...because really, why mention the baseball game from last night?
65 thoughts on “June 26, 2011: The Last Week of Working Retail”
We had one heck of an intense storm last night from about 11:45PM to 1:30AM. I'm pretty sure the rain gauge was emptied out beforehand, but it had 4½" in it this morning!
this year, instead of spring and summer, its been one big monsoon season in the Midwest
I got an e-mail titled "15 Free Books About Baseball!" so I went and checked it out. It truly was what it said. 15 free ready to read on-line books with no catch. Except I hadn't heard of any of them. One looked somewhat interesting. "Diamonds in the Rough: The Untold History of Baseball."
The second paragraph starts out with, "If you didn't collect baseball cards in your youth, can you really know what you're talking about?" What a perfect sentence for Bantam Bulwyr.
I've heard of that Diamonds in the Rough one, I think.
Do you have a link?
Edit: Alright, Googling "15 free books about baseball" put it right at the top. After seeing the cover to that one, I'm sure I knew about it already, but I'm not sure I knew of any others.
TomPelissero Joe Mauer won't play today. #Twins will practice him at first base when they get home, try to get him ready to play some there.
looks like tolbert and rivera are going to be here for awhile.
Expletive, expletive, expletive, etc.
Bottom four of lineup: Repko, Nishi, Butters and Pavano. No-hitter alert!!
I'm getting pretty tired of the constant "Joe Mauer isn't respected in the clubhouse" nonsense from the local media types. Just a year ago, fans would have stormed Target Field if they didn't give him a huge contract extension. Now, somehow, the favorite son is the team's biggest problem? I understand he's not hitting and he's been hurt, but fans, media, and fellow players need to give him more respect based on what he's accomplished in his career. If anyone deserves the benefit of the doubt it's Mauer.
It's annoying how that cycle works. Fans demand a long contract, get one, and immediately take the player in question to task no matter how he performs.
The thing is, there might be some truth to that nonsense about not being respected in the clubhouse. I'm sure there are at least a couple of guys in there who are jealous of the money, and would say the "play through the pain" crap that Eye-Eye used to say, despite the fact that he never did.
speaking of baseball yesterday, two titanic offenses did battle yesterday in SF, combining for 9 hits and one run. How did the run score, you ask?
- N. Schierholtz doubled to center, N. Schierholtz out at third (he slipped betw 2nd and 3rd and got caught in a run-down)
- M. Tejada safe at first on second baseman C. Phelps' throwing error
- C. Stewart popped out to shortstop
- M. Cain safe at first on second baseman C. Phelps' fielding error, M. Tejada to second
- T. Sipp relieved J. Masterson
- A. Torres walked, M. Tejada to third, M. Cain to second
- M. Tejada scored, M. Cain to third, A. Torres to second on balk
Yep. Two errors, a walk and a balk. Awesome.
Nice inning, C. Phelps.
I just got my Los Angeles address, which really drives home the reality of this thing.
The final tally: 2.6 miles from Dodger Stadium. Dodger Stadium tends to feature a lot of Dodger games, but I still want to go.
Also, Chrome doesn't recognize the words "Los" or "Angeles." That seems like a small failure.
I'm still waiting to hear JeffA's Gettysburg address.
Instead of yard work, I decided to make the ugliest strawberry-rhubarb pie of all time. I believe my pie crust skills need some work.
I made one last week. The crust looked good, but it was so thin it more or less disintegrated when we went to cut slices. It still tasted fantastic.
I think that is when I would tell everyone its not a pie, its a crisp. I made sure the crust was thick enough, but I think I did that at the expense of not having enough to close the edges, so there is some simple syrup laying on the bottom of my oven.
I do love strawberry season.
ugly means nothing. with strawberry-rhubarb, it's all about the taste, man!
I think that pretty well describes the majority of my cooking.
Call it a "cobbler". Scoop of vanilla? Win-Win.
That's the spirit!
Do you use lard in your crust?
This was my first attempt and I totally forgot about lard, so I just made it with butter. The crust did taste pretty decent, it was just really ugly.
God forbid that I agree with Grandpa Sports (and legally, I'm not sure that I do--I haven't listened to his Sidcast*, just surmising from the lede), but, I too, hope we're sellers at the trade deadline. We need an influx a boatload of young prospects. The cupboards at AA and AAA are awfully bare. (Emphasis on the awful.)
I just found out that my neice got herself a part time job as a graphic designer. For the Schell's Brewing Company. She'll go full time when she graduates from college next year.
That's pretty sweet. Does she get a friends and family discount on deer brand?
They brew Premium now, too, sir. (don't they?)
They do.
That's awesome! Does she get to relocate to the most beautiful town of NU, MN? Because I could give her outdated tips on what was cool there when I was a high schooler.
I hadn't realized that all the Schell's labels got so similar. Even Schmaltz's Alt matches that pattern if you click through for the current label.
Its still a nice looking label, but I liked the guy sitting there on the barrel they had before. That beer makes excellent beer brats, too.
Did you know that Joe Mauer let his team down by not volunteering to play a position he's never played before on Sunday? Check out tomorrow's paper for more!!!
I cannot stand this anymore! Just because Mauer has a 23 million dollar bullseye on his back doesn't make him the cause of all the Twins problems.
To be slightly fair to a writer that doesn't really deserve it, Souhan does go on to point out the middle infield is not working out and that the Brewers are much better than the Twins right now. Too bad he didn't write that part first, then think about the fact that replacing Hughes in the lineup with Mauer wasn't going to solve either of those problems.
Mauer's crime is that he didn't volunteer to play first base for a team desperate for hitting, leaving Gardenhire to play Luke Hughes out of position at first.
Ummmm.... wouldn't Joe be out of position at first?
Mauer has not only avoided volunteering to play first base for a team that wants him to do so, he has yet to even practice taking ground balls at first.
BECAUSE HE IS A CATCHER! CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT DANNY VALENCIA HASN'T VOLUNTEERED TO PLAY FIRST BASE? YOU KNOW LUKE HUGHES SHOULD BE PLAYING THIRD, RIGHT?!?!?!
He got called out by a lefthanded middle reliever over his pitch calls, a sure sign that Mauer is less popular in the clubhouse than the burned chicken.
A left-handed middle reliever who threw his wonderful slider to Prince Fielder today and it got crushed.
And yes, I did change one phrase in the above quote.
I like your version better.
Mauer has not only avoided volunteering to play first base for a team that wants him to do so, he has yet to even practice taking ground balls at first.
Luke Hughes was practicing/playing 1B during Spring Training. While he might be out of position, at least he knew he might be thrown into the fire at first this year.
Yep, that's the last time I'm going to read any of the crap that Souhan writes scrawls out with a crayon. Completely disregard my earlier post with its half-hearted defense of some of his "analysis". I won't be giving him the slightest benefit of a doubt from now on.
I think we should all do our best to get thrown out of the STrib comment section.
Is it possible to be barred from the Stribber's section? Not that I really want to go swimming in that cesspool, but it's funny to think about getting kicked out of a place with such low standards.
On thing I discovered by reading the comments is that Butters was on a tear during the winning streak (Jun 2nd-21st, 15-2 record).
In 6 starts and one AB after replacing Rivera, he hit 0.381/0.348/0.524/0.872. (Yeah, his OBP was .033 lower than his AVG due to a sac fly.) Something I did not notice, and I assumed the stribbie was exaggerating.
Over the same stretch, Rivera hit 0.059/0.111/0.118/0.229.
I think we need to encourage a boycott of Shecky around here, especially links. That's only encouraging the STrib to keep this "columnist" around. Did you know he didn't even volunteer to write the game story? And he used to do what Joe C. does. Just an overpaid wuss, I tell you.
I've wanted to bring this up but haven't for some reason. I'd certainly be in favor.
Fellas, I've been advocating avoiding shitty columnists since forever. I even tend to skip over the discussions of them here. I don't even know their real names. All I know is that when someone here links to a STrib article that isn't JoeC or LNIII, I just skip it, and I am so much better* for it. I know there are those here who enjoy a little riling up every now and then, but I think we'd all do with a little less negativity around here.
*Better in the sense of my mental well-being, not some sort of feeling of superiority over those that do read.
I'm normally better about ignoring this stuff but it's become a drumbeat and it's driving me nuts. Plus I was drunk and angry after attending 2 of our 3 losses in the crappiest outdoor stadium in baseball. Will not post links anymore.
What burns my britches is that we know better, but the average Joe newspaper reader is actually being swayed by this crap. We need someone to expose this idiotic drivel for what it is.
By preaching to the choir?
No, by preaching to the congregation average STrib reader.
Even Aaron's commentors are displaying STribitis.
AG's readership has been skewing that way for a while. He hasn't changed, but the more exposure he gets, the more mainstream his audience tends to be.
I suppose I don't see how carrying on about it here makes any difference.
I've never brought it up here, but I know you and I agreed about this back at the old place.
My essential position, though, is that I can skip anything I'm not in the mood to read.
I'd rather Mauer re-learn to hit than learn how to play first.
Thank you.
What good is he at first if he hits subpar there as well? I'd STILL rather he was in the lineup instead of Butters, not with Butters.
Yeah, Hughes is batting/on basing about 30% higher than Mauer so far, and slugging about 50% higher.
And Mauer is batting/on basing about 10% higher than Butters (although slugging 15% below... erp.).
I good half-month clouded my thoughts with optimism, but I'm thinking again that the team should take a Mulligan on this season, get their long-term pillars (M&M, Nishioka, Valencia, Span, Casilla?), healthy enough to go for next year. And to see what they've got in up and comers like Hughes (the good one*), Plouffe!, Revere, Tosoni, Slama, Swarzak, Perkins, Burnett, CHUCK JAMES, etc.
*I will now call Luke Hughes "Good Hughes" or just "GH" for short.
Sentimentally, I don't want to see Cuddy, Kubel, or Thome traded. Unsentimentally, it makes sense.
(Pavano, Young, Blackburn, I'm cool with. Slowey I've resigned myself to.)
This.
(Although I did try and tell the tale of Lyman Bostock to a young co-worker today. He didn't understand the concept.)
Just watched the vid of Delmon hurting himself and had multiple thoughts I had to share on it-
1) Since when does MLB put up videos dedicated to injuries? I don't think I've ever noticed one before.
2) Nice touch of irony that Delmon crashed into the Waste Management sign- I'm tempted to do a screen grab of that, but I have no graphic skills so all I could do with it is make it my background.
3) Seeing that Delmon was still chewing on a huge wad of gum as the trainers were checking his ankle out, I guess it is confirmed that he cannot chew gum and rollerskate play defense at the same time.
Embedded:
OK, how did magoo pull that off yestiddy?
wow, that was an amazingly awkward play. Almost like getting injured was an afterthought to it all.
I enjoy the very beginning of the video, where Del takes two shuffles forward before realizing the ball is hit over his head. Why don't we put Delmon at first when he comes back, so he wouldn't have to "run"?
I was 14 rows back in the bleachers where that happened, so I fortunately could not see any of it. I pretty much just shook my head and said "why not? everyone else is getting hurt. This makes sense, somehow."
BH: i think the picture you're looking for is on gleeman's front page this morning.
And of course Delmon waits until he's actually hitting decently before injuring himself. We probably would have been better off without him in April and May.
We had one heck of an intense storm last night from about 11:45PM to 1:30AM. I'm pretty sure the rain gauge was emptied out beforehand, but it had 4½" in it this morning!
this year, instead of spring and summer, its been one big monsoon season in the Midwest
I got an e-mail titled "15 Free Books About Baseball!" so I went and checked it out. It truly was what it said. 15 free ready to read on-line books with no catch. Except I hadn't heard of any of them. One looked somewhat interesting. "Diamonds in the Rough: The Untold History of Baseball."
The second paragraph starts out with, "If you didn't collect baseball cards in your youth, can you really know what you're talking about?" What a perfect sentence for Bantam Bulwyr.
I've heard of that Diamonds in the Rough one, I think.
Do you have a link?
Edit: Alright, Googling "15 free books about baseball" put it right at the top. After seeing the cover to that one, I'm sure I knew about it already, but I'm not sure I knew of any others.
looks like tolbert and rivera are going to be here for awhile.
Expletive, expletive, expletive, etc.
Bottom four of lineup: Repko, Nishi, Butters and Pavano. No-hitter alert!!
I'm getting pretty tired of the constant "Joe Mauer isn't respected in the clubhouse" nonsense from the local media types. Just a year ago, fans would have stormed Target Field if they didn't give him a huge contract extension. Now, somehow, the favorite son is the team's biggest problem? I understand he's not hitting and he's been hurt, but fans, media, and fellow players need to give him more respect based on what he's accomplished in his career. If anyone deserves the benefit of the doubt it's Mauer.
It's annoying how that cycle works. Fans demand a long contract, get one, and immediately take the player in question to task no matter how he performs.
The thing is, there might be some truth to that nonsense about not being respected in the clubhouse. I'm sure there are at least a couple of guys in there who are jealous of the money, and would say the "play through the pain" crap that Eye-Eye used to say, despite the fact that he never did.
speaking of baseball yesterday, two titanic offenses did battle yesterday in SF, combining for 9 hits and one run. How did the run score, you ask?
Yep. Two errors, a walk and a balk. Awesome.
Nice inning, C. Phelps.
I just got my Los Angeles address, which really drives home the reality of this thing.
The final tally: 2.6 miles from Dodger Stadium. Dodger Stadium tends to feature a lot of Dodger games, but I still want to go.
Also, Chrome doesn't recognize the words "Los" or "Angeles." That seems like a small failure.
I'm still waiting to hear JeffA's Gettysburg address.
Better upgrade to Chrome v12
anyone who had a casio SK-1 should remember this little ditty.
Instead of yard work, I decided to make the ugliest strawberry-rhubarb pie of all time. I believe my pie crust skills need some work.
I made one last week. The crust looked good, but it was so thin it more or less disintegrated when we went to cut slices. It still tasted fantastic.
I think that is when I would tell everyone its not a pie, its a crisp. I made sure the crust was thick enough, but I think I did that at the expense of not having enough to close the edges, so there is some simple syrup laying on the bottom of my oven.
I do love strawberry season.
ugly means nothing. with strawberry-rhubarb, it's all about the taste, man!
I think that pretty well describes the majority of my cooking.
Call it a "cobbler". Scoop of vanilla? Win-Win.
That's the spirit!
Do you use lard in your crust?
This was my first attempt and I totally forgot about lard, so I just made it with butter. The crust did taste pretty decent, it was just really ugly.
God forbid that I agree with Grandpa Sports (and legally, I'm not sure that I do--I haven't listened to his Sidcast*, just surmising from the lede), but, I too, hope we're sellers at the trade deadline. We need
an influxa boatload of young prospects. The cupboards at AA and AAA are awfully bare. (Emphasis on the awful.)Stouter ilk can find it* here:
http://www.startribune.com/sports/twins/124384724.html
I just found out that my neice got herself a part time job as a graphic designer. For the Schell's Brewing Company. She'll go full time when she graduates from college next year.
That's pretty sweet. Does she get a friends and family discount on deer brand?
They brew Premium now, too, sir. (don't they?)
They do.
That's awesome! Does she get to relocate to the most beautiful town of NU, MN? Because I could give her outdated tips on what was cool there when I was a high schooler.
I hadn't realized that all the Schell's labels got so similar. Even Schmaltz's Alt matches that pattern if you click through for the current label.
Its still a nice looking label, but I liked the guy sitting there on the barrel they had before. That beer makes excellent beer brats, too.
Did you know that Joe Mauer let his team down by not volunteering to play a position he's never played before on Sunday? Check out tomorrow's paper for more!!!
http://www.startribune.com/sports/twins/blogs/124570658.html
I cannot stand this anymore! Just because Mauer has a 23 million dollar bullseye on his back doesn't make him the cause of all the Twins problems.
To be slightly fair to a writer that doesn't really deserve it, Souhan does go on to point out the middle infield is not working out and that the Brewers are much better than the Twins right now. Too bad he didn't write that part first, then think about the fact that replacing Hughes in the lineup with Mauer wasn't going to solve either of those problems.
Wait until you read the full column.
Holy. Shit.
http://www.startribune.com/sports/twins/124575378.html
Ummmm.... wouldn't Joe be out of position at first?
BECAUSE HE IS A CATCHER! CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT DANNY VALENCIA HASN'T VOLUNTEERED TO PLAY FIRST BASE? YOU KNOW LUKE HUGHES SHOULD BE PLAYING THIRD, RIGHT?!?!?!
A left-handed middle reliever who threw his wonderful slider to Prince Fielder today and it got crushed.
And yes, I did change one phrase in the above quote.
I like your version better.
Luke Hughes was practicing/playing 1B during Spring Training. While he might be out of position, at least he knew he might be thrown into the fire at first this year.
Yep, that's the last time I'm going to read any of the crap that Souhan
writesscrawls out with a crayon. Completely disregard my earlier post with its half-hearted defense of some of his "analysis". I won't be giving him the slightest benefit of a doubt from now on.I think we should all do our best to get thrown out of the STrib comment section.
Is it possible to be barred from the Stribber's section? Not that I really want to go swimming in that cesspool, but it's funny to think about getting kicked out of a place with such low standards.
On thing I discovered by reading the comments is that Butters was on a tear during the winning streak (Jun 2nd-21st, 15-2 record).
In 6 starts and one AB after replacing Rivera, he hit 0.381/0.348/0.524/0.872. (Yeah, his OBP was .033 lower than his AVG due to a sac fly.) Something I did not notice, and I assumed the stribbie was exaggerating.
Over the same stretch, Rivera hit 0.059/0.111/0.118/0.229.
I think we need to encourage a boycott of Shecky around here, especially links. That's only encouraging the STrib to keep this "columnist" around. Did you know he didn't even volunteer to write the game story? And he used to do what Joe C. does. Just an overpaid wuss, I tell you.
I've wanted to bring this up but haven't for some reason. I'd certainly be in favor.
Fellas, I've been advocating avoiding shitty columnists since forever. I even tend to skip over the discussions of them here. I don't even know their real names. All I know is that when someone here links to a STrib article that isn't JoeC or LNIII, I just skip it, and I am so much better* for it. I know there are those here who enjoy a little riling up every now and then, but I think we'd all do with a little less negativity around here.
*Better in the sense of my mental well-being, not some sort of feeling of superiority over those that do read.
I'm normally better about ignoring this stuff but it's become a drumbeat and it's driving me nuts. Plus I was drunk and angry after attending 2 of our 3 losses in the crappiest outdoor stadium in baseball. Will not post links anymore.
What burns my britches is that we know better, but the average Joe newspaper reader is actually being swayed by this crap. We need someone to expose this idiotic drivel for what it is.
By preaching to the choir?
No, by preaching to the
congregationaverage STrib reader.Even Aaron's commentors are displaying STribitis.
AG's readership has been skewing that way for a while. He hasn't changed, but the more exposure he gets, the more mainstream his audience tends to be.
I suppose I don't see how carrying on about it here makes any difference.
I've never brought it up here, but I know you and I agreed about this back at the old place.
My essential position, though, is that I can skip anything I'm not in the mood to read.
I'd rather Mauer re-learn to hit than learn how to play first.
Thank you.
What good is he at first if he hits subpar there as well? I'd STILL rather he was in the lineup instead of Butters, not with Butters.
Yeah, Hughes is batting/on basing about 30% higher than Mauer so far, and slugging about 50% higher.
And Mauer is batting/on basing about 10% higher than Butters (although slugging 15% below... erp.).
I good half-month clouded my thoughts with optimism, but I'm thinking again that the team should take a Mulligan on this season, get their long-term pillars (M&M, Nishioka, Valencia, Span, Casilla?), healthy enough to go for next year. And to see what they've got in up and comers like Hughes (the good one*), Plouffe!, Revere, Tosoni, Slama, Swarzak, Perkins, Burnett, CHUCK JAMES, etc.
*I will now call Luke Hughes "Good Hughes" or just "GH" for short.
Sentimentally, I don't want to see Cuddy, Kubel, or Thome traded. Unsentimentally, it makes sense.
(Pavano, Young, Blackburn, I'm cool with. Slowey I've resigned myself to.)
This.
(Although I did try and tell the tale of Lyman Bostock to a young co-worker today. He didn't understand the concept.)
Just watched the vid of Delmon hurting himself and had multiple thoughts I had to share on it-
1) Since when does MLB put up videos dedicated to injuries? I don't think I've ever noticed one before.
2) Nice touch of irony that Delmon crashed into the Waste Management sign- I'm tempted to do a screen grab of that, but I have no graphic skills so all I could do with it is make it my background.
3) Seeing that Delmon was still chewing on a huge wad of gum as the trainers were checking his ankle out, I guess it is confirmed that he cannot chew gum and
rollerskateplay defense at the same time.Embedded:
OK, how did magoo pull that off yestiddy?
wow, that was an amazingly awkward play. Almost like getting injured was an afterthought to it all.
I enjoy the very beginning of the video, where Del takes two shuffles forward before realizing the ball is hit over his head. Why don't we put Delmon at first when he comes back, so he wouldn't have to "run"?
I was 14 rows back in the bleachers where that happened, so I fortunately could not see any of it. I pretty much just shook my head and said "why not? everyone else is getting hurt. This makes sense, somehow."
BH: i think the picture you're looking for is on gleeman's front page this morning.
And of course Delmon waits until he's actually hitting decently before injuring himself. We probably would have been better off without him in April and May.