My big brother had an awesome record collection when I was a kid. He'd get jobs flipping burgers or whatever so he could spend the money on albums. When he was out working or at football or band practice, I'd sneak into his room and listen to them. I got acquainted with a lot of great music that way. Thanks, Bro. And sorry about the sneakin'.
httpv://youtu.be/u0iuaxvkXv4
(4 votes, average: 8.00 out of 10)
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This is the time of year when teams are either playing to make the playoffs or playing spoiler. Tonight's series opener against the Cleveland Clevelanders at Target Field pits the former against the latter. Cleveland is seven games out of first place in the division but just four games back in the wild card race. Picking up one game a week on Detroit positions them for a shot at the division title, while picking up just a half game a week in the wild card race puts them within spitting distance of a playoff slot.
Continue reading 2013 Game 116: I Won’t Call Them Indians vs. Twins
I remember watching John Hartford pick the banjo and guitar on the old Glen Campbell show as a kid. The running gag on the show was that John never really spoke, he just let his music do the talking. Sometime around 1980 or so I went to see him at the old Guthrie Theater with some friends. He sang this song that night. It's been one of my very favorites ever since, and it takes on more poignancy with each passing year. You youngsters can check out a David Mayfield tribute cover here, and a Gregory Alan Isakov version here.
httpv://youtu.be/996TpkBH2gk
(4 votes, average: 7.75 out of 10)Loading... 
KANSAS CITY - The Minnesota Twins and the Kansas City Royals baseball teams will play a series of games against each other this week, according to public documents released by both teams and confirmed by Major League Baseball officials. Continue reading 2013 Game 109: MN @ KC
While none of us have had a lot of recent experience seeing the Royals atop the Twins in the standings, there was a time when the more wrinkled and bent among us did. Back when pant-legs were still short and stirrup socks were long, when free agency and the designated hitter rule were busy destroying the game as we knew it, back before expansion and realignment and wild cards made a mockery of what winning a pennant was all about, and when lawns were gloriously free of trespassers, the Kansas City Royals were an elite ball club in the seven-team American League West, perennial contenders who made it to the more exclusive playoffs seven times between 1976 and 1985 and won the World Series in the final year of that stretch. (Suck on that sentence, Mr. Faulkner.) The Royals rosters back in those days were a litany of greats -- George Brett, Steve Balboni, Frank White, Hal McRae, Bret Saberhagen, Dan Quisenberry and Charlie Liebrandt to name a few. But then the team fell on hard times.
Continue reading 2013 Game 103: KC George Alexanders vs. MN Emily & Marens
Okay, I'll be completely honest. This picture represents the foundation of why I really, really don't like the Angels. Oh, I understand that my dislike is largely misplaced, that had Calvin Griffith not been a tightwad of Biblical proportion and, let's face it, more than just a bit of a racist, Carew might has spent his entire career with the Twins. Continue reading 2013 Game 96: Gemini v. Seraphim
Making assumptions is a necessary part of diagnosing mechanical problems, and of living life in general. But like most things, there are good and bad assumptions. Good assumptions based on empirical evidence, factual information, experience and knowledge can be quite helpful. But bad assumptions, as Robert Pirsig reminds us in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, are traps to be avoided as they can mislead, direct you down dead-ends, and greatly complicate the task at hand.
I had a pretty nice game log all ready to go today, but we won't be using it because it's on my laptop. I'm writing this on my backup PC, which I built about the same time that Gardy took over as manager of the Twins. It's slow. Painfully slow. Matt LeCroy slow. Sloths laugh at things this slow. But it's all I've got until I can eradicate the apparent malware that has basically bricked my laptop.
The Twins open a 4-game series tonight against the team we all love to hate. The Yankees send 41-year-old Andy Pettitte to the mound. We know what he can do. He's beat the Twins in his last seven starts against the hometown nine. The Twins counter with Scott Diamond, who has struggled in has past few starts while posting a 1-3 record since June 2nd. But for once it actually feels like the Twins match up pretty well with the banged-up Bombers sans ARod and the Cap'n. We'll see.
Play ball!
Mrs. Twayn: Turn on the TV, the game's on.
Twayn: No it isn't, the game's not on until tonight.
Mrs. Twayn: Turn on the TV, the game's on.
In other words, I spaced out the early game time.
I'm trying to imagine what it must be like to have a a tornado more than a mile wide with winds up to 300 miles per hour bearing down on you. The worst of the storm that devastated Moore, OK went south of where my Oklahoma City relatives live, and it's a bad one. Best wishes to everyone in the storm's path.
After a pretty miserable home stand against teams with stocking fetishes, the Twins take to the road for a little interleague play. The last time the Twins played the Braves in Atlanta the two teams were locked in an epic and immortal clash of talent and will to claim the world championship of baseball. This series doesn't promise to hold the same level of drama and intensity as that one.
To start this one off the Twins will trot Kevin Correia to the mound. With a a 4-3 record and a 3.35 ERA he's been as solid a starting pitcher as we have so far this year, and with all his time in the National League he should be able to avoid looking completely lost with a bat in his hand. The Braves send Julio Teheran to the mound tonight. Just 22 years old, Teheran has posted a 14-to-1 K/BB rate in his last 25 innings pitched, which would seem to indicate a decent level of control. We'll see.
Play ball!