All posts by Philosofer

2019 Twins Game Logs

Game 68: Your Minnesota Twins Honor Former Twin Joe Mauer By Playing The KC Royals

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We start Joe Mauer Number Retirement Weekend with Purple Prince Twins Jersey Night at Target Field. Man, this is a good weekend for Minnesota stuff, isn't it? Prince and Mauer? Nice. Also, our town just got a Townball team, and they wear purple jerseys, and their first ever home game is tonight too. So this is one of those fate things, right? Gonna be a great weekend for Minnesota baseball.

Let's hope the team can get going on an actual winning streak here tonight. They're pitching Gibson, who didn't do so hot against KC when he faced them in April (4.2 innings, 5 earned runs in a game the Twins ultimately won 7-6). But that was April, and no one knew the Twins were the best team in baseball back then, so I expect the Royals will just lay down this time for Kyle.

Meanwhile, the Twins are going to be purple raining bombas all over the place, and hopefully everyone can just sit back, relax, and enjoy a beautiful Minnesota summer weekend. This is the good life.

2019 Twins Game Logs

Game 62: Twins at Tigers

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Tonight the Twins start the final leg of their long road trip with the first of 3 in Detroit. A year ago we probably would have looked at that series in Cleveland and thought it showed promise - they had a chance to win all three games! This year... it feels like a let down. Hopefully they can turn things around against the Tigers (well, hopefully they turned it around last night with the win...).

Pineda has been called up from the IL, and hopefully he's able to quickly find his stuff again, because the Twins are facing Matthew Boyd, who has some pretty impressive numbers. Of course, he gets beat when he gives up the long ball, and the Twins... they hit those. So maybe you'll want to add multiple names to your HR guess list tonight.

In other news, Philosofette's surgery went well, and she's home and on the mend, though that'll be a long process. Hopefully the Twins can help keep her spirits up!

2019 Twins Game Logs

Game 56: Twins at Tampa Bay

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Well, that wasn't a lot of fun yesterday. The Twins are in the midst of a tough stretch - 2 against the Brewers, 4 at Tampa Bay, and 3 at Cleveland. I'd circled these games on my calendar a month ago, figuring that these would be the games that would really tell us what we had on our hands. I'm enjoying the heck out of beating up on middling (or worse) teams. But it'd be great to hang with the best. That Brewers series suggested we could - especially with a bullpen upgrade - but after last night's game, a bounce back in Tampa Bay would be huge.

For some reason I have it in my head that trips to Tampa Bay are kind of like playing against NY or Toronto for the Twins. Teams that just seem to play them tough. It's my hope that Baldelli knows exactly how to shift gears for this team when they need it. There's a part of me that would give him an awful lot of credit if the Twins can end up with a winning record in the stretch I mentioned above.

Hopefully it also help to have Berrios on the mound - he's due for a dominant performance. Ideally the offense will show up, and then some, with an answer game. Tampa Bay is using an opener tonight, and I feel like that's the kind of thing that never quite works out like its supposed to, so hopefully that's the case again.

Friday Music Day

FMD 5/31/19 – Summer Mix Time

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Not sure if I'm the one to put this together, or if someone else wants to step up (I'll happily defer, given that I won't get to it for a while), but I thought we should at least get nominations for a 2019 summer mix.

Same approach as usual - nominate 3 songs, at least 1 is guaranteed to make it, with heavy preference given to the first song you list. Or something like that.

Also, feel free to talk summer music more generally today, or drop you random 10's, or whatever you like.

2019 Twins Game Logs

Game 50: White Sox @ Minnesota

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Here's a little secret: I'm actually more worried about the White Sox than I am the Indians. The White Sox have been building for a little bit, while Cleveland is definitely on the decline. I felt this way last year too, though maybe I was a little early in that worry. It just feels like all of a sudden all of the White Sox' prospects are going to hit their stride.

But the Twins are pitching Jose Berrios, which makes me think that tonight will not be the night that the White Sox hit their stride.

Reynaldo Lopez goes for Chicago. He has apparently been better of late, but gives up lots of fly balls. And the Twins often turn fly balls into 4-base hits, so... we might as well start spookying now!

2019 Twins Game Logs

Game 44: Twins at Mariners

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So May 17th is a somewhat infamous day in Twins history. The way I see it, every year that they don't add to bad history is a win. And a win is like a double win.

The Twins'll pitch Perez against the Mariner's Marco Gonzales, who has been pretty solid this year. Hopefully they'll get to him early, so, like last night, folks can go to bed in the confidence that the bullpen will hold on.

Here's hoping for a double win!

Friday Music Day

FMD: 5/17/1981 – We Bought A Piano!

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So last week I found an old upright piano on craigslist. My family had looked at pianos for some time, but hadn't ever quite found a match. This was just a little one, without the huge full top, and it seemed like it would be perfect for the kids to maybe take lessons on. Or not. Just having a piano is awesome. Really, it's been a dream of mine ever since I was about in early high school...

See, my parents loved the idea of us growing up with a piano. They managed to find a free one, not far from where we lived, but they had to haul it. So they borrowed my uncle, and his truck, loaded it up, and set back home. I remember I was watching my brothers and sister, waiting anxiously. We had a split level, and so we'd have to carry the piano straight up the stairs immediately upon getting it in the door, and I was going to have to help. It was a big project. I remember the truck pulling in the driveway... no piano to be seen. My mom, dad, and uncle got out, and they were just laughing, harder than I'd ever seen. Eventually we were able to get the story out of them. "We were driving so slow," Dad said, "everything was perfect. But there was that curve... and as we went around it, the piano... it just started sliding to the other side of the truck... and then it just kept sliding." They held up a broken piece of wood. "It was shattered, on the side of the road," Mom continued, "and your dad gets out, and he looks at this twisted pile of wood and metal, and he says 'Do you think we can fix it?'" With this, they burst into laughter again, and directed us kids to go move the piano from the truck bed, piece by piece, to the firewood pile. Honestly, we had the best fires ever that summer.

So before I got ours, I had to figure out transport. I spent forever looking up how to move pianos, whether I should hire someone, etc. Ultimately, I arranged to borrow a truck and a trailer, and recruited my brother-in-law, after figuring out how to move a piano with just two guys. It turned out I put a lot of time figuring out the right ways to turn and flip pianos for nothing, since this was light enough that the two of us were able to carry it. We drove the 45 minutes, loaded it up - strapped it down like nobody's business - and drove back. And it was $75. Which, all told, is a pretty darn painless way to end up with a piano.

I've been tinkering on it just about every day. I don't know how to play piano, except for "Twinkle, Twinkle" or "Heart and Soul". But it's so much fun. I've decided to start teaching myself a few other songs, and already have part of "Werewolves of London" down. My kids enjoy it too, but they're less sure about it, since they know practice = work.

Anyway, we've got a piano now. And I love it.

If you've got any piano stories. Or tips. Or songs a beginner should aspire to play. Or a list you want to drop... whatever! Chime in. It's looking like a good day!

2019 Twins Game Logs

2019 Game 26: Tigers @ Twins

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You know what I think was a good decision? Letting Ron Gardenhire go. I mean that in the nicest way possible. He seems like a nice enough fella, and he's pretty funny at times. But man, I'm just not worried about a team he's managing. Ron Gardenhire returns with his Tigers to Minnesota inspires... I dunno... maybe sympathy?

True story... google "Tigers Manager". The photo that pops up is of Ron Gardenhire. In a Twins cap. Anyway, let's hope that's how the Twins own the Tigers this weekend too.

Tyson Ross goes for the Tigers tonight against Odorizzi, whose name often makes me think of "Rizzo", which actually makes me think of both the rat and the character from Grease, and then later on it dawns on me that there's a ballplayer by that name too. Alright, I think that's my cue to step aside. Let's keep the winning streak going tonight!

2019 Twins Game Logs

2019 Game Logs: Game 30 – Good @ Evil

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Here we are. The Yankees. The Twins have looked good so far, but looking good is what the Yankees start doing well before they even step on the field. Most teams in baseball struggle to sustain success. The Yankees, with all their resources, find it hard to avoid. I suppose they struggle to sustain failure - they're gonna end up good, without even trying.

Yes, the Yankees have had injuries. No, this isn't the absolute best lineup or pitching staff that NY could have fielded. But it's still darn scary. And it's especially scary because there's a, let's say, "excruciatingly painful", history of when the Twins and Yankees play in May.

But maybe this iteration of the Twins will be something different. Maybe Nelson Cruz and whoever is playing catcher tonight will each hit 3 bombs, because that's what they seem to do. Maybe we'll get Good Gibson showing up to embarrass James Paxton. Maybe Aaron Boone will be dared by his bench coach into having every player only sacrifice bunt, no matter the circumstance. And maybe he'll actually take that dare. I sure hope so.

Or maybe it'll just be some good baseball, either way. I sure hope for that too.

The Nation Has An Appetite

The Nation Has An Appetite – On The Grill

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First, let me disappoint you: I've no recipes or photos or any such to share. There, now that that's out of the way...

I spent a lot of time last night cleaning my grill. I've got a 3 burner gas grill that's about 8 years old. I've used it an absolute ton, but for the past 2.5 years it was in storage. And, apparently, it was put into storage without my having done a deep clean first (we were moving, and, if I remember correctly, it was one of those "well, we've got room for it in this truck, so it's going now, even if you're not ready for it" situations). I usually do a good clean at the start of the summer and another sometime in the fall, but grills are... well, they're tough.

I mostly used soap, water, and lots of elbow grease. Paper towels, sponges, some steel-wool type of thing designed for grills, and cloths all got used. It looks a heck of a lot better, and I'm excited to take it out for a test run this weekend. I need to get a propane tank filled first, so there's a part of me that's still nervous it won't light up, after having been packed away for so long. Let's hope!

Anyway, I thought this was as good a time as any to broach the grilling topic. Summer is upon us... what do you have, what do you wish you had, how do you manipulate what you do have to make it do what you want (I'm thinking about Meat's post (it was Meat, right?) where he converted the old Weber... that was cool)? And what tools do you use? What do you use for cleaning? (I've heard horror stories of bristles coming off and puncturing internal body parts when accidentally consumed... I don't know about the truth of these, but that's the kind of thing that might give you pause) What do you avoid? What other tools do you use for cooking on the grill (I've got a grill tray that I adore, and every time I make anything else I try to throw a bunch of veggies on the tray. Always steps up the meal a notch or two.)?

And, of course, if you've got an recipes or recommendations for grilling... by all means, please do share.