Month: September 2010

Remembering 9-11

Posted on by

Today marks the ninth anniversary of the horrific events of September 11, 2001.

I’ve always been a little torn about how to appropriately acknowledge the events of that date. Its meaning varies widely from person to person largely depending on where you, your family, and your friends were on that date. Your perspective may certainly also depend on whether you or those you care most about serve our communities as firefighters, police officers, or as other emergency service professions. It also depends some, understandably, on how your life has been affected by those events. Before 9-11, I don’t think any of us could have even imagined the number of our family members, friends, neighbors and even co-workers who would spend much of the next decade fighting in two wars on the other side of the world.

Our Twins had spent the night before beating the Detroit Tigers 3-2 on the strength of an impressive 8 innings of pitching by Joe Mays and a 9th inning triple by Torii Hunter followed by a Matt LeCroy sac fly. The win improved their record to 76-68. They would go on to finish second in the Division to the Cleveland Indians, in what would be Tom Kelly’s final season at the Twins’ helm.

On the morning of September 11, I was at the same place I almost always was on weekday mornings… in my office and at my desk, 1000 miles away from New York. One of the department’s Administrative Assistants poked her head in my door and mentioned that a plane had struck the World Trade Center. Even then, my reaction was more something along the lines of, “wow, that’s weird,” than anything approaching shock or concern. I opened up CNN.com on my computer and it didn’t take long before the full impact hit home.

I had several professional colleagues… people I had known for 10-15 years and considered good friends… who worked and/or lived in Manhattan. I began trying to contact them and eventually either heard directly or indirectly that all were safe. It would be a year later (I was with many of them at a conference on the first anniversary of 9-11) before I would hear all of their individual stories about just how they survived… and about their friends and family who were not so fortunate. I still become emotional just thinking about it.

As Twins fans, we remember 2001 as the year the Twins figuratively rose from the ashes and began what has become a decade of consistent competitive excellence. As Americans, we remember that time quite differently. Terrorists set our country on fire on 9-11 and we have been quite literally rising from the ashes of those Towers ever since.

Today our thoughts and prayers are with those who have been most directly affected by the events of 9-11… those who lost loved ones… and those who survived the terror of that day in New York.

Over the years, I’ve come to the conclusion that the most appropriate thing I can do to honor those who lost their lives on that day is to say thank you to the men and women who are putting their lives on the line today, doing their best to assure that nothing like that ever happens again.

So, to those who are serving us as local emergency response professionals and as members of our Intelligence Agencies and Armed Services…Thank you.

GameChat: Twins @ Indians, 6:05 pm

Posted on by

It feels like every week since the All Star break has been a “big week”… and I guess most of them have been big. But the upcoming week is a BIG week.

While the Twins are visiting Cleveland for three games against the Indians this weekend, the Bitch Sox are hosting the struggling Royals. Then the Twins visit The (Prison) Cell for the last three head-to-head games between those teams of the season. It’s pretty clear that whatever slim hopes the Sox have rest on them significantly closing the 6-game gap by which they currently trail the Twins. Let’s keep the pressure on and put this thing away early!

Let’s take a glance at today’s news (the Twins stuff is courtesy of LaVelle from his Strib blog)…

Danny Valencia ia back in the lineup! It’s great that Gardy has been able to be conservative in his handling of Valencia and a big thank you goes to Matt Tolbert for stepping in and allowing the Twins to make sure Valencia didn’t have to be rushed back. Let’s hope that hammy is fully healthy and ready for the stretch run.

Little Nicky Punto has been reactivated from the DL but his hamstring isn’t quite healed yet. He’s available to play defense, but not pinch run.

Jose Mijares is throwing well and may be reactivated from the DL tomorrow.

Jim “Mr Incredible” Thome should be recovered from his abdominal strain in time to DH tomorrow.

Jason Repko is back with the team after some time off to be with his wife for the birth of their daughter.

Jeff Smith, manager of the Twins’ AA affiliate in New Britain, has joined the team as an extra coach (I’ll be polite and NOT mention the Rock Cats’ record this year… but clearly this promotion was not a reward for his team’s success).

Finally, it has been a bad week to be a former Twin and current Met. Luis Castillo is catching a fair amount of PR heat for being one of three Mets who failed to show up for a “voluntary” trip to Walter Reed Medical Center for a visit with wounded servicemembers and for the second season in a row, Johan Santana’s season has come to a premature end due to injury. (I hope you’re enjoying all those big bucks you left the Twins to make, Johan… while you watch the postseason from your couch… again. No, I’m not bitter… really… ok, maybe just a little.)

So on to tonight’s game!

I always have trouble urging the Twins to do significant damage to the Indians… no matter what I type, it just seems to come out politically incorrect. So I’ll just say WIN TWINS!

.

TWINS @ INDIANS
Span, CF Brantley, CF
Hudson, O, 2B Cabrera, A, SS
Mauer, DH Choo, RF
Kubel, RF Hafner, DH
Cuddyer, 1B Nix, J, 3B
Young, D, LF LaPorta, 1B
Valencia, 3B Crowe, LF
Hardy, SS Donald, 2B
Butera, C Marson, C
Pavano, P Carmona, F, P

.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Minnesota 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0
Cleveland 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 x 2 6 0

.

Gotta say this for our guys… when they decide to lose a game, they can do it without wasting a whole lot of time. The Twins fell to the Tribe and Fausto Carmona 2-0 in a game that took less than two hours to play.

A triple by Denard Span and singles by Jason Kubel and JJ Hardy were all the Twins managed to accomplish on the night as Carmona breezed through the last 5 innings or so.

Carl Pavano nearly equaled Carmona’s effort, spreading 6 hits and a walk in yet another complete game effort. He did give up a HR to Anthony LaPorta.

It’s too early to tell whether the Sox will gain any ground tonight. As this is being written, they’re tied with the Royals 1-1 in the 5th and Ozzie is in the process of getting tossed from the game for arguing the second balk call against Mark Buehrle. Let’s hope the Landed Gentry can pull this off and the Twins burn the assbats before the game tomorrow night! – JC

UPDATE: Yeah, that friggin AJ screwed the Twins over again last night. His 8th inning hit drove in two runs to give the Bitch Sox the win over the Royals. Ah well, come the first week of October, AJ and his buddies will be packing up the spikes and I’m not sure he’s even going to have a job in Chicago next season. – JC

Let’s Have Another Game 163… EVERY Year!

Posted on by

A little over a month ago, as the season was moving in to August, I looked in to my crystal ball to forecast that the Twins and White Sox would finish the season tied for the AL Central Division title with identical 92-70 records, sending the teams in to yet another Game 163 to settle things. Since we’re now heading in to the final four weeks (and eight series) of the season, I decided to check in on these teams to see whether I need to adjust my forecast.

I know this will come as a terribly disappointing shock to all of you, but I was wr… wrrrr…. wrrrrrr… wronnnn… not entirely correct. There will be no Game 163 this year between the Twins and Sox. According to the advanced analytical formulas I applied to the two teams’ remaining schedules last month, and adjusting for actual performance, the Twins will finish the season with a 95-67 record, while the Bitch Sox limp to the finish line at 91-71… and that assumes they can dupicate the Twins’ sweep of the Royals this weekend, which I’m no longer all that certain they can do.

So, as much fun as that extra game at the Dome was against the Tigers last season, we will not be repeating the experience this October. Bummer, eh? For a while I was even dreaming of scenario where there would be a Game 164… where the Rays and BitchSox would have to play for the Wild Card spot after the Twins disposed of the Sox in Game 163.

Of course, it’s still conceivably possible that the Rays will collapse to the point of allowing the Sox to tie them for the Wild Card. And as much fun as it would be to see all of the smartasses in the media who’ve been talking like the Wild Card couldn’t possibly go to anyone outside of the Almighty AL East proved wrong, the Rays would have to pretty much lose every series through the end of the season to drop down to the number of wins I see the Sox scraping together. But hey, I’ve been wrr… wrrr… not 100% accurate with my predictions before so, it could happen! Then, at least we’d all have a really interesting game to watch while we waited a couple of days for our Twins to begin their inevitable march to the World Series.

There’s really nothing like a “win or go home” game, is there? It’s something we take for granted in the NFL playoffs and the NCAA basketball tournament, but when it comes to baseball (or the NBA or NHL for that matter), the very nature of their playoff series is such that you seldom have the dramatics of a game where both teams need a win to avoid seeing their seasons end short of a championship. A Game 5 of a Division Series or a Game 7 of a League Championship Series or World Series, yes those are rivoting. But far, too rare. (Quick… what’s the last Game 7 you can recall watching? Can’t remember? Don’t feel bad… of the last 14 postseason series, only 1 has gone to a deciding game… and out of 105 series since the introduction of the Wild Card, only 18 have gone the distance.)

But that Game 163 has provided that drama the last two years, too. And not just for Twins fans. Do you realize that last year’s Game 163 was the most watched game of MLB’s regular season? That’s not because Detroit and Minneapolis are huge TV markets, folks. 6.5 million people watched that game on cable television. Why? Because baseball fans all over the country knew it as a “sudden death” game (or at least it turned out that way for the Tigers).

Wouldn’t it be cool if we could have a couple of those games EVERY season? (OK… maybe just for the benefit of our own health around here, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to let a few other teams take a turn with the Game 163. It doesn’t need to be the Twins every year!)

Well Tom Verducci, over at SI.com, has figured out a way to do just that. In this column, he proposes one tiny little tweak to MLB’s playoff system that would (a) make the last month of the season a lot more interesting for fans of a lot more teams, (b) force teams to put more emphasis on winning their division instead of locking up the Wild Card and coasting through the final weeks, and (c) guarantee that we’d all get to see at least two “sudden death” games every post-season.

Verducci proposes adding a Game 163 in each league by adding an extra Wild Card spot… and holding a one-game, winner-moves-on-loser-goes-home game the day after the final game of the regular season. No “two days to rest up”. The team with the fewer wins gets their asses on a plane after their last game and heads out to play the other Wild Card team for the right to face the Division Champion with the best record. Do you think the threat of being one-and-done AND having to use your #1 starter while your potential next opponent sets their rotation wouldn’t make managers go all out to win divisions?

I admit part of the reason I like this idea is that I don’t think there’s enough of a “penalty” for Wild Card teams. They don’t even have to play the Division Champion with the best record if that team is from their own division. So they don’t get home field advantage, big whoop.

You can (and should) read Verducci’s whole column to get a full dose of his arguments why this set up would make sense, but for our purposes, let’s just look at what kind of effect it would be having on the American League if that system were in place this year:

  • Instead of everyone handing two playoff spots to the Yankees and Rays, with no more on the line than home field advantage in the ALDS, those two teams would be fighting over which gets assured of a “best of five” ALDS series and which has to roll the dice on one game against another Wild Card team.
  • Instead of the White Sox being consumed with catching the Twins (OK, I admit they’re ALWAYS consumed with catching the Twins) or hoping for the unlikely total collapse of the Rays, they’d have a legitimate shot at the second Wild Card even after the Twins stomp out their Division Title hopes next week.
  • Instead of the Red Sox playing out the season, they’d have a half-game lead over the Bitch Sox for that second WC spot.
  • And get this… Toronto would be just 5 and a half games out of a Wild Card spot, as well (and who knows how much closer they might be if they hadn’t felt like they were eliminated back in, what, May?).
  • Even fans in Detroit and Oakland would still be paying SOME attention to their teams instead of watching them play out the season (or more likely NOT watching them play out the season once football season starts).

Tell me there wouldn’t be a lot more excitement among MLB fans if these scenarios existed! And as an added bonus, if you’re the Blue Jays and Orioles, now you don’t have to break Spring Training every year knowing you have no chance to make the playoffs. All you have to do is finish 3rd in your division and have a better record than the runners-up in the Central and West. If you can’t even do that, then just STFU.

Down in Class AAAA (known by some as the National League), those Division races in the East and West would be much more intense AND fans in Colorado and St. Louis wouldn’t be quite so ready to tune out.

Perhaps the best thing about this plan is that it doesn’t have to add a single day to the playoff calendar. No off days between the end of the regular season and these Wild Card play-in games. You don’t like the idea of spending two days traveling and playing an extra game while your potential next round opponent is resting up and waiting for you? Win more games next year and win your damn division!

The bottom line, for me, is that when September and October rolls around, I’m not ready to stop watching baseball. I like football. I watch it. College and NFL. But it’s crunch time in Major League Baseball and fans are tuning in for frigging PRE-SEASON football games intead of watching what should be the most important weeks in MLB’s calendar.

Finally, Verducci also ran his proposal by Bud Selig. Bud thinks things are fine the way they are. Of course, he does. He ALWAYS thinks things are fine the way they are. Even if I didn’t like this idea, the mere fact that Selig was not supportive would tell me it’s a brilliant idea. If Bud thinks it’s wrong, it’s GOTTA be right!

Just one more reason why Major League Baseball needs Jim Crikket (or at least Tom Verducci) as its new commissioner. – JC

GameChat – Royals @ Twins #3, 7:10

Posted on by

It’s hard to find bad news on a day when Batgirl returns but there was a couple clouds on the horizon in the bullpen today.  Apparently, Fuentes tried to throw again and still had a stiff back.  That is telling staff that perhaps there is something more wrong so he’s getting an MRI.  I don’t like to think about backs & unexplained pain and MRI’s.

In a ‘clouds parting’ kind of discussion, Morneau talked to reporters today and epxressed that he VERY optimistic about coming back.  He still has symptoms but he says that he has more good days than bad days and I’m a fan enough to want to believe him so I will.  At any rate, I really hope that he’s back sooner rather than later because I really like the idea of making further progress in post-season positioning.  We’re only 4 games behind the Yankees afterall – no need to keep looking over our shoulder at who’s behind us, we should look forward and work for it!

Thome was a late scratch from the lineup – still waiting to hear why from folk working the clubhouse but for whatever reason, Morales is taking his spot in the lineup.

Kansas City @ Minnesota
Blanco, G, CF   Span, CF
Aviles, M, 2B   Hudson, O, 2B
Fields, 3B   Mauer, C
Betemit, 1B   Kubel, RF
Betancourt, Y, SS   Cuddyer, 1B
Pena, B, C   Morales, J, DH
May, DH   Young, D, LF
Gordon, A, LF   Hardy, SS
Miller, Ja, RF   Tolbert, 3B
Greinke, P   Duensing, P

 

  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Kansas City 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 3 8 1
Minnesota 0 0 0 0 3 0 1 0 x 4 5 0

 

You have to kind of figure Zach Greinke is counting the days until he can be a Free Agent and sign with the Twins, if only for the reason that he won’t have to pitch against them any more. I can’t think of any ace starting pitcher that the Twins have dominated like they have this guy. He actually pitched well tonight and for a while there were real concerns about the lack of hits coming off the Twins’ bats. But in the end, despite a bit of a shaky 9th inning by Mr. Capps, our guys had another win and, combined with the Tiger win, another full game added to their lead over the Bitch Sox in the standings. AND… that’s TWO SWEEPS in a row, gang!

The concern over the hitting finally melted away as the bottom part of the Twins order took over and decided they would not stand still for being shut out by the Landed Gentry (obligatory Batgirl reference). Matt Tolbert came through with timely hitting and Denard Span had a nice RBI triple after the boys at the bottom of the order rolled things over to the top again. For that, they both deserve a healthy slice of pie of their choice… but JJ Hardy’s pair of hits included his first Target Field home run, in to the bullpen, earning him a whole pie to himself, a la mode, if he’s up for it!

But Boyfriend of the Day honors go to Brian Duensing. We were concerned about the pitch count being racked up the first 2-3 innings, but almost before you could say “Go Big Red!”, it was the 8th inning and Brian was still shutting down the Royal hitters. Eight innings of 6 hit baseball and 7 strikeouts, while giving up only 1 run is BOD worthy! – JC

Mr. Incredible, Jim Thome! and the return of BATGIRL!!

Posted on by
TD Davis

After three straight games with 4 towering homeruns.. you know, we have to have a better word for hitting the top of the American flag pole or denting the pavement in the Target Field Plaza… But really, what do you call it?!?  When he used to hit them AGAINST us while playing for the White Sox, it was monstrous, even villainous. 

But now?  Big Jim is one of the good guys!  He’s our hero!!  In fact, we jokingly referred to him as Mr. Incredible in our gamechat.  So when a friend of mine posted this to his facebook this morning, I giggled with glee!  His friend, TD Davis, had had a little bit of fun with editing and here we have our own Mr. Incredible, Jim Thome!  He currently sits at #586 career homeruns, tied with Frank Robinson, but you have to know he’s not done yet!  I hope he enjoys being with the Twins as much as we fans are enjoying him being with the Twins!

Joe C. from the Strib shared this quote from Delmon Young that I think says it all:

No wonder the Royals tried pitching around him.

“Heck, I would,” Young said. “He’s been hitting downtown too much lately. It’s fun to watch. It’s a tough act to follow because he’s hitting balls 500 feet. To hit it farther is impossible, unless you’re swinging from second base.”

 

And that’s not the only thing that Joe C. shared!!  I know not all of you are twitter followers but just in case you are, there’s a new user as of last night! @Twinsbatgirl has returned to commentary – however she chooses to use it.  I’m just ecstatic to see a little bit of true sass return to the world of Minnesota fandom.  We’re glad you’re back Batgirl – hope to see more!  Please forgive the use of your logo to identify you for those less familiar with your body of work.

GameChat – Royals @ Twins #2, 7:10

Posted on by

Let’s get the injury updates out of the way first.  Fuentes threw a bullpen today and his back is still a little tight so it will be a couple days for him yet.  Valencia told Mackey today that he feels great but according to the team, there is still about a 20% difference in flexibility between his two legs so Tolbert will have at least one more start at 3B.  Punto says he’s feeling good but he’s also taking the advice of trainers who want him to wait out a bit of stiffness a couple more days – in his words, he was feeling fine last time and look what happened.  They may activate him if there’s an emergency but they don’t want to push it too hard.  The final word on him is that it’s still just a matter of days.

We also have two more guys in the bullpen tonight!!  Neshek and Perkins are here and available to pitch.  I’m so excited to see Sideshow on the mound for us again and I’m just glad he’s back here with the big boys.  That being said, I also hope that he’s got that old magic back!

Tonight’s game is going to be pretty cool and windy so who knows what’s going to happen with the game.  There’s no rain in the schedule but I’m not sure that really helps so much.  Anyway, I know Frankie isn’t all that fond of the cold so I’m hoping that he’s got a good internal fire going and shuts them down tonight.

Kansas City @ Minnesota
Blanco, G, CF   Span, CF
Aviles, M, 2B   Hudson, O, 2B
Butler, 1B   Mauer, C
Betemit, DH   Kubel, RF
Fields, 3B   Cuddyer, 1B
Gordon, A, LF   Thome, DH
Pena, B, C   Young, D, LF
Miller, Ja, RF   Hardy, SS
Betancourt, Y, SS   Tolbert, 3B
Bannister, B, P   Liriano, P

 

  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Kansas City 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 3 9 0
Minnesota 0 1 6 2 0 1 0 0 x 10 13 0

 

I hate to admit it but my brain is only half here so trying to write a good postgame report might be a challenge that is beyond me.   But to sum up, that was a fun game to watch!  With this win against Kansas City, the Royals are officially eliminated and the Twins are now a full 4.5 games ahead of the White Sox who lost to the Tigers tonight.

Frankie did a fantastic job  and got what I think is his 7th straight win.  I could have that wrong but I’m too lazy to go look it up to verify.  But it was a really good outting.  And we had a big enough cushion of runs that we got a couple of our younger guys out there to get a little playing time – including Ben Revere who made his MLB debut tonight.  I’m sure that he didn’t really want to strike out in his first plate appearance but that boy was so darn excited, he was bouncing off every hard surface in sight.  I really don’t think he’ll even CARE about the strikeout.  He just got to be out there in the field running around playing baseball in the big leagues.  Perkins  came out for an inning back up from AAA.  We also got to see Pat Neshek back finally… talk about someone who was a bit too excited!  *laugh*  Sideshow was totally overamped and throwing a bit crazy.  Took him a couple batters, a couple walks, a couple fly outs and a run before he finally got himself all settled in and got out of the inning.  That being said, I think that he’ll be a valuable addition to the pen since his delivery is just so unusual and it seems different to me even than it was before.  This could be fun.

Of course, with a score of 10 – 3, you can’t have a postgame discussion without talking about the offense.  Tolbert is becoming famous for his triples I think.  I really love those.  And Thome is just … ridiculous.  There are really no words to describe how much of an impact he’s had on this team – and apparently on the RF Target Plaza pavement!  He hit HR #586 tying Frank Robinson on the all-time HR list.  For making it so much fun to watch Twins hitters, those guys have both earned themselves homemade cheesecake and a beverage of their own choosing  (there was significant debate in the chat on whether beer is a suitable companion – not in my book).

But the BIG winner on the offense tonight was Delmon Young.  He was a machine tonight – 3 Runs, 4 RBI and a LOT of smiles as he ran to the OF looking like a GIANT next to Ben Revere.  Chat folk immediately voted him today’s BOD!  Congrats Delmon.

GameChat – Royals @ Twins, 1:10pm

Posted on by

So my plans changed and instead of watching the game from Huberts with Kristie over by Target Field, I’m home in bed wishing my head didn’t weigh 20 lbs.  There is an Unplugged event at Huberts tonight after the game so our plan was to be sure we had good seats by getting there before all the people let out of the game.  Oh well.  Next time. And it’s starting to get a bit.. moist.. at the field today so let’s hope that the rain passes quickly.

News about our call-up situation continues to dribble out.  Ben Revere is with the team now and seems practically speechless that it’s happened for him this year.  Fox and Delaney have both been sent down so that we have room.  I’m sure we’ll see more of them in coming years.  Joe C. was kind enough to make sure that a question was answered that has hung in the back of my mind all year.  No, Jacque Jones won’t be up with the team this year.  Apparently, while they would really have loved to see him up here, there just wasn’t enough machinations they could make with the 40 man roster.  Ok, but we needed Ben Revere?  I like the kid but I don’t see it.  But I know Jacque was glad just to be with a team playing ball this year – and have a big league chance – even if it was only the Rochester Red Wings.

As Slowey’s first start coming back from the DL, I’m glad to see more and more starter names coming back into the lineup.  Yes, we still have Tolbert out there though.  Valencia is being handled very carefully – to make sure that he doesn’t actually do serious damage by going back out too early.  I’m fairly certain that Gardy doesn’t want to have another Punto situation.  Btw, Punto is much better and eligible to come back but the team says it’ll probably be another week before he could go full out – they may do so sooner than that though if they need him for a pinch. 

hmmm..  Nick Punto as a pinch hitter??  LOL  Ok, so we know he’d be a defensive replacement.  But let’s hope that the wins continue – our cushion with the White Sox isn’t nearly big enough. The offense just needs to keep up their thing – a very successfull thing as it turns out. The Twins have the highest team BA in the league. Who would ever have guessed.

Kansas City @ Minnesota
Blanco, G, CF   Span, CF
Maier, RF   Hudson, O, 2B
Butler, DH   Mauer, C
Ka’aihue, 1B   Kubel, RF
Betemit, 3B   Cuddyer, 1B
Gordon, A, LF   Thome, DH
Pena, B, C   Young, D, LF
Getz, 2B   Hardy, SS
Betancourt, Y, SS   Tolbert, 3B
  O’Sullivan, P     Slowey, P

 

  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Kansas City 0 2 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 4 10 1
Minnesota 0 1 0 1 3 0 0 0 x 5 9 0

 

Today’s game started out in a bit of a frustration for everyone.  I know we all wanted to see more from Slowey, including Kevin himself, but as far as injury returns go, that was NOT a bad outting.  He just didn’t have what he wanted with every pitch.  He still was getting the job done for the most part though.  I knew he wasn’t going to be able to go deep in the game but past the 4th would have been nice.  But Jeff Manship came in and did a great job of holding down the fort for us.  So it’s good to have that expanded bullpen right now.

The offense really did do its thing.  We were all wishing it would have done just a little more because these 1 run games are always tense.  But a win’s a win.  Tense, easy, blow out, close… these wins are all necessary to keep on track since the White Sox don’t seem to be slowing down at this point of the season either.  Gardy did verify that we’ll be adding Neshek and Perkins into the bullpen now too.  But today, the offense story was .. HOMERUN!!!  Delmon ALMOST got one, Kubel NAILED one and Thome… well, I’m not really sure there is a word for what Thome did.  Field staff put out an estimate on the distance and then put out a REVISED distance – 480 feet.  Wow.  Of course, that’s an estimate of where it would have landed if the travel would have been unobstructed because he HIT THE AMERICAN FLAG POLE!  Just a ridiculous mashing of taters there.  For that, Jim Thome is today’s BOD.

GameChat – Rangers @ Twins #3, (12:30 FSN) 2:00, WFTC29 & am1500

Posted on by

FIRST:  This is going out early so that people have a heads up to watch the Legends Game!  It’s not on the same channel as the game itself but it is being broadcast so if you aren’t actually in in Target Field like I am today, you should be sure to catch it – here’s the bit from FSN about the Legends Game:

On Sunday, FOX Sports North will televise the Twins Legends Game live from Target Field at 12:30 p.m. (Just don’t call them old-timers!) The three-inning game will feature some of the greatest names in Twins history reunited: Bert Blyleven, Gary Gaetti, Kent Hrbek, Ron Coomer, Tim Laudner, Tom Brunansky, Greg Gagne, Terry Steinbach, Brad Radke and Eddie Guardado.

Managing the two Legends Game teams will be Tom Kelly and Frank Quilici. Numerous players in the Legends Game will wear wireless microphones for the FS North telecast, along with Don Shelby from WCCO-TV, who will serve as home plate umpire.

And if that’s not enough, current Texas Rangers manager Ron Washington, a former Twin, will don a Twins uniform, sit in the Twins dugout and play in the Legends Game … just before he switches dugouts to manage the Rangers in the regular game.

SECOND:  The actual Twins game is on the schedule for 1:10 but it’s my understanding that the game is going to be delayed because of the Legends game and isn’t actually starting until 2 pm.  You will have to change over channels to WFTC29 but I think y’all can manage it.

Our news update since yesterday’s game is that Ben Revere has gotten his shot at being a September callup.  AND according to Sunday Sports Talk this morning, Neshek, Slama and Perkins could also be brought back up today.  SIDESHOW!!!  I’ve really missed him but I’m glad to see his name being mentioned by someone other than the bloggers.  Kubel says he’s feeling better and might be ready to try a little action today.  There are also rumors that Punto might be ready to come back today if necessary – which would require activation.  That means a lot of crazy shenanigans with the 25 man roster and according to people who know more than I, it’s likely that Fox and Flores will be the ones removed to make room.  I’m not entirely sure that I am ready to swap Perkins for Flores but I’ve hardly gotten a chance to get to know Flores yet.

** Matt Fox has been officially designated for assignment to make room for Revere

I may or may not be able to get the fancy lineups in before I head off and JC will not be joining us today as he has a daughter to take off to college.  Hopefully, you will get a visit from KL during the game but I don’t know her schedule either – I trust y’all know the drill and can manage to chat without us including any game end decisions that might be necessary!  I will check the archives and make any appropriate announcements.

Texas @ Minnesota
Guzman, C, SS   Span, CF
Young, M, 3B   Hudson, O, 2B
Murphy, Dv, LF   Mauer, C
Guerrero, DH   Cuddyer, 1B
Cruz, N, RF   Kubel, DH
Kinsler, 2B   Young, D, LF
Moreland, 1B   Hardy, SS
Treanor, C   Tolbert, 3B
Borbon, CF   Repko, RF
Wilson, C, P   Blackburn, P

 

  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Texas 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 5 11 0
Minnesota 2 1 0 0 0 3 0 0 x 6 7 1

 

I don’t have much to say in terms of summarizing the game. I really should have just ignored baseball today. See… after I got my daughter moved in to her dorm at college and got back to town, I turned my car radio on and it was the top of the 9th inning of the Sox/Sox game and the BitchSox were about to lose to Boston. By the time I got home, Boston had essentially handed Chicago a win. Then I turned on the Twins game and it was the top of the 9th there too, with the Twins leading 6-2. Thee runs and one “out on coach’s interference” call later, the Twins had held on to notch a 6-5 win.

I’m relying on the rest of the gang in the GameChat for Boyfriend of the Day decisions today, since I certainly didn’t see anyone worthy in the half inning I watched! The offense was spread around pretty broadly. Michael Cuddyer, with his 2 RBI, certainly earned some raspberry cheesecake, and Jason Kubel, being the only guy with 2 hits, gets some as well. But the clear BOD for the day appears to be Nick Blackburn. Once again, the Twins got a very good start out of Blackie, throwing 7 complete innings and giving up only 2 runs (both earned). It wasn’t anything approaching perfection, as he walked 3 to go with the 4 Ks he racked up, but given what I saw of the two pitchers-who-shall-remain-nameless who worked the 9th inning, he certainly had to look like an All Star by comparison… and that makes you, Nick Blackburn, our BOD!

I should add… there also seemed to be a great deal of support for awarding various foodstuffs to some of the Legends in recognition of their efforts in the 3 inning Legends Game held prior to the Twins game today. However, after seeing a few of these guys the other night during the ceremony, I think most of them would benefit from something other than high-calorie sweets. So I’ll award a couple of cases of LITE beer and a healthy supply of tylenol and Ben-Gay to the Legends! I hope I get an opportunity to see a replay of the event… it sounds like a good time was had by all. Since Babs was in attendance, I’m counting on her to post a full report, complete with a multitude of pictures, in the near future! – JC

GameChat – Rangers @ Twins #2, FOX & am1500, 3:10 pm

Posted on by

Since KL & Babs are doing the State Fair and JC is doing Hawkeye football today, we are short on time and access to get the gamechat up. Hopefully, things will be filled in soon to give you the lineups and such.

Texas @ Minnesota
Andrus, SS   Span, CF
Young, M, 3B   Hudson, O, 2B
Hamilton, CF   Cuddyer, 1B
Guerrero, DH   Thome, DH
Cruz, N, LF   Young, D, LF
Kinsler, 2B   Hardy, SS
Moreland, 1B   Repko, RF
Francoeur, RF   Tolbert, 3B
Molina, B, C   Butera, C
  Lewis, P     Pavano, P

 

  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Texas 0 0 0 0 1 2 0 0 1 4 10 0
Minnesota 5 0 1 3 0 0 3 0 x 12 11 0

 

hehehe..  heheheheheee .. HAHAHAHAHAAHHAAHA!!!!

THOME PASSED MCGWIRE!!!!  He hit 2, count them 1 – 2, homeruns in todays game so as not to spend unnecessary time tied with one of the steroid princes (less than half an hour) and is continuing his pursuit of 600.  I hope he’s able to stay with us long enough to achieve that lofty goal.  But for now, he achieved a stellar mark in itself and doing so with integrity.  For that, Jim Thome is most definitely today’s BOD.

But today’s game was just so much fun even aside from the Thome Taters.  When a team has 12 runs, there was more than one person being pretty successful with the bat.  Believe it or not, TOLBERT was the one really swinging well today – 2 triples and a career-high 5 RBI.  JJ Hardy was 3/4 with 2 RBI – I like it that he’s back to hitting well.  So even on a day where we have the “B” lineup out there, we just killed with the bat.  We’ve had person after person go down with one injury or another and the most unlikely people keep stepping up to get us wins.  So Tolby, Hardy, you boys can share a great big bucket of Sweet Martha’s cookies and all the milk you can drink.

And Pavano went out there and threw 8 innings of masterful baseball against that Texas lineup.  God love him, he still has the ‘stache.  And Rob Delaney makes his major league debut for the 9th inning.  It wasn’t perfect, especially since the first batter he faced took him yard, but it was most definitely a good outting.  And it’s good to have the rest of the bullpen get a good rest.  You guys both get Pronto Pups with the condiments of your choice.  Thanks bunches!

GameChat – Rangers @ Twins, 7:10

Posted on by

This is going to be interesting.  If you want a really complete update on all our injury/callup/rotation situation, beyond what JC already posted today, Mackey did a GREAT job in his Friday Notebook  so I highly recommend reading it and I’m too lazy to do work that someone else has already done.  So I’ll just cover the highlights – no, there is too much, let me sum up.

1) Baker got a cortizone shot and he feels a lot better – might miss a start or two though

2) Kubel’s MRI is encouraging – no serious damage and he hopes to be back this weekend

3) Capps is better but Fuentes is still out.

I do feel a little badly for Matt Fox because this seems like a REALLY high pressure situation to come up and have your MLB debut but I’m sending him all the positive vibes I can work up.

Texas @ Minnesota
Andrus, SS   Span, CF
Young, M, 3B   Hudson, O, 2B
Murphy, Dv, LF   Mauer, C
Hamilton, DH   Cuddyer, 1B
Cruz, N, RF   Young, D, LF
Kinsler, 2B   Thome, DH
Moreland, 1B   Valencia, 3B
Molina, B, C   Repko, RF
Borbon, CF   Hardy, SS
  Holland, P     Fox, M, P

 

  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Texas 0 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 3 9 0
Minnesota 1 0 0 0 0 1 2 0 x 4 8 1

 

First, I can’t tell you how cool it was to see that pregame special with all those fantastic former Twins all in one place.  It made for a pretty emotional reaction before the game even started.  And nothing like really adding to the pressure poor Matt Fox was under – here kid, it’s your MLB debut, you can do it front of these guys in a pennant race in September right?

Sadly, the injury bug seems to have bit YET AGAIN.  Valencia left the game tonight with a Hammy problem – they pulled him as a precautionary measure reportedly and consider him day-to-day.  Apparently, that is also the condition of Gardy’s lineup card and probably his ulcer too.  I do NOT envy him the job of pulling all this together.

It was another close game with a lot of dicey moments but at least Fox went 5.2 innings when we really needed something good from him and he kept us in the game.  Sadly he wasn’t able to get the win tonight BUT he did a very good job and made himself look pretty darn good.  Who knows what we’ll need him to do in the next few weeks but he looks like he can hold his own!  For that, we here at Knuckleballs decided that he should start getting ready for more appearances and are giving him his own personal copy of MLB10: The Show.  He should start working on his homework right away! 😉

And then there were a couple other real standouts tonight.  First, Jason Repko was amazing!  Freakish even.  At least in the field.  My friend, Ben Collin, aptly titled him “the outfield version of Nick Punto”.  It really struck a cord for me and it’s likely very true.  I know he’d like to be hitting better and I wouldn’t mind if he was but if he can keep up what he does in the OF – especially those throws to 3B *shiver* – I would love to see him stick around for awhile.  And Capps really made himself popular here with Twins fans by coming in in the 8th inning to finish it off then, and then nailing down the 1 run Save.  It was really a solid great game for him.  For that, both guys are granted as much state fair food as they can handle – corn dogs, cheese curds and beer – whatever they want.

BUT in a game where we had some legitimately beautiful performances that deserved recognition and gratitude, we did have a bright light.  One player stood out both defensively AND offensively: Denard Span, this is your BOD.  Not only was there some really amazing catches in the OF but he managed to get the game-winning RBI in a VERY tight game that didn’t grant us a lot of offensive opportunities.  I hope he realizes that wearing tall socks is good for his mojo and he should do it all the time!!