Cup of Coffee

October 29, 2012: Transition

100 Comments

Miguel Cabrera struck out looking at the Giants are your World Series champions. One day until the NBA opener (though, bizarrely, it's five days until the Wolves debut)! K-Love is out! James Harden is a Rocket! The Lakers have spent lots and lots of money! Let's have fun out there, Citizens.

100 thoughts on “October 29, 2012: Transition”

  2. The fall and winter baseball reports will be taking a couple of days off. I'll be heading out this afternoon to visit my parents and take my mom in for cataract surgery Tuesday morning. If all goes well, fall and winter baseball reports will return Thursday.

    2. Oh yeah, that makes me feel a lot better. That list seems much improved from previous years.

      1. still a long ways away for a lot of those highly-rated guys. I want to see some prospects make the leap in their EARLY 20s.

  5. This morning on both KFAN and KSTP on the 9am shows, the top story was football. Not the World Series. I switched back to NPR, which got to it first.

    1. I don't even understand this. I guess I could sort of understand if the local team had played, but they played several days ago. I don't think there was anything all that exciting in the NFL yesterday (though this may be aided by me napping through the incredibly boring Packers game).

    2. I can see that. I havent listened to KFAN in a while, but they pretty much stopped talking about other sports other than the NFL. 1500 talks a lot of football, but also baseball and hockey(especially the 9-noon show). But with no local teams in the World Series, and the Series itself was pretty boring since the Tigers bats were non existent, there really is no point to talk about it.

      The Vikings will always move the needle, and with so much doubt about the QB, there is plenty of talk show fodder

      1. Sunday Night Football is one of the highest rated shows on network. Its pretty much the only thing keeping NBC afloat right now.

        2. As a fan of baseball, I am a little disappointed that the World Series can't outdraw a regular season NFL game. (In the middle of the season, with nothing really on the line.) That said, my disappointment is so small that it is nearly non-existent.

          1. I'm resigned to the fact that the majority does not really care for the things that I really like the most.

              1. What Ubes said.

                I take delight in liking things that may not have mass appeal - and I have seen some bands I've liked become huge, so that I now have to "share" them with everyone when they were "mine," dammit - but baseball long ago was America's pasttime, so to see it continue to lose ground to the NFL is a slightly melancholy thing.

                1. It seems a little crazy that the NHL couldn't exist in some form, even if it's not as "good" as it used to be--not as many fancy video boards at the games, shorter schedule, etc. A shorter schedule would probably be better for the players' health, too, but I'm sure everyone likes the revenue that comes with additional games.

                  1. I meant the NHL itself, not a/the professional hockey league disappearing. It seems crazy that the owners would lock out the players again so soon, potentially losing yet another season.

            2. If you are in the minority on your preferences, you exist in the right generation.

              Hundreds of tv channels, countless websites, etc. Who cares what the majority watches or listens to? Even the most watched programs are watched by a minority of people.

              1. It depends on what you are watching. MLB will exist more or less as it is for the foreseeable future, even if it is less popular, which is why I'm not really that worried about it. (Although one could argue that its drop in popularity has moved a large chunk of the playoffs from broadcast to cable, which limits access for some.)

                But if you're into something else, say Arrested Development or MLS, then it matters more how many other people are paying attention, because if there's not enough interest, it might not stick around for you to enjoy. So maybe everyone is in the minority all of the time, but if your minority gets too small it might go away altogether.

                1. Attendance numbers suggest that baseball is still pretty popular and maybe moreso than ever before.

                  1. That's definitely true, which is why I hedged with "if it is less popular." I'm pretty confident that the league can be healthy for a good long time as long as you're not worried about getting in pissing contests to determine which sport is most popular.

                2. Not to sound all GOML, but it wasn't that long ago that a show like Arrested Development wouldn't have made it to air in the first place.

                  1. Sure, but once it does hit the air, if you watch it and enjoy it, it is perfectly reasonable to hope that it gets good ratings so that it stays on the air.

              2. what really gets my goat is when I get derided for liking something just because it is popular. Now, this is a bit of a strawman argument, especially since I'm not in high-school anymore, but I've known people who defy everything the majority likes on principle, which kind of weirds me out.

                1. Yeah, it's just a different kind of conformity. I'm just fine - more than fine - with being in the minority, but I don't do it by design; it just tends to happen.

          2. A WS game in which the previous three were won by the same team. No team has come back from down 0-3 in the WS and only the BoSox 2004 have come back from that deficit in an LCS. If the series was 2-1 and had some tension and comebacks, maybe I can see it. But the Tigers had never lead and had never come back to tie in the first three.

  6. In the last 12 World Series, we've had one Yankee championship and 11 Not-Yankee championships. Got to love it!

  7. I see an recon plane tracking Sandy found a pressure of 937mb, which is something like 27.67" on a household barometer. ooofta

    1. I was pretty moved by the fact that Jim McMahon, who won a memorable Super Bowl in a big market and became a pop icon, said that he wishes he'd played baseball instead.

      1. Joe Mauer's a smart man. Once football stops being cool, there's gonna be a massive drop-off of talent to other sports.

    2. I should ask my great uncle-in-law this weekend at the deer hunt.
      He seems no less goofy than his brother who played pro basketball in Europe, and he seems healthy for someone his size (tall and massive, not overweight, I can imagine it takes a toll on the joints). I guess I would have pegged him to be a bit older than 67 though.

    2. I'm thinking I may have a mouse in my attic. I got home yesterday to find one of the smoke detectors chirping due to a bad battery and this morning I found that the furnace control board was operating on battery power. Both are hard wired. Now I have to go up there when I get home and see what the hell is going on. I hope its not a mouse, but I'm still none too happy about it.

      1. On Tuesday before I left, I set out some squash on the front step that I had brought from ND. I intended for them to be taken in, but my wife thought that I wanted to be displayed with our pumpkins. So, they remain on the step. Today, she sent a picture of one of them that had been gnawed quite a bit. Fucking mice. (I listened to Jeff A's sermon this weekend and found out that a swear word here and there isn't the end of the world.)

        That might not be a mouse, though.

        1. In my household/neighborhood, the squirrels are the epidemic. They've destroyed large portions of my meager garden the past few years and I've been considering trapping & moving them to my buddy's farm. My daughters' first pumpkin looks like that; I'm now considering a pellet gun.

          1. My mom keeps a pellet gun by the porch door and will go rushing out like she's in an old Western, grabbing the gun as she goes, if she hears squirrels on the roof.

          2. I ran over a squirrel on my bike yesterday! First road kill ever. So at least there's one less squirrel out there.

        4. Thanks for listening. Of course, I hope that's not the only thing you got out of it, but either way, I still appreciate that you listened.

        1. I can't guarantee that its either, so it still could be rats, though I doubt it. I'm hoping its not a critter of any kind and its not chewed through wiring that's the problem, though I can't think of anything else it could be.

            1. She is very active. We would definitely have to have a long talk about why its bad to cut wires in the attic.

              Also, I'm envisioning myself getting stuck in the access opening and there being something up there that's bad.

  10. Wait, what? I thought we had all agreed that Baker was coming back?

    The Twins today notified starting pitcher Scott Baker that they will not be picking up his $9.25 million option for 2013, allowing him to become a free agent, a person familiar with the discussions said.

    The decision was not a surprise, but there was some thought that the sides might work out an incentive-laden deal before Baker hit the free agent market. Beginning Friday night at 11 p.m., Central, Baker will be free to sign with another team.

    1. I think its a pretty much a sure thing Baker is coming back. I am thinking this is just paperwork and a little protection for the player just in case some team comes in and offers him 100 mil or something.

      1. Indeed. I was under the assumption they would have to turn down his option in order to re-negotiate a lower deal instead of extending the current one. Don't the Twins now have exclusive negotiating time with him for a certain period before anyone else can come in and give him that 100 mil?

            1. I was going to come in and tell you a sarcastic thanks for such a useful post, but then you had a link hidden in there. (You should have put it in the period only, though.)

  11. In response to the football commentary and related lamentations re: regular season football game vs. World Series clinching game - here's the first comment to another banner contribution from the Strib's resident hack:

    Here's the reason Jerry Kill did not burn Nelson's redshirt sooner Jim: He misplaced your phone number and was therefore unable to draw upon your decades of college football head coaching experience

    It is recommended by 106 readers (5 with a "thumbs down"). The second comment:

    Seriously? Rip on Kill for not starting a true freshman QB from the start of the year when you have a senior QB with the talent of Gray and a sophomore QB that has played well at times in his young career? And rip Kill after a 44-28 drubbing of Pudue in a game we were expected to lose? Wow. Only Souhan could slant a Gophers win and Nelson playing awesome as a negative....

    Another 112 "recommend" to 5 against. So far, so good...but then there's this one:

    This ranks right up with your ripping of Xavier in the NCAA tournament a couple year ago. Stick to baseball, it's all you know.

    Please don't.

        1. Sam Elliott: It will require a deal with the devil, no doubt.. (Not that you can't do voice-over, Stick).

  13. Getting ready for good possibility of losing power tonite with Miss Sandy visiting CT.

    Got the WeatherStation 2000 going on the kitchen table - radio, flashlites, etc.

    Even cooked up some fridgeables so they wouldn't rot if we lost power for any amount of time - boiled eggs, cooked some brats/freezer chicken, etc.

    Exactly one year ago we went thru the same thing and a lot of people were without power for 7-10 days. Not us. So I'm not counting on luck this time.

    2. It's been raining here all day, with some gusts, but I'm not nearly as close to the coast as NBB. So far, I've just been mildly inconvenienced by having to walk to the gym in the rain (~15 min each way). If worst comes to worst, I have a foolproof 2-point safety plan:

      1) Get to FTLT's house
      2) Mooch his beer

      1. OK, now I'm inconvenienced - CBS Evening news has extended coverage and is pre-empting "Wheel of Fortune". Jerks better not mess with my "Jeopardy!"

    3. Why couldn't they do that for Chuck James?
      (Actually, Front Office made it pretty clear they didn't consider him valuable. Best to look elsewhere. Sad to say, less than a year after they released him, he's out looking for other employment [and bow hunting]. I have no indication on what happened to cause his precipitous drop from official WGOM.org 2011 AAA pitcher of the year to OOB, but he was released this year after coming off the DL. I blame the Twins training staff.)

    4. Regarding Brrrly: he certainly expressed his opinion of the MN Baseball club. I'd think Johnny Damon would be more likely to sign with the Yankees in 2006.

  15. Christie pissed. Some people didn't evac Atl City and now rescuers are in harms way. If you stayed, it's on you.

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