2013 Game 79: Yankees at Twins

I had a pretty nice game log all ready to go today, but we won't be using it because it's on my laptop. I'm writing this on my backup PC, which I built about the same time that Gardy took over as manager of the Twins. It's slow. Painfully slow. Matt LeCroy slow. Sloths laugh at things this slow. But it's all I've got until I can eradicate the apparent malware that has basically bricked my laptop.

The Twins open a 4-game series tonight against the team we all love to hate. The Yankees send 41-year-old Andy Pettitte to the mound. We know what he can do. He's beat the Twins in his last seven starts against the hometown nine. The Twins counter with Scott Diamond, who has struggled in has past few starts while posting a 1-3 record since June 2nd. But for once it actually feels like the Twins match up pretty well with the banged-up Bombers sans ARod and the Cap'n. We'll see.

Play ball!

Players of the Week

Rochester:  Jeff Clement was 8-for-27 with four doubles and three home runs.  For the season, he is hitting .213/.293/.396 in 268 at-bats.

New Britain:  Miguel Sano was 8-for-27 with two doubles, a triple, and four home runs.  For the season in New Britain, he is hitting .226/.320/.613 in 62 at-bats.

Fort Myers:  Jhon Goncalves was 8-for-21 with six doubles.  For the season in Fort Myers, he is hitting .297/.343/.452 in 155 at-bats.

Cedar Rapids:  J. D. Williams was 7-for-14 with two triples.  For the season, he is hitting .282/.400/.458 in 216 at-bats.

Elizabethton:  Dereck Rodriguez was 10-for-27 with four doubles.  For the season, he is hitting .314/.314/.429 in 35 at-bats.  Randy Rosario was 2-0, 0.90, 0.70 WHIP with 10 strikeouts in 10 innings.  Those are also his season totals.

GCL Twins:  Adonis Pacheco was 5-for-12 with a double, a triple, and four walks.  For the season, he is hitting .385/.500/.615 in 13 at-bats.

DSL Twins:  Joel Ramirez was 7-for-17 with a double, a triple, two walks, and two stolen bases.  For the season, he is hitting .340/.468/.426 in 47 at-bats.  Alexis Tapia was 0-0, 0.00, 0.25 WHIP in 8.1 innings.  For the season, he is 1-0, 0.98, 0.45 WHIP with 12 strikeouts in 18.1 innings.

Game 78: Royals 9, Twins 8

Both teams hit some homeruns...and doubles - 22 hits between 'em. In the end, the Royals did just enough against Twins pitching to eek out a "W".

Positive note - after going a very long stretch of the season without a HR, Mountie has doubled his HR total in the last 10 games to 4. Trader Clete now has 3 on the year...le sigh.

In other news and to much less fanfare - the NHL held it's draft. Colorado selected 17-year-old center Nathan MacKinnon with the first overall pick.

More on what the Wild did below.

Continue reading Game 78: Royals 9, Twins 8

First Monday Book Day: Paranoia Strikes Deep

Mother Nature has a deathgrip on the Far West this week, with a forecast high of 112 deg. F. for my neck of the woods today, after 109 on sunday, 104 saturday, and 101 friday. The high school jazz camp closed out Friday evening with a gig at the local pizzeria, playing in an outdoor courtyard. Amazingly, only one kid got sick. The crowd plowed through about 20 gallons of ice water, along with lots of beer and 'za.

This miserable weather did not stop me from my appointed task, however. I know how much this post means to all of you...

So, yea, I finished a book this month. Actually, I finished two books: Last month's selection as well as this one's. Both just so happened to have been co-written by Larry Niven. I guess I'm on a kick.

This month's pick is one of the prequels to Niven's 1970 classic, Ringworld. Juggler of Worlds was the second of a sequence of prequels. Luckily, it did not matter. This book stands on its own as an entertaining, well-crafted and complete story, particularly if you have not read a number of Niven's prior Known Space works with which this one overlaps/intersects (for a decidedly less positive interpretation, see this capsule Kirkus review). I think we've pretty well established that I am easily entertained.

Anyway, I found the adventures of paranoid-schizophrenic genius superspy Sigmund Ausfaller to be quite entertaining. Earth, for not-well-explained reasons, suffers from what its world government regards as severe overcrowding and some fascistic governmental interference in individual liberties, despite possession of FTL technologies that enable interstellar colonization. Interspecies politics and machinations are the focal point of this volume, but it is not nearly so deadly dull as that might seem.

What are you reading?

Happy Birthday–July 1

Roger Connor (1857)
John Clarkson (1861)
Jack Quinn (1883)
Ben Taylor (1888)
Bob Prince (1916)
Frank Baumann (1933)
Brian Sabean (1956)
Jamie Walker (1971)
Justin Huber (1982)

First baseman Ben Taylor was a star in the Negro Leagues, batting over .300 in fifteen of his sixteen seasons.

Hall of Fame broadcaster Bob Prince is best remembered for his years with the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1948-1975.

Brian Sabean has been the general manager of the San Francisco Giants since 1996.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–July 1