2012 Game 69: Minnesota Twins at Cincinnati Reds

Nick Blackburn
v
Homer Bailey

Unfortunately, as is the case with bad teams, the hot streaks are short lived. The Twins are below .400 again, ensuring Seattle remains easily in 13th place. They are ahead of Colorado now though, so they've fallen out of a top-three draft pick.

236 thoughts on “2012 Game 69: Minnesota Twins at Cincinnati Reds”

  1. The Reds are my NL team. Dad grew up in Southern Indiana during the Big Red Machine, and when I was growing up in Indy the Indians were AAA for Cincinnati.

    1. My dad grew up in Indianapolis, so I heard a lot about the Indians growing up. Unfortunately, I never got to go to a game.

      1. Bush Stadium was an amazing park, and they replaced it with an equally nice (though very different) park in Victory Field. If you ever have occasion to be in Indy, Victory Field is well worth the effort to see if you're able.

  2. House to myself, Dick'n'Bert on mute w/ the Hold Steady playlist on Spotify cranked, Surly and Hawaiian pizza for dinner.

    Not a bad Friday evening.

  3. Doumits batting average on June 1st was .271, before that hit, it was .253. That was his 17th hit this month, and only the 6th extra base hit.

  4. I think FSN has only 15 pieces of footage of Bert Blyleven's career (young Twins and the footage is grainy, couple with the Pirates, 3000th strikeout, a couple from the '87 season)

  5. I was just cleaning out my closet and found a nice pair of Banana Republic Jeans that still had the tags on them and still fit! Score!

    I imagine I must have gotten them at the end of last summer when it was too hot to wear them and forgot about them.

  6. How long until Revere steals home? Then he just needs to crowd home plate and he can score himself.

  7. I structured my entire evening around the "fact" that the Twins were just getting started right now. Whoops.

    Widmer Hefe and Drifter Pale Ale. I've probably mentioned it before, but I'm in disbelief at the awesomeness of Drifter.

    1. I was just telling my wife about the horror in this city that was Marge Schott, including how an ump died before a game started and her whining that it wasn't an important enough reason to delay the game.

        1. I hadn't either, but the Milkmaid asked if racism in baseball has really been alive in my lifetime as a fan. Her name had no choice but to come up.

          1. Death threats against Hank Aaron as he approached 715 would have been salient, too.

    1. The Reds feed is suggesting that concussion tests are compulsory in these instances, and that every ding to the head that an ump takes is recorded so problems with dizziness and headaches later can be understood. Take note, NFL.

  8. Lake Waramaug, CT Sprint Triathlon in the AM, pally's. 8:30 men in the water. Wish me luck.

  9. The Reds feed is centering around the Reds HOF induction of Sean Casey, Dan Driessen and John Reilly. It sounds like Casey is one of the most popular Reds, ever, if this broadcast is to be believed. I hadn't thought of him in ages.

        1. I remember when he was playing for the Tigers and the Twins broadcasters would also bring up that he would talk and talk and talk whenever a guy was on first, like he was politicking to become the mayor.

    1. I really like the Reds feed. It's a great cure from the idiocy that was the Pirates feed, and the Twins guys certainly get nowhere near this level of talent, despite the "Plouffe" mispronunciation.

      1. Yeah, I wish I could listen to other announcers. Well, I could, but it'd be a fair amount of work.

      2. I grew up in Ohio, and I'm old enough to remember when Joe Nuxhall retired and started broadcasting for the Reds radio crew. He was great. We loved his signoff: "This is the old left-hander, rounding third and heading for home."

    1. I turned on the radio tonight just in time to hear your name announced. Congratulations (again)!

  10. Is there some organizational assumption that Australians can run, or is Hendriks pinch running based on evidence of speed?

  11. This is the third day in a row I've seen or heard a heterosexual male refer to a player as "a tall drink of water." Apparently, the sexual overtones of that term are going away.

    1. to be honest, I dont even know that term was code. I just thought it was a folksy way to describe someone as tall.

      1. Yup- I grew up in Oregon and Nevada, and I've heard plenty of people describe guys that way. I don't know that I've ever heard it used as a sexual innuendo.

        1. That's how the term was coined. Since the first person I heard use the term used it correctly, it stuck in my head, and it still chafes me when I see it used just to mean "tall."

          1. When my dad first met one of my good friends, as she walked away he used that phrase to describe her. He then inquired of me if I was hitting that (in so many words).

            So, I guess I'm saying I understand this usage of the term.

    2. From UsingEnglish.com:

      Idiom Definitions for 'Tall drink of water'
      Someone who is very tall and slender is a tall drink of water. ('A tall glass of water' is also used.)

      This is the only way I've heard it used.

      1. urbandictionary.com has a different opinion:

        n. 1. A man or woman that is tall, gorgeous, and super delicious. Like on a hot day, a tall drink of water is absolutely appealing.

        2. Old slang for a visually appealing man or woman.
        Would you look at hunky man? He is one tall drink of water. I could drink that RIGHT up.

        I'm going to guess spooky was thinking closer to that.

            1. that maps to urban dictionary. Is "ruraldictionary" actually a thing?

              Ask Metafilter says:

              The term exists in two forms: long drink of water and tall drink of water. Most dictionaries do not have the expression and no dictionary I checked has any speculation about the etymology of the term. The Historical Dictionary of American Slang defines the term as "a tall man" and has a first citation of 1936, but with minimal effort I've been able to antedate it possibly to 1904, though it's not a strict use of it in metaphor:

              1904 Daily Huron (South Dakota) "Makes a Big Hit" (May 7) p. 3: Then there is baby Patti, who is not much larger than a long drink of water and who is a marvel for a child.

              The earliest for certain citation I have is this.

              1924 Times (London, England) "The Speaker Defied" (May 10) p. 12: Mr. Kirkwood addressed his reproof to Lord Winterton, who, along with his colleagues, had protested against the defiance of the speaker's ruling. "Ye are not treating with Indians, ye big long drink of water," he shouted. Immediately the Speaker reproved the member for Dumbarton.

              Another newspaper that quoted the same thing indicates that the speaker, Kirkwood, is a Scottish Labor party member, as also indicated by the "ye." There's nothing about the expression in the Dictionary of Scots Language.
              posted by Mo Nickels at 5:20 PM on August 14, 2006

              1. I know, I was disappointed to find out there was no separate ruraldictionary. But that should be good enough for the runner anyways.

  12. Reds feed Text poll: which recent player would you like to see inducted into the Reds HOF in 2014?

    Paul O'Neill
    Aaron Boone
    Ken Griffey, Jr.
    Danny Graves
    Jeff Brantley

    There seems to be a pretty big disparity between some of these. I'm pretty interested to see the results.

  13. Dick/Bert said Gray has been an effective reliever this year. Sure, if all you look at is the number of wins and losses.

  14. MLB.tv has an advertisement for "My Big Redneck Vacation" followed by "Redneck Island". Are they for realz?

  15. The reliever with the lowest K rate in the major leagues gets a K with the bases loaded and one out and the tying run at third. Nice.

  16. Is anyone else on the Reds feed on PS3? Okay, probably not.

    Anyway, the feed dropped and it's nothing but crowd noise. Normally I'd welcome this but they've been very enjoyable.

    1. I had that problem not on my PS3. The problem I've been having with the feed on my PS3 lately is that it drops out entirely. It's not as much of a problem on my computer.

      1. Aaaaaand my commentary is back, out of nowhere and with no explanation on the part of the commentators. Must have been a blip in the PS3.

        I haven't had PS3 mlb.tv problems at all this year besides a few lags of about a minute, which means I normally hear about a Willinghammer from one of y'all before I actually see it.

        1. Yeah, my commentary is back on. I'm guessing it's some combo of MLB.tv and my internet provider. I'm thinking of getting Verizon FioS when I move. Hopefully that will be better.

            1. Is that the fastest? I was going to go with whatever they had that's the fastest.

                1. Oh Jeebus. Maybe I won't go with that one. According to their applet, it would take me 4 hours to download a 2 hour HD movie. They might not be being completely honest with me.

    2. I had the same thing on my netbook on mlb.com. I thought they were just letting the situation play out in real time/sound.

  17. What was the scrappy white guy the Reds had about 3-4 years ago? Played outfield, a little crazy, claimed an imaginary friend Barney or something like that who sat on his shoulder.

                    1. Hey, you were the excited one about it!

                      Okay, yeah, I'm following it waaay too closely.

  18. Reds text poll results (Who should be in Reds HOF next?)

    Paul O'Neill 24%
    Aaron Boone 9%
    Ken Griffey, Jr. 36%
    Danny Graves 7%
    Jeff Brantley 24%

      1. Yeah...unfortunately, we have a 64% no-brain rate.

        Although, it turns out Brantley is the insightful and talented color commentator on this very broadcast, which explains his irrationally high rate.

  19. Anyone else here played Sniper Elite 2? My brother and I downloaded the demo for 360. Hoo-boy is it a lot of fun snipin' Nazis. The animations go to this x-ray mode where you see bones shatter and organs rip apart. It's what I'm gonna do soon as this game is over.

    1. I really enjoy the Medal of Honor series and the sniper rifles are my favorite weapons, by far. Taking out your enemies when they have no idea where you are is most excellent.

  20. JoeChristensen ‏@JoeCStrib
    Before game, Gardenhire said Matt Capps was available but reiterated that each day's rest will help Capps' shoulder feel better.

    They should put him on the DL and get a fully healed (pork) shoulder.

    1. OK, this is terrible, but I initially read that as "Before game, Gardenhire said Matt Capps was available but retarded."

    1. I liked the clip of the third base ump calling it fair and then hustling presumably to second base.

  21. I haven't been paying all that close of attention tonight as I'm doing job apps. I thought you guys were joking around with that Scott Rolen stuff earlier. I just now with that dribbler up the line realized he's playing.

      1. There would be about an equal chance of it going into the stands on the fly.

  22. "A hit! Into center! And Rolen will...oh. I guess they're gonna hold him."

    Yeah, like hell Rolen was going to pull his wheelchair around third and score there.

  23. "If you're Kozar, do you lay the bunt down? If you do, Rolen could score from third..."

    Ugh, this broadcast has been way too good for them to suddenly fall in love with such self-loathing strategy.

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