Tag Archives: Major League baseball
I haven’t written about my Minnesota Twins in a while. Blame it on 2016, the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year. On top of a stunning turn in politics, the Twins had their worst year ever as a Minnesota team. (They were the Washington Senators until 1960.)
They did okay in 2017 with a winning season (.525 win record) and the second American League Wildcard. Of course, they lost to, guess who, the damn Yankees. The year also capped a weird three-year over-under-over pattern in terms of their expected performance.
In 2018, the stats look closer to expectations, which is to say sad, but it’s possible 2019 will be much happier.
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1 Comment | tags: 2018, baseball season, Major League baseball, Mariano Rivera, Minnesota Twins, MLB, Paul Molitor, The Twins, Twins, Twins 2016, Twins 2018 | posted in Baseball
Well, whadda ya know, the Chicago Cubs won the World Series after being down 1-3 and pulling off a come-from-behind victory that took us all the way to extra innings in game #7 (after a weirdly brief rain delay between the ninth and tenth).
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10 Comments | tags: baseball post-season, Chicago Cubs, Cleveland Indians, Major League baseball, MLB, World Series, World Series 2016 | posted in Baseball
Tracking the inglorious ending. [click for big’n]
But as the MLB World Series begins today, and I’m pretty thrilled about both the long-suffering Cleveland Indians and the long-suffering Chicago Cubs being there (and hugely conflicted about who to root for), today seems the day to finally get this done.
I just wish it didn’t feel so much like an obituary.
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6 Comments | tags: baseball post-season, baseball season, Chicago Cubs, Cleveland Indians, Major League baseball, Minnesota Twins, MLB, Paul Molitor, The Twins, Twins 2016, World Series | posted in Baseball
And on the Field of Dreams a new pitcher steps to the mound…
Miami Marlins ace pitcher, José Fernández, was killed in a boating accident early Sunday morning in Miami Beach. He was 24 and had been pitching for the Marlins since 2013, his entire Major League career.
And heaven certainly gained an ace starter. During his brief career, his ERA was never above (or even reached) 3.00.
But it’s obviously a devastating loss for his family, his friends and teammates, and for baseball in general. A sad day for all baseball fans.
Rest in pitching, dude!
1 Comment | tags: Jose Fernandez, Major League baseball, Miami Marlins, MLB, peace, pitchers | posted in Baseball
Speaking of big strike outs, my Minnesota Twins continue to slog along at the bottom of the pack. Things actually got a bit exciting just before the All-Star Game break, but the last week or so suggests the Twins are reverting to the hapless form from the first few months.
The Twins played their 108th game of the season back on August 4th. That’s two-thirds of a season. As of their first third, things were looking uglier than ever in their history. Fortunately, the second third here was significantly better, and July was even kinda awesome.
The batting has definitely improved, but the pitching is just killing us.
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2 Comments | tags: American League, Atlanta Braves, baseball season, Major League baseball, Minnesota Twins, MLB, Tampa Bay Rays, Texas Rangers, The Twins, Twins, Twins 2016 | posted in Baseball
My poor Minnesota Twins are having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad season of epic proportion. It famously ain’t over ’til it’s over, but here at the one-third mark, after 54 games, it ain’t lookin’ good.
Put it this way: If the Twins continue to play at the abysmal .296 rate they have for the first two months of the season, they’ll win only 48 games. Which means losing 114! Which beats their previous worst (102 in 1982) by a good long margin.
Suffice to say we Twins fans are all feeling a bit stunned.
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6 Comments | tags: baseball season, Jose Berrios, Major League baseball, Minnesota Twins, MLB, Pat Dean, The Twins, Twins 2016 | posted in Baseball
Congrats to the Kansas City Royals, winners of the 2015 World Series!
They beat the New York Mets in just five games and completed the unfinished business from last year when they lost the 2014 WS in the final out of the final inning of the final game.
Go Royals!
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6 Comments | tags: baseball post-season, Kansas City Royals, Major League baseball, MLB, MLB Intentional Talk, New York Mets, World Series, World Series 2015 | posted in Baseball
They came so very, very close! After four years of season-long disappointment and mediocrity, my Twins were blessed with, literally, a winning season. Last Sunday they ended the 2015 season with a record of 83-79 (.512) — four games above the .500 mark!
The Post-Season ship left the dock on Tuesday; my Twins were not on board, but they only barely missed having a berth. It wasn’t until the penultimate game last Saturday they knew the ship would sail without them. They were in the hunt that long!
So thanks for a fun season, Twins! (And an even better one next year!)
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10 Comments | tags: baseball post-season, Kansas City Royals, Major League baseball, Minnesota Twins, MLB, Texas Rangers, The Twins, Twins 2015 | posted in Baseball
Go Twins!
It’s officially fall, the season named after what the leaves are doing now (at least in places where they came up with the word, “fall”). Did you ever notice how the two seasons of transition both are named after action verbs? Or how appropriate those verbs are to the cycle of life happening in those transitions? Life springs forth to sunny summer and falls asleep to weather winter.
The autumnal equinox was at 08:21 UTC. Here in middle America, by a standard we call “Central,” summer fell at 3:21 AM. I slept through it, so I didn’t hear any noise it might have made. (Sometimes you can hear a distant thud, but that might be a whole bunch of leaves coincidentally all falling at once.)
Today also marks the final dozen (exciting!) games for my Minnesota Twins!
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5 Comments | tags: autumnal equinox, baseball post-season, baseball season, Chicago Cubs, Cleveland Indians, equinox, fall, Kansas City Royals, Los Angeles Dodgers, Major League baseball, Minnesota Twins, MLB, New York Mets, Texas Rangers, The Twins, Toronto Blue Jays, Twins 2015, Win Twins | posted in Baseball
If they completely collapsed right now, fans of the Minnesota Twins would still have seen a better season than they have since 2010. If they could somehow continue playing at their current level, they could win 90+ games rather than losing that many as they have every season since then.
If they just win every other game (playing .500 ball), they’ll win 83 games and still end up with a much better record than they’ve seen in four years. They’re currently four games above the .500 mark — something fans haven’t seen since the end of 2010!
Whatever the case, the last few weeks have us jumping for joy!
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8 Comments | tags: Brian Dozier, Major League baseball, Minnesota, Minnesota Twins, MLB, Paul Molitor, Target Field, The Twins, Trevor Plouffe, Twins, Twins 2015, Win Twins | posted in Baseball
