Blog

Hello, as you may have noticed, this blog is updated slightly sporadically. Actually it's more defunct than anything. It has very little to do with Shawon Dunston, in fact he seems pretty content with us not calling him every week. So, as for now, this site's main purpose is to get those Barry Bonds Martyr shirts onto the streets and into the homes etc. Maybe, if the Giants keep Caincecum, we'll have a real blog going this season. Who knows. For now, stick with McCovey Chronicles. Now get over there and start gobbling up those Barry shirts!!

State of the website address

Hello, friends.
So as countless people have noticed, there has been an outrageous lack of activity on this site throughout the summer. Our excuse is that, due to the miserable status of our San Francisco Giants, we haven't felt motivated to do anything. Whether or not the first part of that statement is a valid reason, the latter half of the sentence is definitely true. I'm leaving the country for a while. I'm not sure what Brad or Shawon are doing. More Barry shirts are on the way.

Q & A #8

Where are you guys?
Anonymous

Sorry for the delay, we are on train to partytown with Klesko

Q & A #7

Why, Mr. Dunston, does the media give so much more attention to the Boston/Yankees rivalry than that of the Giants/Dodgers? After all, our rivalry is older, survived a change of coasts, and is ridiculously close in terms of all-time wins/losses. Thanks, go Gigantes!
Eddie T.
Tracy, CA

Eddie, it comes down to this: Although the teams may seem comparable on the field, Giants fans are so much doper than Dodger fans that nobody really takes the Dodgers seriously. When we go to the park, we get this:





When people go to the ballgame in Los Angeles they get:


Plus, when they finally get there after sitting in traffic for thirty hours, they stay for two innings, don’t know anything and don’t care.

With the Yankees/Red Sox, the fans of both teams are equally dimwitted, hence the competitive spirit. Now I know our diplomatic stance allies us with Boston, but there are deff some reasons to keep a wary eye open.

Q & A #6

Hi Shawon, what, in your opinion, would happen in a perfect Giants game?
Tanya G.
Livermore

This about sums it up:

Q & A #5

If Barry keeps this up, does he have a shot at winning MVP or at least Comeback Player of the Year?
Elaine
San Jose

8-time MVP? You bet! I can't think of a player who an offense depends on more, and neither can you. As for the coveted CBPotY Award... Barry was inexplicably left off of the ballot last year, after hitting .270 with 26 homeruns during a year where he had no meat on his knees and was overall hella old. The silver lining is that he has a great shot at Comeback Player of the Years (2).

Shawon, what's with the rash under Lowry's right eye? Is it getter bigger? If so, how will this affect his changeup?
Trent
Augusta, ME

Very perceptive Trent, but I can't contractually speak about that. This issue will be addressed in Spiderman 3.

Q & A #4

Hey Mr. Dunston! Welcome back to the Giants family! What do you think of the Giants' first base situation?
Aaron L.
San Rafael

I really don't know what to think about who should be at first right now. Feliz, Aurilia, Niekro, Klesko and Sweeney can all play the position. If we could somehow consolidate them into one player that could pinch hit like Sweeney, hit for average like Aurilia, hit for power like Klesko, defend like Feliz and throw knuckleballs like Niekro, we would have a slightly below average first baseman. However, this is unlikely and it looks like the best idea would be to keep Feliz at third and go with the first base platoon of Rychie Klekilia. Niekro may be able to be traded for someone like Armando Benitez and Sweeney may be able to be traded for someone like me. It's one of those lose/lose/win/win/lose situations.

Q & A #3

I noticed last week you refered to J.T. Snow, what does the "J.T." stand for?
Rory M.
Kansas City, MO

If you Wiki J.T. Snow, you'll read that his initials stand for "Jack Thomas". This is just another example of why Wikipedia is completely unreliable. Snow's use of an abbreviation is actually to cover up a darker side of the defensive wizz's legacy. Snow at an early age was an aspiring guitarist and singer-songwriter, playing the local circuit of Manhattan when he, at the age of 15, attended a James Taylor concert and became obsessed with the musician. Born Corey Wilbur Snow, J.T. became an overzealous fan, began playing Taylor cover songs on the street, and legally changed his name to James Taylor Snow. The real James Taylor heard of this, and, realizing Snow was disturbed, arranged a meeting with the aspiring musician. Their interaction was brief, as Taylor was short on time:
Taylor: Hi there, son... so what's this about you changing your name?
Snow: Oh! Mister Taylor I am such a huge fan and I--
Taylor: Yeah obviously, listen you snot if you go around telling people your name is James Taylor and playing my songs I will send a friend or two of mine to treat your teeth like pottery, understood?
Snow: Huh--No, I-- what do you mean?
Taylor: I mean you'll be laid out on the sidewalk defecating on yourself. Pick something else, idiot.
Snow: Something else? Like what? I was just try--
Taylor: I don't care, try stealing cars or drugs or call up the Yankees and ask if they have any openings at first base, either way just stop playing my songs. [smashes Snow's guitar on the ground]
Snow: [sobbing] Caa-caaa-can I keep your name at least?
Taylor: Pathetic. No. But you can keep the initials if it makes you happy, I'm sure someday it will remind you of how stupid you once were. Now get out of my face.

Snow, already having a few warrants he had yet to take care of, decided to pursue Taylor's third suggestion, and the rest is history! Don't believe it? Proof:

Q & A #2

Shawon, as we show our appreciation for Jackie Robinson, what do you think is the reason that black players are less prevalent in the game today?
Melissa M.
Carlsbad

Melissa, first, you need to step your terminology game way up. “Black” here doesn’t work, because there are tons of players from Latin countries of African descent who look “black”, such as Carlos Delgado. There are also people from Latin countries who look “white” like Rafael Palmeiro. Thirdly, there are people from America that look “black”, like Jackie Robinson. Fourthly, there are people from Venezuala like Josh Barfield whose name indicates there was some sort of mixup. And then there’s Esteban Yan and Bruce Chen. And Tomokazu Ohka is Japanese, while Dave Roberts is only half, and Brian Roberts is even less than that! We’re concerned with the third group, African Americans, whose presence in baseball has dwindled over the past few decades. All weekend, I heard various media people citing “the lure of basketball and football in inner cities” as the cause for this trend. However, not once did I hear the correct answer: “Me”. Not “me” as in Shawon but “me” as in the media spokesman speaking about himself. What the media has chosen to do to Barry Bonds over the past twenty years is just despicable. African Americans have been able to watch three of their own, Ken Griffey Jr., Frank Thomas, and Barry Bonds, contend to be the best hitters of all time, and when the former two saw their careers halted by injury, Bonds’ kept getting more and more amazing. So, does the media applaud his career and give him to praise he deserves? No, they try to break him down into nothing, and instead give the honor to... Roger Clemens. Clemens’ career is exremely similar to Bonds’, and his selfish play by far exceeds that of the great Barry. Can you imagine what the media would say if Barry decided to wait until May or so to start playing?

These newspaper men have taken the great African American hero away from the youth, and now they ask why African American kids aren’t interested in the sport. I only hope that this blatant racism by a predominantly white media will be exposed in time.

Sorry for the unpleasant by necessary seriousness, next weeks theme: Stand By Your ‘Mando!

Q & A #1

Hey Shawon, I loved watching you as a Giant. I remember that home run you hit in Game 6. Anyway, what do you think of the Giants’ finalized roster? Is this the year?
Andy H.
Sonoma

If, by “the year” you mean “the year that lots of unpredictable things in baseball happen, as is the case in most years” (which I assume you do) then, probably. I do remember that home run, and I remember we were definitely supposed to win the game when we were up 5-0. As I recall, that didn’t happen. What I mean to say is, the 2007 Giants aren’t supposed to be better than the 2006 team which lost like every game. On paper they look comparable, and in person they look even more similar. However, they look just as similar to the 2004 team which won nearly 150 games and would have made the playoffs if it weren't for that slimeball crawdad Finley. The most notable difference was that the 2004zies had the offensive juggernaut of “The Angry Abbreviator”, J.T. Snow. Snow was “supposed” to hit about .237, instead he anagramed those numbers and put up a .327. Long story short, anything can happen, especially in the playoffs. The Cardinals were by far the worst team in the postseason last year and they didn’t embarrass themselves. So, to answer your question, yes.

Shawon Dunston Joins TBG

Big news folks! We here at Tampa Bay Giants have recently joined teams with Shawon Dunston, whom Giants fans remember from his three tours with San Francisco (1996, 1998, 2001-02), resulting in a National League Championship, 18 towering home runs, and two purple hearts. Baseball wizz Bill James noted that Dunston was an "eternal rookie, a player who continued until the end of his career to make rookie mistakes." Obviously, this is a match made in heaven's singles lounge. So from now on, instead of a sporadically updated blog, expect sporadic question and answer sessions from TBG's hordes of fans answered by the two time overall pick (once in the 1982 MLB draft, the other in the 2007 TampaBayGiants.com worldwide search for someone to lessen the harsh physical burden of blogging). If you want to get involved, simply, contact Shawon through his electronic mail!

200Heaven

Welcome back friends. This year, TBG plans to be much better. We will start with predictions for the upcoming 162-3 games of ecstasy we have in store.

To help make offensive projections for the lineup this year, I took the career highs in each category for each player and came up with these hitting forecasts:

Roberts:
.293/.360/.428, 80 R, 19 2B's, 13 3B's, 8 HR, 44 RBI, 49 SB
Vizquel:
.333/.397/.436, 112 R, 36 2B's, 10 3B's, 14 HR, 72 RBI, 43 SB
Durham:
.296/.374/.538, 126 R, 42 2B, 10 3B, 26 HR, 93 RBI, 36 SB
Barry Bonds:
.370/.609/.863, 129 R, 44 2B, 9 3B, 73 HR, 137 RBI, 52 SB, 232 BB
Aurilia:
.325/.369/.572, 114 R, 37 2B, 37 HR, 97 RBI
Klesko:
.310/.399/.608, 105 R, 39 2B, 34 HR, 113 RBI, 23 SB
Winn:
.306/.360/.499, 103 R, 47 2B, 9 3B, 20 HR, 81 RBI, 27 SB
Molina:
.295/.336/.467, 24 2B, 19 HR, 71 RBI

Bench:
Pedro Feliz:
.276/.305/.515, 35 2B's, 22 HR's, 98 RBI

At least on paper, we have what seems to be a historically special team. No one can argue with those numbers. BUT, I know what you're thinking...
"isn't it likely that some players will post new career highs in some categories?"
To answer this one, we can only wait and see what happens...play ball!