Heavy Metal Sunday thinks "Smilodon" would be a good band name too.

Mastodon is a Grammy Award-nominated heavy metal band from Atlanta, Georgia. It is one of the most notable bands in the New Wave of American Heavy Metal. They were formed in 1999 by Brann Dailor, Bill Kelliher, Troy Sanders, Brent Hinds and original vocalist Eric Saner. They have released four full-length albums and have toured worldwide, achieving increased album sales and an ever expanding fan base with each new release.

Today, mosh your brains out to Blood and Thunder off their 2004 release, Leviathan. Warning! This video contains clowns. Scary clowns.

With a whimper.

I've attended six Giants games this season, and five of them were great. Today was the seventh.

5 out of 7 ain't too bad.

Let's begin with the sheer nightmare of getting into the damn park. today was Brian Wilson bobblehead day. In case you are one of those lucky few who have never heard of bobbleheads; they are plastic statues of a person with an outsized head mounted on spring so it wiggles. Cute little bits of kitch, they have become traditional giveaways for ballclubs.

Imagine our shock when we got to the park and hour earlier than usual and found lines running for blocks around the Giants' home field. We didn't really care about the damn Wilson doll, we just wanted to get inside the park so we could eat something and settle in to watch batting practice. But, as we were told by a very shrill lady with a bullhorn, that wasn't possible. People had been lining up since 0600 to make sure they got the bobblehead. So many were just collecting their souvenir and leaving that the Giants had closed one of the normal entry gates and dedicated it to exit traffic only! Which resulted in a royal bloody mess of confusion, angry baseball fans who were there for the game, not the freebie, and long, insane, lines. I shall be complaining to Giants Guest Relations.

All this over a freaking $30 piece of plastic. Many of which are already up on eBay.

But, eventually, the game started. Which is where the day really nosedived. Barry "Expletive Deleted" Zito was on the mound, and today he showed once again why he truly does not deserve his huge contract. We were down 6-0 by the third, and when it became clear in the fourth that the Giants were sleepwalking through this, I made the decision to abandon game. To be honest I just wasn't feeling it that much today. So we meandered back to the train station, taking the time to check out the Giants' Wall of Fame along King St., and eventually headed home. On the train we chatted with a charming gentleman; a Marine Vietnam Vet who just happened to have been born on the 4th of July.

We do have tickets for one more game, but it's a weeknight game in September. Depending on how things look, I might take the next day off to let us attend it.

The final?

San Diego Padres: 10
San Francisco Giants: 4

Giants head into the All-Star Break with a 49-39 record, 7 back of the Dodgers in the NL West.

( We also had our photo taken. )