36 thoughts on “July 27, 2017: Can’t Hack It”

    1. At least the Twins don't have to face anymore (current) first-place teams other than the Indians. They only have 3 more against the Indians at the end of the season.

      1. And as the hungry one said, they led all three games against the Dodgers. They could easily have won two of them. They didn't, or course, but all is not lost.

        1. All may not be lost, but man, a string of losses like that really saps my interest.

        2. Yeah, they looked better against the Dodgers than they did the Astros or Red Sox. Of course, the games against the Dodgers were way more frustrating.

  1. R. I. P. June Foray, voice of Rocky the Flying Squirrel, Natasha Fatale, Nell Fenwick, and numerous other wonderful cartoon characters, at the age of ninety-nine.

    1. her voice was an important part of my childhood, and became an important part of my kids' childhoods too, thanks to the release of the Rocky & Bullwinkle DVDs.

  2. So anyone seen Dunkirk yet? Thoughts? Interesting in that it's not typical war movie story telling. No generals back at headquarters telling us what's happening or explaining the stakes. No background stories on the protagonists, their wives, girlfriends or life back home.

    Just a series of vignettes from everyone's perspective linked together for the viewer to get a sense of what's happening. Quite effective.

      1. I finally got a match. I too have been always a few days off

        That's exactly as old as Ted Bundy was the day of his 2nd escape from prison

      2. Did you guys see all the hilarious celebrity ones today?

        Beyonce is exactly as old as Evel Knievel the day he tried to jump the Snake River.

        Bryant Gumbel is exactly as old as Newt Gingrich the day the was bitten by a penguin.

  3. Runner daughter found out yesterday that her offer on a townhouse was not accepted, which wasn't entirely unexpected -- the asking price was pretty low and we knew there'd be multiple offers. Still, she did her own loan pre-approval, and the first time buyers' program through the county, so it was a good exercise for her. Still, the timing would have been great, as her lease ends on the end of September.

  4. Twins trade John Ryan Murphy to Arizona for AA pitcher Gabriel Moya. Moya's 22, left-handed, and has really good numbers as a reliever in the minors. More I cannot say.

    1. Meanwhile, Aaron Hicks is batting .290/.398/.515 with plus fielding in center. Yes he has the Bandbox as a home park and yes he's only played in 60 games.

      1. It really irks me that MLB waived the minimum outfield distance rule for the new Bandbronx.

      2. He's been out for a month. Not sure how soon he's expected back. His 92 OPS+ with the Yankees is less than his 98 in his final season with the Twins when he seemed to start to figure it out. I don't worry about it too much because that was a TR deal. Hopefully, Moya will be contributing soon.

        1. Convenient to use his career OPS+ with Yankees but last season with Twins. Flip it around and it's 81 OPS+ with Twins and 138 OPS+ this year with the Yankees.

          1. At this point in his career, you would expect him to be better with the Yankees than the Twins, especially when compared to his first two seasons. He took a step back in his first year with the Yankees from his final season in Minnesota and then had a breakout season this year but in less than half a season so far.

            1. He has always had a pretty significant lefty/righty split (career OPS 662 vs RH and 738 vs LH). But he has been tattooing LH pitching this year: 313/384/563.

              Interesting to me, anyway, is that he has a BABIP of .195 at home and .446 on the road this year.

      1. I am, too. I assume that either a) the Diamondbacks see something in Murphy the Twins don't; b) the Diamondbacks don't believe Moya will ever make it; or c) the Diamondbacks are desperate for a catcher. These are not mutually exclusive, of course.

        And as I look at it, the Diamondbacks catchers aren't very good. Chris Iannetta, Jeff Mathis, and Chris Herrmann. Whether Murphy's any better, of course, is another question.

        1. I've seen where Murphy ranks really high with pitch framing in the minors. However, I remember a whole lot of pitches getting to the backstop when he was back there.

  5. Was looking for a place to host an out-of-town peer for lunch today, someplace between my office and where she's staying. I ended up settling on Big Daddy's BBQ on the corner of Dale & University in St.P. I'd never been there before, but I'm always interested in trying new places along the University corridor. Tons of authentic ethnic food; favorites thus far being Trung Nam French Bakery (breakfast pastries ftw!!!) and iPho (banh-mi and pho for days). Long story short, she gets stuck in a crazy long line at the car rental center at MSP, and I have a 2:00 meeting, so we had to cancel.

    Now, I've been standing there for a couple of minutes, studying the menu, and decide I'll order rather than come back to the office and eat a frozen lunch I have for emergencies.I went with the Rib Tips, 3-Bones Ribs - Beef, collard greens and an Orange Fanta (because why not?). ZOMG!!! So good, and because I'm by myself, I sit at the window counter, looking out on University and the light rail stop in front of the Rondo Community Outreach Library.

    You know those videos you sometimes see online (or occasionally during the evening news), of a couple of teenagers fighting, with a group of their friends milling about them and yelling encouragement? Yeah... that was my lunch show. Lasted quite a while. These two young black guys were back and forth, one-on-one fisticuffs, into the street, on the tracks, round and round - grabbing and punching, pushing, insulting, breaking apart for a breather and walking away, but not wanting to give ground, so back at it, the whole time trying to hike up their pants so they could move enough to engage and disengage. Their friends picking up their tossed-aside bags and hoodies and filming the fight on their phones.

    I was weirdly nonplussed, and I wasn't the only one. No one in the store: black, white, Asian, young, old, man, woman ... none of us moved to stop it; like it wasn't violent enough to demand our interference, but it was troubling enough that we didn't want to risk being stabbed. A black man and woman finally get in the middle to break it up, and eventually they're successful and everyone moves on. Neither young man looks much the worse for the encounter; I couldn't see any blood or anything and law enforcement never shows up. No one working in the store seem all that surprised and one of them tells me that yesterday, the police had to come forcibly remove a drunk who'd laid down on the tracks and wouldn't get up.

    Weirdest part is, the world that I know has gotten so out of whack, and my own sensibilities have (apparently) been so cauterized, that I didn't even stop eating. I just monitored and kept thinking to myself, "I wonder what Ms. _______ [the visiting 'peer' who'd been unable to make it] would have done if she'd been here with me? Would this scene have been startling or disturbing to her ... should I be more disturbed?" It was something else.

    1. It was stupid. Absurd. Ridiculous. Awesome!

      The closest to capturing I've found is searching Instagram for #rogerwaters and looking at the various pictures. Not that it can put you in the shoes of being there. Lord.

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