53 thoughts on “September 4, 2013: Back to Work”

  1. AMR - Apparently it's a nice place to visit:

    Knut Abraham, the minister-counselor, the consul general and the head of the Consular and Legal Section of the German Embassy in Washington, D.C., was taking a vacation and decided to drop by New Ulm, reports Josh Moniz of the New Ulm Journal. Abraham is attending a family reunion with his U.S. relatives. He said he previously visited New Ulm at age 16 in 1982 and age 18 in 1984. Abraham stopped by Mayor Bob Beussman's office for a visit, and said he’s looking forward to touring the Schell's Brewery and seeing the Hermann the German monument.
    Source

    1. I can vouch for the niceness of New Ulm
      especially during the fall colors since the town in nestled in the Minnesota River Valley

  3. The Pirates won their 81st game last night. It's the first time they'll be .500 for a season since 1992. My brother was born in July 1992, and he can drink now.

    1. I was such a huge Pirates fan from 1990 to 1992. I was annoyed they lost to the Braves in 91 (that was tempered somehow) and crushed when they lost to the Braves again.

      3. I know someone working on a book about the '93 season, but he's starting with the end of '92 and the Pirates' loss, since it set into motion so many other things.

                  1. My bad... he was playing too far back, not the other way around.

                    Andy Van Slyke tried to get him to play up, but he refused.

      1. That'll be tough since they have to stay ahead of St. Louis to win the division to avoid the wild card and they'll probably have to beat both the Dodgers and the Braves unless the winning wild card team knocks off the team with the best record.

    3. I was going to reply last night but my smart phone's smarter than I am. I enjoyed that interview and the commentary following it nearly as much. First comment section I've read start->finish in quite a while. Some goobers and trolls to be sure, but fun to see what people (locally, regionally and nationally) think about the team, market, THS, etc. and their memories of '87 & '91.

      2. "Old School"
        "You Don't say he did it on purpose"

        Hey, let's throw at the head of a guy that had has career nearly ruined by a concussion!

        2. It sure is. It was clear that the announcers didn't know where to go with the narrative when McCutchen's reaction to the homer didn't look like they thought it had.

          And even if it had, why are we hearkening back to a day when it made sense to throw at the head of another guy because you're angry at the one before? It's not "old school," it's "whiny and embarrassing."

          1. I've never understood why somebody hitting a home run gives the pitcher a right to throw at anybody. It makes as much sense for a pitcher to throw a baseball at a batter for hitting a home run as it does for a batter to throw a bat at a pitcher for striking him out.

            1. Well, it could be said that McCutcheon looked like he was admiring his HR, although as was mentioned, he may have lost it and thought it was a popup. That said, if Dancey McDancelot struck a guy out, I could almost see a batter throwing a bat at him.

              1. Hell, I almost threw a bat at him once, but I restrained myself because I didn't really want to buy a new tv.

                On a more serious note, the Brewers announce crew is pretty terrible in general. They aren't entirely unlike DicknBert.

            2. what JeffA and spoons said. "Old-school" here is just code for "acting like children".

              pitching inside to back a batter off the plate is one thing. Tit-for-tat "Retaliation" for the other team's pitcher (intentionally) hitting one of your guys is, I think, generally within the pale too. But being a dick to a different player because somebody "showed you up" is just juvenile.

              Pitchers should be held accountable for balls that "get away" from them and hit a batter above chest level. A fine at a minimum. Baseball players are just too valuable to have their health risked just to satisfy stupid machismo.

                1. Bill James once suggested--not promoted, but suggested--that a pitcher could be ejected for coming in around the head regardless of intent. Basically, it would be, "Look, son, if your control is that bad, then you need to take the rest of the day off before someone gets hurt, whether you intended to do that or not."

                  1. After watching that brouhaha with throwing at ARod the other day, I had to admit I was impressed that all three pitches were at his hip. That's the old school way (post-Hoss) of gettin' 'er done.

                  2. Hey, I use that in parenting a lot.
                    "I don't care if you didn't mean to kick your sister in the face: you need to be sure that no one's around you when you're doing the crane kick."

      1. Men were more manly before concussions were invented. Johnny Bench started 120+ games at catcher 10 times. Mauer's done that once. Johnny's commercials were better too.

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