Don't try to show up the chick with the scorebook.
Don't try to show up the chick with the scorebook.
July 27, 2009
Today my father is a year older than he was yesterday. Which is to say... older.
Back in 1981 when the Twins played their final game in old Met Stadium (now known as "The Mall of America"), my dad was there while I waited patiently in my mother's uterus at home. Somewhere in the off-season before the Twins opened their first game in the Metrodome, I was born. (He was also at the Vikings final game at Met Stadium in December of '81 -- wait, apparently I was alive for that. And I wasn't taken along because... ?)
Throughout the years I have attended countless games at the Metrodome, most of them with my dad. In 1987, he dragged us out for the impromptu homecoming after the Twins won the ALCS. We went and saw Paul Molitor's 2,997th and 2,998th hits in 1996 (and saw him go 0-something the next day -- hit 3,000 had to wait until a road trip to Kansas City). We were there for Kirby Puckett Appreciation Day shortly after he announced his retirement and he took me back a few years later for photo day. We saw Johan Santana break the Twins' strikeout record two years ago. We have numerous free Dairy Queen sponsored Twins hats in our front closet, mini "autographed" baseball bats in the basement, and couple of Homer Hankies floating around -- all from free Dome giveaways. Not to mention that pretty much our entire casual drinkware collection has been furnished by the Metrodome's concession stands. (As an aside, the quality of those cups has gone way down since the early 90s.)
This season will be the Twins last in the "Homer Dome." Even though it's the worst MLB stadium I've been to, it's the only home field I've known the Twins to have. So, in order to put him in what is sure to be a very small segment of people who were at the Twins last games in both of their stadiums, for his birthday I bought my dad two tickets to the final game against Kansas City this October. Because my mother will likely be out of town for her brother's birthday that weekend, I did the only logical thing and bought myself a plane ticket home in order to join him at the park.
Happy Birthday, Dad! I love you!
July 13, 2009
I was having a hard time finding an official site with updated stats on tonight's Homerun Derby. Finally it occurred to me that wikipedia and its OCD editors would probably be up to date with real time. Then I checked it out...
*sigh* Mauer couldn't hit one in the swing off. No Twins champion this year.
July 09, 2009
At work this week, our high school intern has been attempting to create images of an open and closed black box by using a (very smelly) permanent marker and coloring an old Mac Pro box. When the PI on the presentation who wanted the image wasn't quite satisfied with the resulting images, I pointed out that I could probably throw something together with Gimp in about an hour... and make it animate. So, if anyone else on the internet is giving a presentation with the phrase "Such and such systems are generally viewed as a black box, but now we are going to open the box," and wants a silly animation to go with it, have at this one with my complements. (Wait five seconds... it really does animate. Wait another minute and it will close again.)
July 08, 2009
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Why, yes, I was just at Fenway on Saturday sitting in Chris Morse's seats while he was out of town. Why, yes, I was back again tonight in the same situation... only this time I took Forrest instead of Harvey. We made a pact to make dinner plans more often because it seems that every time we do, someone offers me Red Sox tickets.
It rained for most of the day, but cleared up just in time for the game... and stayed perfect ballgame weather until the 9th inning. Luckily for those of us in attendance, the Red Sox were up 5-2 at this point and Papelbon was in from the bullpen to quickly mow down the A's with three strikeouts to end the game. As soon as he did, the grounds crew ran out the tarp -- I've become very familiar with that tarp this season.
I'd like to nominate Aaron Bates for player of the game because, well, he could use the confidence boost. After two full major league games, he's yet to get a hit. However, he does have a non-zero OBP thanks to a walk in the 6th inning. And because of this walk (as opposed to his usual strikeout), Pedroia was able to come up to bat in the same inning and single in Ellsbury for the Red Sox fifth run. And even though it was just an insurance run, I still think the kid deserves the confidence booster.
July 06, 2009
Sarah B is up in Alaska for her third straight summer. This year she may have quite possibly participated in the northern most performance of Michael Jackson's "Thriller" dance ever -- 68°38' N. I really should have been an environmental scientist.
July 05, 2009
Thanks to Chris Morse being out of town and not being able to use his season tickets, I was lucky enough to spend the afternoon of Independence Day at Fenway Park watching some baseball with Harvey Jones, who managed to get to Boston from New York as soon as I mentioned that I had a spare ticket. As an added bonus, today was the 70th anniversary of Lou Gehrig's "Luckiest Man on the Face of the Earth" speech. To honor Gehrig and ALS, we were treated to a (somewhat awkward) reading of the speech by Curt Schilling.
Unfortunately for the Red Sox, their luck was not as good as mine. While they jumped ahead quickly in the second off a two run blast by Captain VariTeX, the Mariners quickly chipped their way to a tie by the fifth inning. And tied the game remained, through the 7th inning stretch and the 8th inning rendition of "Sweet Caroline."
But then Saito came in to pitch for the Sox in the top of the ninth and loaded up the bases on walks with only one out. Chris Woodward hit a Texas Leaguer to right for an RBI and, well, quite frankly, Saito is lucky he only gave up one run that whole inning. Despite a pinch hitting appearance by Big Papi that got the crowd going, the Red Sox went down 1-2-3 in the 9th... and we left with "Que Sera Sera" as our entrance music instead of "Dirty Water."
But it was the 4th of July and there was baseball... not even a Red Sox loss could spoil this day.
