...I'm so done with the slow work days. I have to get out of this.
66 thoughts on “September 18, 2015: Once More”
This year, 16 extra inning games did not last as long as the first six innings of last nights Twins game.
Ten longest games for the Twins this year.
Rk
Date
Tm
Opp
W/L
R
RA
Inn
Time
1
Sunday Aug 23
MIN
@
BAL
W
4
3
12
4:24
2
Wednesday Sep 16
MIN
DET
L
4
7
12
4:17
3
Monday Aug 17
MIN
@
NYY
L-wo
7
8
10
4:13
4
Wednesday Sep 9
MIN
@
KCR
W
3
2
12
4:03
5
Wednesday May 20
MIN
@
PIT
W
4
3
13
3:56
6
Thursday Sep 17
MIN
LAA
L
8
11
3:56
7
Sunday Apr 26
MIN
@
SEA
W
4
2
11
3:40
8
Friday Apr 17
MIN
CLE
W-wo
3
2
11
3:38
9
Monday Jun 29
MIN
@
CIN
L
7
11
3:34
10
Saturday Aug 8
MIN
@
CLE
L
4
17
3:34
This game was 22 minutes longer than the previous longest nine inning game.
They're a .625 team in games over 215 minutes long!
I am shocked that there are no 9-inning games against BOS or NYY on that list.
There is the ten inning game against the Yankees at third. Ten innings in 4.25 hours means 25.3 minutes per inning. Last night's game averaged 26.2 minutes per inning.
Edit: better math.
Time always seems to slow down during a traumatic event, don't you think?
AMR, I saw you setting something on a ledge, so I changed direction. But I don't think that bird was for me.
Yeah, no.
I was just moving a window-killed Common Yellowthroat off the sidewalk so no one steps on it by accident and ends up with Tweety on their shoe. (From peripheral vision, it could look like a leaf or paper litter.)
Then I looked behind and you were following me, so I shook my head "no", so you didn't think it was for you. I'm not a cat and not leaving you dead birds.
There were four other dead birds this morning, all at the library. Two White-throated Sparrows, one of which had been stepped upon. One Lincoln's Sparrow, and one Nelson's Sparrow. I've never seen a living Nelson's.
White-throated Sparrows and Common Yellowthroats are both abundant and widespread species and are probably the top-two window-kill species I see in Minneapolis.
AMR, I need your expertise. My wife was cleaning a house yesterday when a bird flew into a bay window. It was stunned but still alive. She brought it home and we kept in a box under a warm lamp in the garage. This morning it seems to be doing pretty well, at least it seems to have survived the shock and it's moving around in the box but doesn't seem able to get out of it. We've given it water but no food yet. Given that it may have an injured wing or leg, what should we do next? Is there a wildlife rescue place we can take it? It's a really pretty bird, by the way, I'll post a pic once I get one uploaded.
We're going to St. Paul on Saturday, so that may work. The FAQ was helpful, I'm thinking no internal injuries as it's still alive, but the immobility probably indicates a possible wing and/or leg injury.
That was to be my recc.
Do you know what kind of bird it is? Starlings and House Sparrows should not be returned to the wild (like when fishers catch a carp).
Looks like a Northern Flicker to me. Darker than I'm used to seeing though.
You're right on the ID. Of the subspecies "Yellow-shafted Flicker" (the one we have here), which was once considered its own species.
Maybe the lighting and ruffling make it look darker.
Those are nice birds. Semi-terrestrial woodpeckers that behave a lot like big Robins.
They like ants.
Judging from the droppings this one was eating purple berries, too.
Just like Robins!
Do you think they were Grapes or Buckthorn or something else?
I believe Buckthorn is bad for birds, works as a laxative.
Lots of small seed husks in the droppings so I don't think it's grapes, but beyond that I couldn't say.
Oh, and it's a female because it doesn't have a mustache.
Here's the second image.
The Rugby World Cup starts today at 2PM - England (hosts) v. Fiji. First USA match is Sunday at 7AM
My nephew has received a scholarship offer to play college basketball at a former NCC school. He's a 6'6 lefty who has a big frame and can shoot the three. I think he can absolutely play at that level and I'm pretty happy that he'll get that chance.
Congrats to the nephew, Stick. It can be a lot of fun to watch the next generation run with the baton.
Five or six years ago, I mentioned my cousin that was pretty good at baseball. (Allegedly: I never saw him play, and only heard from biased sources. He apparently thought himself good enough that he visited CSF during his H.S. junior year. Maybe it was just tacked on to a vacation, but he bought a T-shirt and wore it at Christmas that year. Which is why I first mentioned him.)
Either he realized his skills weren't what they needed to be for that level, or he wanted to do other things.
He graduated from Concordia (Moorhead) with a degree in vocal performance last May. The only sports he played there were intramurals.
Cobbers?? Boooooo.
Are you gonna make us guess which school? Okay, I'll play--MSU? Augustana? St.Cloud?
(And bully for you. It's fun to follow family athletics vicariously. Good luck to him.)
USD?
MC. He's not good enough to play at D-I level, that's for sure. But, he can play at that level, I think pretty easily.
I guess they've been pretty good and they were pretty aggressive with him. I don't know if he'll get any other offers, but we'll see.
He's a good kid, good student, and very unselfish on the court. He doesn't shoot a lot and my brother and I were worried that he wasn't going to get a shot because he's not a volume scorer. But, he's held his own against the big boys in Sioux Falls, so we believe he can play.
If he was that good, he'd have to come to Fargo. Or stay in Brookings.
I chromecasted the trailer to The Martian onto the TV last night; looks like I've convinced my wife to the theaters in a couple weeks. And fyi, here is a cool interview with the author by Adam Savage
I showed FW the trailer after I finished the book. I have her similarly convinced. October 2!
I saw a few seconds of a trailer and it answered one of my biggest questions about the how they were going to translate the book:
Actually, now that you mention it, I don't think the book really goes into that it at all.
The protagonist in Weir's novel finds himself alone on Mars as the result of a (not quite scientifically accurate) fierce Martian sandstorm — a reminder that all exploration may well encounter unforeseen difficulties. And, Weir happily acknowledges, "The Martian" also ignores one of the greatest hazards to life on Mars: radiation that would induce fatal cancers after only a few months.
This is stupid. Mets Twitter feed criticized for favoriting Marlins feed giving updates on Marlins win over Nats. All @Mets are doing is allowing their followers to see the updates without doing the updates themselves. It's done a billion times a day on social media. It's not like they said they were going to send a case of champagne to the Marlins.
The @Mets could have just retweeted the score updates, which is a more neutral form of engagement than favoriting. But the media today specializes in much ado about nothing, and I'm never surprised when I hear about grown-ass men behaving like children. Also, thanks for the reminder about the champagne gaffe, I'd forgotten all about that.
So, today is the first I've heard of this story. But having read Friday Night Lights, I'm sadly inclined to believe most of the accounts in that report are true, except anything that Alan Goldberger had to add to the discussion.
Heh, wow, everybody's in the wrong on this one.
Good ol Texas.
Nuremberg Defense. But with children.
Just checking in to give a quick update on how the minor league playoffs have been going.
In the Southern League, Game 1 on Wednesday went to Biloxi, 7-2 over Chattanooga. The Shuckers got an RBI triple by Yadiel Rivera and a two-run homer from Orlando Arcia, both in the third inning, to take a 3-1 lead and were never headed. Rivera and Arcia each drove in three runs, while Jorge Lopez held the Lookouts to one run on four hits and a walk with six strikeouts in seven innings. D. J. Baxendale, who lasted five innings and gave up five runs on six hits and a walk, took the loss.
The Lookouts evened the series in Game 2, defeating Biloxi 6-1. Max Kepler's grand slam in the fifth inning put Chattanooga up 5-0 and they're lead was never threatened. Kepler also hit a solo shot in the first inning that had put the Lookouts up 1-0. Jason Wheeler pitched seven innings, giving up one run on three hits and three walks with five strikeouts.
In the Midwest League, Game One went to Cedar Rapids by a score of 5-0. Edgar Corcino had a two-run double in a three-run fifth that made it 3-0 Kernels. They added two in the eighth on Max Murphy's two-run single. Felix Jorge pitched six shutout innings, giving up four hits and two walks with four strikeouts.
Game two looked good for a while, but a four-run seventh gave West Michigan a 4-1 victory and tied the series. The Kernels had taken a 1-0 lead in the second when, with two out, Chris Paul doubled and Max Murphy tripled. It looked for a while like that might hold up, as Sam Gibbons had pitched six shutout innings. In the seventh, however, the Whitecaps opened the inning with a walk, a double, and a two-run single to take the lead. On the single, the second runner never touched home plate, but the umpire ruled that Kernels catcher Brian Navaretto had blocked the plate without the ball, a ruling that led to Cedar Rapids manager Jake Mauer being ejected from the game. A pair of errors, a walk, and a hit batsman led to two more West Michigan runs and the Kernels never threatened to get back into the game.
Both playoff series take today off and will resume Saturday. The Twins' affiliates will host both games. Chattanooga's pitcher is listed as TBD. Keaton Steele is scheduled to go for Cedar Rapids.
Keaton Steele just pitched a couple days ago, I thought.
The Lookouts need to hurry up and win so we can see Max at Target Field.
Put another way, the study is saying 96% of brains thought to be suffering from CTE do suffer from CTE.
To put it a third way, my son is totes never playing.
My son isn't either, but the news is bad enough without having skewed data.
Yes, the interpretation is skewed by selection bias in the data. But the point is still important -- football is pretty dangerous to brain health.
I am encouraged by stories of colleges moving away from full-contact drills. The Girl's college just made a splash with a story about robot tackling dummies.
I'd also like to see more stories about the college football prophet of non-contact practices (St. John's John Gagliardi).
Houston and Texas both lose. Twins gain half a game. Rain is a good thing.
Oakland trailed by a run with one out and one on in the eighth when Valencia launched a pitch from Pat Neshek (3-6) into the seats in left field to make it 4-3. Valencia had a solo shot in the fourth inning, his second career multihomer game and the first since 2010
Looks like something outta Padre's former Twins/where are they now posts.
This year, 16 extra inning games did not last as long as the first six innings of last nights Twins game.
Ten longest games for the Twins this year.
This game was 22 minutes longer than the previous longest nine inning game.
They're a .625 team in games over 215 minutes long!
I am shocked that there are no 9-inning games against BOS or NYY on that list.
There is the ten inning game against the Yankees at third. Ten innings in 4.25 hours means 25.3 minutes per inning. Last night's game averaged 26.2 minutes per inning.
Edit: better math.
Time always seems to slow down during a traumatic event, don't you think?
AMR, I saw you setting something on a ledge, so I changed direction. But I don't think that bird was for me.
Yeah, no.
I was just moving a window-killed Common Yellowthroat off the sidewalk so no one steps on it by accident and ends up with Tweety on their shoe. (From peripheral vision, it could look like a leaf or paper litter.)
Then I looked behind and you were following me, so I shook my head "no", so you didn't think it was for you. I'm not a cat and not leaving you dead birds.
There were four other dead birds this morning, all at the library. Two White-throated Sparrows, one of which had been stepped upon. One Lincoln's Sparrow, and one Nelson's Sparrow. I've never seen a living Nelson's.
White-throated Sparrows and Common Yellowthroats are both abundant and widespread species and are probably the top-two window-kill species I see in Minneapolis.
AMR, I need your expertise. My wife was cleaning a house yesterday when a bird flew into a bay window. It was stunned but still alive. She brought it home and we kept in a box under a warm lamp in the garage. This morning it seems to be doing pretty well, at least it seems to have survived the shock and it's moving around in the box but doesn't seem able to get out of it. We've given it water but no food yet. Given that it may have an injured wing or leg, what should we do next? Is there a wildlife rescue place we can take it? It's a really pretty bird, by the way, I'll post a pic once I get one uploaded.
Perhaps the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in Roseville, if you're around those parts?
At first I thought this might have been a link for Yickit's question about hunting locations.
Easier to shoot the slow ones...?
Hey, they even have a bird-window FAQ.
We're going to St. Paul on Saturday, so that may work. The FAQ was helpful, I'm thinking no internal injuries as it's still alive, but the immobility probably indicates a possible wing and/or leg injury.
That was to be my recc.
Do you know what kind of bird it is? Starlings and House Sparrows should not be returned to the wild (like when fishers catch a carp).
Okay, here's the pics on Google Photo, can't get them to embed.
https://goo.gl/photos/gBUZ4Ws7qKb3hiDx9
https://goo.gl/photos/CmhPZS7fe4xozswYA
Looks like a Northern Flicker to me. Darker than I'm used to seeing though.
You're right on the ID. Of the subspecies "Yellow-shafted Flicker" (the one we have here), which was once considered its own species.
Maybe the lighting and ruffling make it look darker.
Those are nice birds. Semi-terrestrial woodpeckers that behave a lot like big Robins.
They like ants.
Judging from the droppings this one was eating purple berries, too.
Just like Robins!
Do you think they were Grapes or Buckthorn or something else?
I believe Buckthorn is bad for birds, works as a laxative.
Lots of small seed husks in the droppings so I don't think it's grapes, but beyond that I couldn't say.
Oh, and it's a female because it doesn't have a mustache.
Here's the second image.
The Rugby World Cup starts today at 2PM - England (hosts) v. Fiji. First USA match is Sunday at 7AM
My nephew has received a scholarship offer to play college basketball at a former NCC school. He's a 6'6 lefty who has a big frame and can shoot the three. I think he can absolutely play at that level and I'm pretty happy that he'll get that chance.
Congrats to the nephew, Stick. It can be a lot of fun to watch the next generation run with the baton.
Five or six years ago, I mentioned my cousin that was pretty good at baseball. (Allegedly: I never saw him play, and only heard from biased sources. He apparently thought himself good enough that he visited CSF during his H.S. junior year. Maybe it was just tacked on to a vacation, but he bought a T-shirt and wore it at Christmas that year. Which is why I first mentioned him.)
Either he realized his skills weren't what they needed to be for that level, or he wanted to do other things.
He graduated from Concordia (Moorhead) with a degree in vocal performance last May. The only sports he played there were intramurals.
Cobbers?? Boooooo.
Are you gonna make us guess which school? Okay, I'll play--MSU? Augustana? St.Cloud?
(And bully for you. It's fun to follow family athletics vicariously. Good luck to him.)
USD?
MC. He's not good enough to play at D-I level, that's for sure. But, he can play at that level, I think pretty easily.
I guess they've been pretty good and they were pretty aggressive with him. I don't know if he'll get any other offers, but we'll see.
He's a good kid, good student, and very unselfish on the court. He doesn't shoot a lot and my brother and I were worried that he wasn't going to get a shot because he's not a volume scorer. But, he's held his own against the big boys in Sioux Falls, so we believe he can play.
I hope it's UND!
OH HELL NO.
I chromecasted the trailer to The Martian onto the TV last night; looks like I've convinced my wife to the theaters in a couple weeks. And fyi, here is a cool interview with the author by Adam Savage
I showed FW the trailer after I finished the book. I have her similarly convinced. October 2!
I saw a few seconds of a trailer and it answered one of my biggest questions about the how they were going to translate the book:
The full audio book is on YouTube; I think I'll listen prior to the movie. I'm curious how Weir deals with the radiation issue.
Magic.
Just heard the Comic-Con panel; book starts already on Mars, so yeah, magic.
This is stupid. Mets Twitter feed criticized for favoriting Marlins feed giving updates on Marlins win over Nats. All @Mets are doing is allowing their followers to see the updates without doing the updates themselves. It's done a billion times a day on social media. It's not like they said they were going to send a case of champagne to the Marlins.
The @Mets could have just retweeted the score updates, which is a more neutral form of engagement than favoriting. But the media today specializes in much ado about nothing, and I'm never surprised when I hear about grown-ass men behaving like children. Also, thanks for the reminder about the champagne gaffe, I'd forgotten all about that.
So, today is the first I've heard of this story. But having read Friday Night Lights, I'm sadly inclined to believe most of the accounts in that report are true, except anything that Alan Goldberger had to add to the discussion.
Heh, wow, everybody's in the wrong on this one.
Good ol Texas.
Nuremberg Defense. But with children.
Just checking in to give a quick update on how the minor league playoffs have been going.
In the Southern League, Game 1 on Wednesday went to Biloxi, 7-2 over Chattanooga. The Shuckers got an RBI triple by Yadiel Rivera and a two-run homer from Orlando Arcia, both in the third inning, to take a 3-1 lead and were never headed. Rivera and Arcia each drove in three runs, while Jorge Lopez held the Lookouts to one run on four hits and a walk with six strikeouts in seven innings. D. J. Baxendale, who lasted five innings and gave up five runs on six hits and a walk, took the loss.
The Lookouts evened the series in Game 2, defeating Biloxi 6-1. Max Kepler's grand slam in the fifth inning put Chattanooga up 5-0 and they're lead was never threatened. Kepler also hit a solo shot in the first inning that had put the Lookouts up 1-0. Jason Wheeler pitched seven innings, giving up one run on three hits and three walks with five strikeouts.
In the Midwest League, Game One went to Cedar Rapids by a score of 5-0. Edgar Corcino had a two-run double in a three-run fifth that made it 3-0 Kernels. They added two in the eighth on Max Murphy's two-run single. Felix Jorge pitched six shutout innings, giving up four hits and two walks with four strikeouts.
Game two looked good for a while, but a four-run seventh gave West Michigan a 4-1 victory and tied the series. The Kernels had taken a 1-0 lead in the second when, with two out, Chris Paul doubled and Max Murphy tripled. It looked for a while like that might hold up, as Sam Gibbons had pitched six shutout innings. In the seventh, however, the Whitecaps opened the inning with a walk, a double, and a two-run single to take the lead. On the single, the second runner never touched home plate, but the umpire ruled that Kernels catcher Brian Navaretto had blocked the plate without the ball, a ruling that led to Cedar Rapids manager Jake Mauer being ejected from the game. A pair of errors, a walk, and a hit batsman led to two more West Michigan runs and the Kernels never threatened to get back into the game.
Both playoff series take today off and will resume Saturday. The Twins' affiliates will host both games. Chattanooga's pitcher is listed as TBD. Keaton Steele is scheduled to go for Cedar Rapids.
Keaton Steele just pitched a couple days ago, I thought.
The Lookouts need to hurry up and win so we can see Max at Target Field.
Interesting take for why Sano should win ROY.
I'm convinced.
I may have just quoted Aristotle in my brief. (The real one, not my so-nicknamed daughter).
Man, I love my job.
NNNNNNNNNNEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRDDDDDDDDDDDD!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Also Brown v. Board of Education.
"Go big or go home" lawyering. I love it.
Too late!
Football is in trouble. We'll see how well the NFL's spindoctors do their job with this.
Put another way, the study is saying 96% of brains thought to be suffering from CTE do suffer from CTE.
To put it a third way, my son is totes never playing.
My son isn't either, but the news is bad enough without having skewed data.
Yes, the interpretation is skewed by selection bias in the data. But the point is still important -- football is pretty dangerous to brain health.
I am encouraged by stories of colleges moving away from full-contact drills. The Girl's college just made a splash with a story about robot tackling dummies.
I'd also like to see more stories about the college football prophet of non-contact practices (St. John's John Gagliardi).
Houston and Texas both lose. Twins gain half a game. Rain is a good thing.
Looks like something outta Padre's former Twins/where are they now posts.
Carnac the Magnificent says:
Thumbs up emoticon