Greetings and blessings for good health to all visitors:

I’ve thus far survived Covid-19 uninfected by maintaining quarantine protocols at home and during travel, minding for symptoms (taking temperature, and holding deep breaths, regularly). I have followed CDC recommendations consistently throughout and got tested before travel and upon return in 2020 and ’21.

At age 54, I received the Pfizer BioNTech Sars Cov-2 vaccine via two 0.3ml doses (May 3rd and 24th of 2021) and Pfizer booster six months later (November 24th). I generally have groceries and staples delivered, am masked everywhere I go, and do not attend crowded events.

No longer on “social media,” but what small amount of content I made about coronavirus is clear: I hope that if you can, you will accept vaccination as a good method to aid in the fight against the nastiest respiratory virus in human history.

Added back the tabs that were off during the last U.S. Presidency: flora, fauna, landscapes, sketches and looks. Ended Twitter account @mtksf and YouTube channel in 2021 – quit social media after the passing of my father, during pandemic quarantine. But my separation and isolation are not a result of any of that, as you can see by exploring this site, an archive until I turned 50.

I write and make art – just no longer online. I feel increasingly cut off from both the society that grows around me and that of any given culture on earth – including that of my birth – but I feel a part of the whole, still. I long to be back on the road, to make my way back home to Asia, and to travel in the Global South, a part of the world I’ve yet to explore.

But, like everyone, because we are amidst a global pandemic, I endure stasis … of travel plans, of local plans, of plans. Quarantine for me remains one wave: March 13th, 2020 to now.

I think I’ve learned that stasis is best maintained by equilibrium, which can be induced if you think, feel and act. I learned to use some tools for this: the dart board is an excellent one for focus, pace and patience. My Quar-Quar 2020 Playlist is all the songs I listened to on heavy rotation during the great lockdown of ’20-’21. But by far the best things to emerge from the great lockdown of ’20 – ’21 for me were getting Google Fiber at home and using Radio Garden, the brilliant Scandinavian non-profit’s global radio app on my phone. radio dot garden.

If you want to see and hear me, the YT channel has plenty in which I appear, perform and read.

stay well

wash your hands often, and do maintain social distances and protocols for general public health, please.

love,

M.T. Karthik

Screeeeeee!! Thonk-Thonk-Thonk!

We are back on the air! … and yes, Mr. Baer, Giants Baseball Corner is ready to get even.

It’s Fanfest today and of course we never get to go to fanfest because we have to hold down the corner … but it’s a great day to clean up around here, dust things off and establish some of our plans and thoughts for the new year. First …

REFUSE TO ALLOW IDIOTS  TO FORCE THE DH ON THE NL #NoDH

Giants Baseball Corner is placed firmly in the backstop of a National League Rules ONLY park and it will remain so until the end of time.

The most recent, absurdly loud off-season calls for the DH to be forced upon the NL have included many who declare it a foregone conclusion. NO. NO. NO. NO. NO.

The NL game is the beautiful game of baseball, a complicated managerial puzzle of strategy, a chess match. Please don’t force the DH on us #NoDH

Resists the cattle call that claims the DH inevitable for the NL. Recently, I tweeted to a small, group of press asking their courageous support to defend National League baseball and I was really happy that Tim Flannery is on board.

We looked for a good hashtag for this and finally just settled on #NoDH which is concise and precise. But of course, many of us are cool with #FuckTheDH and #OurPitchersRake and others.

We want to build a coalition of friends, fans and press who will help us prevent the destruction of our beautiful game – feel free to refer anyone to @giantsbaseballc orner if they want to strategize further #NoDH.

Welcome D-Span

I am really excited to have Denard Span in center field and leading off. Do welcome him by using his twitter account @thisisdspan. I’ve been reading about him and learned from this 2010 blog interview that he abandoned using his first name when he was a little kid:

DZ: Denard is actually your middle name. What is the story behind that?

SPAN: Yeah, it’s my middle name. Growing up in elementary school – you know on the first day of school the teaches go down the roster – the roll call or whatever – every time she’d come to my name, she’d fumble with my first name. It’s Keiunta (key-on-tay) and the way it’s spelled, it’s tough to pronounce. I think (when) I got to the second or third grade, I got tired of teachers butchering my name. I knew that they would get to the guy right before me – Smith or something like that – I knew I’d be coming up next and I could tell – they’d look at the roll call and their face would get puzzled…as soon as they would even try to say Keiunta – I would say “Just call me Denard”. It just kind of stuck from there.

DZ: Does your mom call you Denard?

SPAN: Yeah, everybody does. Nobody calls me by my first name – a couple of friends would do it as a joke. A couple of female friends in high school.

[END QUOTE]

which led me to our title for the first blog post  2016 at Giants Baseball Corner

Calling D-Span Key-on-tay’s tantamount to calling Sting Gordon

Welcome back, everybody!

Go Giants!

I haven’t written on the blog since we won the World Series, but right now, I gotta give massive praise to Ryan Vogelsong.

You had the best month of May in the majors. #Vogelstrong

and, you have signed with us as a free agent over and over again throughout all this madness; always fighting;  integral to the 2nd and 3rd Championships.

I love the tough, persistent focus; used to call you Mr. Quality Control – Mr. QC – back in ’12 because of that amazing run of 16 consecutive quality starts.

Thank you, my man.

Folks, what Vogey has done in the last few weeks has been very much like back in ’12. This year’s start and last year, given that he is agreeing to play because he is “part of the thing,” deserves SPECIAL COMMENDATION. I am sure he could have gone elsewhere. It’s like a noble secret.

Ryan, you have been killing it for us since 2011. For us to be successful, we need to compete against the Dodgers’ salary with sensible players willing to be a part of the team. No one on this team exemplifies this more than you.

and right now, wow! Ryan Vogelsong! Thank you! Thank you so much! I stand and applaud, man. You are a GREAT Giant!

#RallyVogey #rallyenchiladas #rallyspaghetti

Oh yeah, and I caught this nice smile back in the 2012 parade

… you should smile more often, homey. #MrQC Here’s to Ryan Vogelsong, a GREAT Giant.

That’s only his second hit all year, he’s 1 for 25 (heh,heh,heh) – Joe Buck

and I am posting this just to mark the moment.

(a few days later …)

Wow. Using nine different guys in the 9-spot, Bruce Bochy evoked a flurry of hits; singles and doubles and not a single home run, to score 9 unanswered runs and cruise to an 11-4 victory in game 5.

Madison Bumgarner gave up only 4 hits and was stellar. His 0.29 ERA over three World Series’ is the best ever in World Series play. Shutdown performances. His name is now in the ranks of WS pitching alongside Koufax and Gibson.

The team has flown back to KC for the daunting task of playing games 6 and 7 on the Royals’ field with their insanely inspired and loud fans in attendance.

I fear we’d lose Game 7 there and hope we finish it in Game 6, which of course, is what I predicted when this all began: Giants in SIX.

The anticipation is massive.

Alex Pavlovic recently had the temerity to create a Giants World Series Dictionary. Picking up on his work, I thought I would add these notes on Giants Culture:

• We have one thing of grave importance left on our list and that is to beat the New York Yankees in the World Series for, that is to say, on behalf of, Willie McCovey.
• #25GuysOneCommonGoal comes from the sign in the dugout before you walk onto the field which reads “25 Guys One Common Goal: Win Today” in all 90’s, cheesy MS-Word style and looks like this
• Jean Machi should NEVER be called “Mean Jean Machi” because his name isn’t pronounced “Gene.” It is pronounced the French way “Jzawn” like Jean Valjean. The preferred nickname for Jean Machi is #TheGasman
• Santiago Casilla may be referred to as “#Cadillac” or “#CasillaLater”
• Sergio Romo is known as “#ElMechon,”which means “The Lock” because his job is to lock it down.
• Javier Lopez our #LOOGY (which means Lefty One Out GuY) has a mantra when under stress. He says he is “focused on the relentless flow of the positive river.” … which is awesome.
• #ChampionshipBlood #ChampsBlood or #ChampionBlood are all acceptable hashtags for what the San Francisco Giants have.
• #MadBum is a nickname I actually believe  I coined in the summer of 2010, when I said it on KNBR early, early, early on. (I have the tape) I regretted it almost immediately … ’cause this kid is no Bum. But it stuck. Madison Bumgarner may also be referred to as #BigCountry ’cause he is a big, ol’ country boy man.
• When Bochy makes decisions  on-the-fly about whom to use situationally out of the bullpen we call it “Relief by Committee.”
• Hunter Pence may be called #Underpants because Krukow’s grandkids thought that was his name when he first joined the team.
• Also, when Pence first joined the Giants, he began with a hitless streak for several games. Finally, at the top of the dugout before going out for an at-bat, he told Bruce Bochy, “You know, I have gotten a hit in this league.” He then went out and eeked a single from a smash infield hit on pure, crazy, gangly hustle.
• HoF Baseball Announcer Jon Miller is known as #TheBigKahuna
• It was Barry Zito who named Pablo Sandoval “The Kung-Fu Panda”
• #KungFuPanda should start trending … that would be good.
• Ryan Vogelsong used to consistently eat Chicken Enchiladas and told us as much after we won the first world series. Now he apparently likes Burgers and Spaghetti.
• This. Team. Doesn’t Quit.

The following #hashtags have been submitted by Candlestick Will

#TogetherWeAreBrandon – this amalgam of the Together meme and the Brandons took full force when we fielded three Brandons in the infield Crawford, Hicks and Belt

#ChampionsBlood- in a speech Bochy gave to this team, he told them they have Champions Blood from being tested in the playoffs for several years now and coming out on top.

#RallyIshi self explanatory

#RallySnotRockets Madison Bumgarner fires snot rockets. It’s just a thing he does.

#RallyPeavy #RallyHuddy #VogelStrong #FreeTimmy #JavyStrut are for some of our hurlers

#RallyScud when some of those same pitchers decide the game ought to be played more like cricket they fire scuds.

#RallyBalls #HunterPenceSigns #MagicWondoo #AirPence #ShutdownInning #BambinoTimeare I will let @CandlestickWill explain.