Happy Birthday–April 7

John McGraw (1873)
Oral Hildebrand (1907)
Bobby Doerr (1918)
Jerry Hoffberger (1919)
Tom Phoebus (1942)
Bill Stoneman (1944)
Pete Van Wieren (1944)
Bobby Mitchell (1955)
Ricky Bones (1969)
Brett Tomko (1973)
Ronnie Belliard (1975)
Adrian Beltre (1979)

Jerry Hoffberger was the principal owner of the Baltimore Orioles from 1965-1979.

Pete Van Wieren was a broadcaster for the Atlanta Braves from 1976-2008.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–April 7

Happy Birthday–April 6

Joe Williams (1885)
Mickey Cochrane (1903)
Ernie Lombardi (1908)
Phil Regan (1937)
Marty Pattin (1943)
Bert Blyleven (1951)
Kenny Williams (1964)
Bret Boone (1969)
Lou Merloni (1971)

A star in the Negro Leagues, some say that Smokey Joe Williams was a better pitcher than Satchel Paige.

I haven't checked, but my guess is that four Hall-of-Famers born on the same day is the record.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–April 6

Game 4: Indians 7, Twins 2

The big news from this game was that Mike Pelfrey hit the wall hard in the sixth. Of course, it really began before that since all the balls in play in the early innings were on ground balls and that changed to fly balls later, which is a bad sign for a guy relying exclusively on a sinker.

Of course, what should the Twins expect when he never went more than 4 IP in a spring training game. The Twins really coddle pitchers in spring training. They also have a history of struggling in April under Gardenhire. The two may not be unrelated.

Still, the final line for Pelfrey was 5 1/3 innings and 3 ER allowed. A team with a strong bullpen or a strong offense should win a lot of games win they get that from their starter. Unfortunately, the Twins had neither on Friday. The offense disappeared after the first inning and Fien and Thielbar were terrible.

The only real positives were Dozier getting 3 hits after starting the season looking clueless and a home run and a wicked line drive with two RISP for Colabello. It's too early to draw conclusions, but I like what I see from Colabello. He's pretty much guaranteed himself a spot in the lineup against lefties and has already had a couple starts against righties. He'll make sure that Willingham and Kubel have to hit to stay in the lineup.

Remodeled basement. Same half-baked taste.