93 thoughts on “September 10, 2012: Pair of Wins”

  1. last year, the Twins had 13 wins combined in August (7) and September (6)
    this year, they are already at 13 (Aug 9, Sept 4)

  2. Should I be surprised that today's game, the fourth of a weekend wraparound series, is a night game?
    The Clevelands play in the D-FW-A MSA (TX) on Tuesday. I guess that's not such a haul, and no timezone change.

  3. Twins Division E# is 6, but with the Tigers 2GB and four games between the Sox and Tigs (starting today in Chicago!), the best for the Twins is a 3-1 Tigs series win, so their true divisional elimination number is five. The could be eliminated as early as Wednesday.

    Twins Wild Card E# is 3, but
    a) with the Angels 2.5GB and four games between the As and Angels (starting today in the LA-LB-SA MSA [Go Athletics!]), the best for the Twins is a 3-1 Angels win (let's hope not), and
    b) with the Rays 1GB the O's and six games to play between the two teams (the first three starting today in Baltimore), the best for the Twins is a 4-2 Rays win or a 3-3 split. Either eliminates the Twins. (That is, there is no way in which the Twins can finish above both the Rays and O's.)

    So their true wild card elimination number is one. They could be eliminated as early as today (with their loss, wins by two of the top 4 WC teams is already assumed).

  4. Willinghammer and Ben "SEND HIM!!" Revere both have their count ups going; Joe is has a shot at a BA title (or at least a strong finish) -- what other stats watch do we have to keep us company for the rest of the season? (No Race to the Bottom, I'm talking individual stats here)

    1. Mauer is leading the AL OBP race. He has a .002 point lead over Fielder. No one else is even above .400 in the AL. He's .011 points behind Trout for the average title, but has to pass up two others as well.

  5. After yesterday's monster performance, Morneau is at a 122 OPS+, which is two points below his career average. If he is able to stay healthy through the final three weeks, it will be the first time he's finished a season healthy since 2008.

      1. Its Peter King so you should assume he has looked at exactly zero other variables and is not basing it in any sort of logical analysis.

        (not that I'm saying the replacement officials aren't hilariously inept. Its the only thing giving me a reason to watch, really. If they bring back the real ones, I'll lose interest.)

            1. My wife hates football with fiery passion. I've assured her that most find it to be much more exciting than baseball. She has no idea how anyone could believe that.

              I think I agree with her take on it.

              1. Sheenie is right there with her. She barely tolerates when I have an NFL game on and really only enjoys the schädenfreude of the Saints losing. Thus, yesterday was an acceptable day to her.

                1. That exactly sums up my view of college football, only replacing the Saints with the Badgers.

                  Otherwise, I had games on yesterday but more for background than to actually pay attention to. My wife and sister-in-law had total freedom to change the channel if they had wished.

                2. Philosofette is beautiful and likes sports generally, so tolerates me watching anything. But she loves baseball best of all and thinks people who like football more have suffered some sort of damage. I like her.

                3. If I would have known sheenie's stance on the who dat nation I would have cc'd her on my email to you last night.

  7. well, back in montreal again (wi-fi on buses for the win!). if someone could pick up tonight's game log, i'd appreciate it.

  8. News outta Iowa:

    Later in the week, mo chailín is driving out here to Mom and Dad's. From here, we are driving this weekend to Buffalo, were we will find ourselves an apartment and jobs. The Hitman has been providing excellent advice so far, and we owe him one. (meat is going write us as well, but a hurricane happened and he's been understandably delayed).

      1. Mine isn't even something. Because I'm just starting it... I toyed with like 3 different ideas, none of which really worked, and then just stumbled on something I pretty sure qualifies as "stoopid." It's gonna be brutal.

        For the sake of the rest of us, you should just non-sub this one.

        1. See, this is why I never went for big concepts but instead went for entertaining myself. It's not as much of a burden that way!

          1. By the way, you guys all absolutely killed it last time. Except, Grey, of course. I knew Sujatha's was his from the first sentence (seriously).

        3. Well... it's been sent. That might be the dumbest thing I've ever written.

          ::waits in anticipation for a gold from Nibs!::

          1. Man, I'm not clicking at all with you this season, am I? It's almost as if I'm talking Italian, and you're talking French or something.

                1. Yeah. It's those misses that hurt. That big gulf makes me feel like I need to tailor my writing to you in order to get a good score (and I have definitely done that, with success, this season). But I don't really like doing that, so I've just gone towards writing for myself. Or these week, writing for no one at all.

                  I never really expect to get golds from Kelly - especially in short form writing - so that part doesn't bother me so much.

    2. Here's how you end up in last place in Spookymilk Survivor even though you have a 100% submission rate:

      1. Write to amuse yourself
      2. Don't spend more than 20-30 minutes writing and editing
      3. Give yourself limits like write only about certain topics or thinly veiled personal stories
      4. Write to amuse yourself

      Today I had nothing at 11:00a, but by 11:35a it was submitted.

      1. free, that strategy got me to the final five in the Turbo game. I'm pretty sure I follow those four rules on just about all of my entries.

  12. So I was driving with a client near Inver Grove Hts when she asked if we were near the King of Diamonds. I was about to joke with her and asked her if she used to work there, when she volunteered that she indeed did.

    I've never been to a strip joint and I've been pretty ambivalent on whether I'd ever go. This incident pretty much confirmed that I will never do so. I wouldn't be able to enjoy myself wondering what mental health or chemical dependency each stripper had, not to mention I could run into a client.

    1. I've never been to a strip joint and I've been pretty ambivalent on whether I'd ever go.

      This has generally been my take on it. Living about a quarter mile from one and never having been there is a source of raised eyebrows among certain friends, but the first half of your reasoning holds true. It doesn't seem like a place where I'd enjoy myself all that much.

      1. I also have never been to one and can't imagine I'd ever go. I almost accidentally went to one once though. After church one day, Philosofette and I headed towards what we thought was a nice, family restaurant. I mean, it was called "Crystal City Restaurant." Arriving at the door, we quickly realized our mistake. It was kind of funny though, walking from church to a strip club.

        Meh, I've told that story better.

          1. Edit for Nibs:

            I almost accidentally went to a strip club. After church one day, PhilosofetteChuckles the Clown and I headed towards what we thought was a nice, family restaurant. I mean, it was called "Crystal City Restaurant." Chuckles passed gas with every step. Arriving at the door, we quickly realized our mistake. It was kind of funny though, walking from church to a strip club. Then, when we arrived at the door, Chuckles let out a massive blast. It was so loud that the world's greatest female guitarist heard the sound, and wrote a song based on the chords that Chuckles had hit with his flatulence.

        2. Lived across the street for a year, and this happened to my wife and I the first week we lived there. Ate at CC Sports Bar instead. Great choice.

            1. Yup, I lived about 3 blocks from the CC Restaurant for a year. I much preferred my previous place in Glover Park, but the fact that I couldn't be in the apartment for more than five minutes without leaving in a blinding rage due to a roommate issue made that infeasible.

    2. I would be comfortable going to one where I knew the workers were being treated fairly and were there because they wanted to be. I am fully aware that not all sex workers are doing sex work because they're forced into it, but I do realize it happens, and I'd like to avoid supporting that if possible. I'd also prefer to go someplace that's... not so seedy. Under the right conditions I'd definitely be willing to go, but I don't know anywhere those conditions could be met, so I just don't go.

      1. I have heard more than one anecdotal story about strippers working their way through college.

        While I did have occasion to visit establishments of this nature in my young adulthood, I always found them to be more awkward than titillating.

        also, it's probably not a good idea to take clients to strip clubs.

        1. I always found them to be more awkward than titillating.

          I've not been to one, and this is generally why. I simply can't imagine going to one when I could go just about anywhere else, instead.

          1. There were several in Spamtown. When I was younger and stoopider, my friends and I would occasionally end up at one while prowling the town. But I never saw the appeal.

            1. I only go for the sporting competitions like mud and jell-o wrestling. And I only read Playboy for the articles.

    3. Three of my actress friends were strippers in college. I can confirm that they all have terrible self-esteem and terrible fathers. You'd think that was just a tired stereotype used by lazy sitcom writers, but in my sample size, it's spot on.

    4. I've been a few times usually when I'm going with someone's bachelor party or birthday party. Always seems pretty stupid to me. A few months ago, a friend of Sheenie's from law school, invited us BOTH to his bachelor party, so I went with Sheenie.

      I think the last time I went for a non-party was in Toronto for SABR simply because the concierge at the host hotel a) got us comped free admission and b) sent us to the one the Yankees visit (and they were in town playing the Jays). Sure enough, Posada and someone else (Bernie Williams, maybe - I can't remember whether he was retired yet) were there and this was just a few weeks before the scandal broke about ARod's Toronto stripper (who was working that night).

    5. I ended up in the parking lot of a strip club on a friend's bachelor party. The place was packed, so they were operating on a 1 out-1 in admittance. Of course, the bachelor gets to go in first. Me and another friend volunteered to hang back. Never did get in, and it didn't bother me at all. There was a little old Asian lady with a portable grill cooking up egg rolls and what not. $10 goes a lot farther on egg rolls than strippers.

    6. Ive been to a few, because I was sober driver for my friends. I always found them a bit uncomfortable.

    7. I once left a dntn mpls pub-crawl bach party early* bc a strip joint was the next location.
      I also drove a friend home that was equally uninterested.

      *Early was like 11:30, and at some point I stopped drinking bc I had to drive (others were staying at a hotel) and I started to get tired and also bored of my drunk friends' drunkenness.

      Edit: which is to say: never been in one. I've heard plenty stories bc a co-worker moonlights as the floor manager at one of the downtown clubs.

    8. i was thiiiiis close to working at a strip club actually. i had a friend that was a dancer at one (still doing it in vegas, actually), and she wanted me to get a job there. i had 2 jobs already, but i was thinking about working there for a couple months strictly for the stories i'd be able to tell. that, and the sociology and psychology of that experience (employees and clientele) would be something to behold.

    1. Definitely a bit bitter that it was scheduled for during the day. The Women's Final had a great ending, but that's the best I can hope for in the Men's Final.

    2. Murray won the first set at 12 - 10 tiebreak. The first set took 1:26. The tiebreaker alone took 25 minutes. Now up to 4 more of these sets. Cracking television.

    4. sitting in a bar waiting for a burger. one TV is showing MNF. the other 40+ are showing the final. i guess the quebecois like their tennis.

          1. sweet. UNIQLO is kind of the japanese GAP equivalent, but much cooler, and one of the only places i could afford clothes while i was going to school there.

    1. Thanks for the link, doc. I'm giving a lecture on the connection between sicence and art next month, and those will certainly be included.

      1. there was a frenzy of excitement over fractals a few years ago. They certainly hit a chord -- most of the pics in the underlying link are beautiful. I wonder what it is about those "patterns" that resonates with the human heart?

Comments are closed.