Cup of Coffee

May 15, 2013: Out of My Brain on a Train

100 Comments

This is normally where I reference more lyrics from The Who's "5:15," but it feels like I just did that, so now all I can think about is how brutally quick this school year went and how my kids are going to be grown up and gone soon. Sigh.

100 thoughts on “May 15, 2013: Out of My Brain on a Train”

  1. Last Spring, I shared with y'all that my parents' hideous prom picture was posted on the BoF by Ellen and received about 25,000 likes and about 10,000 comments. Well today, on my parents' anniversary, Ellen is flying them out to LA and they are taping a segment about the picture tomorrow which will air shortly. When I learn a definitive airing date (I'm guessing either Friday or Monday), I'll share more.

    3. I surfed those comments for a good while after you first told us about it. "I hope these people never procreated," they said. I told a girl at work I was friends with the son of that couple, and she was as starstruck as if I'd told her I was friends with an A-lister.

      1. Yes, those comments are hilarious. Many, many jokes about how ugly their children must be. I've gone back and read a few once or twice since and they are always really funny - especially the people who randomly knew my parents in high school and recognized the picture.

        1. That's ridiculous. Your mom is very pretty, and your dad only looks kind of goofy because of the glasses. Yes, the clothes are mind-boggling hideous, but other than that I don't see why this particular photo stands out.

          2. I may or may not know DP's Dad (I do.). He is one of the finest guys you'll ever meet. An A+ fellow.

            1. He heaved a ton of beads at my hastily constructed sign at the Bacchus parade this year, so I'll say that he's a hell of a dude, too.

          3. Thanks, Beau. RR summed up my thoughts perfectly. I do know that no one in my family took any of those comments seriously, but just laughed at them and marveled at how quickly something so random can go viral.

  3. Houston hits the 40 game mark at 10-30. They are on pace for 120 losses, but I think they'll have to crater out a little more to prevent a late season falloff.

        2. "Chinese water torture in cleats"

          Amen. The past two years, the Twins have been out of contention by the time the Cup changes hands. I can't force myself to watch a bad team, so I'm looking forward to more baseball this summer.

        3. I hated this part:

          The most useless luxury in baseball is a closer on a bad team...

          Has anyone ever made a solid case for this being true? I think people just say it because it seems like the right thing to say. Oh, if we're bad, we're not going to have late leads, so why keep a good closer? If the Yankees were bad in 1998, should they have traded away Mariano Rivera, figuring that he's just a closer on a bad team?

          Last year in the AL, the Twins had the most 1-run games. The Royals had the next-most 1-run games, followed by the Mariners. When you're a bad team, you generally don't have a lack of close games, you have a lack of games won by a comfortable margin.

          I don't see why a good closer is any less valuable to a bad team than a good left fielder--most of the left fielder's hits are going to go to waste because the rest of the team can't back him up and his defense will often be wasted by holes in the rest of the team.

          /distractedbypetpeeve

          1. Two things:

            1.) If you have a quality reliever that you are restricting to only save situations and you are getting beat by three runs four or five times a week, that is a stupid use of such a player unless you have a great bullpen with quality arms up and down the line, but then probably aren't getting beat that often. I would agree, though, that a bad team with a good closer doesn't have an unnecessary luxury, unless of course, they refuse to use him in anything other than save situations.

            2.) If you have a somewhat marginal reliever who's a "proven closer" and you can extract more for him than he might otherwise be worth, then if you don't trade him, you are foolsih. You might get Wilson Ramos out of the deal.

            1. 1) Absolutely, if you have a quality relief pitcher and your team isn't finding itself in many save situations, just be more flexible and use him in situations where you are ahead but not in a save situation.

              2) That could go just as well for other player types. If you have a somewhat marginal hitter who's considered a "clutch hitter" or a "clubhouse leader" and you can extract more for him than he might otherwise be worth, then you should trade him. I just don't see this as a special aspect of closers--if you have an overvalued player on a bad team, then by all means trade him, but that goes for everyone just as much as it goes for closers.

              1. I just think that closers get overvalued more than just about anyone, which is somewhat beside the point.

                1. Probably true, though I think it's less true than it used to be. I also think that Twins backup catchers tend to get overvalued, but that's also somewhat beside the point.

    2. I laughed. How does a gamer like Tyson Chandler (injured, but work with me here) react to something like that? Wouldn't it drive you crazy?

    3. I tried clicking on the link, by my companies' firewall won't allow me to view the page. I can't say that makes me too heartbroken.

  5. okay, i'm going to make a ruling on this...

    MINICAUCUS!
    (full caucus status pending)
    when: saturday, 18 may 2013, 8pm
    location: lowbrow, 42nd and nicollet, minneapolis.

    this is all open to debate. anyone?

    1. Wish I could, but I'm already skipping a family reunion with the Alaskans and Austrians due to "Otherwise completely booked spring, like seriously this is our only day with nothing scheduled." Can't caucus on such a day.

    2. FTLT - what are you up to at this time? Would you like to have a satellite caucus at the teach an MagUidhir* since our Sunday plans fell through?

      *May also be teach an MhagUidhir. I'm not sure on the lenition rules for surnames with Mag or Ó

    5. I'm going to David Brauer's graduation party that night but it's close so I may stop by.

    6. Really appreciate your efforts, hj. But we're closing on a house on Monday and I will be up to my eyeballs in boxes all weekend.

      1. Let me know how it goes - we're closing on a house in 2 weeks and I'm already up to my eyeballs in boxes.

        1. We moved six years ago with two kids and I couldn't believe how much stuff had accumulated. Now we have four kids and four times as much junk. I want to take a flamethrower to all of it, but I'm not sure how well that will go over with the little ones. Maybe a conversation starter when their future shrink asks about their dad.

          1. Preachin' to the choir Walt. This will be our 6th move in 9 years of marriage and our first with a child. First move was fully achieved with a small U-haul and a personal vehicle, towing the 2nd car. Last one was a semi-trailer (moving company) and 2 personal vehicles full of stuff. We can't afford that this time.
            Unfortunately, I can believe how much stuff has accumulated. I have no doubt we'll be getting rid of a ton of junk (donate, toss or flamethrower) and still end up with about 6 trips with the U-Haul and an additional 2 trips with BIL's truck and construction trailer.

            1. Probably a long shot, but I don't suppose you have a crib you're looking to get rid of?

              1. Sorry. We got one that will transition to a toddler bed when we're ready to take down the crib. We also have some fuzzy aspirations of an additional kernel or two. No germination other than the thought, but maybe late season or next...

              2. Hold the phone! We would love to find a good home for our crib. It's 13 years old, but it is in great shape. I'll send you pictures if you are interested. Our youngest and last CousinWalt will be moving into her own big-girl room with her own big-girl bed.

            2. I've got something akin to a construction trailer, I think. We filled it up once and haven't even made a dent.

    7. Well, I don't have any plans and toddler-wrangling duties should be done by about that time, so I can be there.

  6. 1. This year's team doesn't suck, like at least I thought they would.
    2. Arcia is already making noise and Hicks might be able to weather the storm.
    3. The system has a load of top prospects.
    4. Joe Mauer strikes out too much is back to being his awesome self.

    I think we are about to see a run of very good teams, starting soon.

      1. Besides the pitchers in the weekly Prospect Watch, a guy making some noise is D.J. Baxendale, who is 5-0 with a 1.25 ERA and a 41/7 K/BB ratio in 43 1/3 innings pitched at Ft. Myers in his first full season in the minors.

  7. Feeding the stereotype:

    He got hurt in spring training but went North with the club and was day-to-day or something, even playing a few games.

    1. But his injury was just made up. No one's ever heard of that, right? On a more serious note, what would be the point of putting Maestro on the 60-day DL, unless the Twins need a 40-man roster spot for someone?

      1. Deduno!

        I heard Gleeman talking about Mastro's injury and I thought againa about that never heard of a stress reaction b.s. again today.

    1. I havent been following the NBA Playoff too closely (I prefer the Stanley Cup tournament), but did losing Westbrook pretty much kill OKC chances?

        1. I really want this all to go to Westbrook's head and have him become the second coming of Starbury.

    1. every time you post a picture, it just comes up a big exclamation point triangle thing.

  10. So, Pujols is Mauer with Power.

  11. After 4 full weeks in two hospitals my wife finally got to go home today. The people at the rehab said it was the quickest turn around they've ever had on weaning someone off the ventilator.

    Bringing her home, however, made it very clear how much work she still has to do. Getting up the front steps was hard work. Some of that is muscle atrophy but her lungs still need to heal too. She will be on oxygen for a while until her lungs are better and the hope is that moving around the house will help build up her strength.

    Hopefully this is the last update I have to make, thanks for all your thoughts and prayers.

  12. So Chelsea scores a goal in the 91st minute and wins 2-1 over Benfica to become Europa Champions. This also means that for the next 10 days Chelsea holds both the Europa and Champions League Trophies. Chelsea = Champions of Europe.

    2. This also means that for the next 10 days Chelsea holds both the Europa and Champions League Trophies

      Yes, but they've gone and won them in the wrong order.

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