I'm pretty sure that this one is my runaway favorite song of the year. I had the pleasure of seeing them play it live with DK when the band came through town a couple of months ago. The big BOOM right before the breakdown was my favorite part of the show, and is probably my favorite moment in music this year.
Apologies for the late post (and overposting on CH's solid second choice), but...
(6 votes, average: 8.33 out of 10)
Loading... https://youtu.be/s6VCATERMc0
Looks like I get a second day...
This song is a tribute to the Tamashek women fighting for freedom in Tinariwen’s homeland, Mali. The band, which has been exiled, recorded the album it appears on in Paris, Morocco, & Joshua Tree (I’m wondering if that was at Josh Homme’s studio). Collaborators on the album included Mark Lanegan, Kurt Vile, & Alain Johannes.
(3 votes, average: 8.67 out of 10)Loading... We're in the midst of them, but not a lot of news so far. What's been your favorite rumor so far? Or your least?
Date: Sunday, June 16.
Batting stars: Dustan Mohr was 2-for-4 with a home run, his fourth. Torii Hunter was 2-for-5. Corey Koskie was 1-for-4 with a home run (his sixth) and a walk.
Pitching stars: Tony Fiore pitched 2.1 scoreless innings, giving up a hit and a walk and striking out two. J. C. Romero struck out two in 1.1 scoreless innings, giving up one hit. Eddie Guardado struck out two in a scoreless inning.
Opposition stars: Richie Sexson was 3-for-4. Tyler Houston was 3-for-4. Geoff Jenkins was 1-for-4 with a two-run homer, his tenth.
The game: The Twins jumped on Milwaukee starter Ruben Quevedo with four runs in the first inning, three of them scoring on a David Ortiz double. The Brewers came back with three in the second, as Jenkins hit a two-run homer and Robert Machado had a RBI double. In the fourth, Mohr and Denny Hocking led off with back-to-back homers to put the Twins ahead 6-3. Milwaukee had another three-run inning in the fifth, getting a double and four singles to tie it 6-6. With one out in the seventh, Koskie hit a home run to put the Twins back on top 7-6. The Brewers got only one hit after that, a single by Tyler Houston in the eighth.
WP: Fiore (5-1). LP: Nelson Figueroa (1-5). S: Guardado (20).
Notes: Matthew LeCroy started at catcher for the first time all season and one of only three times in 2002. He went 1-for-3 with a walk and no stolen bases were attempted...Jacque Jones was 0-for-5, dropping his average to .313...Hunter raised his average to .306...LeCroy was now batting .338...Mohr raised his average to .313...Kyle Lohse went 1-for-2. Twins pitchers were now 4-for-9...Lohse was not as successful on the mound, pitching 4.1 innings and allowing six runs on nine hits and no walks and striking out three...Romero's ERA fell to 0.68...Quevedo pitched five innings, allowing six runs on nine hits and two walks and striking out two...Quevedo was in the big leagues for parts of four seasons and never really had any lasting success. He started his pro career at age seventeen with Atlanta, had two very good seasons of rookie ball, had a good season in Class A in 1998, and was jumped to AAA in 1999 at age twenty. He didn't do very well, as could perhaps have been expected, but was still thought of highly enough to be included with another minor league player in a trade to the Cubs for Terry Mulholland and Jose Hernandez. He split the 2000 season between AAA and the majors, doing decently but not outstandingly in AAA but not getting much accomplished in the big leagues. Still only twenty-two, he started 2001 in AAA and pitched very well, but was traded to Milwaukee at the July trade deadline. The Brewers put him into their starting rotation and left him there through 2002. Over that time, he made 35 starts and went 10-16, 5.43. He apparently had injury problems after that, as he made only fourteen appearances in 2003, nine of them in the majors. He signed with Baltimore for 2004 but made just one appearance for AA Bowie. One source says that he pitched in Venezuela for several years after that, but b-r.com lists just one winter ball season in 2008-09. He did, however, play for the Venezuelan National Team in the South American Championships in 2005. I often complain about guys who succeeded in the minors and were never given a chance, but here we have the opposite--a guy who was rushed to the majors before he was ready and was never really given the chance to develop. We'll never know what would've happened if he'd been handled differently, but the way they did it clearly didn't work. Sadly, Ruben Quevedo died of a heart attack on June 7, 2016 at the young age of thirty-seven.
Record: The Twins were 39-30, in first place by five games over Chicago and Cleveland.
The only games were in the Venezuelan League.
Continue reading Off-Season’s Greetings: Games of December 11
Phenomenal Smith (1864)
Tully Sparks (1874)
Buzzie Bavasi (1915)
Clyde Kluttz (1917)
Ralph Garr (1945)
Gorman Thomas (1950)
Steve Farr (1956)
Alonzo Powell (1964)
Orlando Hudson (1977)
Ervin Santana (1982)
Emil "Buzzie" Bavasi was the general manager of the Dodgers from 1951-1968, San Diego from 1969-1972, and the Angels from 1977-1984.
The only Twins action was in the Australian League.
Continue reading Off-Season’s Greetings: Games of December 10
A solid day for Gregorio Petit.
Continue reading Off-Season’s Greetings: Games of December 9
Date: Saturday, June 15.
Batting stars: Torii Hunter was 2-for-3 with two doubles and a walk. Doug Mientkiewicz was 2-for-5 with two doubles. Eric Milton was 2-for-4.
Pitching stars: Milton struck out eight in eight innings, giving up two runs on five hits and no walks. Eddie Guardado pitched a scoreless inning, giving up two hits.
Opposition stars: Richie Sexson was 2-for-4 with a home run, his seventeenth. Geoff Jenkins was 1-for-4 with a triple. Jayson Durocher struck out four in two shutout innings, giving up one hit and two walks.
The game: There was no score until the fourth, when the Twins broke through with four runs. Hunter drove in the first run with a doubleand another run scored on a ground out. With two out and a man on third, Luis Rivas was intentionally walked to get to Milton. Milton ruined the strategy with an RBI single and Jacque Jones followed with another RBI single. Bobby Kielty brought home a run in the fifth with a single. The Brewers got on the board in the seventh when Sexson homered and added a run in the eighth on a Mark Loretta double. They brought the tying run up to the plate with one out in the ninth, getting singles from Ronnie Belliard and Sexson, but ex-Twin Alex Ochoa popped up and Jenkins grounded back to the pitcher to end the game.
WP: Milton (8-5). LP: Jamey Wright (1-4). S: Guardado (19).
Notes: Jones raised his average to .319...Hunter raised his average to .304...Kielty was 1-for-3 with a walk and was batting .330...A. J. Pierzynski was 0-for-3 with a walk and was batting .325...Twins pitchers were now 3-for-7 in interleague play...The Twins were now 4-4 in interleague play...You may have noticed that I like highlighting players that most people either have never heard of or have completely forgotten about. Today it's Jayson Durocher. He was drafted by the Expos out of high school in 1993. He was a starter in the low minors through 1997 and didn't do badly, but the Expos were very slow to promote him, leaving him in Class A for four years. They moved him to the bullpen in 1998 and he did poorly, but maybe he just needed time to adjust, because he did much better in 1999 and reached AAA, doing very well there in seventeen games. It didn't impress Montreal much, though, as they allowed him to become a free agent. He was in the minors with San Diego in 2000 and with Texas in 2001, not pitching well at all in the Pacific Coast League. Milwaukee signed him for 2002 and, back in the International League, he again pitched well. After pitching well in twenty appearances, the Brewers promoted him in mid-June and, after ten-plus years in the minors, Jayson Durocher was in the big leagues. He made the most of it, going 1-1, 1.88, 1.00 WHIP with 44 strikeouts in 48 innings. Unfortunately, that was as good as it would get for him. He battled injuries in 2003, pitching only six games for the Brewers. He sat out two years, tried to come back in 2006 in AAA with Texas, but could pitch in only four games before his career ended. He has been a scout with Tampa Bay, but I could not tell if he still is or not. It's not a great playing career, but he had one really good season, which is one more than a lot of people ever have.
Record: Minnesota was 38-30, in first place by five games over Chicago and Cleveland.
Recorded live-to-tape with Mariachi América in the Morisco Kiosk of Alameda Park, Santa María la Ribera, Mexico City.
Beautiful interview with the band that explains the live “visual album” thing.
(5 votes, average: 9.20 out of 10)Loading... 
