48 thoughts on “May 19, 2012: Year-End Party”

  1. something to wake up to

    Dick Bremer ‏@dbremer_pxp
    How come the Rochester Redwings aren't 10 games over .500 with P.J. Walters and Scott Diamond starting for them all April?

  2. There are children who are three days old that have never seen the Twins lose a game.

  3. Taking the 3.5 hour drive to Milwaukee today. The Twins can win four in a row. Right? Right???

  4. Last night was a fundraiser for my kids' high school sports programs. It was a "pro wrestling" event with some A- or AA-level minor leaguers. I think the show was fun (didn't see more than a minute or two because I was working concessions). but we learned a lot. As in "don't depend on the promoter to actually do the promotion he promised." We had maybe 200 people in attendance and worked our butts off in concessions to net only about $200 (the school also got some profits -- to be determined -- from ticket sales, but not much after it paid for the janitors required under the union contract).

    $200 split across 5 booster clubs is *checks math* a crappy night. We sold 36 slices of pizza and 11 hot dogs, but purchased 64 slices of pizza and about 100 hot dogs and buns. That kind of ratio doesn't work very well. Thankfully, we sold a lot of waters and sodas, but at a buck each, you just don't make much money that way (our cost was 30 cents a can for the sodas and about 10 cents a bottle for the waters, I think).

    this is the life of an involved high school parent in our age. Fundraisers R Us.

    1. Dude, California is a mess. Will say that for being a beer "wasteland" LA has it pretty good in comparison to w. Texas. S

      1. plus, LA has stolen lots and lots of water. West Texas, not so much.

        did I give you the contact info for my UCLA buddy?

      1. Raise pension benefits!!!111one111!!!

        I joak. But the Zuckerberg cash will have some small-but-not-insignificant impact.

    1. They couldn't allow a player manager? Or a parent? Must have needed to specify the coach(es) before the game.

    2. Lame. Surely someone on the team could have managed, especially since you don't have to worry as much about wearing down pitchers in softball.

      1. sorry. This is a school-sanctioned event in California, not beer softball. Gotta have a school employee actively in charge. And a certified coach with an up-to-date TB test and Livescan evidence of non-molestation record, for all I know.

        Now, where the A.D. was, I have no idea. One might suggest that the A.D. should have been there for a playoff game and been able to step in in this case. Just sayin'.

        1. There's an umpire there, right? Isn't s/he in charge? It's a perfect example of why organized sports suck.

          1. paid for by the section, not directly by the school(s) in the playoff game. No doubt there are bylaws that address this situation, and the ump followed those bylaws.

            1. No doubt bylaws are right up there with good intentions in paving the road to hell.

        2. A playoff game and no assistant coach? That's crazy-go-nuts. I understand why the game had to be forfeited (liability, among other things), but I don't understand why the team was understaffed.

          1. because our district has no money for extra-duty stipends beyond a minimal amount for varsity head coaches, the band director, and a couple of others. Booster organizations pay for additional coaches in some cases. In other cases, the coaches are volunteers. Case in point: the girls' basketball program this year. We had a volunteer JV coach and a volunteer freshman coach. That program currently has no formal booster club (the wrestling boosters is a 501(c)(3), so we can take tax deductible donations, including from foundations).

            1. I should also note that we have zero budget for travel. All away contests require parents to drive athletes to the competition. That's right. For football, you need an army of drivers, for both JV and varsity.

              I helped fundraise to pay a stipend to our JV (and varsity assistant) wrestling coach, and to reimburse the varsity coach for some of his travel expenses. We don't even have enough singlets ("uniforms") for all of our wrestlers. JV kids had to share singlets during the season. We are fundraising to purchase some new varsity singlets so that the old ones can be handed down to the JV level. And we pay ALL tournament fees through the Boosters. The school picks up the costs of home meets (we don't make enough in gate to cover all expenses, because the union contract requires, at least one, but, I think, two janitors on time-and-a-half for our use of the gym) and the stipend for the head coach. That's about it.

    1. I think that's a record where if it's ever set in the majors, it will never be surpassed.

    2. We were sitting right behind the Twins dugout when Baker had four strikes against the Brewers a few years back. I told my wife that was something she will probably never see again and she had no clue what I was talking about.

  5. Dan Harmon is out as "Community" show-runner. This follows the departure of executive producers Neil Goldman and Garrett Donovan. I don't know how much of those three gentlemens' voices are in "Community", but you have to figure with such a unique show such changes will not bode well for season 4.

    1. long time writer Chris McKenna (the Season 2 fake clip show, S3 'Remedial Chaos Theory') is leaving too.

      While it stinks the genius of Harmon is gone , I'll give the new showrunners (they come from 'Happy Endings' a show I very much like) a chance.

      I can see where Sony is coming from. The show has late scripts, is over budget, and word is Harmon is kind of a King Richard to the suits

    2. Dan Harmon IS Community. The show cannot be the same without him. He rewrote every script.

      That said, the show can still be good. And like DW said, he was kind of a drunken douchebag.

  6. 24-0 run by the SA Spurs turns a big deficit into a 10-pt lead in the third quarter.

    1. This part (from here) is actually kind of funny:

      “They could’ve booed me Opening Day, and they did, and I totally deserved it,” Perez said. “That’s a different thing. I got two guys on (against Seattle). Yeah, my release point was all over the place, but really? I’ve got two guys on. They haven’t even scored yet and you’re booing me? You’re saying, ‘Get this bum off the mound?’ Come on.”

      Perez gives the fans way too much credit if he thinks they are noticing that his release point is inconsistent.

  7. I don't know if I'm prepared to live in a world where Drew Butera is a good batter. SSS and all, but I've expected him to hit worse than most pitchers.

    Twins are 5-2 in games in which Butters starts, 9-24 in games where he does not.

  8. As for the Hard drive, Twayn arrived and started to take it out, realized it was a different kind than he had the proper wire for, and put it back together. Then we booted in Ubuntu again and poked around and there were my files. Somehow there were folders labeled "Music" and "Photos" (which I looked in) in the same folder as "My Documents" that were empty rather than the "My Music" and "My Photos" folders in "My Documents", which are full and already copied to my external. Looks like everything is going to be OK! Yay Twayn!

    It looks like I may have lost one movie clip from last month. Not sure what it has: can't be birthday or anything too momentous.

    I'm now moving other files over. Twayn says there's no reason I can't just get a new HD for this computer and live with it for several more years. I'll just need to contact the manufacturer to figure out how to reload Windows. Savings!

    I feel slightly foolish because had I poked around more when I first loaded ubuntu, I might have saved Twayn the trip. But! By having a WGOMer cometo the house and save our files, there's all-a-sudden a lot more value to this site.

    As for beer, Twayn said he was not interested in drinking before driving back home. So he had nothing. Which is good news for the next WGOMer to come to my house: one more of my reserve beers will still be around.

    I just had a Schell's Stout (not one of my reserves): I like.

    Thanks Twayn! You're awesome!

Comments are closed.