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Loading... Monthly Archives: June 2020
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June 10, 2020: Slip Slidin’ Away
New analysis seems to confirm that Titan, and a number of other types of satellites, are drifting away much faster than previously thought. In Titan's case, it's four inches per year. I feel like there's a billion year long "Noooooooooooo!!!!" being bellowed in the outer solar system.
DON'T FORGET TO PUT IN YOUR SUMMER MIX NOMINATIONS!!!
June 9, 2020: Heh
Nice.
Random Rewind: 2001, Game One Hundred Twenty-six
TORONTO 7, MINNESOTA 5 IN MINNESOTA
Date: Tuesday, August 21.
Batting stars: Cristian Guzman was 3-for-5. A. J. Pierzynski was 2-for-3. Brian Buchanan was 1-for-4 with a home run, his eighth.
Pitching stars: Eddie Guardado pitched 1.2 scoreless innings, giving up a hit and a walk and striking out one. Todd Jones pitched a perfect inning.
Opposition stars: Carlos Delgado was 3-for-5 with a home run (his thirty-sixth), two runs, and two RBIs. Raul Mondesi was 2-for-3 with a home run (his twenty-second), a double, a walk, and two RBIs. Alex Gonzalez was 2-for-4 with a walk and two runs. Shannon Stewart was 2-for-5 with a home run (his ninth) and a double. Jose Cruz was 1-for-5 with a home run, his twenty-fourth. Scott Eyre struck out two in two shutout innings, giving up a hit and a walk.
The game: Brad Radke was pitching and so, as you might guess, the Blue Jays scored in the first inning. With one out, Gonzalez singled and was balked to second. Delgado delivered a two-out RBI single and scored from first on Mondesi's double, giving Toronto a 2-0 lead before the Twins came to bat. The Twins put men on first and second with one out in the bottom of the first, but a double play took them out of the inning.
The Blue Jays wasted a leadoff triple in the third. It looked like it might cost them, as the Twins tied it up in the bottom of the inning. Pierzynski led off with a single and scored on Luis Rivas' double-plus-error. Rivas scored on a Guzman single to make it 2-2. The Twins then took the lead in the fourth on Buchanan's two-out home run. Cruz homered in the fifth, evening the score again at three. The Twins took the lead back again in the bottom of the fifth, as Doug Mientkiewicz hit a two-out double and Corey Koskie circled the bases on a double-plus-error-plus-error, giving the Twins a 5-3 advantage.
Jack Cressend came in to relieve Radke in the sixth. He gave up a home run to each of the first three batters he faced, Stewart, Delgado, and Mondesi, to put Toronto back in front at 6-5. They added a run in the seventh when Gonzalez singled, Stewart doubled, Mondesi was intentionally walked with two out, and Brad Fullmer singled, making the score 7-5.
The Twins had their chances after that. With one out in the seventh, Jacque Jones walked and Guzman singled, with a wild pitch moving them to second and third. In the ninth, singles by Denny Hocking and Guzman put men on first and second with two out. In both cases, however, the Twins were turned aside and 7-5 was the final score.
WP: Brandon Lyon (2-2). LP: Cressend (2-2). S: Billy Koch (29).
Notes: Buchanan was in right field. Matt Lawton had been the regular right fielder, but he was traded to the Mets for Rick Reed at the end of July. Buchanan was the mostly-regular right fielder the rest of the way.
Hocking pinch-hit for Pierzynski in the ninth.
Mientkiewicz was batting .326. He would finish at .306. Guzman was batting .314. He would finish at .302. The Twins were fourth in team batting at .272.
Torii Hunter led the team in home runs with 27. Koskie was right behind at 26. The Twins had six other players with double-digit home runs: David Ortiz (18). Mientkiewicz (15), Jones (14), Guzman (10), Lawton (10), and Buchanan (10). The Twins were ninth in home runs with 164.
Ortiz is widely considered to have been a bust during his time with the Twins. He certainly wasn't the "Big Papi" he would become, but in 2001 he hit 18 homers and had an OPS of .799. In 2002, his age 26 seasons, he batted 272, hit 20 homers, and had an OPS of .839. I'm not claiming that's Hall-of-Fame worthy or anything, but it's a long way from Scott Stahoviak.
Radke pitched five innings, allowing three runs on six hits and a walk while striking out five. Radke had a good year in 2001, going 15-11, 3.94. The best starter was actually Joe Mays, in his one good year: he went 17-13, 3.16. Eric Milton was solid: 15-7, 4.32. But from there, it went downhill fast: Kyle Lohse (4-7, 5.68), Rick Reed (4-6, 5.19), J. C. Romero (1-4, 6.23). Romero, of course, would go on to give the Twins a couple of good years out of the bullpen. Reed would go on to be an important contributor to the 2002 division champions.
Cressend was actually a solid reliever for the Twins in 2001, although you obviously couldn't tell it by this game. He went 3-2, 3.67, 1.17 WHIP in 56.1 innings (44 games). He gave up six home runs on the season, half of them in this game.
This was the last of a streak in which the Twins would win just one game out of twelve. They lost eight in a row, won one, then lost the next three.
Record: The Twins were 65-61, in second place in the American League Central, 5.5 games behind Cleveland. They would finish 85-77, in second place, 6 games behind Cleveland.
The Blue Jays were 60-66, in third place in the American League East, 14 games behind New York. They would finish 80-82, in third place, 16 games behind New York.
Random record: The Twins are 36-33 in Random Rewind games.
Happy Birthday–June 9
Dude Esterbrook (1857)
Irish Meusel (1893)
Mike Ryba (1903)
Frank McCormick (1911)
Jimmy Newberry (1922)
Roy Smalley (1926)
Bill Virdon (1931)
Howie Gershberg (1936)
Jake Jacobs (1937)
Julio Gotay (1939)
Bruce Look (1943)
Tom Egan (1946)
Dave Parker (1951)
Tom Edens (1961)
Randy Winn (1974)
Jimmy Newberry was the first black player in Japanese baseball.
Howie Gershberg was a long-time college and minor league pitching coach.
We would also like to wish a happy birthday to SBG’s uncle and to his brother.
The Strokes – New York City Cops
NSFW
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Initial Time We Play A Game With Two Letters For Five Consecutive Weeks
Just in case the guy on KFAN has got his intellectual property ducks in a row with his Kickstarter thing, I will not refer to this game by the same name he has given his version. Instead, this will be the initial time I "host" a game for the second on this platform with the following rules:
1. I will give you two letters (for example, "K.P"). All the items that week will be a two-word answer in which each word begins with letter in the appropriate spot. The answer can be a person, place, thing, or other two-word phrase. For example, if "K.P." are the letters, then one answer might be Kirby Puckett. Another answer might be "Krakow, Poland." And so on.
2. I will provide six clues for each answer. The clues will be provided one-at-a-time.
3. If you believe you know the answer, make a Spoilered guess in the thread. The point will go to whomever correctly identifies the answer first. If you submit an incorrect response, then you can no longer submit for that particular answer.
4. The participant with the most correct answers at the end of the week wins. (If there is a tie, then I will have tiebreakers for only the participants in the tie.)
5. You're going to be on the honor system, but you should not be using the internet or other resources.
The letters will be revealed, and clues for the first phrase will commence at 9:00am.
Random Rewind: 1988, Game One Hundred Twenty-seven
KANSAS CITY 4, MINNESOTA 3 IN KANSAS CITY
Date: Friday, August 26.
Batting star: Gene Larkin was 2-for-4.
Pitching star: Frank Viola pitched 7.2 innings, allowing four runs on nine hits and three walks and striking out six.
Opposition stars: Charlie Liebrandt pitched a complete game, giving up three runs on seven hits and no walks and striking out three. Danny Tartabull was 3-for-3 with a double and a walk. Pat Tabler was 2-for-3. Bo Jackson was 1-for-4 with a three-run homer, his twenty-first.
The game: The Royals put a man on second with two out in the second and men on first and third with two out in the third, but could not score either time. In the fourth, Tom Herr doubled, went to third on a ground out, and scored on a balk to give the Twins a 1-0 lead.
The lead lasted until the next half-inning. Kansas City started the inning with singles by George Brett, Tabler, and Tartabull to tie the score. With one out, Jackson hit a three-run homer to put the Royals up 4-1.
The Twins had a two-out rally in the fifth. John Christensen singled, Greg Gagne doubled, and Al Newman delivered a two-run single, cutting the margin to 4-3. But that was as good as it got, though, as the Twins could not get a man past first base the rest of the game.
WP: Liebrandt (9-11). LP: Viola (19-6). S: None.
Notes: Herr was at second base. He was, of course, acquired in the controversial trade of Tom Brunansky. He was the second baseman when he could play, but he only played 73 games at second due to injuries. Steve Lombardozzi actually played more, playing 90 games at second.
Newman was at third in place of Gary Gaetti, who missed about three weeks. Christensen was in right field in place of Randy Bush, who was given the day off against the left-handed Liebrandt.
Puckett was batting .352. He would finish at .356. Hrbek was batting .300. He would finish at .312. Christensen was batting .348 in 23 at-bats. He would finish at .263 in 38 at-bats.
This was Viola's second attempt at his twentieth win. He had lost 3-2 to Texas on August 20. He would have only one more loss, finishing at 24-7 with an ERA of 2.64. He would win the Cy Young Award that season. This was also the one really good year Allan Anderson had, going 16-9, 2.45 and winning the ERA title. Unfortunately, those were their only two reliable starters. Bert Blyleven went 10-17, 5.43. Other starters were Charlie Lea (7-7, 4.85), Fred Toliver (7-6, 4.24), and Les Straker (2-5, 3.92 in 14 starts while battling injuries).
The 1988 team was, in many ways, a better team than the 1987 World Championship team. Unfortunately, the Oakland Athletics were better still.
This was the first game of a three-game series in Kansas City. The Twins were swept by the Royals in that series.
Record: The Twins were 72-55, in second place in the American League West, 7 games behind Oakland. They would finish 91-71, in second place, 13 games behind Oakland.
The Royals were 66-61, in third place in the American League West, 13 games behind Oakland. They would finish 84-77, in third place, 19.5 games behind Oakland.
Random record: The Twins are 36-32 in Random Rewind games.
The Nation Has An Appetite: The House Special
Though it's occasionally a chore, one silver lining to the whole pandemic situation is that we're basically cooking everything in house. We very occasionally get something from outside, but I think we do that on average maybe once every two weeks. While it's fun to try new things, or at least get creative with ingredients before they go bad, that's still a whole lot of cooking that needs to be done. This naturally means we've all got a few go-to's that we can pull out quickly, or at least easily.
Now, we've got a home with young, picky-ass kids, so our house specials are very boring and basic. Tacos, macaroni, various non-threatening noodle and pasta dishes, but that's pretty much as far as it goes. Japanese curry is about as exotic as it gets with them. Jane and I have been trying all sorts of stuff, but the same namby-pamby retreads are the only sure things around here (yeah, I'm bringing that phrase back).
What dishes are in top rotation in your homes when you need a quick and easy win?
Happy Birthday–June 8
Cub Stricker (1859)
Van Lingle Mungo (1911)
Del Ennis (1925)
Eddie Gaedel (1925)
George Brunet (1935)
Joe Grzenda (1937)
Pete Magrini (1942)
Mark Belanger (1944)
Lenn Sakata (1954)
Don Robinson (1957)
Carmelo Castillo (1958)
Britt Burns (1959)
Kevin Gross (1961)
John Gibbons (1962)
Kevin Ritz (1965)
Dave Mlicki (1968)
Sadly, Cub Stricker never played for the Cubs.
3' 7" Eddie Gaedel is the shortest person to play in a major league game, walking in his only plate appearance as part of a Bill Veeck promotion. His great-nephew, Kyle Gaedele, was an outfielder in the Padres organization from 2011-15, reaching AA. Kyle is listed at 6' 3".