Sometimes, you see a band's name and you just know you're going to be really into them. This was absolutely one of those bands. Their self-titled record is very high in my album of the year list, and if you like feedback drenched rock I highly recommend it.
(4 votes, average: 6.25 out of 10)
Loading... Date: Wednesday, June 19.
Batting stars: Cristian Guzman was 2-for-4 with a double. Brian Buchanan was 1-for-2 with a walk.
Pitching stars: Tony Fiore pitched 1.2 scoreless innings, giving up two hits. J. C. Romero struck out two in a scoreless inning, giving up a hit and a walk.
Opposition stars: Al Leiter struck out eight in 7.1 innings, giving up one run on five hits and striking out four. Mike Piazza was 2-for-3 with a double and two walks. Jeromy Burnitz was 2-for-3.
The game: There was no score until the fifth, when two singles and a walk loaded the bases for the Twins with one out. Pitcher Matt Kinney popped up to short center field, but Luis Rivas was hit by a pitch to bring in a run. Guzman then grounded into a double play. The Twins would regret getting only one, because the Mets came back with two in the bottom of the fifth. Piazza singled home the first run and a ground out brought in the second. It stayed 2-1 until the eighth, when Tony Tarasco hit a two-run homer. Pinch-hitter A. J. Pierzynski singled home a run in the ninth to make it 4-2. The Twins had the tying run on base with two out, but pinch-hitter Matthew LeCroy struck out to end the game.
WP: Leiter (7-6). LP: Kinney (2-6). S: Armando Benitez (16).
Notes: Buchanan was in right field, with Dustan Mohr in left and Jacque Jones getting the day off. Rivas batted leadoff and was 1-for-3 with a hit-by-pitch...Tom Prince started behind the plate in place of Pierzynski. He was 0-for-2 with a walk...Kinney pitched 4.1 innings, giving up two runs on five hits and three walks while striking out three. You can make an argument that the Twins should've pinch-hit for him in the fifth, when he came up with the bases loaded and none out. If Ron Gardenhire had known they were only going to get one run out of it, and that he was going to pull Kinney in the fifth, he likely would have. Obviously, though, you don't know that as play is going on. Kinney had shutout the Mets on just two hits through four innings, so it was not unreasonable to leave him in the game...Torii Hunter was 0-for-3 with a walk and was batting .302...Mohr was 0-for-4 to make his average .310...Romero had his ERA fall to 0.66...Jeromy Burnitz is another pretty fair ballplayer that time seems to have forgotten. He got started late, but this isn't a case of a team holding a player down too long--Burnitz didn't have a good year at AAA until 1995, when he was 26. By this time he had moved on from the Mets, who drafted him in the first round in 1990 and had given him some big league playing time in 1993 and 1994, to Cleveland. During the 1996 season the Indians traded him to Milwaukee, and that's where he really had success. He was a regular outfielder for the Brewers from 1997-2001 and batted .258/.362/.508 with 165 home runs, and average of 33 per season. He was traded to the Mets for 2002 and really didn't do a lot for them, batting just .215/.311/.365 with 19 homers. He had a fine first half for the Mets in 2003, but they traded him to the Dodgers and he struggled in the second half. A free agent, he signed with Colorado for 2004 and had an excellent year, batting .283 and slugging 37 home runs. He went to the Cubs in 2005 and fell to .258 with 24 homers. He signed with Pittsburgh for 2006, but had a down year and retired. He wasn't a Hall of Famer or anything, but he played for parts of 14 seasons and batted .253/.345/.481 with 315 home runs, and that's not too shabby.
Record: The Twins were 40-31, in first place by five games over Chicago.
A rough day for Anderson Munoz.
Continue reading Off-Season’s Greetings: Games of December 13
John Anderson (1873)
Lefty Tyler (1889)
Bob Weiland (1905)
Eddie Smith (1913)
Rusty Peters (1914)
Bobby Adams (1921)
Sam Jones (1925)
Bob Clear (1927)
Pete Whisenant (1929)
Jim Roland (1942)
Jerry May (1943)
Greg Goossen (1945)
Bill Buckner (1949)
Craig Biggio (1965)
Ken Hill (1965)
Scott Hatteberg (1969)
Marcus Jensen (1972)
Billy Koch (1974)
Rodrigo Lopez (1975)
Dave Gassner (1978)
Bob Clear was in baseball from 1945-1987 as a minor league player and manager, major league coach, and as a scout.
Yesterday was my mom's 60th birthday, and between work and then my two podcasts, I missed my chance to call her. I of course remembered the date helplessly while recording my stupid pro wrestling thing. Well, we did talk the day before, partially about her birthday. Oh well.
Your daily report.
Continue reading Off-Season’s Greetings: Games of December 12
Date: Tuesday, June 18.
Batting stars: Cristian Guzman was 3-for-5 with a double. A. J. Pierzynski was 2-for-4 with a double and a home run, his fourth. Dustan Mohr was 2-for-4 with a double and a home run, his fifth.
Pitching stars: Johan Santana struck out seven in six innings, giving up one run on three hits and a walk. LaTroy Hawkins struck out two in two shutout innings. Travis Miller pitched a scoreless inning, giving up one hit.
Opposition stars: Roger Cedeno was 2-for-4. Bobby Jones and Mark Corey each pitched a scoreless inning.
The game: With two out and none on in the second, the Twins got consecutive doubles from Mohr, Pierzynski, and Luis Rivas to take a 2-0 lead. Mohr led off the fourth with a home run to make it 3-0. Torii Hunter led off the sixth with a home run to increase the lead to 4-0. The Mets got on the board in the bottom of the sixth on an Edgardo Alfonso RBI single. The Twins added two runs in the ninth.
WP: Santana (2-1). LP: Jeff D'Amico (4-6). S: None.
Notes: Jacque Jones was 2-for-5 to raise his average to .314...Hunter was 1-for-4 with a home run (his sixteenth) and was batting .305...Mohr raised his average to .317...Santana was 0-for-2 at the plate...Mets' starter D'Amico pitched six innings, giving up four runs on eight hits and no walks and striking out four...This was Travis Miller's first appearance for the Twins this season. He had been with the Twins off and on every season since 1996. He had only two full seasons with them, 2000 and 2001. He had been a starter through 1997, then moved to the bullpen in 1998. His major league ERAs were good from 1998-2000, but he never had a season with a WHIP of less than 1.43. He would make only five appearances for the Twins in 2002 and was released on June 26, signing a few days later with the Cubs. The Cubs released him a month later and he signed with Cleveland. He was with Cincinnati and Milwaukee in 2003 but never played in the majors with anyone but the Twins. His big league numbers are 7-18, 5.05, 1.66 WHIP in 267.1 innings. He appeared in 203 games, 14 of them starts.
Record: The Twins were 40-30, in first place by five games over Chicago.
It was a long and at times bitter campaign, and in the end the voters came back with a truly shocking result:
Bon Jovi!? Seriously?
Jack Taylor (1873)
Hank Majeski (1916)
Larry Doby (1923)
Shotgun Shuba (1924)
Carl Erskine (1926)
Billy Loes (1929)
Bubba Morton (1931)
Lindy McDaniel (1935)
J. C. Martin (1936)
Ron Taylor (1937)
Ferguson Jenkins (1942)
Paul Boris (1955)
Dale Berra (1956)
Mike Mordecai (1967)
Matthew LeCroy (1975)
Ricky Nolasco (1982)
We would also like to wish a very happy birthday to spookymilk's mom.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8cXT0fH7dM
Runner daughter informs me that she's a big Weezer fan, so I guess that means I'll have to move on now. (btw, she preferred "Feels like Summer")
Some of the others I considered from 2017 (in no order):
I'm just impressed that I'm "relevant" enough to know more than one song that came out this year.
(5 votes, average: 7.00 out of 10)Loading... 
