This is a photo of me and 'gooch on Friday in the North Beach section of San Francisco.
As you can tell we had a great time.

Hooper

It's funny how you can read someone's posts for so many years and know so little about them. When I met Hoop and a couple of the heirs to his racing fortune at Gino and Carlo's , I was surprised to learn the following about him:

1) Not that much fun to be around.
2) Heavily connected to the CIA, DEA, FDA, and PTA
3) Hates beer
4) Has the world's largest Justin Bieber collection
5) Believes all Bob Dylan's records were lip synched
6) Lives and dies with the Yankees
7) Would rather stay in the hotel and order room service, but the kids were making him go out.

NOT! Last time I saw the talented Mr. Hoop he was off into the San Francisco night, with Blues on his mind. What a good guy. And as he said, we had a great time. Welcome to California, Hooper!

Gooch,we ate at Firenze last night.Great meal,thanks for pointing us in their direction.
Heading out soon to the ballpark,looks like a brats and beer afternoon.
Hooper

Hoop is younger lookin' than I had anticipated, Gooch is still wearing the same floral pattern. But what jumps out is the Euro soccer poster in the background with a huge NO...lol...Mr. Baker, real football is getting closer every day!

Spanky, that pattern is good for any occasion.....

But Gooch, if you're trying to show off the gun...ya gotta roll that shirt sleeve up a little...lol...

Now that you mention it, it does look a bit like a kimono.....

Gooch, how did you find the time to hit the town given all the all-star ballot box stuffing Giant fans must have been doing? (The last tally I saw had Brandon Belt 4th among first basemen and some shortstop in the top five). NL fans look to have gotten maybe two positions right. Posey will probably play in about fifteen of these before he's through but he's no better than third best this year so far. Sandoval over David Wright is some kind of sick joke and Cabrera over the likes of Bourn, McCutcheon, Braun and about ten others is silly. Dan Uggla over Brandon Phillips? The Senior circuit should at least have the better bench.

My starters: Ruiz, Votto, Phillips, Castro, Wright, Braun, McCutcheon and Beltran.

Been waiting for this, gbob. No real argument, although I do think that Posey and Cabrera belong in the game, not to mention Bumgarner and Vogelsong, who didn't make it. Pablo is a joke, as are several other Giants who got lots of votes--Freddy Sanchez and Aubrey Huff? And the only thing Brandon Crawford is good for is a John Stamos lookalike contest. That said, ballot stuffing has a long history in this game, beginning with Cincinnati way back when (I think they may have had 8 starters one year). St Louis did it, and as I recall the Mets and Phils have had their episodes , also (could be wrong about that). As long as they give the fans the vote, this stuff is going to happen, especially since it's apparently possible to write a computer program nowadays that votes 24/7 . I'm fine with taking the vote away from fans, or at least stopping the online vote to cut down on fraud. Doubt it'll happen though.

Hey, your boy Ruiz is in the game. It doesn't really matter who starts anymore, since they all leave the game after one at bat (another thing I don't like.)

All of that said, GO GIANTS!!!MUHAHAHAHA!

I'm sure Phils fans have elevated one or two undeserving starters over the years, but I don't remember this kind of over-the-top zeal. I was remembering the '76 game here in Philly for the Bicentennial. There were five Phillies on the field at the same time, but only Greg Luzinski was an elected starter. (Schmidt, Bowa, Bob Boone and Dave Cash were the others).

I was at that game sitting in the upper deck in left center field and will never forget batting practice with Luzinski, Bench, Foster, Kingman and Jim Rice launching 500 bombs over our heads.

I love Posey-he'll play in a bunch of these Cabrera as a reserve, sure. Sandoval? Come on.

Ruiz earned the start, Hamels tough to argue against. Papelbon's been OK but I didn't think he merited a spot.

Any chance you take Victorino off our hands for some pine tar or something?

Carlos Ruiz at age 33 has more HR's thru 270+ Ab's than in any full season prior.
He was always a short stocky guy but now looks thicker up top compared to previous.Hmmm.

Putting the ball in play at a .360 clip instead of .270 should mean a few more homers, no? And he's been hitting cleanup instead of the eight hole most of the year. Gets pitched a lot differently. Even in this sorry lineup.

gbob, see above. I agreed that Pablo Sandoval is a joke. Phillies probably would have gotten more consideration had they been playing better. Giants have been playing well leading up to the ASG. There's this, too: Giants sell out every game. Fans vote. That, and the program director of the Giants station apparently developed an app that allows non-stop voting in our (of course) wireless-friendly ballpark. I think the best solution is to simply let me decide who should and should not play......

I would prefer Rollins to Victorino

Phillies probably over-represented this year. Last place team on merit and 50-50 to lose Hamels. Injuries haven't helped but this just in: older players break down.

Somebody's going to get a serviceable player in Victorino. He's been miscast as a three or five hole hitter in the absence of Howard and Utley and he's not that. Still plays a great center field and can still run but he needs to bat second where he sees some fastballs. Gets himself out on breaking stuff.

Rollins resigning three years for $11 mill per makes him tougher to move with declining skills but still s Gold Glove shortstop and he can be replaced in house.

This is where I generally toss in a comment that completely has no place in the conversation but I just watched a show about Curt Flood and it reminds me how much I despise Marvin Miller, Dave McNally and Andy Messersmith. The Curious Case of Curt Flood is a must see movie if you're a baseball fan.

Free Agency ruined baseball IMO. At least football was the last sport to succumb to making the players godzillionaires.

Looking at the line ups for the All (clear throat here) Star Game...I think I recognize a couple of the names...atta boy Bud...leave it to a used car salesman to take down a great tradition from the Great American pastime.

yeah, Spanky. The NFL gave us the Pro Bowl. Nice work.

Touche Goocher! At least they got rid of that paid vacation to Hawaii for the Pro Bowlers, wives and entourages.

Baseball's as good as it ever was and Marvin Miller should be in the Hall of Fame.

I watched that documentary when it first aired but don't recall if they touched on the fact that the Phillies, as the last National League team to integrate, were notoriously unfriendly to African American players at the time. After seeing Dick Allen run out of town, Flood wanted no parts of Philadelphia.

Nice photo, guys. Last time I was in that neighborhood found myself in an Irish bar (Maggie McGarrey's, yes, imagjne that. An Irish bar in SF's Little Italy) on my way back down from Coit Tower. (This a night after UnusualPete took me drinking on Haight Ave, I believe!) Walked out far less sober than I walked in! Love North Beach! Hoop, glad you finally made it out to SF.

Carlos Ruiz suspended 25 games for adderall(wink wink)

Sounds a lot better than steroids.

Taking a page from the NFL-no matter what anyone is caught with-it becomes adderall.
I don't know much but I knew that guy was dirty just by his physical change from one year to the next at age 33 and a spike in production.

G-Bob?