Quick Notes

I gotta make this quick. Like the evil magician guy from Frosty the Snowman says, I'm "busy, busy, busy." (He also says, "think nasty, think nasty, think nasty," but I haven't had opportunity or need to say that lately.) I've got two pans of bars to bake, some work to do, Bones to watch. Oh, and as I write this, there are about 15 high-school football players in my house, so I expect I'll have some picking up to do.

But enough about me -- back to the Twins. Nice sweep of the Indians! See how much fun winning is? Keep it up guys! Think winning, think winning, think winning.

Recap:

Monday: Twins 6 - Indians 3

Tuesday: Twins 5 - Indians 4

Wednesday: Twins 7 - Indians 3

Also, I'd like to give a shout out to the Kansas City Royals for handing two losses to the Detroit Tigers. Thanks guys -- stay good until we have to face you!

~~~

Another snarky episode of When Baseball and Poor Proofreading Collide: (from the FOXSports Rumor page)

This looks like a classic case of spell-check gotcha. Or maybe it's a straight-up typo (the I and O keys are right next to each other after all). No matter; this is the very reason that folks putting out a national website might want to take a minute to look things over before clicking "Publish".

But, that's not why I thought this was funny. When I saw "White Six," I figured it had to be a name of a band or something. A quick Google search didn't find one.

What it did find was a band named Shitting Glitter (which my inner 12-year old boy finds absolutely hilarious) and their song "The Incomparable White Six".

So if Jake Peavy wants to debut on American Idol or something singing that song, I say "Good Luck!" If, however, he's really debuting for the White Sox on Saturday, I've gotta say "Go Royals!"

A Good Weekend for Football

The Twins sure made it easy for me to get excited over football this weekend. It's a good thing they won on Sunday to save it from being totally painful for my baseball-loving heart.

Recap:
Friday: Twins 5 - A's 12
Saturday: Twins 2 - A's 4
Sunday: Twins 8 - A's 0

So football was the theme of the weekend. On Friday, I sat on some bleachers, getting chewed by mosquitoes, watching j-bro play and win his varsity game (and being very grateful that it only sprinkled a little). The periodic text messages regarding the Twins was the only downer for the evening.

On Saturday, the Twins played an early game so folks could enjoy the Gophers inaugural TCF Bank Stadium (which I like very much, by the way) game later in the day. I had the Twins game on the TV, but I wasn't really watching it because I was busy scrubbing my kitchen floor, vacuuming, and other cleaning. I probably would have watched more if the Twins had made it more interesting. It's too bad too, because I found out that they showed my friend on TV. Watching the Gopher game later was fun.

Sunday was the annual Vikings season opener party at above-mentioned friend's house. Everyone is required to wear purple and gold to attend. So I wore this:



Normally I'm a traditionalist, and this goes against everything I believe about wearing your team's colors (if you're going to wear their logo, it had better be in the right colors -- by the way, pink is never appropriate for an MLB team, except maybe for the mothers' day cancer research thing). But, for this party, I thought it was kind of funny. Everyone at that party knows I'm a big Twins fan, and they usually give me a ton of crap about it -- all in good fun, of course.

Anyway, the Vikings game was fun, and the text updates about the Twins game were fun too.

Also, my first ever fantasy football team did pretty well. And as long as my guy playing Monday doesn't get a ton of negative points, I'll win. So, that's fun too.

Add to that my hubby buying Madden '10 for my kids (no I don't play it, but I'll have to listen to non-stop for the next several weeks), it's a lot of football going on.

Don't worry Twins. Just because I'm not completely happy with you right now doesn't mean I don't still love you. But if you continue to drop series, I'll be more apt to watch football when given the opportunity.

~~~

I'm feeling kind of snarky. Here are some recent occurrences of When Baseball and Bad Grammar and Poor Proofreading Collide.

This is an email I received encouraging me to vote for Joe Mauer for the Roberto Clemente award:


It says, "As a Twins fan, it's a chance you won't want to miss." When you use a modifying statement at the beginning of a sentence, you have to put the thing it modifies right next to it. Always. So in this case, it is the Twins fan. I know a lot of crazy Twins fans, but I can honestly say that none of them are technically inanimate objects.

It should be written, "As a Twins fan, you won't want to miss this chance."

This one was on my Google homepage MLB scoreboard app:



I had heard that the Seattle - Texas game was delayed. Are they really intending to play it at 2:33 AM? Wow. I guess they probably won't take batting practice before the game. (Actually, as I'm writing this, about 8:30 PM, it's the bottom of the 2nd.)

Unpredictable, Eh?

I figured that the Twins would split the series with the Blue Jays, because that's how it seems to go with the stupid 4-game series. But game-by-game, my predictions were all wrong.

Recap:
Monday: Twins 6 - Blue Jays 3
Tuesday: Twins 3 - Blue Jays 6
Wednesday: Twins 4 - Blue Jays 1
Thursday: Twins 3 - Blue Jays 3

After Sunday's flat, lifeless performance on Sunday, the Twins were destined to do the same on Monday -- or so I thought. They actually played well and seemed to have fun.

Tuesday, Duensing took the mound. I've been so impressed with him, so I figured more of the same from him. And he didn't disappoint. Too bad the bullpen blew it.

Next up was Pavano vs. Halladay. Now, I'm totally willing to give Pavano every benefit of the doubt, but he's no Roy Halladay. However, Roy Halladay is Roy Halladay and he'd never lost to the Twins. But Pavano and the Twins' bats prevailed.

Thursday's day game featured Scott Baker, who's been great since the all-star break. Another W for sure -- or not. Scotty pitched ok, but the bats were lifeless again. Maybe everyone was looking forward to getting out of there as soon as possible because they knew it would take forever to get through customs.

~~~

Let me share some recent blog posts, from a couple of Sarahs, that I enjoyed:

• Sarah of Oh, It's THOSE Girls lists a bunch of reasons why we should go to Friday's game against the A's. I love the idea of laughing at them for wearing white shoes after Labor Day.
  
• Sarah-bug of la Beisbolista (a Cardinals blog) tells us how no one team has the best fans, they all do.

~~~

A great big thank you to all my blogging and Twitter friends who mentioned my food drive idea and encouraged their readers to pledge as well.

I really think it would be great if we all get to donate a bunch of food. Go Twins!

Oh, and I think it would be great if fans of other teams would pledge for wins by their teams too.

Doing Something Good

I have made a decision. I've decided that I like Twins' wins better than Twins' losses. Ok, that's not a recent decision, but I was reminded of this while unclinching my teeth as the Twins let yet another game slip away.

Now, I've heard that baseball players are charitable guys, and I'm aware that our boys are no different. So, with that in mind, I've decided to implement a plan to give the guys a little more incentive.

Drum roll please....

For every Twins win during the month of September, I will donate two items to a local food shelf. And not lame generic mac & cheese or cheap-o ramen noodles either -- good, nutritious food that I would eat. (Actually, for the record, I love mac & cheese and ramen noodles, but I wouldn't want to depend on them for survival. I did that in college -- which was a very long time ago.)

And since the Detroit Tigers are leading the division standings, it's kind of fun to see them lose. I want to encourage the teams playing them to keep them from clinching the division as long as possible. So, for every Tigers' loss, I will donate one food item. This part of the offer is good until if and when the Twins are eliminated from the division race.

Won't this be fun? Twins' wins = 2 donated items; Tigers' losses = 1 donated item. I invite you to join me in this plan.

So far this month:
Twins' wins: 2
Tigers' losses: 0
Total: 4 items

Ahem. We can do better than that, right? Let's go, Twins!

[Edit: A big thank you to Howard at Strib's A Fan's View Blog for the nice shout-out. Also, thanks to Betsy from For the Love of the Game for her shout-out. And thanks to everyone who is planning on participating on some level. Hey, if you want, keep track of how much food, money, or whatever you collect, and let me know (or even take a picture and send it to me if you want), I'll mention your efforts in a blog post after month end.]

~~~

Weekend Recap:
Friday: Twins 2 - Indians 5
Saturday: Twins 4 - Indians 1
Sunday: Twins 1 - Indians 3

Appreciation

After such a heart-breaking, soul-crushing loss on Wednesday, it's tough to remember the things to be grateful for. But what better way to cheer myself up, so I'm going to try.

Recap:
Monday: Twins 4 - White Sox 1
Tuesday: Twins 4 - White Sox 3
Wednesday: Twins 2 - White Sox 4

I'm still grateful that...:

• Well, first off, look at the recap. We won two of three. That's good.
  
• The starting pitching was awesome and a lot of fun to watch. I was especially impressed with the rookies, Manship and Duensing. They looked like real big-leaguers.
• We don't have to face Jim Thome any more. I never really liked seeing him in the batter's box. That's supposed to be praise -- it's the best I can do for a division rival. I wish him the best of luck in the National League.
• Joe Nathan is a pro. He knows he's been struggling lately, but I'm confident that he'll right the ship (at least I think I'm confident -- I hope he'll be all right).
• Jose Morales hit the walk-off single on Tuesday. That was a ton of fun. And he was so adorable when everyone was hog-piling on him. His smile was so big.
  
• I was in meetings at work for a big hunk of Wednesday afternoon. I missed the ninth. And I'm willing to bet that my co-workers are grateful as well -- there was no actual screaming this way.
• The Evil Ugly White Sox got to finish their Metrodome tenure on a good note (for them). I'm guessing this kept them from burning the place down out of frustration. This is good because the Twins still need it for the rest of the month. I understand there's a football team that uses it too.

Ok, well that last one was a bit of a stretch.

Going Gray

This turned out to be a pretty fun series, but, I tell ya', it gave me a few more gray hairs than I'd like. I'm old enough that I get those on my own, thankyouverymuch.




Recap:
Friday: Twins 3 - Rangers 2
Saturday: Twins 0 - Rangers 3
Sunday: Twins 5 - Ranger 3

Joe Nathan, who happens to have a few gray hairs himself in his goatee, gave fans of all ages all over Twins Territory more than their fair share of gray hairs both Friday and Sunday. He got the save both times, of course, but, whew, it was hard to watch. And that's exactly what was fun about it. On Sunday, he had the bases loaded (thanks in part to his own error) and nobody out, and he got the next three guys to earn the save. Waaaaay too interesting, Joe. But it also proves what a great closer he really is.

Now, as good as he looks with his "touch of gray," I really need him to stop doing that for awhile. None of us need any more.

I have an idea. The Twins should have leads big enough to not be save situations (10 runs should do it) for the next several games. That way, Nathan can rest up, and the rest of us can calm down.

As for me, I got myself a new hair cut and color. No more grays for me. Let's hope Nathan doesn't make them come back for me.

~~~

Speaking of gray beards, the team's resident graybeard gave me my biggest laugh of the weekend. Mike Redmond, who could fairly be called "the slowest man in baseball" (he is old and a catcher after all), got a triple on Sunday. Yes -- a triple! The ball ran the gap and the outfielders were in so much shock that they kind of fumbled the ball a little, all the while Red was huffing and puffing around the bases, refrigerator on his back and all, and belly-flopped into third safely.

The cameras panned over to the Twins dugout where everyone was laughing his ass off. I thought Gardy was going to tip backwards right out of his folding chair because he was laughing so hard. I'm pretty sure that Red was the most surprised of all. Good times.

Don't Let That Revolving Door Hit You in the Ass

So apparently, one of two things happened today: either Bill Smith read my blog and actually hung up a help wanted ad at the dome, or he finally cleaned off his desk and found the Post-It Note that said "get pitching help" that he wrote to himself weeks ago

Whatever happened, it's time to welcome some new pitchers to the Twins; they picked up Ron Mahay from the Royals and Jon Rauch from the D-backs. Welcome to Minnesota guys. Good luck, have fun, do well.

But this also means that the revolving door in the Twins pitching rotation just continues to spin and spin. I can't keep up.

So I did a little research, looking back at the Twins press releases over the season. I learned that of the 23 men who are or were Twins pitchers (including Mahay and Rauch), only three have been with the team the whole time without a stint on the DL or a visit to AAA. Your superstars are Blackburn, Nathan, and Guerrier.

Here's my list:

Liriano - opening day, dl 8/18
Slowey - opening day, dl 7/4
Blackburn - opening day
Perkins - opening day, dl 5/18, reinstated 6/16 (Crain), dl 8/12
Dickey - opening day, optioned 8/7
Nathan - opening day
Crain - opening day, dl 4/20, reinstated 5/3 (Morales), optioned 6/16, recalled 7/22 (Mulvey)
Guerrier - opening day
Ayala - opening day, released 6/22
Humber - opening day, optioned 4/17, recalled 8/18 (Liriano), optioned 8/28
Breslow - opening day, claimed 5/20
Duensing - opening day, optioned 4/15, recalled 7/2 (Henn)
Baker - dl, reinstated 4/15 (Duensing)
Mijares - called up 4/20 (Crain)
Morillo - acquired 4/17 (Humber), outrighted 5/1
Henn - called up 5/18 (Perkins), optioned 7/2
Swarzak - called up 5/20 (Breslow), optioned 6/13, recalled 7/4 (Slowey), optioned 8/21
Keppel - called up 6/22 (Ayala)
Mulvey - called up 7/15 (Morales), optioned 7/22
Pavano - acquired 8/7 (Dickey)
Manship - called up 8/12 (Perkins)
Gabino - called up 8/21 (Swarzak), optioned 8/28
Rauch - acquired 8/28 (Humber)
Mahay - acquired 8/29 (Gabino)

(The names in parenthesis are the guys whose roster spots were filled by the listed guy.)

Confusing, ain't it?

I'm a visual thinker, so I decided to create a picture chart to figure it out (blue arrows mean to the Twins, red means away from the Twins):




Nope, that's not any better, is it?

And there are rumors that more might be coming. Great.

Also, for the record, I've typed the word "Mahay" about 15 times today, and I haven't spelled it right on the first try yet. He just might have to be known as Mayhay in this blog.

[Edit: If you read this before about noon Saturday, you saw a grave error on my part; I forgot Scott Baker (I guess I should say that you didn't see it). In my defense, he started the season on the DL and the Twins never posted a press release announcing his activation. That's where I got my information, so I kind of forgot about him. Sorry, Scotty. I should have used the transaction list instead of the press releases. It's fixed now. The picture is fixed too.]