Tag Archives: Minnesota Twins

Happy Birthday–June 15

Babe Dahlgren (1912)
Bernice Gera (1931)
Mario Cuomo (1932)
Billy Williams (1938)
Ty Cline (1939)
Bruce Dal Canton (1941)
Ken Henderson (1946)
Champ Summers (1946)
Dusty Baker (1949)
Lance Parrish (1956)
Brett Butler (1957)
Wade Boggs (1958)
Tony Clark (1972)
Ramiro Mendoza (1972)
Andy Pettitte (1972)
Zach Day (1978)
Jeremy Reed (1981)
Tim Lincecum (1984)
Trevor Plouffe (1986)
Eduardo Nunez (1987)
Jake Locker (1988)

Bernice Gera was the first female umpire in Organized Baseball, umpiring one game in the New York-Penn League in 1972.

Former New York Governor Mario Cuomo was an outfielder for the Brunswick Pirates of the Georgia-Florida League in 1952.

Quarterback Jake Locker was drafted by the Angels as an outfielder in the tenth round in 2009.  He signed a contract with them, but never played a game of professional baseball.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–June 15

Game 60. Red Sox at Twins.

Oh goody. Its going to be a weekend of "woe is me" from everywhere because its David Ortiz's last games in Minnesota (barring playoffs!). Because something that happened in 2003 (There are about two generations of Twins fans that never saw Ortiz play in a Twins uniform. I mean, David ortiz once played in a game where Bob Tewksbury was the starting pitcher and Terry Steinbach was catching. Ortiz has been around forever) is affecting the current state of the Twins now.

 

Makes me wonder what would happen if Joe Mauer was let go or traded and then has a couple of banner seasons. Would the Boo Joe Mauer crowd boo the Front Office for letting a good player go? I dont know.

I do now I get tired about the Twins blunder. Why can't people let go ?

 

 

Game 54. Twins hosting Rays. 7:10pm.

*Weather delay pending

I hope baseball-reference updates Twins All Star Robbie Grossman's profile pic. Right now it shows him in a Clevelander hat and thats not right.

 

Ricky Nolasco starts for the locals tonight. Yeah, he's been not good but at least he has been striking out people! ( 53k in 58 innings = 8.2 k/9)

The Twins have been bad, but at least they haven't done this feat (yet!).

Game 47. Twins at M’s. 9pm

Late night baseball + holiday weekend + terrible baseball team = maybe 20 comments for tonight's game?

 

Even if the Twins were fielding a decent team, it would be a tough task to garner a win because King Felix is on the bump for the Mariners. Pat "I'm not Dizzy" Dean goes for the locals.

Its been a long tough week for me, I hope the Twins put on a good show just to lift my spirits.

Happy Birthday–May 27

Frank Snyder (1894)
Pinky Higgins (1909)
Terry Moore (1912)
George O’Donnell (1929)
Jerry Kindall (1935)
Fred Bruckbauer (1938)
Jim Holt (1944)
Gary Nolan (1948)
Terry Collins (1949)
Mark Connor (1949)
Mark Clear (1956)
Ed Nunez (1963)
John Jaha (1966)
Jeff Bagwell (1968)
Frank Thomas (1968)
Todd Hundley (1969)
Jose Berrios (1994)

Terry Collins was the manager of Houston from 1994-96, of Anaheim from 1997-99, and of the Mets from 2011 to the present.

Mark Connor pitched in the Twins’ minor league system from 1971-1972 before he suffered a career-ending arm injury.  He has been a pitching coach for the Yankees, Arizona, Toronto, Texas, and Baltimore.  He also was the head baseball coach at the University of Tennessee.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–May 27

Happy Birthday–May 25

Al Reach (1840)
Lip Pike (1845)
Tip O’Neill (1858)
Joe Judge (1894)
Martin Dihigo (1905)
Lindsey Nelson (1919)
Bill Sharman (1926)
Jim Marshall (1931)
W. P. Kinsella (1935)
Glenn Borgmann (1950)
John Montefusco (1950)
Bob Knepper (1954)
Kerwin Danley (1961)
Dave Hollins (1966)
Bill Haselman (1966)
Joey Eischen (1970)
Todd Walker (1973)
Miguel Tejada (1974)
Chris Young (1979)
Scott Hairston (1980)
Jason Kubel (1982)
Pat Dean (1989)

Al Reach played major league baseball from 1871-1875.  He later founded the A. J. Reach Company, which was the largest sporting goods company in the United States at one time (it eventually merged with Spalding).  This company also published the Reach Guide, an influential baseball publication, from 1883-1927.

Martin Dihigo was a star in the Negro Leagues, winning 250 games as a pitcher and also winning two batting titles.

Lindsey Nelson was one of the most famous broadcasters in the country at one time.  He broadcast New York Mets games from 1962-1978 and San Francisco Giants games from 1979-1981.

Basketball Hall of Famer Bill Sharman was a minor league outfielder from 1950-1953 and in 1955, reaching AAA with St. Paul.

W. P. Kinsella has written several books on baseball, most notably "Shoeless Joe" the book on which the movie "Field of Dreams" was based.

Kerwin Danley has been a major league umpire since 1998.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–May 25

2016 – Game 40: Toronto @ Minnesota

Ervin Santana faces off against Marco Estrada. While both pitchers sport 1-2 records, Santana has managed 29.1 innings over 6 starts with a decent 3.38 ERA and 3.36 FIP, but a 1.50 WHIP, 124 ERA+, opponents batting average of .281 and BABIP of .341 and only 27 strikeouts on the year.

On the other hand, Estrada has pitched 43.2 innings in 7 starts with a shiny 2.89 ERA, a 3.64 FIP, 1.14 WHIP, 141 ERA+, opponents BA of .199 and BABIP of .241 and 41 strikeouts. He's seen only 2.06 runs/9 of support compared to 3.38 for Santana...we'll see how it goes.

The Twins brand has lost it's luster during the first 8 weeks of the season ... more losses than wins, poor hitting, fielding, pitching, managing and roster construction in general resulting in lots of moves in non-competitive season. Moves that appear to be, to borrow a well-worn analogy, like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. Hopefully for the long-suffering diehard fans (5 of 6 years of 90+ losses!?) and those youngsters in the stands getting their first taste of live baseball (there's gotta be a few families taking advantage of the dirt-cheap secondary market, eh?) may the home team bring home a win today!