Since my birthday is during the week, my parents drove down to celebrate my 28th this weekend. They’re great, and I love them. If you can’t see what’s written on the side of the cake, it says “MVP.” On the back she also wrote “GO GIANTS.” My mom wins. I’ll have a hard time forgetting this one. The cake was also delicious.

Fansided contacted me shortly after I begun my hobby of writing and invited me on as a contributing writer at their Giants branch of “Around the Foghorn,” and I’ve been contributing four posts a month to them for a little over a year. The former head of the site has moved up within the organization and the most two senior writers after him decided to team up to become co-editors. One of those two peoples is me. The requirements for receiving compensation (which will probably amount to a couple beers a month) is to write at least one post a day, so it wouldn’t make sense for me to do any Giants posts here on this site when I can add up pennies and nickels over time at AtF. Therefore, any Giants baseball-related posts will be posted at Around the Foghorn until further notice.

I am very excited for the opportunity to be one of the heads of a blog that is run by an organization. I’m not sure where this will take me next, but Aaron Somers and the good people at Fansided have chosen to believe in me, and for that I am eternally grateful.

My general MLB material will still show up on this blog, be it MLB debuts of players, brawls of teams, or general opinion pieces that aren’t directly related to the Giants, I still want to keep this blog active because of the support it has received. Fansided has a site dedicated to their MLB-related material (that is not AtF), and while I contributed to them for a few months, I have been allowed to step down to focus on these two blogs.

Without the readers — loyal, first-timers, and everything in between — this blog doesn’t receive the small recognitions it does from MLB.com/blogs, or even that one time I was linked in a sports column of USA Today. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I hope you will continue to read my material on AtF, and will still stop by this blog when I decided I haven’t had enough of blogging for the day.

Christian Arroyo — @arroyo_c

Ryder Jones — @Jonesy_56

It’s official, starting my professional career with the San Francisco Giants and flying out to AZ Wednesday! #Blessed

— Ryder Jones (@Jonesy_56) June 10, 2013

#Giants 2nd-rder Ryder Jones’ bonus is $880k. NC HS SS, 3B as pro, chance to hit for avg & power, strong arm, Stanford recruit. #mlbdraft

— Jim Callis (@jimcallisBA) June 15, 2013

Chase Johnson — @chaserton32

Brian Ragira

Daniel Slania — @Dan_Slania40

Nick Vander Tuig — @Nick21VT

Brandon Bednar — @BrandonBednar1

@andrew_polly Arizona to do physicals and pre workouts for a week then to Oregon for short season A ball

— Brandon Bednar (@BrandonBednar1) June 10, 2013

Tyler Horan — @SirMeatBall27

#Giants sign 8th-rder Tyler Horan for $150,900. Virginia Tech OF tied Cape Cod wood-bat record w/16 HR last summer, big raw power. #mlbdraft

— Jim Callis (@jimcallisBA) June 13, 2013

Donald Snelten — @DJSnelten

#Giants sign 9th-rder D.J. Snelten for $140,900. Minnesota LHP, 6-7/230, FB to 95 plays up b/c good extension, improved changeup. #mlbdraft

— Jim Callis (@jimcallisBA) June 13, 2013

Tyler Rogers — @tyrogers2020

Now time to take advantage of a great opportunity!

— Tyler Rogers (@tyrogers2020) June 8, 2013

Johneshwy Fargas — @Johneshwy

Ty Ross — @TyRoss26

Pat Young — @patyoung26

Nick Jones — @Njjones7 ”Pitcher for the San Francisco Giants organization” in his bio along with a big picture of the Giants logo

Eugene Escalante — @G_Escalante3

Jonah Arenado — @ArenadoJonah

Rene Melendez

Christian Jones

Garrett Hughes — @BDHughes_27

Brett Kay — @BKurWay17

Reality is starting to kick in. On my way out AZ. Couldn’t do it w/o the endless support from my family, friends and of course my girlfriend

— Brett Kay (@BKurWay17) June 10, 2013

William Simpson — @CalebSimpson9

Ethan Miller

Brandon Zajac — @ZAJAC37

Nicholas Gonzalez — @Nicolasito_16

Blake Miller — @bjm425 has “#SFGiants” in his bio

Jacob McCasland

Michael Connolly — @mikecon12

Dusten Knight

Talked to former Tahlequah standout Dusten Knight & he said he was reporting to AZL today & going to sign with the #sfgiants. #okpreps

— Ben Johnson (@BenJohnsonTDP) June 12, 2013

Ryan Tuntland — @RTuntland_11

Dylan Brooks

John Riley — @johnriley_25

Nick Cieri — @nick_cieri

Craig Massoni — @FLYmanCRAIG Has “Baseball player in the San Francisco Giants Organization” in his bio

Rayan Hernandez

Aubrey McCarty — @AubreyMcCarty55

Grant Goodman — @TheGoodMayne_17

Will Callaway — @CallawayGuy has “#Giants” and “#minorleaguer” in his bio

Osvaldo Garcia

Christopher Viall — @chrisvSHS

According to @AiringItOut, Chris Viall will pass up the #SFGiants to go to Stanford. http://t.co/3J0OZtJ1OT

— Tommy Wright (@WrightScribe) June 9, 2013

Ryan Kirby — @rkirby_09

So that’s what I could find, some of the findings in thanks to Lauren (@sfgiantsgirl). That list has ten picks pretty firmly in the Giants pocket, and from my own scouring on the twitter machine, I don’t think the first round pick is too far off.

Shakeup today. Ramirez DFA’d, Pill optioned. RHP Dunning, H Sanchez coming up from Fresno #sfgiants.

— Henry Schulman (@hankschulman) June 13, 2013

 Possible goodbye to Ramon Ramirez, see ya Brett Pill, welcome back Hector Sanchez, and hello Jake Dunning!

Not only was Pill not playing, but with H.Sanchez back, Posey is an option to start at 1B again.

— Andrew Baggarly (@CSNBaggs) June 13, 2013

Odd that after all this time Pill is going back down, didn’t play to the narrative we hoped we’d never see. In 19 games, Hector put up a .320/.370/.460 slash line in the hitter’s league that is the Pacific Coast League.

Newbies land at 6:30

— Henry Schulman (@hankschulman) June 13, 2013

That would be a little less than an hour before game time.

Dunning is a converted SS from Indiana U. He’s got a 1.75 ERA at Fresno and was on the 40-man. His first call-up.

— Andrew Baggarly (@CSNBaggs) June 13, 2013

No doubt his 20.3 K% and 6.5 BB% in Fresno will be a point of discussion when he finally takes the mound for the Giants.

Tonight’s #SFGiants lineup: Blanco CF, Crawford SS, Posey C, Pence RF, Belt 1B, Torres LF, Arias 3B, Noonan 2B, Cain RHP

— Alex Pavlovic (@AlexPavlovic) June 13, 2013

You’ve probably heard today’s the anniversary of Matt Cain‘s perfect game. Where was I? At a graduation for most of the game, came home (drove safely, of course), then ran to my residence where my wife had the game on, and there was much happiness.

At least the Giants are 14.5 games ahead of Miami! So the Giants are just below average in runs per game, and run differential, but that 12-20 record away from home, and actually have a better record against teams at or above .500 (20-18) than below .500 (13-13) which is a little puzzling for a team that is supposed to have that championship swagger.

Here’s who the teams have coming up for the rest of the month:

Giants — @ Pirates (1), @ Braves, vs. Padres, vs. Marlins, @ Rockies

Padres — vs. D-Backs, @ Giants, vs. Dodgers, vs. Phillies, @ Marlins

I’m going to say the Giants have a little bit tougher of a schedule, so with the Padres only two games back of the Giants entering play on Thursday, it wouldn’t shock me if the Giants continue their business of salvaging one game out of three in every series that isn’t against the NL West. Then again, Hunter Pence could give a speech and inspire the Giants to a ten-game winning streak and then they’re tied for first or something while the second place Rockies (one game ahead of the Giants) work their way to fourth place. Who knows, but the way injuries have been going SF’s way, no sign of a rotation producing the production we’re used to, it’s no wonder the Giants are rumored to be in the market for a starting pitcher to help stop the bleeding. This wasn’t a post about selling off the team, rather just a warning about where they happen to be going. When the healthy come back, the Giants will be stronger, and it is yet to be seen if they will be given the room from the other NL West teams to climb back to the top.

You’ll see Miguel Montero below not really doing any loud shouting with Greinke, which shifts the focus more to Ian Kennedy.

Speaking of Kennedy, he’s just gonna casually walk outta here

Look for #31 and how he just kinda disappears while the Dodgers look for his head

Puig had some words

Ronald Belisario would get his swings in

Diamondbacks coach Turner Ward got some action with the banister of the camera well near the visitors dugout

And a close up for the coach

Mark McGwire also got steaming ma and Matt Williams had to receive the brunt of his words of rage

Something about road apples

Poor Matt Williams, just listening to McGwire vent

Here’s Williams getting Don Mattingly out of there.

Kirk Gibson would be ejected since there were warnings issued, and Joe Paterson would hit Mark Ellis later in the game, although nothing in terms of brawls or ejections happened. The lesson to be had here is Ian Kennedy could have really hurt Zack Greinke, and if Greinke’s aim isn’t slick, he could have hurt Miguel Montero. This is not something that is good in baseball. It will grab the headlines, generate site hits, but happy will I be when the day comes that I don’t blog about this anymore.

All this because somebody may have thought Marco Scutaro may have been hurt really bad, with flashbacks of Ryan Vogelsong. In case you missed the Scutaro HBP:

This seemed bad. That frustration and pain was scary for all of us to watch.

Now Kontos’ plunking seems even dumber, because now the Pirates are going to retaliate against someone since McCutchen will be hit, and I’ll give you one guess as to whom they will target. What if that intentional plunking of Buster Posey gets him on the DL? That’s the danger of all this immaturity and it is simply not worth it. Hopefully this doesn’t happen and the Pirates are the better people in all this… but after seeing McCutchen fly into 2nd, I’m not so sure we’ll see the Pirates ignoring the opportunity to get even.

Elite fastball, great slider, above average changeup, that sounds like fun for the home team. Now for the GIFs of what this guy did over the course of the game:

The Cole fastball (95-99):

Was still throwing high-90s in the 7th. Unfair.

The slider (83-87):

Cole was getting the low strike a lot tonight, and that definitely helped in his ability to get into the 7th inning and toss only 81 pitches. He’ll have an ERA, but when you look at tonight as a Pirates fan, hopefully you’re looking into the future. Wandy Rodriguez is out now, and Cole has made an early case for his keeping himself on the 25-man roster now and forever.

Before booking a hotel in Seattle, it would be best to consult with a local and figure out how close you are to public transportation. The Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, where most people fly into, has a lightrail that connects from the airport, though you’ll have to walk a bit from the South Terminal. The hotel I booked was about 15 minutes south of the airport, so I wasn’t near the lightrail, but I was near an Amtrak. Definitely not the same thing, especially in terms of frequency of trains coming by.

By the way, we flew Virgin America to Seattle from Los Angeles, and that’s my new favorite airline because the ambiance and they have SFG TV on it, which shows features that the San Francisco Giants have produced, whether it’s specials on the 2012 postseason, or the Town Hall meeting before the 2013 season. There’s about 2.5 hours of programming, so if your flight is longer than that, you might want to have another channel ready to go. I did not like that E! was included, because my wife watches Keeping up with the Kardashians, and that show makes me vomit. Overall though, very happy with Virgin America.

Obligatory picture of the Space Needle. We didn’t ride the elevator to ride to the top, but you can go to the Seattle Center if you feel like you want to experience that. I’ve done it when I was much younger, and remember thinking it was cool.

These are pieces at the Glass Museum and this place was absolutely fantastic. Really, can’t say enough good things about this place, and I’m really not a museum/art type of person.

Here’s a picture I believe my wife took. This is a public park not too far away from a community college near Seattle University. We would hang out near Seattle University for much of Saturday after the game. Went to a restaurant called “Poquitos,” and the beer I had was good. If you go to that place, you go there for the social atmosphere, not the Mexican food/drink… or at least if that drink is a horchata. We’re spoiled down here in Southern California.

That area near Seattle University though, cross streets I’d say around 11th and Pike let’s say, is a place for young people, LGBT-friendly peoples, and is pretty hipster-y. We tried hitting up 8 Oz. burgers, but they couldn’t accommodate a group of seven. Next time. I also heard of other solid spots in the area, and so if we go back, I hope we can spend more time there. We would end up having a great grilled cheese at a place called Skillet Diner, I believe.

On Sunday, we walked from my friend’s boyfriend’s place in that aforementioned area down to Pike Place and that was a good 20-30 minute walk to/from the area, but a solid bit of exercise. Going to the market is downhill, and going back is… not. This is a view under some of the area of the Seattle Convention Center.

This was one of two places my wife really wanted to see (the other being the Glass Museum), and so she was stoked to be here. We strolled through the marketplace, lots of expensive things, the fresh flowers smelled great and were priced pretty low, so that would’ve been a good purchase had I been courting someone that day. We also checked out the very first ever Starbucks even though we don’t drink coffee because we’re tourists, after all.

Pike Place Chowder. This place is the business. Holy moly this chowder was so good. Best I’ve had, and the bread was delicious as well. Wife says $20 in total for two bread bowls, and they have four different chowders you could have decided from on that day, and I think that’s the normal number.

I really wish we would have had a week to play in Seattle, but that probably would have required complimentary lodging somewhere, and asking for that makes me a little uncomfortable sometimes. Anyway, should you make your way over to Seattle, I hope you get to check out the Glass Museum and Pike Place Chowder at the very least (and Safeco Field, of course). Very fun weekend, and the weather was pretty great, with Saturday being absolutely beautiful. Thanks to everybody that provided suggestions or hung out with us that made our weekend what it was.

On Friday, I bought us tickets for the bleachers in section 186. First row, too! These tickets ended up being about $30 a pop, and for this series, that price seemed to be as low as you could go unless you had some sort of discount.

Pretty good view of everything from these seats. Only areas that might be hidden from these seats are up against the wall to CF.

This is the scoreboard in action and it feels like all game IT IS YELLING AT YOU BECAUSE IT’S SO CLOSE AND SO BIG

This is the social area down below called “The ‘Pen” where people mingle, drink, and be merry. There was lots of laughing, and the occasional watching of baseball from the folk down there. Front row peoples were pretty good about watching the game.

This was the food my wife and I got this night. My clam chowder hit the spot quite well for me that night, as we were both exhausted from the travel and stressing out of rushing everywhere on Friday. I didn’t think the burger and garlic fries were anything special. I also enjoyed Happy Hour $5 beers (plural) and hoped to enjoy some day-drinking on the weekend, but it didn’t happen, due to playing around Seattle. Happy Hour is every home game and lasts up until an hour before first pitch and is located near The ‘Pen in CF (first floor).

Our row also won free fries and I got on the jumbotron passing the fries down the row. I don’t have the video of that, but pretty cool to say I was on the second-biggest jumbotron in the nation.

Mariners fans also like doing the wave, and like doing so an endless number of times. It’s horrible.

Saturday’s spot in section 333 where my friend got us $15 tickets, which was a fantastic money saver, and from here, the scoreboard wasn’t so threatening. From here we could easily see how empty the RF upper deck seats were.

My food was much better than my wife’s food on Friday. The chicken was pretty good, I thought it tasted a little fishy, and I totally missed an opportunity to yell “I ate the bones?!?”

My wife told my friends I was the “Wave Grinch,” and my friends told me I hate fun. I am working on the divorce papers.

Finally got to meet friend of the blog, Ashley, who does lots of blogging, and lots of scorekeeping. I did not make fun of the Mariners that much with her. She’s good people.

We were in section 331 on Sunday, and this was a Felix Hernandez start, and you can tell because there is a “King’s Court” section, where fans get a t-shirt, a placard, and a seat in that foul area in LF, I believe it starts at $40. These people stand and chant “K” whenever Felix has 2 strikes on a batter. They also have a tradition where someone in the section is given a free turkey leg. The recipient takes a bite of the food item, and then gives it to someone else. Person #2 takes a bite, gives it to Person #3, and so on and so forth. My wife thinks this is disgusting, and I’m inclined to agree.

They did the wave again on this day. I’m guessing they do the wave every home game, even on the sub-10,000 attendees days. There was a really annoying fan next to me on Sunday, shouting “Ra-OOOOOOOOOLLLLLL” in a high pitch howl whenever Ibanez was up, and would give his opinion on the strike zone because you know, he’s got the best view. Some pitches are pretty obvious but others, like the Fampire (credit to Ashley @wcoastfangirl for that nickname) would call, are tough to call from up there. The Mariners would lose, and I got to see Mariano Rivera pitch twice. That was kinda cool.

Lots of people walk to the stadium, and walk away from it. On Friday, we took public transportation to the stadium, on Saturday and Sunday we parked off-site. Parking prices ranged from $5-$25 from what I saw driving around. I think I preferred parking in the International District and then walking 15-20 minutes to/from the yard to my car out of all the options.

Overall, Safeco was a fantastic place for a game, and I wouldn’t mind going back another day for a game here. This is the ninth stadium I’ve been to, and I will attempt to rank the stadiums here based on experiencing a baseball game:

1. AT&T Park (surprised?)

2. Chase Field (employees were very friendly, and the stadium was comfortable and nice)

3. Fenway Park (historic, but I haven’t taken the stadium tour and only saw one game here, so I’m thinking this will move up eventually)

4. Petco Park (I like the pricing of things here, and the scenery is pretty cool)

5. Safeco Field

6. Coors Field (something about getting to say you sit up a mile above sea level plays into my ranking)

7. Angel Stadium (ticket prices are market price, which is reasonable, but I don’t know)

8. Dodger Stadium (possible bias, but these other stadiums are pretty good)

9. O.Co Coliseum (notorious garbage spot)

And because you didn’t ask, my wife’s rankings, and I promise she gave them to me without seeing my rankings:

1. AT&T Park

2. Chase Field

3. Dodger Stadium (she’s a Dodger fan, could explain this high ranking, and she has confirmed that hypothesis)

4. Petco Park

5. Safeco Field

6. Coors Field

7. Angel Stadium

8. Fenway Park

9. O.Co Coliseum

Maybe she’ll do a guest blog post explaining her rankings. So that was Safeco. We’re not sure where we’re going next. Could be a Texas Two-Step to Arlington and Houston, or it could be off to the Big Apple to check out the Yankees and the Mets. Only time will tell.