58 thoughts on “September 17, 2015: Late Innings”

  1. Comments from the Legends Club.

    --Great seats. Unfortunately, you can't have your umbrella up during the game. And there were no seats in the Legends Club indoors by the time the game started. So I had to stand for the first inning, eating my food without a table. That said, the steak tacos were great.
    --Dozier was amazing at second base. No way Rivas or pretty much anyone since early Knoblauch turns all three of those double plays.
    --By the 9th inning the stadium was pretty empty, and the Mauer haters came to life. You would think he was the only player who made a mistake in the game. I heard at least 20 F-bombs about Mauer, talking about he eats caviar for breakfast but can't catch a ball, and how the Twins should buy him out. He got a lot of boos. He's like the 7th reason the Twins lost.
    --That said, I don't even enjoy seeing Mauer come to the plate much anymore. 3-0 count five years ago, against a terrible lefty, I would have been on my feet.
    --Didn't get home until 1 am. I'm so effing tired. And they lost.

    --I have come around on all the silly things between innings. My mother-in-law came, and at 65, she was a huge hoot. She got up and danced for everything and was so silly she made everyone else around her have a great time. She also knows the game, too.

    2. I can only have so much sympathy for someone as accomplished as Mauer, but at this point I feel bad for the guy. It has to be frustrating to go from the hitter he was to the hitter he is today.

      And then there's the fans and media (which has done so much to add fuel to the fire, even when he was great), which is a mostly horrible situation.

      Considering he plays for a team that decided to spend a combined $100mm+ on Ervin Santana, Ricky Nolasco, and Mike Pelfrey I'm not too worried about his $23mm/year impacting the team's ability to be competitive.

      And I agree with Philosofer, the between innings stuff is great with kids.

      1. It has to be frustrating to go from the hitter he was to the hitter he is today.

        My dad said he doesn't care anymore. He's bored out there.

        So it was written.

          1. I, too, encourage my 4 year old to hit lefty. He usually puts his right hand on the bottom when he grabs a bat, so not too much push to get him to go that way. He's right handed, but seems to hit better lefty anyway, so why not, right?

              1. Co-sign. I picked up a fair few hits in HS ball Ichiro-ing it by being a switch hitter. Absolutely no power from the left, which if you'd ever seen me bat righty would make complete sense, but slappy.

                And now it comes in handy in slo-pitch when people put on huge shifts against righties.

                1. My son batted lefty for the first couple years of T-ball. Then he started playing hockey righty and now bats right in baseball too.

                  1. Keep him practicing some lefty batting still. It's mostly just hand/eye coordination, and once you get that bat->ball down well enough, it doesn't take much to keep the skill going.

    4. That play was Jepsen's fault, not Mauer's. If Mauer had picked it, he would be a hero. It was an extremely difficult in-between hop. And I don't get getting upset about a guy striking out when there's no one on third. Molitor removes his 4-7 hitters in a tie game and it's Mauer's fault. A strikeout isn't a mistake, especially if the guy doesn't chase or take a pitch down the middle. The "terrible" lefty was throwing 97 and threw 3 straight pitches on the corner. If Sano had struck out, no one would have complained even though he strikes out way too much.

      1. Krol has a WHIP of 1.737 and a FIP of 5.00. He's terrible. He made some good pitchers there. I'm just saying in 2010 I'm confident Mauer would have hit one of those good pitches anyway. I'm not so confident anymore.

  2. The between innings stuff has improved tremendously this season. For the Dozier Game against Detroit earlier this year, the crowd was absolutely dead in the eighth when they did a segment on Sunglasses at Night while putting unsuspecting people wearing them on the scoreboard. It injected a assume much-needed life just an inning before the crazy rally. Plus, the PA guy for the games has a great, sarcastic wit.

    1. After Robinson was called out at the plate and the review happened, the PA guys said, "And, the call on the field is confirmed. And the Twins are out of challenges," in the most despondent possible way. It was like he felt it at that point the Twins were going to lose.

      1. Because even the PA guy understood that Molitor had gambled on winning in the 9th and now the Twins were at a huge disadvantage with no DH in extra innings. They should have bad a big advantage since the Tigers went to their bullpen in the fourth inning and had already used up their closer in the 9th, but the Twins had to find a way to score with Sano, Plouffe, Hunter and Rosario all on the bench.

  3. My daughter asked me the other day why we don't go to Twins games anymore. We haven't been there since the 2013 season. Might have to take her next year.

    1. I've just decided the jalapeno and I are going to the October 3rd game. He's only been to a day game, and he got really excited about the prospect of going to see baseball at night. (And also eating dinner there. The food might be the thing he likes best about baseball games.)

      1. I've foresworn eating at Target Field.
        I've had gastrointestinal issues to hurl every time I've eaten prepared hot food there, and rarely at any other time except when bugs have travelled around the rest of the family.

        I have also taken my kids Target Field games infrequently. At the Metrodome, it was 1 or 2 games every summer. CER has been to TF thrice, HPR four times, AJR once, and LBR never.

        1. This was AJR's only game, CER and HPR were there, too). There was base-running for kids after the game and we were supposed to assemble around the outfield concourse in the 8th inning. That top of the tenth was so long and dispiriting. I had recalled that the Twins had tied it up in the 9th, but I guess not. There was a fizzled Mauer-Morneau rally in the 8th.

  4. Coming off a four-out, 25-pitch showing in Tuesday’s loss, when he worked with the Twins trailing, setup man Trevor May was unavailable due to a lower back/hip issue.
    “It just feels a little tweaky on him,” Molitor said. “I’m hoping it’s nothing serious. I’m optimistic. I think he worked through some things today. We’ll probably have a better read (Thursday).”
    -Berardino

  5. My Haynes manual just arrived from Amazon. I've decided that even though I don't like my car's size, it's cheap and runs well enough so I'm gonna run it into the ground, so I might as well get as much out of it as I can. Especially now with a wedding & honeymoon to pay for now. Here's the current list of to-do on my car:

    • Change oil and filter
      • Oil pan gasket
    • Brake Pads
    • Flush transmission
    • Spark plug wires
    • New belts
    • Lithium lube on sway bar bushings

    Looks like plenty of "Truck Time with Twayn...Mags" posts in the future

    1. The Nation Has A Truck Time With Mags

      Step 1. Remove the oil.

      B) Change the filter.

      III. Fill the engine with pickle juice.

    2. I've had Haynes manuals for all of my cars for about the past 20 years now. They are awesome resources. Whenever I have a big repair job to do, it's great to look up the procedure, read through it step-by-step, and say "Fuck this, I'm taking it to a mechanic."

    3. Wife's trunk was leaking. Turned out that the sheet metal that the seal is on was bent, allowing water right in. I have no idea what she did to make that happen.

  6. Currently waiting for the Dr. for my yearly physical. On a whim, I had them remeasure my height; sure enough 6'3/4", an extra ~3/4" because new hip. Can I go ahead and round up?

      4. I was stuck at 5'6" for quite a while. I didn't hit 5"10" until college ... when it didn't matter anymore.

  7. Any MN hunters out there? I have a few questions since I'm used to going in ND and its been a few years since I last spent any serious time. I brought my 12 gauge back from Fargo with the intention of doing some upland/waterfowl hunting at some point. So If anyone does any of that I'd like to pick your brain a bit. eschapp at googlie mail if people would rather talk via email. Thanks folk.

    Rate Garth when you get a chance. Or not. I'm still trying to find the video for tomorrow. Is there a punk rock band from the late 90s that has some twang I don't know about? Fratellis and Flobots are also in the running.

    3. I'm curious to hear the questions as well.
      Mostly just hunt deer nowadays, though I've hunted small game (squirrel) when I was younger, and tried hunting rabbit once.

      1. I'm mostly wondering how easy it is to find land to hunt on that isn't posted. And probably how far west from the cities I'd have to drive to find some pheasant or grouse.

        Is most of the deer hunting here tree stands?

        1. Deer hunting depends on the land you're on. In SW, there's more trying to kick them up from creek beds and such.

          I have never tried to find land to hunt on, but I have the sense that it's not so easy. CRP land is certainly vanishing in Minnesota, so finding land at all can be tough. See my e-mail though.

        2. There's pheasant in the Twin Cities. One cock at the Coon Rapids Dam on the Hennepin side didn't let 15 minutes go by without crowing for a good four months as winter turned to summer.

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