That photo right there broke a lot of hearts in San Francisco last week. The play at the plate can be baseball’s version of violence. A runner is coming full speed and if he decides not to slide, a collision is going to happen and sometimes, the catcher is defenseless. Folks react differently to home-plate collisions. Some determine that it’s simply a part of the game, while others look at the situation based on where the catcher is sitting. If [...]
Sweet Chin Muzak – Four Aces And Joe Blanton
Sports Illustrated’s 2011 Baseball Preview featured an entire starting rotation of one team on the cover. But it wasn’t the starting rotation of the defending world champs. It was the starting rotation of the team the San Francisco Giants beat in the NLCS, the Philadelphia Phillies. Last year, the Phillies traded for Roy Halladay and during the middle of the season, traded for Roy Oswalt. And this year, they signed free agent Cliff Lee. Cole Hamels was now their fourth best starter and Joe Blanton [...]
Sweet Chin Muzak – Is Derek Jeter Done?
After not hitting lower than .291 in his entire Major League Baseball career, last season, Derek Jeter hit .270 and slugged just .370. The slugging percentage was also the lowest of his career. And even though he won his 5th Gold Glove in 2010, his decline in range at shortstop over the last few years is very apparent. As of this writing, Jeter is currently hitting .206 with just one extra base hit in the first nine games of the [...]
Sweet Chin Muzak – Beware The Disease Of More
Later tonight, the baseball team I’ve been watching since 1984 takes their first step in defending their World Series championship. It was only just five short months ago when Brian Wilson struck out Nelson Cruz to clinch the Giants’ first ever world championship in San Francisco. While I cherish the moment of being able to call my team the champs, I sit here conflicted as I await to see what 2011 holds for them. So much of my rooting last [...]
Name Our New Column, Win an iTunes Gift Card
We here at Popblerd! are always looking for new concepts, new columns, new writers-and when our buddy Geoff came to us with the idea to write a column about his trading card-collecting childhood, we were super-psyched (also, we’re very excitable, so generally speaking, we’re super-psyched about most things). Geoff has already delivered an inaugural column and everything. However, there’s just one problem. We can’t think of a name for it. With baseball season literally right around the corner, we’d love [...]
Sweet Chin Muzak – Hobbling Towards Opening Day
There are just six days until baseball starts. On March 31, at 10:00AM Eastern, the Detroit Tigers take on the New York Yankees and the Atlanta Braves take on the Washington Nationals. But the big game on the docket is the San Francisco Giants against their hated rival, the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Giants have had a strong Cactus League season so far, with an 18-9 record which is tops for all teams in the spring (as of this writing). [...]
Sweet Chin Muzak – Interview With Cardinals Blogger, Daniel Shoptaw (Part 2)
Make sure you click here to check out Part 1 of GG’s interview. In Part 2, Daniel Shoptaw shares who his favorite Cardinals fantasy sleepers are, who would be perfect next to Albert Pujols on the right side of the infield, what he expects out of the club in 2011, and where he thinks Pujols ends up. GG: The Cardinals have had quite the 2000s so far. There have been seasons where they totally dominated the regular season, only to fall [...]
Sweet Chin Muzak – Interview With Cardinals Blogger, Daniel Shoptaw (Part 1)
I had an e-mail chat with Daniel Shoptaw last weekend, someone I met when I was looking for really good baseball bloggers a couple of years ago. His blog, C70 At The Bat , follows the daily ongoings of his favorite baseball team, the St. Louis Cardinals. You can also find him on Twitter at @C70 . We started by chatting about Albert Pujols and ended up talking about Pujols (in part two). It should give you a pretty good inside look at the Cardinals [...]
Sweet Chin Muzak – Spring Is In The Air
To many coupled folks, February 14th meant love and gifts and cupid’s arrow splintering their backsides. I saw it all over my Facebook page. Young people were in love. But to baseball fans, February 14th meant something entirely different. Cupid’s arrow splintered their backsides for a completely different reason. It was to signify that pitchers and catchers were reporting to spring training. Baseball is back! Spring training is more than just pre-season baseball. In the NFL, NBA, and NHL, pre-season [...]
Sweet Chin Muzak – More Predictions
It’s time for … more predictions! Again, these are quick, shotgun predictions about the 2011 MLB season. If you missed part one, check it out . The Red Sox are the best team in the AL Usually, when teams make huge splashes, you can find holes in what they did. But I’m trying to find holes in what the Red Sox did, and I really can’t. They traded for Adrian Gonzalez and signed Carl Crawford, two players who should do major damage in [...]
Sweet Chin Muzak: Remembering The World Series
I’ll have a brand new column next week looking at 2011, but I felt this was a perfect time to remember what 2010 meant to me and my family as San Francisco Giants fans. I first started following baseball closely when I was just 8 years old. The year was 1984 and the Giants were terrible. Just awful. I did get to go to the 1984 All-Star game which was played at Candlestick Park. Now THAT was a windy day. [...]
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