IGD: Padres @ Giants (2 May 06)
Tue, May 2, 2006
by Geoff Young
first pitch: 12:35 p.m., PT
television: none
matchup: Woody Williams (1-1, 3.04 ERA) vs Matt Morris (2-1, 5.19 ERA)
previews: Padres.com | SI.com | ESPN
Big thanks to Giants starter Jamey Wright for lighting a fire under the Padres’ collective posterior Monday night. In case you missed it, Jake Peavy nicked Barry Bonds on the right hand in the third with a pitch that actually wasn’t very far inside. Wright responded in the fourth by planting one on Brian Giles’ tuchus. The Padres responded in the best way possible, torching Wright for seven runs in the inning en route to a 10-4 laugher.
After a miserable April, any help is much appreciated. Thanks again, Mr. Wright.
The series concludes today (what? we just got here!) with a couple of veterans on the mound. Despite not winning a job in the rotation out of spring training, Woody Williams has been the Padres’ most reliable starter in the early going.
If Woody is going to bust out the knuckler today, it will be without knuckleball catcher Doug Mirabelli, who has been shipped back to Boston for the younger, more versatile Josh Bard. The Pads also received minor-league right-handed reliever Cla Meredith, plus cash or a PTBNL. Meredith is no Steve Andrade (who made his big-league debut with the Royals last night), but he could come in handy at some point.
Unfortunately for the Padres and Mirabelli, the latter’s only usable skill is the ability to catch Tim Wakefield. Given that Wakefield doesn’t pitch for the Padres, there wasn’t much call for that particular skill in San Diego. Exit Mirabelli.
With Bard and Rob Bowen now in the fold, the Padres have assembled a nice little contingency plan in case Mike Piazza doesn’t return next year and George Kottaras isn’t ready to take over every day. It’s funny how they’ve set themselves up pretty much the same way they did last season, when Miguel Olivo and David Ross were brought in as insurance policies in case Ramon Hernandez left for greener pastures. Of course, Hernandez did leave, the irony being that Olivo and Ross quickly followed.
Ah well, there’s plenty of time to speculate about next year’s catching situation. For now, let’s keep up the winning ways and take the series in San Francisco.
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May 2, 2006 at 8:37 am
GY - I think you misspelled tuchis? (http://thesaurus.reference.com/search?q=tuchis) … I’m open to being corrected
ps. Whassup with Mirabelli requesting a trade???
May 2, 2006 at 8:41 am
LM: I went with this one:
http://www.urbandictionary.com.....erm=tuchus
Re: Mirabelli, I imagine he realized there wasn’t really anything for him to do here.
May 2, 2006 at 8:50 am
GY - Wow, thanks … I s’pose … live & learn!
ps. The Hammer with HR #4 last night … http://tinyurl.com/zs6nv
Chase Headley with #1 … http://tinyurl.com/fwrdj
May 2, 2006 at 9:02 am
the old country every Jewish boy learned, even in his early infancy,
that _shmaysn_ [to slap or lash] had a direct association with _hintn_
[Yiddish for buttocks], the fleshy lower backside, as the natural and
unique “reserve” for shame and punishment for “unjewish” mischievous
behavior.
The Hebrew word used as a euphemism for “hintn” is tof-khes-sof
(to’khes), meaning under, below. (The euphemism for men’s underwear,
specifically for _gatkes_ is “takhtoynim” from the same Hebrew root.]
For other Yiddish euphemisms see the discussion about vulgarisms in _A
Century of Yiddish in America: Yiddish and English_ by Sol Steinmetz,
pp. 56-57; also my recent post 5.198,3.
So far, “tokhes” or “tukhes” is not considered acceptable in polite
society or family-oriented magazines or newspapers. At most, it would
likely be treated in print as the famous /f/ word, that is by printing
only the initial /t/, and for each consecutive letter a short dash or
hyphen /- - - - -/. The French _derriere_ , however, is for some resaon
found acceptable.
Alan Dershowitz, the celebrated Harvard law professor, recently submitted
a satirical sketch to the journal of the American Bar Association in
which the Yiddish expression “tokhes afn tish” (literally, put your rear
end on the table) appeared in a bit of dialogue. The editors of the
journal objected to the expression and changed it.
The expression “tokhes afn tish” is a frequently used phrase among card
players when the game is for money, and simply means ‘put your money on
the table,’ i.e. in the “bank.”
This word sometimes finds its way in a TV commercial (with a /k/ in place
of the /kh/), as in a recent Whoopi Goldberg commercial for a telephone
company (”I can sit on my tokis and do nothing to earn big savings”).
http://shakti.trincoll.edu/~me...../vol05.200
The accepted substitute in English for “tokhes” has been _tushie_ or
_tushy_, apparently formed, according to Steinmetz, on the basis of a
baby-talk diminutive. This word was then shortened to “tush,” as in Mel
Brooks’ classic movie “Blazing Saddles,” where a women bar singer by the
name (I believe) of Von Push, in a satirical spoof of a Marlene Dietrich
seductive song, rhymed “push” with “tush.”
I heard about an advertisement in the New York subways where a physician
by the name of “Dr. Tush” offered his services for size reduction or an
otherwise surgical procedure thereabouts.
And the _New York Times_ (12/17/95, p. 3), describing the white-gloved
men on the subway platforms in Japan who push passengers into the already
crowded cars and who are called in Japanese “shiri oshi,” translated it
as “tushy pushers”.
Is it possible that the expression “tokhes afn tish” in a card game is a
vulgar but somewhat innovative, playful Yiddish translation of the
English phrase “bare your assets,” that is, show us your money and put
it on the table, the word ‘assets’ here having a double entendre, and the
phrase gained in popularity on account of its vulgarity and because some
found it funny?
May 2, 2006 at 9:03 am
Whoop.. that is from…
http://shakti.trincoll.edu/~me...../vol05.200
May 2, 2006 at 9:51 am
Did you see Mirabelli’s triumphant return to Boston? Private jet, helicopter and police escort to the stadium where he ran out of the police car in full uniform 5 minutes before the game to the cheers of the crowd. No wonder the guy wanted out of San Diego, he’s a cult hero in Boston but just another backup catcher here. Plus he was brought in to be the everyday catcher and then had that pulled out from under him when they brought in Piazza. It was just one of those things that didn’t work out and at least the Padres recognized it and sent him back rather than letting him fester on the bench.
May 2, 2006 at 10:00 am
Oy!
May 2, 2006 at 10:10 am
Mirabelli got a standing ovation in his first AB
May 2, 2006 at 10:14 am
You guys should quit trying to be polite to Mirabelli. He was a “whiner” and did nothing but grumble and cause discontent in the clubhouse from day one. He is gone and good riddance.
May 2, 2006 at 10:15 am
Shameless plug…April minor league roundup on “Hanks Padres”.
May 2, 2006 at 10:23 am
From what I’ve heard, I’d have to say good riddance to bad bagage vis a vis Mirabelli. Don’t know where a 35 year old, career OPS+ 96, backup catcher gets off having an attitude, but apparently he had one, and not a good one at that.
May 2, 2006 at 10:26 am
LOL, Hank. Not only that but he wasn’t very good at catching or hitting!
May 2, 2006 at 10:38 am
No sticking up for Mirabelli here — glad to see him go. He obviously had a problem being a Padre — don’t need anyone like that around.
Just telling you guys what happened in the game.
As for his “prima donna”-ness, I guess Francona isn’t a big fan of Mirabelli’s either. Last year, Doug refused to catch pitchers’ bullpen sessions, because it was “beneath” him.
May 2, 2006 at 10:42 am
VORP’s for the lineup as of today (hitting #’s)
Roberts 1.2
Cameron -1.5
Giles 5.3
Piazza 0.1
Gonzalez -3.9
Greene 1.7
Castilla -3.5
Barfield 2.6
Bellhorn 3.8
Bowen 3.1
Chris Young 0.8
Mirabelli -1.1
May 2, 2006 at 10:50 am
Hank, thanks for the prospect report. Do you (or anyone) have any insight as to what’s going on with Matt Bush? Is he hurt or something?
May 2, 2006 at 10:54 am
Bush broke his ankle in spring training and is not expected back until June or later.
May 2, 2006 at 12:34 pm
Cla Meredith should insist that his first name be pronounced “Claw” instead of “Clay.” It sounds much more menacing that way and there are far too many boys from the South named “Clay” already.
May 2, 2006 at 12:48 pm
Cameron can hit TOO!!!
Bonus!!!
May 2, 2006 at 12:50 pm
Ladies and gentleman . . . Mike Cameron. Nice!
May 2, 2006 at 12:59 pm
Triple by Roberts… 3-0 Pads..
May 2, 2006 at 1:10 pm
surprised to see barfiedl when bellfield is so hot.
May 2, 2006 at 1:10 pm
Anyone see what just happened? Finley scored on a balk?
May 2, 2006 at 1:12 pm
Bellhorn is starting at 3B. Not sure what happened to Bellfield though.
May 2, 2006 at 1:12 pm
IF(PM) - say what???
May 2, 2006 at 1:14 pm
Bellhorn is still playing…he’s at 3rd today. The way he’s hitting he’ll be at 1st, 2nd, or 3rd every day until he cools off I’d imagine..
May 2, 2006 at 1:16 pm
so far that every day is ending today. 2 for 2 today…thats 2 strikeouts for two ab’s
May 2, 2006 at 1:16 pm
never mind. I see barfield is at 2nd and Bellhorn is at 3rd. Didn’t know Bellhorn could play third, maybe he can’t but he can hit.
May 2, 2006 at 1:48 pm
well, I guess the everyday bellhorn guy, is still everyday…
nice rbi
May 2, 2006 at 1:53 pm
Hey, this is fun. We hit the ball and we are winning. Ahhhhhh.
May 2, 2006 at 1:59 pm
It is kinda cool to see a team actually hit the ball a few times a game…
May 2, 2006 at 2:20 pm
Loved these stats considering I am a HUGE Giles Fan. I’m sure all you baseball guys know these by heart. But isn’t Giles a fast starter anyway or am I just dreaming?
Giles:
April 21-May 1
.295 AVG
.432 OBP
.386 SLG
.819 OPS
88 AB
26 hits
12 RBI
20 BB
14 Runs
Stats from Yahoo
May 2, 2006 at 2:30 pm
Here’s a fun look at the Top 30 NL hitters thus far … according to BP’s VORP anyway …
http://www.baseballprospectus......?cid=14608
… which was reported in this context …
Barry Bonds is hobbled, never sees pitches and is still ranked better than guys like Bobby Abreu and Jason Bay a month in? Sick.
May 2, 2006 at 2:32 pm
Bowen in to catch the bottom of 7th … Padres up 5-2 …
May 2, 2006 at 2:50 pm
I hate that freaking Bonds.
May 2, 2006 at 2:54 pm
Come on, Scotty. Get him out.
May 2, 2006 at 3:11 pm
Ballgame! 5-3 Padres … here’s how the 9th went down …
Giants ninth. Hoffman pitching. Niekro flied out to center fielder Cameron. Feliz flied out to center fielder Cameron. Ma.Sweeney pinch-hitting for Worrell. Ma.Sweeney grounded out to first baseman Ad.Gonzalez unassisted.
… Save: Hoffman! The probably didn’t play the Hell’s Bells @ Phone Company Park, you think?
May 2, 2006 at 3:14 pm
Cool. 5 pitch inning for Trevor.
May 2, 2006 at 3:39 pm
Hey a 2 game sweep is good…
Only problem I have now is that if I turn on espn in the next 24 hours all I’ll see if 10 different angles of Bonds’ swing, just like I saw on the giants broadcast on mlb.tv.
rhetorical question of the day: Why are Giants fans such idiots?
May 2, 2006 at 4:52 pm
Here’s a link to a rave on Kottaras:
http://fantasybaseball.rotowor.....ryid=21549
It’s about 3/4 of the way down the link.
May 2, 2006 at 5:28 pm
I live in SF (couldn’t make the games), and went to a lot of games here during that 42-15 stretch the Giants had against us for a bunch of years, so I hate the team, hate the fans, and get a sick feeling when I go to the ballpark. However, if we had a Bonds, envision a Cammy but for a decade, I think we would grow to love him even as the drug stuff came out. Cammy was a stand up guy, and wouldn’t arrogantly pout the way Bonds does, but I imagine we would see past that as well.
But nothing more I love than beating the Giants.
May 2, 2006 at 5:51 pm
jay - well said …
since Bonds’ days @ pittsburg, i’ve loved him on the field and hated him off the field, simple as that … i was ecstatic when he signed with the giants because i was confident that that’d mean he’d never get a ring (i lived in the bay area from 1974 to 1994, and was left with the impression that the giants were not and could not be an org that’d win a WS) … after he got even better than i thought he was, he got close, but so far, no ring …
in other words, i don’t think it’s the ‘roids that’s bein’ raged against … it’s the ‘tude …
May 2, 2006 at 8:30 pm
Boys in blue blow another big lead… Snakes just scored 6 (so far) in bottom of the 5th to tie LA, 6-6.