Cup of Coffee

September 30, 2013: Marathon

211 Comments

I watched the last seven episodes of Breaking Bad in the last couple of days (much like I watched seasons three and four). It wasn't as much of a heart attack as those seasons, but man, I'll miss that show.

211 thoughts on “September 30, 2013: Marathon”

  1. No one reached 20 HRs, but:

    The Twins offense reached double digits in strikeouts for a game for the 66th time this season. The previous franchise high for a season was 26.

      2. The Twins finished with a higher BA, OBP, and SLG than the Yankmes. More HRs too!

        grasping at straws: Twins were above league-average for doubles and walks, and had the fifth-youngest set of batters in the AL. They gave up fewer than the league-average walks and were league-average in HR allowed.

  3. so, are we cheering for the 'scrappy' Rays or 'get Joe Nathan a World Series ring' Rangers tonight?

    4. Long game + rain delay (or is this in Tampa St. Pete? If so, then replace 'rain' with 'power outage'.), extending the game into Tuesday, or even Wednesday morning, leaving lots of exhausted players and giving the Cleveland Rocks a better shot at the game on Wednesday.

  4. Breaking Bad

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      Somehow I blockquote'd a spoiler!

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  5. Yeah, I somehow still have optimism for this team. I'm a sucker.

    1. Me too, but that's because I'm still riding an anti-Canis high over the Blue Plate Special signing (read: I'm realistic that AK47 was never coming back, so comparing him to Kevin Martin is stupid and saying the Wolves got worse is stupid.)

      1. I live tweeted four Vikings games ironically (* The Vikings are about to break the Bears' hearts! *), but that's over now. I'm sick of the #MNTwins and I'm so glad the season is over. All Wolves, all the time until further notice.

            1. Oh, and this...

              1. I feel better about "Best Shape of His Life" remarks about Love because the first time that happened he became an all-world type of player. However, I would much prefer reports about how silky smooth his shot looks.

  6. I have one more grievance to air about the Twins before I'm ready to forget about this year's team forever. On spooky's other other site I lost my championship title because I picked them to win. They let me down this one last time and I'm a sucker for ever believing that they could get lucky and pull one off.

  8. Re: Breaking Bad. I finished episode 7 of Season 4 last night. Long way to go. I've avoided spoilers pretty effectively so far, but I woke up this morning to a thought, and I really want to know if I'm onto something here... So, if I'm right or wrong, please someone tell me so, but you don't need to get any more specific than that.

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    6. I just got the e-mail. The final line of the e-mail was:

      In addition, the Twins coaching staff will be invited back for the 2104 season.

      Seems longer than 2 years.

  11. So I got stung by a "bee" yesterday. I felt the pain, then got a quick glimpse as it flew away, no obvious ID on the species. A little red mark/blood where the sting happened (no actual bleeding out). Bumped up like a large bug bite for an hour, started growing red. Itchy/stinging all day long yesterday, the red area around the sting was at least an inch in diameter.

    This morning the reddish area was even larger, about 2 inches. Still some itching/light stinging sensation/light sensitivity to touch. There's a tiny little whitehead at the point of sting.

    This normal for a sting? It has been ages since I was stung last. Never had a problem with allergies or anything, but I assumed it'd be better by this point.

    1. I got a wasp sting this summer and it did exactly as you described. I squeezed the crap out of that whitehead, though I have no medical reason for having done so. Moral of the story, the itching was unbearable but I was ok.

      1. I squeezed the crap out of it last night, with my logic being "I'm getting the poison out!" having absolutely no idea if that's a thing or not.

        Thanks, this makes me feel better.

      2. Also, I saw one of these things flying around my yard this summer. It was massive and will probably be my white whale until winter time.

          1. I encountered it while brewing so I had loud music going and couldn't hear it. It was roughly the size of one, though.

      3. The white stuff is your white blood cells busy attacking whatever it is that's in there. So I'm not sure that it's of use to squeeze them out.
        /not a medical expert

    2. EAR had a Baldfaced Hornet sting that went that way, except for the whitehead.
      (Hornets and wasps appear to be great fans of pears rotting on the tree or on the ground, and they also seem threatened when a riding lawnmower drives over said fallen fruit.)
      We have a triage book (put together by some former insurance company) that said that such stings can get worse for the next 24-48 hours. It was still a bit puffy and pink a week later.

      If you start seeing a bullseye pattern, I'd seek medical treatment.

          1. I killed a wolf spider in my aunt's garage when I was in Tulsa last month. It was also Shelob size. I hit it with a continuous spray of Raid for a good ten seconds and it managed to get under the storm door and outside where it cowered by the fence. I then went after it with a broom and it took several good whacks with the hard bundle side of the broom to finally dispatch that monster.

        2. I had an assasin bug bite me in my bed once.
          Laying down, I noticed a creep on the sheets and went to brush it off before EAR laid down or saw it.
          Gol dang did I stand up sudden and shout in four-lettered words that only Geoff and sailors could appreciate.
          I kilt it, but the little blister on the pad of my thumb was there for months.

    1. CH must have struck a nerve. Going after him based on his follower count is a terribly weak argument, tantamount to MSM-types criticizing bloggers for not having access and living in their mothers' basements. And if we're counting followers, yikes.

      17,046 -- Aaron Gleeman
      18,636 -- Jim Souhan
      19,248 -- Patrick Reusse
      1,188,675 -- Skip Bayless

      1. My thoughts exactly. I sent Aaron a tweet on what LENIII said about Gardy on the Sports Show last night and he responded and then deleted the response, presumably when he saw that I was one CH's followers. I don't actually know that, but why else? It was a straightforward piece of information that I sent him.

        For the record, the best part of the podcast, by far, is Aaron's Twins analysis. When he's doing that, he's really fun to listen to. But, he tends to descend into some rather creepy stuff from time to time, and John doesn't exactly do a good job of steering him clear of that. I've always contended that what Aaron needs is someone to get him to do what he does best. Maybe he's cool with what he's doing, but professionally, I don't think the podcast does him a lot of favors.

        1. I'm surprised it came this week and not last. Last week I said:

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          The Gleeman & the Geek podcast account actually retweeted that. (I was rather shocked.) This week it was merely:

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          I see he referenced it being a multi-tweet review, so maybe that's what got to him. I might email the guy and see what's up.

          1. We've traded a couple emails back and forth. Gleeman deserves credit for replying. I don't think we're any closer to arriving at some kind of understanding.

            1. There were days at the old site when I really wanted to strangle some folks. I recognize that I was as combative as anyone, but still you kind of feel like man, why are you in my grill about this? Not a bad idea to critique, there's a lot about it that could really be improved and I feel like Aaron is way better than some of that nonsense on there. But, a slightly softer tone might help. That's coming from someone who's been too harsh on folks more than once.

              1. I basically said the same thing re: how pointed my criticism was after he described my tone as "condescending," which wasn't what I was going for, but seems fair enough. Ultimately I just wish the guy took himself and his baseball work, which is very consistent and retains integrity, more seriously. He could be a big deal someday, but the sophomoric crap might trip him up.

    3. First off, congrats to CH on that. The only thing I know about the Tweet was what CH wrote, but didn't hear the original podcast nor Aaron's response.

      I think this makes me want to create a Twitters account though, to help CH's follower numbers to better refute Aaron.

          1. I don't think finding someone else who is scared of social media and doesn't know how to use it is going to help me much.

        2. I stopped following Gleeman on Twitter. I figured if he said something worthwhile, someone else would retweet him. Turns out I he doesn't get retweeted much, at least by the people I follow.

            1. Isn't that a Garden State thing? (I say this because, somehow, Gleeman seems like a Garden State guy to me. Different topic and all, but... that's where my mind went. This is just a free association site, right?)

    5. I've been holding out on unsubscribing for a while because their podcast is literally the only place I consume considerable amounts of Twins news anymore, since I avoid giving hits to the online rags or terrible websites like TwinsDaily. On the other hand, maybe I've reached the point of not desiring to consume any Twins news at all any more, and this will help me take that final plunge.

      1. Is TwinsDaily all that bad? I don't read it except for the occasional piece Nick Nelson posts. It can't be as bad as the old (now defunct?) DTFC forum got.

        2. I haven't been there in a long time, but when I stopped, it was partly because the website design itself was terrible, partly because they let all the people from the old Battle Your Tail Off board in (i.e. the main previous haunt of our old pals Statfreak and that other annoying guy whose name escapes me), and partly because I don't get much value from their writers other than Nick and sometimes Parker. Maybe they've fixed the website since then, I don't know.

          1. I hadn't visited in a long time, but when updating the site links here, I visited again last week. The site design has improved a lot. There are still some rough edges, but I don't fault them for little things (we have plenty here).

            1. When I started my new blog I went with Squarespace because I'd had enough of dealing with WordPress over the years. The two year package I bought wasn't cheap, even with a 20% off discount. I know folks regularly thank you, sean, for all the work on the back end that you do here, and it's richly deserved. Thanks again for putting so much into this place. (And thanks to spooky and hungry joe for the work they do on the front end and elsewhere.)

            1. Nah, I liked Milt's brand of annoying, too. I'm thinking of somebody else, who got in two or three dumb arguments around here (not just with me; Spooky knows who I'm talking about, but I can't recall his name at all).

              EDIT: Ah, found it. Vodkatang/VodkaDave, that's who I was thinking of.

                1. No. That was a guy...huh. I usually remember everyone, but I don't recall his name. I do think it's possible he had "Johan" as part of his name.

                1. huh, i remember there being a vodkatang, but not much else about him.

                  if i recall correctly, johansolo had some pretty good `shop skills. i'm remembering a pretty awesome mashed taters jpg.

    6. I don't use the Tweeter, but hat tip to old buddy frightwig on the seat belt call out. Aaron knows A GUY whose life was saved by not wearing a seat belt! SSST!

      3. That just blows my mind. That's equivalent to saying Miguel Cabrera sacrificing the runner over to second with one out is justified because one time the next batter hit a single for the victory.

  13. NOTICE*: I have plans to do a Whangdoodle on Wednesday in advance of the season opener for the Wild.

    I don't have any means of watching Wild games this year, so any coverage that happens from me will be based on Russo's twitter feed, highlights, and maybe a radio broadcast here and there. As always, anyone is welcome to make use of the Whangdoodle handle to supplement my (most-likely) sporadic contributions.

    *This does not mean that a Whangdoodle will actually appear. My hope is that by publicly declaring my intentions, I will be more likely to follow through.

    2. My hope is that by publicly declaring my intentions, I will be more likely to follow through.

      That strategy rarely works for me.

  14. hmm, busy day around the .org.

    anyway, i'm going to get THE GREAT WGOM 2013 MLB BRACKEF COMPETITION up before too long here if everyone wants to start thinking about it. i'm thinking to keep the scoring the same as last year, including the wild card game score total bonus (though let's lower it to a less volatile 3 point bonus) unless there are any objections. brackets will be due by 7:07pm CDT TUESDAY.

    for fun though, how about a chance at a bonus point? in a spoiler, name the winner of the tiebreaker for one bonus point. bonus point prediction due by 7:07pm TONIGHT.

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        1. yeah, to be sure, this is kind of separate. obviously the team that wins game 163 will have huge implications on the rest of one's bracket. so you can make the guess for tonight, then fill out your bracket tomorrow armed with the knowledge of who the 4th wild card team is. no need to guess it all today.

  15. Just a reminder, Survivor XIV starting over at the CdL in a week or so. I'd love to get 30 players. We're at about 27 right now (with 2 committed by not officially signed up). So... game on?

  17. Have you ever had one of those days at work where everything that can possibly go wrong does go wrong and none if it is really your fault althought it seems that way and some of your useless co-workers (well, people who ultimately work for the same organization, but with whom you rarely interact) decided to be all uppity and confrontational about a really stupid policy that you don't even know nor care to understand because you were trying to find a practice, customer-service oriented solution to a problem?

    Ya, me neither.

  19. SBG's race to the bottom graphic can be a little misleading. From the PiPress:

    The worst run differential in club history remains minus-186 in the shortened season of 1995.

    The Twins have had a couple spectacularly bad seasons mercifully cut short by strikes. The '95 team was on pace for 99 losses, but with that run differential, it could have been much worse. The 1981 team was on pace for 101 losses as well.

    1. I always frame it in terms of most losses. I'm aware that there were two strike shortened seasons where the Twins were terrible, but I choose to focus on the full seasons only.

      1. I understand why you do it that way. I knew the '81 team was bad. I never realized how bad the '95 team was since '94 and '96 weren't too bad. Given how the Twins have finished the season each of the last three years, that '95 team could have really plunged off a cliff.

          1. I still maintain the '81 team was the worst Twins team ever, at least until September when guys like Hrbek and Gaetti were brought up. At least these last few years we've had Joe Mauer. Who was the best player in 1981? Roy Smalley?

            1. Yeah, that was a very depressing time. I was really invested in the 1982 club, but '81 before the kids came up, man that was bad.

              1. lucky for me, I was busy flunking out of college in the spring of '82, so I wasn't paying much attention that season. (which, I guess, could help explain why I was flunking out of college?)

  20. Stopped over to the Dunkin Donuts kiosk at the airport

    Me: you guys have any thing, you know, like healthy food?

    DD dude: (looks around) Not really.

  21. So earlier in today's thread, I made a comment about Gleeman seeming very Garden State. I'm not quite sure why I made the comment... it was, as I indicated, very free-association-like. What I thought was worth commenting on here was the fact that I meant the comment as an insult. Which is odd, since I really enjoyed that movie. AMR commented that it doesn't play as well at 35 as it did at 25. And I think therein lies the insult.

    When I was 25, Garden State spoke to me. There was angst and ennui and this fight to be creative and new in a world where that was generally impossible. The movie Sideways came out the same year, and it occurred to me at the time that the two were, in many ways, the same film, just reaching out to different generations. I suspect Sideways would reach me more now than it did before, possibly more than Garden State. And in 10 years it'll probably be absolutely true.

    I think a lot of that comes in the fact that Garden State is both a complaint about the sterile, everything's-been-done world and a call to action. It's a call to explore the infinite abyss, not merely stand on the edge screaming into it. So when we talked about Gleeman shouting into nothingness... well, the idea I had was, in short, that he's stopped pushing. I don't feel like I've seen anything new from him in a long time. And then, when he uses small sample size to justify not wearing a seatbelt, and that kind of thing, it tells me that he's really compartmentalized his willingness to be new and different. In the baseball world, sure, he'll push sabrmetrics and whatnot, but in the world at large, not so much.

    He's not alone in that, of course. In fact, it's a problem I've been encountering with some frequency lately, and thinking about. The other day I saw a vanity plate that said something like [child's dad]. And I almost wept. Because while being a parent is the greatest part of my life, the point at which you get yourself that kind of vanity plate is the day you reduce yourself to that limited identity.* That's the day you've stopped exploring the infinite abyss, and have decided you're comfortable where you are.

    If Garden State spoke to you 10 years ago, it shouldn't speak to you now. If it speaks to you now, you haven't fought enough for your own creative identity.

    *I'm sorry if I'm stepping on anyone's toes here. I realize I'm making a blanket characterization off a really small little thing here. Being a proud parent is completely compatible with having your own identity. I'm just running into a lot cases lately where that's not the case.

    1. Somewhat related, at least: one of the things I've noticed about getting older is that it's hard to keep pushing yourself to try something new. New technology, new music, new anything. When you're young, and something like a smartphone comes out, you say, "Wow! Look at how cool this is! I want one!" When you're old, you say, "What do I need that for? What's wrong with the phone I have? It's working just fine. Why do I need to change?"

      I find that I really have to force myself to keep up with the world. I have a smart phone now, and as I'm finding out more about what it can do I like it more and more. I force myself to listen to current music sometimes, and I find that I like some of it. But I really have to push myself, because it's so much easier to just keep doing what you've been doing, especially if you feel like what you've been doing is still working fairly well.

      1. One thing that hasn't happened to me is that I don't get those "Kids these days..." feelings. In fact, I bristle at people who do. I appreciate that growing up is hard and I was an idiot when I was 20.

        1. I bristle at them, too. One of the benefits of my job is that it keeps me in touch with young people. A lot of them are really pretty awesome. We all do some dumb things when we're young, and frankly, kids today have to deal with a lot of stuff I didn't have to deal with when I was growing up. The more time I spend around youn people, the better I feel about the future.

      2. Douglas Adams once said that anything that is already in the world when we're born is part of the natural order of things. Anything invented until we hit the age of 45 is fresh and exciting and maybe we can make a career out of it. Anything invented after we turn 45 is against the natural order of things.

        1. That's one of my favorite Adams quotes. One of the things that keeps me motivated to keep up with modern society, at least to some extent, is watching my parents. They're wonderful people in many ways, but they not only resist any change, they are openly scornful of it. That's okay for them--they're 88 and 90 years old. But I don't want to be that way now, and if I'm blessed to live that long, I hope I don't get that way at their age, either.

          1. Weird thing is, their generation has seen more change than any generation in history. I mean, cars! airplanes! vaccines! space! computers! Think theyd be used to it by now

            1. Don't get them started on computers. They don't have one and they can't think of a reason why anybody'd want one.

              1. Both of my grandmothers, who are each great-grandmothers many times over, have been on facebook for years. It's pretty much the best way to get in touch with them, since they're on the go so often.

                1. grampaS is quite an active user of teh Series of Tubes. grandmaS, on the other hand, not so much. the inlaws, on the other hand, are both active and engaged users. (none are on the bookface, but active on email, etc.) So, mixed bag. Like life.

      3. I still, once in awhile, have a "whoa, technology" type of moment. The last one was when my son was born and my mom and step-dad (and if I was a name-dropper, Kent Hrbek, but I'm not) were able to see him minutes after even though they were camping in South Dakota because of iPads.

        I purposefully stay on the back end of technology like smart phones, however, because I can't afford to be on the cutting edge. I only just got one 6 months ago because prior to that I couldn't afford the extra $60/month for a data plan because US Cellular are a bunch of criminals. When I discovered that I could switch to a no-contract carrier like Virgin, suddenly it was cheaper than my not-smartphone plan. So I agree that new technology is great, but its also, especially in Apple's case (IMHO), priced to take advantage of impatient people for the most part.

    2. Frankly, if Gleeman got rid of Bonnes and replaced him with any of the guest co-hosts that have been on the quality of the podcast goes way up. They talk about so much random crap because Bonnes isn't holding up his end of the log on the baseball side.

      It's certainly their product and they put it out there for free for the world to consume and a lot of the time that's appreciated. But that doesn't they are immune to criticism.

      1. This is undeniably true. What drives me crazy is that Gleeman will start to talk about something and Bonnes will literally talk right over him until Gleeman stops talking and then you can tank it to the bank that whatever Bonnes had to say was worthless. I give John credit that he probably got Gleeman to do the podcast in the first place. But, man, he should step down and let someone else work with Aaron.

  22. Reusse:

    Media types who were close to Michael Cuddyer insist that his decision to leave Minnesota and head to Colorado after the 2011 season had as much to do with disgust over the privileged attitude that he perceived to have taken over the Twins’ clubhouse as the extra millions offered by the Rockies.

    The instant analysis is to put that on Joe Mauer, the $23 million player with long gaps in his availability, but there were also young players who didn’t get it that irritated the few veterans (such as Cuddyer) who still cared.

    Confirming what we all knew: Cuddyer was yakking to Top Jimmy about Mauer.

    Let's be clear here: when the Twins were driving for the best record in the majors in 2010, Mauer was gimping along on a bad knee that would require surgery. That recovery was slower than expected, and Joe was injured most of 2011. When healthy, he played pretty much every day from the beginning of 2012 until he got concussed in August. The idea that Mauer has a bad attitude and is a malingerer is not supported by the last two seasons, nor is it supported by 2006-10.

    2. It's not supported by anything. Bill James wrote years ago about how bad teams tend to focus blame on their best player, instead of looking at where the problems really are. Other than Mauer, this team had no regulars who hit over .260, one regular (Willingham) with an OBP over .315, and no regulars with an OPS over .750. Of the eight pitchers who made ten starts or more, five had ERAs over five and three had ERAs over six. And yet somehow we're supposed to believe that the big problem with this team is that Joe Mauer isn't tough enough or isn't enough of a leader or something. Ridiculous.

      1. What meant by that is that if someone thinks that Mauer's 2011 season is evidence that he "doesn't care", well the alternative theory is that he missed a ton of games and hit poorly because he was hurt. That alternative theory is supported by the rest of his career. Thus, none of the other years support the theory that Mauer is a malingerer. So yeah, nothing about Mauer's career supports any of the crap flung his way.

        I always liked Cuddyer, but it was pretty obvious that he was Top Jimmy's mole in 2011 and to me that makes him a bad teammate and it kind of ruined my affection for him as a player. If Cuddyer was a leader, he'd have whipped those young kids into shape. But, he didn't do that, either, so the idea that he was some sort of leader seems unsupported. If no one's following, you aren't a leader.

        1. Don't forget that the Twins' doctors told Mauer not to have surgery after the 2010 season ended because his knee would heal itself.

        2. One of the things that prompted my response was some comments Dazzle made on the post-game show Sunday. I can't quote him exactly, but it was to the effect of the big problem with the Twins is that there's a lack of leadership in the clubhouse and too many of the veteran players want to hide from the press and none of the veterans came out and made a strong statement about how they were tired of losing all the time. Given how few veteran players there are, they pretty much had to be a shot at Mauer, and it's idiotic. The Twins problems have a lot more to do with a lack of ballplayers than they do with a lack of leadership.

          1. Right. Not everyone can lead by being a talker. That's just not Mauer's personality, and blaming him for it is silly. But it's very common in our society for extroverts to blame introverts for not being extroverts.

  23. Google News leads me to believe that Scioscia hasn't been fired yet.
    C'mon [LAAngels equivalent of Billy Smith], get it done!

      1. How much is Lane Kiffin owed?
        Southern California is a place where dreams like mine can come true no matter the expense!

  24. I was watching the Toffies that I DVR'd earlier. Lukaku is a complete beast. I hope Jose sells him permanently because his last name ends in a vowel or whatever silly reason it is that people get in Jose's doghouse.

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