Cup of Coffee

June 17, 2011: Ho-Hum

199 Comments

Yet another sweep of the White Sox. Now on to the Padres; the last(?) time the Twins hosted them, I attended a Father's Day game with Skim. Santana was not only outpitched by Peavy, I'm pretty sure Santana got ejected. Plus, some clown two rows in front of me wouldn't leave despite one of his sons screaming for about four innings straight. I'm not using the word "screaming" to color the situation. He was screaming. For four. Innings. Straight.

199 thoughts on “June 17, 2011: Ho-Hum”

  5. I found this story to be pretty interesting despite the fact that I still can't get my head around 1 lightyear, let alone 3.8 billions of 'em.
    Here's a closer look.

    1. Part of the reason I switched out of my physics & astronomy majors was I had trouble with gaining an understanding of the infinitesimally small scale on which quantum particles operate and the near infinite scale astronomical bodies inhabit. The super-small and super-large are literally mind boggling.

      1. That's not a bad reason to get out of physics. I thought that the opportunity to learn about things so far outside our normal experience was one of the coolest parts, but the math really adds complications when you get to that level, too.

        1. to learn about things so far outside our normal experience...

          That's always been my biggest hurdle with the sciences. I find the subjects extremely alluring, but if I can't connect the new material to something in my "normal experience", I struggle to appreciate, categorize or even comprehend whatever I'm trying to learn.

          For instance, the distance from here to the the moon still seems pretty impressive - average distance: 238,857 miles. However, that is less than 2 lightseconds! Trying to make a meaningful connection between that number and 3.8 billion lightyears just blows my mind.

          1. It should be pretty easy:
            IIRC, the average distance from the earth to the moon is one AU (Astronomical Unit).
            Then this black hole is 60,000,000,000,000,000 AUs away.
            Take the distance to the moon, now Sixty Million Billion* times that.

            *Sixty Quadrillion, but no one knows what a Quadrillion is.
            A Trillion is a Thousand Billion, or a Million Million.
            For the love of your sanity, ignore the way the French do things, that just confuses things further.

            1. i think an AU is the approximate distance from the earth to the sun.

              *pushes up glasses*

                  1. Try watching Carl Sagan's "Cosmos". They were one of my favorite bits of astronomy in HS.

                    Serendipitously, I saw a link to his explanations of the 4th dimension on io9 today. See if you like it.

                    httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnURElCzGc0&feature=player_embedded

                    1. I have such a love-hate relationship with astronomy, and with science in general. It fascinates me, but it's the one major subject that I can't retain no matter how much study time I put in. I don't know why that happens.

    2. SWIFT is an incredibly interesting satellite, launched by NASA to attempt to lock on and visually capture the source of gamma ray bursts, which were too short for "normal" optical scopes to train in on before they faded. I know it has been very successful, but someday I'll have to dig in and see just what makes it able to do what it does.

        1. I just put it in as a placeholder to remind someone with more patience to make a better one. When that happens I'll yank the half-baked one. If it doesn't happen, I'll yank it anyway.

          1. i've got some ideas. i just have to develop some photoshop skills without having experience. or photoshop.

            (that is nicely half bakef though)

            1. I thought about making the border a little blurrier, but it looked gloriously stupid in its current state so I left it alone.

              ...seriously, though, the second a decent option shows up it's gone. If I never manage a decent header other than the avatar header, I'll be happy.

              2. yeah, i was thinking something along those lines. in fact, i had a background already picked out, i just need to figure out how to cut them out of the image.

                1. Too bad that road in the background isn't a consistent color. The magic wand might still be able to remove everything with a few careful selections, leaving the cop's arm as the only hard point.

                    1. I don't have Photoshop either. GIMP has it though, so I'm sure many other programs do as well.

                    2. i gonna have to wait until i get home either way.

                      (speaking of things done at home, spooky: i think you still have the rhu_ru_rejected f-bomb banner in the rotation)

      1. seen on The Dish, from one of Sullivan's readers:

        Well, at least somebody from Vancouver can score on the road.

  8. Would anyone be interested in taking tonight's game recap duty? We are trying to get ready for Elder Daughter's graduation open house, and my honey-do list is longer than a Harmon Killebrew home run. If any of the other recappers wants to swap a day, I'd be up for that, too.

  9. NBA TV is playing old drafts today. Coincidentally, I won't be getting anything done today.

        1. No, I think he'll pair up nicely with last year's pick for a solid high-low combination.

          1. Anyone else remember how, at the point of "last year's pick", Sid said he was the best player in the draft? That was cool.

        1. I thought that was Isaiah Rider?

          Seriously though, what's the story on why he changed? It took me forever to realize they were the same guy, and I never really heard why.

          1. According to Craig Sager he changed he no longer wanted to be called JR once he made it to the pros. He went so far as to have "Isiah 34" tattooed on his chest before the draft. When asked what would have happened were he drafted by the Suns with Barkley wearing #34 he said, "we would have to figure that out, maybe flip a coin or something"

            I can't believe he wasn't a perennial MVP.

            1. As a relative newcomer to Wolfandom, it is good to watch these old drafts to get a flavor of what the good old days were like. Did you get to see Felton Spencer and Luc Longley taken in consecutive years? That. Was. Awesome.

              1. I am going to soak it all in today. I am really enjoying Craig Sager trying respond to answers like "well, you know Craig, I really wasn't trying that hard in college".

                Really Atlanta, you thought Doug Edwards was a good pick after hearing that?

        2. He promised he would win it if they let him play in his post draft interview!

  10. The NCAA threatens to punish Kentucky for saying Calipari has 500 wins when 42 of those were vacated at other schools. Once I stopped laughing about this, I wanted to point out a few things. One, Calipari was cleared of wrongdoing in each instance. Okay, more chortling. Two, seriously, you were going to punish Kentucky for this???? Three, I wonder how many of Calipari's wins at Kentucky will eventually be vacated.

    The NCAA is AWESOME!

  13. I just wanted to update everyone on AL Central division odds:

    Rot American League Central To Win Moneyline
    221 Chicago White Sox +150
    222 Cleveland Indians +400
    223 Detroit Tigers -110
    224 Kansas City Royals +5000
    225 Minnesota Twins +1200

    The Twins, to my knowledge, maxed out at +8000 to win the division. I might know a guy who has slips at +7500, +5000, +4000. Minnesota is also now +9000 to win the World Series. The lowest price I saw them at was +25000. I might also know a guy who has a slip at that price. The World Series is pretty unlikely, sure, but those division bets are at least looking pretty interesting right now.

    Let's go Twins.

    1. I'm surprised the White Sox are at +150 when they will lose the next 14 games they play against the Twins. Even if the Twins don't win, I think that kind of futility would make it hard to win the division.

    4. Did you happen to notice the highest price that Cleveland was at? Those were some pretty dumb odds on Cleveland for a while.

        1. So in roughly a month, I think their implied odds have fallen from something like 66% to 20%. 66% was pretty crazy in the first place, though.

          1. I can't imagine they got a lot of action at that price. To be fair, it isn't really a "sharp" bet to play futures so you don't see a lot of gamblers discussing in-season future bets.

            1. Don't the bookies usually set the odds, roughly speaking, to maximize the action they get?

              1. A bookie's job description is essentially to maximize action and minimize risk for betting outlets, yeah. I know one, and it sounds like a fairly dangerous profession.

            2. And given that you'd be guaranteed to lose money if you bet on each team of the division to win it, I could see why a lot of people would stay away, but the idea that anyone would have taken Cleveland at -200 seems crazy.

  14. From the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon Dept, I wanted to mention that the PBS Kids and Twin Cities Public Television series SciGirls is up for some daytime Emmys (Outstanding Children's Series; New Approaches, Daytime Series).

    fellow Carl and classmate Emily Stevens is the managing producer.

  15. So Ms Buffalo tells me to pick all of the flowers off of her dill plant while she is at work today. No problem I say. I go out, I dutifully pick each of the flowers off of the plant. Now I can't get this stink off of my hands. Who would have thought this stupid flowers would be so pungent?

    2. This is ridiculous and pretentious. The only difference between the Japanese iced method and Dunkin Donuts is the vessel it is brewed in. Yes, a chemex produces a better product than an autodrip brewer, ergo the "Japanese iced method" is better than Dunkin Donuts but jiminy crickets, don't be all jerk-ish about it.

      I don't take my hot coffee at 200 degrees as suggested. Even in the cold of winter I add a couple of ice cubes to my coffee. In the morning, I boil my water, add it to the grounds in the french press and then I drop 5 ice cubes into the french press to cool the water a little. Should I call this the Franco-Buffalo cooling method?

      Ugh. The Coffee world has become so full of itself. Everybody takes their coffee a little different. Some people add caramel, others brew in an aeropress, some people prefer espresso, others like their coffee around 100 degrees rather than 200. Let's stop talking like anyone else is a simpleton. Jerks.

      1. I knew I could get you riled up, Hit Man. Those Coffee Nazis quoted in the piece are hilarious.

        1. As one who lives in the land of coffee, I can speak to the two ridiculously different versions of coffee snob. On one hand, you've got those who love good coffee, love talking about it and want to hear everything you have to say about it. The others have found the perfect brew, and you're stupid.

          Watching the two types interact is better than vaudeville.

          1. Not when it is your job and the people at the other side of the table are in the later group.

              1. How has this comment made it three hours without someone referencing your name?

        2. Do you know what Ristretto means? A shot shot of espresso. How is this even relevant to the article?!? Ugh.

      3. I suppose this would be a good place to ask the correct amount of coffee grounds to add to my french press (bodum 32/34 oz) to make some cold brew.... I know, I know, we've covered this a million times, but it's hot as balls down here and I'm missing my coffee break.

          1. I use the same amount as I would normally (for regular-strength french press), but let it steep for 12-24 hours. 1/2 cup sounds about right. Salt? Huh.

            when I use the Toddy, I use a lot more grounds to make the brew ~double strength, then dilute with water for each cup.

            1. The salt helps counter any bitterness that might have developed during brewing. If I get really good coffee, I may not use it, but for the regular stuff I end up buying because I forgot to go get the good stuff, I use some.

                1. Hmmm, that I don't know. I'll make it without salt for Sunday and compare notes.

      4. So, you wouldn't mock me for preferring my coffee strong, creamy but non-dairy, and 125 degrees?
        With about 1/4 tsp of sugar but none is better than a full tsp.
        I had a few people at work question my masculinity for pouring in multiple tbsp of ND creamer.
        It's the only time I've ever felt that my office was junior high.

        I've broken my regular coffee habit, but when I was a regular I'd pour a cup and then take a shower and get ready for my day in every way, and have it the last thing before I left.

        (I also don't like my beer ultacold or whatever Coors light wants me to know that it is.)

        1. It is so funny. I have spent the past 7.5 years working in the coffee industry and the jokers behind the counter treat the customers who order strange beverages with such disdain. Nevermind that these people afford them getting their paychecks, it is totally not cool to think of it like that.

          1. I think some of that might depend on where you live. Out here, baristas are almost more surprised when you don't order something strange. I ask for my favorite thing, which is just a regular menu item, and they go "Hey, an easy one!"

            1. i spent a good 5 years in the industry, and sometimes the odd order was annoying, but it became less so the more you made it (i.e. they become regulars). overall though, i didn't mind it so much. one exception: there was this really weird chick who came in infrequently enough that i wouldn't have noticed, but she was nutty enough that she was memorable. she had this weird, flat, monotone voice, except for the occasional word: "and i will also have an almond CWAH-SAAANN." also, she'd get lattes, but she's always but a differnt monin syrup shot in there, like pistachio. or strawberry. *sigh* good times.

              and baristas love me now. "coffee. large. black."

          2. Well, I don't ask for it that way when I'm buying it. In that case, I just ask for "Coffee, with room for cream", put a bunch of ND in it, plus a touch of sugar, and then wait 15-20 minutes or so before drinking any. I've never been much for the fancy coffeeshop variations, so I go the more economical route.

            1. I like mine black, no sugar, but, as my friend Mungowitz likes to say, "You can't go to the Preference Store". To each his own.

    1. by the angle, it looks like a stolen base attempt.

      other clues: 1995 card, whitaker.

      1. Whitaker had no stolen bases against the Twins in 1994 (only 2 steal attempts all year). And none in 1993 either.

    2. Whitaker's career overlaps with Knoblauch's for 1991-1995. If we start with hj's guess that it's a stolen base, then that leaves 19 SB and 9 CS available.

      I see none in 1994 or 1993 against the Twins at one in 1992, at Tiger Stadium. But he stole third. Time to go earlier..

        1. on June 17, 1994, he singled in the 6th, advanced to second on a ground ball single into the SS-3b hole.

          that appears to be the only candidate from 1994.

          1. It does kind of look like Knoblauch's body is facing 3rd. He also appears to be on the 3b side of 2nd, which is where his momentum would carry him on such a play.

            Also, those are my two favorite 2b from when I was playing.

          2. That's his only game in 1994 (per Mag's formerly working link), and it matches. The two 1993 games do not match (never reaches second and doubles to left respectively). Two 1992 games as well, but neither matches (doubled and moved to second on a walk for first game, second game moved to second by HBP). Checking the three in 1991...

            1. Also, if you're looking on my results including weather, I'm not sure how accurate their system is (say it decided to get really overcast after the 4th inning, how is that filed) and whether they have data on every game, so the list may not be complete.

          3. I think it's that game. There's a close match in 1991, but it's a 3-4 forceout at second.

            1. It's not like a card company to use and old photo (remember, back then there was no monopoly -- card companies had competition), so I'm sure this is a '94 game. I know Whitaker didn't steal much, so my assumption was that it was an attempt to make a force play at second, so...well done, guys!

            1. crax. How did that happen? I was pretty sure that I looked at the date header. I must have glanced at the CoC tab in the midst of that and gotten confused.

              Sorry to have ruined a perfectly serendipitous interpretation of the trivia question.

    3. If you go to PlayFinder and do Twins @ Tigers, 91-95, sunny, times on base>=1 for Whitaker, you get 9 results.

      Edit: That link was FUBAR'ed and now PlayFinder is being whiny.

      1. If you have a subscription, then I recommend saving the results. Makes it much easier to share and use for research purposes.

        1. Everything I think "I should get a PI subscription" I talk myself out of it. "You won't use it enough," I tell myself. Then I hit situations like this multiple times per week and I wish I had one.

  19. @JoeCStrib: #Twins vs. #Padres LH Richard: Revere 8, Casilla 4, Mauer 2, Cuddyer 3, Young 7, Valencia 5, Nishioka 6, Hughes DH, Repko 9. (Duensing P)

    Getting closer...

    1. APkrawczynski
      Oh that zany Nishi. Wearing a cowboy hat while taking grounders.

      hilarious

  20. I just got the F-bomb banner. Shouldn't there be an open refrigerator laying on its side next to him?

          1. I was thinking more along the lines of the fridge comment and a certain Harrison Ford movie.

            1. I know. I'm for the fridge as an homage to that masterpiece, or just put those two on top of the mushroom cloud. Either one is a winner.

  21. According to Phil Mackey it seems that Nishi is a smoker. I would like for this to influence us in the nicknaming process.

    2. Japanese smoker? sounds like a company man to me.

      but "Nintendo" still sounds like the leader in the clubhouse.

      3. Personally, I find nintendo to be mildly offensive. I don't have any better suggestions, but those are my 2¢

        1. Why?

          a serious question, meat. What makes "Nintendo" offensive?

          (according to The Repository's entry on the company, "The name Nintendo can be roughly translated from Japanese to English as "leave luck to heaven".")

          1. I'm not answering for meat, but the commenter who used it at SSS seemed to be using it in the old "These names are hard and weird so I'll use one of the three Japanese words I know" manner.

            1. I mean, I don't know, nintendo seems to imply that the names are too hard to pronounce so I'll just shorten it to something generally recognizable in the west signifying japanese culture. What would the difference be if we called the dude toyota? It's not inherently racist to associate a nickname with a cultural product , but I tend to think of the Wgom as more creative than that.

            2. the commenter who used it at SSS seemed to be using it in the old "These names are hard and weird so I'll use one of the three Japanese words I know" manner

              Can the commenter pronounce Pierzynski and spell it with a reasonable degree of accuracy? Is it extraordinarily easy to cut/paste a word whose spelling you haven't mastered (I'm sure there were a fair number of Twins bloggers who were doing exactly this early this spring)? Would the commenter be likely to call Nishioka "Nintendo" if he played on the South Side?

              I think it's pretty safe to assume the commenter meant something less than admirable.

              1. I read it as "I clemenate that team so much that I refuse to bother to look it up."
                But that's the generous interpretation I'm giving, and I recognize that there are less charitable readings.

        2. The "Nintendo" thing, for me, was in mockery of the commenter on SSS yesterday who was definitely saying it in the hopes of being racist.

          However, since that's obviously not going to be clear to passers-by, I should probably avoid it altogether rather than use it as a parody.

          1. we obviously read that piece differently. I read it as intentionally over-the-top ranting and didn't take any of it seriously. "Nintendo" sounds vaguely Japanese (because it is Japanese) and has cultural significance in the U.S. because of the company's longstanding video game business. And it starts with the same sound (more or less) as his actual family name.

            On the other hand, if not for the earthquake, we'd be calling Nishioka "Tsunami" and not batting an eye. Also a Japanese word. Also a word that starts with the same sound (more or less) as his actual personal name.

            what is the difference? I'm clearly missing something, but have no idea what it is.

            1. I'm not talking about the piece, I'm talking about a comment on the piece at the site that was made by, in my eyes, a guy with clear racial issues.

              1. ah, right. I re-looked and realized that the rant never mentioned Nishioka, just the commenter. Re-reading the comment, I don't see anything that you could clearly label as racist, other than the intentional munging of his name.

                Tashaki Nintendo has landed on my shit list
                That back handed flip to the at the end the of an inning just really struck a nerve with me. If this was Jeter, Reyes, or someone who’s actually accomplished something in the USA, then I could accept it, but not some bum who just came back from the DL after Swisher broke his leg…

                Is the mocking of an "ethnic" name inherently racist? Hmm. Maybe.

                When we make "Wang" jokes, are we being racist? When we refer to "Doucheixeira" are we being racist? Hmm. Maybe.

                I guess I can see room for the argument here. I'd like to hear from the Citizenry, 'though. Should we back off on the "Wang" jokes re: Chien-Ming Wang? Are there other lines being crossed in mocking players by transforming their names into joke materials?

                I've generally seen these as harmless and NOT mean-spirited, therefore not racist or otherwise crossing a line, but perhaps I'm wrong. What say you all?

                1. In my opinion, the fact that it was on SSS means it is almost 100% likely that the intent was to be entirely offensive with the worst possible intentions. They just seem to suck like that.

                  1. yea, but that doesn't really affect our use of the nickname, does it?

                    and more importantly, what are your thoughts on the larger questions?

                    1. Heh, I haven't had a chance to think deep enough about it yet, I just wanted to take a jab at that place even though no one from there will ever read it.

              2. I think the fact that we take "Wang," an established dirty word over here and play around with it, to be way different from intentionally bludgeoning a name to come up with...not much.

                On my floor in college, about half the dudes were Japanese. The "Tashaki Nintendo" thing was right up the alley of guys who spoke in hushed tones about how these guys maybe didn't really belong with the rest of us, while those of us who played on words to get other words were clearly playing a different game, and our friends from the east were in on it.

                For me, this comes down to intent. I tend to be on the defensive about racism against Asians because of my college experience, but that commenter reads like a textbook racist to me. I do hope I'm wrong, though.

                1. Yeah, I felt this was closer on the scale to the UCLA girl ranting about Chinese people saying "ching chong ding dong" than giggling over the name Wang.

                2. I don't find it offensive (although I may be too far to the lenience side here, if anyone remembers what I thought of Native American team names excluding the Washington Football team).

                  I'm not particularly fond of it though, and I doubt I'd use it.

            2. I personally wouldn't want to give Nintendo any more free advertising. I think the problem with using that nickname is it is used because both are Japanese. The Wang jokes having nothing to do with it being Chinese, just that it is a common nickname for genitals. We also make Boehner and Weiner jokes, so race has nothing to do with it. I think it is always better to tread lightly in such situations, especially when there is no real purpose to do it in the first place.

                1. I was more referring to this particular generation of gaming consoles. If we want to open it up to every video game ever made, then we'd have to over-analyze this for a while.

                  360>Wii

                  The PS3 exists in a quantum state, neither known nor unknown.

            3. There's nothing wrong with the Xbox!

              Hey, other Xbox using people, you can add me on Live if you'd like: Zack Money. We can enjoy our consoles together.

    1. From Joe C:

      Update: Jim Thome (strained quad/back) is close to game-ready in Florida. He’ll get some at-bats down there, and then the Twins must decide whether to activate him for their six-game road trip to NL parks in San Francisco and Milwaukee. ...

      * The Twins want Joe Nathan (strained flexor muscle) to pitch in 2-3 games for Class AAA Rochester, including back-to-back days. Manager Ron Gardenhire hinted at next Friday as the target day for Nathan’s return.

    1. ongtime club observers say this is the biggest mishap by the team since New Prague hobby farmer Joe "Junior" Ortiz wandered into the Metrodome by accident and became the team's backup catcher in 1990 and 1991.

    1. A no-trade clause that is limited to three teams. If Oakland and Toronto are two of the teams, then that shouldn't be a problem whatsoever.

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