Glad the boys gave Mauer a nice series to stop on by.
20 thoughts on “August 7, 2023: Hey Joe”
I felt like the Saturday evening game/induction couldn't have gone much better. Accoustics were a little off where we were, so some parts of the speeches were a litlte garbled, but otherwise it was a great time. I didn't anticipate how much emotion I'd feel seeing all those '00's players - clearly I had a strong attachment to the team at that time. Mauer was as always advertised. Admittedly, a little boring, but more or less flawlessly executed. I mean, the guy took time to thank his in-laws. Because of course he did.
The kids did really well throughout - I thought the induction might get long for them, but they were interested in hearing about the various players, seeing the highlights, and watching the players their parents have talked about before.
And then the game couldn't have gone much better. Even my 7 year old daughter was cheering to the very end.
I watched his speech and the only thing I'll add here is that I appreciate his commitment to not coloring his hair at all. I'm not as gray as Joe, but my wife often asks why I don't color it at all. The hair does as the hair wills!
Coloring hair? Hard pass.
I'm glad my beard is weird.
Coloring hair? Hard pass.
I kid!
No play for Mister Gray.
Bruised and refused.
Co-sign.
I recently had to endure a conversation in which I was told going grey is essentially worse than going bald. Neither of the people claiming this were bald.
As a guy who is finding gray in his beard and is rapidly losing his hair, I have one take on this:
I... don't... care... what other people think about my appearance or anyone else's. I will not be coloring my hair or trying to grow more hair. I am fine with who I am. However, I will also not judge someone else's decision on such matters. It is not possible to walk in someone else's shoes.
One thing I like about the balanced schedule is now we can legit say we are better than the Yankees. Before it would be, "Well, they have a tougher schedule."
Also, can we start a free Ryan Jeffers campaign? 144 OPS+ to Vazques's 64. Vazquez could be Johnny Bench behind the plate (and as evidence but the 8 stolen bases yesterday, he's not) and still wouldn't make up for the gaping offensive hole.
Vazquez is probably better than the Matt LeCroy-like 8 SB ( on tv, Glen Perkins was saying Keuchel wasnt doing a good job holding the runners on) but it really should be Jeffers job to lose.
To be fair, the runners were getting some real good jumps. AZ does have decent speed on the bases and they seem to read pitching motions well. But you can't keep Jeffers down anymore if winning is the objective, and you can't put both of your catchers in the lineup simultaneously like Sunday without assuming some risk. We do have Tony Wolters stashed away in St. Paul, maybe bring him up in September so Jeffers can DH when he's not catching? Also, it's past time to DFA Joey K. Gallo.
Also to be fair, we are exactly one-half game better than the Yankees today.
This gets in the weeds a bit with Soccer Tournaments but the Loons are in the final 16 of what is called the Leagues Cup, which club teams in the US, Canada, and Mexico play in a tournament to see which is the best North American Soccer Club. The reason I bring this up is that if Inter Miami (Messi's Team, which is already in the final 8) are in opposite brackets and could potentially meet in the finals. Also if that happened, the game would be played at Allianz!! Now that would be cool. Loons play tomorrow to get into the quarter finals.
I saw Messi as a lad of only 17 or 18 come off the bench for Barcelona in Barcelona back in the winter of 2004-05. It would be something to see him again at the other end of his career, but that's just not in the cards I don't think.
I set up tomorrow's CoC as a reminder for me to watch the game.
I've had more than one person tell me that they saw me on the game telecast last Tuesday. Unfortunately, it wasn't in the part of the condensed game video; no idea if full games are archives anywhere.
I felt like the Saturday evening game/induction couldn't have gone much better. Accoustics were a little off where we were, so some parts of the speeches were a litlte garbled, but otherwise it was a great time. I didn't anticipate how much emotion I'd feel seeing all those '00's players - clearly I had a strong attachment to the team at that time. Mauer was as always advertised. Admittedly, a little boring, but more or less flawlessly executed. I mean, the guy took time to thank his in-laws. Because of course he did.
The kids did really well throughout - I thought the induction might get long for them, but they were interested in hearing about the various players, seeing the highlights, and watching the players their parents have talked about before.
And then the game couldn't have gone much better. Even my 7 year old daughter was cheering to the very end.
I watched his speech and the only thing I'll add here is that I appreciate his commitment to not coloring his hair at all. I'm not as gray as Joe, but my wife often asks why I don't color it at all. The hair does as the hair wills!
Coloring hair? Hard pass.
I'm glad my beard is weird.
Coloringhair? Hard pass.I kid!
No play for Mister Gray.
Bruised and refused.
Co-sign.
I recently had to endure a conversation in which I was told going grey is essentially worse than going bald. Neither of the people claiming this were bald.
As a guy who is finding gray in his beard and is rapidly losing his hair, I have one take on this:
I... don't... care... what other people think about my appearance or anyone else's. I will not be coloring my hair or trying to grow more hair. I am fine with who I am. However, I will also not judge someone else's decision on such matters. It is not possible to walk in someone else's shoes.
One thing I like about the balanced schedule is now we can legit say we are better than the Yankees. Before it would be, "Well, they have a tougher schedule."
Also, can we start a free Ryan Jeffers campaign? 144 OPS+ to Vazques's 64. Vazquez could be Johnny Bench behind the plate (and as evidence but the 8 stolen bases yesterday, he's not) and still wouldn't make up for the gaping offensive hole.
Vazquez is probably better than the Matt LeCroy-like 8 SB ( on tv, Glen Perkins was saying Keuchel wasnt doing a good job holding the runners on) but it really should be Jeffers job to lose.
To be fair, the runners were getting some real good jumps. AZ does have decent speed on the bases and they seem to read pitching motions well. But you can't keep Jeffers down anymore if winning is the objective, and you can't put both of your catchers in the lineup simultaneously like Sunday without assuming some risk. We do have Tony Wolters stashed away in St. Paul, maybe bring him up in September so Jeffers can DH when he's not catching? Also, it's past time to DFA Joey K. Gallo.
Also to be fair, we are exactly one-half game better than the Yankees today.
This gets in the weeds a bit with Soccer Tournaments but the Loons are in the final 16 of what is called the Leagues Cup, which club teams in the US, Canada, and Mexico play in a tournament to see which is the best North American Soccer Club. The reason I bring this up is that if Inter Miami (Messi's Team, which is already in the final 8) are in opposite brackets and could potentially meet in the finals. Also if that happened, the game would be played at Allianz!! Now that would be cool. Loons play tomorrow to get into the quarter finals.
I saw Messi as a lad of only 17 or 18 come off the bench for Barcelona in Barcelona back in the winter of 2004-05. It would be something to see him again at the other end of his career, but that's just not in the cards I don't think.
I set up tomorrow's CoC as a reminder for me to watch the game.
I've had more than one person tell me that they saw me on the game telecast last Tuesday. Unfortunately, it wasn't in the part of the condensed game video; no idea if full games are archives anywhere.
I'm just going to leave this here.
Royce Lewis to start rehab assignment tomorrow.
Start packing, Joey