74 thoughts on “April 23, 2013: Burnout”

  1. We're setting records for cold this morning. The temperature right now in Gettysburg is 13. On April 23. This is one memorable spring.

      1. The five inches of snow and slush we got yesterday covered up all the green grass, so no- no spring in South Dakota yet.

    1. The same could be applied to the other half of the country that is also experiencing an unusually cool spring.

  3. Wild Playoff Chase

    Detroit thumped Phoenix 4-0 last night, probably knocking the Coyotes out of the battle for the final two spots.

    7. MIN - 51 pts
    8. CLB - 51 pts (Wild's Magic Number = 5)
    ----------------
    9. DET - 50 pts (Wild's Magic Number = 6)
    10. DAL - 48 pts (Wild's Magic Number = 4)
    11. PHX - 46 pts (Wild's Magic Number = 2)

    Tonight's Games

    Los Angeles @ Minnesota - My guess is that the Wild need to win 2 of 3 to get in.
    Dallas @ San Jose - San Jose clinches a playoff spot with a point. After this game, Dallas finishes with games against Columbus and Detroit.

    1. With the Canucks win last night, the top 3 seeds in the West are decided.

      1. Chicago
      2. Anaheim
      3. Vancouver

      Los Angeles has clinched a spot in the playoffs, but not a seed.
      San Jose needs a point tonight to clinch a spot.
      St. Louis needs a win tonight to clinch a spot.

      1. Why should Wild fans not feel the pain that the rest of the Minnesota sporting public feels? It will almost be disappointing if they make it. But, I know they won't.

        Then again, maybe they will be the team that sparks a renewal around here.

        1. They seem to have as good a shot as any of the MN teams at bucking the trend since they've hired what appears to be a competent GM who's made good moves to improve the team. And with winter pushing way past when it is supposed to, maybe that's a sign that it'll be a deep run for one of the winter teams.

          Around work, most of the guys are ignoring baseball because its still hockey season, since they are all Blackhawks fans. I've been saying if I followed the Wild closely, I'd end up punching myself in the face because they are going to break hearts. So despite my first paragraph, I've come to terms with the fact that they just aren't going to make it.

            1. I find its easier to lower expectations to the worst possible MN-sports outcome, then maybe be pleasantly surprised.

    2. ADDENDUM: The Wild will hold the tiebreaker (non-shootout wins) over Columbus and Phoenix no matter how the remaining games turn out.

      Thus their magic number wrt Columbus should be 4, and wrt Phoenix should be 1.

      1. well, that's nice. But yes, the points system is stupid. Lou Nanne was asked why the system isn't 3 for a win, 2 for an OT win, 1 for an OT loss. He said it'll never happen because the NHL wants to manufacture playoff races. Ugh.

  4. In our neck of the woods, we got about 6 to 8 inches of extremely wet and heavy snow. I am totally not shoveling this crap.

        1. I'm not saying that I'm not doing the exact same thing, but ...

          It is only when the owner . . . having a duty to remove snow and ice, improperly permits an accumulation thereof to remain after a reasonable length of time for removal has elapsed, that liability may arise for the unsafe and dangerous condition thereby created. Mattson v. St. Luke’s Hosp. of St. Paul, 252 Minn. 230, 234, 89 N.W.2d 743, 746 (1958) (quoting Goodman v. Corn Exchange Nat. Bank & Trust Co., 331 Pa. 587, 590, 200 A.2d 642, 643 (1938)).

          3. Actually this is one of the legal things that really can keep my attention; that and Spite Fences.

            1. There's so much soft language in that quote that I think I'm under no obligation to shovel, ever.*

              *Not actual legal advice.

  5. It appears that we've found a solution to our slideshow DVD problem -- purchase and install Photodex ProShow Gold ($70). The demo version worked perfectly. Now if their online purchase mechanism would just work....
    [edit: success this morning, after their offices opened at 8:30 central time. What kind of software company requires human intervention for online purchases???]

    anyway, I'll keep the saga updated, as others might be interested in this minor issue.

  6. Sean,
    The https thing definitely bifurcated the comments feed RSS.
    Is that easily remedied?

    1. OK, or not, but it seems as though some comments have not appeared in my feed. Maybe I'm paranoid.
      Maybe people write as if they're responding to something but actually haven't. I'll see if I can find anything clear. I've subscribed to the feed using the http and the https. I'll let you know if I find anything real or if I've imagined the whole thing.

      1. no, it's not you. however, i'm not sure if the switch to SSL was supposed to fix that (i wasn't able to understand sean's legal mumbo jumbo yesterday), but i'm still seeing the issue.

        1. The primary reason is because it enhances privacy and security with few downsides. There are potential upsides relating to proxies/filters often ignoring SSL connections.

          1. There are potential upsides relating to proxies/filters often ignoring SSL connections.

            ha.

            1. I'm not sure how to parse that right now. Are you sarcastically commenting that proxies have no upside? Because I would disagree, especially related to reverse proxies. Regular proxies also have their uses as well, though they can be way more annoying.

    2. I don't subscribe to the RSS feeds, but right now I'm not seeing any difference between the two.

  7. I see FSN decided to pick up both games of this series. 1pm game on FSN and the nightcap on FSN+

  8. King Felix became just the third M's pitcher with 100 wins. There are six pitchers with 100 wins for the Twins (just the Twins, not the Senators). Who are they?

    Spoiler SelectShow

    2. It looks like your list includes a guy that didn't get 100 wins as a Twin, but had 100 wins between the Senators and the Twins.

      1. Oops. You're right. Make it five. I checked two guys for that and forgot to check him.

    4. Here's the corrected list with five instead of six:

      Spoiler SelectShow

    5. My guess is:

      Spoiler SelectShow

  9. Player A, career minors: .296/.394/.399
    Player B, career minors: .298/.370/.409

    Spoiler SelectShow

  10. Yeah, but Player A broke into the majors at 22 and Player B not until 25.

    (Sorry to be raining on your parade today.)

    1. He was drafted two years later, so he only took one more year to get to the majors. His career probably won't be as long, but his peak could be similar.

      2. his peak could be similar

        Define similar, because if you mean really close, not a chance in hell. Knoblauch had 30.0 WAR in six seasons and 37.1 WAR in eight seasons. His three peak years were 20.4 WAR.

        1. yeah, Knoblauch's peak is an extreme rarity among second basemen. I'd be happy with early 90's Knoblauch, though

          1. Just for reference, seasons with 6.0+ WAR: Blyleven 6, Carew 5, Killebrew 4, Knoblauch 3, Oliva 2, Puckett 1, Hrbek 0. Had he not flaked out, Chuck would have been a candidate to have his number retired.

        2. Half of Knoblauch's peak would be the best 2nd baseman the Twins have had since Knoblauch.

      3. He was drafted two years later, so he only took one more year to get to the majors.

        Knoblauch had 818 PA in the minors and played a full season in the Majors at 22.
        Dozier has had 1613 PA in the minors.

        I'd like to believe. But I don't.

        I will be happy if Dozier can be a league-average 2b.

  11. httpv://youtu.be/I03UmJbK0lA

    I don't know if this ad will translated into $$$ for the bottom line, but at least the actors had fun.

  12. Stocks plunged briefly Tuesday after a fake tweet from the Associated Press' Twitter account said there had been two explosions at the White House and President Obama was injured.

  13. Wow, Bayern destroys Barca 4-0 in Champions League action. I think a Bayern-Madrid final would be a very fun game.

    1. Obviously anything that happened in the first game can happen the other way in the second game, but if Bayern scores a single goal in the second leg, Barca needs 6 to win. As far as I can tell, Bayern haven't allowed more than 2 goals in any league game this year and they haven't allowed more than 3 goals in any UCL game.

  14. AMR Alert:

    Hey Merle Haggard coming back to town and there's a presale.

    Concert is July 19.

    Presale is Wednesday April 24 at 10:00a.

    Presale code is TRUSTMAMA

    I think I'm going to go for these. Are you (or anyone else) in?

    1. If you're going, I want in. I'll text you with the same message.
      Feeling silly about missing last year's show, until I remember that the only tickets were bad when I learned of it.

      Merle's well into his 70s and who knows if he'll decide to slow down or start having health issues. I need to see him once when I still can.

  15. I have a meeting that last until 10:30a today so I won't be able to hit the presale right at 10:00a. I will go. Let's just try to get best tix available and go from there.

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