I’m sorry to do this to you but.. yeah I really couldn’t resist as soon as I saw it!
Category Archives: General
Sunday Morning Comic Relief
Ok, this is NOT actually comic relief – It’s your Sunday Morning Cartoon statement…
Twins Introduce a New Home Uniform
The design was leaked a few days ago by uniform maker Majestic, but on Monday the Twins formally introduced their new home uniform design for 2015.
For the first time since 1987, pinstripes will not be part of the standard home uniform (though the cream colored throw-back pinstriped version will still be an alternate design).
The Twins have also added a gold “drop shadow” to the chest logo, piping and cap emblem.
After four dismal seasons on the field, I think it’s safe to say that nothing this team’s front office announces, short of the signing of Jon Lester and Max Scherzer, will be met with much enthusiasm from the fans and the initial response to the new uniforms reflects that mood.
That said, I kind of like the new look (and that’s coming from someone who generally likes a pinstripe uniform).
For years, major sports teams in all sports have been incorporating a third color in to their uniforms and I think that doing so can give uniforms a classier look. I like that and I think the new Twins design accomplishes this, as well.
If it were me, I’d have gone ahead and done something different with the road greys that would also incorporate the gold a bit. Why wait? – other than simply wanting to hold off on that until 2016 in order to have something else new to sell in team stores a year from now (which, of course, is exactly the reason the Twins would wait).
Anyway, I give the new uniforms a thumbs up, though I would imagine I’m in the minority.
– JC
Episode 106: The Cody Christie Episode
You can download the new Talk to Contact (@TalkToContact) episode via iTunes or by clicking here, and if you want to add the show to your non-iTunes podcast player, this is the RSS Feed.
For the first time ever, Cody Christie hosts and entire episode of Talk to Contact. He runs the transitions, he drives the content, and he tells all the jokes! North Dakota fans, unite!
In addition to our North Dakotan flare, we talk about the ongoing Twins manager search, what it means that no one will go to games in 2015 at Target Field, and way too much about Aaron Hicks.
Eric also has a moment of clarity talking about beer that changes his life, and of course, beer, baseball, and the news.
93 minutes of blues and baseball.
Thanks for listening and enjoy the show.
If you enjoy our podcast, please tell your friends about us and take a couple extra minutes and rate and review us on iTunes. Ratings and reviews aren’t even that cool anyways, so whatever.
Sunday Morning Comic Relief
JC isn’t the only one who wants to play manager!
Episode 101: A Fan’s View, with Howard Sinker
This week Eric and Jay are joined by long time podcast friend Chuck Ruether and new podcast friend Howard Sinker, from the Star Tribune.
You can download the new Talk to Contact (@TalkToContact) episode via iTunes or by clicking here, and if you want to add the show to your non-iTunes podcast player, this is the RSS Feed.
Lots of chatter about the end of the season, what to look forward to in 2015, and how the Twins might go about finding a new manager, if they ever get around to getting rid of their current one.
Then plenty of the regular beer, baseball, and the news.
Thanks for listening, folks!
Enjoy the show.
If you enjoy our podcast, please tell your friends about us and take a couple extra minutes and rate and review us on iTunes. Ratings and reviews are how we pay for beer when we’re between paychecks.
Sunday Morning Comic Relief
Ok.. comic isn’t quite the word here but I laughed…
First watch this incredible bit of baseball instinct played out..
Second, watch the (unfortunately narrated) hitter/pitcher interaction.
JC’s ALS Icebucket Challenge
Over the Labor Day Weekend, John Bonnes (aka TwinsGeek) over at TwinsDaily.com issued an ALS Icebucket Challenge to all of the TwinsDaily writers. Since I write a weekly Cedar Rapids Kernles report (most weeks anyway) at TD, I assumed this included me. Maybe I should have clarified that to make sure, but I didn’t.
Besides, John pledged $50 to ALS for each of the TD writers who accepted his challenge and, if nothing else, I like the idea of dipping in to Geek’s pocketbook.
With that said, here’s my challenge video:
As you heard, assuming you played the video, I’ve challenged each of my fellow Knuckleballs bloggers (Eric, Kristie and Babs) to follow suit.
In hindsight, I realized that perhaps Eric was included in the TwinsDaily challenge, since he, too, contributes at TD.
In any event, as John did, I’m pledging $50 to the ALS Foundation for each of my fellow Knuckleballs bloggers that follows through on the challenge.
In the event any/all of them have already done the challenge, all I’ll need is video evidence of such and I’ll make good on the pledge.
– JC
Sunday Morning Comic Relief
I’m fairly sure that this wasn’t INTENDED to be as funny as it comes across… especially since it is Kevin Correia pitching.. Can you imagine what the guys are thinking? wonder what their reaction was to putting this in the play book! That would have been HILARIOUS to listen to radio play x play guy try to describe that! At least the TV guy helped with scoring instructions.
Weekend Wrap Up: Kernels Clinch, Pub Crawl, MLB Blackouts
A lot of stuff has happened over the past few days.
Kernels are Playoff bound
First, the Cedar Rapids Kernels clinched a Midwest League playoff spot.
Whether they did this Saturday or Sunday is a bit hazy, but what’s certain is that the Kernels will be playing baseball beyond the scheduled end of the regular season on Labor Day. This makes the Kernels a perfect 2 for 2 qualifying for playoff work since affiliating with the Minnesota Twins.
Going strictly by “magic number,” the Kernels qualified for the playoffs on Sunday, when Peoria fell to Clinton. However, as Jim Ecker at MetroSportsReport.com pointed out, tie-breaking criteria favored the Kernels over Peoria, so in fact Cedar Rapids apears to have wrapped up their postseason spot late Saturday night.
Most likely, the Kernels will open the playoffs with a best of three series against Burlington. They would host Burlington on September 3 and then travel to Burlington for games 2 and 3 (if necessary) on September 4 and 5, respectively.
Unfortunately, I was not in attendance when the Kernels clinched, regardless of whether you consider that to have occurred Saturday or Sunday.
“Touch ’em All”
Instead, I joined 100 or so Twins fans taking part in the second “Touch ’em All Pub Crawl” sponsored by Twins Daily/Gleeman & the Geek.
The “Crawl” involved stopping at several establishments along the Twin Cities’ light rail line and ending with attendance at the Twins game Saturday night. It officially started at the Barrio Tequila Bar in St. Paul at noon, but since I was staying out in the southern ‘burbs and wanted to eat breakfast downtown at Hell’s Kitchen before getting started, I’d already spent at least 90 minutes on the rail before ever getting to the start of the official event over in St. Paul.
It was a great time, offering opportunities to renew friendships from prior TwinsDaily events and to meet even more fellow Twins fans for the first time. I’m always surprised how many people at these things have read the stuff I contributed to Knuckleballs and to TwinsDaily.
It was a great time with great people, all of whom just happen to be fans of a pretty poor baseball team. Despite that, the only real negative comment I heard was from Star Tribune Twins beat writer, Phil Miller, who thought the Kernels camo jersey I was wearing was ugly.
Hey, you can’t please everyone, right? And I enjoyed talking to Miller, once we moved away from fashion-related topics.
It really was a good time and I appreciate the TwinsDaily guys and Aaron Gleeman going to the effort to put it together. I always enjoy the events they organize.
Blackout News
Finally, some of you that have been reading Knuckleballs for a while may recall one (or more) of my rants concerning MLB’s TV blackout rules. Those rules result in Iowa residents being unable to watch games involving six diferent teams, the Twins, Brewers, Cubs, White Sox, Cardinals and Royals, online via MLB.tv.
Late last week, the Star Tribune posted a story quoting MLB’s head of online business, Bob Bowman, as saying that baseball is nearing a solution that will allow people to watch their hometown teams online, if they are also subscribers to cable and/or satellite services.
That’s great for people in Minneapolis that want to watch the Twins on their mobile devices.
I’m guessing it’s still not good news for Iowans.
As crazy as it sounds, what seems most likely to happen is that MLB will broker a deal to allow people who already have access to Twins games via their local cable company to also have access online. Meanwhile, those of us in areas where FSN is not even an option via cable will continue to be blacked out.
I do understand the theory. We are supposed to individually get so up in arms over this that we all march on our local Mediacom office and demand that they pay FSN whatever they want for fees to get the regional sports channel added to our Eastern Iowa cable options.
That hasn’t happened yet, it’s not happening now and it won’t happen… ever.
However, given that MLB and the teams let the regional sports networks set whatever they want as the “home market” geographic footprint (because, after all, those rights fees are pretty much the major thing propping up MLB teams’ revenues), it’s pretty clear that any relief from the bizarre and antiquated blackout rules for places like Iowa, Las Vegas and North Carolina, which several teams claim as part of their “home market,” isn’t likely happening either.
Instead, what I expect is that we’ll see MLB, under their new Commissioner, Rob Manfred, address the online issue for fans who could already watch their favorite teams on TV. Then, they’ll claim they’ve “solved” this problem and ignore the fact that they’ve solved nothing for the fans in areas like Iowa.
Maybe I’m wrong and there will indeed be a solution for the rest of us. But, given the selection of a Commissioner who got the gig basically by promising to be “Bud Light,” I’m not expecting anything remotely close to real solutions to any of MLB’s biggest challenges.
I’d be really happy to be proven wrong, of course.
Finally, a few pictures from Saturday’s “Touch ’em All Pub Crawl.”
