thinks of Fidel Castro. But I can imagine what they think about marketing, about money, about getting people through the turnstiles. So they suspended Ozzie Guillén for five games.

Joe Sheehan had his usual insightful analysis in his newsletter:

This is an economic decision that has nothing at all to do with Cuba, Fidel Castro or Ozzie Guillen's long history of being opinionated. This is public relations, not politics. This is the Marlins, at a critical moment in their history and desperately trying to win over a city they've bent over for years, making damned sure that they don't lose any of the momentum gained by their new ballpark or waste the hundreds of millions of dollars they committed in finding players to romp around in it.

Cuban-American fans of the Marlins are likely not satisfied with a five-game suspension. This matters to them in ways it doesn’t matter to a Berkeley Commie like me. As Jose Canseco (yes, that Jose Canseco) tweeted, “I hope Ozzie Guillen clears up His Castro comments. My dad took us away from Cuba for better life in USA. Glad he did.” (Unrelated trivia: I spent an afternoon watching an A’s game in a luxury box with, among other people, Jose’s dad. He was a nice man, but I told him I didn’t like the 1989 World Series ring his son had given him to wear.)

There are other ways to look at this, of course. Prometheus Brown tweeted, “so apparently praising Fidel Castro is a bigger crime than killing an unarmed black teenager in Florida huh”.

But I’m with Joe Sheehan: it’s about money.

giants baseball

I figure it’s about time for a baseball post. I had the longish thing about Matt Cain last week, and I’m sure I’ll have something come Opening Day on Friday. But I haven’t done a State of the Giants post yet.

I don’t really have anything new to say. I don’t think they did enough to improve the offense, and it needed improving. The pitching should be very good once again, so the question becomes, is this 2010 or 2011? Truth is, they were very lucky in 2010 when they won it all, and that’s fine with me, at least it finally happened. Clearly, they believe a little luck and a great pitching staff makes anything possible, and 2010 will always be the example of what they mean by that.

But what’s been obvious through the first four games of 2012 is that while the longer a season goes, the more likely that luck will even out and players and teams will find their proper level, anything can happen in four games. That, in fact, is why the Giants’ brain trust figures getting into the post-season is the goal … it’s the Anything Can Happen in a Short Series Clause.

There are always stretches in a season that are goofy, when things don’t happen according to form. When they happen at the beginning of a season, they get a bit more attention, because we’ve been starved for something to talk about. And so the Giants have scored 21 runs in their first four games, more than enough to pick up some wins with their vaunted pitching staff. Except the Big Three of Lincecum, Bumgarner, and Cain didn’t get it done, and after they blew a six-run lead, the Giants had a record of 0-3.

So naturally, the oft-derided Barry Zito goes out, doesn’t throw a single pitch over 85 MPH, strikes out 4, doesn’t walk anyone, only allows four hits, has an 11-pitch at-bat of his own that culminates in a single, and just like that, the Giants win, 7-0.

It’s a very nice early-season moment, and Zito deserves to enjoy it.

On the other hand, I remember a game late in 2010, when the Giants needed every win. I went to a game with some friends, and, to show off my vast knowledge, I informed them that the Giants had no chance in that game, because Zito was pitching. So he went out and pitched shutout ball into the sixth, when he allowed an unearned run. Final score of that game? 1-0. But Zito looked pretty good.

After that point, he went 1-2, was left off the post-season roster, and had his worst season as a Giant in 2011. I guess that game in late 2010 wasn’t a signifier of anything.

If the shutout against the Rockies does turn out to be significant, the Giants have a real chance. A #4 starting pitcher who throws like Zito did in his shutout makes for a dangerous team. If they continue to average more than 5 runs a game on offense, they will be even more dangerous.

Honestly, it’s more likely that Zito has turned a corner than it is that the Giants are now a good-hitting team. And Zito’s resurgence isn’t all that likely, either. But I’d say most Giants fans are much more hopeful right now than a 1-3 team might deserve.

matt cain

At least one person is waiting patiently for my take on Matt Cain. Turning off my brain for a second, I’m glad that Matt Cain will be part of the Giants family for years to come. I don’t know about other teams in other sports … I can only speak of the Giants. But the organization does a great job of presenting itself as a family, and yes, it’s all in the name of the almighty dollar, but even so, it’s nice to think that they believe that selling the idea of family is a good thing.

One way they do this is by honoring their past. Start with the various statues surrounding the park at China Basin: Willie Mays (the park may be named after a corporate sponsor, but the address is 24 Willie Mays Plaza), Willie McCovey, Juan Marichal, Orlando Cepeda. All of those men (except Marichal, who I believe lives outside the U.S.) are at the park on a regular basis. There are the literal families: Bobby Bonds begat Barry Bonds, whose godfather was Mays. Or Darren Baker … It was a bad idea on so many levels, and it resulted in a dangerous, if memorable, play in the 2002 World Series, but until that moment, it was a perfect example of the Giants Way that 3-year-old Darren, son of the team’s manager, was a bat boy.

The team’s television announcers, Duane Kuiper and Mike Krukow, smoothly work the notion of family into their telecasts. Kruk and Kuip are themselves former Giants, and everything about their style, from Kuip’s amiable thank yous to Amy G when she does a brief cut-in to Kruk’s bestowing the honorific “he’s a good Giant” on someone like the bullpen coach, extend the family feel. (Some are annoyed that the camera so often finds kids in the crowd, but that, too, is part of the family concept.)

I don’t mean in all of this that the Giants are a G-rated entertainment … even if they were, Barry took care of that. The Giants family isn’t like the Cleavers or the Huxtables. They are more like the motley crew that finally won the World Series, with long-haired pitchers and bearded closers and thong-wearing sluggers and an outfielder in black leather S&M gear.

Matt Cain has been a Giant his entire professional career. He has performed at a high level. He’s not very demonstrative … next to some of the characters in the Giants family, he’s pretty ordinary. But he has been with the big club longer than any other current player. He is the ultimate example on the field of that mystery known as the Giant Family, and like I say, I’m glad he’ll be staying.

Switching my brain back to the on position … was this a good deal for the Giants? The negatives are obvious: they’re giving Cain an enormous amount of money, which carries risk, and Cain is a pitcher, besides, and pitchers are always risks because of the abuse their arms go through. The Giants, more than most teams, are aware of the potential folly in signing pitchers to expensive, long-term deals (Barry Zito).

But … Cain is not Zito. Sharp analysts could already see the likelihood of decline in Zito when the contract was signed (at the time, I was relatively kind, saying Zito would be OK for the first part of his contract, but “I don’t expect him to be a fine pitcher by the year 2010, and he will have four years to go on his contract at that time”). Cain is younger than Zito was when he signed, and his track record suggests his decline won’t be as severe as Zito’s. More important, his decline may not even happen during the contract, because he is signed, not for seven years, but for five. If I had to point to the best thing about the deal, it’s that part about five years. Yes, a 5-year deal for a pitcher is risky, but Cain would seem to have as good a chance as anyone of making it through those five years relatively unscathed.

Did the Giants pay too much? The general opinion seems to be that next year, when Cain would have been a free agent, a lot of money will be thrown around, and Cain’s contract will seem almost like a bargain. Right now, of course, he has signed the biggest contract for a right-handed pitcher in baseball history (on a per-season basis in a multi-year contract).

With my brain, I’m a bit torn by the deal, which does nothing to address the biggest problem on the team (hitting). But, as you can tell by the amount of time I spent blathering about “family”, my heart is just fine with the signing. I understand that in saying this, I am stepping outside of my standard, cold-hearted, routine, and getting all sappy. There’s nothing I can do about that.

my first scoresheet team

Continuing my theme of “no one cares about your fantasy team”, here is my very first Scoresheet Baseball team (AL-only, one-year league):

• C: Alex Avila, Yorvit Torrealba
• 1B: Mark Reynolds
• 2B: Ian Kinsler, Luke Hughes
• 3B: Mike Moustakas, Brent Morel
• SS: Alexei Ramirez, Sean Rodriguez, Eric Sogard
• OF: Josh Hamilton, Austin Jackson, Josh Willingham, Alejandro De Aza, Andruw Jones, Craig Gentry, Casper Wells
• SP: Felix Hernandez, John Danks, Scott Baker, Josh Tomlin, Hisashi Iwakuma, Brett Cecil, Brian Duensing, Kevin Millwood, Nick Blackburn, Charlie Furbush, Matt Maloney
• RP: Mariano Rivera, Mike Adams, Matt Thornton, Joel Peralta, George Sherrill, Hisanori Takahashi, Darren O’Day

2012 rubio begonias, roto version

Much to say about Mad Men, but that will come later. Meanwhile, I added a Yahoo roto league to my Scoresheet league (my cousin asked, what could I say but yes). So here they are, 11 teams, AL/NL, keeper league:

• C: Ryan Doumit
• 1B: Billy Butler
• 2B: Brandon Phillips, Kelly Johnson
• 1B/2B/3B: Daniel Murphy
• 1B/3B: Chris Davis
• SS: Erick Aybar, Ian Desmond
• OF: Ryan Braun, Jacoby Ellsbury, Matt Holliday, Michael Bourn, Jayson Werth
• SP: Ted Lilly, Shaun Marcum, Ricky Nolasco, Alexi Ogando
• RP: Mariano Rivera, Jonathan Papelbon, Carlos Marmol, Mike Adams, Sean Marshall, Matt Capps, Santiago Casilla

quakes opener: the result

The home side won, 1-0, and played some entertaining soccer in the process. They have some speedsters on the roster this season, and while the jury is out on how that speed will translate into results, the entertainment angle should be covered. We were especially taken with Marvin Chávez, a 5’5” winger from Honduras. Now I know why he is called “El Hijo del Viento” (son of the wind).

But the most memorable part of the evening came when I browsed through the game program and found this:

GM? Check. Head coach? Check. Assistant coaches, goalkeeper coach, fitness coach? Check. Trainers? Check. Team Administrator? Check. Video Analyst?

Hey, wait a minute. That’s my nephew, Sean Rubio, in the official program!

opening night

There’s a picture I’ve posted more than once over the years. It’s my ticket to the very first match in Major League Soccer history. Things have changed over the years. San Jose is no longer called the Clash. For that matter, I don’t think D.C. United was ever called “Washington D.C. United”. United would go on to win both the league championship and the U.S. Open Cup in that first year, while the Clash were bumped out in the first round of the playoffs and didn’t take part in the Open Cup.

Here is how that opening match played out on ESPN:

One reason announcer Phil Schoen went so goofy over Wynalda’s goal is that it came with only a few minutes remaining in what was until that point a scoreless draw, a not particularly interesting scoreless draw, for that matter. Just what ESPN and American soccer fans needed: a 0-0 opening match for everyone to ridicule. For that reason, Wynalda’s goal had import far beyond the game itself.

From there, San Jose went on to several years without making the playoffs. They changed their name to the Earthquakes, managed to get Landon Donovan on their team, won two MLS championships, saw Landon leave for Los Angeles, saw the team move to Houston where they won two more championships, and finally, saw a brand-new expansion San Jose Earthquakes emerge in 2008.  That is the team we’ll be seeing tonight.

There’s been one other change worth mentioning. In that inaugural season, my nephew was a little squirt who already liked soccer. Now, sixteen years later, he works in the Quakes’ front office as a video analyst. Who knows what he’ll be doing in 2028. Sky’s the limit!