Cup of Coffee

August 27, 2011: One

51 Comments

...is the loneliest number, so why the hell are the Twins so married to it? I asked offhand last night, and Sean mentioned that this ties the record (5) for a team scoring exactly one run in consecutive games. Um, congratulations?

51 thoughts on “August 27, 2011: One”

  1. The lack of offense has really been frustrating. Historically, when the Twins have had bad teams, they've still had pretty good offenses. There are exceptions, of course, but the late '70s teams had people like Rod Carew and Lyman Bostock and Larry Hisle. The early '80s teams had Hrbek and Gaetti and Brunansky and Gary Ward. Even the late '90s teams had guys like Knoblauch and Paul Molitor.

    Those teams didn't lose because they couldn't score. They lost because they couldn't stop the other teams from scoring. They'd lose games by 8-5 or 11-6.

    That's frustrating too, of course, but it's also kind of exciting, or at least interesting. When you have an offense, you always feel like you might have a chance to come back. When 3-1 feels like an insurmountable deficit, it's not only frustrating, it's also uninteresting. You get down a couple of runs and you feel like there's no chance. I'll keep paying attention, because it's what I do, but it's not nearly as much fun.

      1. I think of 1981. My perception may be colored by the strike, but still: one player with an OPS above .703 (Smalley). The only good thing about it was that they brought up Hrbek and Gaetti at the end of the year, and that gave us some hope.

                1. Plus, as I recall, Hrbek, Gaetti, and Laudner all homered in their first games as a Twin. It made us hope they were going to be really good, and as it turned out, two of them were. At that time, about all we had going for us as Twins fans was hope.

                  1. Gaetti made two All-Star games. Hrbek and Laudner made one. I can't figure out who wasn't really good.

        2. I still rank '80 below '81. Not necessarily based on won/loss, but just on the total lack of anyone interesting to follow. And sure '82 had a worse record, but they had a lot of young kids with potential, Hrbie's ROY run, and ba-a-ad pitching.

          2. This is what this season has reduced us to: discussing which Twins team of the past stunk the worst.

  2. I just got the 2011 Twins roster banner- it's about time for another row of players in the back of that bad boy.

          1. I can't think of many politicians willing to be seen with their uniforms dirty, but the character actors probably have the right battle-their-tail-off attitude and we've got plenty of gritty WGOMer's around.

    1. That is excellent. Dodger fan or not, Vin's voice is a national treasure. Though I don't go as far as cheaptoy, I have enough apathy about the current Brewer organization that it makes it hard to root for them going deep into the playoffs. And then I think of Uecker, and how nice it would be for him to get one World Series title as a broadcaster.

  5. The Hold Steady was great last night. The band was great, but the crowd wasn't nearly as into it as I'd have thought they'd be. Before the show Craig Finn was walking through the crowd about 20' from me. I didn't realize who it was until too late. I thought "Is that Craig Finn?" and then some other dude shook his hand. I was like "Shit, that was Craig Finn" but I wasn't going to go run after him.

    1. That reminds me of when I saw Blueprint and Macklemore back in February. Brother Ali and Slug (from Atmosphere) were milling around in the corner waiting for the show (Blueprint is on the same label). A person spotted Brother Ali (hard to miss an albino in a crowd) and went up and asked for a picture. Of course, he asked Slug to take the picture without realizing who he was. Quite funny (Brother Ali definitely had a huge smirk).

  6. In honor of the 2011 Twins, I thought I'd throw in game 3. If I am getting nothing else out of these dvds, I'm at least coming away with the knowledge that McCarver has always been an idiot (seriously, Scott Erickson can only be compared to Clemens... because of where he puts his glove before the windup?) and MVP voting has always sucked. (how the hell did Pendleton beat out Bonds in '91.

    1. I may have voted for Bonds, but it's certainly not the most egregious example ever. Bonds out OPS'd Terry by about 40 points. They were both great defenders (from what I can tell from the stats I have) and Terry played a more premium defensive position. I think Bonds stolen bases probably seals it for me, but this isn't Mo Vaughn

        1. They didn't really have the greatest year in logic that year. I can't believe Cecil Fielder got 1st place votes.

        2. Huh. All right. Were third basemen a lot better that year, or does WAR account for ballpark or something?

          1. rWAR (and fWAR) uses park-adjusted offensive stats. Looking at the breakdown, Bonds had a +13 run lead in offense and a +12 run lead in defense. Pendleton had a +8 run lead for position, but that's it. Not the worst decision, but still bad.

      1. BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! ETC.

    1. Jeepers.
      I would have hated this as a student.

      There's dishes to do every night. So you buy a second set of containers and a bag or box, so if you end up eating out, you don't have to do dishes or run the dishwasher half-full. Then the kid forgets to bring it home, so you buy another set. Then it turns out that your kid is like AMR leaves a whole set of containers behind, so you just have to buy a dozen sets. For each kid. Or mom has to drive to the school to pick up the containers, completely undoing all of the environmental benefit.

      I did re-use the brown paper bags (which I would fold flat and put in my backpack) for several weeks until they ripped from being worn.

      On second thought, it might not get that bad nowadays if the mom just remembers to text the kid to bring the dishes home one minute before the bell. Every day.

      In the article, someone complains about a mother packing two sandwiches for her kid so the kid can choose using a separate bag for each, but not about the fact that the mother is making a full sandwich with the plan to be that one is wasted? Have the kid make a choice the night before (or a week before) and live with her choices!

      Stop walking through my yard!

      (I read through this several times to make sure no line is being crossed. If someone thinks I did anyways let me know, and I'll [redact] things.)

  10. I think its going to be a terrible year for the Vikings defense #preseasonoverreaction

  11. Four new banners tonight. Enjoy, friends.

    On Monday, when more people are here, I think we'll talk about retiring the Thome banners. Sigh.

  12. Sometimes, someone at SBNation does good work.
    One such example.
    I always thought Troy Percival was good at his job because of #6. The guy wore no glasses, but looked for the sign as if someone had just stepped on his Coke-bottles.
    The first two examples for #2 are also just right. Derrick Turnbow would have fit in there.
    Also, look at the sole example for #7.

    However, Nathan would seem to fit better in #5. To be fair, I should note that I haven't watched him this year.

    I'm trying to remember other closers that I have loved or hated, but I can't remember their styles well enough.
    Eddie, LaTroy, Capps, Todd Jones, Wickman, Jenks, Thornton, Lidge, He Who Shall Not Be Named, Reardon, Aguilera, Ambiorix, K-Rod.
    Though maybe some of these guys (LaTroy, HWSNBN) didn't fit on this list and that's why they failed at the job.

  13. Home sweet home. Well, sweet if I ignore the fetid smell wafting from the T_ins in the corner.

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