37 thoughts on “July 18, 2012: Husbands of the Nation, Sigh Relief”

  1. Today on Mauersux.com:

    Joe Mauer was 3-4 with a double and a walk last night, raising his slash line to .333/.420/.461. Oh, and he made one of the best defensive plays you will see all season.

    Fangraphs has him providing $14.1 million worth of value so far this year, which puts him on pace for $25.38 million over the 2012 season.

    Last night, I saw the following tweet:

    @SouhanStrib: Mauer vs. Trout for batting title is going to be quite a show.

    Fewer and fewer people seem to be criticizing Mr. Moneybags these days, which is why it is all the more important to loudly scream BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! every chance you get.

    1. RandBall ‏@RandBall
      Strange stat of the day: Joe Mauer has a 1.021 OPS playing catcher and a .622 OPS at first base this year.

    2. btw, it would be awesome if someone with mad photoshop skills could make a banner of Mauer sprawling out for that baseball

  2. Couple of stories:

    Saw a most unusual foul ball the other night at my son's little league game. A kid was batting, and this being little league the pitcher had very little control. He through the ball right at the batter, and the batter twisted in such a way that he ended up holding the bat behind his bat... and the ball ended up hitting the bat and going foul. He didn't get to take 1st base, it was a foul ball. Felt kinda bad for him, but that's the game.

    Then, last night our team had one of the best softball games of recent memory. Went up 6-0, then was down 11-6 (yes, the other team scored 11 in one inning). Eventually we pulled back to 17-17 with the help of some walks. Top of the 6th (last inning) we held them to 0 runs, and we knew that all we needed was 1 to win. First 3 guys all take walks. Bases loaded. Guess who's got 2 thumbs and has a chance to be a hero? THIS GUY! I decided I just could NOT win this game with a walk. That just ain't cool yo. I had to hit the ball. I hit it... but sent it right to the short stop, who threw it to home to get the 1st out. Shoot. Not the hero tonight. Next guy comes up and hits a sac fly to center and we win the game. The win was exciting, but was bummed that I couldn't do it for my team.

  3. "Minor Details" will be showing up today, but it may be a while yet. No emergency, just a lot of stuff to do.

  4. Congrats to Beau and Stef! Best wishes for the future.

    Congrats to meat! New jobs are always fun.

    Sheesh, I'm gone from the web for a day, and I miss all the good stuff.

    1. Congrats to Beau!

      And NBBW and I are celebrating 25 year anniversary in the Cinque de Terre today.

      1. you and 6 (and probably others) convinced me to try that album out. Now I just used Zack's promo code to buy their first as well. Really good stuff.

  5. I'm in favor of giving the "death penalty" to the NCAA. Even setting aside the Penn State debacle, it takes a certain level of gall to throw the book at some D3 school over a technicality (because heaven forbid a university does something creative to enhance their students' education) when they have only ever scratched the surface on recruiting violations and under-the-table money from boosters at big D1 football and basketball programs.

    I don't think the NCAA can possibly be a good regulating authority when they personally have a financial stake in the success of the individual universities over which they are supposed to rule. Get rid of 'em and find a different way forward.

    1. I think a lot of the detractors of the death penalty say you can't punish people not involved for the crimes of specific individuals. But what they're missing is that the school wouldn't be punished because Sandusky committed crimes, but because the powers in the school believed football was more important people's lives.

      Though, I think I'm much more in favor with stick's idea of just disbanding the NCAA altogether and make all sports local and cheap.

      1. I think you misread Penn State into my first sentence where I had NCAA. But since unfortunately it is unrealistic to hope for disbanding the NCAA, I guess a Penn State death penalty is about the best I can hope for.

        When it comes down to it, Penn State covered up the sexual abuse because they wanted to protect the program. Now some people are arguing that there should be no severe penalty for the cover-up because the program should be protected. Fantastic. I would argue that the program just isn't that important. Life went on at SMU without a football program. Life at Penn State will go on without a football program. If paying some money to recruits is worth a death penalty, then surely this cover-up is. The next time an AD is faced with this problem, he might consider that a possible cover-up outcome is losing the football program altogether.

      2. To me a death penalty would be punishing too many innocents. I would say punish the people instead of the program. Anyone involved that allowed this to go on should lose their jobs and not be allowed to work for an NCAA school's athletic department at any level again.

        1. Oh no, not the innocents! Don't punish them! Practically every NCAA punishment hurts "innocent" students. Taking away scholarships from players who had nothing to do with scandals. During the Gophers' sanctions, the recruiting restrictions hurt the players on the team because it limited the ability of their coaches to give them better teammates.

          There are hundreds of colleges in the US. Losing one program every now and then is of little consequence to give incentive for other teams to run a tight ship.

          1. All they need to do is release all the kids from their scholarships with enough time to find a new school.

  6. So I have sent out probably at least 60 resumes/cover letters to network around the area and have received pretty favorable feedback except for the fact no one is hiring. Then, this afternoon I was contacted about TWO different possible positions. Crazy.

    1. Reminds me of when I got out of law school. I went months without a job offer, then got two in the same week and had to choose. Good luck to you.

  7. cc to the Dread Pirate (and Scot, wherever he is): Jeff A and I have wandered into the National Baseball Hall of Fans on the bookface. It seems that the guy is a Twins fan and is looking for historically-inclined baseball fans and Twins fans in particular to converse with. Just sayin.

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