Monthly Archives: May 2017

Friday Music Day

FMD 5/5/17: Oldies

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When in the car I've been listening to a lot of Oldies radio lately. Oldies as in "songs that were considered oldies when I was a kid" not "songs that were popular when I was a kid." So basically 50's and 60's. Growing up, when I wasn't listening to children's music, I was usually listening to this class of oldies. It had been a good while since I'd found a station to scratch this itch, so now that I have one, I tend to listen to it pretty much every time I'm in the car and the Twins aren't on. Admittedly a large part of that is the dearth of good radio stations out my way.

I've been thinking about trying to expose my children to some of the era. They get a fair amount of Beatles and Elivs in their musical diet already, but not too much else. We've got a road trip coming up this summer, which might be a good time to work on the musical education of my kids. So the question I'll pose today: if you were making a 50's and 60's mix without any Beatles or Elvis, what would be a necessary add?

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–May 5

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Chief Bender (1884)
Bob Cerv (1926)
Bing Russell (1926)
Red Robbins (1928)
Jose Pagan (1935)
Tommy Helms (1941)
John Donaldson (1943)
Larry Hisle (1947)
Ron Oester (1956)
Charles Nagy (1967)
Hideki Irabu (1969)
Mike Redmond (1971)

Better known for his role as Deputy Clem Foster on “Bonanza”, outfielder Bing Russell played minor league baseball from 1948-1949.  He is the father of actor (and minor league player) Kurt Russell and the grandfather of major league player Matt Franco.

Spencer “Red” Robbins was a minor league player for fourteen years.  He then spent many years in the Twins’ organization, most of them as a scout (1963-1986).

 We would also like to wish a happy birthday to Mrs. Rhubarb_Runner.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–May 5 →

2017 Twins Game Logs

Game 26: A’s vs. Twins

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DAY GAME ALERT!

Jharel Cotton (2-3, 5.00 ERA, 3.56 FIP) vs. Kyle Gibson (0-3, 8.06 ERA, 6.99 FIP)

The FIRST PLACE Minnesota Twins finish up the series against the A's at noon today. Quite a difference a year makes as the Twins were a depressing 7-18 at this point last year and, uhhh, it wouldn't get any better from there. It was starting to look like things were headed to 2016 there for awhile, but there's apparently nothing like the AL west (and the Royals) to help turn things back around. Even better, after the first two games of this series, the Twins are back to .500 at home.

Unfortunately, however, Kyle Gibson takes the mound today. I'm on record as preferring he lose his spot in the rotation to Berrios and be given a comfy seat in the bullpen. There's just something about the way he pitches that bugs me and the bad results certainly make that irritation seem much worse. Also, Berrios.

I don't know anything about Jharel Cotton, probably because he's only had 10 starts for the perennially irrelevant A's. It looks like he's struggling with command this year, walking 4 per nine. That should bode well for the Twins who've, from the eye test at least (too lazy to look it up), are showing a rather patient approach these days.