66 thoughts on “June 12, 2013: Pivotal?”

1. minor league beer vendor gets promoted to the big leagues

   Vince has a variety of sales pitches, like the following that he'll use when hawking cotton candy: "Hey kids, if your parent is drinking a beer, ask them if you can have a cotton candy."

2. Man, the Spurs were good last night. So far, a scintillating game one and a pair of blowouts.

   1. I was happy for the blowout in that it enabled me to go to sleep earlier, which i needed to do. I would prefer the rest of the series be more like game one, though.

      1. I am hoping for a seven game series. If we get that, no one will remember these blowouts.

         1. I'm hoping for a five game series.

            1. I'm with Neil Jeff.

               1. You SDakers must really hate Mike Miller.

                  1. Nothing to do with Miller, or even James. I've rooted for the Spurs since the mid-1970s. In fact, I can probably name more players off those mid-'70s teams than I can name off the current team.

                     1. oh, an Olberding fan, eh?

                        1. He's one of them. Mid-to-late '70s Spurs I can name off the top of my head include George Gervin, Larry Kenon, Billy Paultz, James Silas, the aforementioned Mark Olberding, George Karl, Louie Dampier, and Artis Gilmore. They weren't all on the team at the same time, of course.

                           1. Billy "the Whopper" Paultz was a favorite for me too.

3. Brian Duensing might not be the best pitcher, but he's still a good guy. From the local rag, Millard South Legion team named after new sponsor, the 52's.

   1. There's this, too:

      @pjwalters39 deserved that win! I messed up. Great come back though and a clutch hit by morny. Keep shoving PJ

      — Brian Duensing (@BrianDuensing52) June 12, 2013

      1. shoving PJ is mean. I bet Cole puts a stop to that when he gets back.

         1. Unless it's Dozier doing the shoving. I doubt Cole stands up to Brian.

   2. Yeah he's absolutely a good guy. I feel bad for feeling so frustrated when I see him on the mound.

4. USA highlights

   httpv://youtu.be/DbusEx91mXk

   Hex Standings

   Team	Win	Draw	Loss	GD	Points
   U.S.	3	1	1	3	10
   Costa Rica	2	2	1	2	8
   Mexico	1	5	0	1	8
   Honduras	2	1	2	0	7
   Panama	1	3	1	0	6
   Jamaica	0	2	4	-6	2

   I would absolutely love to see Mexico fall into 4th and have to play NZ in the playoff.

   1. Those were a couple of pretty goals. Wow.

      1. Fabian Johnson's cross to the back post was absolutely perfect, and Dempsey's near post run to draw a defender was just as vital. It was a real beauty all around.

         1. Seeing that we are capable of that kind of soccer makes me even more upset when we play poorly.

            1. I thought the setup to DMB hitting the post was also gorgeous.

               1. That was also fantastic. Everything from the back heel to Bradly, to Bradley's long diagonal ball, to Dempsey's control to Altidore, to DMB's charging run and Jozy's feed was just great.

            2. Yes. That's it in a nutshell. The team can be very frustrating at times.

               Oh and the late attempt by Beasley (3:15 mark in video above) when he hit the post was very nicely set up.

            3. How much of that is playing Panama, though? Granted, I can't figure out their team--on paper, it seems like they should be worse than Jamaica, but they've been pretty competitive so far in the Hex. The MLS players are generally considered the weak links for the US, but outside of a couple players who are already established in good situations (Baloy, Tejada), no Panamanians stood out to me as someone I'd like to see move to MLS.

   2. how many points to clinch a World Cup spot?

      1. 16 is usually the magic number, but the top three of the group will automatically get in while 4th place will have to play a tiebreaker with New Zealand

         1. If Jamaica keeps losing to everyone, it might take more points than usual this year. I would love for the US to get to 13 on Tuesday night, though.

   3. That was a fun game to be at, for sure.

      1. Also, it both makes sense to me but is also completely bizarre to me that the Sounders-Whitecaps game on Saturday had a bigger crowd by about 10k.

   4. Alternate highlight reel here. Watching warm-ups was pretty fun, too, since you can sneak down to field level (my seat for the game was upper deck.) I didn't realize how huge Guzan is. It was also just impressive how easily and quickly the guys on the team can move around for how large they are.

      1. When Mags and I went to the qualifier back in 2008(?), I was pretty stunned by how huge Gooch was.

         1. Yeah, it was Sept. 10, 2008. This match, to be precise.

            I'm 3-3 in USMNT games attended and seeing Dempsey score.

5. Minnesota Twins Win Despite Reliever Mix-up

6. The AZ-LAD fight last night was like a who's-who of 80s baseball: Mattingly, Trammell, Gibson, Steve Sax, McGwire, Don Baylor.

   Also, I feel old.

   1. You forgot Matt Williams!

   2. Having watched the video a couple of times, I think my favorite things are:

      1. Mark McGwire having Kirk Gibson in his left hand and Matt Williams in his right hand with a look on his face that says, "Which one of you wants to be decapitated first?"
      2. Jerry Hairston and Princess Willie Boom-Boom Ballgame Bloomquist "holding each other back" while exchanging recipes about 90 feet away from everyone else

      1. Nice.

         My favorite part is the name of the clip at MLB.com: "Plunkings Lead to Fracas." Oh baseball, you're so wacky.

         Also Nick Punto trying to see what's going on. It only would have been better had he started jumping up and down to see over the big kids' heads.

         1. I completely forgot to watch for LNP. Now I'm going to have to rewatch again.

         2. He should have climbed a tree.

   3. Vin Scully can make even a benches-clearing brawl sound like a beautiful baseball moment.

7. I was amused to get a notice about this upcoming webinar in my inbox this morning: How To Achieve Continuous Monitoring in Federal Government Agencies.

   1. Mission accomplished!

8. cc to Stick and other Stones fans: Merry Clayton on Fresh Air today, with director Morgan Neville to talk about his new film about backup singers, 20 Feet From Stardom.

   Merry is perhaps best known for doing the vocals on "Gimme Shelter," and tells the story of doing that session, which is amusing and interesting. But the whole interview is interesting.

9. Thank goodness for the guys at Uproxx for bringing these to my attention. I never say "LOL", so believe me when I say I've been laughing my ass off over this for a few minutes.

   The premise:

   one Game of Thrones fan decided to quiz his father — who regularly watches the show with him — thirty minutes after the season three finale ended with pictures of all the different characters to see how many his dad could name.

   
   
   
   
   
   
   

   1. I've never even seen the show and I could have done better than that!

   2. Well I recognize several of those actors from movie and BBC miniseries adaptations of Dickens and Austen. I wonder if EAR would like to startup this series?

      Ciaran Hinds, Charles Dance.
      But where's Burn Gorman, or Alun Armstrong?

      Did not realize that Dave Navarro was in this show.

      1. dave navarro wishes he was that badass.

10. word to the wise: lay off the sauce!

    While there's been quite a debate lately about whether the , there's no question that a massive amount of salt ingested quickly can lead to death.

    In fact, suicide by soy sauce is not unknown in Asia. A 2011 in the Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine describes the case of a 55-year-old woman diagnosed with depression. She died after drinking "a large quantity of shoyu (Japanese soy sauce)," doctors wrote.

    1. You ingest enough of anything, you can die from it.

       1. True that. Hyponatremia (basically, water intoxication) is a thing.

          1. 0₂ poisoning is a thing too, though that's not technically ingesting.

             1. Everything in moderation.

       2. O really? I'll guess I'll stop at fifteen rocks.

11. hole. lee. cows.
    a torrential rainfall blew through about 3pm and dumped 1.25" of rain in 25 minutes, and now over 2.5" of rain in 2 hours. Being caught in it kind of sucked.

12. What what? the unpossible is happening. Replacements to reunite for three Riot Fest gigs.

    1. Holy crap, Dinosaur Jr and the Replacements are on the same day of the Toronto event. If I thought I could make it I'd go, but I'm sure we'll be moving that weekend.

    2. With Bob Stinson dead and Slim Dunlap debilitated by a stroke, I wonder who they'll get to fill in as the replacement guitarist? As someone who saw them countless times when they didn't give a fuck, I hope they take it somewhat seriously. Love to see them wow the masses and grab the cash.

13. this is pretty freaky. Watch it for a while.

    

    1. Just wonderin', doc, did The Boy bring back some grass from college?

       (Is dat some Tilda?)

14. Bruins and Blackhawks are still tied through the 1st OT.

    1. 2nd OT.

       1. I'm really tired, but I can't see my way clear to go to sleep on an multi-OT Stanley Cup final game.

       2. 3rd OT.

          1. This goes on much longer and I'm not gonna care who wins so long as it ends.

    2. Geeze, I got home from Irish nearly 2.5 hours ago. And it was nearly the end of the 3rd. I've essentially watched an entire hockey game since I got home.

15. I tuned in halfway thru the second OT and saw half a game. wow. hell of a game.

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