SF Giants Baseball?

LopeHunter, thank you for adding to the thread, a interesting and well rounded bunch of Baseball Fans your Family has. KC's Coach, Ned Yost, and i played against each other many times in High school, him being the Catcher at a rival school about 8 miles away. Then we both were trying to break into Chabot's JC team when i got a full ride to U of Arizona to play Football. I always thought That Ned had nothing on me as a catcher but he did swing a good bat back then. Going to spring training games sounds like a lot of fun and is something i'm going to seriously try to do next spring. Thanks again for all the info.

sneakypete said:

Just won there fifth straight series by Sweeping the braves, better yet Kershaw is back on the DL!

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sneakypete, you jinxed us! No, we just ran into a hotter team than us. The Phillys are playing really, really good right now, tip the cap, and their hitters liked what our group of Pitchers had to offer. The Philly's have about wore me out. It Happens! Then we may meet them again down the road and smoke them, that's how it goes sometimes. Go Giants!

You San Francisco fans outta be happy with Andrew McCutchen. He's a good ball player the Pittsburgh area misses him.

HuntKook, welcome to the Giant's Thread. Cutch is more than welcome on the Giants Team. For years i've watched the guy put up great numbers for Pittsburg, always wishing he was on our team. He started off the season in a slump but has battled back to a respectable batting average that's climbing. He's a pro, a pro's pro, we're glad to have him.

Again, we're getting schooled on how to hit the ball, how not to pitch the ball, and how to lose gracefully. When a Fan, you take some shots and roll with the rough spots same as the Team has to, and then come out fresh the next day and play hard.

I get frustrated sometimes but i don't seem to get mad or cuss during or after my team might lose. I simply turn the finished game off and look for what i might care to watch next. It ain't worth getting riled up over. Go Giants!

Hi Guys, Hope yall are having or had a great Day. So nice to finally have some spring days back to back to back. Baseball season in my neck of the woods was also catfishing season. It wasn't unusual for a couple other varsity players and i to head over to the Delta after practice, set up the lanterns, and catch a ice chest full of 12-18" catfish while bankfishing. It's just what we did. Often the other guys didn't want to deal with our bounty so i'd take them to my grandparents on my Mom's side and Grandma would help clean them for the freezer. We had a system, i remember we together could average 1 fish per minute of cleaning, not bad. I ate a lot of Catfish and Deer meat growing up, never tired of either.

So when did they stop teaching baseball players how to bunt, especially Pitchers? Seems to me that by the time a player got out of High School, they should know how to bunt without smashing their fingers. By the time they play in A thru AAA ball, they should if not be expert, they should at least know the basics to get one down either the 1st or 3rd base line. Our Giant pitchers are piss poor bunters, can't ever seem to make contact other than a foul, let alone get a bunt down to help themselves or the Team. I put blame on the Coaches all along the line, putting a decent sacrifice bunt down should be a requirement, it's just not be that hard to do, period!

Well we finally broke thru a rather bad stretch were we got our butts kicked bad, so be it, why wouldn't we for frigs sake, and actually Won our last game from the Pirates. The last two games though i 'm seeing some of our guys swinging the bat better, taking better cuts, not being so off balance, and not going after so many pitches out of the zone. Will this continue, i believe it's a really good sign of a upswing and good things to come.

Next up, three games with the Cincinnati Reds who have struggled along near the bottom of the standings this year but just whomped the dog snot out of, clean sweeping the dreaded Dodgers in their last few games. So like always, don't overlook anybody, come on out boys and give them your best game. Go giants!

uncle sage said:

Next up, three games with the Cincinnati Reds who have struggled along near the bottom of the standings this year but just whomped the dog snot out of, clean sweeping the dreaded Dodgers in their last few games. So like always, don't overlook anybody, come on out boys and give them your best game. Go giants!

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No Sweep but taking two of three from those Reds is the makings of extended seasons and the stuff of future planned nights away from Mule Deer camp to some Beer by the pitcher Joint that serves good Burger and has a Big Screen on which to watch the playoffs. 2 of 3, won't knock it, happy to have it. Some, many of the Giants Hitters now are on a heater from heaven. Brandon Crawford raised his BAvg from under .200 to up in the .290's, Cutch is seemingly hitting everything on the nose, Posey has been getting his average up to normal and he's just these past few games gotten his swing back, Belt, Pablo,... There's a host of others too, The Giants are a team that can hit, they'll put a lot of guys on base, and unless they run into some really great pitching, great Pitching Trumps most, these bunch of guys, they're going to put good numbers on the board cause as a group, they can hit.

What about the pitching? Presently we have a bunch of nobody's trying to be somebody's, kinda young guys, almost to the man inevitably having trouble during the first inning of their outings but settling down nicely thru the rest, 5 or six innings when the pitch count more than the score gets them a deserved applause on the way to the trainers room showers. Not a bad bunch and to be fair, a lot of those first inning scoring feasts were fueled by weakly hit stuff that found holes and just as easily could have been outs. I'm also seeing that these guys can hit their spots, wear out the corners and around the edges of the plate, for the biggest part anyway. Not a bad bunch at all. And, it does matter that our two best Pitchers, by far, will be back to claim their starts in the not too distant future, only to then strengthen our Pen and our Team. So the current Pitching gets a B+ from me, nobody has expected them to have done better than they have.

What i see, for the first time in a long time, we can win with this team by giving up a fair amount of runs but then scoring more than they do. We give up 6-7 runs but score 8 or 10. I think this team can do that, not what we're used to, i think these guys can. When a 2-1 or 1-0 victory was so common it became unremarkable, the benchmark, almost what was expected. The Giant's just used to Win that way with low scoring contests, Great Pitching, great Defense, hitting against great pitching, so so lineup. Not so this year, until our 2 Aces Bum and Johnny get back, we're going to be giving up runs, going be getting hit hard at times, but in turn,we're going to be hitting shots off their Pitchers, out slugging and hopefully, outscoring them even harder.

The Colorado Rockies bring their big stick Dog and Pony Show to SF tomorrow evening for a set. We are only 3.5 games out of the Western Division lead, Colorado is just ahead of us, for right now, have to see about changing that. Go Giants!

Comments? There's room here guys.

The NL west lately is the division that know one wants to lead . The next team of the top three to get get hot is going to take or keep the lead. I hope that it is Colorado but would not be surprised if it is SF. as Colorado has a hard time getting a win in SF. Go Rockies and Go Giants every time they are playing the Dodgers or Diamondbacks.

antlerradar said:

The NL west lately is the division that know one wants to lead . The next team of the top three to get get hot is going to take or keep the lead. I hope that it is Colorado but would not be surprised if it is SF. as Colorado has a hard time getting a win in SF. Go Rockies and Go Giants every time they are playing the Dodgers or Diamondbacks.

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Welcome antlerradar, You nailed it, nobody in the West is playing like they want it, even Az has been dropping games. The good news is that we are all in it, i could see the Giants already being 15 games out if they wanted to use their excuses and had thrown in the towel. That's our bright spot, our guys had all the excuses but won't/didn't use them, have continued playing pretty decent ball.

As far as Giants-Rockies this series, if i were a betting man, i'd look toward the starting Pitching in these three games and soon see that the Rockies do have us out classed in what can be that most important regard. Tonight you have Chad Bettis vs our Jeff Samardzija. Somehow Bettis got rocked by the Brewers in his last outing but other than that, he has Pitched like an Ace, Big advantage over our Shark who tries really hard to get it all going yet can't seem to throw less than 2 Hr's a game, doing that in less than 5 innings.

Then Fri it will be Kyle Freeland vs our Derek Holland. Freeland has won 3 of the last 4 games, pitching right near 7 innings per, and between the 4 games only allowing 5 earned runs. Holland has nice hair, can tell a good joke, and can do a bang-up impersonation of Harry Caray. Freeland seems to be the obvious superior but good Harry Caray's are rare, i put these two at a draw.

Then you got Jon Gray vs our Chris Stratton, day game on Sat. Your Ace against one of our nobody's. I see where Gray also got roughed up against the Brewers but he too has otherwise pitched great, won 3 of last 4 games, gone 7 innings in most of them, and is averaging over a strike out a inning. The Gray by 3 lengths, he's the obvious pick. Our guys are pretty hot right now, hitting the Ball. We will just have to see if your better Pitchers can be better enough, to cool our hot bats down. Looks to be a fun set of Games, Colo vs SF are always hard fought. I also agree to combine our efforts against the dreaded Dodgers and the Mighty Az Diamondbacks. Once we get them pounded down, we'll have to take a closer look at ourselves. Good luck to you on your Season and thanks for your contribution here, it was getting lonely. lol

Hi Folks, Colorado's Pitching is impressive, such a huge swap from when they were known as sluggers and Pitching not so much. Kinda surprised that we need to W tomorrow to tie the series and head out on the road with a split, thought we were swinging the bats better than that. That's what good Pitching does.

Glad that they gave Mac the time it took before rushing him back in there.

Looks to me like Kelby is going to be gone when Hanson and Panik both soon come off the DL. Hanson has been a pleasant surprise, he's had other chances to show his stuff but it is here with the Giants that he is showing his Pop, his substantial worth to a Team. Then Panic, our All-Star, Gold Glove, regular second baseman. He's going to play, Hanson has been playing better than Kelby, Sandovol has his uses and is a favorite of Bochy, only so much room on the roster, Kelby may soon be playing in AAA.

It amazes me that Posey can carry a .300+ average when he really isn't doing all that well at the plate. When he starts banging shots off or over the walls like we know he can, it's really going to be something to see.

Go Giants!

Garret Cole and the Houston Astro's showed why he is one of the best Pitchers and they are one of the best Teams in the game, drubbing our Giants 11-2. Wends, they only plan to throw Justin Verlander at us, beating him and that Team will be no easy feat. Let's again hope for a split, this get together only being for just the two and maybe get a better try at them another time and place.

Looking ahead at the schedule, we have to face Cubs, Rockies, Philly's, Diamondbacks, and the Washington Nats. There are no easy games to be had from that rough looking bunch but "first things first" has always been the best approach when facing a tough task, take them one game at a time. Go Giants!

I have been mentioning that our Team can Hit, that we have a good lineup, that we will outscore some teams to stay afloat until our best Pitchers and a couple key players return from injury. Seems we can Hit, a stat was put on the screen during our loss today that detailed the past months Team batting averages. The Giants were the clear leader well above the pack with a .290 BA, Brandon Belt was honored with Player of the Month, and our shortstop Brandon Crawford's hitting improvements may have even topped Belt's. We can Hit, yet it's not always enough.

Arizona can't buy a Win, only besting in 1 of their last 10 games, the Giants and Colo. could be doing better, and the LA Dodgers have seemed to find their second wind a bit and are making noise in the standings seemingly each day. All this means little so early in the season but there are concerns for the various Teams and the standings are bunching up more so, even San Diego is only 6.5 games out, than past memory. It's one fine mess we have here boys,lol

That is a tough schedule. Getting a split in Houston would be a great for SF but not going to be easy. Houston may be the best team in baseball.

You are sure right about the NL west. Any team can win it. Right now Colorado has managed to back there way into first place. If they want to stay there they need to start getting more hitting from the back half of the line up. Likely need to make a move and bring in a big bat a first base. Getting DJ back would also be a big help.

SF and LA just need to get some key pitchers off the DL. Sounds like that is going to happen soon.
I don't know what kind of bug has infected Arizona but they need to shake it soon. Maybe they could give some of it to the Dodgers.

San Diego is hanging around, I thought that they would be out of it at this point in the season.

antradar, Thanks, yeah, Houston, at least what we saw of them, is one double-tough Team. But enough of them, we have a off day, Thurs, before facing the Cubs. Being it's a off day and there seems to be room here in these pages, i'll tell you guys a story about baseball in my youth and how i learned something the hard way.

During my sophomore year in HS., i tried out for and won the starting Varsity Catcher's position over a returning Senior. I had a good year except for a couple of guys who i couldn't seem to throw out when they stole second, fixed that in the next two years but here, i am in our/my first league game and this Frankenstein looking great big sonofabitch with big red pimples all over his face gets up there drooling and batting left handed. I was curious but i mean this guy looked like he belonged in All-Star Wrestling or a Defensive tackle for the Rams, probably one of the biggest guys i played with in any sport, HS or college. First pitch, he just slams it, smashes a high line drive that is soon way over and 100' past Cal Webster, our right fielder. I'm thinking home run, twice around the bases, no fence, the ball is still rolling but see that the guy only now rounds first.

Our right fielder finally picked up the ball, threw it to our 2nd baseman who is way out in right, he throws it to our first baseman who as our normal cut-off man and going to throw to me at the dish, i notice the jumbo lumbering fellow has just gotten to and is rounding third. That guy was Slowwww! Here comes the ball, i catch it, and the guy is halfway to home, still coming at his same slow lumbering stride. I don't think much of it, his mistake for not taking the triple, i step up the line toward him, gonna reach out and tag him.

I said that he was slow and was he ever, but what happened next happened so fast, at the time, that i was completely unaware and unprepared. Instead of me tagging him and him stopping, he lowered his head and barreled into my midsection, doing a rip-up with his arms, lifting me up off my feet i don't know how high, and knocking me up and back to finally to land about 4-5' on the other side of Home plate still awake but awfully confused...and worse, when i down looked in my catcher's glove, the ball was no longer there. He was safe at home, a HR.

My pride was hurt more than anything, we won the game. My Coach after the game told me to tag guys like that with the ball in my right hand and to tag them across the face hard as i could. He said they'd never do it again. Never had to do anything like that in the following years but there were many crashes at home for me and those times i was prepared.

Go Giants!

I sure wish I could have played baseball in high school but it wasn't an option in MT. Instead the coaches had me running distance in track and I wasn't all that good at it. Maybe if there would have been a big muley shed at the end of the track it would have been different. There was however lots of pretty girls in shorts running around the track meets so it wasn't all bad.

Huntkook said:

You San Francisco fans outta be happy with Andrew McCutchen. He's a good ball player the Pittsburgh area misses him.

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I'll second that. I got to watch McCutchen here in Indy when he played triple A. He seems to be a great guy, and even better player. With no cable, keeping up with MLB just doesn't happen much any more, but it is my favorite sport. Good luck, but since my dad is a lifetime Dodger's fan, I feel compelled to support the Dodgers.

Joelhunter, McCutchen has been struggling with the Giants both with his bat and his glove. He has a history of being a late starter and coming on as the seasons progress. I hope he does, we need him. As for rooting for the evil empire, the Dodgers, there's no support from here. Best i can say is i hope all the players involved can stay healthy and give it their best go. I see where the Dodgers just last night moved 1/2 game ahead of the Giants in the standings. It's now officially a 4 horse race.

Not so funny but interesting how baseball is such a game of fractions of inches. Last night we played a pretty good game against Colo and should/could have won, were so close to striking out a guy but a pitch that was marked as strike three, but called a ball, gave a batter another swing that he made good on to start the winning rally. We played well but came away with the loss. Seems lately were are getting a full measure of the same, losing games that we could/should have won.

Go Giants!

Was that a high strike? There was a lot of pitches in the top of the strike zone that the home plate ump could have called a strike. Sure would not have wanted to be a pitcher that relied on the high fast ball last night. I agree the game could have went ether way with an inch here or an inch there. In a game like that, advantage to the home team.
It was real hard to watch the Philly's/ Dodgers game. The Philly's sure fell apart in the 8th. Lets go Philly's at least for a few more games.

antlerradar, +1 with the, "pretty girls in shorts running around". We didn't get that in baseball. You mentioning track, i was a runner. I ran home from school, ran a 8 mile loop after hauling hay all day, ran to stay in shape for buck hunting, i was afoot most of my youth, just liked to run where ever i went. My senior year as our baseball season was getting started after basketball, i was our small forward at 6'2 210 lbs, our Coach ran the team for times in the 40. Back then i ran my usual 4.7's with a few 4.6's in the mix and was declared that day, the fastest guy on our baseball team. Pretty good for a catcher i thought and the topic was carried over into the varsity locker room where our best 100 yd sprinter on the track team heard the banter and challenged me to a race. He said he'd give me a 10 yd head start and beat me by 10 yards in the 100!

"Hold on son, you ain't THAT fast" i told him and we were soon, bunch of us lined up out on the football field with him two line stripes behind me. At the "go", i could hear him blowing and sucking in air the way most track guys do, he was gaining on me fast and i pushed harder. Soon he was up to then shot past me almost like i wasn't even running. I lost, he won, Big Time! I was a apple, a fairly fast apple at that i suppose but i ran into a orange.

It's easy to look back and laugh at some of the things that didn't go right for me athletically. I was blessed and excelling in most school sports came easy for me. The actual sport of track though, i don't know how well i'd have done but i'd have liked to see how i could compete against the guys in the 880, the mile, or even longer stuff. I liked to run, could cover some ground, and always finished every run with at least a hundred yard sprint that i don't think most guys had in them. Then again, i was a apple.

Go Giants!

Hi Folks! I see that there is a good bunch of you following along reading this Giants thread. Not sure of the why for your dropping in but my hopes are that you at least find what's enclosed, worth your time. Beg my Pard for my crummy English. Never was much for learning how to write proper, seemed like too much effort at the time, but there have been very few times when i couldn't get my words to be understood. It is what it is...My Thanks!

It's that time of year to start thinking of who we'd like to see in the All-Star Game. So far, not too many of you have posted here but this would be a great place to drop in a few words about who you would like to see as a starter, no matter the Team, and why that or those players should deserve my votes. Here's one of mine:

Brandon Crawford, Short Stop, Giants, 31 years old. He has always had the glove, he gets to balls that seem ungettable, makes the tough plays look easy, clutch as hell. With the speed of today's players, even a routine play must be done flawlessly with something behind it to get these guys at first. Brandon does that with a skill level along with the All Time Greats. The best part, now he's hitting shots and looks to me like he's not yet reached his potential. He has long established himself as having power enough to get it out to any field if he gets ahold of it, yet has also at times seemed to have trouble getting a good look at pitches. We like him always but we really appreciate him when he's one of the guys who IS going up there to smash one hard someplace, maybe jack one out. He's a good guy too, a present day role model. He has my vote, no doubt.

Nice to see us take the first game from Philly tonight 4-zip! Our regular second baseman, Joe Panik, came off the disabled list to contribute in a big way, much more than a line score will tell. Glad to have him back near the top of the lineup, the dude can ball.

Mac Williamson is back on the Big Club also. Guess i'm going to worry about the boy the rest of my days, the injury he took crashing head first in to that wall. Wish him well and hope he soon warms up that stick of his, he could be "the guy" that takes us up to the next level, where we want to go.

Saturday's game, Vince Velasquez vs Andrew Suarez. Not a good match up for us but we'll go ahead and play the game, never know! Go Giants!

Things are going just nicely for the Giants. Some of our best players are now returning from injuries. We just reversed a earlier sweep by Philly in Philly, by sweeping them with 3 near shutout games here in our House. Our group of nobody Pitchers has struggled early but greatly improved, we're finding some nice wheat mixed in with the chaff there, and six of our regular hitters are putting up BA's near the .300 mark. Our Team BA is .263 second in NL only to Cubs at .266 but far ahead of last in the National League, the Az Diamondbacks who have only managed to accumulate the lowly Team batting average of .213. We've a long way to go but the Giants are holding their own and i think that they now can play with anybody. A stretch? maybe but i'll stick my neck out there and say so. We can beat anybody with the Team we now have and when Cueto comes back, we're going to be the Team to beat in the National League West. That's saying something i know but i've never been one to ride the fence. Go Giants!

naturebob in post #10 said "Sorry ,their(fixed) season ended when they left here from spring training. Their(fixed again) luck has run out. Dbacks will rule the West this year. You can cheer for us cause we will beat the Dodgers too.....BOB!". Then a couple post later, he said "They are dead but beat the Dodgers We love You." At the time of Bob's posts i took the high road, saying to me that my "Giants are Dead" is not one of the better ways to introduce oneself but i have buddies that talk to me similar about the hunting gear i use, "that shit ain't no good" lol, so i know how it can be. If i were out for revenge i might say something like, "naturebob, how do you like me now? Are the Giants still Dead? lol" But i won't, i'll take the "high road". "The Giants are Dead?". "Thaat's Niiice".lol

Tonight Madison Bumgarner takes the ball for the Giants for the first time this Season after a spring training freak injury to his pinky finger in his throwing hand. We said all along that we just need to stay close, not let the other teams open up a huge gap between them and us. We did that, our best are returning or have returned, and now Bum takes the ball with the Giants only a game 1 1/2 games out of First. Are we ready to make the big move and take this thing over? Maybe we are, i think we are, one can only hope! Go Giants!

Somebody needs to get the memo to the Marlins, the Giants are supposed to be better than they are. Seems every time we go to Florida, we get our rear ends handed to us. I suppose every Team has places they go that provide tuff times. Here we have been winning against Division leading Teams, one after another, have done pretty good lately and at least are holding our own. As of Yesterday, we have won our last 8 of 10 games against top Teams in their own division. So now we go visit probably one of the bottom Teams, in all of Baseball, and we lose. Such is this Game we all know and love.

Mac Williamson has bbe struggling, still not regained his old slugging self, and i'm wondering just how long we can carry the guy out in left field. Not his fault after crashing head first into the wall like that over a month ago but baseball is a game of production, a combo of what one Team does against another. All the pieces form a unit and right now these days Mac Williamson is lowering his Teams production by being in the lineup yet not producing. What have you done for me lately Mac?

Good to see Hunter Pence back playing. He's hitting the ball a bit too. I'm ready for one where i hear, "He hits it High, He hits it Deeeep, it IS OUTAHERE!"

Good to watch Madison Bumgarner out pitching for us again. Still without his first Win and his Fastball only hitting 91 MPH, he's working on it and getting back to his old self. Today he got Booted by the Ump as he left the field in the sixth. Seemed he wanted to express his opinion on the umps eyesight or something similar and the Ump weren't buying it. So it goes...

Today i saw some of our guys looking a bit tired. Hopefully it was just the flight and opening a road 4 game series in a new town. The Giants play 13 more games in a row, don't have a day off until the 25th. Time to suck it up guys, no time to be getting tired, and lots of games coming up, finally, against Teams that we should/could beat. Go Giants!

Well Boys i'm still jacked up cause i know i'll be hunting muley bucks in x-1 this year. I never hunted x-1 other than for Geese and Ducks but have a good Friend who will be on a guided muley hunt there this season who has offered to join me if he fills out early and another guy just north of the border, Oregon guy, my old hunting pard from back class of 72' Livermore High Varsity Baseball, him being our slugging left Fielder, he has a shortage of tags this year and has expressed intent in joining in on the fun as long as nothing unforeseen pops it's wrench into the works. A guy just couldn't be better accompanied on a hunt with two more solid guys. This bit of good news plus the Giants and their problems...glad i can say it's the worst i've had to concern myself with.

I'm going to jump right in here and say that i'm So glad that our bonehead closer got mad enough at his own shitty pitching, to break his hand on a door, wall, some such hard object, to nicely break his hand and be out 6-8 weeks, at least. That's the good news. Always thought Strickland was a jerk, thought way too much of himself, not one of my favorites on this Team and though his numbers are decent, he hasn't been for several years. No bad news boys, the best part of him being out, it greatly improves our Bull Pen. We now have, if not the Best, at least one of the very best Bull pens in Baseball. Dumb shit Strickland probably thinks he hurt the Team by his self-centered actions, hardly but Thanks.

Big Mac Williamson needs to shit or get off the pot. Yeah i know i've been talking about the boy a lot but he really is dragging down this Team with the Giants doing their best to carry the boy. He's getting a hit in here and there but before his injury smashing into that wall like that, he was homering in near every game and line driving those that didn't get up. He's WAY past due to be swinging a hot bat. Come on Kid, this is your big chance to make good!

I'm going to publicly admit that i was wrong, not here but in general, when i thought that Pablo Sandoval did not belong or would do any good whatsoever for these Giants. I held over a grudge from when he left us for the big contract in Boston, basically holding his middle finger up to the Team and Fans as he left. That and the fact that he couldn't get or keep himself in shape to play the game. I suppose that when getting paid the millions monthly from Boston that he's getting, that he can play for the Giants for peanuts, be a Team guy, be a fun guy, and be a very productive piece. Pablo's doing that, my hats off.

What else? Good to see Gorkey and this Hanson kid doing so good, nice! Cueto will be back very soon. Buster jacked one today, nice 420'er to left center. Would be nice if Belt would get hot again. One small note, it's very tuff for me to see Hunter Pence struggle as he is. Guys are making plays, strong bench, we're not going away. Go Giants!