God almighty, did you see poor J.D. Durbin’s pitching line for the Diamondbacks last night? It was mind boggling: two-thirds of an inning pitched, seven hits, seven earned runs, and a walk (2007 ERA: 94.50). This wasn’t a mop-up performance, by the way; Arizona brought Durbin into the game in the eighth, trailing 4-2. It’s … Read more
Ugly game for Baltimore: six walks, eleven hits, three errors (should have been four); a horrendous start for Jared Wright, and an even more horrendous start for the Orioles, who started a season 0-3 for the first time since 1995. This team looked bad enough in this series to challenge the 1988 O’s, who lost … Read more
Regular Season Game #74, Home Game #36, Cleveland 101, Minnesota 88 1. An Unlikeable Basketball Team Unlikeable is putting it mildly. If you still care about this edition of the Minnesota Timberwolves, they are infuriating and aggravating in the extreme. Looked at objectively, it is plain that they lack the integrity to even properly go … Read more
I’m using some new-fangled technology to write this swill live from the Dome. I’m pretending to be a real writer, in other words. Some sort of big white creature –it appeared to be a dog, with a Target logo on its chest– threw out the first pitch. I guess I wasn’t aware that Target had … Read more
This just seems so wrong on so many different levels. I mean, seriously, what the hell?
Well, other than a nine-pitch first inning Johan’s performance wasn’t exactly pretty, but it was more or less in keeping with the way he usually starts the season. Kind of a strange pitch selection in the early innings –Santana just kept pounding away with the fastball, and didn’t go to the change-up until the Orioles … Read more
I spent part of the weekend kicking around thoughts on the coming season with Britt Robson and David Brauer over at On the Ball, Britt’s new home on the world wide web (or whatever the hell you want to call this impossibly dense and increasingly confusing constellation of monkey business). Go check it out. I’ll … Read more
I just got word that Herb Carneal has died. I’m sure the basic information is up at the Star Tribune by now. I honestly don’t know what to say. Going back to my childhood the man’s voice has been a permanent fixture in my life, and he was always a model of modesty, decency, and … Read more
Regular Season Game #72, Home Game #35: Miami 92, Minnesota 77 1. The Fab Five Strike Again The Timberwolves were being blown off the court by the supposedly aged Miami Heat. In the space of 67 whirlwind seconds, the Heat had stolen passes, leaked out on Minnesota’s missed shots, and just generally hustled themselves into … Read more
To me, one of the great mysteries of 2006 was how Joe Mauer, a guy who had an on base percentage of .429, somehow managed to avoid scoring or driving in 100 runs. Three guys who hit behind him combined for 337 RBI (Morneau: 130; Cuddyer: 109; and Hunter: 98). Mauer had 86 runs scored … Read more