Tag Archives: Minnesota Twins

Aug17

Twins 1, Tigers 5

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Blah, blah, blah, went to a Twins game on my 22 hour stopover in Minnesota.  Blah, blah, blah Twins lost.  Blah, blah, blah Tigers won, but Verlander wasn’t pitching, so there’s no silver lining there.  Blah, blah, blah I won a free shirt at the game from the Twins twitter account.  Blah, blah, blah…

I’m in Switzerland!  I spent yesterday in Paris!  (I know at least one person reads my baseball posts and inserts the “blah, blah, blahs” in his head.  Figured I’d add them for everyone this time because I AM IN SWITZERLAND and I’m only blogging this game as a formality.)  I just woke up at 6 am and watched the end of the Twins loss to the Mariners in Seattle.  Timezones are weird.

 

Jun19

Twins 5, Brewers 4 — 15 innings

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Twins 5, Brewers 4 — 15 innings

As previously mentioned, the day after Martini’s wedding, I took Quinn, Harvey, and Katie to Target Field to see the Twins play the Brewers.  Except that Quinn was, uh, recovering and didn’t show up until the top of the 5th.  No worries however — he still got to see 9 full innings of baseball as the Twins and Brewers decided it was a good day to play 15.  In fact, Quinn saw more innings than Harvey and Katie, who had to leave after the 9th in order to catch their respective flights.  There was also a 45 minute rain delay in the 12th, during which I got to visit the Metropolitan Club for the first time, thanks to a new friend I had previously only known on Twinkie Town and twitter, who happened to be sitting a few rows in front of us in the third deck.  Thanks, Anelle (not her real name)!

As for the game — the good guys won!  Both teams scored a run early through a combination of small ball, but then the Brewers went up 4-1 in the 5th on a Corey Hart 3-run homerun.  (This coincided with Quinn arriving at our seats, so we decided it was his fault.)  The many Brewers fans in the park went crazy, but their joy only lasted a few innings as the Twins tied it up in the 7th on a walk and four singles.  And then the score stayed tied… and stayed tied.  And then it rained… and rained.

After our field trip to the Metropolitan Club, where I checked out some Blyleven memorabilia and some Twins china, we relocated to the first level, right behind first base.  Jeff Gray came in to pitch for the Twins and performed like an ace for three innings, before getting replaced by Swarzak in the 15th.  In the bottom half of the innings, the Twins managed to load the bases in the 12th, but failed to score.  Then came the 15th and they put two runners on.  Jamey Carroll hit a single and Trevor Plouffe came around to score what I was sure would be the winning run, only to get caught in a run down.  After a Brewers pitching change and some defensive indifference, Denard Span came to the plate with runners on second and third… and boom!  Solid single to right to win the game!  Twins win!  The crowd (all eighteen of us left — which apparently included my uncle and cousin) went crazy!

Take that, Wisconsin.  Here’s some pictures.

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May6

Mariners 5, Twins 2

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Mariners 5, Twins 2

My last game in Seattle I went solo — my Mom hadn’t decided to come along until after I had already purchased my 9th row behind home plate seat.  Unfortunately, it wasn’t the best game for being a Twins fan… other than two solo homeruns by Washington native Ryan Doumit, the Twins generated no offense.  By contrast, the Mariners scored three in the first, one in the second, and a fifth run in the fourth to more or less put the game away early.

But it was a gorgeous day for baseball and my view of the game couldn’t be beat.  Afterwards, I went up to the upper deck and saw Mt. Rainier, which was in full view for the first time all weekend.  Seattle — it’s a lovely town.  If only the Twins had decided to play a bit better, the weekend would have been perfect.

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May6

Mariners 7, Twins 0

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I nearly saw history last night… Felix Hernandez one-hit the Twins en route to a 7-0 victory.  Really, as far as the game goes, it was horrific for a Twins fan (me and my mother) and exciting for a King Felix fan (Amittai).  But we did have awesome seats, right behind the Twins dugout, purchased after a mini-adventure negotiating with scalpers.  As my mom put it, it really felt like we were watching a different game than last night.

Amittai also got me to do a thing I never do, which is leave my seat during the game.  We went and walked around the upper deck to see the views of the Seattle skyline — it wasn’t clear enough to see Rainier, but the sunset just past the Space Needle was nice.

And for those who might be curious, Amittai and my mother got along just fine.

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May5

Twins 3, Mariners 2

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Twins 3, Mariners 2

Twins win! Twins win!

Given the week they’ve had (i.e. they were no hit in their last game and hadn’t scored a run since Monday), I’m extra excited at having attended a win tonight. I got up this morning and flew to Seattle where my mother was already waiting for me — after having herself quite the adventure last night. (My mom is, uh, not a seasoned traveler. But she managed not to go to the hospital, so that’s something.) We headed out to the game early to check out some batting practice and get out of the rain.

That’s right, we went to the game to get out of the rain — because Safeco Field has a retractable roof. And actually, as far as ballpark roofs go, this was by far the best one I’ve ever seen, because it’s only a roof and there are no high walls. It doesn’t seal up the ballpark and the fresh air still comes in from outside.  (By the middle of the game, I might have been a little bit wishing that the air was less freezing fresh.)  Two thumbs up from me — plus the oyster po’boy was pretty delicious.

And as an added bonus, we were treated to a pre-game concert by Mike McCready, lead guitarist of Pearl Jam, who played the national anthem Jimi Hendrix style… and I recorded it for the Internet to enjoy, missing the first phrase:

And then there was the very excellent  game that The Twins Won!!  In particular, the 7th inning when they scored three runs on a Parmelee double, two walks, a fielding error, a fielder’s choice, and a Joe Mauer single.  It wasn’t exactly an offensive juggernaut, but it got the job done as Carl Pavano and the Bullpen (new band playing covers at the local bar?) held the Mariners to only two runs.  Matt Capps even came and pitched a 1-2-3 9th inning with two strikeouts.  It’s a Star Wars Day miracle!  (May the fourth be with you…)  Maybe they can do it again tomorrow when I attend a game with my mother and Amittai?

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Nov2

Baseball Photography

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Last fall before I went to Alaska, I bought myself a fancy new camera — not a DSLR, but a fancier model than my old point and shoot that fit in my pocket.  (It’s a Panasonic DMC-FZ35 if that means anything to you.)  It has an 18x zoom and a burst mode.  These two features combined mean that it’s excellent for taking pictures at baseball games.  Thus, I have literally thousands of pictures from all the games I’ve gone to this year — and this doesn’t even count all the pictures I took with my old camera after the new one was accidentally left back in Minnesota.  Most of the pictures are pretty dull and redundant — batters taking pitches or swinging and missing.  However, there is the occasional treasure.

And so, as an excuse to blog even though the baseball season is over, here are my 10 favorite pictures from various baseball games I went to this season.  (Also, I figured out I can embed slideshows, so this seemed like a good first slideshow.)

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Oct7

Speaking of October Baseball

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I bought something totally ridiculous.

1991 Minnesota Twins in Bobblehead form

1991 Minnesota Twins in Bobblehead form

Unfortunately, Greg Gagne’s hand is not attached to his body. But I already contacted the Twins Community Fund and they’ve agreed to send me a replacement. Not sure if I have to send the handless version back, but if I don’t… well, he is number 7. A little sideburn modification and suddenly it’s a Joe Mauer doll!

I need to figure out something to do with them other than display them on this old TV stand. I have an idea brewing, but it will take some work…

Sep29

One crazy night in baseball

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Last night was one heckuva a night for baseball.  The Red Sox finished their epic collapse while the Rays came back from 7-0 against the Yankees to snatch the AL Wild Card from the jaws of the Sox.  In the National League… same story.  The Cardinals won and just needed the Braves to lose, which took 13 innings to happen, but it happened.

And in Minnesota, in a game few people but Twins fans cared about, the Twins avoided 100 losses with a 1-0 win over the Royals on the backs of a complete game shutout by Carl Pavano and 9th inning heroics by Denard Span and Trevor Plouffe.  It was a nice farewell to John Gordon… I wasn’t listening on the radio, but I hope he missed calling a few plays just for old times sake.

Good baseball tends to bring out good writing, and Joe Posnanski has some of the best.  The entire article is worth reading, but his final paragraphs describing why it is that people love baseball is worth quoting.

Baseball, like life, revolves around anticlimax. That’s what you get most of the time. You stand in driver’s license lines, and watch Alfredo Aceves shake off signals, and sit through your children’s swim meets, and see bases loaded rallies die, and fill up your car’s tires with air and endure an inning with three pitching changes, a sacrifice bunt and an intentional walk.

But then, every now and again, something happens. Something memorable. Something magnificent. Something staggering. Your child wins the race. Your team wins in the ninth. You get pulled over for speeding. And in that moment — awesome or lousy — you are living something you will never forget, something that jumps out of the toneless roar of day-to-day life.

The Braves failed to score. Papelbon blew the lead. Longoria homered in the 12th. Elation. Sadness. Mayhem. Champagne. Sleepless fury. Never been a night like it. Funny, if I was trying to explain baseball to someone who had never heard of it, I wouldn’t tell them about Wednesday night. No, it seems to me that it isn’t Wednesday night that makes baseball great. It’s all the years you spend waiting for Wednesday night that makes baseball great.

Sep24

Moneyball

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Aaron Sorkin, easily my favorite screenwriter, helped write a movie featuring Philip Seymour Hoffman, one of my favorite actors, about using math to make a baseball team better.  Heck, yes, I saw it the day it came out.

First things first, no it is not 100% accurate.  Jeremy Giambi’s story is flat out wrong (he wasn’t new to the team in 2002).  The movie also completely ignores the fact that part of the reason the A’s did so well in 2002 was that they had the league MVP, Miguel Tejada, and the Cy Young award winner, Barry Zito.  If you don’t blink, you’ll see Tejada represented in the movie very briefly.  Try as I might (and maybe I blinked), I didn’t see a single mention of Zito.  It also credits the Red Sox 2004 World Series win to moneyball techniques, ignoring the fact that they were also helped by a pretty big payroll.  So, nevermind about accuracy.  As Brad Pitt as Billy Bean says near the end of the movie, “It’s hard not to romanticize baseball.”  And that’s what this movie is… a romanticized view of the 2002 Oakland A’s.  Accept that, and it’s a great flick.

There’s a classic Sorkinesque scene in the middle in which Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill are trying to trade for a Cleveland reliever (Ricardo Rincon).  It’s not quite as good as a similarly styled scene in Charlie Wilson’s War where Tom Hanks alternates between conversations in rapid succession, but Brad Pitt’s alternating conversations over the phone is still pretty funny.  The other great Sorkin-esque scene happens between Billy Bean and his ex-wife’s husband, a non-baseball fan who tries to pretend that he knows what’s going on with the A’s.

There are also some great baseball scenes surrounding the A’s record breaking 20 game win streak.  I may possibly have teared up a little, but I am a sap when it comes to dramatic baseball scenes.  I was pretty sure I knew how long the streak lasted, but for a brief second I thought I might be wrong and I got wrapped up in the drama.  Also, the mass of A’s fans in the theater were cheering.  It was an emotional moment… shut up, and stop laughing at me.

But really, the best part of this movie?  It is finally the antidote to Little Big League.

Let me explain… Little Big League remains the only movie made about the Twins.  It’s not that great of a movie, and it came out at the same time as a nearly identical movie about the Cubs (Rookie of the Year), but it was about the Twins so of course I saw it many times growing up.  I even knew a few people who were in crowd scenes.  But unlike every other baseball comedy, the Twins lose at the end of the movie.  It’s not a movie for Twins fans; it’s a movie for Mariners fans… particularly fans of Randy Johnson and Ken Griffey Jr. who are featured in the final scenes.

And so it is with Moneyball.  In the real world of 2002, the A’s lost the division series to the Twins in five games.  In the movie… same thing!  So, while the theater full of A’s fans was feeling down in the dumps when a very skinny “Eddie Guardado” pitched the final out, caught by “Corey Koskie,” I was kind of excited.  In fact, part of me wanted to clap or cheer or something… the Twins won in the post season!  And that right there made a great movie into one that will probably wind up being one of my all time favorites.

Who cares if it doesn’t get everything right?