ANIMAL POWER

According to a Rotoworld blurb:

Free agent Ryan Klesko told former teammate Chipper Jones that he’s opted for retirement.

The Red Sox were believed to have some interest in Klesko before signing Sean Casey, but no one else had gone public with any desire to add him. The 37-year-old Klesko hit .260/.344/.401 in 362 at-bats for the Giants last season.

Godspeed, ANIMAL POWER.

Klesko seemed like a regular guy with cool facial hair. The type of guy that I could probably drink a case of Pabst Blue Ribbon with while grilling some deer meat that he’d killed that day while out hunting with a bow. The type of guy that maybe drove around an old pick-up truck with beer cans rattling about in the back next to one of those giant chrome metal toolboxes….yeah.

With Klesko leaving the Giants for good now — and taking his 92 OPS+ with him, which will probably make him look like Babe Ruth to the Giants in ’08 — I wanted to wish him well with the Top-3 Klesko Moments of 2007.

3. August 13th, 2007 – San Francisco Giants vs. Pittsburgh Pirates

I was actually in Pittsburgh for this game. It was the 2nd half of a double header against the Pirates in which we saw the Pirates take the first game of the day. In traditional 2007-Giants-style, the team wasted a solid Matt Cain effort in the first game. Cain threw 7 innings of 1 run ball but still got the L. The Giants season was long gone by this point but something had to be done. These were the Pirates for God’s Sake! And Ryan Klesko was exactly man to do that something. It was the 6th inning and the game was tied 1-1. Klesko strolled to the plate with the bases loaded and 2 outs. The count runs to 3-2 and then ANIMAL POWER drills a laser shot into the RF bleachers for a grandslam. I actually had something to cheer about amid a couple hundred Steelers fans and Pierogi mascots. The Giants won the game and helped to salvage the 10 hours of baseball I watched that day.

2. August 19th, 2007 – San Francisco Giants vs. St. Louis Cardinals

Ryan Klesko teaches us all how not to slide into third base. In the bottom of the 5th, Klesko hammers a pitch into triples alley that he initially thinks is out of the park. The ball bounces high of the slanted brick wall in RF and hops around into the corner where CF and RF meet. Klesko turns on his wheels, the best he can at least, and rumbles around 2nd base and heads into third. Flannery starts to frantically wave to Klesko to GET DOWN and slide into the base, instead, Klesko starts falling, trips, and lands face first onto the third base bag. It looked more like a belly-flop than a slide and it’s probably the worst slide I’ve ever seen in a major league game. Awesome.

1. June 4th, 2007 – San Francisco Giants vs. Philadelphia Phillies

I present to you the greatest HR pose ever in the history of baseball.

A picture can only tell so much, I urge you to click here, and scroll down to the video on June 4th entitled ‘Klesko’s Three-run Homer’. When Klesko hits the ball it’s one of the best ‘oh-god-yeah’ moments, ever!