Both Barry's were feeling the love Monday night. Jeff Chiu, AP
The Giants, perhaps better than any other team in sports, welcome back their former players, keeping the memories fresh and tangible. They welcome them all back, no matter if they were average, good, or possibly even the greatest ever.
Monday night Barry Bonds Tivo'd "24" and was at AT&T Park to watch the Giants take on the Dodgers.
Bonds, who was a guest of new managing general partner Bill Neukom and new team president Larry Baer, spoke to reporters for a few minutes and joined Jon Miller and Dave Flemming in the booth on the KNBR radio broadcast.
When asked what brought him, the not-retired slugger said "the Dodgers brought me here."
The all-time home run king was cheered by the fans who rose to their feet and rekindled the "Bar-ry, Bar-ry" chant that echoed throughout foggy San Francisco summer nights for 15 seasons.
The game he saw was exciting enough to conjure images of 1997. And though Bonds himself wasn't able to pirouette out of the batters box after homering against Chan Ho Park, another Barry lifted the Giants to an important, albeit an April, victory over the Dodgers.
Barry Zito came through with his second strong outing in a row at home. He went six and a third innings, allowed five hits and three runs. Again, though, he did not factor in a decision: the much-maligned lefty seems to be rebuilding his reputation one pitch at a time.
The reason? Well here's something to mull over: Can you say "personal catcher"?
There is certainly something working between Barry Zito and Pablo Sandoval. Zito is 3-0 when Sandoval catches him, and in seven starts with this battery, the Giants are 7-0 with Zito looking like a $126-million pitcher; his ERA in these starts is 2.87.
Many pitchers have had a preference for a personal caddy. Greg Maddux opted for Javier Lopez to take his nights off while the backups, be it Charlie O'Brien, Eddie Perez, Paul Bako or Henry Blanco, got behind the dish. Of course, perhaps more famously, Tim Wakefield and Doug Mirabelli had a symbiotic relationship while helping the Red Sox win two World titles. So did the Cardinals' Matt Morris and Mike Defelice (in '02), and Livan Hernandez and Bobby Estalealla in 2000 with the Giants. Well, maybe that detracts from my point a bit, but "Livo" did win 17 games that year.
The point being most guys have a personal catcher who is simply a defensive-minded player, and often the team loses something offensively on those starts. With Sandoval behind the plate it may be a bit reversed.
It's true Bengie Molina is this teams offensive heartbeat, and Molina is a more polished catcher than Sandoval. But Sandoval is a more dynamic offensive player all around, and is quite comfortable catching. The Giants having the luxury of giving Molina some consistent nights off should pay dividends down the stretch, not to mention if they can get this type of performance from Zito with some regularity.
As for the game itself, the Giants rallied in the eighth to bleed out two runs, retaking the lead 5-4 after a 3-0 advantage had vanished in the seventh. Most importantly Brian Wilson got back out in an important save situation after blowing the game Sunday. Wilson retired the Dodgers (and his twitter account) in order, striking out the side in the ninth.
The All-Star closer took some guff for "tweeting" late Saturday night, and early Sunday morning, leaving the impression that he was out on Mill Street, or perhaps in a posh club in Scottsdale, in lieu of being in his room, resting. Sadly for Giants fans you will no longer be able to blame a blown save on a America's newest online obsession, or read while Wilson and Zito twitter back and forth about "banana hammocks." However, feel free to blame my performances, past present or future on twitter; and be sure to follow me at Fighter24.
A couple final notes before I head to bed. First ,regarding Bonds' unexpected presence at the game: Rich Aurilia got the start and batted fourth Monday for the Giants. While commenting on his former teammate being in attendance, Aurilia said "it felt weird batting clean up with that guy here."
Andres Torres injured his hamstring running the bases in the seventh, and is likely out for 10 days or so. Eugenio Velez, who was optioned to Fresno before the game in favor of another arm in the bullpen (Osiris Matos got promoted), will likely be recalled.
Comments
Bonds looks skinny and his head is smaller. Man. So obvious.
Also, remember last year Molina bristling at the personal catcher idea, and Boch going out of his way to say "wow, I didn't even notice that... just a coincidence."
Well, Molina may need to get over it because the Giants will hurt his feelings in a nanosecond if it means Zito finally turns into Zito of old again.
It was brought up again last night and Bengie was very magnanimous about the whole thing. He said something like I love Z, and what ever it takes for him to pitch well I'm for it. He went on to say he doesn't take it personal. The numbers can't be ignored.
RE: Barry. His head still looks big to me, but you're right he's much leaner over all. Probably in better shape now that his knees have had some rest.
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