Welcome to the INSIDE CHINA BASIN Baseball Podcast
Updated 3 times a week on TheSportsVirus.com!
Today we sit down with Giants pitchers Matt Moore and Sam Dyson at AT&T Park in San Francisco. Moore is trying to figure out a way to have a much better second half while Dyson may have found a home with the Giants after a rough start to his season in Texas.
Moore talked to The Sports Virus about a rough first half for himself and the Giants as a team: …“It’s supposed to be fun. When you’re losing so many games and the expectations of ourselves, of our city, of everyone that’s surrounding our club, when those aren’t met it’s sometimes hard to fake it out there with a smile when we’re down three nothing…It’s something that we all are passionate about…I would like to say there’s a deeper place to dig and no doubt there’s some searching going on, not only with myself, but guys throughout the team.”
Dyson talked to The Sports Virus about simplifying his approach: …“Sometimes there is too much information given from the statistical side of things. Too many analysts in the game these days. Hearing it from too many sides, it’s tough to get it all to work sometimes.”
Welcome to the INSIDE CHINA BASIN Baseball Podcast
Updated 3 times a week on TheSportsVirus.com!
Detroit Tigers TV Play-By-Play Announcer Mario Impemba sets us up for the Giants 3-game series at Comerica Park starting on Tuesday.
Impemba agrees with The Sports Virus that replay isn’t good for Major League Baseball: “…I was kind of on the fence about replay and now I just hate it…I understand getting it right, but a lot of times we’ll show three or four replays of the play and because it may show that a guy was safe but it was still a very close play and the call on the field was out, they’re going to stick with the call on the field because it was too close to call, even though you probably could tell the guy was safe…Yes, you want to get the call right, I agree, but we’ve played this game for 100 years without replay and it did pretty well. Now we’re just bogging down the game…It’s getting to the point now where I think we’re losing fans because baseball is slow to begin with and it’s a more methodical and cerebral game, but if you slow it down even more it’s going to be difficult to capture the youth these days.”
Welcome to the INSIDE CHINA BASIN Baseball Podcast
Updated 3 times a week on TheSportsVirus.com!
Join us for Part 2 of our conversation with Chris Haft from MLB.com. We chat with the Giants beat reporter and author about his new Giants book If These Walls Could Talk.
Haft talked to The Sports Virus about the World Series era, plus Candlestick Park memories: …“For me it was a magical place, as crazy as that sounds because, to quote Dave Righetti, that’s where the Giants played… It was dreadful, let’s face it. It was cold, it was inadequate as far as a lot of amenities goes, but it was what we had…(One of his favorite memories came in 1980) Willie McCovey, who had announced his retirement about a week earlier, won the game (against the Dodgers) with a pinch-hit double. Afterward there was a very, very long, very, very loud standing ovation for McCovey and people prolonged the ovation until he came out and took a curtain call. He was really reluctant to do that, but he did it and it created a great moment in San Francisco Giants history.”
Welcome to the INSIDE CHINA BASIN Baseball Podcast
Updated 3 times a week on TheSportsVirus.com!
Today we chat with Chris Haft from MLB.com in Part 1 of our conversation which covers the rough first half in San Francisco. The Giants beat reporter and author will talk about his new Giants book If These Walls Could Talk with us on Monday.
Haft talked to The Sports Virus about Brandon Belt’s inconsistency: …“You see him striking out a lot on fastballs which apparently are fastballs down the middle that he should be crushing. He’s a conundrum. He’s maybe one of the more enigmatic San Francisco Giants in franchise history. Not to get too grandiose, but there’s a possibility that’s the case.”
Welcome to the INSIDE CHINA BASIN Baseball Podcast
Updated 3 times a week on TheSportsVirus.com!
Giants LHP Steve Okert joins us from AT&T Park in San Francisco.
Photo courtesy of MinorLeagueBall.com
Okert tells The Sports Virus about his learning experiences: “… Now some of these teams have seen me multiple times and kind of seeing what I got. So, now I’ve got to adjust to what I’m seeing out of them and learn off of their swing paths…It’s a hard game. If it was easy everyone would do it…The guys here are great. The atmosphere is fine. These guys have been in trouble before and came out of it. They have the three World Series and they battled to get those so it’s never out of the question.”
Welcome to the INSIDE CHINA BASIN Baseball Podcast
Updated 3 times a week on TheSportsVirus.com!
Giants Manager Bruce Bochy is trying to keep his team’s spirits up through a terrible first half that has seen the club sink into last place, 20+ games out of first place. The SF skipper joined us over the weekend from the Giants dugout at AT&T Park.
Bochy told The Sports Virus about his approach under the current losing situation: “…We all have a responsibility and that’s to come out here and perform to the best of our ability, for ourselves, our teammates, our ownership and all of these great fans that are coming out here. That’s not going to stop and that’s my job to make sure it doesn’t stop and to keep guys upbeat and the moral good. It’s easy to like your players when they’re going well, but it’s when they are going through such difficult times like we’re going through right now, that’s when they need all of us…We’ll come out of this. Tough times don’t last forever, but tough people do.”
Welcome to the INSIDE CHINA BASIN Baseball Podcast
Updated 3 times a week on TheSportsVirus.com!
We get an update on Madison Bumgarner’s rehab with SF Chronicle columnist John Shea. Plus, we chat about trade possibilities.
Shea tells The Sports Virus how Madison Bumgarner is dealing with being out of action: “… He’s kind of a bulldog. He doesn’t like this business. When (Bryce) Harper and (Hunter) Strickland went at it, he wanted to be out there protecting and bumping heads, maybe throwing punches if need be. He couldn’t go on the field or else he’d be suspended. So, he just walked away and that was hard for him. He’s been a leader of this team. A physical, emotional, spiritual leader…This is all new for him and he’s just trying to adapt, but it’s really affected him and the team.”
Welcome to the INSIDE CHINA BASIN Baseball Podcast
Updated 3 times a week on TheSportsVirus.com!
The Giants are experiencing a low point in franchise history, on pace to lose over 100 games. SF Chronicle columnist John Shea puts it all into perspective after their current losing streak reached 7 games with the Monday night loss in Atlanta.
Shea describes the scene for the Giants right now to The Sports Virus: “…(after being swept in Colorado) How can it get any worse? Then you come to Atlanta and the first game (Johnny) Cueto throws an amazing game and he leaves trailing 2-0 and then in a matter of moments the bullpen turns it into 9-0. It doesn’t matter what they do, in terms of good defense, well somebody else will blow it, good starting pitching, somebody else on the team on the team will blow it….so, they never do enough to win.”
Welcome to the INSIDE CHINA BASIN Baseball Podcast
Updated 3 times a week on TheSportsVirus.com!
Ahmed Fareed from NBC Sports Bay Area joins us to talk Giants baseball in part 2 of our conversation.
Fareed talked to The Sports Virus about Johnny Cueto: …“He’s at his highest performance level when he is out there enjoying himself and having a fun time…It’s hard to dig yourself out of a hole when you show up to work and it’s not a fun environment.”
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