Monthly Archives: January 2012

Keeping Track

Spanning the Globe

DOMINICAN LEAGUE

Escogido 6, Aguilas 5 in Escogido.  Pedro Florimon was 1-for-3 with a walk for Escogido.

PLAYOFF UPDATE

Dominican League—Our congratulations go to the Leones del Escogido, who won the championship series by defeating Aguilas five games to four.

CARIBBEAN SERIES

The Caribbean Series begins Thursday afternoon.  Venezuela plays Puerto Rico and Mexico plays the Dominican Republic.  The series is a six-game round-robin.

AUSTRALIAN LEAGUE PLAYOFFS

Melbourne plays Sydney in a best-of-five series beginning tomorrow.  The winner will play a best-of-five series against Perth in the finals.

Games

Pixel Perfect Memories: Zombies Ate My Neighbors

11 Comments

Release Date: 1993
Platforms:  SNES, Genesis
Developer: LucasArts

Not really an obscure game, but still probably not as widely played as it should have been.  From one of best game developers of all-time, Zombies Ate My Neighbors is a quirky but difficult game that forces you to try and save the world from an invasion of zombies, mummies, vampires, and gigantic babies.  Weapons include water pistols, bazookas, and everything in between.  Each level is self-contained but generally detailed and fun to look at, with locations ranging from beaches, to museums, to pyramids.  The game also combines horror and humor at the same time and does it quite well.  And because it's LucasArts, there are about 40,000 easter eggs to be found as well.  The soundtrack is also quite catchy, with appropriate tunes for each themed level.

My favorite part of this game has always been co-op, even though it possibly makes the game more difficult.  But it's a blast to go through this hilariously crazy universe with a buddy and a drink.  "Now, get on the trampoline and jump over to where I am.  No, not that direction.  Damn!  Now I have to backtrack and do this all ov...oh crap, alien!  Die!"

There is apparently a download available for the Wii, which is the SNES version.

In addition to what ya'll are playing, what's your favorite game that stars the undead?

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–January 31

Bob "Death to Flying Things" Ferguson (1845)
Zane Grey (1872)
George Burns (1893)
Pinky Hargrave (1896)
Pedro Cepeda (1906)
Don Hutson (1913)
Jackie Robinson (1919)
Ernie Banks (1931)
Hank Aguirre (1931)
Nolan Ryan (1947)
Fred Kendall (1949)
Ted Power (1955)
Ed Wade (1956)
Francisco Oliveras (1963)
Yuniesky Betancourt (1982)

Better known as an author of western novels, Zane Grey played outfield for two years in the low minors, batting .323 in 86 games.  He also wrote several books about baseball. 

Pedro Cepeda is the father of Orlando Cepeda and is considered by some to have been a better player; he was known as the Babe Ruth of Puerto Rico. 

Don Hutson, a charter member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, played in the low minors from 1936-1937, hitting .301 in 194 games.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–January 31 →

Game Logs, NBA

2012 Game Logs: Game 21 Timberwolves @ Rockets

125 Comments

Tough loss last night followed by a tough opponent tonight.  The Wolves need to stop giving up giant leads in the first half if they want to win games consistently.  You can coast against teams like Charlotte, NOLA, and the Wizards but when you face off against teams like Houston, LAL, and the Heat you are going to have a really tough time winning games if you only show up for one half.

From SNP's twitter feed last night:

...and it was against a terrible road Lakers team with no bench and a terrible coach on the tail end of a b2b.

Anyone who looks for moral victories in this one needs to be punched in the face by Pek. This was their 1st crack at .500 since Casey...

Minny's guards were 8-40 from the floor.

The Wolves shot 104 fg tonight, turned it over only 4 times, equaled their opponent on the offensive boards and free throw line...and lost.

Wolves stunk up the joint against a team that lost to Milwaukee last night and was 1-7 on the road and with no bench #awfulloss

3rd game in team history with sub .385 fg%, sub .240 3p%, and with more than 100 fga. 1 of those was an ot game. tinyurl.com/7vtays2

Wolves had 17 more oreb, equal fta, and 4 to and they lost. That's equals some horrific shooting.

 

Let's hope the Wolves can put up points in the first two quarters tonight followed by more points in the third and fourth.  In theory the Rockets should be a good match up for Minnesota since they don't really have a dominant big man and the Wolves can play small ball. Plus the Wolves now have Brad Miller, which naturally should make up for the difference between the two teams last time they played.

Cup of Coffee

January 30, 2012: Brothers

42 Comments

I'm a decade older than my brothers, and very proud of how both of them are turning out. One little brother leaves this morning for a semester abroad. He's headed to Florence, and I've no doubt in my mind that he'll make the most of this opportunity. The other little brother attended Twins Fest last weekend, and was one of 120 people invited to a small event in the Champions Club, where he asked a panel of Jim Pohlad, Dave St. Peter, and Terry Ryan a question. Here's what he asked:

"Could you explain how you can justify cutting payroll three season into a publicly financed ballpark?"

Keeping Track

Spanning the Globe

DOMINICAN LEAGUE

Saturday

Escogido 5, Aguilas 2 in Escogido.  Pedro Florimon was 1-for-3 and drove in a run with a sacrifice fly for Escogido.  Luis Perdomo worked a scoreless inning for Aguilas, giving up one hit.

Sunday

Aguilas 9, Escogido 2 in Aguilas.  Luis Perdomo pitched a perfect inning for Aguilas, striking out one. Pedro Florimon was 1-for-4 for Escogido.  Francisco Liriano started and allowed five runs (three earned) on six hits and a walk while striking out four in 3.2 innings.  He took the loss for Escogido.

VENEZUELAN LEAGUE

Saturday

Aragua 7, La Guaira 1 in La Guaira.  Pedro Guerra pitched a perfect inning with a strikeout for Aragua.

AUSTRALIAN LEAGUE

Saturday

Perth 9, Melbourne 4 in Perth.  Joshua Hendricks was 0-for-4 for Melbourne.  Sam Gibbons worked a scoreless inning for Melbourne, walking one.

Sunday

Sydney 10, Adelaide 4 in Adelaide (Game 1).  Jacob Younis was 0-for-5 for Sydney.

Sydney 1, Adelaide 0 in Adelaide (Game 2).  Jacob Younis was 1-for-3 for Sydney.

Perth 3, Melbourne 1 in Perth.  Joshua Hendricks was 2-for-4 for Melbourne.

PLAYOFF UPDATES

Dominican League—Aguilas and Escogido are tied at four games apiece in the best-of-nine championship series.  Game nine is scheduled for tonight.

Mexican League—Obregon won the championship.

Puerto Rican League—Mayaguez won the championship.

Venezuelan League—Our congratulations go to the Tigres de Aragua, who defeated La Guaira four games to two to win the championship.

Australian League—Perth defeated Melbourne three games to one in the first round.  Sydney defeated Adelaide three games to one in the first round.  Sydney now plays Melbourne in the best-of-five semi-finals, which will begin Wednesday.

Berserk Boxscores

Berserk Boxscores: Orioles @ Blue Jays 8/24/1983

23 Comments

Pixel Perfect Memories will come out tomorrow.  Tonight I'm in the mood to discuss baseball.  While not a scheduled feature, from time to time I would like to take a look at some of the more amazing, unlikely play-by-play moments in history.

One of the reasons I love the game so much is that at any moment something crazy can happen.  August 24, 1983 was one of those times.  The Orioles were battling the Blue Jays among others for the pennant, and on this day they played host, just one game ahead. Jim Clancy and Scott McGregor had pitched decent games, and entering the 9th the Jays were ahead by two.  Clancy put two men on with two out and was replaced.  Benny Ayala and Al Bumbry both hit clutch singles to tie the game.

Entering the 10th, however, the Orioles had a problem.  They had two catchers on their roster, Rick Dempsey and Joe Nolan.  Both had been pinch-hit for and now they needed someone to play there in the 10th.  Manager Joe Altobelli called on Lenn Sakata, second baseman, who had never played behind the plate in his life.  The first batter for the Blue Jays, Cliff Johnson, belted a solo shot to give the Jays a one-run lead.  Barry Bonnell singled.  Tippy Martinez came into pitch, and Bobby Cox decided to take advantage of Sakata's never-before tested ability to throw out base runners.  Here is what followed:

Barry Bonnell caught stealing (PO) 2B (P-1B)
Dave Collins walks
Collins picked off 1B (P-1B)
Willie Upshaw singled to 2B
Upshaw picked off 1B (P-1B).

That's right.  Martinez picked three consecutive men off first base to end the inning, and Sakata never broke a sweat.

To add insult to injury, Cal Ripken started off the bottom half of the 10th with a home run.  Then Sakata, the Orioles new catcher, hit a walk-off three run jack to win the game for the home team.  The Orioles, of course, would go on to win the pennant and the World Series, while the Jays would finish nine games back.  Sakata would never catch again.

Tippy would also win the next night.  He pitched 103 innings in relief, going 9-3 with a 2.35 ERA.  He would finish 27th in the MVP balloting.  His career would end on the Twins, pitching four innings for them in 1988.

I would pay money to watch this inning live, though I doubt MLB will ever allow me to do that.

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–January 30

4 Comments

Tony Mullane (1859)
General Stafford (1868)
Walt Dropo (1923)
Sandy Amoros (1930)
Charlie Neal (1931)
Davey Johnson (1943)
Matt Alexander (1947)
Roger Cador (1952)
Joe Kerrigan (1954)
Dave Stegman (1954)
Jorge Cantu (1982)
Jeremy Hermida (1984)

Dave Stegman was drafted by Minnesota in the tenth round in 1972, but did not sign.  There do not appear to be any other players with connections to the Minnesota Twins born on this day.