I'm starting to remember how little fun it is to come up with a CoC the day after a late-inning loss.
61 thoughts on “April 9, 2013: Familiar”
Congrats to Pepper. I'm disappointed that your pregnancy predates your citizenship. Can't assign causality to the wgom.
Congrats to freealonzo's son. Any other Eagle Scouts here? HPR's just a Tiger Cub.
I already went ahead and extended my motel reservation in Sioux Falls until Thursday. I'm not a hundred percent sure I'll be going home then, but unless they've totally blown the forecast, I'm not getting home tomorrow.
I do not envy the weather folks' jobs this time a year. A couple of degrees can be the difference between annoying rain and a billion inches of snow.
Joe Nathan got save 300 (and me +1 on NSH in the Half-Bakef league) on this call
The Pitch FX data from that PA
I think how Pierzynski* caught this fooled Foster into calling it a strike. Pierzynski only moved his arm and it was away from Foster plus likely blocked from view.
* Any chance Pierzynski will catch Bonser? That will complete him catching the three pitchers Ryan swindled from Sabean.
A.J. didn't even try to catch it to get the call. That was one of the worst strike 3 calls I've ever seen. If anything, A.J. made it look even worse than it was. Wow.
Yes, but how he caught it I think contributed to Foster calling it a strike. A lot of research on catcher framing indicates the less a catcher's body moves, the more likely it will be called a strike.
''I saw the pitch and of course don't have the chance to do it again,'' Foster told a pool reporter after the game. ''But had I had a chance to do it again, I wouldn't call that pitch a strike.''
Holy shit. That admission is almost a seismic event.
Based on that other strike call, only about an inch further out, and it was high enough.
That article is laugh-out-loud hilarious. Thank you for the link.
The rest of the entries under the "Things I Won't Work With" tag are equally entertaining (and informative). If chemistry had been like this in HS, I may have done better in it.
That. Was. Awesome.
I sent it to grampaS (retired chemist). Thanks for the giggles.
man I love What If
Thanks for the link, Mags. If chemistry had been like that in college, I'd maybe have more than just a minor in it.
I laughed pretty hard at the Satan's kimchi line. I also almost cried while reading the xkcd. Both forwarded to my brother the chemist.
Oh yeah, my brother is a chemist as well. I should probably forward those on to him.
am i the only one without a chemist in the family?
There's only going to be one way for you to fix that.
My dad was a pharmacist in a previous career, but that's as close as I get.
Maybe. My dad was a biochemist.
None in my family.
My uncle was a chemical engineer, until he died of cancer. Occupational hazard, I'm told.
No chemist in my family...engineers, the lot of 'em.
Hilarious. the hashtag #nowthatcherisdead is on the loose, and people are freaking out about Cher.
Hey, looks like ol' DK's back in the winner's circle.
My brother and I always tried to go when gates opened at the Dome whenever possible. He ended up with at least thirty baseballs while I ended up with a bunch of autographs.
Does he collect range balls at the driving range?
Heh, he should. He loved to get baseballs from the pitchers shagging them, but I never understood the appeal.
since when do they not open the doors early enough for regular ticket-holders to watch BP and infield practice?
ahh, is this for field passes? Well, then, different kettle of fish.
Isn't it generally for the opposing team's BP?
Yeah, at least for the most part. When teams have gates open 2 hours before the game, you can sometimes catch the very end of the home team's BP, maybe 10-15 minutes. I always figured they did that so that the home team could take BP without a ton of autograph requests to distract them.
Now that I think about this, I wonder what order they took BP when the Marlins "hosted" the Mariners at Safeco Field in 2011.
This seems to be getting slammed by the general public (or at least the Twitterverse general public), but it seems rather easy to vote with your wallet. We're only talking about an incremental $900/game, so as far as cash grabs are concerned this one is small potatoes.
I think my little kid might love it, he loves being at the ballpark but doesn't care for the fireworks/noise. This could be a nice way to see some batting practice while enjoying being at a quiet Target Field.
Sounds like they need to either raise the limit to the first 18,930 fans or increase the price. At least for next year.
(or at least the Twitterverse general public)
Exactly. The loudest 10% of the 3% of Twins fans that are on Twitter are OUTRAGED RAWR SMASH BP ANGRY.
Mmhmm, 29 characters. That statement checks out as a good Twitter impression.
It is really hard to see the downside in offering it as an option, since the marginal cost is essentially zero. It works for me--I might not buy the $15 tickets, but more revenue for the Twins will eventually mean a higher payroll, which will make them more competitive.
Clearly the less intelligent segment of the fanbase will think that $72,900 per year means they should sign Zack Greinke, and because they didn't they're not serious about turning the franchise around.
I'm so thankful this little corner of the internet exists. A large portion of other Twins fans make me want to smash my head into my monitor.
Obviously, we're all much better off without even having the option of entering the stadium early to watch batting practice. Ugh. Offering earlier entry to the ballpark for an additional fee is no different than charging an additional fee for seats in better sections of the park. Just another example that people will complain about anything, I suppose.
jeez, why not open the doors earlier? Surely they extra concessions sales would make it worth it?
As I mentioned above, I think it's so that the home players don't get hassled for signatures during BP for every home game. If it's a limited number of fans, probably not such a distraction. If anyone with a ticket can come early, it's more of a distraction. Maybe it's not such a big deal one way or another, but if I was a player, I wouldn't want home fans around during home BP.
I would tend to file this in my "everything is amazing and nobody is happy" file.
That would require paying employees to be there an hour earlier, bs.
and selling concessions to them.
batting practice might be the only time the Surly stand does not have a long line.
this was a 'controversy'? really?
I think the Twins had a pretty good idea. Maybe they quietly implement the plan in the offseason.
I would campaign to have laziness recognized as a disability but, well, you know....
Who writes this BS, bS? Does anyone actually believe that the lede ("Studies show 97 percent of American adults get less than 30 minutes of exercise a day, which is the minimum recommended amount based on federal guidelines.") has anything to do with the study that was conducted, past explaining maybe 0.1% of the phenomenon? What percentage of American adults got less than 30 minutes of exercise a day in 1913? (At most, 5 generations ago.)
The researchers in question selectively bred their rats for this particular characteristic over 10 generations. Americans have not been selectively bred for this particular characteristic, and even if they were, there's no reason to believe that the "super runner" population would be smaller than the "couch potato" population. Provided that we've been selectively bred in such a fashion (to maximize the "couch potato" gene pool), a significant portion of the "super runner" population overlaps with the "less than 30 minutes of exercise a day" population, which would lend a lot more credence to genetics being at most tangentially related to the amount of exercise an American gets on any given day.
You don't expect me to argue with you, do you, ubes? Because that sounds like work.
Looks like the speed was updated and might actually be true. At one point, the top speed was stated to be 0.2c, but the "trip" didn't take 20+ minutes.
Congrats to Pepper. I'm disappointed that your pregnancy predates your citizenship. Can't assign causality to the wgom.
Congrats to freealonzo's son. Any other Eagle Scouts here? HPR's just a Tiger Cub.
I already went ahead and extended my motel reservation in Sioux Falls until Thursday. I'm not a hundred percent sure I'll be going home then, but unless they've totally blown the forecast, I'm not getting home tomorrow.
I do not envy the weather folks' jobs this time a year. A couple of degrees can be the difference between annoying rain and a billion inches of snow.
Joe Nathan got save 300 (and me +1 on NSH in the Half-Bakef league) on this call
The Pitch FX data from that PA
I think how Pierzynski* caught this fooled Foster into calling it a strike. Pierzynski only moved his arm and it was away from Foster plus likely blocked from view.
* Any chance Pierzynski will catch Bonser? That will complete him catching the three pitchers Ryan swindled from Sabean.
A.J. didn't even try to catch it to get the call. That was one of the worst strike 3 calls I've ever seen. If anything, A.J. made it look even worse than it was. Wow.
Yes, but how he caught it I think contributed to Foster calling it a strike. A lot of research on catcher framing indicates the less a catcher's body moves, the more likely it will be called a strike.
Holy shit. That admission is almost a seismic event.
Based on that other strike call, only about an inch further out, and it was high enough.
Interesting article on dioxygen difluoride. Chemists, man.
(ht What If from XKCD)
That article is laugh-out-loud hilarious. Thank you for the link.
The rest of the entries under the "Things I Won't Work With" tag are equally entertaining (and informative). If chemistry had been like this in HS, I may have done better in it.
That. Was. Awesome.
I sent it to grampaS (retired chemist). Thanks for the giggles.
man I love What If
Thanks for the link, Mags. If chemistry had been like that in college, I'd maybe have more than just a minor in it.
I laughed pretty hard at the Satan's kimchi line. I also almost cried while reading the xkcd. Both forwarded to my brother the chemist.
Oh yeah, my brother is a chemist as well. I should probably forward those on to him.
am i the only one without a chemist in the family?
There's only going to be one way for you to fix that.
My dad was a pharmacist in a previous career, but that's as close as I get.
Maybe. My dad was a biochemist.
None in my family.
My uncle was a chemical engineer, until he died of cancer. Occupational hazard, I'm told.
No chemist in my family...engineers, the lot of 'em.
Hilarious. the hashtag #nowthatcherisdead is on the loose, and people are freaking out about Cher.
Hey, looks like ol' DK's back in the winner's circle.
NCAA bracket?
That's the one.
Just another cash grab, but I would consider doing it.
My brother and I always tried to go when gates opened at the Dome whenever possible. He ended up with at least thirty baseballs while I ended up with a bunch of autographs.
Does he collect range balls at the driving range?
Heh, he should. He loved to get baseballs from the pitchers shagging them, but I never understood the appeal.
since when do they not open the doors early enough for regular ticket-holders to watch BP and infield practice?
ahh, is this for field passes? Well, then, different kettle of fish.
Isn't it generally for the opposing team's BP?
Yeah, at least for the most part. When teams have gates open 2 hours before the game, you can sometimes catch the very end of the home team's BP, maybe 10-15 minutes. I always figured they did that so that the home team could take BP without a ton of autograph requests to distract them.
Now that I think about this, I wonder what order they took BP when the Marlins "hosted" the Mariners at Safeco Field in 2011.
This seems to be getting slammed by the general public (or at least the Twitterverse general public), but it seems rather easy to vote with your wallet. We're only talking about an incremental $900/game, so as far as cash grabs are concerned this one is small potatoes.
I think my little kid might love it, he loves being at the ballpark but doesn't care for the fireworks/noise. This could be a nice way to see some batting practice while enjoying being at a quiet Target Field.
Sounds like they need to either raise the limit to the first 18,930 fans or increase the price. At least for next year.
(or at least the Twitterverse general public)
Exactly. The loudest 10% of the 3% of Twins fans that are on Twitter are OUTRAGED RAWR SMASH BP ANGRY.
Mmhmm, 29 characters. That statement checks out as a good Twitter impression.
It is really hard to see the downside in offering it as an option, since the marginal cost is essentially zero. It works for me--I might not buy the $15 tickets, but more revenue for the Twins will eventually mean a higher payroll, which will make them more competitive.
Clearly the less intelligent segment of the fanbase will think that $72,900 per year means they should sign Zack Greinke, and because they didn't they're not serious about turning the franchise around.
I'm so thankful this little corner of the internet exists. A large portion of other Twins fans make me want to smash my head into my monitor.
well, so much for that...
Twins retract offer charging $15 to watch batting practice
Obviously, we're all much better off without even having the option of entering the stadium early to watch batting practice. Ugh. Offering earlier entry to the ballpark for an additional fee is no different than charging an additional fee for seats in better sections of the park. Just another example that people will complain about anything, I suppose.
jeez, why not open the doors earlier? Surely they extra concessions sales would make it worth it?
As I mentioned above, I think it's so that the home players don't get hassled for signatures during BP for every home game. If it's a limited number of fans, probably not such a distraction. If anyone with a ticket can come early, it's more of a distraction. Maybe it's not such a big deal one way or another, but if I was a player, I wouldn't want home fans around during home BP.
I would tend to file this in my "everything is amazing and nobody is happy" file.
That would require paying employees to be there an hour earlier, bs.
and selling concessions to them.
batting practice might be the only time the Surly stand does not have a long line.
this was a 'controversy'? really?
I think the Twins had a pretty good idea. Maybe they quietly implement the plan in the offseason.
Nice little article for The Wire fans. Don't worry no spoilers.
That was great.
Super funny.
I'm a couch potato and it's my parents' fault.
I would campaign to have laziness recognized as a disability but, well, you know....
Who writes this BS, bS? Does anyone actually believe that the lede ("Studies show 97 percent of American adults get less than 30 minutes of exercise a day, which is the minimum recommended amount based on federal guidelines.") has anything to do with the study that was conducted, past explaining maybe 0.1% of the phenomenon? What percentage of American adults got less than 30 minutes of exercise a day in 1913? (At most, 5 generations ago.)
The researchers in question selectively bred their rats for this particular characteristic over 10 generations. Americans have not been selectively bred for this particular characteristic, and even if they were, there's no reason to believe that the "super runner" population would be smaller than the "couch potato" population. Provided that we've been selectively bred in such a fashion (to maximize the "couch potato" gene pool), a significant portion of the "super runner" population overlaps with the "less than 30 minutes of exercise a day" population, which would lend a lot more credence to genetics being at most tangentially related to the amount of exercise an American gets on any given day.
You don't expect me to argue with you, do you, ubes? Because that sounds like work.
how far away is mars?
Looks like the speed was updated and might actually be true. At one point, the top speed was stated to be 0.2c, but the "trip" didn't take 20+ minutes.
Zach Lowe is very good at his job.