Talking baseball with Hank Greenwald

San Francisco Giants radio play by play broadcaster Hank Greenwald enjoys one of his always present Dunhill cigars in the broadcast booth atop 3Com Park after announcing his retirement in San Francisco, Tuesday, Aug. 27, 1996, prior to the San Francisco Giants game against Philadelphia. Greenwald, who has worked 16 seasons for the Giants, will retire at the end of the season. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)(Credit: AP) Cheap Jerseys china The San Francisco Giants closed out 40 years of baseball history in windy Candlestick Park last week with a moving family reunion. Some 59 former Giants from stars like Willie Mays and Orlando Cepeda to players who had the proverbial cup of coffee on the Giants roster streamed out of the dugout, and the scene cheap jerseys became a real life Field of Dreams, as older players in yellowing uniforms, hobbled by age, mixed with admiring current Giants in their bright white jerseys and all their youth and health. Cheap Jerseys china Cheap Jerseys from china There was only one bitter omission: As the Giants honored past owners, managers, broadcasters and staff, the team left out Hank Greenwald, the legendary and beloved broadcaster who was the voice of the team from 1979 through 1996, except for a two year stint with the New York Yankees in the late 1980s. After an unhappy contract negotiation, Greenwald retired three years ago, prematurely, and with some bitterness at his treatment by Giants Vice President Larry Baer. The book is a love letter to the Giants, singling out president Peter Magowan and manager Dusty Baker for special praise. But because he cheap nfl jerseys devoted a handful of pages to his complaints about Baer and a couple of paragraphs to disparaging superstar player Barry Bonds the Giants have frozen him out of the organization. He used to occasionally fill in behind the mike as needed, broadcasting weekend home games with his former buddies, but now the team leaves some broadcasts understaffed. When it was time to hold a book party, it was hosted by the Oakland A not the Giants. Cheap Jerseys from china Greenwald cheap jerseys attended the Giants final Candlestick game last week, making his way down to a seat behind the dugout, thronged by fans. His classy successor in the broadcast booth, ESPN star Jon Miller, did the right thing and asked him up to call the game fourth inning on the radio. But he was never recognized out on the field that day. Greenwald isn bitter, he says. He enjoying his retirement, and more wholesale jerseys time with his family. But when I talked to wholesale nfl jerseys him before the end of the season it was clear he still an avid fan, catching every Giants game and well versed on the team late season stumble. Cheap Jerseys from china You been a pretty vocal critic of wholesale jerseys the current umpiring situation. What was your reaction to the umpires ultimatum threatening to quit, and then having their resignations selectively accepted? Cheap Jerseys from china Well, it not anything that I couldn see coming. What they are essentially is a group that is willing to be paid by Major League Baseball but doesn want to be ruled by them. And somehow society doesn work that way. And I think it time that they learned that they are not an entity unto themselves, and that there has to be some conformity with some sort wholesale jerseys of order. And right now I think they just feel that they can do whatever they want and don have to be governed by the rule book, by the definition of the strike zone, by any kind of code of behavior that it OK for players to be suspended for their behavior, but you can do that to an umpire. And they got a lot coming to them and I don feel at all sorry. Cheap Jerseys from china Has it gotten worse in the last couple of years, or is it just that I gotten more impatient? Cheap Jerseys from china No, I think it gotten worse over the last several years, because they feel that they untouchable, that nothing can happen to them, so their arrogance on the field knows no bounds. And I maybe the first person who called into question the integrity issue. I mean, they always, you can question our judgment, but you can question our integrity. Well, hell. wholesale nfl jerseys Yes, we can. wholesale nfl jerseys wholesale cheap jerseys jerseys from china Yes, we can! And we are. wholesale jerseys from china I was at a Giants game recently where they threw out Mark McGwire in the third inning. I not saying any player should be God, but it was a questionable strike call; he questioned it, and within five or six seconds he was gone. And the stadium was packed to see McGwire. What the resolution in your mind? Well, I think the resolution is that you set up a code of conduct that they have to adhere to, and that they have to realize that when they get out of bounds in their behavior they going to be treated like ballplayers be suspended. And they can be fired for their actions. There has to be a showdown, as painful as it may be. It has to be seen through to its conclusion. Because there a lot at stake here. I mean, this is a game where you can ban Pete Rose because you question his integrity, but you let the umpires work who will do things that will influence the outcome of the game because of a certain spite they may be carrying inside of them. So, you retired from broadcasting. You seem to still follow it very, very closely. They can take that out of your blood, I suppose. Are you still following the Giants? cheap nfl jerseys I sure do. I listen or watch the games all the time. You know, I a great Dusty Baker fan. cheap nfl jerseys Cheap Jerseys china I know. Let talk about his greatness just for a minute. But he has never forgotten the day to day frustrations of a ballplayer. He sits down with them. He cares about their families. He knows what bothering a player. And guys feel that he cares about them. And they play hard for him. Cheap Jerseys china What the best news for baseball in the last few years? Since you left? wholesale jerseys I think the new stadiums that are going up are the best news. Because baseball went through a stage where they all wanted new stadiums, and so many cities got them. And they were awful. The Astroturf. They were circular. They weren made for baseball; they were really made for football. Multipurpose stadiums. And they now suddenly realize that the concept of the old ballpark was really what baseball was about, in terms of the fans. wholesale jerseys And the downtown ballpark. Yeah, and having them downtown, I think is a very important thing. And now you going to have some how do I put this? instant nostalgia. People who saw pictures of the old ballparks now are going to get to go to games and be there in person. For example, in Boston, where they going to get a new park, with technology the way it is, and design and all of that, there no reason you can reproduce the look of Fenway Park, as hallowed as it was, as you see it from the stands, but with all new infrastructure, the comforts, amenities that people deserve in this day and age. But when they sit there and look out it looks the same. You talk in the book about the greatness of the Sosa/McGwire home run chase last year. But is there a downside to that? Well, the only downside is that expectations get so unrealistic on the part of fans that they start thinking that if McGwire only hits 64 this year, he had a bad year. Right. And also, I like Dusty Baker baseball the hit and run, stealing, just being aggressive on the base paths and eking out runs. It seems like that less valued than it used to be. wholesale jerseys Well, it possible. The home run has always been the glamour hit, wholesale jerseys so to speak. But I think people come out to see teams win and play well I don know that the superstar factor is that strong. But I think a winning ballclub certainly is. And that what more sustaining in terms of fan interest. The exception being if you have a star pitcher. Whether it be a Randy Johnson today, or somebody like [Sandy] Koufax or [Juan] Marichal or guys going back into the Certainly in the case of the Dodgers, you could have proved years back that on the nights that Koufax pitched, he had at least somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000 more people wholesale jerseys.