Play Ball!!! First game of Spring Training 2006

Giants win the first game of spring training, 10-5, over the Brew Crew, sans Le Barry Show, which had a big hit the past couple of days with his Paula Abdul impersonation for a "Giants Idol" rookie hazing exercise, forcing the rookies to croon, William Hung style, for the approval of the vets. Barry was the only one to dress up for the occasion, wearing a moo-moo type outfit the first day and a halter top "an-saam" the second day, replete with actual fake boobs (according to one account I read, he got a boob job in between because he seemed bigger the second day), and apparently speaking like and acting like Paula, seemingly unscripted and improvised. I loved one comment on this: "I see it but I can't unsee it". If this don't boost the Giants morale enough to go on and win the World Series, I don't know what will! :^)

Here is one pretty good first-person account of the event - just scroll to Feb 28/Mar 1st - complete with pictures of various rookies and Barry in his get-up. Travis Ishikawa apparently stole the show among the rookies (how could any of them compete with Bonds?) with his sexy rendition of "I'm Too Sexy", stripping down to his very brief undies. Quite a hoot! Plus it benefited a charity as well, the Giants Foundation, as they passed a bucket that fans could donate into and the Giants and Rob Schneider (actor-comedian, "Deuce Bigalo", SNL "Going to the copier, the Copy Meister").

This was also the start of the Barry Bonds Reality show that ESPN is taping. I presume Bonds is preparing for life after baseball with this. He once appeared on "90210", playing golf with Steve Sanders, maybe he wants to go the Jerry Rice route. Or maybe he wants people to see the "real" him and soften people up as he starts his run for Ruth and Aaron. But still, dressing up in drag when you know its going to be broadcast nationwide takes a lot of guts.

Anyway, back to the game. There were a variety of highlights, given the blowout. Winn led off the spring with a homer. Knoedler (I cannot begin to pronounce his name correctly), went two for two and had a 2-run homer to finish things off in the 9th. Linden went 4-4, run, RBI, 2B, SB, plus a fielding error. Ellison went 2-2, run. Durham had a 3-run double in two ABs. Matheny 2-2, RBI. Lots of rookies getting playing time. Shabala 0-2; Delarosa 0-2 (never heard of him); Ishikawa 0-1; Frandsen 0-3; Busher 1-1, 2B, run; Nunez 1-3 (who?); Lewis 0-1; Chavez 0-4; McMains 0-1; Schierholtz 1-1, run, SB; plus Knoedler above.

Pitching was pretty good overall, though obviously bad for someone given the 5 runs. Lowry started, 1.2 IP, 3 H and 1 W, with 2 K and 3 R/ER. Miller (picked up from Pittsburgh I believe) went 0.1 in relief of Lowry and got the win. Worrell (1IP, 1H, 1W), Hennessey (3IP, 1H, 1W, 2K), Reina (1 IP, 1H, 1K) shutout, but Matt Anderson (former #1 pick overall, 1997) gave up two runs on two hits in 1 IP. Then Taschner closed things down 1IP, 1 hit.

Go Giants!!!