108 thoughts on “April 20, 2012: It’s 4:20 Somewhere”

  1. Even though the Twins lost, it was still semi-pleasant to see they at least bothered to score 6 whilst doing so. That got me wondering if scoring was up this year or I was just imagining things, and it is slightly (44 in 13 games vs. 38 last year). I spent a little time this morning trying to figure out how many extra wins the Twins were on pace for thanks to the increase in run production, only to find a big ol' mistake in my methodology while trying to piece together the LaTeX for the LTE. There's my morning's work down the drain.

    /This is what I get up to when my only lesson is at 3:30 PM.

    2. shoot, I had a card for you to NCIS, but I don't remember which it was...I'll find it again eventually. meanwhile, just how good are you at this...?

      (probably 1994 season)

              1. Stan Javier wore 28 for the A's in 1994, 1995. It was Eric Fox in 1993, Tony Batista in 1996.

                1. April 14, 1994, bottom of 5th. Javier singled, forced at second on Aldrete's grounder (bunt?) to the pitcher

                  1. you ar right. 5th inning, not 7th.

                    I dont remember the Coliseum before Al Davis ruined it. The background bleacher seats looks like the old Arlington ballpark

  2. the RBI stat has been pushed aside for other metrics, but its interesting to note that Joe Mauer is second on the team with 7 RBI (Willingham has 9)

  3. It was brought up during the log last night, but I'd have to side with bS. I enjoy DDD despite Fieri being a schmuck and I enjoy it for reasons similar to brian's.
    If I'm watching television, another guilty pleasure is this...Holmes is also a bit of schumck, but I like the show. Something about having a problem in your house (usually something common), having an "expert" break it down - expose, analyze and discuss the causes and potential results, and then do an overhaul/renovation is pretty enjoyable for me. My home is nearly 90 years old so there's something pertinent in nearly every episode.

    1. While in New Orleans for the final 4 a couple weeks ago, we stopped in place featured on DD&D. We talked with the owner and he pretty much said that Fieri was a tool and totally in love with himself. I still like the show though.

    2. Triple D (yeah, I say Triple D) just aired an episode about Broder's Cucina in Minneapolis, which is run by my friend's family. I always find it hilarious to see people I know on TV, but it was doubly hilarious to see them on that show.

        1. I know Charlie, the middle one. And I guess they considered it to be a diner? I dunno, they're really blurring the lines between the D's these days.

    3. I'm no fan of the host, but I like the premise of the show. I just looked at all the spots that have been featured in Washington, and it turns out I've been to two of them. So there's that.

    1. It looks like even though he was trying to slide early, he still slid too early.

    1. Now can they go back and give Galarraga an error for failing to step on first base in time? Or for not catching the ball cleanly? 'Cause then at least he'd have a no-hitter.

  6. Sheesh I make a rare Stribbie comment in Urdahl's beatdown of TJ and I get 2 upvotes and 16 downvotes.

    2. I would have given you an upvote, but I'm not registered.
      (HBT and Fangraphs let you upvote and downvote without registering.)

    3. Consider this an upvote from me, though I'm not going to register. I don't think many of the downvoters understood your snark, which isn't surprising.

      1. Yup, that's how we all should have done it. Point for yourself on your spreadsheet, Phil.

  7. So I reactivated my student status at NDSU, and I think I'm going to finish my degree using their online courses. I'm waiting to hear back from the chair of the Sociology department to set up time to figure out what all I need to get my degree. Going back to school at 30 is exciting and pretty scary.

    1. I went back to school at 47. You can do it! Congratulations for having the courage to do what you really want to do.

    4. I know the feeling. I went back over my 30-31 year old season, and was pretty intimidated. What I found was that I was a bit more focused on what I wanted, and needed, from my program than some of my younger classmates.

      1. That's for sure. A friend of mine, who'd also gone back to school later in life, told me something that turned out to be exactly right: "You'll discover that you expect more from yourself than your professors do."

    5. Congrats I say.

      Philosofette just sent in her application to go back to school. Once she's done I will almost certainly go back myself. It's encouraging to hear of others doing the same.

        1. Not literally dissect the people who wrote it. That's why I didn't use "literally" there.

      3. “The story makes no sense whatsoever. The narrative has no internal logic, the ‘moral’ in unclear, and the plot details seem so oddly chosen that the story seems to have been written during a peyote trip,” said Jennings, whose 74 consecutive wins on “Jeopardy!” earned him more than $3.1 million.

        1. ... said Jennings, whose 74 consecutive wins on “Jeopardy!” earned him more than $3.1 million obviously not a fan of Hunter S. Thompson.

      4. It reads a lot like a spoof story written by somebody bored of writing actual reading comprehension stories in order to crack up the other people in the test question sweatshop.

        And then somehow it got slipped into the test.

      5. I've seen worse. BTW, 1A (D has potential but is less compelling than A), 2A (there is no owl, the crow's theory is shown to be incorrect, and the moose fails to understand a common figure of speech--the hare is wisest by virtue of basically keeping his mouth shut and winning both a ninja and a lifetime's supply of toothpaste.)

        1. I disagree. If the hare was the wisest, he would have known that running as fast as he was (and continuing that pace all the way to the finish) was unnecessary. But the owl knew it only takes three licks to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop.

          1. The owl was a cheater and based on the conviction of Barry Bonds, we know that it is not wise to cheat.

      6. Pulp fiction.

        Actually Moss thought the questions aren't that hard...but a) Moss is 3x as old as the intended test-takers, and b) Moss hasn't seen the answer key and may have failed miserably.

    7. I basically went from 18-31, with some breaks in between. Exciting and scary are true enough, but I really enjoyed it. I hope you do too.

    8. I graduate one month from today and have spent just two years of my life since preschool not in school (and those were spent working on a college campus).

      1. ...then you quit your job, moved back to that state (sort of), and went back to the first job, all in your 40s.

  8. Alex Burnett has my vote for next Matt Guerrier. Not that I think he will, I just want him to be.

    1. I'm impressed with myself. I didn't just reply to the wrong LTE here, I replied to the wrong post.

    2. While I certainly hope he becomes a successful setup man, I don't think Burnett would qualify as "the next Matt Guerrier" since Burnett has been developed by the Twins and is still pretty young while Guerrier was picked up off the scrap heap and went from groundskeeper (before it was called that) to setup man. Jeff Gray might be a more similar situation.

      1. I was just thinking about the progression from "Crappy failed starter" to "Okay middle reliever" to "Good setup man".

  9. I like Doug Grow. I've come to realize I don't care one way or the other about a stadium for the Queens. If it gets done, fine - we'll pay the taxes now. If it doesn't, then we'll just pay the taxes to fund something at a later date. That being said, it's nice to see a thoughtful response to what the don NFL commissioner showing up really means.

    1. I wonder if the 75% owners approval would pose a real problem. It seems that it would have the potential to be a problem. Say the four teams Grow lists as also have stadium issues would rather not have the Vikings move to LA because they want to move to LA. That's four "no" votes. I presume that given their proximity, that the Packers and Bears would prefer if the Vikings didn't move. (This could be wrong, maybe there is no additional interest in those games due to history, but I am skeptical.) Presumably the Chargers would stand to lose at least some TV revenue by having a team move to LA, so that's another potential opponent. That still only gets you to seven "no" votes. Surely other teams could have their own reasons for opposing a move, but it seems to me that generally speaking, the owners are generally going to let teams move because it makes the threat of relocation a little more real. But there are also enough reasons to oppose this move that maybe nine owners would step up.

    2. I hope this doesn't cross into the forbidden zone, but it always irks me to see states focus on extortion threats from billionaires in regards to professional sports franchises. There are other ways to react to these threats other than rolling up into a little ball and begging the owner not to move. The most logical of which is to assess the team's options, like this article does, and move forward citing the advantages of staying and the difficulties of moving.

      I wasn't around in Minnesota during the North Carolina talk, but didn't the state just tell Carl to take a long walk off a short pier? He tested the waters and then attempted to totally cash out by throwing the team in the garbage. The state won both those times and he finally got a new stadium.

      Also whenever Wilf says that he's losing money, people need to roundly laugh in his face. It's like that scene in the Simpsons where Burns says 'I naturally can't pay you much money,' and money pours down through the ceiling. 'As you can see this old place is falling apart.'

    1. Never had him, but Sheenie told me repeatedly that, to misquote the Dude, "Professor Radsan treats objects like women, man."

  11. This is a win for owners, particularly small market owners, but I'm not sure exactly why the union agreed to this, except maybe in the context of other issues. Gone are the days when the baseball union beat MLB over the head on every issue, I guess.

    In a somewhat related story, the Angels have scored 53 runs in 13 games and the Cardinals have scored 73 runs in 13 games.

    1. Because the CBA inherently can't cover the terms of employment beyond a member's playing days. If it could, then the CBA would cover manager's contracts (Gardy's a former player) and all sorts of other nonsense.

    2. I can think of reasons why the MLBPA at large would be against bonuses contingent upon performance. The more money that owners put towards "milestone" bonuses for elite players, the less money they'll wind up spending on the rank and file. Now, I certainly have no insight into their thinking, but it could be along those lines.

      The personal services provisions are fishy. It looks, tastes, sounds, and smells like loophole creation, and I can't imagine that either side is particularly in favor of loopholes.

    3. I don't think the MLBPA ever beat MLB over the head. They just look really strong compared to all other North American pro sports. Also I can see why this could be a good deal for the union on the luxury tax issue.

      1. I think the MLBPA won pretty much every fight they ever picked with MLB. I think the MLBPA is generally considered to be one of the strongest labor unions in the country. This is a bad deal for the union on the luxury tax deal. Because that money was not counted against the luxury tax, it was a way for large market clubs to pay more to players without being penalized by the luxury tax.

    1. that was fun. But it also led me to this. Apparently, Rick Ankiel's problem as a pitcher was that he was too close to home plate.

      1. The other day I came across a bit on, I believe, This American Life about Steve Blass and it made me wonder, if Rick Ankiel went back to pitching, would he succeed? It's probably a risk that he'd rather not take, but from a scientific standpoint, it'd be an interesting experiment.

  16. from the parenting chronicles, The Roommate relayed this story about his 4-year old:

    Another time my mother didn't give him the dessert he wanted, and he said, very, very gently, "You know, everyone makes mistakes. It's OK. Mama makes mistakes, papa makes mistakes, I make mistakes. And Nana, you made a mistake."

  17. A little added excitement to the morning commute today:

    Interstate 80 from West Sacramento to Davis is now open in both directions after 6 hours of closure after a suspected gunman crashed his first carjacked pickup truck in West Sacramento.

    The hunt for the suspect, who also stole a tractor and ditched a second hijacked vehicle, involved swarms of officers and continues across a wide area of Sacramento.

    Read more here: http://blogs.sacbee.com/crime/archives/2012/04/manhunt-underway-on-closed-i-80-causeway.html#storylink=cpy

    Now, I use I-5 to commute to work, but it was at an L.A. crawl in both directions for much of my 18-mile commute this morning, as traffic was diverted from I-80 to I-5 through my town in both directions in order to bypass West Sacramento.

    1. That sounds like all kinds of bad for commuting. Not sure what it's like in Sacto, but in Seattle, the Friday commute is usually the worst of the week even under non-hijack conditions.

  18. Morneau resting a sore foot tonight after fouling a pitch off it yesterday, so here's the lineup vs. Rays lefty Matt Moore:

    1. Denard Span, CF
    2. Jamey Carroll, SS
    3. Joe Mauer, DH
    4. Josh Willingham, LF
    5. Danny Valencia, 3B
    6. Ryan Doumit, C
    7. Trevor Plouffe, RF
    8. Chris Parmelee, 1B
    9. Alexi Casilla, 2B
    Liam Hendricks, RHP

    With no Hughes, the bench is Burroughs and Clete Thomas. I hope Parmelee doesn't get exposed against lefties too much.

    1. both catchers in the lineup! oh noes!
      I saw yesterday that Gardy said that he is mulling calling up a catcher next week. He must miss Drew.

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