Cup of Coffee

July 27, 2013: Wire to Wire

62 Comments

Full day today, guys. I have to run a morning meeting at work, then immediately head to Flagstaff with my wife for Flagstaff Extreme (a ropes course up in the trees), and spend the three-hour drive back judging for my Survivor game. Normally on a day off I beg for the opportunity to do nothing, but I'm pretty excited about all of this.

62 thoughts on “July 27, 2013: Wire to Wire”

    2. I was surprised there weren't any hockey players, if even solely based on the Miracle on Ice.

    3. My list:

      Tony Oliva
      Harmon Killebrew
      Fran Tarkenton
      Alan Page
      Kent Hrbek
      Mark Olberding
      Janet Karvonen
      Frank Viola
      Kevin McHale
      Neal Broten

    4. Lindsay Whalen has to be on a list. Brought Womens Basketball to the forefront at the U, helped bring a championship to the Lynx.
      and like cheaptoy mentioned, no hockey players?

      1. key criterion was "majority of career" with Minnesota teams. So Gophers can't cut it unless they were only college athletes. Broten qualifies, Whalen might now qualify, but McHale and Olberding certainly do not.

        the list is dumb for that and many reasons, but the purpose of list articles is to generate traffic.

    6. Didn't all the pre-Metrodome players for Vikings, Twins play in Bloomington? Metrodome Vikings in the Hall of Fame include Chris Doleman, John Randle, Gary Zimmerman and Randall McDaniel. Kent Hrbek's number has been retired by the Twins and he has two World Series rings. Bert Blyleven is in the Hall of Fame and won a World Series.

      1. right, and no St. Paul Saints can be on the list because they played in St. Paul....
        😉

    1. Me and Carol had four children, and you know how many of them I watched being born? 0-for-4, just like a Mauer stat line when the game's important.

      Brilliant.

  4. Harris William Peterson.
    4 lbs 6 oz

    Mom and baby are doing good, though baby is in the NICU as a precautionary step.

      1. Oooohhh, I dig knickknack. Real name: given

        He's improving with his breathing quite well, so I think the NICU stay will not be long. He was one day away from not being required to be up here.

    13. Well done Peterson's - glad to hear it'll be a short stay in there. Can't wait to meet him!

  5. Four days. Wow.

          1. I would like to know what the end game is here. Are they gonna let this kid save face or is he going to be humiliated and bitter? Apparently, the latter.

            1. Maybe they're letting Smith hang himself to pave way for Dougie's rise up the managerial ranks.

            2. I really hope he gets a shot at saving face. The good news, of course, is that the casual fan isn't going to be aware of this, and the educated fan is going to ask questions like we are.

              Also, home runs tend to save a lot of face.

    2. there has to be something more here. Maybe the Strib should send someone to New Britian to investigate.

      1. I really wonder what all is going on here. I know I defended the idea of benching him for a few games, but I assumed that would be, you know, just a few. There's gotta be more, right?

        1. Read the link from Reusse above. He showboated after hitting an HR off of a former teammate that he'd had a run-in with. Manager and he got into it. Terry Ryan also there, had conversation with Sano; not pleased with result. Ryan is backing his guy up in NB, but man, four days. Gotta believe that Sano is one unhappy camper.

          I guess I'm pissed off that after 3 dreadful seasons, and waiting eagerly for this kid, we have suggestions that (a) he's kind of a bad actor and/or (b) the Twins are going to piss him off. If it was going to be two games, well great. But, now it's four and who knows how long.

          Sigh.

          1. I read the Reusse article. Seems like 4 days suggests more than the standard "incident/discipline/that's all in the past" progression. It seems worrisome.

            Of course, Reusse will the be the first one to complain that the Twins should have done more to curb Sano's attitude if he gets to the bigs, shows up an ump and gets tossed from the game. So... I'll take Reusse's assessment with a grain of salt.

          2. When confronted over this by Smith, notorious in the Twins' system as a hard-nosed manager, Sano basically told Smith that he would do what he chose after hitting home runs.

            This isn't about showboating. This is about a player telling off a manager to his face. Without knowing more details, we don't know if Sano was way out of line or if Smith overreacted. My guess is it was some of both.

            1. This probably isn't totally rational, because my life experiences are obviously way different, but based on my athletic experiences, a "hard nosed" manager tends to just be a way to describe a guy who's an inflexible ass who thinks that everyone should respond the same way to things, and those things are "yelling".

              So, while I do agree that it sounds like both player and coach over-reacted, my gut feeling is to think Smith is a general dick-wad to players and Sano reacted like a normal 20 year old and that Smith is being a bigger idiot by making it a longer-than-necessary benching, which would teach him the same thing as a two game benching but also probably piss him off more and make him harder to deal with later on.

              /armchair psychology

              1. I think it's interesting that the writer chose the word "notorious" to describe the manager's reputation, where simply "known as" would have worked for a better-liked person.

        2. perhaps Im too much of an optimist, but I think Sano and the Twins will work out just fine in the long run.
          I mean, Glen Perkins and the organization seem to get along just fine nowadays.

            1. Or David Ortiz. Guy still has maturity issues. Endangered his teammates by smashing a telephone with his bat. Shrapnel nearly hit several people.

              1. I strongly dislike these Ortiz parallels. I would hate for Sano to be the next Ortiz.

              2. Holy cats, i just watched the video and Ortiz is a dick, man. That was way worse than what Sano did, even without the smashed phone.

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