Cup of Coffee

July 1, 2013: Winding Down

110 Comments

Does anyone else have that thing where you can't go to bed for two or three hours after getting home from work even if you get home at nine or ten? I wish I didn't.

110 thoughts on “July 1, 2013: Winding Down”

  1. Yes. When I worked the evening shift at the grocery store as a teenager, or in my summer temp job at the factory, after evening shift and after midnights. Was never fun.

    1. Mrs. A has that. Me, if I have fifteen minutes to wind down, I'm ready to go to sleep.

  2. Having a great time with my cousins from Sweden. Yesterday we hit the wineries, among other things. Today I play tour guide as we head into StL. No, we are not taking the Anheuser-Busch tour.

  3. I have the same sleep issue. It contributed to changing careers. I had a job where I would work 60 to 70 hour weeks for a four month period. I would get home at 9 and not fall asleep until midnight. Get up at 5:30 and do it again. I was basically losing it by the end of the four months every year.

        1. I see that. Wow.

          My two favorites of the moment are Sloane Stephens and Li Na, and they're both in the round of eight, so these next two days off should prove exciting.

    3. Damn, I never knew the Wooden thing. Effin' LA.

      (Also, if I learned something does this mean Reilly is only 99.9% worthless?)

        1. Right. UCLA is wayyyyyyyyyy better at cheating ignoring NCAA rules than the U has ever proven to be.

              1. As you allude to, Tim didn't really know how to cheat, he just convinced Joel Maturi that he did.

      2. I knew about the Wooden thing from an inscription my dad put into this book when he gave it to me as a gift. Still boggles teh mind a little.

      1. If printed on long, sticky paper, that sketch could be curled up and better used as flypaper.

  8. At this exact moment 150 years ago, Abner Doubleday (yes, him!) was sending the 6th Wisconsin on a successful attack at Gettysburg.

    2. Abner is a name we're considering. If the my wife had gone in to labor today, that'd seal the deal.

        1. Let's hope not, I'm not in the mood for a 2 month pre-mature baby. A full bake, I say.

    3. Let's not forget my Dirty Harry story from All-Star survivor was just about reaching its climax (and part of the story could have been pulled from your link, CoC).

    1. Sure are a lot of "fans" out there...you'd think they'd tire of repeating the doom & gloom mantra, especially when the article is a generally positive review of a not-terrible month of baseball.

    2. looking at the standings, only 6 games back of first on July 1 is something I would not have predicted.

        2. that team also has Johan Santana and Frankie Liriano (until his arm fell off)

          1. But a much weaker division to compete against. The Twins at the end of June in 2006 were all ready 8 games over .500 and were still 11 games back.

  10. We're too far from Movie Day for me to wait with this...

    I've been getting back into Breaking Bad. I finished Season 2/started Season 3 last night. First off, let me say:

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    I do have a complaint though...

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    Despite those complaints, and I really don't mean them as big things, I'm still in love. Even more so after episode 1 of Season 3 than I was at the end of Season 2. I've heard enough to know some of what's coming (though still, let's avoid spoilers please), and looking at where things stand now, I'd guess I'm in for a heck of a ride this season.

      1. I liked chunks of the season, but far too often it felt like things were dragging just to make time.

    2. I actually just started rewatching (a friend of mine is watching for the first time and I joined him for dinner when he was watching episodes 4 and 5, so I came back home and started watching again from there). I'm getting much more out of it this time because of the way season 1 transitions immediately into season 2. The first time I watched, I was pretty rusty about Tuco and No Doze (sp?) and the backstory because I hadn't thought about it in awhile. Soooo good.

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        1. Season 5 spoilers within.

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            2. I figured there were probably a number of people who caught up on Netflix who *didn't* immediately torrent Season 5 upon reaching the end of the online material.

              What I wrote doesn't really spoil specific events, but it's still best to go into the show as blind as possible.

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    4. As I've mentioned before, my apartment, on fire, is featured during the last episode of season 2.

  11. I'm completely tuned out on the Twins this season. Completely. As in, not watching. I'm just saving myself for when I can watch this.

    Buxton is just a year removed from playing 2-A high school baseball in Georgia, where he saw few 90 mph fastballs and even fewer quality breaking balls. Twins scouting director Deron Johnson saw Buxton six times last spring and said he never saw him face a pitcher with professional potential. And when he first arrived in pro ball, it showed.

    Buxton went 1-for-27 to start his pro career in the Rookie-level Gulf Coast League last year. Two weeks into his pro career, he was hitting .037 with no extra-base hits. He looked like a kid from south Georgia over his head in his first taste of pro competition.

    But what Buxton has shown already is that he is a fast learner. After going hitless in seven of his first eight games, Buxton had at least one hit in 18 of his final 21 in the GCL and jumped to Rookie-level Elizabethton, where he helped lead the E-Twins to an Appalachian League title. And between summers, Buxton showed that he had caught up to and passed his contemporaries.

    “You saw the stuff. In instructs, you saw he had great aptitude. He really took off. This year in spring training, he was absolutely ready. He’s been doing this since more than just April,” Twins vice president of player personnel Mike Radcliff said.

      1. My head is filled with thoughts of Arcia, Hicks, and Buxton in the OF, Rosario and Sano in the infield, and a still spry Mauer behind the plate (or hell, at first if he must).

                    1. Mike Miller will hit a lot of triples, but not do much else. Also, he'll get hurt a lot sliding into third.

            1. Oh yeah! I still love watching his draft video. I'm totally rooting for that dude.

        2. You can watch Arcia (and eventually Hicks) right now. Plus Gibson every five days, at least for a while. Also, Dozier was the twins' best hitter (by OPS) in June and had more walks than strikeouts. In fact, he had almost as many walks in June (15) as he did in half a season in 2012 (16). Since ending their 10-game losing streak, the Twins are 18-15 and have the best record in the division since then. In those 33 games, the Twins have allowed one less run than the Tigers, who have played 34 games in that stretch.

    2. The article originally talked about how quickly he covers 60 feet, 6 inches. Even Mike Trout couldn't charge the mound like this kid! HE CAN DO IT ALL!

    3. Baseball America's Jim Callis suggested earlier this year that Buxton and Sano might be like having Mike Trout and Bryce Harper in the same organization.

  12. I am an uncle again. It's a frequent enough occurrence that I wouldn't highlight it, except to point out that my new nephew's name is "Sorkin." My sister and brother-in-law are big fans of a particular writer. I've known it was coming for a while, and it's been growing on me, but a growth process was definitely needed.

  13. I was out this weekend.
    Was it discussed that Gibson is the first Twins starter to win his major-league debut since Dave Gassner?
    (Unless I've forgotten someone.)

      1. Crap. Why have I bothered remembering Dave Gassner for so long then?
        Stupid brain, those cells could have been used to keep my kids' names straight.

    2. Don't think I've read that. He's the first Twins' first-round pick to win his major league debut. Gibson is tied for ninth all-time for wins for the Twins for first-round draft picks. Perkins is the leader by a large margin with 27 wins. Next on the list is Willie Banks. Yuck.

      2. Gibson is tied for ninth all-time for wins for the Twins for first-round draft picks.

        Baby Jeebus wept.

      3. Of course, the all-time leader in wins for Twins' first-round pitcher draft picks is Tim Belcher at 146. 🙁
        Followed by Dick Ruthven at 123. 🙁

            1. which raises a somewhat related trivia question. The Twins have had 11 (regular, June) first-round picks in their history who have accumulated double-digit rWAR for their respective careers. Can you name them?

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    3. although he didnt get the win, Matt Fox's name should always be brought up when talking about pitching debuts

    2. I love this picture of Nathan Gerbe (5'5" + skates) next to Zdeno Chara (6'9" + skates) At his listed height, Gerbe is the shortest guy currently in the NHL, while Chara is the tallest to ever play in the league.

  17. I went full-on cranky old man today. A website I was on had an autoplay video with a pre-roll ad. I contacted the website saying I'll never visit them again and the advertiser complaining that they are advertising with a buncha jerks (paraphrased). I usually thing that sort of complaining is useless and petty, but today it just struck me in just the wrong mood.

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