122 thoughts on “April 12, 2013: Deprived”

  1. Ooh. Bayern v. Barca and Dortmund v. Real in Champions League semi's. I'd love to see a Bayern-Real final but that Bayern-Barcelona semi is going to be epic.

    1. El Classicos are a little played out since they meet 2 a year in La Liga and usually in the Copa del Rey and Supercopa, but one in the CL Final might be interesting.

      That said, I'm pulling for one of the Bundesliga teams. Probably Dortmund over Bayern, but either over the Spanish teams. I'm tired of them, and I say that as a Barcelona fan.

      1. If I don't have a personal rooting interest in the teams playing, I want the best teams to play each other. This year it is Madrid and Bayern.

  3. I was chatting with someone on a baseball card trade site and Halsey Hall's name came up. A third person chimed in with this nugget:

    ANOTHER guy that grew up listening to Halsey and Herb...this is my favorite story about those two:

    They were talking about a young couple in the stands at the Met between pitches; I think it was Halsey that said "That's right; he kisses her on the strikes and she kisses him on the balls..." and then there was about 3 minutes of complete silence while they recovered. I'd give anything to track down a recording of that.

    2. I've heard that story before, but I think it was attributed to Dizzy Dean. I have no idea if either of them actually said it.

    1. hit Carlos Quentin in the shoulder on a 3-2 count. Quentin charged the mound, Greinke led with his shoulder, broke his collarbone.
      I dont know why Quentin was so upset. He had played only 709 games in 8 year, but has been hit by a pitch a whopping 115 times.

      1. My recollections of Quentin when he was on the White Sox was that it was the pitchers who should have been charging the plate after hitting him.

          1. It was a 3-2 pitch in a one-run game. Quentin's a moron. I have always hated him. Of course, now more than ever since Greinke is on my fantasy team.

          2. He didn't attempt to move, just like always. I think it was all history and something Greinke said. I firmly believe most of Quentin's HBPs shouldn't have counted.

            1. I wish umpires would enforce that rule. Along with the no collisions rule and not blocking the bases. Maybe the robot umps will do it.

              1. I think the problem with that rule is that--if I recall correctly--the home plate umpire is supposed to be responsible with determining whether or not the batter moved. The HP ump, being human and all, can really only do so many things at a time, and personally, I don't think I could track a pitch and watch for a batter's movement at the same time. It seems like it would make sense to put one of the field umpires in charge of that call, but I'm not sure which you should use, probably the umpire who is supposed to be watching for checked swings, since he is already focused on the movement of the hitter.

                1. A field ump would be best. But the HP ump is watching the ball invade the batter's space, so he might be able to watch the (lack of) reaction.

            2. Did Biggio ever get upset about getting plunked? I don't understand why Quentin was so upset if getting plunked is a skill that he possesses.

        2. No kidding.

          You take take a player off the White Sox, but you can't take the White Sox off a player I guess.

            2. William Ligue, Jr. and his son. The best part of that story is that White Sox fans asserted that these guys were Cubs fans at the game on the northside that day and then travelled south to the second offering at Comiskey. After drinking hard at both games, they jumped Gamboa.

              Damned Cubs fans.

              Spoiler SelectShow

          2. I don't really think that paying for Greinke's DL stint would be appropriate (too capricious--Quentin wasn't guaranteed to break Greinke's collar bone by charging the mound), but this really wasn't a situation that Quentin needed to take into his own hands. He was hit in the area where he is most commonly hit. He did the whole "I'm a big, bad man and I don't like where you threw that pitch" macho walk towards the pitcher, the pitcher told him to shove it (or something roughly equivalent) and Quentin decided violence was the only answer.

            Umpires aren't really the best judges of intent, but it's their job, and they are certainly in a better position to judge intent than the obviously biased hitter who just got hit with a pitch. Charging the mound should probably be something like an automatic 15-game suspension (and charging the hitter should also be an automatic 15-game suspension). Any hitter or pitcher goading another player into a fight (verbally or otherwise) should be warned and subsequently ejected if his goading continues, serving an N-game suspension if ejected. (Not sure on the best value for N.) Pitchers who intentionally hit batters with pitches already serve suspensions, though as mentioned, it's difficult to prove intent, or even get a group of people to agree on intent. While we're at it, any time pitchers leave the bullpen to join a fight, the manager gets a 3-game suspension.

            1. any time pitchers leave the bullpen to join a fight, the manager gets a 3-game suspension.
              I would be fine extending that to any player that leaves the bench or bullpen.

              1. My only problem with extending it to the bench is that if a field player goes after a hitter, the hitter is outnumbered until the (generally out-of-shape) umps come to break up the fight. I would be in favor of a 3rd-man-in type penalty, except I think players should be allowed to attempt to break up the fight.

                My main problem with the bullpen coming in is that they can't possibly be that outraged when they come strolling in to join the party. It takes them longer to get back to their assigned seats, too.

                Overall, it's not the world's biggest problem. Bench-clearing brawls don't happen that often these days and the delay is typically not that terrible.

      3. Check out this list--pitchers that have hit Quentin more than once, sorted from fewest PA to most. I noted the inclusion of Silva, Perkins, Liriano, and Blackburn (4!) on that list. Greinke washes into the noise on that list. Quentin didn't think it was important enough to charge Jon Lester when Lester hit him the 3rd time in 15(!) PA.

    2. After seeing it at the gym a few times, my biggest problem with the whole situation is Greinke's tackling form. First, Quentin out-weighs him by nearly 50 pounds. Usually when I'm in this situation, I go for something approximating a judo hip-toss and use that guy's momentum against him. Secondly, if you decide you're going to try and face up, you gotta get square and hit with the front/top of your shoulder. Leading with your delts leads to broken collarbones, which Greinke now has first-hand knowledge of.

      1. Yes seemed bad form. I didn't get a good look at Greinke's mouth though. Was "Bring it on, butthead!" a possibility.

    1. One of the people named is "Adam Dean". Wondering if someone created a composite character out of myself and free.

    1. That's pretty funny. I'm not sure the book itself sounds all that great, but the concept amuses me.

            1. Worth a shot.

              I was going to just go to the badass photo, but then saw the other page...

              1. it sort of work anyway since your comment got me thinking about that page. That was enough to send a shiver up my spine

  8. I thought this exchange was something:

    Maybe he thinks that Ware should have walked off the court with his compound fracture.

      1. That doesn't even really make sense as sarcasm. Why bring up Ware? AG was merely praising Greinke's toughness--why respond to that with sarcasm? The only way it makes sense at all is if AG had at some point ridiculed Ware for not being able to walk off the court with his compound fracture, but I would have to see a quote of him saying something to that effect before I would believe it. I may be critical of Mr. Gleeman at times, but I don't think he's an idiot.

    4. When I was a young teen, I loved, loved, loved his brief TV show with Randy Quaid, "Davis Rules". Probably the first show I liked that inexplicitly got yanked around and cancelled despite being better than pretty much everything else on TV.

                1. Cole was in a bad place yesterday. He wasn't thinking clearly enough to proofread for consistency.

          1. And DFA'd immediately by the first team that traded for him. It was probably explained somewhere what that was about, but I missed it.

        1. Why do businesses of all types view sucking up to the customer base as something to only be done as a last resort during a public relations disaster?

          1. The $15 BP thing has now escalated into a disaster? From the consumer's standpoint, the absolute worst outcome of the Twins offering $15 BP was that they would continue to pay $0 to not watch BP. The horror!

            1. "Disaster" is obviously not the right word, and I don't quite understand the furor over the reaction to the batting VIP batting practice thing, anyway, since it's not something that I'd pay for. The truth is, though, that regardless of my thoughts on it, the idea was reacted to in the extreme negative and now the club is playing nice. It's very possible that the two have nothing at all to do with eaxh other

              1. I think you're right that this is in reaction to the VIP BP idea going public, but if I was in charge of PR, I wouldn't think of such a thing. Of course, I would be the world's worst PR guy, so that doesn't really mean much.

                1. Yeah, it's strange to me that the idea was that heavily criticized, and also strange to me that it was so heavily criticized that the club decided they needed to go overboard in a way that they didn't during the home opener, which was even colder.

                  1. It could be a response to both the VIP BP idea and the response the Twins got from the home opener.

                  2. Home opener was day game and sunny. I could have worn my black parka and sat in a sunny spot and have been nice and toasty. Can't do that tonight.
                    Also: April 1 so people know it could still be that cold. This is one of their interleague series, and the no Johan thing probably already dropped their hoped-for Q rating.

              2. ...stupid phone keyboard.

                Anyway, what I was trying to say is that there's a good chance the two have nothing to do with each other, but it still would've been a nice show of customer appreciation to have done the same thing during the opener.

                1. Anyway, what I was trying to say is that there’s a good chance the two have nothing to do with each other, but it still would’ve been a nice show of customer appreciation to have done the same thing during the opener. where's my free hot chocolate?!?

                  FTFY.

    3. My wife will appreciate this. She, who hates winter with the fury of a thousand red-hot suns, who could give a rats a** about baseball, is attending this evenings festivities for a "girls night out".

      1. So are my neighbors to celebrate their oldest son's tenth birthday. I'm guessing they make it to the sixth inning.

      2. My wife and her sisters are going pedal-pubbing tomorrow for a bachelorette party.
        Non-refundable, rain-or-shine. I guess that covers freezing temps too, eh?

      1. Upset, but level-headed. "You missed the revolution" is a fantastic line, and there's not much I respect more than keeping Harold Reynolds from saying anything at all.

    4. 36/40

      Spoiler SelectShow

    1. [I should add that I have found myself to be in that large demographic of people who have drifted away from the (Methodist) church in my twenties, yet it has absolutely nothing to do with homosexuality (for about eleven years, I went to two churches - one merged into the other - in which one of the pastors was openly gay). Instead, I just really don't connect with the current pastor (the openly gay pastor moved on to a different spot), and don't feel like finding a new church so I only go on the very special occasions.]

      1. No, I hadn't. In fact, I have to confess I really don't know who Macklemore is (I automatically think of Mark McLemore). Thanks for sharing it.

        This probably isn't the appropriate place for a discussion on this topic, but if you or anyone else wants to email me at pastorjeffa [at} gmail [dot] com, I'll be happy to have that discussion with you.

        1. I realized it was probably off-topic, but I just wanted to get it to you. I don't really have much to add beyond what I said above, but I'm always happy to know that your inbox is open.

    1. that. is. awesome.

      I wonder if some team will try to add these to their merchandise stands. I can see the St. Paul Saints willing to give it a go.

    1. Now the headline says he did purchase them. If he did in order to destroy them, so so awesome.

  18. So, my uncle Brian's friend Stevan just bought George Frazier's 1987 World Series ring. If I get more info than that, I'll certainly pass it along.

    Just yesterday at work I was joking with a guy about the absurdity in working your ass off for a World Series ring, then selling it.

  20. The river in Fargo, as compared to recent major flooding. April 1997 was unbelievably cold. Even still, this is something altogether new. It's hard to believe we are still not seeing any water get to the river.

Comments are closed.