Cup of Coffee

July 2, 2013: Oh, Right, Those Guys

144 Comments

Does anyone else think it feels like ages since the last time the Twins and Yankees faced each other? Maybe I totally tuned out when they did so last year. I know that was the plan.

144 thoughts on “July 2, 2013: Oh, Right, Those Guys”

  1. I wish the Twins could go seasons without playing the Yanquis, like how the Vikings could go two years without playing the Cowboys.
    Stupid Yanquis.

  3. this was floating around yesterday, but its still funny

    @AdamRubinESPN
    If it's July 1, that means the #Mets owe Bobby Bonilla $1,193,248.20 today ... and each July 1 through 2035.

  4. BoF is telling me that the Wolves have offered four year deals to J.J. Redick and Chase Budinger. First one who takes it is a Wolf.

    1. Don't they have Bird rights on Bud, though? So they could conceivably get both, assuming AK is not coming back.

    2. JJ Redick?

      Does anyone really think that JJ Redick is good enough to start in the NBA? I'm not exactly opposed to either (and I hope it's Bud), but 4 years for a shooter off the bench? really?

      1. I think this might be an unreliable source, but I'd never give Redick a four year deal.

        1. Doogie is saying that there is an offer to Redick and is speculating 4 yr, $30 million. Kaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahn!

          1. I think they could get Jimmer for much less from the Kings. And he'd be about as effective....

            from an Orlando Magic fan blog last February,

            While his opponents’ PER suggest that he’s been a solid overall defender, he needs to work on recovering. By recovering, I mean not leaving shooters wide open. Redick ranks 218th in the NBA in guarding spot-up situations, which he defends over 31 percent of his time on defense.

            Dude is a shooter. That's pretty much it. Spotting up or coming off of multiple picks. He can't defend, he can't penetrate and dish or finish, he doesn't have a great handle.

            He's taller than Jimmer, so maybe a little more able to get his shot off and a little less of a massive liability on defense. But Jimmer is already as good a 3-pt shooter (in limited minutes, to be sure; but everyone knew he was in the game to score), and probably is a better ball handler and distributor. He may be too slow to be a starting PG in the league. But then again, Scott Skiles had a nice career with similar size and skills.

        2. I think this might be an unreliable source, but I’d never give Redick a four year deal.

          You've always seemed reliable to me, Boss.

  5. Any soccer players in the Minneapolis area?

    Me and a couple of neighbors have been organizing some pick-up soccer games on Wednesdays and could use some more players.

    This is low key stuff, guys and gals in their 40's with varying degree of skill. Right now it's been 2 on 2 or 3 on 3, however there's been promise of more players. We'd like to get to about 5 on 5 or so.

    We've been playing near Lake Calhoun but the area is heavily programmed and the main organizer has been looking for other areas in SW Minneapolis, especially if we get more players, we will need more space.

    Anyway let me know if you are interested even if you can't play this week. I'll let you know the details.

    1. Unfortunately, I play softball Wednesday nights. Otherwise, I would love to join in.

    2. I also have softball on Wednesdays, but I've played a lot of pick-up soccer in that part of town and for my money the best place to play is on the field on the south side of Lake of the Isles (by the dog park). It's more than big enough for 5x5, and it's generally not busy on weekdays.

    3. If it moved to a Tuesday would you guys be interested? I know the organizer is willing to change days if that got more players. Also thanks for heads up about Lake of the Isles, I forward that to him.

      1. I probably couldn't be more than a maybe on Tuesdays, but keep me posted if you do switch the days.

      2. I could probably get permission come sporadically as well. Especially if Sheenie wants to take the dog to the dog park at the same time.

  6. My hometown makes the list of the ten best small towns in the country.

    The criteria seems dubious, and I'm not sure exactly how big the pool was, but this ought to get the locals all excited for a few days. Also, this probably feeds right into the town council's plan to double the size of the town within the next ten years.

    1. The towns are from 12,000 to 26,000 in population. Where I come from, that's not a small town. Glad to see Brookings, SD on the list, though.

      1. Heh. I have friends who live in Brookings who would disagree with that assessment. They'd disagree with a lot of things that others find pleasant though.

          1. Are we talking about Dickinson or Williston? Dickinson might be kind of crazy, but I didn't think it was anything like Williston. They're a fair spread apart from each other. I've only been to Dickinson once, and I remember nothing at all about it.

            One of the criteria seems to be city growth, so that must be part of it, I assume?

            Alexandria has always struck me as more of a place that you'd want to spend a weekend - it's very, very good for that. Most of the reaction to this list has been of the "are you serious?" variety.

            2. My wife lived in Dickinson for four years and says it was the four most depressing years of her life. She said its gorgeous out there and the golf is dirt cheap, but she felt incredibly lonely, being a city girl and all. Plus, she didn't drink, which limited a lot if the entertainment. She was a reporter and got many death threats from citizens that weren't a fan of her "radical left-wing agenda," especially when she tried to report on any corruption.

              1. From what I've heard, loneliness and depression are huge problems in that entire area.

              2. I've never lived in Dickinson and have only been there a couple of times. Knowing what I know about ND as you head west, let me assure you that it would take a whole lot to get me out there.

                No thanks.

              3. Plus, she didn’t drink, which limited a lot if the entertainment.

                There are lots and lots and lots of outdoor things to do around here, both summer and winter, but if outdoor things aren't your bag, then this becomes a real problem. Lots of bars, but unless you want to bowl or watch a movie, that's your main recourse.

                golf is dirt cheap

                Another plus to Alexandria. I paid just over $600 for a yearlong membership at the golf course I frequent. It's not PGA-caliber by any stretch, but it's not a mowed field, either.

                1. My wife was a roving reporter, so she was constantly outdoors doing fun, fantastic stories out in the country. But she occasionally wanted to see a good play or meet like-minded people. So she moved back to Minneapolis.

                2. stories from big-city folks about how there is "nothing to do" in even slightly smaller cities always slay me. Sactown is a "cow town" to folks from LA, NY, or even SF, yet there are plenty of interesting gustatory and cultural opportunities here to enjoy.

                  At some level it is true that the institutionalized entertainment options do decline so far that one has to make one's own fun. But "boring" sounds like a lack of imagination to me.

                  1. When Sheenie first moved up to the Twin Cities, her mom called her one day excited because she had a brilliant idea.

                    "You should contact the newspapers and offer to be their food critic," her mother told her. Her mom was absolutely stunned that the Twin Cities has a food critic, and Sheenie didn't really push too much to explain that there are actually quite a few of them.

                    2. Correct, and no. This was a backwater, po-dunk town to them (although they love it every time they visit, but it consistently amazes them that there's culture here).

                    3. somewhere, I have an editorial cartoon I clipped out of the STRIB back in the early 1980s. A businessman is talking to a jazz musician at a bar, in between sets. Businessman says, "Hey, you're really good. What are you doing in Minneapolis?"

                    4. but it consistently amazes them that there’s culture here

                      Ah, hahahahahahahahahahhahahahaha. Folks down here are amazed that there is 'culture' on the 'west' bank of the river. Uptown folks are surprised that there are good restaurants in the Bywater for pete's sake. Yeah, it's a funny town.

                  2. I lived out in the country for a while. I can't honestly say there was nothing to do. But I just never felt like I fit in, so I didn't want to do things with the people around me. I had to drive an hour to go on dates.

                  3. I don't disagree with any of this, necessarily. There's a lot of outside stuff to do, and certainly "boring" is not a term I would ever use to describe small town life (besides which, I'm sort of a homebody, anyway. Too much time away from home is draining).

                    On the other hand, since I enjoy music (a lot), it would be really nice to not have to drive two hours to see a concert. Restaurant selection is getting better, but it would be nice to have some true culinary diversity. There are a couple of places which serve hoppy beers finally, but it would be nice to have a wider palette.

                    Not deal breakers, but simply small annoyamnces.

                    1. I guess that's my biggest complaint with living out in the country is the lack of diversity. I love being around people from other cultures and I did not get that out in Buffalo. For six straight years as a social worker I had only white clients.

                    2. I worked in Buffalo too, albeit only for a summer, but there was a lot of diversity within that lily-white community of clients - have teeth/have some teeth/have no teeth, manure on boots/no manure on boots, visited the cities/had not visited the cities, lived in a house/rented a house/lived in a trailer house, read books/did not read books...

                      I half-kid of course

                    3. A lot of it depends on how you define "something to do". If you're looking for a place you can go where you can simply sit and be entertained, then there may be nothing to do. If you're looking for things you can actually get involved in, you'll never run out of things to do.

                    5. Small towns can be fun but you have to know a lot of people to make them fun. They can be terrible if you don't know anyone.

                    6. I specifically disliked the small town I grew up in because everyone knew everyone, actually. It got dull in a hurry. I never had the exciting moment of meeting a girl for the first time who lived five miles away from me, or whatever. I could effortlessly name everyone in my graduating class, and that fact was always irritating to me.

                    7. The only thing worse than a small town where you know everyone is a small town where you know no one.

                    8. I spend a lot of time in the small town in which I grew up. 25 miles to get to a decent grocery store, or a movie theater, or a hardware store. No decent restaurants within 60 miles. No swimming pool or golf course within 15 miles. Cliquishness and small town bigotry.

                      The best thing I ever did was get out of there. Now, when I go back, I work and I can concentrate on the job while I'm there, but as far as living there, I can't do it.

                    9. I've lived in a few small towns, and I've never found it hard to get to know people in them or to get involved in stuff in them. Of course, I grew up in one, so I understand how they work.

                      I will say I'm very glad that I have never lived as an adult in the small town I grew up in. That would've been really hard, and I doubt I could've handled it.

                    10. Oh, I didn't want to give the impression that I want to live in a micro-community either. My current community is about 50k, but is very much a small town. You can tell by how awful the local newspaper is. But we have amenities and are close to urban areas with diversity and variety.

                      That said, life in very small towns in the midwest has, in some key respects, gotten much, much better in the past couple of decades. The world has gotten smaller.

                    11. I have lived in three places in my life: Minneapolis (pop. 400k), Tacoma (pop. 200k), and Buenos Aires (pop. 12 million).

                      I would probably last one month in a small town before going completely insane.

                    12. Small towns can be fun but you have to know a lot of people to make them fun. They can be terrible if you don’t know anyone.

                      We knew a fairly large number of people in the small texas town we lived in for 3 years, and it was very difficult for us. We knew we'd never be 'from' there, and the locals made damn sure we felt that. The new folks were too concerned with moving up the academic ladder. Those two factors combined to make us feel like we'd never be accepted. I felt like a prisoner released from death row at the last moment when Dr. Chop got a job in NOLA.

                      I'll never be from here, which is crystal clear, but there are an overwhelming number of opportunities to engage with different cultures most of which openly welcome new participation.

    1. Dang, the way you said that, I thought it'd be art made out of bacon, or something.

    2. On one occasion, Plaintiffs' five-year-old son was relegated to the role of "door-holder" and ordered to hold the door for all of the other students.

      My wife does this all the time in her class. She gives everyone a "job" to do. One of them is to have the responsibility of holding the door and making sure it is closed when they leave the classroom. Of course, most kids like to have a "job" and she rotates it every week or two so everyone has a chance to do every "job". It has gotten ridiculous how paranoid parents are of their children being singled out even for misbehavior. I went to a coaches clinic for Little League and the guy told us to never single out a player for misbehavior, such as making him run laps or something. Instead, if one player is doing something wrong, we have to make the whole team run and then explain why. We were to never mention the player's name but just say that "someone" is screwing around and making all of you run. He told us to walk away and let the rest of the kids deal with it. So, basically we are making sure all of the kids are to have a gang mentality. Nice.

      2. things were so much better in the old days, before the Interwebz allowed us to publicize vicious hazing rituals on high school/college sports teams and fraternities....

        1. they are pissed because they were paying a driver $60,000/year to do stuff like that for Junior.

  8. Last night, on the drive home from visiting my new nephew, our car blew a water pump. It did so 50 minutes from home, and 50 minutes from the nearest family member. Who still drove us the rest of the way.

    Fortunately, it seems, it did so very near a reasonably priced and quick-responding repair shop, as I've figured out this morning. It was an adventure, as we had both kids in the car, and it was 11 at night, but they did fine, and my dad is pretty much a superhero.

    This car has now had, in the past 2 years: a new engine, new starter, new struts, new stabilizers, new tires (meh), and now a water pump. Gah.

    1. Ugh, water pumps. I once had a car that blew water pump after water pump. It was a first model year Contour and maybe the worst car anyone has ever manufactured, ever. 100,000 miles and it completely crumbled. In summary, I hope the replacement works and you don't have to keep taking it in because of that thing.

      Cars, man. I think I narrowed down my wife's oil leak to the oil pressure switch, which I know went bad a few weeks ago. That would be significantly cheaper and easier to get fixed than the other possibilities.

      1. Cars. I own three of them, none with fewer than 100,000 miles. I'm going to have to something at some point. I'm not interested right now, though.

        1. My car has a salvage title, and I bought it quite cheaply. Even then, it has cost me a lot over the past seven years, and I'm very unlikely to get much for it at the end of its life. The going plan right now is to put a hundred or so a month into a fund, and I'll simply drive the car until it explodes (hopefully later, rather than sooner).

        2. Yeah, my current ride just hit 196,000 yesterday but runs incredibly well (diesel FTW) and I've got a local mechanic who is very fair and reasonable for fixing the non-engine components, so I'm good to go for, I'm hoping, another 100,000. Sadly, this recent issue with my wife's car has me fearful that I'll have to swap my car out for an automatic transmission because when my wife's car goes down, she has nothing she can drive. The fun part is that her car is at about 107,000, is generally a piece of crap, and has 4 years left on the loan. (I made a mistake, ugh.)

          1. That's one plus for us... we own both of our vehicles outright, and have since day 1. The small town mechanic with a dealer's license served us well. Both are right around 150,000, and the one that blew up last night is the one we're driving into the ground (it's also not the one we're taking to SD this weekend, because we don't trust it enough). We'd recently dropped almost $1800 into both of them combined on various repairs (oil pressure sensor, brakes, the aforementioned struts and stabilizers), so another $300+ bill isn't welcome, but... the car you have is the cheapest car you can find. I just gotta keep telling myself that.

            Until we're ready to add seats in >9 mo.

            1. The "new" car we have is eight years old and has over 120,000 miles on it. The "old" car is thirteen years old and and has over 220,000 miles. Both are still running well, however, and are costing us very little. I know that has to change at some point, and we're doing what we can to be prepared for that, but we're going to keep both of them as long as we feasibly can.

            2. Until we're ready to add seats in >9 mo.

              Did I miss a previous announcement, or is this a first notice? Either way, congrats!

                1. Then consider it congrats in advance for when I inevitably miss the actual announcement and/or can't read mathematical symbols properly again!

                  1. Heh.

                    It looks like things are going to line up well for us, but one never knows what nature will have in store.

              2. That's what I was thinking, but couldn't understand what that goofy symbol in front of the 9 was supposed to imply..."more than" 9 months, as in, "any addition will necessarily be here in more than 9 months." or "...add seats in [arrow points to] 9 months"...

                edit: man do I type slowly...

          2. I haven't made a car payment in 13 years. How is that possible you ask? Two of the three cars are my wife's. One she inherited, one she had. I actually replaced the one she had when it got totalled and I paid cash for the difference (it wasn't much, but that might count as a car payment, I suppose). This happy accident (not my fault) resulted in a vehicle with 40,000 fewer miles.

            I consider cars to be expenses and therefore try to minimize the expense.

              1. aye. Get me and mine from point A to point B at minimal cost, subject to safety, economic and basic comfort constraints.

    2. Well, I just bought a brand new car. It's the first car that I haven't bought from either my father or father-in-law and I probably wouldn't have ever bought brand new if my wife wasn't so gung-ho about it. There are plusses and minuses. But right now I'm REALLY enjoying the plusses, guys.

      Like air conditioning.

      And windows that open.

      1. There's a part of me that's been thinking along these lines. But I can't figure when I'd ever need to have the windows open and the air conditioning on.

        1. I do both and just drive around with my head hanging out the window yelling "hooray! hooray!" I guess it's maybe a LITTLE decadent.

      2. I'll echo strat - there are plusses and minuses for buying new. For my money, the plusses mostly outweigh the minuses, especially if you do your homework and drive a hard bargain.

        My wife bought a brand new Civic coupe right out of college ('02) that we're still driving - 192k miles. It has been kicked around a bit - fender benders and what-not - but it's engine has been bullet-proof. I didn't buy my first "new" car until 2010 - a Rav4.

        Neither one broke the bank (basic, non-luxury vehicles) and we've been very happy thus far. I really enjoy knowing their maintenance history, that they have (or had) warranties and that they've been really well cared for. For us, that peace-of-mind is worth most of the sticker shock associated with buying new.

  9. Hey Hungry Joe or other VJ organizers: I have the July guest VJ gig. When does that start? Are there any other instructions? Got my line-up all set, just waiting for the date.

      2. Thanks for stealing my thunder Philo (although Tobin Sprout was going to show up on Tuesday).

        Here's what you WONT see next week:

        The Walkmen
        Fleet Foxes
        Bon Iver (sorry Nibs)
        Lady Gaga (sorry Milt on Tilt)
        Any Deer___ band
        Shat/Nimoy
        Selena Gomez
        7 versions of Built to Spill's 20 minute Broken Chairs
        Any song title with the word "boogie" in it

    2. From what I can tell, you start on the second Monday, the 8th, and continue through Sunday.

    2. Funny. It's not really bullpen help the Giants need so much as some offensive punch and starting pitching. The bullpen has been right about average (per statcorner.com's +0.2 pRAA and 3.80 xRA), while the starting pitching has been a disaster (4.66 xRA and -22.9 pRAA). By comparison, the Twins' starters have been 5.11 xRA/-27.9 pRAA, while the bullpen has been 3.92/+6.6 (positive is good).

      On the offensive side, the Gigantes have been at 0.326 wOBA*, compared to the Twins' 0.323 wOBA*.

      So, yea, the Giants' "disaster" is standard operating procedure for the Twins these days.

  12. So, I answered a call on my cell this morning from a number I did not recognize. Since I'm trying to set up an appointment related to a life insurance application, I took the call thinking it might be related.

    Nope. spoofed number for some [redacted] jerks robocalling me about some product they wanted to sell me. Really?

    Anyway, I'm on the National Do Not Call Registry, which is one of the greatest things ever done by government. But how do you register a complaint against a spoofed number?

    This led me down a rabbit hole of discovery on anti-spoofing legislation. Apparently, there is a company that sells a product called "Spoofcard" that makes its living not only selling other jerks software for spoofing their calls to us, but ALSO sells a product to consumers for UNspoofing spoofed phone calls. While at the same time fighting implementation of anti-spoofing legislation in court. Awesome sauce. If only they could find a way to include patent trolling as well, they would be the perfect company.

    1. Today, we are all Sneetches.

      Spoiler SelectShow

      1. I would have caught the reference in the spoiler. Because I looked it up not all that long ago.

    1. So far, only one comment, but what a comment:

      Because, apparently, she was engaged in illegal activity when she won the awards; and having a top athlete with mental problems, which some might feel can be attributed to the pressure of that lifestyle, smacks of the sports community prostituting athlete's lives for a performance measure?... Oh, neither is true? OK, then - Makes sense to remove the name... If she recovers, is all forgiven?.. oh... "prostitution" of athletes and "collegiate sports awards" are uncomfortably close.. can't be having that.
      -hobie2

  14. Not an Onion story.

    It was only a matter of time before Tim Tebow made a cameo in the ongoing Aaron Hernandez coverage. The former Florida teammates and (for about a week) Patriots teammates are at both ends of the image spectrum, and both names sell. Put them together, and it’s like flipping two of the striped pieces on that stupid candy game that I’m about to uninstall from my phone.

    On Monday, Radar.com tried to cobble together a Tebow connection that felt a little forced and obvious — Tebow reportedly encouraged Hernandez to come to Gainesville, and Tebow tried to help Hernandez stay out of trouble there.

    The Orlando Sentinel has offered something more tangible, reporting that Tebow was present for the May 2007 altercation that resulted in Hernandez busting the eardrum of a restaurant employee with a punch.

    “Tebow stated that he witnessed the dispute,” an officer wrote in the police report. ”Tebow stated that he went over to try to help resolve the conflict.”

      1. I don't know that I'd call him a "non-entity". He did win the Heisman Trophy, and he was the quarterback of a team that won a game in the NFL playoffs in the 2011 season. It's true that he's done nothing since then, of course.

        1. Yeah, that's what I mean. It would be like going to a comedy website and reading about nothing but Ray Jay Johnson. His fame is over (unless Belichick does something nobody would expect) and it's time for writers to find something worth covering.

  15. Maybe you've already heard this, but Jim Mandelaro tweets that Aaron Hicks is in Minneapolis in case Josh Willingham has to go on the DL.

      1. This is just great. Any chance of dumping Willingham for something, anything at the deadline are kaput.

        1. Wasn't going to happen anyways. When's the last time the Twins traded away a quality veteran player that wanted to stay with more than one year left on a contract? They just don't do that.

  16. In ex-Twins news, Jim Thome has officially retired and is now an assistant to the general manager for the White Sox.

    1. Bit surprised he couldn't find a job. Considering he took the Twins' cheap offer a few years ago, I would think he would take any major league contract and surely some team would have offered that.

  17. I just finished The Sun Also Rises. I read the notes on Hemingway at the end and it seems that today is the anniversary of his suicide. There's a weird coincidence.

    1. Great - that sent me down a rabbit hole. Did you know that Trieste is an Italian city (not an island or peninsula) that is actually on the Eastern shore of the Adriatic - the sea that forms the Eastern shore of the majority of the rest of Italy?

      1. Trieste was a very contentious place at the end of WWI (everybody wanted it!).

        1. Just last night while looking up some stuff on the Free City of Danzig (Gdansk), I found out they made a Free City of Trieste after WWII for about 10 years before it was divied up between Italy and Yugoslavia.

  20. I'm at an outdoor event and 90% of the teenage girls have shorts that cover 0% of their legs. When did this become a thing? Also, glad I have a son for now

    1. Work shares a building with an international prep school, so I can confirm at least three years ago.

    2. exactly when you became a parent, Beau. That's when you start noticing these things through new eyes.

  21. NOTICE--Minor Details will be on hiatus for a little while, as I've been called out of town unexpectedly. Mom A's brother (my uncle) has taken a turn for the worse and is not expected to live much longer, although sometimes people can fool you. He's 95, so if this is the end he didn't get cheated, but one is never really quite ready for it at any age. Anyway, I'm headed to Mom and Dad A's place tonight, and we'll head down to see my uncle tomorrow morning, assuming he's still with us then. I'm not sure how long I'll be gone at this point, but we'll pick things up again after I get back.

  22. Evidently the Wolves have reached agreements with Budinger for 3 years/$16 million (yay!) and Kevin Martin for 4 years/$28 million (ugh).

      1. oh, hells yes. We are going to love Kevin Martin. That is a very reasonable price for a player who is much, much better than JJ Redick and only one year older than Redick.

    2. I am happy with Martin. The contract could have been worse. He is someone many of us here at the WGOM have admired from afar for sometime. I am not nuts about four years but if you are going to use free agency to secure players that it what it takes.

      Martin, at his peak, was soooooo much better than Redick. Martin got to the line, could create his own shot, and was super efficient. Again, I am not in love with paying him from 30-33 but that is the cost of doing business. Hopefully he takes some of that KD/Russ work ethic and it wears off on the T-Pups, too.

      We will all be sad to see AK go. He was one of the few bright spots last season but the team needed shooters. Hopefully they can secure a wing defender in the coming weeks. Not a lot of flexibility at this point but they should be able to trade Luke or JJ for someone who can guard 2/3s.

      In a vacuum, I like the move. A lot of off season left though.

      1. Pek/Deng
        Love/Williams/Cunningham
        Bud/ Mbah a Moute*
        Martin/Shabaaz/D-Leaguer
        Ricky/JJ

        *I saw a Luke for Luc rumour floated out there.

        You can make the playoffs with that team.

        1. Better hope that Williams takes a big step forward this year. They are gonna need him.

          1. With Bud and Martin signing I think it is safe to say Coach will be back this season, too. Those are his guys for sure. This can not be discounted.

        1. There are going to be a lot of points scored this year. A LTE on Canis spoke to how this team is looking an awful lot like those turn of the century Kings teams.

          1. I could go for that. Martin and Bud making shots, Ricky breaking down defenses off the dribble, K-Love doing his thing, and PEKSMASH.

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