7/18/08
Today is the first day back after the All-Star break. Here is a recap...
Joe Mauer was voted in as the starting catcher on AL team. Justin Morneau and Joe Nathan were selected as reserves.
On late Sunday, Justin Morneau was selected to be part of the Home Run Derby the following day. He was the last selection but only after the likes of Alex Rodriguez, Jason Giambi and the herculian Ichiro said thanks, but no thanks. So Morneau sheepishly accepted the invite and went to the derby. He ended up going toe to toe with former heroine addict Josh Hamilton of the Texas Rangers in the finals. Morneau edged him out 5-3 taking home the trophy for the derby that he was never supposed to be invited to.
Tuesday night was the All-Star game where it went past 12:00am on into the 15th inning. In the bottom of the 15th Justin Morneau scored from 3rd base on a sac fly to win the game. Little do the Twins know or even care now, but once they make it to the World Series they are going to thank Justin Morneau and his "piano on the back" running style for earning them home field advantage.
Now on to tonight where the Twins return for the second half of the season. The Rangers are in town where I'm sure Morneau is rekindling his Home Run Derby memories with Josh Hamilton, maybe even letting him hold the trophy that he actually more deserved.
9:35pm The Twins lead 6-0 in the bottom of the 8th. They really got it going right now. At this moment they have 15 hits tonight but nothing more than a double. Now that's Twins baseball!!
Friday, July 18, 2008
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
7/8/08
7/8/08
Let us start on a positive note. Two days ago the Twins had 3 players selected to this year's All-Star game to be held at Yankee Stadium. Joe Mauer was selected by the fans to start the game behind the dish. Justin Morneau and Joe Nathan we selected as reserves for the American League team.
Now to some not so great news....
The Twins began a 3 game series last night in Boston. The Twins played a great game which was tied 0-0 going into the bottom of the 8th. Manny Ramirez hit a go ahead single and the Red Sox went on to win 1-0. Big ups to Scott Baker who "threw the ball good". That is a favorite Ron Gardenhire quote of mine.
Tonight the Twins and Nick Blackburn got out to a 5-2 lead before turning it over to the bullpen in the 8th. Once again Manny Ramirez did the dirty work by hitting a 2 run homer to tie the game. In the top of the ninth Nick Punto had one of the greater at bats of the year leading off the inning. He had a 12 pitch at bat against Jonathan Papelbon in which he doubled to center. Denard Span bunted him over to 3rd. So we got Punto on 3rd with one out. All we need is a fly ball or base hit. Jason Kubel strikes out and then Alexi Casilla grounds out to second. The Twins lose their 2nd game in a row. Thankfully tomorrow's game is a day game which isn't televised. I'm not sure I can take another game like the last couple.
50-40
Let us start on a positive note. Two days ago the Twins had 3 players selected to this year's All-Star game to be held at Yankee Stadium. Joe Mauer was selected by the fans to start the game behind the dish. Justin Morneau and Joe Nathan we selected as reserves for the American League team.
Now to some not so great news....
The Twins began a 3 game series last night in Boston. The Twins played a great game which was tied 0-0 going into the bottom of the 8th. Manny Ramirez hit a go ahead single and the Red Sox went on to win 1-0. Big ups to Scott Baker who "threw the ball good". That is a favorite Ron Gardenhire quote of mine.
Tonight the Twins and Nick Blackburn got out to a 5-2 lead before turning it over to the bullpen in the 8th. Once again Manny Ramirez did the dirty work by hitting a 2 run homer to tie the game. In the top of the ninth Nick Punto had one of the greater at bats of the year leading off the inning. He had a 12 pitch at bat against Jonathan Papelbon in which he doubled to center. Denard Span bunted him over to 3rd. So we got Punto on 3rd with one out. All we need is a fly ball or base hit. Jason Kubel strikes out and then Alexi Casilla grounds out to second. The Twins lose their 2nd game in a row. Thankfully tomorrow's game is a day game which isn't televised. I'm not sure I can take another game like the last couple.
50-40
Monday, June 30, 2008
6/30/08
6/30/08
Wheeeeeeew!!! Daddy's back!!
I just crawled out of an early Summer coma aka I've been hanging out with my girlfriend a lot. That will be the last time this year I use that excuse for anything baseball or anything sports related for that matter. I can't afford to miss much more especially because of how well the Twinsies are playing. How appropriate that the last time I published a post it was the first day of June. Today? The last day of June. In case you were buried the last few weeks like me, the Twins finished Interleague play with the best record in baseball. They went 14-4 against the likes of Randy Johnson, Brandon Webb, Jake Peavy, Greg Maddux and Ben Sheets. That is some quality stuff. During that stretch, the Twin managed to rip off a 10 game winning streak
Tonight they are playing the Tigers in their first Intraleague game in quite some time. On a side note, I first learned the difference between the prefix inter and intra in my Quantitative Methods class back in college. Thank you Professor Morie.
8:02pm The Tigers pitcher facing Joe Mauer intentionally threw behind him on pitch 1. On pitch 2 he tried to hit him again and missed. What the hell is this dude doing? Throwing at Joe Mauer is like rooting for Rudy not to get in his final game at Notre Dame. By the way, Gardy just got tossed for standing up for Mauer.
Now, the Twins have been playing great, but they can't seem to catch the White Sox who also have it going on right now. They currently trail the Pale Hose by 1.5 games in the Central. I was watching the White Sox v. Cubs on Saturday afternoon and the announcer says, "no matter how much you think the Twins might be out of the race, you can never count them out". So sweet coming from Ken "Hawk" Harrelson!!!
Lets keep a good thing going and take another month off from blogging....joking....I'll be back soon to report on the recent happenings of the Twins.
45-37
Wheeeeeeew!!! Daddy's back!!
I just crawled out of an early Summer coma aka I've been hanging out with my girlfriend a lot. That will be the last time this year I use that excuse for anything baseball or anything sports related for that matter. I can't afford to miss much more especially because of how well the Twinsies are playing. How appropriate that the last time I published a post it was the first day of June. Today? The last day of June. In case you were buried the last few weeks like me, the Twins finished Interleague play with the best record in baseball. They went 14-4 against the likes of Randy Johnson, Brandon Webb, Jake Peavy, Greg Maddux and Ben Sheets. That is some quality stuff. During that stretch, the Twin managed to rip off a 10 game winning streak
Tonight they are playing the Tigers in their first Intraleague game in quite some time. On a side note, I first learned the difference between the prefix inter and intra in my Quantitative Methods class back in college. Thank you Professor Morie.
8:02pm The Tigers pitcher facing Joe Mauer intentionally threw behind him on pitch 1. On pitch 2 he tried to hit him again and missed. What the hell is this dude doing? Throwing at Joe Mauer is like rooting for Rudy not to get in his final game at Notre Dame. By the way, Gardy just got tossed for standing up for Mauer.
Now, the Twins have been playing great, but they can't seem to catch the White Sox who also have it going on right now. They currently trail the Pale Hose by 1.5 games in the Central. I was watching the White Sox v. Cubs on Saturday afternoon and the announcer says, "no matter how much you think the Twins might be out of the race, you can never count them out". So sweet coming from Ken "Hawk" Harrelson!!!
Lets keep a good thing going and take another month off from blogging....joking....I'll be back soon to report on the recent happenings of the Twins.
45-37
Sunday, June 1, 2008
6/1/08
6/1/08
Now officially two months into the season it is safe to say the Twins are a contender for the AL Central crown. The Twins have the exact same record (28-27) that they did last year at this time. They currently stand in second place; 2 games behind the White Sox.
Back on May 2nd I predicted the Twins would have a .500 month of May. Well I was pretty damn close as they finished the month of May 15-13. Joe Mauer and Michael Cuddyer recently vowed to not shave their beards until they hit a home run. Well, Cuddyer got his last night but Mauer might as well lock away his razors for the rest of the year. It is hard to believe but our 6-5, 230 lb catcher has zero home runs. Just for comparison, the Major League leader in HR's is Chase Utley (6-1, 200 lbs) with 19.
I'm looking forward to the month of June as the Twins play a majority of their games against the National League. Even if they begin to slide in the standings at least I'll get a chance to see the Twins play a National League style of ball, which it seems their team is more suited for.
12:03 pm....Just received a call from my boss offering me 2 tickets to the Twins-Yankees game today. I passed up the tickets being that it will be 80 and sunny today. I don't pass up tickets very often so this may not be a promising sign of my loyalty to the team this year.
28-27
Now officially two months into the season it is safe to say the Twins are a contender for the AL Central crown. The Twins have the exact same record (28-27) that they did last year at this time. They currently stand in second place; 2 games behind the White Sox.
Back on May 2nd I predicted the Twins would have a .500 month of May. Well I was pretty damn close as they finished the month of May 15-13. Joe Mauer and Michael Cuddyer recently vowed to not shave their beards until they hit a home run. Well, Cuddyer got his last night but Mauer might as well lock away his razors for the rest of the year. It is hard to believe but our 6-5, 230 lb catcher has zero home runs. Just for comparison, the Major League leader in HR's is Chase Utley (6-1, 200 lbs) with 19.
I'm looking forward to the month of June as the Twins play a majority of their games against the National League. Even if they begin to slide in the standings at least I'll get a chance to see the Twins play a National League style of ball, which it seems their team is more suited for.
12:03 pm....Just received a call from my boss offering me 2 tickets to the Twins-Yankees game today. I passed up the tickets being that it will be 80 and sunny today. I don't pass up tickets very often so this may not be a promising sign of my loyalty to the team this year.
28-27
Monday, May 26, 2008
5/26/08
5/26/08
We are exactly 50 games into the season and the Twins are about right where I figured they would be: 25-25. It hasn't been either an exciting season nor a bore of a season. They've fought through many injuries and lack of power in the lineup (1 total homerun for Joe Mauer, Michael Cuddyer and Delmon Young). Yesterday the Twins finished up a 20 games in 20 days stretch. During that time they were 9-10, which included their first ever trip to Colorado. I have a hard time believing I could ever work 20 consecutive days, and I sell laws books for a living!! I'm actually tired just thinking about that stretch. That's all for now.
25-25
We are exactly 50 games into the season and the Twins are about right where I figured they would be: 25-25. It hasn't been either an exciting season nor a bore of a season. They've fought through many injuries and lack of power in the lineup (1 total homerun for Joe Mauer, Michael Cuddyer and Delmon Young). Yesterday the Twins finished up a 20 games in 20 days stretch. During that time they were 9-10, which included their first ever trip to Colorado. I have a hard time believing I could ever work 20 consecutive days, and I sell laws books for a living!! I'm actually tired just thinking about that stretch. That's all for now.
25-25
Sunday, May 11, 2008
5/11/08
5/11/08
First off, Happy Mothers Day. The Twins are on ESPN tonight which means the whole country will be able to see the players wearing their pink wrist bands and swinging their mighty pink bats.
The Twins-Red Sox series is tied 1-1 so far. Friday night was an extremely exciting finish as Mike Lamb singled home 2 runners in the bottom of the ninth with two outs to win 7-6. Two things I took away from being at Friday night's game: 1.) There are a hell of a lot of Red Sox fans in Minnesota all of the sudden. That team must have the most bandwagon fans in the country except for maybe the Yankees. 2.) It is still very possible to get drunk on 3.2 beer.
Last night we celebrated my brother Luke's 13th birthday at the Metrodome. Let's just say if this was 2010, there wouldn't have been a game played. It rained all day yesterday which means I have to thank the Metrodome. Dammit, I hate doing that. The game was a circus last night. Not so much on the field, but in the left field seats where I swear we were surrounded by people for an open casting call to a sequel for Pee Wee's Big Adventure. There was man sitting directly in front of my Mom who had a 4 inch gap of missing teeth. A guy behind me who at one point during the game started muttering "I've got cramps in my leg, I've got cramps in my leg" repeatedly like he was Rain Man. A 7-year old kid in the middle of the row thought he was getting free cotton candy from the vendor, but when the vendor asked him for the money, the Dad of the kid asked "how much"? The vendor said "3 bucks" The Dad then told his kid to throw it back, which the kid did, but instead hit another kid in the side of the face knocking the bottle of pop he was drinking out of his hand.
Finally, at one point of the night the inflatable beach ball started getting tossed around. After about 5 minutes, the usher grabbed it and popped it. A guy sitting a few rows behind me screamed out "You're fat" to the woman usher. Jeez dude, have some class. No less than 15 minutes later some brilliant kid improvised and created his own balloon to toss around. Only this wasn't a balloon or a beach ball. This was blown up condom that continued to be batted around the Family section for about 10 minutes. The reaction on some people's faces were absolutely priceless. The little kids doing their darnedest to get their hands on "the balloon" and the parents doing their best to dodge the used/unused (still debatable) condom away from their face.
The game itself was a loss 5-2.
18-17 *First Place
First off, Happy Mothers Day. The Twins are on ESPN tonight which means the whole country will be able to see the players wearing their pink wrist bands and swinging their mighty pink bats.
The Twins-Red Sox series is tied 1-1 so far. Friday night was an extremely exciting finish as Mike Lamb singled home 2 runners in the bottom of the ninth with two outs to win 7-6. Two things I took away from being at Friday night's game: 1.) There are a hell of a lot of Red Sox fans in Minnesota all of the sudden. That team must have the most bandwagon fans in the country except for maybe the Yankees. 2.) It is still very possible to get drunk on 3.2 beer.
Last night we celebrated my brother Luke's 13th birthday at the Metrodome. Let's just say if this was 2010, there wouldn't have been a game played. It rained all day yesterday which means I have to thank the Metrodome. Dammit, I hate doing that. The game was a circus last night. Not so much on the field, but in the left field seats where I swear we were surrounded by people for an open casting call to a sequel for Pee Wee's Big Adventure. There was man sitting directly in front of my Mom who had a 4 inch gap of missing teeth. A guy behind me who at one point during the game started muttering "I've got cramps in my leg, I've got cramps in my leg" repeatedly like he was Rain Man. A 7-year old kid in the middle of the row thought he was getting free cotton candy from the vendor, but when the vendor asked him for the money, the Dad of the kid asked "how much"? The vendor said "3 bucks" The Dad then told his kid to throw it back, which the kid did, but instead hit another kid in the side of the face knocking the bottle of pop he was drinking out of his hand.
Finally, at one point of the night the inflatable beach ball started getting tossed around. After about 5 minutes, the usher grabbed it and popped it. A guy sitting a few rows behind me screamed out "You're fat" to the woman usher. Jeez dude, have some class. No less than 15 minutes later some brilliant kid improvised and created his own balloon to toss around. Only this wasn't a balloon or a beach ball. This was blown up condom that continued to be batted around the Family section for about 10 minutes. The reaction on some people's faces were absolutely priceless. The little kids doing their darnedest to get their hands on "the balloon" and the parents doing their best to dodge the used/unused (still debatable) condom away from their face.
The game itself was a loss 5-2.
18-17 *First Place
Thursday, May 8, 2008
5/8/08
5/8/08
After a night where the Twins came within 2 outs of becoming a part of history by getting no-hit, they made a little history of their own. Carlos Gomez did what hasn't been done by a Twin in 22 years; hit for the cycle. Kirby Puckett (R.I.P) was the last guy to do it back in 1986. It also seemed to me that throwing a no-hitter would be tougher than hitting for the cycle, but history proves that there have been more no-hitters thrown. That proves true for the Twins as well being that they have thrown 2 no-hitters since they last hit for the cycle. The impressive thing about the cycle was that he did it in reverse order (HR, triple, double, single). How many guys have done that?!?
Yes I know that I should be excited about Gomez hitting for the cycle, but last night while I was watching the game, I fell asleep in the bottom of the 8th inning. Gomez was due to lead off the top of the ninth. Sure enough he hits the single he needs and becomes part of Twins history.
I pride myself on being a die-hard fan and when something likes this happens it becomes time to re-evaluate my pride. There is no excuse for what I did last night except for the fact that there was a 1 1/2 hour rain delay before the game. I'll lace 'em up tight next game and surely wear my emotions on my sleeve.
Twins win 13-1 and maintain a 1.5 game lead in first place.
17-15 *First Place
After a night where the Twins came within 2 outs of becoming a part of history by getting no-hit, they made a little history of their own. Carlos Gomez did what hasn't been done by a Twin in 22 years; hit for the cycle. Kirby Puckett (R.I.P) was the last guy to do it back in 1986. It also seemed to me that throwing a no-hitter would be tougher than hitting for the cycle, but history proves that there have been more no-hitters thrown. That proves true for the Twins as well being that they have thrown 2 no-hitters since they last hit for the cycle. The impressive thing about the cycle was that he did it in reverse order (HR, triple, double, single). How many guys have done that?!?
Yes I know that I should be excited about Gomez hitting for the cycle, but last night while I was watching the game, I fell asleep in the bottom of the 8th inning. Gomez was due to lead off the top of the ninth. Sure enough he hits the single he needs and becomes part of Twins history.
I pride myself on being a die-hard fan and when something likes this happens it becomes time to re-evaluate my pride. There is no excuse for what I did last night except for the fact that there was a 1 1/2 hour rain delay before the game. I'll lace 'em up tight next game and surely wear my emotions on my sleeve.
Twins win 13-1 and maintain a 1.5 game lead in first place.
17-15 *First Place
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