One eye on the ball, the other on Colorado

Mention scoreboard watching to some Giants' players, and you'd figure you'd opened a bottle of truth serum. "I think anybody who told you they don't look ... at some point in the game is probably lying to you," center fielder Aaron Rowand said. "If you're not scoreboard watching," infielder Rich Aurilia said, "there's probably something wrong with you, because if anybody says they're not, they're lying." "I'll be looking at the scoreboard to see what the Rockies are doing," reliever Bob Howry said. "I think if anyone says they're not, they're probably lying." OK, then, don't believe any player who says he doesn't at least occasionally look at the scoreboard to see how the other contenders are faring. With 21/2 weeks remaining in the regular season and the Giants 31/2 games behind Colorado for the NL wild-card lead, there will be ample opportunities to keep tabs on the Rockies, beginning this evening. Colorado's game at Arizona begins a half-hour before the Giants' at Dodger Stadium. Some players find it more natural to scoreboard watch than others do. "I'm in the bullpen," Howry said. "I have nothing else to do but watch the scoreboard." "I just check out the scoreboard all the time," Aurilia said, "to see how other teams are doing, wondering how my buddies did." Aurilia has gone through four years 1997, 1998, 2001 and 2002 when scoreboard watching became part of the daily routine for the Giants in the final weeks of the season. Of the four, he calls '98 the most memorable for keeping track of other teams. The fond: watching the Mets and Cubs fade as the Giants overcame a five-game wild-card deficit with 10 games to go. In particular, Aurilia refers to the afternoon of Sept. 23, when the Giants were in the process of beating Pittsburgh 4-1 and learned that Chicago had squandered a 7-0 lead in Milwaukee and lost 8-7 when Brant Brown dropped a flyball for a three-run error with two outs in the ninth. The not-so-fond: Sept. 27, the final scheduled day of the regular season. The Giants built a 7-0 lead at Colorado and were tied 8-8 going to the bottom of the ninth when the Cubs lost 4-3 in 11 innings at Houston. If the Giants won, they'd have the wild card. Said Aurilia: "I went in the clubhouse and they had the plastic all up and they had the T-shirts and they had the Champagne and all the furniture was removed." Instead, only moments after Chicago lost, Neifi Perez led off the ninth with a game-ending homer off Robb Nen. Aurilia: "Then 10 minutes later, the furniture was all back in there and all the other stuff was removed." The next night, the Giants lost 5-3 at Wrigley Field in a playoff for the wild card. Howry spent 2006-08 with the Cubs. As Chicago took control of the NL Central down the stretch last season, Howry learned you don't necessarily have to monitor the scoreboard to find out how your competitors are doing - the fans will let you know. "All of a sudden," Howry said, "you'd hear the crowd erupt and you're like, 'Nobody even threw a pitch.' "And you'd look up, and they'd just put up a final on the scoreboard." Baseball has its share of unwritten rules, but there don't appear to be any regarding scoreboard watching. "If there are, I haven't read the book," Giants manager Bruce Bochy joked. That doesn't mean anything goes. In this digital age, a player theoretically could bring a phone or a PDA into the dugout and keep up-to-the-minute track of other games by clicking on any number of Web sites. That probably wouldn't go over too well. "It wouldn't be allowed," Bochy said. "That's not going to happen." "I guess you could," Aurilia said, "but I don't think I would let that happen as a veteran player. It would cost one of our guys a lot of money in kangaroo court." You get the sense Aurilia isn't lying about that. Bonds case : Prosecution argues tests should be allowed as evidence. C2 NL wild card

	W	L	GB
Rockies	83	64	-
Giants	79	67	31/2
Braves	78	68	41/2
Marlins	78	69	5