All posts by The Dread Pirate

November 21, 1998: Random Day in Twins History

I used a random number generator to pick a season from the past with the idea that I would quickly highlight the Twins history that occurred today in that year.  The generator sent me to the year 1998.

The Twins concluded a sixth-consecutive losing season in 1998 and began to finally embrace a full rebuild.   Relatively cheap veterans Greg Swindell, Bob Tewksbury, Mike Morgan, Otis Nixon, and Orlando Merced were all traded during the season or allowed to leave as free agents.  Paul Molitor finally retired.

The STrib's John Millea noted, "Don't be surprised if the 1999 season is Tom Kelly's last as manager of the team.  The payroll is getting smaller, the players are getting younger, and Kelly's patience continues to wear thin.  He is at his best when the clubhouse is full of veterans who have been through the wars and earned their stripes.  Kelly is not exactly the fatherly type when it comes to youngsters, and sometimes that has resulted in strained relationships that can hinder the ballclub's progress."

Well, that wasn't entirely true.  1999 wasn't Kelly's last season with the team, although the payroll did get smaller and the roster got younger.  Who knows how Kelly's patience wore.  The sentence about striped veterans is the type of non-factual, journalistic mumbo-jumbo that would make Ken Tremendous a cult hero within years.

On this date, Terry Steinbach had filed for free agency and the Twins were mulling whether to bring him back.  Their internal candidates were Javier Valentin and A.J. Pierzynski, and the team did not believe either was fully ready for the next season.  Still, the team had been disappointed with Steinbach's production behind the plate the previous two years.

Postscript: On January 4, the Twins finally re-signed Steinbach.  Despite being nearly ready, it would take Pierzynski two more years to become the starting catcher mainly due to some, um, maturity issues.  One wonders at the official number of "wars" Pierzynski has endured in his career.

Did You Know that David Ortiz played in 86 games, and Torii Hunter played in 6 games that season?  On the mound, Eric Milton started 32 games that year.  Hunter has been retired for one season, and Ortiz just retired.  Milton was just 105 days older than Ortiz, and just 122 days older than Hunter, but  has not played in a game since June 27, 2009 even though he earned more than $47 million in his career.

Did You Also Know that the winning pitcher in Milton's last game was King Felix?

Furthermore, Did You Know that the final hitter Milton faced was Junior Griffey?

May 21, 2016: Laziness

It's five minutes to noon, and no one has put on a new cup.  The weather outside is just perfect.  All in all, it looks like a lazy Saturday.*

That reminds me, I finally got around to registering for the MS 150 this morning.  If you're interested in helping me raise some money to continue to fund research to fight MS, my donation page is here.

*If spooky is working today, I hope he counts the number of tumblewoods that blow past.

Father Knows Best: Routines

Now that the Valet is eleven months old, he's pretty comfortable with his daily routine. He wakes, eats, poops, and naps on a consistent schedule for the most part. Thankfully, this gives us a decent amount of flexibility for our days because we know what times are "locked in" for him.

Anyway, last weekend I had the opportunity to be a single parent. I stuck to the schedule for the big activities (which meant I watched a lot of EPL because that was prime time for playing with toys in the living room) and they all went smoothly. Except sleep. He would not fall asleep.

 

On Saturday, he fought his morning nap for four hours (despite clear signals of needing sleep) before finally crashing and taking a much longer than usual nap. Then, at bedtime, he was extraordinarily sleepy but fought out for an hour despite books, rocking, bouncing, and lullabies (mainly 90s alternative music). On Sunday, he took just a twenty minute nap the entire day.

Sleepiness was clearly not the issue. Instead, it seemed that in his zombie stage, he finally would notice that mom hadn't been around and that would set him off. Strange, because I put him to sleep at least half the time when we're both around.

I have no idea what, if anything, I could have tried differently. Oh well, everyone survived and the house didn't burn down on my watch.

 

Vampire Weekend – Diane Young

Thanks to the powers that be for letting me spin one extra track.

Anyway, we've been singing the bridge to this song around the house the past month or two (starting around the 45-second mark).  Without even connecting the dots, Sheenie suggested Diane as a girl's name she really likes.

httpv://youtu.be/4Smn0LBL-64

4 votes, average: 8.50 out of 104 votes, average: 8.50 out of 104 votes, average: 8.50 out of 104 votes, average: 8.50 out of 104 votes, average: 8.50 out of 104 votes, average: 8.50 out of 104 votes, average: 8.50 out of 104 votes, average: 8.50 out of 104 votes, average: 8.50 out of 104 votes, average: 8.50 out of 10 (4 votes, average: 8.50 out of 10)
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The National – Fake Empire

This song goes out to Coach K.  Maybe instead of tearing others down, you should work on winning a few games.  On the bright side, Tyus Jones looks to be an admirable young man since he's choosing to go to a rebuilding program rather than more local one that recently won a tourney game like NDSU.

http://youtu.be/AZyvpH121Jo

4 votes, average: 9.50 out of 104 votes, average: 9.50 out of 104 votes, average: 9.50 out of 104 votes, average: 9.50 out of 104 votes, average: 9.50 out of 104 votes, average: 9.50 out of 104 votes, average: 9.50 out of 104 votes, average: 9.50 out of 104 votes, average: 9.50 out of 104 votes, average: 9.50 out of 10 (4 votes, average: 9.50 out of 10)
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