04/22/2004 8:00 AM ET
Ask the Giants: All-Stars coming?
Exclusive: Jottings subscribers get answers
By Chris Shuttlesworth / MLB.com
It's a new season for the Giants and a new season for "Ask the Giants," the Q&A feature available exclusively to Giants Jottings subscribers.
Will we ever see the All-Star Game at SBC Park? -- Art L., Dinuba
Larry Baer, executive vice president and chief operating officer: I would be willing to bet that the All-Star Game is coming sooner rather than later. We're feeling pretty comfortable that in the next set of announcements of the next few years to be awarded, we'll be somewhere in there. It's been awarded through '05, so '06, '07, '08, somewhere in there -- no guarantees, but we're feeling pretty confident that we'll be in there. I'll buy you a hot dog and a beverage if it's not in '06, '07 or '08.
Does Mike Krukow's son coach for Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo? -- Ken J., Union City
Krukow: Yeah, he does. Jarek is a student-coach there. He's done playing college baseball, so he's finishing out getting his degree at Cal Poly and he's student-coaching, which is what he wants to do -- he wants to coach.
Do any of you guys have any odd pregame rituals? -- Liz G., South San Francisco
Dustan Mohr: About a half-hour before the game, I just like to be by myself, just think about things and sort of try to get focused. If we're on a nice winning streak or doing well, I'll do the same thing every day, sometimes wear the same clothes every day, but that's pretty much as far as it goes.
Matt Herges: Red Bull. I gotta have a Red Bull before every game.
If you could meet one famous non-baseball player in the world, who would it be? -- Marcie J., Fremont
Mohr: John Elway. I would just love to talk to him about his whole idea of being a competitor and being a teammate and all that kind of stuff, just his perspective on that.
How is Jesse Foppert's rehab process going and will he be able to pitch at all by the end of this season? -- Laura K., Salinas
Head trainer Stan Conte: His Tommy John surgery is a little bit of a calendar situation where you have to wait so long for the new ligament to heal, so you can't put a lot of pressure on it. He's 7 1/2 months from surgery, but when you look at him, he looks more like 10 months out. The problem is we can't really push him much harder and we've actually gotten to a point where we've had to slow him down.
He's doing tremendous, and he's really way ahead of schedule, but we can't put him too far ahead of schedule because it wouldn't be prudent to put a young guy like him in a situation where he's invested all this time and not make sure he has the best chance for overall career success.
That said, we expect that he'll be in the minor leagues in a rehab situation probably in July, we hope. Our goal is definitely to have him competitive before the end of the season in September so that he doesn't have to go through an offseason without knowing where his elbow is at. Two offseasons of rehab are really long for a guy mentally.
Jesse's done a tremendous job mentally in handling this rehab, absolutely the best that I've seen. We really hope to have him competitive before the end of the year and hopefully see him at SBC Park.
How is Robb Nen doing and how soon can we see him pitch again? -- Al N., Sacramento
Conte: Robb Nen is improving every day, and he's been throwing off the mound with Dave Righetti pretty much every other day, but he's not at full velocity yet. He's getting closer and closer. The "when" is anyone's guess at this point. I just want to make sure he gets out there. The timing is not as critical as making sure he gets out into a Major League game.
It could come fairly quick. It could be surprising. We keep thinking we're getting closer and closer. We've gotten close before and had some soreness where we had to back off. He is improving, and we're definitely not giving up hope.
Who was your favorite player growing up? -- Jim S., Richmond
Kirk Rueter: Ozzie Smith. I grew up a big Cardinals fan, so I loved to watch him play. He always made great plays at short, so as a kid you liked that. Ozzie and Willie [McGee] -- that was the two main Cardinals.
If Mike Krukow was a vendor at a Giants game, which type of food would he sell? -- Ryan N., Tracy
Krukow: Peanuts, and I'd be winging peanuts like four sections over, too, man. Schwing-peanuts, they'd call 'em. "Hey, how about some peanuts?" "Sure" -- schwing and I'd be flinging them across the way. It'd be awesome.
Chris Shuttlesworth is an editorial producer for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
