Cup of Coffee

March 27, 2012: Our Community

118 Comments

So, without getting needlessly specific about the mean spirits out there and things I've read recently, let me say once more: thank you all. Thanks for being the group of guys that you are. This is the greatest online home I could imagine having.

118 thoughts on “March 27, 2012: Our Community”

  2. Just a reminder to fantasy baseballers that you will want to set your lineup for Wednesday since the season starts in the middle of the night in Japan (1 a.m. CDT). Oakland vs. Seattle. Real baseball is here!!!11!!

    1. One clarification to that article: while Florimon may not have been on the Twins major league roster, he has been in the majors. He played in four games for Baltimore last September.

  4. I do my best to not take spring training results too seriously but I am really started to get worried about the Light Rail, you guys.

      1. I know Gardy was all pissy in that column, but didn't Baker have a really bad spring last year because he was working on some stuff but then pitched pretty well until he got hurt? (maybe that was a couple years ago, my memory is spotty.) As long as he says his arm feels good, I will fell ok about him.

        1. I understand Gardy's frustration. Baker is important to the Twins' chances to even be competitive this year. If the reason Baker's pitching poorly is that he's hurt, Gardy needs to know that. The problem is that Gardy and others in the Twins' organization have made "playing with pain" such a positive that it makes players reluctant to be honest about their physical condition.

        2. I read Gardy's comments there more as being annoyed with Baker taking too much time between pitches. That much of Gardy's frustration I can see. I prefer pitchers who work quickly between pitches and more importantly Rick Anderson prefers pitchers to work quickly*, and he's been consistent about that. That much doesn't seem like such a big ask.

          The injury stuff has been beaten to death over the years. The Twins want players to play through pain and not be pansies but they also want the players to let them know when they are truly injured. You can't really have it both ways. I don't quite understand what Reusse is trying to implicate, though. He seems to be insinuating that Baker is a complainer because he's had elbow trouble three straight years, but what if it just means he's got a bad elbow and has been able to work through it to various degrees in the past? Maybe he speaks a different language than some of the other pitchers on the staff, but after working with him for a zillion years, shouldn't the Twins have figured out how to communicate with him by now?

          *I believe this is a big reason they liked Silva, and then in his last season put up with his attitude problems--he worked quickly when he was out on the mound.

    2. I'm right there with you. If Baker isn't healthy and/or effective, the rotation goes from weak to frightening this year. Next year's rotation would become even more interesting, since I doubt if he's terrible/injured this season they pick up his option for next year. I hope he's okay.

    1. Olympic soccer is the red-headed stepchild of international competitions. It can be very good for evaluating young talent, and with the restructuring of the US Soccer under Klinsmann it could have been useful. However, I'm not too broken up about it.

      In other soccer news, FA Cup replays are tonight. Spurs take on Bolton at 1:30 in a replay of the scary-as-hell Muamba match and Everton-Sunderland in a WGOM Derby at 2:00PM after last week's 1-all draw.

      Also, Chelsea take on Benfica at the Estadio da Luz in Portugal in the final 8 of the Champions League at 1:45.

      /all times are Central, because I'm considerate like that.

      1. Chelsea 1-nil over Benfica in Lisbon! Which means Chelsea is sitting pretty for a CL Semi-finals match-up against Barca!

        Also looks like Chelsea-Spurs and Liverpool-Everton in FA Cup semi-finals match-ups.

  6. I'd normally wait for Friday Music Day for something like this, but I'm out of town on Friday and won't be able to post it then. The new Chromatics album released on iTunes last night. Apparently CDs and vinyl will be up in the next few days on the Italians Do It Better store, but we shall see.

    The album was delayed a few times, and the closest thing there was a release date was "SOON" from Johnny Jewel for the last few weeks. Anyway, it's really, really good. It completely surpassed my expectations. There's five music videos from it up on the director's YouTube page if you want to check it out. I don't know if they're work safe or not, I didn't want to watch since I was trying to go into the album with no information.

    1. I feel pretty bad for disliking Dickey so much when he was here. I suppose the blame for that should be placed on Gardenhire's shoulders. Bringing in the knuckleballer out of the pen with the bases loaded, really? *cries*

  8. I have a blog now! I did it because I know how much all of you love hearing about a huge dude trying to run a marathon.

    OK, I really did it for me, but it's there if you want to read it.

    1. I tried to read it. It made me depressed. Imagine your weight, but 8 inches shorter. I want to run a marathon some day too though. If you're a Clydesdale, then I'm a like a super obese Li'l Sebastian.

      1. If it makes you feel any better, 5 years ago I was close to 270 pounds and was suffering from something I thought might have been MS. I started this journey by just going out and walking. It was maybe 2 miles of walking at first, then my walks got longer and longer. Once I got down to 250, I started integrating short (1/4 mile and 1/2 mile) runs into my long walks. Eventually, my walks became more running than walking, then they became entirely running.

        Last May, I was doing about 3 4-mile runs per week. Then one day, I decided to just run as far as I could. I went over 8 miles until my knee started hurting and I figured I should stop. My mind was blown that I could run that far and that was when I decided I should try to do a half marathon.

        So don't give up hope!

        1. About 10 years ago I was training for a marathon. I got up to 13 miles once. Then I got a wicked stress fracture, and it's all been decline since then. I gotta get back to it. It does help to hear about your journey.

          1. Ick. I had multiple knee surgeries the year I graduated from college. After that, a half marathon seemed like a good lifetime goal, but I was surprised at how well it held up during my training. I never thought about doing a full marathon until then. But...baby steps--maybe my blog can help inspire you to get back out there!

            1. great story, Greek. I don't run anymore (and haven't for 30 years with the exception of two 5Ks -- one with each kid -- about 4 years ago) thanks to knee and back issues. But hearing how you attacked improving your health and fitness issues is fun and inspiring.

    2. Good stuff. I'm a big fan of running distances rather than times, and it looks like that's the direction you're taking. I always find that if I'm supposed to run, say, 35 minutes, it's really easy to just back off and finish without working hard, whereas with running for distances, there's always an incentive to run faster. Not to say that you should always try to run harder, having a goal pace to run each day is also an excellent idea.

      When you do your treadmill runs, do you change the incline on the treadmill? I've heard from at least a couple of sources that it's a good idea to ramp up the treadmill to a minimal incline to more closely simulate running off the treadmill. I haven't done a lot of treadmill running in the past, but it might be worth a try.

      1. I hate treadmill running. My gait is not conducive to running in such a controlled environment as it's quite gangly and untidy.

        1. I'm the opposite. I've got these short little legs (normal sized torso, short legs... it's not pretty) which move up and down way better than they move forward. I'm a champ on the treadmill but regular running is extra brutal for me.

          I think that they should adjust marathons based on stride length. I'd only have to go like 15 miles.

      2. I've actually been trying to focus on backing off of my speed a little (particularly on my long runs). When training for a marathon, getting the miles in is more important than the speed at which you run them. Also, running full tilt for all of your long runs can lead to overtraining and actually hurt your performance.

        When I do speed work, I typically do it for 5 miles or less. Sometimes I do incline on the treadmill, that's usually part of my "speed" work. Mostly I run flat surfaces, but I did do the Cooper River Bridge run last week, which is basically the only "hill" in all of Charleston. It's basically one giant hill--1 mile on one side, 1.5 miles on the other. I ran it both ways without much problem, despite the fact I don't do a lot of hill training. Incline training is great for people trying to lose weight, though, as it greatly increases the number of calories you burn.

    3. Heh... this is becoming quite the trend. I'm training to run in a 10K first, then I'll move to 1/2 Marathons and then Marathons. I was 270 at the beginning of December and I'm nearly 230 now. Once I get under 200, I'm sending in a tape for Survivor.

      2. Nice. I think 10K might be my favorite race distance of the 3 I've run (5K, 10K, half). It's a bit longer and more challenging than a 5K, but not quite as exhausting as a half marathon.

        Let me know when you start training for your first marathon. I might come out to join you. 🙂

        1. Last year got into the Sprint Triathlons - did 4 of them - very enjoyable. Lost a bunch of weight, triglycerides came way down, etc.

          Did a duathlon in Brooklyn (2/10/2) weekend before last, and have another one in West Hurley, NY coming up in May before the CT triathlons kick back into gear (late May-Aug).

          Have enjoyed the training (if sore on one of the three can usually do the other two).

          But the run after bike is always a tough transition.

  9. I will second Spooky's sentiment about this site. It was about a year ago now when SBG announced the end of his site and I was so depressed when I read that post. Then, everybody jumped in and we had a new home by the end of the day. It made me feel so amazing that so many people felt the same way about this site that I did. Cheers, to all of you.

        1. Triple Ditto - or maybe I'll just go with general agreement before things ge tout of hand.

          I know I'm not always around, but I love having a spot where I can talk about (almost) anything and get rationale responses.

          1. what, now we have to give rationales for our responses???!!!!111one111!!!??

            Except for the Shatner deficit, I love this place. First stop on the Interwebz in the morning, last stop in the evening.

              1. Ditto.

                It's funny how often I am describing some meme/typo/video, etc. that I have picked up here to others.

                Interwebs watering hole.

  10. I probably should just post this on Saturday but it looks like there are only 4 people who can win the NCAA Bracket:

    If OSU beats either Kentucky or Louisville -- Normal Distribution Wins (Hungry Joe?)

    If Louisville beats OSU -- Normal Distribution Wins
    If Louisville beats Kansas -- Wiggle Puppy Junction Wins (Spooky?)

    If Kentucky beats OSU -- Freealonzo wins
    If Kentucky beats Kansas -- Perfect Bracket Name Wins (Strat?)

    If Kansas beats either Kentucky or Louisville -- Wiggle Puppy Junctions Wins

    So Hungry Joe and Spooky have 3 chances out of 8 to win, Strat has one, and I have one.

      1. Sorry, it just has the name "Joe" attached to it, you were the only Joe I could think of.

    3. Yeah, I'm Normal Distribution. That first Friday was brutal to me (losing Missouri), but since then I've done much better than I expected. Sadly, I changed my Syracuse Elite 8 to Wisconsin after hearing that one of their players would be out for the tourney. Then they won that game anyway. So mad. And I had reservations about picking Mizzou for the Final 4, but I have lots of Mizzou friends, so I went with it. Had I gone with my gut, I would've had Florida there. So I nearly got all Elite 8.

      Although, if I had gone with all my first inclinations, I would've had UNC over Kansas.

  11. That makes it sound like I've got such a great shot, but man, if I'd known my picks were going to be so strangely good in this tournament, I might have gone with a safe final pick.

    1. I know what you mean. I think Strat or I have the best chance with Kentucky beating either OSU or Kansas.

  12. LEN3 writing about Morneau at DH makes me think it will happen. I'll guess now that he'll wind up with at least 50% of his PA at DH, probably a lot more. I don't think his fielding was anything special, so I don't see any big need to get him on the field. If he starts the season mainly at DH and is productive, I think the Twins will not want to change a good thing. This makes me a little more optimistic about Morneau this season. If they're actually managing his workload and acknowledging that things could go bad if they ride him too hard, then I see a better chance of Morneau improving. Amongst Parmelee, Doumit, and (sigh) Mauer, there ought to be enough cover at first base even if Morneau was strictly DH'ing.

    1. I think playing Mauer at 1st base once a week would be a really good idea. I don't want him to camp out over there, but 20 or so games at first wouldn't be a bad thing at all. Plus 120 behind the plate, of course.

      1. Plus 120 behind the plate, of course.

        If he puts in 120 behind the plate, he could be the third base coach for the other 42 and I'd still be happy.

      2. I can live with once a week, especially if he's not DH'ing. I'll just hate the majority of the commentary that that arrangement would generate.

    2. I've seen Parmelee make a few nice plays at first; don't know what his history is, but I don't think he's an embarrassment there. Kinda wish he could have been a righty in the lineup, though.

  13. After much talk the Good Dr. and I have decided to list our house on the open market. Having never sold a property before we're interested in hearing any advice / experience from y'all.

          1. And make sure all your rooms are painted in the colors the buyers want. God forbid they have to throw up a couple coats of paint!

            1. You guys are making me so very glad I don't have cable anymore so my wife can't watch those people, which in turn makes me want to throw things. Based on the way Canadian's buy hooses, I'll implode mine before selling.

              1. At least in my case, she thinks those people are as big of idiots as I do. At least we know we're on the same page when it comes to us maybe buying a house someday.

                1. Same with my wife, she'd get annoyed to. But that wouldn't stop her from watching.

              2. I get enjoyment out of how ridiculous some of the people are on occasion. Thankfully baseball is back next week and I don't have to worry about finding something to watch on TV every night!

            2. And heaven forbid it's not in exactly the right location. Offer to airlift your house to a more appropriate location if necessary. Buyers shouldn't have to compromise or look at your house with any imagination whatsoever.

            3. And make sure all your rooms are painted in the colors the buyers want. God forbid they have to throw up a couple coats of paint!

              We just finished painting the entire house last may. I painted everything white, save for a bit of trim and an warm off-white "accent" wall in the kitchen. I'm going to assume that our house will sell for less because we aren't featuring texas orange anywhere.

              1. Just get a big "Hook 'em Horns!" Fathead and stick it on the closest wall to your entry way and bump up your asking price by five grand.

                  1. I suppose I'd need different ones for different regions eh? All I know about Texas is UGK is from Port Arthur, and UGK is awesome.

    2. Tips for marketing the house:
      1. Declutter! Get rid of as much "extra" stuff as you can.
      2. Take down anything that has pictures of you or your family - you want potential buyers to imagine themselves in "their" new home.
      3. If you can, keep some furniture in the house. If not, make sure the home and yard are spotless (or at least well maintained)*.
      4. You did right with white and off-white. Neutral colors are good in general. See rationale for #2.
      5. Get a professional photographer to take the pictures - many, if not all, prospective buyers base their visits on what they see online. High quality pictures = more visits.
      6. Don't take the first offer unless it's exactly what you're asking, don't be hesitant to haggle, and don't be offended by a "low-ball offer"**, especially if you don't mind wheeling and dealing.
      7. Turn on all the lights in the house when showing it.
      8. Get your realtor to ask for follow-up from potential buyers who visit the house - what they liked, didn't like, etc. It may be something you can "fix" without too much trouble, something you overlooked, or simply insight into what buyers in your price range are looking for.

      *Do this anyway
      **Unless it's so low that it's insulting. Then, act insulted!

        1. Pro pictures are nice, but after this house hunt I want to punch every single home photographer who uses a fisheye lens to make rooms look larger.

          1. Our pro photos didn't do that, but they really grasped how improved the house is with natural sunlight, which was important, as we were showing it in December. It's like a cave in winter.

  16. Twins don't give up a hit until the eighth and the guy gets thrown out trying to stretch a double to a triple. Twins up 5-0 through eight.

    1. I need to figure out how to wrangle myself a stand mixer first. That's very high on the list of eventual wedding registry items.

      1. That's very high on the list of eventual wedding registry items.

        Did I miss something, or is it just an inevitability at this point?

    2. I beat you to the kitchenaide meat grinder, doc. From my cold dead hands. Really, I'll never go back to supermarket ground beef (for the twice a year I would buy it).

        1. I buy from a local farmer (if you're in the 'kato area the farmers market features a dude who raises and butchers his own... probably the best grass fed beef you can get), and generally use a 50% chuck, 20% sirloin, 25% pork / lamb, 5% fatback if I can get it. The joy of doing this is the ability to experiment with the flavor different cuts of meat will offer you.

          1. Thanks. We pick up from a CSA at that farmer's market, so I'll have to check it out.

            My father-in-law raises beef too, so we could probably get something from him as well, but I think they just keep it simple with their butcher, and I'd be more choosy. All of the ground beef we've gotten from them was too fatty for my tastes.

            Also, holy crap do I love our CSA.

            1. We're probably going to do our first CSA this summer, just waiting to start my new job so I can see if my insurance will provide any rebate.

              Any good resources for storing veggies long term? I think we're only going to do a half-share to start with, so it may not be as critical, but if we still don't eat them all I don't want any of it to go to waste.

              1. We've just get a half share, so we don't have to save too many. We usually just freeze some green beans, and obviously the root vegetables store pretty well already. Mostly we just don't plan meals until we see what we got for the week, and then use 'em up.

                At about this point of the year I start really missing the veggies of summer. When I was younger I didn't eat vegetables well, but sometime about a decade ago the switch just flipped and now I love them.

                Peppers were on sale at Cub this week and I'm making fajitas tonight, mostly because I'm craving vegetables.

                1. I think we can handle that. I'm fairly excited about the idea, especially when one of our friends said they stopped doing one because they kept getting weird vegetables. I love weird vegetables, dammit!

      2. I've replaced a lot of my ground beef needs this way, and through the addition of ground venison. In particular, I use half-and-half venison and ground beef picked up from a dairy farmer I know. This set-up for dishes that mask the gamey taste of the deer, i.e., chili, meat loaf, etc. as my my wife still "can't stand wild game" taste. My favorite meals are when this mixture is used and the wife compliments my cooking; I smile outwardly saying thanks while inwardly thinking, "YES, got you!"

  18. The April 29 lineup for JazzFest is just killer. Trombone Shorty and then Dr. John. Finally, you conclude the night by choosing among Bruce Springsteen, Janelle Monae, and Al Green. The only person in that group I haven't seen live is Dr. John, but my goodness that's a ridiculous lineup for just one day. (Especially considering how comically awful the May 4 lineup is.)

    May 5 would also be fun to see Davina & The Vagabonds, Allen Toussaint, Better Than Ezra, Steve Earle, and My Morning Jacket or Herbie Hancock (and Foo Fighters/Sharon Jones back-to-back on May 6th would be enjoyable as well).

    One of these years...

    1. Thinking about it, theoretically a league with a strict salary cap shouldn't need to have a draft. Make your player acquisition system like so: every new player in the league has to take the contract that pays him the most money. Most new players wouldn't really object to this system and it would allow teams that are prudent with their money to continue to make good acquisitions, while teams that make big mistakes would get punished for them. I think it would help some if the NBA also simplified their cap some to make it less soft--enough with all of the midlevel or this or that exemptions. In exchange for simplifying everything, I'd say each team can have one (non-rookie) player off the books. You want LeBron James? You can pay him however much you want.

      1. Throw in a limitation to one-year contracts (which players would never go for, obviously) and you could have a lot of fun with this.

        1. I think it would be enough to do something like limiting cap hits to three years and having some mechanism for buying out contracts after that. Maybe something like every team gets to "amnesty" a deal every three years and teams are allowed to trade their amnesty clause to another team if they don't use their amnesty clause for long enough to have two amnesty clauses in hand. (That is, teams are required to have two amnesty clauses before they can trade one away.)

          The point being not to saddle teams forever with bad contracts--even reasonable decisions sometimes don't turn out well--and giving players some financial security.

          1. In the NHL, teams are allowed to buy out contracts for, I think, two-thirds of their remaining value. It seems it's also paid out over double the remaining length of the contract, all of which counts towards the cap I think.

            1. I like the amnesty idea because sometimes a GM comes around and just screws a team into the ground. It'd be nice if the fans didn't have to live with those mistakes forever, even at 2/3rds of the contract value spread over twice the length of the remaining deal. As it currently stands in the NBA, if you bought out the last two years of a max deal, it would still cost you up to 17-18% of your cap for four years.

              Going back to the original link, I think people sometimes get too hung up on the idea that giving poor teams a good draft place "rewards" bad teams. The idea is to reward the fans of bad teams, or at least not to saddle one franchise's fans with bad teams for year after year. The NBA's current system doesn't seem to accomplish that goal all that well, though, and tanking is a legitimate issue.

  20. I just saw a commercial for the movie Titantic back in theaters. Whats up with movies being shown again after 10, 15, 20 year son the shelf? (Lion King, Star Wars, Titanic)

    'See Alladin! Now in super duper Disney 5-D vision!' I suppose its an easy way for studios to make money, but it just seem to fit a narrative of Hollywood being unoriginal.

      1. Yep. Money. That's it. It's not bad business, and there are plenty of options for those of us who don't care about those movies enough to see them in the theater.

        But hell, you figure out a reason to re-release The Princess Bride or something? I'm there.

        2. Am I dreaming this, or did they used to rerelease blockbusters the following summer when I was a kid? I have memories of seeing ET in the theater both in Michigan and Minnesota.

    2. Dude, it's in 3-D. Titanic in 3-D!!! and it's the 100th anniversary of the ship going down, in 3-D!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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