49 thoughts on “May 8, 2020: Early and Often”

1. Twins daily had an interesting take on an MLB article regarding the player that a team most loves to hate. I agree with the article that AJ is a stupid pick, but I don't agree that Jetes is the right person either (although he'd be somewhere down my list). Who would be your pick?

   my pick without thinking about it in greater detail	SelectShow
   Jason Giambi (followed closely by Mark Teixeira)

   I do agree that it needs to be a Yankee.

   1. Hmmm, tough choices. I'll go with

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      Mark Buehrle

      although I've shared that I historically have also despised

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      Josh Donaldson

      .

   2. Agree re: Yankees - we have too much grudging respect for our division rivals.

      These two options are both current iterations, not historical:

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      1. Didi 2. Judge

   3. I always liked AJ, even when he was a jerk playing for an opponent instead of being our jerk. If you want a former Twin who became an opponent, I’d consider

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      Knoblauch

      And in the non-Yankee group, there’s also

      It was mostly from that one game, but still...	SelectShow
      Adam F. Kennedy

      1. Dido on Anthony John. A-hole, but our A-hole.

         I actually think there have been quite a few likable Yanquis (e.g., Chris Chambliss, Mariano, Nettles, Mickey Rivers for entertainment value, Sparky Lyle, etc.), so my Bronx hatred is mostly faux or frustration about playoff losses.

         Personally, I might go with

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         eye-eye, for his various stupidities

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         Aroldis Chapman, for, you know

         For Yanqui,

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         Brett Gardner. I hate that guy.

         and, historically,

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         Pete Rose, for Ray Fosse, the gambling, the "Hit King" crap, and for generally being a dick

         1. Oh yeah, Yankee. That one. I love hating him.

            1. Him and his veiny, super-bald head with the constipated look on his face. I don't even know anything about him and have an unjustifiable dislike.

               1. I totally Battey'd that Yankee. Shut it down; he's the winner.

                  1. Brett Gardner Yankees GIF from Brettgardner GIFs

               2. Its not unjustifiable, that guy sucks. His dugout behavior makes it a very rational hatred.

         2. Yeah, I've always hated Rose, for Ray Fosse, the whole "charlie hustle" shtick and for generally looking and acting like a major a-hole.

            1. Led the league in running out walks.

         3. I don’t think it’s an opinion widely shared among Twins fans outside the WGOM, but Eye-Eye is a much better choice than Anthony John. It sticks in my craw that the Twins continue to print meal tickets with the name “Torii Hunter” on them. At least they haven’t retired his number...yet.

            My dislike for Cap’n Jetes is pretty strong, but a lot of that is the unstinted hype machine that inflated his stature to cartoonish proportions. And while I don’t begrudge them getting paid, my enthusiasm for players I like — Ichiro, Randy Johnson — diminishes significantly after they put on pinstripes. But if there’s a lunch pail Yankme to dislike, it’s Gardner by a mile.

            1. Mark Teixeira. Maybe he’s a great guy, but he looks like an a-hole.

               1. Most punchable face in baseball. I remember offering to make crying Mark Teixeira shirts sometime ago.

   4. I think there's a difference between hating someone and loving to hate someone. Like, Pete Rose I generally despise. I don't enjoy hating him.

      A.J. I enjoyed hating.

   5. Asterisk heroes.

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      McGwire, Bonds, Giambi, Pudge, Canseco.

      1. Oops. Forgot A-RodHole. But not a real yanquis.

2. For those of you with young'uns, season 1 of Chico Bon Bon: Monkey with a Tool Belt launched on Nextflix today. It's inspired by the Monkey with a Tool Belt books by Duluth's own Chris Monroe, in which Chico Bon Bon uses his smarts--and his tools--to solve some delightfully wacky problems.

   1. Hell yeah, CM. Go get that sweet, sweet Netflix cash.

3. Anyone have any advice for unhooking a very stubborn, empty propane tank for the grill? At this point I'm resigned to finding a pipe wrench or something big enough to get around the coupling, we've tried gripped gloves a few times and made no progress.

   1. I also need to know

   2. Lefty loosey?

      1. That was the first thing I checked, had to make sure my muscle memory was correct...have a full tank ready to go and used my finger to follow the threads to make sure I twisted the right way.

         My other option is to just buy a new gas line hose/regulator and remove the old one, I suppose. But I'll eventually need to get the coupling off to refill the tank.

         In other grill news, my 12-year old is eating so much of our main protein that I could barely fit all of the chicken on my small Traeger last night. If he continues on his current trajectory I'll HAVE to get a bigger pellet grill, or at least that's what I'm telling my wife.

      2. gas threads run counter -- they have reverse threads

   3. If you don't have a pipe wrench handy, you can fashion something like a strap wrench out of duct tape. I've used it in tight plumbing spaces before where I couldn't comfortably get a wrench

      Something like tip #1 here.

      1. I went ahead and bought a pipe wrench and it did the trick, ready for a weekend full of grilling now!

         1. Pipe wrenches never fail.

   4. Spray some PB Blaster or other penetrant in the vicinity, get a beer, come back tomorrow?

   5. Be careful with propane.

      1. The fire-fighter husband of a woman that used to work for me went to a house after a snow-plow had clipped the cap of an underground tank. He was carrying a units-per-million meter and it was showing nothing, then the needle went off the charts. Then an explosion engulfed him in flames. He did three things that saved his life/vision: he quit breathing, he closed his eyes, and he hit the ground and rolled in the snow.

         I visited him in the burn-ward at a hospital in Bridgeport two days later. At one point his face had been 4X its normal size, but had since receded. His eyes had been taped shut, but he couldn't stand it and opened them when I was there - his vision was OK.

         His wife said she would come home from work and the TV was blaring really loudly - she wondered if his ears had been damaged. They mentioned it to his doc - easy fix with ear drops - turns out his ear wax had melted down into his ear.

         He wasn't allowed to go into direct sunlight for a long while so that he wouldn't have permanent melanin damage (purple skin).

         1. GAAAH.

            I'm smug about using my Weber kettle. And grateful I don't have to worry about an underground OR above-ground propane tank (any more -- the folks used propane at the cabin for about 20 years; I can still recall the nauseating smell of that gas from the stove and, IIRC, refrigerator).

            All I have to worry about is PG&E blowing up my town, San Bruno style.

4. Nietzsche's birthday is tomorrow, so my Mom just surprised us by dropping off presents. She set the packages down, I'll let them sit there until to tomorrow.
   She drove 2.5 hours to get here. We chatted for 15 minutes from a > 6ft distance. She got back in the car and left.

   I've had things a lot easier than most people during this virus, and I know that. But right now I am absolutely gutted. That we can't celebrate with family. That we can't sit down and chat longer. That my kids can't hug their grandma. And that all of that is true no matter what the current iteration of the shut down orders says, because we all know better about the risks - especially because we have family members who are uniquely vulnerable.

5. Mother's Day on Sunday. MrsS hates the very concept of going out to brunch on Mother's Day, so we are good staying home (again) this year.

   1. We still have a gift card for Oceannaire so probably going to pick that up to-go on Saturday or Sunday

      1. Love that place. We used to go there as a group and get the $80 seafood appetizer on ice. Wunderbar.

6. Who is Chris Vallimont? He's one of the five Twins prospects that Topps has included in their hastily assembled Bowman 1^st Edition set this spring.

   1. I think he came over with a Romo

7. I'm finding myself even more angry, frustrated, and exhausted than normal as we end this week. Well, maybe not the exhaustion part, but definitely not in a great head space about current events.

   I don't see much light at the end of the tunnel right now and that's hard.

   1. Oof, I can relate. The one thing that's consistently been helping when I'm feeling down is getting some kind of exercise.

8. My cousin's 15 year old daughter was killed in a car accident in Idaho last night. My Dad called me this morning and started talking about my cousin and that he had bad news. I figured he was going to tell me that her husband had died because he has been very sick battling leukemia. No. It was this instead. Not a good day, for sure.

   1. That sucks, Stick. Very sorry for your loss.

      1. Yes, that's awful. So sorry to hear.

   2. Wow. Very sorry to hear that. All of your family is in our prayers.

   3. Awful news.

   4. Just crushing; I’m very sorry, Stick.

   5. Oh, that's terrible. I'm so sorry.

   6. How dreadful. My condolences.

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