Among the more contrarian aspects of my sports fandom is an aversion to hyperbole in general, and Big Events in particular as a means of describing and defining the games I witness. It’s probably a snobbish impulse, because Business 101 tells us that supersizing anything is the way to bring in the casual consumer, and … Read more
Wasn’t that swell? Isn’t it always a fine thing to see the local nine kick the living snot out of those shitheels from Chicago? And wasn’t it comforting to see Ramon Ortiz get his feet wet coming out of the bullpen, in a situation where there was absolutely no pressure? He did a nice job, … Read more
Just a quick note on what felt like a very necessary win accomplished in absolutely necessary fashion, or something like that. After Friday night’s 13-inning affair –a game that featured another shitty performance from Ramon Ortiz and valiant comebacks that ultimately came up short– the Twins desperately needed to give their beleaguered bullpen (Pat Neshek … Read more
I don’t quite get this: The Twins have two guys in the AL top ten in home runs, RBI, and slugging percentage. They have a leadoff hitter who is eighth in the league in batting average. The club is second in the American League in fielding percentage, fifth in team ERA, fifth in RBI, fifth … Read more
Tonight’s game, along with last Friday’s win in Milwaukee (Bonser’s 11 strikeouts, Hunter’s grand slam), was a blueprint for the kind of team I thought the Twins were going to be coming into the season. Sort of, anyway. It still perplexes me that the guys in the middle of the order are being forced to … Read more
You’d sure like to see your team hold a 4-0 lead, particularly since the Twins have had so few early leads of late. And, yeah, Dennys Reyes is the lefthanded specialist out of the bullpen –or was– but he hasn’t done much of anything to justify that position thus far in ’07, and his stellar … Read more
Yeah, well, you know…uh, boy…ummm, that was…that was…uh, that was….I’m sorry, give me a moment to compose myself…I, ummm, I’m just trying to, you know, I’m trying to get my head around this…I don’t know, it’s, uh, it’s just…it’s just really, really…I mean, seriously, Jesus, it’s really hard…that was…that was, well, I’m not really sure, … Read more
I’ll have to do some more digging around to figure out what exactly happened, because I left the room for what seemed like five minutes during tonight’s game, and when I came back Jesse Crain was gone and the Indians had tacked six unearned runs on the board. I used to think I had a … Read more
First of all, let me say this: the new radio home of the Twins sucks. I spent much of the weekend driving. I left Friday night with the game underway, and before I was even properly out of the Twin Cities I had lost KSTP’s signal, and spent the next two hours –headed south along … Read more
What? What? What the hell do you want me to say? Everybody and their crazy uncle is out there saying something, saying all manner of ridiculous somethings, and you expect me to shed some fresh light on this baseball team? Forget it. I’ll say this, I guess, even though I’m sure it’s already been said … Read more