Opening Day. Just remember what A. Bartlett Giamatti said. This game is meant to break your heart.
Today the Minnesota Twins baseball club will challenge the Chicago White Sox team to commence the 2014 Major League Baseball regular season. Leave us not have illusions about what the Twins can reasonably pull off this year, but leave us neither let that temper our enjoyment of the game and the team we love.
Today the Twins send Ricky Nolasco to the mound as their Opening Day starter. The White Sox counter with Chris Sale. Both pitchers enter the season undefeated, so it should be an evenly matched contest.
Play ball!
The real question is how long will it be into the season before I mute Hawk Harrelson?
Dozier reads the lineup. Somehow, even after all these years, it still surprises me when players speak with anything but a midwestern dialect.
I was able to get off work early, woo!
I work in 45 minutes. I think this might be the first Opening Day game I've missed in some time. I'm not sure because my memory is failing, but it seems like I usually get this day off.
Cough, cough. Gee, I must have come down with something.
that's more tempting if the year is 2010
It was tempting since it's been since 2010.
Don't you have a giant wall of TV's to commandeer? Or does the store not have a satellite package?
Oh, I'll have the game on, for sure. And it'll be slow in there, since I'm in baseball country and it's opening day. It's just more fun to have a beer and watch with you guys.
I suspect that, even if they like wasting money by paying for satellite packages and MLB Extra Innings, there is probably a significant issue with broadcasting a game in stores.
We do waste money doing that. As for issues with the broadcast...well, I'm sure there are some, but they've never come up.
Interesting.
We have a couple of TVs set up with DirecTV to show how the TVs perform with the customer's usual programming. If the TVs in question happen to be tuned to the Twins, the tournament or the NASCAR race (based on who's working), well, what can you do?
I suppose it would be good to show something oft watched, but why wouldn't they just use DVDs of tv shows or movies and save the subscription money, unless they get a deal for featuring a particular supplier?
We subscribe to DirecTV for break room purposes, actually. Morale thing.
We end up using it on the floor because discs are going to be in better quality than the average broadcast, so we want to be honest about what customers are going to get from TV.
Fair enough.
honesty from a retailer? What is the world coming to?
I know that's the old joak, but really, what does it benefit me to lie to someone and take a bunch of returns? We're not on commission, so there's no benefit to that whatsoever.
Good point about commissions.
FSN moved their scoreboard graphic box to the lower left hand corner. Thats going to take a while to get used to.
CSN Chicago made theirs smaller but pushed it over more to the middle of the left top side. It's annoyingly obstructive.
I'm meeting up with my buddy from college who is another Iowa transplant/Twins fan in about an hour. Until then, it's off to find a stream.
You going fishing?
A half-inning, and we're not behind yet!
The Cubs fans around me are quite ecstatic for a similar reason.
I guess the Twins will have to settle for 0-0-162!
cc to hj, I've got the perfect header image for this.
haha, nice. i thought that flag image was the featured, or else i would have come up with something. however, it certainly wouldn't have been anywhere near as good as that.
Done.
Yes. Yes you do.
Mauer has fresh legs already?
SEND HIM!!
Holy cr@p, we can turn DPs this year!
Still not behind after one inning!
No hits for Mauer yet? #23million
We are not getting no hit!
This game's on pace for 90 minutes.
Still not behind after an inning and a half!
Ouch.
Come on, Twins, let's turn three!
Well, two out of three ain't bad.
And the streak is over.
Crap.
That was an impressive HR given up.
yeah, great.
sorry guys. I just tuned in.
I'm gonna go out on a limb and say it may not have been your fault.
Guys, I left the room for one freaking second.
Mauer is tall.
Hey, lots of game left. I wasn't expecting Nolasco to pitch a shutout. Let's break out the bats, boys!
Base clogger!
Hicks hit! A sign from the baseball gods!
Aaron Hicks has now equaled his times on base from 2013.*
*Ok, maybe not.
your point estimate is not statistically distinguishable from the truth.
Qualified with "through the month of April" might be even closer.
And we're not even in April yet!
Hicks April 2013: 8 hits, 1 2B.
Hicks March 2014: 2 hits, 1 2B.
Ok, so the fact that Florimon isn't a very good hitter might justify that. But with no outs, still disappointing.
I was okay with it for the reason you mentioned, that Florimon isn't very likely to get a hit anyway.
Suzuki up next? So, this inning is over.
Its not baseball season until Mauer has led off an inning.
And don't we look stupid now?
Ooh. Keep up the tough love. It's working.
Hah! Reverse jinx!
Sweet Suzuki!
in play, run(s)
Kurt Suzuki: Mr. Clutch! Intangibles, boys!
What a pro.
I have a feeling that, for the first time since 2004, we'll no longer be missing Henry Blanco this year.
Suzuki just guaranteed his starting role until at least the A-S break. Send Pinto down.
Understatement department: "Suzuki doesn't run much."
But he comes with a trailer hitch.
JMSx.
New game, boys! We're back to not-behind again!
This year's update to the At Bat app includes optional notifications for game starting, game ending, scoring plays, and lead changes. Surreptitious game checking in meetings? Yes, please.
The White Sox got a new Marney.
Boo.
Why did I bother making Nolasco K thumbnails?
Single serving use.
well, okay then.
That works even in the no-strikeout games.
Better to have them and not need them than need them and not have them.
7 hits in the first 13 plate appearances for the sox. Looks like Nolasco has that "pitch to contact thingy" down.
One of us! One of us!
Nice try. Correct answer was "Four more years! Four more years!"
Dude, Joel Maturi doesn't work for the Twins. (does he??)
Torii woulda had it.
Is Ricky Nolasco Livan Hernandez 2.0?
Not quite: See brianS below.
Dazz: "That was one of the FEW balls that they've not squared up."
Me: I'm already getting Worleyed about Rickey.
Dazz has been pretty negative on Nolasco so far. Some of that's justified, but he also hasn't gotten a lot of help from his defense, double plays notwithstanding.
Hey, we got two back before. No reason we can't do it again!
Miguel who?
Plouffe sure puts a lot of effort into not moving very fast.
There's obviously a chance Dazzle doesn't know what he's talking about, but if Suzuki is the defensive whiz he's being sold to us as, Rick Anderson shouldn't have to tell him to have Nolasco mix in some breaking balls.
Oy.
updated:
Give Willingham the Gold Glove!
161 more plays like that and I'll sign off on it
Willingham with a good defensive play?!
+1 UZR for Willingham
*quickly goes to change AL MVP prediction*
Babe De Aza
Maybe pitch around De Aza next time.
Or stop giving him meatballs.
Alejandro De Aza has now hit 32 career home runs. EIGHT have come off Twins pitching.
prior to today, he had hit 281/324/439 against the Twins in his career (185 PA), 274/336/408 overall in 1,648 PA.
Mauer sandbags Ramirez into an out.
YDNROOA.
Mauer unselfishly giving the assist to Arcia
Mauer looking horrible at first. Hammer looking good in left. Bizarro baseball.
I'm watching now, so the comeback can begin!!
6 innings & less than 6 runs, does this count as a "quality start" for a Twins starter?
Maybe that would be a "quality-type" start?
give that man a WGOM dollar
WGOM meme on a WGOM meme? Give him two!
2 hits for Hicks?
Suzuki with 3 runs batted in.
Kurt "Ribeye" Suzuki
so, the catcher is our best hitter? Who knew?
Gardy is a genius!
Bat him second!
They defensively positioned Mauer into an out.
Stupid computers.
Eduardo Escobar as pinch hitter is considered a valid choice??
Also, I'm pretty sure that Suzuki is going to retire as a Twin now.
remember Tony Batista hit a homer in his first game. Have faith.
As did Trader Clete.
Better Suzuki than Butters.
I want a Kubel sighting
agreed
Kubel + US Cellular = runs
Rally chicken sandwich time
Colabello!
It's official. Suzuki, Colabello and Hicks are the best hitters on the team.
Plouffe can join that elite company with a hit here.
Well, never mind, then.
Ooh. Arcia wanted that one.
Bah.
Welp, the Twins were not shut out!
Just 94 of these losses left!
Improvement!