35 thoughts on “August 3, 2012: Deduno”

    1. I took a fastball to the forearm in 8th grade. I hit .200 or less (I don't remember exactly, but it was bad) the next year and quit after that. Anything inner-half of the plate or closer, I couldn't swing at. I would just freeze.

      1. I watched a news report of some kid who got hit in the chest and died when I was like 9. I was afraid of the ball for something like the next 5 years. My last year I finally started getting over that fear, and got decent at hitting, but I was so far behind by that point that it was time to hang it up.

      2. My brother was terrified of the ball in his first year of little league (with good reason, I suppose, little kids are not exactly control artists). My dad spent a couple of weeks with him, letting him know that he didn't have anything to be afraid of, he wasn't going to get hit, he just needed to stand in there and take a few swings.

        Of course, the very first at bat that my brother exercised that bravado, he was hit in the ribs.

        Thus marked the end of my brother's potential effectiveness as a batter.

      4. for some reason, getting beaned never made me hesitant. When I was in 8/9 year old Little League, there were no coaches pitching, and there were many bean balls. I got hit in the helmet a couple of times. Not sure why it never scared me. Maybe it's because I just loved hitting so much.

    2. Hello son, we're here to sign your contract. OK, now go see the doctor. We're going to get your Tommy John surgery out of the way right now.

  9. The NYT discovers a cultural revival going on in the Mini-Apple.

    in food terms, it’s long been easier to get an authentic taco al pastor, Thai green curry or a grass-fed beef slider than a good kanel snegl (cinnamon roll). There hasn’t been a successful Scandinavian restaurant here since 2003, when Aquavit, a slick expense-account-fueled import from Midtown Manhattan, closed after a lackluster run.

    “When I was growing up, if we wanted to have meatballs and lingonberries, we had to go to Ikea,” said Kathryn Anderson, a student at the University of Minnesota. “That’s how bad it was.”

      1. When I was cooking at Vincent shortly after it opened, my roommate was working the line at Aquavit. There definitely was a difference in the kind of people coming through the doors.

  10. Sigh. Another week without hearing on the job front. Well, provided I don't get a rejection letter in the mail tomorrow...

    1. I didn't get the first position. I thought the interview for the second went well.

  11. 6, you are looking awfully good in the other basement lately. Nice work.

  12. On Kyle Gibson:

    "He's throwing 91 to 94 (mph) with an 86-mph slider, and he felt great. He had a smile on his face," said (Twins Assistant GM Rob) Antony, who watched Gibson pitch in Fort Myers, Fla. "Since we drafted him, that's as good as I've seen him throw the ball. He has more velocity than I saw when he was at Rochester (in 2011) and before that, because he was consistently 93-94, and his slider was 84-86 with good life."

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