Weather: 67°F, partly cloudy
Wind: 2 mph, out to CF
Attendance: 13,138
Time: 2:50
Twins record: 6-10 (tied for last in AL Central, 6.0 GB)
Fangraphs boxscore | MLB Game Wrap
Highlights:
- Highest WPA, hitter: Butera .224 (2-4, 1 2b, 3 RBI) | Highest WPA, pitcher: Hoey .236 (1.1 IP, K)
- Jim Hoey's firefighting in his Twins debut
- The Twins have now managed to string two wins together for the first time this season.
Lowlights:
- Lowest WPA, hitter: Span, -.087 (0-5, 2 SO) | Lowest WPA, pitcher: Mijares, .020 (0.1 IP, HBP)
- Top 5 hitters in the order: 2-21, R, 8 SO
- Tolbert: still batting second
- Chris Guccione's kaleidoscope eyes
Given the night the top five batters in the order had, there's no way the Twins could have expected to win this game. Not with one of the four remaining spots in the lineup featuring a middle infielder with a bat -34.7 runs above average in 1108 career plate appearances. Not with one of the three remaining slots featuring a backup catcher, forced into a starting role, whose bat was worth -10.3 runs above average in 2010. Yet that backup catcher knocked in three of the evening's five runs and secured the win with what, thanks to some shaky ninth inning relief, proved to be a key run-producing double late in the game.
The Twins clearly lugged their diseased lumber with them to Baltimore. The big sticks remain a-slumber, as if Winter still holds a forest of good wood in thrall. The winter can't last forever, guys, no matter if it dumps six inches of wet stuff near Grand Rapids, or threatens Albert Lea with 2-3" of snow and sleet. Winter knows it's on its way out and is getting some last licks in. Snowblowers and shovels will be soon make their way to the back of the garage. Gloves and jackets are headed for bins and hooks in downstairs closets. Frozen timber will soon thaw as Spring takes its place in the sun. Good things are coming, gentlemen. You can hear it in the air if you listen hard enough. The inevitable thawing sounds like the faint crack of a bat and roar of a crowd. Last night that crack was an unexpected double to center, and the roar was mostly heard in living rooms across a northern land. It'll get louder. Trust me; Spring is nearly here.
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Since we've been in the West for the first couple installments, let's shed our bias and head out East for this week's View from the Ballpark:
Photo by Flickr user mah_japan and used in compliance with the Creative Commons guidelines established by the rights holder.
Near as I can tell, you mean Far East...all the tea in China?
That fencing along the top of the fence looks a lot like the one in this clip from Japan. I'm not sure if the Hiroshima Toyo Carp or Yokohoma are the home team. Time for a little digging.
Nope, I think it's Koshien Stadium. The light structures look the same as in this picture.
Koshien Stadium is the home of the Hanshin Tigers, former team of Lew Ford.
Looks like I've got to stop leaving the ball up. Was the initial clue too cute?
Actually, if Corn hadn't said anything, it wouldn't have occurred to me to go to Japan. So I went to the Wiki page for the NPB to find a team list, and the first picture is Koshien.
So I should have immediately deployed my second clue ("Babe Ruth played here.") to put people off the scent.
Just to be clear:
The reason behind all the questions is that I'm trying to establish for myself what the right level of difficulty is for these photos (and clues, if anyone feels those are welcome or necessary). Ideally I'd like to make them hard enough that it takes a little time and some conversation to figure out. I really look forward to posting one of these pictures every week and showing off a little side of baseball from somewhere else, but if they're too easy I think people (including me) will lose interest. Anything I can count on right now to get me through each next week is going to help.
Well if you click on the photo you can clearly see Japanese writing along the walls.
No embiggening allowed.
Well, I don't see that rule on this post but I assumed it carried over.
for me, the give-away was the credit to "mah_japan"'s flickr account.
Stifle's giggle Heh...mine too.
Edit: I'm an a*s and I don't pay attention...that is all.
I added the attribution after Andrew correctly guessed the ballpark. Given SBG's concerns pertaining to copyright of images, I'm confining myself to using CC-licensed images. I obviously can't post the attribution before someone correctly identifies the park, but as soon as I can afterward I'll properly identify the rights holder to keep us compliant.
ahh. that makes more sense then.
CH, put the attribution in the alt text for the image, then add a comment with the attribution after we reach that stage.
is alt-text what shows up when you hover on an image?
Alt text is what shows up when the image doesn't display for whatever reason. It used to be, and I think many browsers still do this, that the alt text would also show up if you hovered over the image. Now it's the title text that fulfills that purpose. The idea is the alt(ernate) text is there for screen readers or weirdos who use text-based browsers, so it should describe the image.
Is there a way I can induce the hover-mode, sean? bS has a good idea there.
I edited the post with it as a demo. The relevant HTML is:
title="Photo by mah_japan from flickr"
The hover part shows very quickly for me, so it might still give an unintentional hint for anyone that pauses over the image.
Thanks, sean. I'll have to add "don't choose photos owned by people with conspicuous usernames" to my growing list of photo criteria.
don't choose photos owned by people with conspicuous usernames
That rules out my photo, then.
I could always do what I did this week with your photo, Rhu_Ru. I'm still interested.
Yea, I actually meant the alt text, which would identify the photo (and, I presume, make the photo more identifiable to search engines) without displaying the incriminating evidence a la title text. That is, we can cover our collective butts (ok, sean's butt, since he owns the domain name) by properly identifying graphics that we are using in posts, e.g., pointing to evidence of a collective commons license or public domain or whatever, or claiming "fair use".
for example, in Rhu_ru baseball card post, what is the legal status of those images? Is it fair use on our part? I would think so, but I'm not intellectual property rights lawyer.
The title attribute is for xkcd-like snarky asides, backstories or explanations. Like, say, the seder plate photo I used for yesterday's game log.
I mistakenly believed that browsers still displayed the alt text as a fall back, but that appears to not be the case anymore. Or maybe never was except for IE before version 8.
Displaying attribution information in the alt text isn't quite right though, and I don't think using the title attribute is the right way either. However, for the sake of citing the source, bS' original suggestion is best.
sean and CH: I edited to also add the attribution to the alt text, but I don't see any difference when right-clicking the image and showing image info. There is an "Associated text" line with the attribution, but no new info after adding the alt text.
Is "Associated text" tied only to the title attribute, or to either alt or title? I didn't test to see what would happen if I removed the title or used different text for the alt tag.
I edited it again* to change the alt text to the answer in order to determine any difference. The "Associated text" seems to be Firefox's name for title text. A quick look didn't show the alt text anywhere except by either viewing the source directly (made easier by Firefox's ability to view selection source) or inspecting the element.
* I'm usually more hands off than this!
I'm usually more hands off than this!
I don't mind at all. I just want to do this the right way. It does seem, however, that things aren't set up to make it easy for folks to do the right thing/give proper credit. I hope judges hearing IP cases brought by litigious rights holders would bear that in mind.
* I'm usually more hands off than this!
don't worry. We will totally deny your disclaimer when we get deposed in court.
CH, in response to your initial question:
This one was difficult. See where I vaguely asked about China? In looking for distinguishing character
istics, I saw what looked like Asian characters under the light standard and on the outfield wall. I reallyhadhave no idea how to distinguish between Japanese/Chinese/Korean characters. But I thought a comment about the Far East would get the ball rolling.The problem is that some citizens have superslueth powers & the time to put them to use. Typically, the jig is up before it can start.
Typically, the jig is up before it can start.
I think that's true as well. So far we've had Isotopes Park, which someone immediately recognized, the Calgary park which someone immediately recognized, and this one, which was the first picture on the wikipage for Japan baseball. I think you've just had a bit of bad luck in selecting stadia that people already knew. Of course your task is made more difficult in that you're trying to give hints without featuring the team logo or anything so obvious. It just seems a bit unlucky so far. Take today - if it wasn't first result I wouldn't have found it so quickly.
You make a good point about luck, Andrew. I don't have time to reverse-engineered these, so I had no idea the wikipage would cut things so short.
Typically, the jig is up before it can start.
Corn, you can blame that one on my love for the brevity of two minute punk rock songs. Seriously, though, I'm just going to have to find a way to make these harder.
re: embiggening, I didn't forget to mention it this week so much as I didn't mention it because I don't want to become tedious. I'm plenty tedious on my own without repeating the same thing each week, but I suppose I can do it going forward.
Exactly. At this point, we know the rules. No need to keep drumming on them.
The MLB Highlights go to Sunday's Rays game. Here's yesterday's game.
That's frustrating. I was on the appropriate page last night when I copied the link. It's updated above to send everyone to the full wrap.
Also, the key hit in the ninth was a single. Thank you for keeping this new place half-baked
I thought Butters hit a double?
Play by Play
Ach, the two-run double was in the second inning. That's what I get for not reading the full recap.
It was nice to have a win that wasn't an absolute nail-biter. The potential tying run didn't even get to the plate in the ninth (for the first time all year in a win).
I was biting my nails in the 7th inning.
Good point, but in the 7th there are still some at-bats left to make up for past indiscretions. It was still close, for sure, just not the same degree of close as previous games this season.
CH, nice write up. With the weather we've had here in Twins Territory, I keep forgetting that it's spring...perhaps that's been the crew's downfall as well?
Nice work, CH. I will not get the shovels back out of summer storage. I'm done for the season, no matter what we get tonight.
The Twins clearly lugged their diseased lumber with them to Baltimore.
Darned ash borer beetles! The Twins should burn their firewood in Baltimore and start with new lumber when they come back to Minnesota.