View of Anchorage, AK

2011 Game 131: Detroit Tigers at Minnesota Twins

Rick Porcello v Scott Diamond.

This is a little long, so bear with me.

View of Anchorage, AK
Where I've been all week instead of watching enduring the Twins: Anchorage, AK.

Anchorage claims itself as a City of Flowers. Judging by all the flowers in and around the city, I wouldn't disagree.

There is a lot of wildlife in Anchorage, but all we saw was the harmless kind. Whew.

Also went on some day cruises to view the Alaskan wildlife.

Yeah, it rained. A lot.

Some of the eagles posed for us. It was much appreciated.

Hiding amongst the trees were some mountain goats. Here, the kid is mesmerized by my 70-300mm zoom lens while mom explains humans' weird fascination with watching others.

Some puffins showing off their brightly colored beaks.

One puffin decided to fly away instead of dive.

One thing I didn't realize was that jellyfish also inhabit cold water.

A group of endangered stellar sea lions were hanging out by a gull rookery.

This was really loud from a quarter mile away.

This wasn't quite as loud.

138 thoughts on “2011 Game 131: Detroit Tigers at Minnesota Twins”

  1. Well played, Sean. Hopefully we can finally say the same about the Twins. I predict the Twins will score at least two runs tonight. /New Guy wild optimism.

    1. If Cuddyer were a sea lion, he wouldn't be hanging out on the rocks, he'd be diving in frigid water for fish.

  2. I hope Cuddy hits a HR here because that means the Twins will score more than 1 run this game

  3. So I've now taken a look at the Central standings, and my good vibes toward the Thome thing are disappearing. They're six and a half games out, at 63-64? They're not going anywhere. Damn it.

    1. everyone i know was saying, "well, they're sending him to a contender," and i kept trying to say, "no, they're not!" the indians have been flailing for sometime, and there's no way they're going to threaten the tigers.

      1. I knew they'd lost ground, but not that much, and I didn't realize they were under .500.

        But, Beau's right, he's not a Yankee or Sawk. Or Sock.

    1. I don't know if it's bad to have these thoughts, but I keep thinking that if only Mike Flanagan had delayed himself a day, the team might have given him more hope.

      1. I don't know if it's bad, either. Although I've gone through it a startlingly high number of times with friends, I really don't understand the mind of the person who commits suicide.

    2. They're just doing their annual late-season run to provide hope for next year only to see the O's sign more washed up veterans and fail once again.

  4. My comp is refusing to bring up MLB.tv, and I don't even care.

    It's done that two days in a row, though, so I suppose I should worry about this some, since I'll be wanting to see clinchers here soon, and there's an offseason not far away.

    1. It's a fail-safe mechanism. It's worried you'll take out your frustrations on it, so it refuses to let you watch out of self-preservation.

  5. mccoveychron McCovey Chronicles
    Yep. Pretty strange seeing Thome in an Indians uniform again. Gonna go play some Mario 64 and listen to OK Computer.

    1. Delmon with Tigers: .279/.289/.465. Once the Tigers' are done with the Twins, I expect that SLG to drop.

  6. Insight!

    @1500ESPNJudd: Jhonny Peralta entered this game hitting .415 (22 for 53) with 3 doubles, five HR and 16 RBI in 14 games at TF. He's 0 for 2 tonight.

    1. Was ESPNJudd hoping that Peralta would be sitting at a .415 BA on the day after his first two at-bats?

      Sample size, Judd. If you're going to do the baseball Tweeting thing, you need to acquaint yourself with it.

          1. Tom Kelly when he has suspenders keep his pants too high and wears his oversized horn-rimmed glasses, taped together in the middle.

    1. yo, boots, i finally got to the st. vincent video. it was all you said (by the way, we have little overlap, but jane looooves st. vincent. looking forward to the next album).

      1. She's gonna be on Dave Monday night.

        Had a strange sensation the other day at the studio. Had the Random going on iTunes when this popped up. For the first 30 seconds I was unsure what it was. I was hoping it was Miss Annie Clark.

        (And yeah, I like JA. What of it?!)

        1. oh, yeah, i meant to tell you about dave too. sorry.

          and her music has been described as a creepy disney soundtrack, so that doesn't surprise me.

          1. She would absolutely kill a cover of that one. Get Bon Iver (or the dude from the National) for the Chris Plummer bit. Lose the happy ending.

            I'm gonna have my people call her people...

      2. To jobu, jane, and anyone else interested in the new St Vincent: 4 new live clips can be found here. Recorded at some dump in NYC--The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

    2. It's very nice. Anchorage is a cloudier, cooler version of Minneapolis. It also has three million lakes. Texas ain't got nothing on Alaska, except heat.

      1. I was only there for a day and a half (after my sister's wedding in Seward). But my wife was already pregnant with HPR at the time, and we haven't travelled together any further than five miles out of state since. AK is probably the next place we'll travel to together via plane.

        1. Meant to ask: where did you do the boat tour? That glacier isn't on the Cook inlet.
          (My sister and brother-in-law met while both working at Kenai Fjord Tours out of Seward. He was a tour boat captain. She took reservations.)

          1. We did two boat tours. The first was in Seward, where I took all of the wildlife photos from above. The second was in Whittier, where I took the glacier photos. For those that ever want to visit Whittier, know two things: giant ass tunnel and it rains a lot. 160 inches of precip a year. Bring a rain coat and rain pants. You'll regret it if you don't.

            1. I thought that sea-lion rock looked familiar, but I thought maybe all sea-lion rocks look alike. Which tour company did you use?
              My Brother-in-law stopped captaining boats this summer because the schedule wrecked him and because he had enough business as an IT-tech, but it might have been one of his friends.

              There's a saying in Seward:

              It's shittier, in Whittier.

  7. Jose Bautista throws his helmet and bat onto the field after getting tossed. That won't help his MVP chances.

  8. Wife's out of town for the weekend. I just put the older two to bed late, due to extra story time. If I would have guessed the score, I probably would have said 6-1 Detroit. I guess that makes me a pessimist... Detroit's sixth run will come later, but it looks like the Twins got their quota.

      1. Re Plouffe's future position:

        Before knowing what position he should settle into I'd need to talk to him. If he just wants to hit, well, he is too young to just be a designated hitter.

  9. It is times like these that I am really glad I don't live in Minneapolis. If I had to talk to people who actually thought Joe Mauer was a pu#$y and a malinger I think that I might actually hit someone. Ugh.

    1. I know this stuff belongs in the CoC but I did see one comment from the Chip Scroggins (if that is his real name)

      ... Around me the only people who defend Mauer anymore are girls who think he's dreamy and guys who are casual fans. Baseball fans are disgusted with him.

      To be fair, he is kind of dreamy.

      1. Alright, I am delving deeper into the comments. People are seriously speculating that Mauer suffers from depression. Why did I do this to myself?

        1. Why, indeed? Watch the Helium video I posted in the Random Friday instead. A much better use of your time.

      2. I tweeted to him twice today comparing Cuddyer's and Mauer's neck injuries. Apparently, someone who goes by the nickname SoCalTwinsfan isn't a baseball fan. Another moron added to the STrib's stable.

    1. That is awesome. Way more awesome than Rodgers' handlebars. I'd do a photoshop of Kluwe with a marmot on his lower face, but I have a feeling that'll be up on Daily Norseman by tomorrow if I do it or not.

  10. Just checking in. I'm glad my dad doesn't have 4D television, because I'd probably be covered in fecal matter about now.

  11. Looks like my Cornish game hens didn't rob me of any fun tonight. Again.

    Is this really going to be another lots-to-1 loss? What's the record for games in a row with exactly one run scored? We have to be in the conversation, because I thought I remembered the record for the same number of runs being scored by one team was six straight games.

    1. Since 1919, 5. That's right, the Twins just tied the record. Last team to do it were the 2001 Detroit Tigers. Before that, the 1968 Dodgers. Also making an appearance are the 1967 Twins.

  12. Even as bad as they've been, you have to be unlucky to have this kind of streak. The Twins had runners at second and third and got two hits and scored one run. Of course, the umpire turned the second hit into an out, but that was a very bad call. It really wasn't that close. Odds on Verlander getting another no-hitter tomorrow? Or a 21K game? The way baseball is such a crazy game, they'll probably tee off on him to end the hitting slump only to lose 9-8.

  13. The Twins have a .268 BABIP in these six games and have hit 67 fly balls with only one HR. Delmon Young pounds the ball into the ground three times and gets three RBI singles. If he were still playing for the Twins, those would have been double plays.

    1. You shouldn't be complaining about bad luck. On the micro scale, maybe they've been a little unlucky over the last week in that they maybe should have scored a few more runs. Would that have resulted in any more wins????? Considering, though that they have five more wins that their Pythagorean record suggests they should have, they are lucky it's not worse.

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