Tag Archives: MLB
The baseball joy in July continues! Last night, the American League won the Midsummer Classic, the MLB All-Star Game. In fact, it really wasn’t even a close game. The AL shut out the NL, 3-0, which ended a three-year losing streak! Prior to that streak, the AL pretty much owned the NL back to 1988, winning 18 of 22 (with one tie in ’02).
You are perhaps wondering why the American League is “us” and “we.” It’s simple. I’m a Minnesota Twins fan, and they’re in the AL (Central Division). And why the Twins? I lived here from 1960-1967 (my “Wonder Bread years”) and from 1984-present, so I’ve been a “Minnesnowtan” for 62% of my life. That’s reason enough.
What follows is a write up of notes I took during the game last night:
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2 Comments | tags: 42, Harmon Killebrew, Jackie Robinson, Mariano Rivera, Michael Cuddyer, MLB, MLB All-Star Game, Prince Fielder | posted in Baseball
Imagine taking one of the most exciting parts of baseball — something not only dedicated baseball fans love, but something everyone agrees is exciting. Imagine creating something that distills a baseball game down to this one thing, this essence of baseball excitement. What is this universal crowd-pleaser? It is, of course, the ultimate crack of the bat, the best of the “three true outcomes.” It is the home run!
Imagine watching eight of baseball’s best sluggers vying to see who can hit the most home runs. The only thing at stake: simply hitting the most homers and winning the trophy. This isn’t like the All-Star Game this evening where the winner determines home field advantage for the World Series in October. It is like the All-Star Game in being one of three events that pits the American League against the National League (the World Series, of course, is the third and most important).
For sheer unalloyed baseball fun, it’s hard to beat the Home Run Derby!
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2 Comments | tags: American League, Bryce Harper, Home Run Derby, Michael Cuddyer, MLB, National League, Oakland Athletics, Yoenis Céspedes | posted in Baseball
After Saturn-Day comes Sun-Day, a day named after our local star. (To clarify: I’m referring to the nearby ball of hot, flaming gas, not a regional celebrity.) ((To clarify the clarification: I’m also not referring to any politician, but to the astronomical object.)) [And by ‘astronomical’ I mean ‘in space’ not ‘really, really big’ (although in this case both apply). And by ‘space’ I mean ‘outer,’ not the stuff in your attic.]
I trust things are perfectly clear now. It’s Sunday, so we worship the sun. Or in many cases, the Son. It may be a sacred day — a Sabbath day — or it may be just a day off from (normal) work. [For some parts of the world, it’s just a regular workday.]
A very common view is that Sunday afternoon is just for fun.
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2 Comments | tags: Angie Harmon, Gibbs, Minnesota Twins, MLB, MLB All-Star Game, MLB Home Run Derby, NCIS, picnic, Saturday, Sunday | posted in Baseball, TV
Baseball is here! It has been for weeks. Due to the blog bogs, it’s been a while since my last baseball post. It’s high time to rectify that!
One problem is that the Twins don’t give one a whole lot to talk about. They rarely earn many headlines on the hardball pages. (This is at least partially due to not earning many runs on the baseball fields.) We’re not dead last in any key stat, and we’re even doing pretty good in some areas. That’s relatively good news for Twins fans!
Today I want to talk about baseball, old school versus new school. It’s a choice you make — or one that’s thrust upon you — and which you adopt often informs many of your other views on the sport.
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9 Comments | tags: Brian Kenny, designated hitter, For The Record, Harold Reynolds, instant replay, Jim Thome, MLB, MLB channel, MLB Network, MLB Now, new school, old school, umpires | posted in Baseball, Life
After another long day at work, I’m watching the Detroit Tigers take on the New York Yankees in game 3 of the ALCS. The Tigers won both earlier games, and I understand no team has come back from an 0-2 start. With Justin Verlander on the mound, the Tigers have a very good shot at winning, which would put the Yankees in an even deeper hole.
Putting a little icing on my oatmeal cookie, the San Francisco Giants beat the St. Louis Cardinals last night, so those two are tied 1-1 in the NLCS. Dare I dream that the World Series will be Giants vs Tigers? (I do, I do!) The Championship series is best of seven, so — assuming the Tigers win tonight — they just need to win one more game.
Tonight I’m republishing an article I wrote earlier this year on my baseball blog. This is about some of the reasons I’ve come to love this sport so much.
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24 Comments | tags: ALCS, baseball is boring, Detroit Tigers, Minnesota Twins, MLB, New York Yankees, NLCS, World Series | posted in Baseball
Oops!
To My Subscribers: you just got an email saying I’d published a new article, but if you followed the link it won’t (shouldn’t!) work. I’m sure we’ve all done it: clicked the big blue [Publish] button rather than the harder-to-notice white [Save Draft] button.
I was working on an article for later, got as far as I wanted to today, and meant to save it as a draft for later. But the Big Blue was just too easy to click!
Fortunately, WordPress allows you to put a published post back into draft status (and I set it to Private just to be sure).
So, oops, my bad! Cat got out of the bag early, but kitty is kenneled again until later!
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Leave a comment | tags: ALCS, Delmon Young, Derek Jeter, Detroit Tigers, Doug Fister, Joe Girardi, Miguel Cabrera, MLB, New York Yankees, Prince Fielder | posted in Baseball, Writing
Well, it wasn’t unexpected, but the (damn) Yankees beat the Baltimore Orioles today in the fifth game of their ALDS series. And yesterday the Detroit Tigers beat the Oakland Athletics in their fifth game. The Division Series is best of five games, so now the Yankees (can we just assume there’s always a “damn” in front of that name?) and the Tigers move into the next round, the ALCS.
Yesterday the San Francisco Giants beat the Cincinnati Reds in the fifth game of their NLDS series. This has all made for some exciting playoff baseball. It’s painful to see a team lose 1-2-3 (such as, say, a certain Minnesota team did to a certain New York [cough, spit] team in 2010). It’s much more exciting to see the series go to 2-2. That way you get the maximum number of games, and that fifth game breaks the tie and wins the series. And that fifth game is very intense.
But wait! Astute readers may be thinking, aren’t there four Division Series games? I count only three. Indeed you do, but did you notice the title of today’s post?
The Washington Nationals are playing the St. Louis Cardinals as I write this!
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2 Comments | tags: ALDS, Detroit Tigers, MLB, NLDS, Oakland Athletics, San Francisco Giants, St. Louis Cardinals, Texas Rangers, Washington Nationals | posted in Baseball
It’s been another very disappointing season for the Minnesota Twins and their fans.
They managed to do better than last year, but that’s not saying much. Depending on how you look at it, 2011 was the third (or second or fifth) worst season in franchise history (which began in 1961). The equivocation comes from whether you look at the win percentage, games lost or games won.
This season is the sixth (or fourth or seventh) worst season in the 52-year history of the Minnesota Twins. It’s also only the second time they’ve such a bad win percentage two years running (and many don’t expect next year to be stellar, either).
I’ll explain about this and more, but regardless of how you look at it, it was an awful year!
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62 Comments | tags: ALDS, American League, Central Division, meteor strike, Minnesota Twins, MLB, NLDS, Texas Rangers, World Series | posted in Baseball
Logos con carne 