It was good to see Don Mattingly on the field

Sort of......

I have respect for the game of baseball. I loathe injustices such as the memory of Bill Buckner. Bucker was a great player. He should be remembered for his years in Wrigley where he hit over .300 but he'll mostly be remembered as the cripple that lost the 86 World Series for Boston. With out Buckner's 18 home runs and 102 RBIs Boston might not have made it into the World Series as they finished the regular season only 5 games in front of New York and had to struggle to beat the Angels in game 7 of the playoffs.

Don Mattingly put up one of Baseball's finest set of stats that same year. He hit 31 home runs (sans steroids) 113 RBIs, 53 doubles batted .352 and only struck out 35 times in 742 plate appearances. I've always wondered how many of those doubles would have been home runs had he played for Texas or Colorado. Hopefully history will be kind to Donnie Baseball and his inexperience in trips to the mound will not be his baseball epitaph.

The real winner in Tuesday night's game against the Dodgers was the home plate umpire Adrian Johnson who tossed Clayton Kershaw in the top of the 7th. It was his duty to do so as Kershaw retaliated with a beaner in Aaron Rowand's left Gluteous Maximus. This was a MAJOR turning point.

If Kershaw cruises to the end of the 7th inning; Hong Kuo (who has been lights out against anything orange and black) would have probably taken the mound in the 8th and possibly the 9th inning. There is little question in my mind that Kuo is San Francisco Kryptonite. Posey, the Giants most prolific (and inspiring)player has struggled like most of the league against the Status Kuo. Kuo left the game in the bottom of the 8th after lowering his era to .095.

If Rowand doesn't take one for the team; Giants lose 5 to 4. But ugly is as ugly does and the 9th got ugly. Broxton was not on his game. His command was taking the night off. Then the Buckner....... uhmmm Mattingly boner. (yes that's actually an old fashion baseball term for mental error) This set the table for Posey vs. Schlichting aka MEAT. Giants win 7 to 5 . It's important to give credit to Jeremy Affeldt for another solid outing after last night's great performance.

These are the kind of games the casual fan takes pleasure in celebrating. The fan of the game sees this kind of game as a 33% game.

Every team is going to win 33% of their games no matter how good or bad they play, while the same team will lose 33% of their games no matter how good or bad they play. The other 34% determines the Champions from the high draft pickers.

Ugly is as Ugly does.