Welcome to the WGOM!
Last 20 Postings at the WGOM
Bitchslapped by SBG | Categories: WGOM HeadlinesThe White Stripes - Jolene by New Guy | Categories: WGOM Videos
Lighten up, already! by brianS | Categories: WGOM Headlines
Game 133: Minnesota Twins at Seattle Mariners by brianS | Categories: 2008 Twins Game Logs
Let Me Formally Introduce Myself by Geoff | Categories: Guest Writers • Miscellaneous
How many times must a man look up Before he can see the sky? by brianS | Categories: WGOM Headlines
U Freshmen post lowest reported ACTs in conference by SBG | Categories: WGOM Headlines
The Pretty Things — Midnight to Six Man by brianS | Categories: WGOM Videos
2008 Game 132: Minnesota Twins @ Seattle Mariners by Andrew | Categories: 2008 Twins Game Logs
MLB approves replay in series that start Thursday by SBG | Categories: MLB
The LPGA Sucks by SBG | Categories: WGOM Headlines
Dad to be jailed 30 days for killing son while hunting by SBG | Categories: WGOM Headlines
Alice Smith - Gary Song by New Guy | Categories: WGOM Videos
2008 Game 131: Minnesota at Seattle by Yickit | Categories: 2008 Twins Game Logs
Why We Fail by brianS | Categories: WGOM Headlines
What Ubelmann is really doing instead of the WGOM by brianS | Categories: WGOM Headlines
Twins Trade Piece of Meat for Eddie Guardado by SBG | Categories: WGOM Headlines
Remember to Pull Over to Use Cell Phone, Because Operating a Motor Vehicle and a Cell Phone Simultaneously is Dangerous by SBG | Categories: WGOM Headlines
I Don’t Care by SBG | Categories: WGOM Headlines
Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton — Further On Up the Road by brianS | Categories: WGOM Videos
Recent Posts
What's new here at the WGOM
Let Me Formally Introduce Myself by Geoff Respond: 18 LTEsWith apologies to Andrew for not officially doing a "Better Know a Citizen", I thought I would write my own introduction. Ive had admin rights to write on this site for over 2 years from when I met SBG in Minnesota when I was there for business and stayed the weekend for some Twins games but I've never taken the time to write. Some of you catch me here and there in game logs but mostly I watch Twins games late at night on MLB.tv archive after the kids are in bed and I have to avoid the game log if I don't want to know the score of the game of course!
With ubelmann's departure as it is; I thought I would finally use my login and pick up some of the slack. To SBG - I decided rather than try to play email tag with you for a few days to set something "official" up, Id just go ahead and start writing. So, Andrew, if you want Ill be happy to send you my info for an official "BKaC" but for those who may be interested in reading my stuff (Im thinking Ill do a regular once or twice a week type thing) heres an introduction -
Born in Provo, UT 1976 - My father grew up in Duluth, I have family in Chaska and St. Paul.
Grad Provo High School 1994
Attended BYU - some of the worst time of my life - but thats for another post.....
2 Year Mormon Missionary (yep I'm one of those) in Hokkaido, Japan 1995-1997
5 Years Military Intelligence and Japanese Linguist US Army spending time at - 1998-2002
-Fort Jackson South Carolina
-Fort Huachuca Arizona
-Pusan South Korea
-DMZ - North Korean border
-Camp Zama, Tokyo Japan
I was a stock broker for 2 years before taking a job as an accountant with Makau Corporation where I am currently the operations manager. Makau is a software development company with a focus on online educational programming.
I have 2 daughters - Eva who is 4, Mia who is 2 and a son who is due in October. Pictures will undoubtedly come later as I learn to better navigate and manipulate my posts.
Now some about me and what Ill be writing about -
Im a closet libertarian - which is to say my political leanings match most closely to that of Ron Paul but Im embarrassed by all those stupid "rEVOLution" posters and such and part of my libertarian leanings makes it difficult for me to align myself with any label - political, or religious or other - but more on all that later.
I am a Mormon - born into the faith, raised in it and now a leader within in the church. However, having seen the world from the view of a church missionary as well as a military soldier, I have an odd view of the world which I hope people (meaning you readers) will find interesting. I don't preach, I try not to judge, Im rarely offended and I can be a resource for people with questions who don't necessarily want two Missionaries at their door. I recognize the difference between logical questions about a religion (or about a person like Mitt Romney - but more on him later - good and bad - especially if hes announced as McCain's VP) and questions about a religion you may be interested in joining and I respect that difference.
I am a Twins fan but NOT a baseball fan. I am 6'4" and grew up playing football and basketball which are my two sports loves. I am a numbers guy, even a stat geek, but I've never delved into baseball numbers which means that I have found much of what I read here very interesting but Im not able to quote baseball numbers myself.
My sports allegiances are as follows - (Ill have a full length post on this on a later date)
#1 - Minnesota Vikings (I know that is blasphemy to some at this site)
#2 - Utah Jazz
#3 - Minnesota Twins
#4 - Minnesota Wild
#5 - BYU football (Ive disowned the BYU basketball team - but thats another post....)
#6 - Real Salt Lake (soccer)
So you will be able to look forward to topics ranging from sports to politics to philosophy. I love a good debate and look forward to getting to know many of you on a better level than just once or twice a month in the game logs. Hopefully you'll find my stuff interesting and entertaining. It will hopefully be something a little different -the views of a non-stat based Twins fan who actually prefers football, a non-liberal politico who can't stand Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity but does enjoy Glenn Beck. Ill look forward to your feedback as I write.
MLB approves replay in series that start Thursday by SBG Respond: 3 LTEs
Link. So, starting Thursday in Oakland, the huge number of disputed home run calls that the Twins face will eventually be subjected to video replay. I suppose it's okay, but this is a small fraction of disputed calls.
Once Upon A Time by ubelmann Respond: 17 LTEs
Aaron once kindly wrote about me:
Once upon a time Ubelmann was just another guy who hung out in the comments section here, but then he started to contribute to Stick and Ball Guy's site and quickly became one of my favorite Twins bloggers. If you're not yet familiar with the best Twins blogger who doesn't actually have his own blog, here's your chance.
Well, before I was just another guy who hung out in the comments section there, I was just another guy who hung out at TwinkieTown, until Jesse kindly gave me front page privileges over there. (And I can't thank him enough for that.) Before that, I was just another guy who hung out at the Twins Geek's now defunct community site (was it called Twins Territory? Man time flies.) Before that, I was just another guy who discovered baseball blogs through TG's fleeting presence with the Star Tribune.* Before that, I was just another guy who read a lot of Rob Neyer on espn.com. And way back in high school I was just another guy who decided to do his senior science fair project on the topic of which baseball statistics correlate most closely with winning.**
*It used to really irritate me when people would complain about his Timberwolves posts simply because they felt that "the Twins Geek" should write exclusively about the Twins. One of the best things about the WGOM is that I could always post something completely out of left field and no one will complain that I should be writing about something else. Or I could post something with statistics in it and no one would tell me that you can't learn anything about baseball from statistics. One thing is for sure--I would never leave here to write for a different Twins blog.
**Okay, maybe there weren't too many people who did that one. But I'll tell you this much--if you want to go places in science fair, do a project in the math category. In my experience, judges will give you the benefit of the doubt at every turn if you do a math project. I felt that was by far my worst science fair project (though looking around at some of the stuff that passed as "statistics" for other projects, I guess I can see why it looked good by comparison), but I made it as alternate to the international science fair that year. Of course, with my luck, ISEF happened to be in Detroit that year, but I guess you don't need an exotic locale to trash hotel rooms like rock stars and awkwardly flirt with science gurls like nerdy science fair dudes.
More recently, I have Terry Ryan and his acquisition of Tony Batista for introducing me to the WGOM. Over at TwinkieTown, I was claiming that Batista could be as good or a little better than Cuddyer at third base, because even if Batista was crap at the plate, Cuddyer was a below average defender and most statistics had Batista as a slightly above average third baseman before he left for Japan. Then SBG tried to correct my math in a post over here, and when I saw it, I had no choice but to show him how he managed to mangle the math. Of course, while I might have gotten the math right on that, we know that I got the baseball all wrong.*
*The only solace that I take from that episode is that, while I drastically misjudged Batista's glove during the offseason, Nick Punto basically showed that the team could do pretty well with a decent-glove, not-much-bat guy at the hot corner in order to move Cuddyer and his deaf ear into right field.
Eventually, I decided that SBG was a pretty good guy and that it was fun to discuss baseball over here with him and his ragtag crew. That '06 team was some kind of crazy drug for me--they got me high and I couldn't get enough. I commented like crazy and eventually started posting some on the front page. Then thanks to BabySBG, I started posting a lot more while SBG had more important things to tend to.
Sometime between now and then, things got a little carried away. In retrospect, I think that it was a bad idea for me to take so many of the game logs. I certainly enjoyed them at the time, but it was like starting a baseball conversation every day that I couldn't help but get sucked into. With unlimited time on my hands, I might still be going strong with them. But ultimately, I wound up sacrificing too much (mainly time I should have been spending doing research*) in order to post and participate in the gamelogs.
*Stupidly, I had a bit of a mini-revelation watching Scrubs with my roommates a few weeks ago. Dr. Cox was giving Elliot a hard time for selling out by switching to private practice. To him, private practice doctors were more interested in clocking out at 5pm than they were in healing their patients. I have no idea how much that actually applies to private practice doctors, but I did realize that when I started grad school, I was at school until the physics got done--whether that was 7pm or 7am the next morning. But lately, I was looking for any excuse I could find to get home by 4 or 5pm so that I could catch the Twins game live because (insert some minute detail here) was important for me to see for myself. And no matter what I told myself, I wouldn't be doing work after the game--I would wind up chatting about the game or writing another post.
Then it hit me that I don't really want things to be that way. It's clear right now that I don't want to do physics forever, but I owe my advisor a lot more effort than I've given him. I feel a bit like Justin Morneau hitting .237/.296/.461 going into Seattle in 2006. My team has expected more of me, and while I still show signs of productivity, I'm not putting in enough effort and I'm walking back to the dugout empty-handed way too often. Do I have an MVP season in me? Maybe in the sense that I wouldn't really deserve it like Morneau didn't really deserve that MVP and I would only be earning the accollades if people were willing to overlook significant flaws in my game. But I can do a hell of a lot better than I am right now, and I think it would make me happier just to know that at some point I buckled down and gave physics all I had.
Plus, I feel increasingly miscast as a "beat writer." The sorts of insights that I have aren't things that change on a daily basis. Eventually, I felt it was pretty predictable what I was going to write each day. Pitcher X has a low ERA, but don't let that fool you, he's much worse--see exhibit A, B, C. Pitchers Y and Z have very similar value but have different styles--see exhibit D, E, F.
SBG tried to talk me out of this by offering me a chance to write once a week or even on an irregular basis, but at this point, I even lack the motivation to do that. The Twins are locked in a pennant race and they ought to be an interesting team*, but they are coming to Seattle on Monday, and I haven't made any kind of effort to get tickets. In this last week, even though they're finally in my time zone, I haven't really even bothered to watch the games and I've barely been interested enough to check the scores at the end of the day. There are probably a number of reasons for this, but going into them might double the length of this already-mammoth post.
*I must say that I've been a bit disappointed by analysis--mine included--of this team. The Twins are something like 8 or 9 wins above where they should be given their hits, walks, pitching peripherals, strength of schedule, etc. So by that way of looking at things, they are about a .500 team, and before the season I expected them to be about a 73-win team. They've had good health overall, especially from Mauer and Morneau, so moving them from 73-74 wins to 81-82 wins isn't such a huge stretch. But even the traditional baseball guys (see here, for example) are having trouble figuring out how this team is managing to win games. Under Gardy, the Twins have seemingly outperformed their pythag a lot, but I'm hesitant to put the bulk of that on Gardy. He probably deserves some of the credit, but part of me wonders if we might be looking at a story similar to that of the Phillips Curve. In baseball, analysts looked at the statistics, found some correlations to winning, and some teams adjusted their statistics to fall in line more with those statistics. But the original statistics were based on the underlying assumption that teams were putting players on the field with scouting and traditional stats as their primary guides. But now that guy with a .380 OBP on the Blue Jays might be a little less likely to have the speed that a guy with a .380 OBP in the past might have had, so maybe he doesn't make it around the bases as often, and maybe he doesn't make as many plays in the field, so maybe it makes a little less sense today to take peripherals and translate them into wins the same way for a team like the Blue Jays and a team like the Twins. And if you look at the two AL teams who are most outperforming their third-order wins, you're looking at the Twins and the Angels--and you'd be hard-pressed to find two teams that rely more on old-school scouting methods when they evaluate their players. Which might make scouting the new Moneyball, or something like that.
Maybe this team's performance is more sustainable than I might otherwise suspect, but even at that, my hunch is a long way from really providing much evidence that that is the case. You might be able to get an idea by looking to see if there's any relationship between speed scores and teams overperforming their pythag record. Or finding some other way to categorize "old school" and "new school" teams, then see if pythag records apply equally well to both categories. At this point in the season, the best evidence is probably the observation that at about this point of the season, a team's actual record begins to be a better predictor of its future performance than its pythag record, but even that explanation is kind of unsatisfying in that it doesn't provide us with a good reason as to why the Twins are outperforming their pythag.
I think back at how I used to spend my baseball time, and I used to spend a lot more time thinking and crunching numbers and a lot less time shooting the shit. Certainly some of that number crunching, especially early on, was looking for patterns that I likely had too little data to justify. But I felt like I was learning. I don't feel like I'm learning as much these days, and I feel like I spend so much time writing that I don't have much time to seek out and read the state of the art in sabermetrics. I don't want to wake up one day and realize that I'm needlessly clinging to outdated stats, and that's kind of where I feel like I'm headed.*
*Don't get me wrong here--I don't mean to suggest that it's not worth following baseball if you don't keep up to date on the latest stats. With the all of the atrocious announcing that I've found in the Olympic coverage so far, I've been thinking a lot about sports announcing. Specifically, we don't need it. People loved sports before the three-man booth and now they love sports sometimes in spite of the three-man booth. Sometimes the way that sports are covered just seems completely insane. No one would voluntarily decide to watch The Dark Knight on first viewing with Ebert telling us scene-by-scene whether or not the director was doing a good job. And no one would want to watch a movie where a voiceover described to us each object that appeared on the camera--it would be extremely tedious. Yes, I can see the beautiful mountains in the mist, you don't need to tell me that the mountains are looking beautiful today, I CAN SEE THAT. Yet that's exactly what most sports broadcasting is right now. One guy can't help but narrate everything that the camera points to. "Hey look, it's an American flag on a pole, waving in the breeze." Then the other guy can't help but have an opinion or a story about it. "That reminds me, John, no one makes flags like Betsy Ross did. No, sir. Back in her day, she started the flag and she finished it. None of this using machines to speed up the process business. If we insisted that all flags be handmade, we would be much better off today than we are right now." I like an interesting observation as much as the next guy, but most of the things the play-by-play guy says are obvious, most of the things the analyst says he's repeated a thousand times before, and most of the questions the interviewer asks are statements.
Anyway, there's a lot about sports coverage that we get and that you don't need to be a perfectly happy fan. Personally, I'm interested in the stats because I'm a very quantitative person and I really want to know how far the numbers can go towards describing the players on the field so that I can know when I'm watching something special or when I should expect that a player has really outdone himself and when he has underperformed or how I should distribute credit for a team's success. So when I say that I don't want to use outdated stats, that's a personal stance, and not something I would expect to be universal. If you're having a good time as a fan, more power to you.
It's almost 4am, and I need to wrap this thing up. If the length of this post is any indication, I still have some blogging left in me. I don't know that I'm going to get back to the grind any time soon, but when I come back, wearin' the 45, I'll have some more life experiences under my belt, a better idea of how to pace myself, and the drive to finish some of the stats projects I've been meaning to get around to for two years or more.
I don't have a really good excuse like raising a child, but there are a number of things I'll be working on while I'm gone. In no particular order, I need to work on being a better son, a better friend, a better roommate, a better student, a better teacher, a better programmer, a more caring person, a more attractive person, a better cook, a better reader, a better writer, etc., etc., etc.
There are so many people to thank here that I'm not going to be able to name you all. If you're reading this, then I'm sure I'm indebted to you in one way or another. I thought about trying to list all of the things I've learned from being around here, but that post would take me many hours to write and would certainly be incomplete.
So thanks for having me, SBG, thanks for your many kinds words to everyone who commented on SBG's announcement of my hiatus, and thanks to everyone for putting up with me and teaching me a great many things. I hope to get things straightened out eventually, and if there's a next time, I hope you'll all still be around, and I know that the community here will thrive as long as there's baseball to be played, with or without me.
WGOM Radio #3 by SBG Respond: 14 LTEs
Parting is such sweet sorrow. SBG reflects on ubelmann's contributions to the WGOM.
Not the Best News by SBG Respond: 37 LTEs
This isn't terrible, awful news, but it's not good news, either, at least for this site. Our guy ubelmann has decided to put his WGOM writing career on hold for an indefinite period of time. I was in contact with him last week and he informed me that the priorities of life are such that he can't continue to do it anymore. I begged him to stick around, even as I knew that was probably not in the cards.
He's promised to post an article explaining his decision and I was going to wait to announce this, but I've decided to put it out there, because I'm trying to deal with the impact of losing the guy who's done so much for this site. I'm looking for people who want to step into the breach and help out around here, if you are so inclined. I'm going to take most of the game logs -- brianS has volunteered to take one day a week, starting today -- and I'm going to pick up the reins regarding general Twins commentary. That means that all of the other things I want to do with the site will take a back seat, at least until the end of this glorious season. If you are interested in taking a day of the week, let me know [sbg at stickandballguy dot com].
I've got an edition of WGOM Radio scheduled for noon where I express my feelings about what ubes has contributed to this site. You can listen to that then. Until then, please know this: I am very grateful for all he's done for this site, I wish him well, and the door is always open for whenever he wants to write.
About Us
There are a number of people who write at this site. Here's a little about them.
SBG
This website is run primarily by me, "Stick and Ball Guy," or SBG, as I actually prefer. I really like the name Stick and Ball Guy and I can say that without sounding boastful because I didn't think of it. I first saw the name in a Patrick Reusse column. Apparently, the term stick and ball guy is a phrase used by Southerners to refer to guys that don't get into racing. I don't know if it is a derogatory term or if it's just a standard colloquialism, but I think it's a cool name and I have co-opted it.
I am an attorney by trade and prior to that I worked as an engineer, designing Bobcat(R) compact construction equipment. (I'm sure that my former employer appreciates that I treat their trademark with respect, at least right here.) While I worked as an engineer, I lived in SBGville, a small town in Southeastern North Dakota. I quit my job, moved to the Twin Cities and went to law school when I was 36 years old. While I am a lawyer and from time to time I might talk about legal issues and politics, this page is intended to be fun and focused on sports and the trivial aspects of everyday life. As such, I offer the following disclaimer.
Information contained on this site is for informational or amusement purposes only. Nothing written is intended to be legal advice or legal counsel. You are not a client of SBG unless you have an express relationship with his law firm. Because I do not reveal for which firm I work and do not use the name SBG professionally, I can safely say that "you" are not a client of "SBG."
Okay, I'm glad to be done with that. I am married and 43 years old. My wife's name is "Lucy" (or, at least, that's how I refer to her around here) and she cannot stand sports, especially baseball. You may be thinking, what were you doing, SBG, marrying this woman who hates what you love? Well, Lucy is a wonderful, passionate, funny woman. We have a daughter, BabySBG. You might have seen a dozen or so pictures of her here.
AMR
AMR is a Major League Baseball outfielder who is currently a free agent. He is the son of former major league All-Star, the godson of a Hall of Famer, the nephew of a 1964 Olympian, and a distant cousin of Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson. He debuted in the Major Leagues with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1986 and joined the San Francisco Giants in 1993, where he stayed through 2007. AMR filed for free agency following the 2007 World Series.
AMR's accomplishments place him among the greatest baseball players of all-time. He has a record-setting seven Most Valuable Player awards, including a record-setting three consecutive MVPs. He is a fourteen time All-star, eight time gold glove-winner and he holds numerous Major League Baseball records. He currently holds the all-time Major League Baseball home run record with 762, and is also the all-time career leader in both walks (2,558) and intentional walks (688). He holds numerous other records, including the single-season Major League record for home runs (73), set in 2001.
Since 2003, AMR has been a key figure in the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative (BALCO) scandal. He was under investigation by a federal grand jury regarding his testimony in the BALCO case, and was indicted on perjury and obstruction of justice charges on November 15, 2007. The indictment alleges that AMR lied while under oath about his alleged use of steroids.
(Yep. AMR has not sent in his biography yet.)
Andrew
I don't know how to properly or adequately describe who I am with regards to the WGOM, but I'll give it a shot. I am originally from Indiana, where I lived until just after my 12th birhday. We moved to Algona, in Northern Iowa. Until that point in my life, I was an Indianapolis Indians fan, and to a lesser extent a Cincinatti Reds fan. After the move, I began watching some abyssmal Twins teams on TV, but for some reason I liked them. Soon, the team started improving and winning division titles. Baseball has always been my first love when it comes to sports, both participating and spectating.
Around the WGOM, I do quite a few different things. Although I would not consider myself a soccer expert by any stretch, I did cover the 2006 World Cup and comment quite a bit on soccer. I was the interviewer of the series "Better Know A Citizen" which profiled members of the WGOM Nation. Currently, you can see me working on the SBG HOF and commenting on my Drake Bulldogs.
I currently live in Des Moines where I sell electrical equipment. I graduated from Drake with a BA in History as a part of the Class of 2007. I've been accepted at Trinity College Dublin for the 2008-2009 school year where I'll be studying for my Masters in Modern Irish History.
Banjo
Banjo is a retired American professional road racing cyclist. He won the Tour de France a record-breaking seven consecutive years, from 1999 to 2005. He is the only individual to win seven times, having broken the previous record of five wins. Prior to this, he also survived testicular cancer, a germ cell tumor that metastasized to his brain and lungs, in 1996. His cancer treatments included brain and testicular surgery and extensive chemotherapy, and his prognosis was not originally considered to be great.
In 1999, he was named the American Broadcasting Company's Wide World of Sports Athlete of the Year. In 2002, Sports Illustrated magazine named him Sportsman of the Year. He was also named Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year for 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2005. He received ESPN's ESPY Award for Best Male Athlete in 2003, 2004, 2005, and 2006, and won the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Overseas Personality Award in 2003. Banjo retired from racing on July 24, 2005, at the end of the 2005 Tour de France.
(Yep. Banjo has not sent in his biography yet.)
Big Mak
Big Mak is an American songwriter, singer and guitarist. He is widely known for his brand of heartland rock infused with pop hooks, poetic lyrics, and Americana sentiments centered around his native New Jersey. His eloquence in expressing ordinary, everyday problems has earned him numerous awards, including eighteen Grammy Awards and an Academy Award, along with a notoriously dedicated and devoted global fan base. His most famous albums epitomize his penchant for finding grandeur in the struggles of daily life. He has sold over 65 million albums in the U.S.
Big Mak's lyrics often concern men and women struggling to make ends meet. He has gradually become identified with progressive politics. Big Mak is also noted for his support of various relief and rebuilding efforts in New Jersey and elsewhere, and for his response to the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Big Mak's recordings have tended to alternate between commercially accessible rock albums and somber folk-oriented works. Much of his iconic status stems from the concerts and marathon shows in which he and his band present intense ballads, rousing anthems, and party rock and roll songs, amongst which Big Mak intersperses long, whimsical or deeply emotional stories.
(Yep. Big Mak has not sent in his biography yet.)
brianS
I think I wandered over to the WGOM from Gleeman, but I don't really remember anymore. My initial role here was in needling the Boss about his relationship with the doyenne of Twins bloggers and trying feebly to critique ubelmann's work. I began carrying far more than my weight in game logs, which shot me up the comment rankings. Somehow, that growing mass of commentary compost, plus my constant pestering SBG about musical requests led him to offer me the authority to post and the invitation to help out with the VJing. The rest, as they say, is history.
I contribute regularly to the musical selections and irregularly to the main content, through barley pop-oriented offerings and occasional baseball-related bits. But mostly I'm known for offering comments on damned near anything and everything.
I grew up in Spamtown USA and am a proud graduate of Carleton College (alma mater of Twins Geek!). I hold a Ph.D. in political science and spent the past 15 years as an academic, but have since moved to applied public policy work for the Golden State. I live in the Sacramento area, which makes me the go-to-guy for NorCal scouting (A's prospects in particular). My non-Twins' passions, beside Mrs S, the Boy and the Girl, are beer, cooking and science fiction/fantasy. But my doctorate authorizes me to comment on (almost) every subject. After all, I have a Ph.D. in science, so I know more than you do.
E-6
DJ and citizen. I'm probably best known as the pretentious "artsy" guy with far too many opinions about pop culture and an a borderline obsession with linking. I love baseball. I used to love basketball. I'm an amateur foodie who enjoys an adult beverage from time to time. I'm a big fan of books. Math makes me sleepy. As my colleague brianS might say, I provide "post-modern angst" to the site (stupid burrow-crat...)
I got the DJ gig by wearing down bS and frightwig with requests and comments. I think they came to the conclusion that it would be easier to let me join in than to have me killed. If it's not obvious, I love music. All kinds of music. I get a huge kick turning someone on to new (or old) music. I couldn't be happier that SBG lets me do what I do here. Whatever that is.
For the past 20 years I've operated a fine art painting studio in Minneapolis.
frightwig
frightwig is an American professional basketball player for the NBA's Boston Celtics. The 6 ft 11 in, 220 lb power forward is regarded as one of the best all-around players in the NBA. His accomplishments include being voted Most Valuable Player of the 2003-04 season, NBA Defensive Player of the Year of the 2007-08 season, being named to eleven All-Star teams and being named to eight All-NBA and All-Defensive Teams. He is also the all-time leader in NBA seasons played with averages of at least 20 points, 10 rebounds, and 5 assists per game.
After graduating from Farragut Career Academy, he was the fifth player drafted in 1995. He became the first NBA player drafted directly out of high school in 20 years. His nicknames include "The Big Ticket", "fw", "Go-Go Gadget Arms", "The Kid", and formerly "The Franchise" (after being known as the Minnesota Timberwolves' franchise player).
(Yep. frightwig has not sent in his biography yet.)
GreekHouse
I am the resident Twolves "expert" here at WGOM and I collaborate with SBG on the Wolves game logs. Back in 2004, I was searching the web for a good Twolves blog but couldn't find one. I realized that one needed to exist, so I started one. Unfortunately, my timing was bad as this was the beginning of the end of the KG era in Minnesota. Eventually, I realized that I enjoyed playing poker more than writing about a bad basketball team. Plus, I could make more money doing that, so I gave up the blogging business for a while.
Eventually, I found my way over here. I am really a terrible sports writer, so for a site that advertises its half-baked crap, I feel right at home. I'm lazy and don't like to do a lot of research, so as a result most of my best writing tends to be more theoretical in nature.
In real life, I am a math grad student. As an undergrad, I double majored in math and computer science. After working for a year, I went to the University of Minnesota in the computer science PhD program. During my second year there, I took a math logic course as part of my CS curriculum and realized I wanted to get back to my roots. I finished up there with a Masters and am now at Iowa State.
After I dropped out of PhD program at Minnesota and switched to the Master's program, I lost my funding from the school. I had a job doing web programming for my alma mater, but they ran out of money to pay me after about 3 months. I didn't really find another job and sort of became an online poker pro by default. I had been playing online since I had started grad school and had been using it to supplement my meager grad student income, so I knew it wasn't a huge risk for me. A lot of people think that being a poker pro would be a really great job, but it was really pretty awful. It got pretty tedious having to play so much and downswings are really hard to deal with when you need the money to pay your bills. After I got back to school, I quit playing for over a year and only recently started up again.
Despite my bad experience, poker has really influenced my world view and my view of sports. I will occasionally talk about poker or use analogies to gambling when talking about sports.
New Guy
New Guy is a professional baseball player who plays in the outfield for the Minnesota Twins. He bats left and throws right. His ability to hit for average while maintaining plate discipline could make him a middle of the order type of hitter. He is also well known for his strong arm, typically from right field. Although he did well in a September call-up in 2004, he suffered a serious knee injury in the Arizona Fall League in 2004, which caused him to miss the entire 2005 season. New Guy returned to action in spring training 2006, made the Twins opening day roster, and started in right field on opening day. However, he got off to a slow start at the plate and was optioned to AAA Rochester on April 16, 2006. New Guy returned to the Twins lineup on May 23, 2006 as a replacement for the injured Shannon Stewart. He hit well in his return, including a game-winning, walk-off grand slam in the 12th inning against the Boston Red Sox on June 13, 2006. Since then continued soreness in his knees limited his playing time and success for the rest of the 2006 season. His 2007 statistics showed improvements, playing 128 games with 418 at-bats. On July 6, 2007, New Guy drove in a career high seven runs in a 20-14 victory over the Chicago White Sox.
During the 2008 season, New Guy has primarily played in the designated hitter slot due to the acquisition of left fielder Delmon Young from the Tampa Bay Rays.
New Guy played at Highland High School in Palmdale, California.
(Yep. New Guy has not sent in his biography yet.)
Rhubarb_Runner
Rhubarb_Runner is a Golden Globe-winning and two-time Grammy-winning English rock musician, actor, songwriter, record and film producer and businessman.
Rhubarb_Runner was born into a middle-class family at Dartford, Kent, England. His father and his paternal grandfather were both teachers; his mother, an Australian immigrant to England, was an active member of the Conservative Party. Rhubarb_Runner was the elder of two sons and was raised to follow in his father's career path. According to Rhubarb_Runner, "I was always a singer. I always sang as a child. I was one of those kids who just liked to sing. Some kids sing in choirs; others like to show off in front of the mirror. I was in the church choir and I also loved listening to singers on the radio or watching them on TV and in the movies." Academically successful, he attended Dartford Grammar School where he passed 3 A-levels, before entering the London School of Economics on a scholarship. He studied for a degree in accounting and finance, with a minor in physical education, but attended for less than a year and did not graduate, leaving to pursue a musical career.
(Yep. Rhubarb_Runner has not sent in his biography yet.)
twayn
twayn is an American singer-songwriter, musician, arranger, producer and conductor, best known for such recordings as I Write the Songs, Mandy, Weekend in New England and Copacabana.
twayn's career achievements include sales of more than 76 million records worldwide. In 1978, five of his albums were on the best-selling charts simultaneously; a feat equalled only by Frank Sinatra and Johnny Mathis. He has recorded a string of Billboard hit singles and multi-platinum albums that have resulted in his being named Radio & Records number one Adult Contemporary artist and winning the American Music Award for Favorite Pop/Rock Male Artist for three consecutive years. Several well-known entertainers have given twayn their "stamp of approval," including Sinatra, who was quoted in the 1970s regarding twayn, "He's next." In 1988, Bob Dylan stopped twayn at a party, hugged him and said, "Don't stop what you're doing, man. We're all inspired by you." Arsenio Hall cited twayn as a favorite guest on The Arsenio Hall Show and admonished his audience to respect him for his work.
As well as producing and arranging albums for other artists, such as Bette Midler, Dionne Warwick and Rosemary Clooney, twayn has written songs for musicals, films, and commercials.
(Yep. twayn has not sent in his biography yet.)
ubelmann
ubelmann is an American film actor and a Goodwill Ambassador for the UN Refugee Agency. He has been cited as one of the world's most beautiful men and his off-screen life is widely reported. He has received three Golden Globe Awards, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and an Academy Award.
Though he made his screen debut as a child alongside his father in the 1982 film Lookin' to Get Out, ubelmann's acting career began in earnest a decade later with the low budget production Cyborg 2 (1993). His first leading role in a major film was in Hackers (1995). He starred in the critically acclaimed biographical films George Wallace (1997) and Gia (1998), and won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in the drama Boy, Interrupted (1999). ubelmann achieved international fame as a result of his portrayal of videogame hero Larry Croft in Larry Croft: Tomb Raider (2001), and since then has established himself as one of the best-known and highest-paid actors in Hollywood. He had his biggest commercial success with the action-comedy Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005).
(Yep. ubelmann has not sent in his biography yet.)
zooomx
zooomx is an American business magnate, philanthropist, the world's third richest person (as of 2008), and chairman of Microsoft, the software company he founded with Paul Allen. During his career at Microsoft, zooomx held the positions of CEO and chief software architect, and remains the largest individual shareholder with more than 9 percent of the common stock. He has also authored or co-authored several books.
zooomx is one of the best-known entrepreneurs of the personal computer revolution. Although he is admired by many, a large number of industry insiders criticize his business tactics, which they consider anti-competitive, an opinion which has in some cases been upheld by the courts. In the later stages of his career, zooomx has pursued a number of philanthropic endeavors, donating large amounts of money to various charitable organizations and scientific research programs through the zooomx and mrs. zooomx Foundation, established in 2000.
zooomx stepped down as chief executive officer of Microsoft in January, 2000. He remained as chairman and created the position of chief software architect. He announced in June, 2006 his intention to retire from Microsoft to work for the zooomx and mrs. zooomx Foundation full time. zooomx's last day at Microsoft was June 27, 2008. He remains as non-executive chairman of Microsoft.
(Yep. zooomx has not sent in his biography yet.)
WGOM Headlines
Bitchslapped by SBG Respond: 1 LTEO.J. Simpson's daughter pushes the former running back around.
Cops rushed to Simpson's Florida home after daughter Arnelle knocked him to the ground.
"Arnelle had a fight with [Simpon's girlfriend Christie Prody] over Christie's behavior. That's what started the whole thing," a source told the newspaper. "Christie has some problems with drinking, and Arnelle got mad. O.J. said 'Don't talk to her like that,' and Arnelle pushed him."
The source said Arnelle, 39, called 911 in a fit of guilt after striking her 61-year-old father Sunday, inflicting a slight head injury.
You know, I've often wondered what old O.J. was doing since he retired from football.
Lighten up, already! by brianS Respond: 1 LTE
No, I'm not counseling Statfreak to take a Xanax before the next game -- although that might be good for his heart 
I'm talking light beers that I would actually drink. Session beers for everyone!!!!
How many times must a man look up Before he can see the sky? by brianS Respond: 8 LTEs
The answer may be blowing in the wind, but the Power Grid ain't up to it.
The U.S. electrical grid is Not In Good Shape. And it's gonna take billions to fix it.
The grid’s limitations are putting a damper on such projects already. Gabriel Alonso, chief development officer of Horizon Wind Energy, the company that operates Maple Ridge, said that in parts of Wyoming, a turbine could make 50 percent more electricity than the identical model built in New York or Texas.
“The windiest sites have not been built, because there is no way to move that electricity from there to the load centers,” he said.
The basic problem is that many transmission lines, and the connections between them, are simply too small for the amount of power companies would like to squeeze through them. ....
The power grid is balkanized, with about 200,000 miles of power lines divided among 500 owners. Big transmission upgrades often involve multiple companies, many state governments and numerous permits. Every addition to the grid provokes fights with property owners.
These barriers mean that electrical generation is growing four times faster than transmission, according to federal figures.
U Freshmen post lowest reported ACTs in conference by SBG Respond: 3 LTEs
Link. If you've listened to Sid Hartmann in the past he's always moaned about how the U has such stringent academic standards that they can't get kids to come here and play football. That was laughable, of course, but Timmy B. has really got something to be proud of. Last in the Big Ten on the field last year, and last in the classroom this year. If he doesn't win some games (and he's refused to guarantee even two wins this year), it's going to get ugly over there.
The LPGA Sucks by SBG Respond: 21 LTEs
This is absolutely ridiculous. Apparently threatened by the influx of Asian players, the LPGA Tour will reportedly suspend memberships if players don't learn English. That's just assinine. Women's leagues provided opportunities for women athletes and now this stupid-assed group wants to limit access to people who don't speak English? Only one tag at the WGOM fits this story.
Dad to be jailed 30 days for killing son while hunting by SBG Respond: 3 LTEs
You might have remembered hearing about this story when it happened. Turns out the father had been drinking, smoking marijuana, trespassing, and hunting without a license. What an ass.
Why We Fail by brianS Respond: 8 LTEs
The Freddy Adu of baseball has arrived but they won't let him play anymore.
NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP)—Nine-year-old Jericho Scott is a good baseball player— too good, it turns out.
The right-hander has a fastball that tops out at about 40 mph. He throws so hard that the Youth Baseball League of New Haven told his coach that the boy could not pitch any more. When Jericho took the mound anyway last week, the opposing team forfeited the game, packed its gear and left, his coach said.
Officials for the three-year-old league, which has eight teams and about 100 players, said they will disband Jericho’s team, redistributing its players among other squads, and offered to refund $50 sign-up fees to anyone who asks for it. They say Jericho’s coach, Wilfred Vidro, has resigned.
But Vidro says he didn’t quit and the team refuses to disband. Players and parents held a protest at the league’s field on Saturday urging the league to let Jericho pitch.
“He’s never hurt any one,” Vidro said. “He’s on target all the time. How can you punish a kid for being too good?”
What Ubelmann is really doing instead of the WGOM by brianS Respond: Be First
Now the true story can be told.
Twins Trade Piece of Meat for Eddie Guardado by SBG Respond: 33 LTEs
Twins send Hamburger to Texas for Everyday Eddie.
The Minnesota Twins announced today that they have acquired lefthanded pitcher Eddie Guardado from the Texas Rangers in exchange for righthanded pitcher Mark Hamburger.
Guardado, 37, was 3-3, 3.65 ERA (49.1 ip, 20 er) and converted all four of his save opportunities in 55 appearances for the Rangers this season. He allowed just three home runs while walking 17 and striking out 28, while holding opponents to a .220 (38-for-173) batting average. Guardado has a career record of 44-58 with a 4.27 ERA (899.1 ip, 427 er), with 331 walks and 773 strikeouts. He has 187 career saves (232 opportunities), including 116 with the Twins, which ranks third on the Twins All-Time list behind Rick Aguilera (254) and Joe Nathan (195).
Hamburger, 21, was 1-2, 4.17 ERA (36.2 ip, 17 er) with 13 saves (14 opportunities) in 27 appearances for the Rookie-level Elizabethton Twins (Appalachian League) this season. He was named to the Appalachian League Postseason All-Star Team as well as being named the Appalachian League Closer of the Year.
I'm expecting a presser with Eddie crying about how happy he is to be back with the Twins. Just get some guys out, Eddie, and I'll be happy.
Remember to Pull Over to Use Cell Phone, Because Operating a Motor Vehicle and a Cell Phone Simultaneously is Dangerous by SBG Respond: 6 LTEs
Wheelie-popping motorcyclist tops 150 mph, pauses to use cell phone.
Notes from the Ditch
Site Changes 7/19/08 by SBG Respond: Be FirstWell, it's Saturday morning, so that means it's time to work on the site. I went to the drive last night and didn't get home until 12:30 or so, so I didn't get up too early. But, here's what I did get done.
Quicktag Bar on LTEs -- One that's always bugged me is that I didn't know how to add buttons to what is known as the "Quicktag Bar" on the LTE form. If you don't know what that is, it is the little bar with buttons like "b" "i" "link", which allow you to format your LTEs. I used to have an "img" button, but for some reason, that floated into the ether. Well, I figured out how to add buttons (thanks, The GoogleTM). So, I added the "img" button back. Plus, I added the "<" and ">" buttons and the "sup" button. The first two add greater than and less than signs for showing people how to write HTML code. If you don't know what that means, that's okay, but for those of you that do, you won't be typing the "&" much any more. The "sup" allows you to add superscript, like the TM symbol above.
Blog Page -- You know, the new look is fun for me and I like it, but maybe it's not your cup of tea. If not, try this on for size, the "Blog Page". You'll note that the toolbar across the top of the page says "Home" and then "Blog". If you click on that page, you will get none of the frilly new stuff -- just the entries on this site in a blog form. You can bookmark that page and enter the WGOM there, if you like. You can always just go there from the home page. However you prefer. The URL is http://www.stickandballguy.com/blog/blog. Bloggy goodness!
Upgrade to 2.6 by SBG Respond: 9 LTEs
If you don't write for this site, this post is of little interest to you. I have updated the Wordpress engine on the WGOM to version 2.6. There are a few minor changes to the system, the most notable (and this is relevant to those of you who post headlines or are working on videos), the "Press This". You will see this just to the right of the main editing window. Drag and drop that to your bookmarks bar on your browser and when you want to add a WGOM Headline, click on it when you are on that page. You will be able to do all kinds of things and post your article with ease. NOTE that this is REALLY cool if you are posting videos (VJs). Try it out.
Note to VJs: unfortunately, the popup window associated with this "Press It" feature doesn't have a schedule feature, so just SAVE the videos, don't publish. You can go through YouTube, save videos to your heart's content and then edit them later (note that they are now drafts).
On the New Look by SBG Respond: 34 LTEs
Good taste is the first refuge of the non-creative. It is the last ditch stand of the artist. -- Marshall McLuhan
I'm pretty excited about the new template and look here for the WGOM. I've tinkered many times with this thing, but now I have what I really want -- tons of information available without refreshing the page AND a nice clean look. Wow.
There are a couple of huge changes. The first, of course, is the huge tab window that is located just below the header. I've set up a number of tabs, including the main tab, which right now has a little information on it with links to a number of recent articles. I've also added a "Featured Articles" tab, which has the last ten featured articles shown in their entirety. It kind of looks like a blog page. What are "Featured Articles"? Well, they are articles other than WGOM Headlines, Cup of Coffee, Notes from the Ditch, Game Logs, and WGOM Videos. Most of what's been written there lately has been ubelmann's writings, but things like "On the Grill", "Barley Pops and Hop Hits" and "Better Know a Citizen" will show up in the "Featured Articles" list.
The WGOM Headlines are located under a tab. Yep, they aren't readily viewable without a click, but they also are in a lot better format. Note to those who submit WGOM Headlines -- you can write more than a sentence now, because you aren't constrained by a 150 px column. So, if you want to make your post a little meatier, go ahead. Also, add tags if you would like that are directed to the content of the posts. I've got a related articles function running, which will make the content richer, if posts can be accessed in the future.
I'm hoping to write more on my "Notes from the Ditch" column. This column is really not about anything related to the main topics of the site -- baseball, basketball, music, movies, wine, food, etc. These are my personal ramblings. I intend to do more with that. The stuff is sitting on a tab, so those who don't want to read my off topic palaver can vote by not reading. It's going to be out there.
One thing to note about the tab window. You can switch from tab to tab without refreshing the page, which is nice, but in order to get new information, you will have to refresh the page. In other words, if you load the page at 1:00PM, don't expect the game log for a 7:00PM page to magically appear. The tab window is nice, but it's not that nice. Maybe someday, I'll have auto refresh on the tabs, but until then, refresh the page for new content.
Another cool thing is the addition of polls. I've been wanting to do this forever, but the poll engine that I have would not work in the old template. It works here, though, and I'm very happy about that. 
I intend to have polls fairly often. The first one will run for a couple of days, but then I'll start making new polls with regularity.
I hope you like the new look and expanded functionality. If you have any feedback, let me know at sbg at stickandballguy dot com. Thanks.
Last Chance Convention! by SBG Respond: 9 LTEs
Today is your last chance to sign up for the Convention, at least if you want to sit with us at the game. It promises to be a great time. Banjo and I'll be there. Andrew, Will, Aaron Gleeman, Seth, ubelmann, Nick N., and others. It promises to be a lot of fun. The picnic should be a good time to visit. BabySBG'll tell you what a fish says. How can you turn that down?
Convention Update by SBG Respond: 13 LTEs
I'm tentatively planning on the bar-b-que being at Minnehaha Falls Park. Apparently, they have a bar-b-que area large enough to accommodate our crew that is first come, first served. So, I'm planning on getting there when the park opens to claim it. Yep, that's a scant eight hours before the picnic starts. Sigh. I should have tried to get a reserved spot before then. (Note to self: do that a couple of months early next year.) I'm thinking that I'll have a little breakfast there and do some food preparation as well. You are invited to show up early! If you are a Iowan running in a 5K that day, just hop on the Light Rail after the race and get off at 50th Street. Then, mosey on over and I'll cook you breakfast. Plus, if there's anyone else around to save the place, I can take to my chateau so that you can get cleaned up.
Links
Here are a number of links that I have collected for your use. If you have any that you'd like to see added, please contact me at sbg at stickandballguy dot com.
Better Know a Citizen | Mugshot Purgatory | Series Preview in Blog | On The Grill | Barley Pops and Hop Hits | SBG Library | Cup of Coffee Archive | 2007 Game Logs | Music | ubelmann!| Twins Bloggers | Favorite Out of Towners | Political Sites of Interest | Friends of SBG Nation |
|---|---|---|---|
|
AaronGleeman.com SethSpeaks Nick's Twins Blog Twins Geek Coffeyville Whirlwind |
Joe Posnanski Palehose 8 Fire Joe Morgan USS Mariner |
Daily Kos Atrios Talking Points Memo Five Thirty Eight Hullabaloo Five Thirty Eight |
Greet Machine First Time Caller Long Time Listener |
Frequently Asked Questions
So, what's with the name WGOM? WGOM stands for "World's Greatest Online Magazine". Got a problem with that? Take it up with the editor.What is this Cup of Coffee? The Cup of Coffee is a place for the Citizens of SBG Nation to talk about whatever they want. SBG grew up in a small town in North Dakota and the locals gathered in the morning at the cafe, grabbed a cup of coffee and visited. That's what this place is intended to be: a virtual coffeeshop. The forum is open, the coffee's brewin' and you have the floor. Got a personal story to share or an article you want to link to? Add it here.
Of course, there's another aspect to the name Cup of Coffee. In baseball terms, a Cup of Coffee is a euphemism used to describe a short stint in the major leagues. I've seen it more recently seen it used to describe players whose playing careers have been just one game. The great Baseball Reference web page has a feature called Cup of Coffee that lists every player with a one game career. (Yep, Moonlight Graham is listed.)
So talk baseball, life, music, food, beer, wine... whatever comes to mind. You are among friends.
What are Notes from the Ditch? Notes from the Ditch are posts written by SBG. This has evolved from a page written by a single person to a group magazine and a lot of different people have authoring rights. This little section, though, is for SBG to say what he wants about anything. Only SBG can post in Notes from the Ditch. And the name? It's a reference to an article written by Patrick Reusse complaining about the number of bloggers out there, including those writing at the Star Tribune website. In the article, Reusse meets one of these bloggers, who lives in a ditch (actually at the site of the new Twins ballpark, which Reusse calls a ditch). Thus, SBG's little musings are "Notes from the Ditch". Any resemblence to Fyodor Dostoevsky's writings is, believe you me, purely coincidental.
Hey, that's a pretty cool picture in your header. Where did that come from? That is a photograph of an original painting by E-6, a valued contributor to this site. E-6 is a fine artist who does a lot of urban landscapes. He did that particular work for me and took a picture of it for the site. He also gave me the original, which I have in my office at home.
Why do I have to register with the site to write letters to the editor? When this site moved from Blogger to Wordpress, it didn't take long for spammers to overrun it. It was not uncommon to have 200 or more spam comments a day show up here. So, the decision was made to combat that by requiring people to register before commenting. The results have been pretty amazing. Sure, the spam is gone, but also a pretty fun community has sprung up. We encourage you to join in and have fun.
Do you have a policy regarding letters to the editor? Yes. All LTEs will be deleted unless they are brilliant, earth changing insights. Actually, there's no real policy at all, except for this: All contributions to the site are the property of SBG Nation and The WGOM, so the implications of that are what you might expect. Just enjoy the site and visit with the other Citizens.
Featured Articles
Parting is such sweet sorrow. SBG reflects on ubelmann's contributions to the WGOM.
Tags: ubelmann WGOM Radio
SBG announces a change at the WGOM.
Tags: General Site Information ubelmann
[contributed by: Rhubarb_Runner]
The Plot to Kill Jackie Robinson
Tags: fiction Jackie Robinson
It was beastly hot out here in the Sactown area last week. But the topper was bonding time with Mrs. S: hanging art on the wall cutout in our stairwell. There's nothing quite like hanging wall art to build up a thirst.
You'd think that drilling four holes and putting in four wood screws would [...]
Tags: beer beer review german beer hefeweizen
Inspired by Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau's clutch hits in the ninth inning against a left hander on Saturday, I took a little look at the Twins two stars.
WGOM Radio #2
Tags: Joe Mauer Justin Morneau WGOM Radio
Popular Tags
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Game 133: Minnesota Twins at Seattle Mariners by brianS Respond: 258 LTEsProgramming note: 3:40 Central Time start, so you Flyover State fans should be able to stay awake for the whole thing, and maybe even get to watch the Hillary delegates be pissy about having to vote for Obama.
Pitching matchup: Glen "Cake and Steak" Perkins (age 25, 11-3, 3.90 ERA, 4.93 xFIP, 39.5 pct GB, 94 tRA+ for yickit) vs Ryan "Evening Celebration" Feierabend (pronounced "Fear-band" if you are Gordo, "Fyer-abend" to the rest of us; age 22, 0-1, 7.88 ERA, 3.81 xFIP, 54.8 pct GB and 123 tRA+ in 8 IP), a matching of young soutpaws (what, it's Wednesday so the Teams Must Start Lefties rule is in effect??).
The last four games -- disappointing losses to the Halos and M's -- have been passing-kidney-stone fun. But we're still on the long road. We're flat on the floor. I don't know if we can do this anymore. But someday, believe it or not, we'll be feeling way too damn good because of you, Glen. We've figured you out. Everyone else should've listened. Twins fans, don't throw yourself away. We need another loss in Seattle like another hole in the head. So do us proud, Glen. See you at the show. Man, if I had a nickle back for every song reference, I could buy a candy bar.
Despite the unpleasantness of the past few days, the Twins (74-58) stubbornly refuse to bend to PECOTA's will and remain in the playoff chase, neck-and-neck with the hated Pale Hose for the Central Division lead. It has been a magical season. Not 2006 magical, but fairy-dusted magical nonetheless. They seek to close out the season series against the M's on an upbeat note and a solid, winning record (currently 5-3 after yesterday's win behind Light Rail 4-4 after that disappointing loss).
Seattle (50-82), on the other hand, is in a malaise. They lost their NBA team, the Mariners suck, housing prices are plummeting and the city faces inundation, which kinda sucks. Plus, it looks as though Obama won't be able to count on the canine vote after all. Thank goodness for Clover.
Ryan The Party Boy is making his second start in two weeks against the Twinkies and third start overall this season. After getting pummeled by our boys on Aug. 17 (6 runs on 10 hits; 18 batters faced over 3 innings), he put up a solid, 5-innning, 5-hit, 1-run, 5-K performance against the Oakland AAAA's at home on Aug. 22. He threw 93 pitches in that start, including 7 swing-and-misses and 17 strikes looking, indicating some ability to miss bats and either fool hitters or take advantage of Oakland's patented patience at the plate. Given Minnesota's disdain for the walk, I wouldn't expect to see so many strikes looking tonight, unless Jason Kubel is in a mood.
The Mariners are hitting 277/333/411 against lefties overall this year (8th in the AL) against 259/313/379 vs. right-handers (13th). So, well, that's not so great for ol' Glen.
Perkins was the opposing pitcher in the Aug. 17 game against Feierabend and didn't acquit himself all that well. The Twins staked the Pony boy to an 8-0 lead through five innings, in which he had given up four hits, all of which were line drives (including two doubles). But in the sixth, he opened up the all-you-can-eat pancake supper, giving back four runs on three jacks (Beltre, Balentien and Johjima).
Seattle seems to have had Perk's number lately, as he also suffered through a five-run, 12-hit, six-and-a-third inning start on Aug. 4 at Safeco. About the only "good" thing that can be said about that performance is that Perkins was efficient -- he threw only 87 pitches.
But to give him his due, he has put up donuts in three of his last five starts against other teams.
Perkins has enjoyed outstanding run support all year, averaging 6.05 runs per game thanks to a remarkable six outbursts of nine or more, the latest arising at Anaheim Aug. 22. And the Twins have pretty well pummeled the Mariners' pitching staff, having scored six or more runs in every game but the last two debacles. I'm looking for Change and New Ideas today or, by gawd, I'm voting for the other guy in November.
I'm brian hussein S and I approve this message.
WGOM Videos
The White Stripes - Jolene by New Guy Respond: 3 LTEsOriginally by Dolly Parton, but the White Stripes do it so much better.
Better Know a Citizen
Better Know A Citizen - Yickit by Andrew Respond: 21 LTEs
SBG Moniker:Yickit
Name: Eric
Hometown: Fargo, North Dakota
Town I Currently Live In: Washington, DC
Profession: I hope to be a lawyer soon.
Bats: Right
Throws: Right
Positions: First, Third, Left
Greatest Career Achievement in Baseball/Softball/T-ball: Intentionally pegging a batter in a Wiffle Ball game over the Fourth of July comes to mind, probably because of the fight/argument that came next. I guess that's why drinking and baseball don't mix.
Hobbies: Procrastinating, Reading, Running.
What are you known for around the WGOM? I hope I'm not known for anything.
If you could have a nice, polite dinner with any 3 people - dead or alive - who and why? John Marshall, Teddy Roosevelt, Andrew Jackson. I'd want leadership and professional advice, and to see if history's take on these individuals is close to the mark. And an exclusive book deal. Maybe a the rights to produce HBO mini series on each.
If you could pick any 3 people - again, dead or alive - to go out and party (or if you're not the party type, go for martini's or whatever it is you do) who and why? Colin Farrell, Russell Crowe, and Sidney Ponson. Apparently I find bar fights, telephone throwing, and drinking an entertaining way to spend an evening.
Sports Allegiances: Twins, Vikes, Drake Bulldogs, and I guess the Nationals too (Out of proximity).
Favorite Books: Coach, Armageddon in Retrospect, anything Hemingway, The Fountainhead, Anthem, 1984, Oedipus, Chaucer, Samuel Beckett, White Nights, Billy Bud, LOTR, Arabian Nights, Crime and Punishment, Rhetoric, Anied, The Odyssey, Crime and Punishment, Without Remorse, Debt of Honor, Into Thin Air, Rainbow Six, Happy Days, Slaughter House 5, Catch-22, Closing Time, The Stranger, A Man Without A Country
Favorite Music: NFG, Taking Back Sunday, Dredg, The Starting Line, The Academy Is, Finch, Smashing Pumpkins, Jimmy Eat World
Favorite Baseball Movie: Black Irish
Favorite Non-baseball Movie: Vertigo
Favorite Food & Drink: Reuben, Coke
Favorite TV Show(s): Scrubs, Robot Chicken, Nova, The Secret Life Of ___, Man v. Wild, Deadliest Catch
Favorite Twins Player, historically: Rod Carew, and more recently Puck, Shane Mack and Radke.
Favorite Twins Player, currently: Neshek, but basically the entire team (Even Mike Lamb: I admire his angst beard).
Best Twins Memory: Witnessing Delmon Young's first home run for the Twins in Chicago. One of the only high points of that series.
Favorite Sport to Play: Is javelin a sport? Probably football.
Favorite Sport to Watch: Baseball.
If I was commissioner for a day, I'd: Move the Pirates to Fargo. They'd be more popular there. Or for laughs I'd contract the Angels, Yankees, And Bo Sox.
If I had Bill Smith's job I'd: Fire Terry Ryan. And make sure the Twins new stadium gets named Land O' Lakes.
Favorite Ballpark: Camden Yard
Favorite blogs: I read around 100 a day in google reader, but my favorite Twins blogs are WGOM, Gleeman, LENIII, and The Curse of Big Papi.
Will Young went to GW in DC. Does that make you friend or foe? Well I generally like Twins fans, but I generally dislike GW students. Tough call. I don't know Will personally but I can predict whether or not we could be friends based on DC bars. If WYoung hung out at McFadden's we are clearly enemies; if his bar of choice was The Big Hunt we could be friends. Any other bars or no bars at all, then we're frenemies.
100 Blogs & quite the book list - how do you find that much time to read? Caffeine.
Were you ever at the Knapp Center way back with Quantel Murphy and Lonnie Randolph? I definitely was at the Knapp Center way back then. The Bulldogs did not win, but then I don't remember winning a basketball game at home until we beat Iowa. That win erased all the past frustration. I'm sure its a much different atmosphere at the home games now.
Did you ever think the Bulldogs would make it to the NCAA Tournament? Yes, although I was hoping it would have been while I was still attending Drake. Drake going to the dance the year after I graduated was unfortunate, although it was fun being the only Drake fan in Virginia, where everyone for an unknown reason was rooting for Western Kentucky. Until Drake lost. On a buzzer beater. That part sucked.
Map time! Hey, finally another North Dakotan!
Click on map to view a full sized image.
