Monthly Archives: December 2017

WGOM Fitness

2017 Fitness+Health Redux

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Had a weird year in 2017 for health and fitness.  Started the year with a month of planks (starting with 50 second plank and ending with a monster 6 minute plank, but it was an ugly plank).  Feb was a month of squats (starting with 30 and ending with 130).

Got the colonoscopy done this year (no polyps), but bowel prep OMG.

Had some great skate-skiing at Winding Trails in WeHa, but a spectacular wipeout on ice left me beaten/bruised, and soon I was at PT with a torn MCL.

Oncet the knee was healed, I picked up roller skate-skiing, and it is hard-going balance-wise:  any crack in the road or stick can send you caterwauling.

Noticed some blood in the urine after longish runs in May, and had visits to Dr. Fear, ultrasound (nada), and a cystoscopy (all clear).  Still had coloration until kidney stone passed in Sept.  Yikes, that was an awakening.

Lots of quality hiking in Scotland, Santa Barbara, and H'istan through the summer.

The race wall had been empty until a 5K in August (lousy timing, had to walk).  Started filling up the fall with short races, including Twin Cities 5K at the Capitol - first race I didn't have to walk some this year.  Last race was Moustache Run 5K in Minneapolis.

NBBW and I got mountain bikes for each other for our anniversary, so started getting into that - there are good trails not far from where we live.

Lots of swimming throughout the year - the only constant through all of this other stuff.

Discovered that Forest Lake School has their pool open for public lap swimming on weekdays from 5:30-7:30AM ($3) so started taking advantage of that over Thanksgiving and Xmas breaks.

Closed out the year with some cold-weather grouse-hunting with the little Hnos earlier this week, and an indoor triathlon this morning in Stillwater at a club (short swim, long spin, short run).

So Nation, what are you doing to keep yourself healthy and sane?

Keeping Track

2002 Rewind: Game Eighty-eight

MINNESOTA 7, SEATTLE 2 IN SEATTLE

Date:  Saturday, July 6.

Batting stars:  Torii Hunter was 3-for-5 with a home run, his twentieth.  David Ortiz was 2-for-3 with a two-run homer (his fifth), a double, and a hit-by-pitch.  Matthew LeCroy was 2-for-5 with a two-run homer, his fourth.

Pitching stars:  Kyle Lohse struck out nine in six shutout innings, giving up four hits and five walks.  LaTroy Hawkins struck out two in 1.1 scoreless innings, giving up a hit and a walk.  Mike Jackson pitched a scoreless inning, giving up one hit.

Opposition stars:  Mark McLemore was 2-for-3 with two walks.  Edgar Martinez was 2-for-4 with a walk.  Jeff Cirillo was 2-for-2.

The game:  Seattle opened the first with two walks but could not score.  Ortiz made them pay as he hit a two-run homer in the second to give the Twins a 2-0 lead.  Each team then missed good chances, as the Mariners stranded five runners in innings two and three and the Twins left four in innings three and four.  The Twins broke through in the fifth, as LeCroy hit a two-run homer to make it 4-0.  Seattle stranded two more runners in the fifth.  Hunter homered in the seventh to increase the lead to 5-0.  In the seventh the Mariners finally got on the board off J. C. Romero.  With the bases loaded and two out, Cirillo singled and Ben Davis walked, cutting the lead to 5-2.  That was as close as Seattle would get, though.  Cristian Guzman doubled home a run in the eighth, the Mariners stranded two more in the bottom of the eighth, and Dustan Mohr had an RBI single in the ninth.  Seattle left sixteen men on base and was 1-for-14 with men in scoring position.

WP:  Lohse (8-5).  LP:  Jamie Moyer (8-4).  S:  None.

Notes:  Jacque Jones was not in the lineup, as Guzman again batted leadoff.  He was 1-for-5 with a double...Hunter raised his average to .306...LeCroy was again the DH and raised his average to .324...Mohr was 2-for-5 and was batting .300...Brian Buchanan was again in right field rather than Bobby Kielty.  He was 0-for-3...Tom Prince caught in place of A. J. Pierzynski, going 1-for-4...This was Lohse's highest game score of the season so far (68) and would end us as his third highest.  It was the second consecutive game in which he issued five walks...Hawkins lowered his ERA to 1.52...Jamie Moyer was thirty-nine at this point in his career.  He would pitch another ten years...The record for men left on base in a game appears to be twenty, set by the Yankees against Boston on September 21, 1956.  They got fifteen hits and drew nine walks.  They also got the benefit of five Red Sox errors.  The Yankees lost 13-7.

Record:  The Twins were 50-38, the first time they'd been twelve games over .500.  They were in first place, leading Chicago by 7.5 games.

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–December 31

King Kelly (1857)
Tom Connolly (1870)
Bobby Byrne (1884)
Syl Johnson (1900)
Tommy Byrne (1919)
Guy LaValliere (1931)
Alfredo Meli (1944)
Joe Simpson (1951)
Jim Tracy (1955)
Rick Aguilera (1961)
Esteban Loaiza (1971)
Brian Moehler (1971)
Julio DePaula (1982)

Tom Connolly was a major league umpire for many years.  He umpired the first World Series game in 1903.  He once went ten years without ejecting a player.

It does not appear that Bobby Byrne and Tommy Byrne are related.

Minor league catcher Guy LaValliere is the father of major league catcher Mike LaValliere.

Alfredo Meli is a member of the Italian Baseball Hall of Fame.  He was the first man to win Italian championships as a player, a manager, and a general manager.  He also founded the Italian Baseball Federation for the Blind.

Nobody ever makes a fuss about the last baby of the old year.

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