Raving

So what’s Tim Lincecum’s secret to his success, being 7-1 so far in 8 starts this season?

Clean Cleats

In an interview with CSN Bay Area, he said that one of the routines he’s always had was cleaning his cleats really good - whether that’s scrubbing them down with bubbles, or blacking them out to have a crisp, clean look.

I guess with looking good success does follow. Not to mention, Kruk and Kuip talked about Licecum’s new low-sock look, where he lengthened out his pants to go down to his cleats instead of showing the baseball stirrups (a lost art in baseball). Kruk said it makes him look taller and more intimidating. “He looks at least 5′11″ now” Kruk says with a voice of sarcasm - always looking for an opportunity to poke fun at his size and age. Funny thing is, according to his official stats, he IS 5′11″.

Horitz’s first put out in the bigs

Horitz’s first base knock in the bigs (his 2nd career AB)

Horitz losing his game face in the bigs (even the pros in happy moments lose their GF)

With this being the year of rebuilding for the Giants, it’s been fun seeing all the rookies making their Major League Debuts.

Today, in the area formerly known as “Area-in-front-of-the-[former]-Bonds-squad”, 25 year old Brian Horwitz had his first start. Kuip had a great comment of what Horwitz may have been going through today:

“He’s got butterflies, that he didn’t know there were species of butterflies that existed. They’re big, and they fly around a lot.”

Welcome to the bigs Brian!

In honor of Mothers Day, and for “Strike Out Cancer” awareness, MLB has incorporated pink bats, wrist bands, and other gear that the players will be using. Bats and a homeplate signed by all the players of each game will be auctioned off and donated towards cancer research.

To find out more about “Strike Out Cancer”, goto www.strikeoutcancer.com

Giants to celebrate Asian cultures & communities during Asian Heritage Week at AT&T Park, May 12-17. During the week, they will be giving away the hats with the Chinese writing on it. Kruk said that there is no Chinese character for the word “Giants”, so the character on the hat was the closest to that - “Big Fellas”. I’m wondering if the “fellas” part is a krukism to the translation.

Anyone get one of these caps?

Say what you will sports mass media about the Giants new clean up hitter this year - Bengie Molina. I admit, at first it was a tough transition to swallow from Bonds => Molina. But guess what, he’s stepping it up and leading the team.