30 thoughts on “April 25, 2023: Sporty”

  1. Former Twins great now Oakland A's Brent Rooker hit two more home runs yesterday. He has 6 in 59 plate appearances

  2. I put the discussion for tonight's Wild/Wolves in the Twins-Yanks game log, since all three games could be going on at the same time. Does anyone want a separate post for the playoff games?

  3. Aww, Harry Belafonte.

    We were at Cheapo the other day (because Record Store Day and we actually happened to be close to a record store for once), and I almost grabbed a Belafonte album for Aquinas, but couldn't find one with either "Banana Boat" or "Jump In The Line".

  4. Not sure why I never researched it, but I pinpointed the first game I ever attended: fittingly, a loss to the Yankees.

    For years I thought I hadn’t seen a home run by the Twins in person despite going to dozens of games, but apparently Kent Hrbek hit one while I was likely more interested in talking with my eight-year-old friends. Assuming our church group arrived on time, Minnesota native (and my birthday mate!) Dave Winfield hit the first live homer I ever saw.

      1. I don't think I could find my first game - I'm sure my parents brought me when I was 2 or 3. My mom tells stories of how we didn't have AC until the early '90's, so they'd just take us to cheap twins games in the summer to keep cool.

        I have vague memories of sometime in my youth being hit by (or more likely just frightened by) a foul ball hit in our direction, that my aunt or dad or someone picked up and gave to me.

        1. Part of the reason it’s so silly I never made the point to look this up is that it required so little on my part. I was 100% sure it was 1984-1986 and indeed near certain it was in the middle of that, and I also knew it was a 5-2 loss to the Yankees that happened during the summer. While I didn’t pay attention to the game’s specifics as I didn’t really become a baseball fan until late in the 1986 season, I took note of the score as the game was going on and got annoyed on behalf of the team all the same.

          My other vivid memory is that I didn’t have anything against the Yankees any more than I did any other team, and my dad said something to the effect of “oh, you will someday.”

          1. My first game was in 1977 against the Angels. I believe this is the game. I remembered Carew hit a home run and that is the only game against the Angels that summer in which he hit one out. I really remember nothing else other than being in the left field bleachers with a bunch of extended family members. My second game was at the metrodome against the Yankees and Oscar Gamble hit a lazer beam line drive that was still going up when it cleared the baggy in right.

      1. Baseball reference was a godsend to help me figure this out about 3-4 years ago. The only cold stone memory I would bet my life on was was that Harmon Killebrew hit a homerun into the left field bleachers. I was pretty sure it was against the A's and that the Twins lost (natch). I was kinda sure it was in 1972 as it was a Cub Scout outing. I was kinda sure it was an evening game because of the tailgating. Putting all that together and this pops up.

        1. Heh, that first post was written in 2005. Rereading it now, many of the details that I remembered then I no longer remember now. I'm learning things I had forgotten!

    3. Love it. As a nerd and spreadsheet user (DG alert), my spreadsheet of statistics from all games I know I've attended is quite exhaustive (it usually takes about 10 minutes to update after each game). If you find yourself wanting a project, it's a fun way to waste time.

      (And if Kepler plays tomorrow, then he will tie Joe Mauer for most games played with me in attendance, with the caveat that I'm missing a bunch of late 80's and early 90's games.)

    5. I believe this is the first game I saw in person. I drove to Omaha, where my brother lived, and he took me to Kansas City for the game.

      1. *This is first MLB game. I have no idea how many Indianapolis Indians games I went to in the 11 years prior to this.

    8. I'll never be able to find my first game when I was young. Its a bummer, but we came down from fargo so I could see my favorite player Kirby. I was 5-6ish so early 90's.

      I was just at a game w/ a friend and I (was again) bitching about not having any option to get paper tickets. My photo book won't get any thicker until that changes.

      1. Winfield was here so 93/94? But still I have great memories of the trip. It was a big deal for us brothers and my parents. The BIG CITY. MOA stuff that my parent's still make fun of me for.

      2. I still see paper tickets at the ballpark, mostly group sales and company-owned season tickets. I think you can get paper tickets if you buy at the box office on the day of the game, too, but I could be wrong.

    9. I've mentioned it many times, but my first game was this one. Eddie Bane's major league debut and a then record crowd at Metropolitan Stadium.

      Another game I'll mention was this one, my first game of the 1991 season. The Twins won to improve to 3-9. After the game, I saw Andy McPhail in the concourse at the Dome. For a second, I thought about mentioning to him what I thought about his acquisition of Jack Morris, who was 0-3 with a 6.38 ERA at the time. I decided not to say anything. Good choice in retrospect.
      '

    10. Man, I have zero recollection of any of the games I went to prior to 1992. Given I was a stats junkie you think I would, but it's a complete blank.

      First one that I remember is this shellacking of Detroit where Kirby hit his first grand slam. May 29, 1992.

        1. Similar. I know I attended a variety of games through Cub Scouts but I have zero memory of them.

  5. I know Chaps usually handles the farm report, but the Poissonnière went 2-2 with 2 RBI in her machine-pitch little league debut yesterday.

  6. It's funny that I keep reading that the Vikings will draft a QB with no mention of the fact that Aaron Rodgers will be their quarterback next year.

Comments are closed.