Tag Archives: Roger Clemens

Don’t Blame “Those Damn Yankees”

Posted on by

The Twins, according to legend, are afraid of the Yankees. And you know what, after some quick post-season exits at the hands of the Yankees, that is a pretty easy narrative to build.  Add in the fact that the Twins have struggled to beat the Yankees in the regular season, despite the Twins having fairly successful regular season teams for most of the 2000’s, and you begin to see how that narrative continues to grow.

Johan Santana
Johan Santana

In the 11 years between 2000 and 2010 the Twins compiled a .537 winning percentage, going 957-826.  During that same span the Twins went 25-57 against the New York Yankees, a .325 winning percentage.  Take out the 77 games against the Yankees and the Twins are 163 games above .500 instead of just 131.  That is a significant bump.  During that same time period the Twins played the Yankees four times in the post-season, managing to win just two games, while losing 12, swept in 2009 and 2010.  That brings the Twins’ 11-year record against the Yankees to 27-69 (.281).  That is bad, almost as bad as the 2003 Detroit Tigers (43-119), the worst team of the last 50 years.

During that same 11-year span the Yankees were 1060-718, only had a losing record against one American League team (Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, 45-54), and won two World Series titles (and losing in the World Series two other times).  So clearly the Yankees were a better team than the Twins over that same time period, but the Yankees’ .596 winning percentage is not so much larger than the Twins’ .537 that you would expect the Twins fail so miserably against the Yankees during the span.

Assuming each team’s regular season winning percentages represented their true talent over those 11 years, the Yankees should have beaten the Twins only about 53% of the time, not the nearly 72% clip they had over that same span.  So what gives?  Why did the Yankees perform so well against the Minnesota Twins, especially in the post season?

For me, it comes down to roster construction, and specifically the postseason pitching rotations, where teams often turn to only their top three or four pitchers.

2003

Game (score, winner) Twins (starting pitcher) Yankees (starting pitcher)
1 (3-1 Twins) Johan Santana Mike Mussina
2 (1-4 Yankees) Brad Radke Andy Pettitte
3 (1-3 Yankees) Kyle Lohse Roger Clemens
4 (1-8 Yankees) Johan Santana David Wells

The Twins, with a lack of depth in their starting rotation chose to go back to their ace on four days of rest, facing elimination in Game 4.  The Yankees, alternatively, felt strong enough to run out David Wells (4.14 ERA, 4.3K/9, essentially a league average pitcher in 2003 despite his 15-7 W/L record) knowing that should they be pushed to a decisive Game 5 they could turn to Mike Mussina, their ace, against Brad Radke (4.49 ERA and a pitch to contact friendly contact rate of 82.2%).

So while you would certainly expect the Twins to score more than 3 runs over their final 3 games in this series, outside of Santana the Twins certainly did not have a rotation that could even dream about keeping up with New York (and remember that the Kyle Lohse of 2003 (4.61 ERA) is a far cry from the pitcher he has been over the past three seasons).

2004 Continue reading Don’t Blame “Those Damn Yankees”→

Shakespeare Was Right

Posted on by

It’s probably the most famous quote about lawyers ever uttered. In “Henry VI”, Dick the butcher urges, “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.” If only Dick and Jack Cade and the rest had taken care of things properly back then. Maybe if Mr. Shakespeare had written that line for a character in one of his other plays… you know, one of the ones that people actually liked… instead of a play that was destined to be all but forgotten.

I work with (and for) lawyers. I’m surrounded by them. Most of them are pretty good people. Sure, they tend to look down their noses at anyone who isn’t a lawyer, but then again, so do doctors and William never wrote a line suggesting all physicians be disposed of.

But right now I’m tired of lawyers. Not so much because of my work (after all I’m compensated quite well to deal with the lawyers there), but because of what the sharks are doing to me… and all of us… elsewhere. I’m especially disgusted by the lawyers who masquerade as public servants. Legislators. Governors. Candidates for president. (’tis already Presidential Caucus season down here in Iowa… you can’t attend a county fair without bumping in to someone who wants to be the Leader Of The Free World. I’m probably the only resident of Iowa who’s happy about the slashing of ethanol subsidies. I’ve been waiting for 30 years for a Presidential Caucus where candidates would have to talk about something else when they invade our living rooms and coffee shops.)

They’re all annoying the hell out of me lately.

I’m even disgusted by the lawyers who led the state government of Minnesota to shut down… and I haven’t lived in that state since I was 13 years old.

But Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven Durham has sent me over the edge. I’m sorry, all of my friends who are lawyers, I know it’s not your fault and I know you’re good people with families who love you… but Durham’s actions have spelled doom for all of you. It’s time to be done with the whole lot of your ilk.

It’s bad enough that our federal government is spending millions of dollars to prosecute Roger Clemens (not to mention Barry Bonds and whoever else these lawyers think they can make a name for themselves by prosecuting), while we’re also being told that the country is broke and we all need to (a) pay more taxes, (b) expect fewer services, or most likely, (c) both.

Look, I get that a person shouldn’t be able to lie when he or she testifies before Congress. But if Congress is going to waste their time (and our money) grandstanding on an issue that is really nowhere near the top 100 issues they need to be investigating in the first place, then I really don’t give much of a flying fig if they get lied to.

I get that if a person lies under oath, he or she should face consequences, even if the circumstances that led to them testifying were stupid. And in the case of Clemens, I certainly have no sympathy for him, given that, in this case, my understanding is that he wasn’t even called to testify. This guy was so stupid that he ASKED to testify… and THEN lied when he testified. A guy like that should be locked up just for being stupid!

I think Mr. Durham and his co-workers could have busied themselves with much more important prosecutorial work than spending months (years?) preparing a lock-down case that was sure to put Clemens behind bars (or at least cost him a few million dollars in fines and his own lawyer fees).

But if you’re going to do all that, against my wishes, anyway…don’t screw it up!

Durham and the other lawyers spent days picking a jury. He bored everyone in the courtroom to death walking a former House parliamentarian through a discussion of what Congress does and why it’s so important. Granted, this may have been important, assuming the jurors are just as confused as the rest of us these days concerning why we should continue considering Congress to be important, but still…

Anyone in the courtroom still awake after that was treated to Durham guiding a Congressional staffer through the process of telling the jury how important the Committee for Oversight and Government Reform’s hearing testimony on steroid use in baseball was.

And then to emphasize all this, apparently, Mr. Durham started a video.

As I’ve mentioned, I know lawyers. I know good lawyers. I know bad lawyers. But I know that lawyers who make a living in court rooms go over every word… every gesture…every detail that they’re going to present to a jury. They go over it twice… three times… a hundred times.

So when, despite the judge’s pre-trial ruling that any testimony relating to Laura Pettite (wife of Andy) would be prejudicial to the jury and thus was off limits, the tape being showed to the court included references to that very thing… well… it’s really hard for me to believe it was an accident.

Durham is either a total moron or he intentionally disregarded the judge’s order.

Either way, the result is that all the money they (make that we, the taxpayers) paid to put Roger Clemens on trial went straight in the toilet. We have a mistrial one day in to the trial.

So now the process starts over. One side argues that charges should be dropped. The other side argues for a new trial. And we keep paying the bill. If the judge decides the screw up was intentional, the charges will be dismissed. So, in essence, Durham’s only chance at getting the judge to agree to a new trial is to convince that judge that he, Durham, is too stupid to live.

Since the only reason these prosecutors keep bringing these cases to trial is to get publicity, likely in order to improve their chances at higher political office… and since I’m realistic (and, hopefully, moral) enough to realize we shouldn’t actually kill all the lawyers… I hope you’ll all join me with in declaring we will never, ever, cast a single vote for anyone who wasted our tax money prosecuting one of these cases.

Let’s send the message out loud and clear. We do not need lawyers and politician-wannabes screwing up baseball.

We’ve got Bud Selig for that.

– JC

Roger Clemens - "Dumb" (Photo: Alex Brandon/AP)
Steven Durham - "Dumber" (Photo: Elise Miller/NYDaily News

 

 

Twins History Lesson: May 17-23

Posted on by

UPDATE: I didn’t want to create a brand new post this morning, but as I was perusing through a few sites, I came across a couple of items that I thought others might enjoy. So, if you have a few minutes, check out:

This article by the PioneerPress’ Brian Murphy on Twins LOOGY, Ron Mahay. Did you know… Mahay came up through the Red Sox organization as an outfielder and made it to the Bigs in that capacity… and is one of two remaining “Replacement Players” who filled in during the strike of 1994-95… leading to him not being entitled to any licensing royalties from the MLBPA (and thus explaining the mysterious “Ryan Moss” in the Twins bullpen in the MLB 2K10 video game)… which led to him eventually having a closed-door “come-to-Jesus” meeting with Roger Clemens… which came shortly before throwing his first bullpen session (in Australia) and earning $20 bucks on a bet from his manager there (who promptly called the Sox and told them to make Mahay a pitcher)… leading to a nearly 10-year MLB career during which he’s played for 9 different teams, 5 of them (counting the Twins) twice. Yes, I know I’ve irritated some people by communicating my support for Mahay, but beware… after reading this article, I like the guy even more. Talk about persistence!

And over here in Curve for a Strike, we get to go along on a weekend’s worth of Twins games at the new Death Star, culminating in Kubel’s “cleansing breath” of a grand slam HR. Good stuff, along with accompanying pictures!

***********************************************

This week sees the anniversaries of a few more Twins “firsts” as well as  several more noteworthy games in Twins history*.

May 17 has seen a couple of terrific performances over the years.

1963: Bob Allison became the first Twin to hit 3 home runs in one game. Hit hit a HR to LF, CF and RF in his final 3 ABs against the Tribe in an eventual 11-4 Twins win. Only 3 Twins have accomplished the same feat that Allison did. You may recognize their names: Killebrew, Oliva and Morneau.

1998: The Twins were on the wrong end when David Wells of the Yankees threw the 13th perfect game in MLB history against the twins in a 4-0 win for the Evil Empire.

Likewise, May 18 has witnessed a couple of impressive games:

1969: You couldn’t blame Tiger AllStar battery Mickey Lolich and Bill Freehan if they said the 3rd inning of their game vs. the Twins on this date was the worst inning in their respective careers. In that one inning, Rod Carew stole 2B, 3B and home… and Cesar Tovar stole 3B and home the same inning, tying a MLB record.

1983: The Twins defeated the A’s 16-5 as they rolled off 18 hits (including 6 doubles and a HR) off of A’s pitching in the first 6 innings of the game, behind Frank Viola (who hadn’t won a game since August of the prior season). A’s third baseman Wayne Gross pitched the final 2 1/3 innings for the A’s… holding the Twins scoreless.

May 19, 1961 saw the first grand slam home run hit by a Minnesota Twin when Dan Dobbek went yard with bases loaded off of Kansas City A’s pitcher Ed Rakow.

We could write an entire post just listing the interesting events that have taken place on May 20 over the years. With some difficulty, I’ve culled them down to the following:

1962: Relief pitcher Ray Moore became the first Twins pitcher to both win and lose a game on the same day as he took the loss in the first game of a double header at Yankee Stadium and got the W in the second game.

1970: Rod Carew became the first Twin to hit for the cycle in a 10-5 victory over the Royals.

1984: The Twins lost 5-4 to Boston. Roger Clemens K’d 7 Twins in 7 innings for his first MLB win. He would go on to win a few more.

1989: Two Twins entered the record books during a 19-3 win over the Rangers in Arlington. Dan Gladden had 7 plate appearances in a 9 inning game, tying a record, and Randy Bush tied a Twins record with 8 RBI.

1994: Scott Erickson’s hot start to the season hit a road bump when he was scratched from his start after developing a stiff back warming up. Rookie Carlos Pulido, who hadn’t pitched in 10 days, got the start and retired 9 of the first 10 RedSox he faced. Meanwhile, the Twins forged a 10-0 lead through 3 innings and added 11 more runs in the 5th inning, on the way to a 21-2 win. The Twins offense was led by Kirby Puckett, who knocked in a career high 7 RBI in just 3 ABs. The next night, the Twins beat the RedSox again, on a 1-0 score.

1995: Rookie Marty Cordova tied a record for rookies by hitting a home run in his fifth consecutive game.

2005: Carlos Silva used only 74 pitches in a complete game win over the Brewers.

Besides being the day when (in 1999) the Twins acquired Kyle Lohse from the Cubs for Rick Aguilera (there were a couple of other players included as well), May 21 is perhaps best remembered as the date the Twins took the field in 2009 at US Cellular Field for the final game of road trip that had seen them drop four straight (2 in Extra Innings) to the Evil Empire and two more to the BitchSox. The Twins released a week’s worth of frustration on the Tidy Whities in a 20-1 win that was the worst defeat for Chicago in the franchise’s history.

May 22 has been just marginally more eventful:

1981: After 8 straight losses, John Goryl was fired as manager of the Twins and replaced by Billy Gardner. The Twins celebrated with a 7-0 shutout of KC.

2002: In what could have been an eventful day in Twins history, Governor Jesse Ventura signed a bill in to law approving financing of a new open-air stadium for the Twins. The Twins were eventually unable to meet the terms laid out in the deal and it expired. Almost 8 years later, the Twins are finally playing in their new ballpark.

2009: Michael Cuddyer became the second Twin to hit for the cycle in the 2009 season as he went 4-5 in an 11-3 win over the Brewers.

The week winds down with a bit of a slow date in Twins history, with May 23:

1991: The Twins wasted a 6-hit game by Kirby Puckett in a 10-6 Extra Inning loss to the Texas Rangers.

2009: Anthony Swarzak became the first Twins starting pitcher to record 7 scoreless innings in his MLB debut.

So that’s this upc0ming week in Twins history! Let’s see if the 2010 team can generate a few highlights this week that we can look back on in future years!

-JC

*We pull this information from a few different sources, including (but not necessarily limited to) Dave Wright’s excellent book, “162-0, The Greatest Wins!”, as well as some  internet sites like “Twins Trivia” and “National Pastime”.