Even though he’s pushing 40, I’m pulling for the recently re-signed Keiichi Yabu to somehow make the team as a long reliever. He was primarily a starter in the Central League back in Japan so he’s certainly got the experience. From a fan standpoint, I find him to be just an interesting and eccentric character with a great wisdom and love of the game- who also happened to post an ERA of 3.57 last year, no easy task these days. According to a Giants blog entry on SFGate:

Earlier this month, when he was on waivers and not allowed to practice, he went online and bought a ticket to the Giants’ Cactus League game, even though the team happily would have comped him.

Read the original post

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From my Giants desktop calendar:

In 1914, when Jack Dunn, manager of the minor league Baltimore Orioles, was shopping his prize prospect Babe Ruth around the major leagues, he failed to contact his former teammate, Giants manager John McGraw. McGraw was so upset by the snub that over a decade later, he refused to negotiate with Dunn about another big prospect. As a result, Dunn ended up selling future Hall of Famer Lefty Grove to Connie Mack of the Philadelphia Athletics.

Grove of course went on to win 300 games for the A’s and Red Sox, an MVP award in 1931, and was selected six times as an All-Star. He is considered one of the all-time greatest left-handed pitchers.

Thou should not hold grudges when it come to player transactions.

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I usually don’t read ESPN The Magazine, but if you’re a fan of Tim Lincecum, you just might want to pick up the March 9 edition as he’ll be on the cover:

Big league scouts told Tim Lincecum he was too small to succeed. Fantasy owners passed him over because they weren’t sure he’d hold up with that crazy motion. But he has news for all of ‘em: it wasn’t magic dust that helped him win the Cy Young Award

The online version of the article also features some home video of him pitching in high school. Read the full article (by Tim Keown)

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