87 thoughts on “March 20, 2014: Oops”

  3. I have very few upsets in the early round of BB bracket. Sorry Stick, couldn't go with your Bison, I think Okie is too athletic. I did give GW a win however, Will. I do have some upsets going into the later rounds (6 beating 3, 4 beating 1) but it will be interesting to see how this follow the seeding approach works.

  4. Ricky Rubio plays a lot (gets a triple double!) AND the Wolves win a close game, its like we are in bizarro world.

      1. Well he's actively arguing against them correcting a call they got wrong. So that's not cool.

    2. Eh, I don't know that any of the coaches or umps look very good in those. I'd like to see the plays that resulted in some of those calls, to see how justified some of those arguments were.

    1. The list is a lot of fun.

      On that note I think a distribution map of WGOM might be fun.

    2. Nice to see Hazel's Northeast get a nomination for best brunch. That place puts out a top-notch breakfast. I try to make a visit every time I'm up to see my uncle.

        1. Also, what's with all the love for Merlin's Rest? It's nominated in a bunch of categories. I was there on Saturday and it's perfectly fine, but I'm curious how it got nominated so many times.

        2. How about Kluwe making best Vikings player? He wasn't on the team in 2013! And LRMAM on list of best T-Wolves? What, Robbie Hummel was busy?

        3. I read down as far astwo nominations for Five Guys (for best burgers & fries) and threw up my hands. No way should a chain ever be in that conversation, and nominating one is just pathetic.

          2. Ive had Five Guys twice and while they are good burgers, I dont think of them as the drool inducing, dont go anywhere else because they dont serve food in a bag, greatest things to grilled meat sandwiches my friends make them out to be.

            1. They're easily my favorite fast-food burger, but heck I think Bakers Square makes a better one.

          3. BurgerTime is a (local) chain and I'd take their burgers over almost any other burgers I get at a restaurant, chain or not, 9 times out of 10.

            But I mean there's far better burger options in the Twinned Cities than Five Guys, even in my limited experience.

    3. Of course the WGOM isn't nominated. The category is best local blog. That's a little too confining for this place.

      1. 'Spoiler' SelectShow

    1. I had to look up who owned the team. I didnt realize it was former Senator Herb Kohl.
      I wonder if Milwaukee is a team that could be bought and moved to Seattle.

      1. I knew that Herb Kohl was the owner because he famously offered the franchise to Glenn Robinson. Robinson was drafted and asked for $80 million. Kohl responded that he'd give him the franchise and Robinson could give him $80 million. Turns out that $80 for Big Dog was a little much.

  11. Tickets are on sale now!

    "I wish somebody would step up and earn a job," Antony said before Wednesday's 3-1 exhibition loss to the St. Louis Cardinals. "Nobody's really doing that. (Aaron) Hicks hasn't been anything special this spring. Neither has (Alex) Presley. There's your center-field battle."

    ...

    Antony agreed with Gardenhire's assessment that Bartlett's recent plate appearances had been encouraging.

    "They're much better than the early at-bats," Antony said. "He looked really rusty and overmatched. Now he's taking better at-bats. I know Bartlett still has abilities. He's shown that defensively. He just hasn't been able to do a lot offensively, and I know he's got intangibles and everything."

    Gardenhire answered "not at all" when asked if Bartlett's offensive struggles this spring were a concern.

    "I don't worry about that part of it," the manager said. "I just want to make sure his legs are underneath him, that he can move around, and then we'll see how it breaks down here at the end. I like the kid an awful lot. He's a winner."

    1. And you get a spot on the 25 man roster! And you get a spot on the 25 man roster! And you get a spot on the 25 man roster! And you get .......

      1. Scrubini Fixation!

        Despite his poor numbers, Bartlett's potential benefit in the clubhouse already is on display.

        "He's very confident," Gardenhire said. "He's that positive attitude that we like. We'll see.

        There's some arguing going on (with the front office). Hope I win."

        There you have it. The manager wants Bartlett to make the club. Because leadership. It's a suitable coda to the whole 2006 spring training debacle.

          1. Well yes, but the 2006 versions Johan Santana and F-Bomb and Morneau and Cuddyer and Bartlett are not walking through that door.

    2. Bartlett has become the poor man's Juan Castro? There's symmetry to the universe after all.

      1. Yeah, I have to say I don't share the concerns about Bartlett making the roster. If we're going to Gardy quotes, this one seems more important:

        "[Florimon's] our shortstop," Gardenhire said. "[Jason] Bartlett is here to try and make the club, but Florimon is our shortstop."

        To your point, ZiPS projections for what presumably passes as the Twins' SS competition:

        0.8 fWAR -- Florimon
        0.5 fWAR -- Escobar
        0.4 fWAR -- Bartlett

        A tenth of a WAR is in the noise and even if Bartlett is terrible, he's supposed to be the backup. Florimon hits better as a left-handed hitter and Bartlett is a right-handed hitter. I think you give more intangibles consideration (like having someone positive around to keep life from being miserable) to a bench spot than a starting spot.

        Now, going with 13 pitchers, there's a miserable roster choice that bums me out.

        1. Neither choice is inspiring. What we have here, though, is the manager talking up, and lobbying for, a guy who didn't play at all last year, is coming off a pretty bad injury, has one hit in about 30 PAs, and is approaching his mid 30s.

          I'll repeat my take from above: Get your tickets now!

          1. On the flip side, he has to lobby in the press presumably because he doesn't have free rein on the roster decisions, which means that management understands the reasons why Bartlett shouldn't make the team.

    4. (Aaron) Hicks hasn't been anything special this spring.

      While true, he's also been injured. (Play, you wuss!!) He has two hits tonight and now is batting .333 in SSS this spring. Kubel has the other 2 hits. The rest of the team is 0-for-14 with 1 BB and 7 Ks against C. Ramos for the Rays.

  12. The Potter County Battlers boys basketball team plays its first game in the state tournament in about forty-five minutes. Go Battlers!

    1. A nice big eff-you to Coach K having the "overrated" A10 get rid of the most annoying player in America (Aaron Craft).

      1. I saw Coach K's comment in the paper and I was hoping the A10 would do well because of it. It didn't effect my bracket though, because I didn't know which of the six teams were from the conference.

    2. I see AMR picked Louisville to win in the championship game by 701 ppoints.

      2. But ISU is my pick!
        So I have ISU winning the championship by -701 points.

        Actually: I might be misremembering. I'll look at my actual picks tonight.

        1. If Sandy Eggo State wins this in OT, I'm 15/16 first day. I've lost no team that I expected to go far.
          Glad I got one wrong. Now I won't feel bad about not giving Quicken my info.

    3. I only have 1 wrong so far. I picked Colorado over Pitt (8/9 matchup) not realizing they have only 6 winning seasons in 100+ years of basketball.

  14. Lunch at Bunkers, burger and fries, Summit EPA, and a first round upset. I know Ohio State has a proclivity for constricted throat syndrome, but I just couldn't pull the trigger on Dayton. Oh well, on to the next game.

      1. We should do lunch sometime, free. I'm at 800 Washington Ave. Day games are coming...

        1. We've been waiting for the weather to clear so that those citizen's working downtown* can get together for lunch a mini-caucus.

          *off the top of my head: free, Corn, AMR, Pepper, DPWY and Twayn (apparently).

          1. I was just walking outside today and thinking it might finally be warm enough to make this happen!

            1. I neglected to respond to your email, but was thinking the same thing! Serendipitous that Twayn (a downtown, previously non-roster invitee) should strike up a thread!

          2. The 94 runs often enough that with a little warning I could visit from across the river.

  16. Nothern memes in Turks & Caicos:

    A couple of days ago, two beaches down from ours, I spotted a lady hefting a largish viQueens mug.
    Yesterday, I saw a kid wearing an Eau Clair Diving Team T-shirt.
    Today I saw a pair of twins wearing T-Wolves jerseys.

    1. Checking into our resort in Cancun there was a guy with a Vikings hat on. He remarked about my Twins hat. We talked and turned out he grew up one farm over from one of my rugby buddy's wife.

  18. So that Dutch left back I was talking about signing yesterday? Turns out it's the game's version of Jaap Stam, whose likeness they couldn't use for licensing reasons. No wonder he's so good. Of course now that I know that the resemblance is plain as day.

  19. Here is the list of Timberwolves players with a 20-20 game: KG (26 times), Kevin Love (15), Al Jefferson (5), Tom Gugliotta (1), Gorgui Dieng (1)

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