Contests – Knuckleballs

Tell us Your Favorite All-Star Game Moment and WIN!

Posted on 15 July, 2013 by Jim Crikket

With the MLB All-Star Game upon us, we don’t have a whole lot of Twins stuff to talk about, so it’s a good time to give something away.

In a fortuitous coincidence, the good folks at A+E Networks Home Entertainment and MLB Productions have offered us some stuff to give away in conjunction with the release of MLB Productions Films on iTunes.

Here are the details that the sponsors would like us to pass along to you, our readers:

Baseball fans are now able to experience their favorite films in an entirely new way, as titles from the Major League Baseball Productions Film & Video Archive are now available digitally. Over 100 titles are now live on iTunes, which already includes hundreds of classic games as well as podcasts and award-winning mobile apps from MLB Advanced Media, including MLB.com At Bat, the top grossing sports app of all-time.

Aside from MLB Bloopers and Prime 9: MLB Heroics, available programming includes The Best of the Home Run Derby and “Prime 9: All-Star Moments;” Official World Series Films dating back to 1947, including the 1969 and 1986 films; the first season of “This Week In Baseball,” which originally aired in 1977; a documentary offering a fresh perspective on Jackie Robinson’s life and career; recent productions including a comprehensive film chronicling every era of World Series play and documentaries created to celebrate notable anniversaries for the Mets, Astros and Red Sox; bloopers titles highlighting the funniest MLB moments; and many other titles. Any of these films can now be downloaded from the iTunes store (www.iTunes.com/MLB). Prices range from $1.99 for individual episodes of “Prime 9” and “This Week in Baseball” to $19.99 for the Official 2012 World Series Film in HD.

In return for that promotional announcement, we’ve got two copies of the Minnesota Twins Magic in Minnesota: Remembering the 1991 World Series Championship DVD to give away.

To be eligible for one of these DVDs, just tell us about your favorite All-Star Game moment… or maybe your LEAST favorite ASG moment… or maybe your FIRST ASG memory. Just tell us something about an All-Star Game that stands out in your memory in the comments section and we’ll put your name in a hat from which we will draw two winners next Sunday, say about noon.

For me, my favorite All-Star Game memory might be Torii Hunter stealing a home run from Barry Bonds.

Then again, the first vivid memory I have of an All-Star Game was Pete Rose barreling in to Cleveland Indians catcher Ray Fosse, back when players still took the game seriously.

But what say you?

Of DVDs and a BOM

Posted on 5 August, 2011 by Jim Crikket

First things first. Apparently the Twins entered in to a conspiracy of sorts to prevent our DVD giveaway contest from proclaiming a winner. Almost two full weeks after announcing our contest to give away a set of Twins 1991 Championship Season DVDs to the person who could correctly predict the game in which Joe Nathan would break the team record for saves, he still hasn’t had an opportunity to accomplish that feat.

So, as we indicated in the original contest post, we’ll determine the winner on a random basis from among the 15 readers who entered our contest. Here is how we will go about declaring a winner:

Below is a list of those who entered the contest. Next to each name are two numbers I’ve assigned randomly from numbers 1-15 and 16-30. The winner will be the person assigned the number that is equal to the total runs scored by the Twins and White Sox in the first game of their upcoming series in Minnesota.

AW: 5, 20

Max: 9, 30

Shaun Streich: 15, 28

BobZ: 10, 24

MukMuk: 1, 17

bob miller: 3, 16

mark: 14, 27

lecroy24fan: 7, 23

Trish: 13, 29

Melissa: 12. 21

AW: 2, 19

E: 6, 22

UpperDeck: 4, 25

David: 11, 26

Rick: 8, 18

(If the Twins and Sox get in to a real slugfest and score over 30 runs combined, we’ll just add 30 to the numbers assigned to each entrant above and declare the winner on that basis. I refuse to let the Twins’ ineptitude draw this thing out any further!)

BOYFRIEND OF THE MONTH: JULY

Remember back last month when the Twins didn’t suck? I know… it’s not easy sometimes to remember back that far. But trust me, in July the Twins did win some ballgames and after each victory, our GameChat folks bestowed a Boyfriend of the Day award on the Twins player they felt was most deserving of recognition for their efforts in that particular game. As is our tradition, we then tally up those BOD awards each month and pronounce a lucky Boyfriend of the Month.

This one wasn’t really even close.

Danny Valencia, Brian Duensing, Joe Mauer and Michael Cuddyer each were honored with Boyfriend of the Day awards twice in July but for the first time this season, one player racked up four separate BODs from our GameChat contingent. Glen Perkins has been clutch when he’s been called on in tight situations. We just wish we could see a few more of those opportunities going forward. But for his outstanding work in July, Glen Perkins is da BOM!

Contest: Win 1991 World Series DVD Sets!

Posted on 26 July, 2011 by Jim Crikket

We haven’t had a contest here since early in the season and now, thanks to the good folks at A&E Home Entertainment/MLB Productions, we’re here to remedy that.

MLB Productions will be releasing two sets of DVDs in early August to help celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Twins 1991 World Series Championship and we’re here to help you get your copies now!

The first set is the MINNESOTA TWINS 1991 WORLD SERIES COLLECTOR’S EDITION DVD SET and the second is the MAGIC IN MINNESOTA: REMEMBERING THE 1991 WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONSHIP DVD. Click the links for more information on these DVDs!

How can you win these terrific prizes? I’m glad you asked.

You may or may not be aware, but Twins closer Joe Nathan is on the verge of becoming the organization’s all-time leader in saves. His 253 saves as a Twin trails current leader Rick Aguilera by a single save.

When will he catch Aggie? And, more importantly for our purposes anyway, when will he notch the save that gives him the Twins record to himself?

In the comments section of this post (or any subsequent Knuckleballs post), give us:

The date that you believe Nathan will record his record-setting save (entries picking a particular game must be submitted before the official start time of that game).
For tie-breaking purposes, also tell us what you believe the total combined runs for the Twins and their opponents will be for that record-setting game.
If more than one person picks the correct game and are equally close to the correct total score, the winner will be the person who submitted the comment with their guess earliest.
An email address, so we can contact you if you are our winner (getting this up front precludes an imposter emailing us afterward, claiming to be you! We do not save, use or share email addresses without permission. If you prefer, you may email us your contact information rather than post it with your guess in the comment section).

If nobody picks the correct date, we will choose a winner at random from all entries submitted by game time of the contest in which Nathan breaks the record. Likewise, the winner will be chosen at random if, God forbid, the Twins or Nathan himself should fall on such hard times that the record is not broken by the time the Twins return home from the current road trip that ends on August 4.

If you don’t happen to win our contest, not to worry… you’ll eventually be able to purchase both sets of DVDs (not to mention your other Twins merchandise and tickets, of course) at www.twinsbaseball.com. Other Twins blogs may be running similar promotional contests, so keep your eyes open for those, as well! (As we become aware of other blogs running a similar promotion, we’ll update this post and add links to the other blogs here, so keep checking back!)

k-bro has her DVD contest up and running over at k-bro’s baseball blog. Go check it out! (k-bro has a winner!)

North Dakota Twins fan has joined in the fun, click here to check out his DVD contest!

Seth Stohs has joined the DVD contest party over at SethSpeaks.net!

Over-the-Baggy has their contest posted now too!

Puckett’s Pond has their DVD contest up and running!

Somehow, I missed Picked Off at First’s contest… don’t you miss it too! (Erin’s got a winner!)

The Platoon Advantage has their contest up now!

Twins Target is also up and running with their contest!

The ladies at Babes Love Baseball are giving away a set too!

TBTBB is in on the fun as well!

Get your picks in early… Twitchy could wrap up the record as early as Wednesday night in Texas! (Of course, that would require the Twins to stop sucking… but you never know, it COULD happen!)

Good luck… and Go Joe!

– JC

Prizes courtesy of A&E Home Entertainment/MLB Productions. To claim prizes, the winner will need to provide his/her mailing address to representatives of AEHE/MLBP and prizes can only be shipped to addresses in the Continental US. Knuckleballs is not responsible for delivery of prizes.

Win Twins Tickets Here!

Posted on 9 April, 2011 by Jim Crikket

That headline got your attention, didn’t it? Nothing like giving away stuff to bring in the eyeballs.

Well it’s true. We’ve got a pair of tickets to the Twins/Rays game on Tuesday, April 26, to give away. You see, the good folks @MinnesotaTwins announced back on April 5 via Twitter that the team had a special deal for their Twitter followers. A link was provided that would take you to a special page on the Twins web site where followers could order tickets at a discount for the April 26 contest. Which I did.

As it turns out, however, I’m not going to be within even a couple hundred miles of Target Field that night… maybe not even within 1,000 miles.

So let’s give these things away. Now, mind you, these are not exactly “premium seating”. You’ll be sitting in the RF grandstand, but you WILL be sitting with a bunch of other people who got tickets because they (or someone they know) follows @MinnesotaTwins via Twitter… so it should be a ton of people who will be staring at their phones throughout the game, just like you. And these are free, dangit, don’t be so picky!

So here’s the contest…

Tell us which Twin will be the first among his team mates to hit a home run at Target Field this season. Tell us who, and then for tiebreaking purposes, tell us which game first tie breaker), and which inning (second tiebreaker).

UPDATE: If we still end up with a tie, the winner will be the person who entered their pick earliest.

Because we need some time to get the tickets to you, we need to limit this to the A’s and Royals series… so if none of our guys have hit a HR during those games, we’ll just pull a name randomly from everyone who entered the contest. We’ll do likewise if the hitter who actually goes yard first wasn’t predicted by anyone.

Leave your guess in the comments section of this post (or any subsequent Knuckleballs post… we don’t get so many comments that we can’t keep track).

Good luck!

– JC

UPDATE: We have a winner!!! Jessica S nailed it on the nose with her prediction of Jim Thome on April 10th, in the 8th inning! Congratulations, Jessica… we’ll be in touch about getting the tickets to you! – JC

Out On A Limb (Care to Join Me?)

Posted on 28 March, 2011 by Jim Crikket

Now that Spring Training is wrapping up, it’s time to turn our focus to the regular season.

I’m tired of debating who the last member of the bullpen should be and who the last reserve on the bench should be. In the grand scheme of things, it just doesn’t matter. The things that do matter start happening at the end of this week!

That means it’s time for all of us to consult our Zoltar machines.

I’m sure there will be no shortage of other Twins blogs who will be giving all of us opportunities to offer our predictions concerning how the Twins, collectively and individually, will perform in 2011. We will be able to proudly predict another AL Central Championship or share our thoughts concerning which Twins will lead the team in various statistical categories.

Here at Knuckleballs, we’re not going to let you off that easy.

We want to stretch those imaginations and predictive powers that lie deep within the grey matter that fills that lump three feet above your ass (I promise… that’s my last Tom Hanks movie reference in this post) and make everyone go out a bit on a limb with their prognostications.

We want to know what sort of crazy stuff you expect to happen this season. To that end, here are some questions we want you to give careful, considered thought to (or just throw out the first response that comes to mind… we really don’t care). The key is… tell us something you expect to happen that we aren’t going to hear from many (if any) others over the next week or two.

1. A prediction specifically related to the performance of a Twins player.

2. A prediction specifically related to the unexpected (in a positive or negative way) performance of a non-Twins player.

3. A prediction related to the unexpected (positive or negative) performance of a team other than the Twins.

Finally, let us know what you expect from the Twins this season.

4. Fill in the blanks: The Twins will win ___ games and finish in ___ place in the AL Central Division. They will (choose one):

___ not make the playoffs

___ be eliminated in the first round of the playoffs (again!)

___ be eliminated in the AL Championship Series

___ lose to the NL Champion in the World Series

___ WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS BABY!

To get everyone started, here are my predictions:

1. Tsuyoshi Nishioka is going to win the AL Rookie of the Year award.

2. If he gets healthy enough to pitch this season, Johan Santana will finish the season in the NY Yankees’ rotation.

3. The Baltimore Orioles will finish 2nd in the AL East and challenge for the Wild Card playoff spot.

4. Twins will win 97 games, finishing 1st in the AL Central and get ready to hoist a new banner, boys and girls, because our guys are gonna win it all in 2011!

So… what about you? Use the comment section to dazzle us with your predictive powers!

– JC

Do You Know Your Baseball Mustaches?

Posted on 14 August, 2010 by Jim Crikket

I’m still constantly amazed at how much attention Carl Pavano’s mustache gets. I mean, the guy is tied for the lead in wins in the American League after notching his 15th on Friday night but if you ask 10 people what they know about him, 9 will mention the mustache before anything else. (OK, if any of the 10 people you ask are Yankee fans, they might not mention the mustache first… but I’d be too busy snickering at their answer to care).

You think I’m wrong? Then let me ask you this: We started posting on this blog in March. Which post do you suppose has been the most-read? Was it one of our early pictorial posts from our first visits to Target Field? No. Was it the rant about Why the Yankees $uck? No. (But that was quite popular.. I wonder why.) It was the post where we sought to assign “blame” for Pavano’s mustache. And it’s not even close. That post was published weeks ago and it still gets a number of new hits every week.

So just to make the point that it’s not completely unheard of for a Major League ballplayer to have some hair above his lip, we’ve come up with the following “mustache quiz”.

Below are pictures of 12 Major League ballplayers, all of whom anyone claiming to be a serious baseball fan should have at least some casual knowledge of. Some of these are tougher to identify than others but there are no obscure one-year wonders here. They all had more than just 15 minutes of fame. In fact, among the choices, there are Hall of Famers and some guys who either arguably should be Hall of Famers or likely will be some day. We’re also showing you more than just the mustache… in fact you’ve pretty much got the lower half of each player’s face to go on. Let’s see how many you can name.

(The answers will be posted in the Comments section, but no peeking until you’re finished with the quiz!)