The will of the person to succeed is strong, but sometimes the body is not as strong, and a little boost is all they need to get to the top. Perhaps this is a struggling person, who is looking for some sort of big breakthrough to live out his dream and take care of his family, is he evil if he were to give in to temptation that are performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs)?
- Jay Nault, from 'Train Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger: The Many Effects of PEDs in Baseball, NETWORKS, Cornell University
Lincecum says he wasn't tired after 148 pitches
Sorry but something, again, doesn't smell right with the #San Francisco Giants. As in the past,after a bad streak, the #Giànts suddenly and magically get better. The team starts hitting , the pitchers pitching - and now a no hitter from #Tim Lincecum, his first, on an astounding 148 pitches! This from a little guy who couldn't normally get past the sixth inning. When was his last complete game? And he says he wasn't even tired after this historic game, the first no hitter ever pitched in #San Diego Petco Park on this July 14.
Sure you can say the Padres are a patsy and have lost 14 of 15, but these were all on the road except for the three latest with the Giànts- and San Diego had most of its injured regulars back in the lineup . And it's middle lineup has a .300 lifetime average against Lincecum. Sure the Giànts get a lot of fans in San Diego but that's still not a home field advantage. Even Hunter Pence, cold as ice the past three weeks had five RBIs and Sandoval is suddenly hitting. No doubt Tim Lincecum, who's never been adverse to using artificial stimulants, was pissed off at their losing streak, along with his fellow Giants, as well as recently being no hit themselves, so Tim probably got in his head that he could throw a no hitter himself, whatever it takes, even in a season where he has a 4.26 ERA and not even complete game or much more than 100 pitches pitched.
And it's very interesting that this no hitter occurred on a day then Giants latest acquisition, Jeff Franquer came in from - you guessed it- Kansas City. Kansas City has long been Brian Sabean's favorite team (almost the exclusive team) with which he deals. Virtually every new player in recent years has come to the Giants by way of or thru KC. One-fifth - 11 - of all player suspensions since 2005 are Venezuelans (Wikipaedia) - and these are players who've been having career years as soon as coming to Giànts, namely Blanco, Mijares, Machi and, especially Scutaro, who has hit well over .300 since coming to Giànts and has cut his strikeouts in half, even whole being injured. Scutaro is 37 and never hit above .299 even in his prime until meeting up with his countrymen like Cabrera , before he was suspended from the Giants. Sandoval went on an amazing streak the end of last year with seven - many massive - homers the last few weeks after Scutaro , Mijares and Blamvo and Mijares came along . Even shortstop Crawford started hitting well above his average after Scutaro joined the team and playing next to him. Scutaro. Sandoval, along with Pagan, Casia and others ,while maybe not ALL coming over from KC have perhaps benefited from their new friends.Lincecum, no hitter, Giants, #no hitter, #lincecum
Much like Bonds and friends a decade ago, and still under Sabean's watch, it all seems very incestuous . Remember Bonds years where guys like Aurilea, Williams, Alfonzo and Santangelo, Santiago, Estrella and Bernard all benefitted - and were later indicted (not suspended) in the Michell report- for what was their likely associationwith Bonds. I even recall an interview -which most forget or never heard when it didn't mean much - with Bonds back around 2002, when he promised to pass on his 'secrets' of his new found success to fellow players. Wish I could find that tape.
And now, it's almost like Francoeur brings SOMETHING to the team - literally- and they're off and running again ala 2010 and 2012 . Hopefully, we're wrong about this - and Francoeur isn't from Venezuela - but why would the Sabean sign a guy who hit only .208 last year and .235 the year before to the World Champion Giants unless he had some ulterior motives up his sleeve, ie Remember the Giànts were just treading water around .500 and the Guillen came over with his 'package' and the Giànts had their best month before MLBcomvinced the Giants to keep the once convicted Guillen off the playoff team. But by now seemingly everyone was benefiting from Guillen!s likely gifts . There was Ross hitting his eight homers and guys like Uribe and Renteria suddenly becoming world beaters. suddenly the pitching staff got hotter. In 2012 the pattern was the same when Mijares and Scutaro came in mid season , the latter to hit over .350 , which suddenly triggered Sandoval and the Giànts
to have their best month in September.
And now just when the Giants are having their worst streak in years they suddenly and magically bounce back again. Whether Francoeur really had anything to do with it is questionable but by now the Giànts have become infested with PEDs, after a decade of deceit, just like Victor Contre warned us - in this permissive era where 'new ' MLB drug testing hasn't busted a single player this year after only busting two Giànts , one Athletic and one other last year.
Then Giants won their two World Series in three years with virtually two completely different teams but lots of ex -KC / Venezuelan players and the same system of bringing in 'infected' players of questionable backgrounds, Pitcher Chad Gaudin is just the latest such example - and besides his newsworthy 'hospital visit' suddenly pitching way below his lifetime 4.0+ ERA. It will be interesting to see if Sabean can dig up any more 'Gaudins' or Scutaros Watch your eye on Francouer and if he improves on that .225 average of the past two seasons at Kansas City. .But perhaps there's already enough ' juice' flowing in the Giants clubhouse.
Unlikely 148-Pitch No Hitter, Giants Up to Old Tricks Again?
Now, for the final 'Connect the dots....' We didn't want to have to go into this, hoping things would get better and the Giants would finally clean up its PED act...but it's already been in the news yet few probably saw this just like the implicating interview with Bonds back in 2002. We report this just to hammer home with all the evidence of unfair play, lest people continue to pass off the Giants as legit. Here it is:
A now retired Giant recently interviewed by the Salt Lake Times told how he was encouraged by a Coach in the Giànts minor league system to use PEDs to help his flagging career. This was no doubt an isolated incident , especially after what we've seen ane the type of players the Giànts have brought in. o have a player , albeit ex Giant , actually admit to this is very telling. What more do we need to connect the final dots. Baseball has devolved and San Francisco is the epicenter of devolution. If you really enjoy this type of baseball its a sad day for all concerned, at least for us fans who grew up with and remember the 'Golden Era' of baseball and the Mays and McCoveys when we didn't have to try to figure out who was or who wasn't taking PEDs. We thought there was still hope but it doesnt look like the 'Win at all costs' Giànts are going to go anything about it. Afterall, they've been at their shenanigans for so long, and the folks in liberal San Francisco, or the MLB powers aren't doing anything about it. Certainly Larry Baer doesn't want to break that consecutive sellout streak... which might have been in jeopardy after these past few weeks . (In fact I noticed large blocks of empty seats but the Giants have continued to calling all the games 'sellouts.') It will take a move now from above now , it would appear,, ie the commissioner, which may be a long shot. It's been over 10 years and ,yes, we believe , in our opinion PEDs are now as rampant as ever on the Giànts. So, stand up local sportswriters or just keep living the lie you know and saw manifest itself again in Lincecums unlikely 148 pitch no hitter.*
*Last guys to pitch no hitters with lose to this many pitches blew out there arms, one being Johann Santana with 136 pitches. Perhaps the onc e fragile Lincecum is now bionic and the giants untouchable.
How Did Little Timmy Possibly Pitch a 148 Pitch No Hitter for the Giants
