O, Gigantic Victory! Baseball Poems: The 2010 Championship Season

Steve Hermanos, a local Bay Area writer/real estate agent, has a book of Giants poetry that is pure gold. He was interviewed on KNBR with Murph and Mac Wednesday morning for his book O, Gigantic Victory! Baseball Poems: The 2010 Championship Season.

In all (about 40 poems over 64 pages), it is safe to say this order has been placed in Amazon.

A sampling:

Madison Bumgarner II:

Dude,
You are 21,
Ronald Reagan as ancient as Thomas Jefferson or Plato,
To you.

If a nuclear bomb,
Took out Allameda,
Withn you on the mound,
Would that faze you?

What about Godzilla,
Rising out of McCovey Cove,
Breathing fire,
On the opponent's bullpen?

What about a lineup,
Of cloned and steroid-addled Babe Ruths,
Rickey Hendersons, Honus Wagners,
And Ty Cobbs?

You might be,
The most unflappable ballplayer,
I've ever seen.

Have your agent,
Look it up.

And another one of my favorites:

Jon Miller, Hall Of Famer:

Your humor dryer,
Than a summer Scottsdale parking lot;
Your timing equal,
To James Brown’s;
Your knowledge profound,
Wide and generous;
Your descriptions vivid;
Your mimicking of Vin—
Ah, perfect moment after perfect moment.

You’re the only announcer,
To whom I stay tuned,
In a rain delay.

With Stanford sidekick David B. Flemming:
Tonto/Sancho Panza/Chico Marx/Dr. Watson/
Mr. Spock/Chewbacca;
Aristotle,
Contemplating Plato’s freshest utterance.

Miller, you gotta quit ESPN,
Sending you hither and yon,
Every week,
Away from the story by the Bay.
Remain with the homies,
In your booth,
A lama on his hillside,
In reverent levitation,
Soaking in every nuance of the goings on,
Below on the greensward,
Disseminating ever-deeper observations;

And tossing off jokes,
The most popular guy at the party.

We deserve it, don’t we?

Listen to the interview on KNBR for a for a few more poems.

A hat tip to @HaffkeTheThird for passing on the interview to me.

---

If you're on Twitter, you should definitely follow The Crazy Crabbers. If you're not, you should really consider joining; lots of good stuff going on there.

The Giants-Rockies Humidor Saga

Over at Y! Sports Big League Stew blog they are going over their favorite stories of the year and there is one that involves the Giants calling out the Rockies questionable humidor chain of command.

The Rockies are known for the late season surges and crazy from behind victories and this caused some with the Giants (most noticeably Jon Miller) to wonder aloud if the Rockies were introducing juiced balls when the team needed to score some runs.

For those not completely familiar with the situation, the seeds were planted back on Aug. 24, 2009. On that evening, Colorado overcame a three-run deficit in the 14th inning — capped by an opposite field Ryan Spilborghs grand slam -- to defeat San Francisco 6-4. That loss proved to be a back breaker for Bruce Bochy's squad, while Colorado used the win as a springboard to their second wild-card berth in three seasons.

Fast forward to July 3, 2010, when the Rockies mounted another comeback against San Francisco. This time they trailed Barry Zito 7-1 in the early innings. They eventually took the lead, taking starter Ubaldo Jimenez off the hook, before dropping an 11-8 decision.

Three days later, Colorado rallied for nine runs in the ninth inning to defeat the St. Louis Cardinals. The following day, Giants broadcaster Jon Miller made an appearance on KNBR radio. During the interview, Miller suggested the Rockies could be dropping non-humidor stored baseballs into the rotation when their offense needed a boost, and encouraged the league to look into the procedure.

The stink made by the Giants caused the Rockies to change the way that the balls are stored during the game and now will be overseen by an official from MLB instead of being watched over by just the Rockies themselves.

Tim Lincecum thought that he was getting a non-humidor ball and let it be known in typical Lincecum fashion.

Nothing was proven but the collapse after the Giants brought it up does make one wonder if there was some truth to the juiced ball theory.

---

If you're on Twitter you should definitely follow the The Crazy Crabbers. If you're not you should really consider joining, lots of good stuff going on there.

Jon Miller Leaning Towards Giants Broadcasting Full Time

The San Francisco Chronicle is reporting that radio play by play man Jon Miller is leaning against doing Sunday Night Baseball on the radio for ESPN.

[Miller] said by phone that he needs time to contemplate ESPN's offer to continue calling the Sunday night games on radio, though he is inclined to say no. That could land Miller in the Giants' broadcast booth on weekends for the first time since joining the team before the 1997 season.

Miller was not definitive about ESPN's radio offer because "it's still being talked about, and I'll hear out their offer," he said. At the same time, he said he is "not likely" to accept.

This would be welcome news for Giants fans who have been without Miller most weekends as he traveled to the location of the Sunday Night Game.

I was hopeful for selfish reasons that this would be the case and I am glad to hear that this is the way that Miller is leaning. There is nothing better then the way that Miller is able to tell stories and paints the picture of the baseball games.

---

If your on Twitter you should definitely follow the The Crazy Crabbers. If you're not you should really consider joining, lots of good stuff going on there.

Crazy Crabbers Giants Talk Podcast

The inaugural addition of the Crazy Crabbers podcast.

In this episode the Crazy Crabbers discuss the World Series, Andres Torres Gold Glove snub, Pablo Sandoval's future with the Giants, the firing of Joe Morgan and Jon Miller from ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball, the Giants Free Agents and more.

Listen to internet radio with Crazy Crab Talk on Blog Talk Radio

Look forward to this every other week during the off season and weekly during the season.

---

If your on Twitter you should definitely follow the The Crazy Crabbers. If you're not you should really consider joining, lots of good stuff going on there.