Monthly Archives: October 2011

Oct27

Cardinals 10, Rangers 9, World Series tied 3-3

Posted on by
Standard

Unbelievable World Series Game 6.

Not as good as 1991, but very very close.

I’m not really rooting for St. Louis or Texas this year, but tonight I was rooting for Cardinals simply because I wanted a game 7 tomorrow.  And holy cow, was this an exciting way to get there.  The Rangers scored in the first; the Cardinals responded in the first; the Rangers scored again; the Cardinals responded again.  After the Rangers scored three on back to back homeruns in the 7th to put the score at 7-4, I thought it might be over.  But then in the 8th, Allen Craig hit a homerun to bring the Cardinals within two, setting up for the bottom of the 9th.  Albert Pujols doubled, Lance Berkman walked, and the winning run was at the plate in the form of St. Louis native David Freese.

At this point, I said, “It would be quite the narrative if he jacked one here.  Not Kirby Puckett level, but close.”  Freese didn’t jack it… yet, but he did triple to tie it up and send the game to the 10th.  Hold on to my quote though, it comes up later.

Josh Hamilton hit a two run shot for the Rangers in the top of the inning and once again, I thought that might be it.  But St. Louis pulled together a bunch of little hits that scored two runs and tied it up again, sending the game to 11.  (Insert Spinal Tap joke here.)

Pause here for a refresher of 20 years ago… if you’re not aware, 20 years ago yesterday the Twins were playing the Braves in game 6 of the 1991 World Series.  The game was won on a Kirby Puckett walk-off homerun in the bottom of the 11th that lead to Jack Buck’s epic call “We’ll see you tomorrow night.”  Here’s the video if you don’t remember… or if you are my dad and think it was Al Michaels who made the call.

Okay, now that we all know the reference, back to tonight.  Leading off the bottom of the 11th inning was David Freese.  Remember what I said earlier?  Well, it totally happened.  And then, Joe Buck, son of Jack Buck, totally ripped off his father and made the Kirby Puckett call from 20 years ago.  *sigh* It was better the first time.

(Odds are good MLB takes that second video down, so watch it while you can.)

 

Edit: MLB took the second one down, but I found this:

 

Oct27

More earthquakes!

Posted on by
Standard

At about 5:36 AM this morning, I was awoken by another small earthquake (3.6).  The bed shook back and forth a bit and my dream was disrupted by a sensation that I was falling.  But the best part was that I was positioned just so on my side so that when I opened my eyes, I saw the silhouettes of the bobbleheads bouncing up and down in the dark.  It was an appropriately creepy image, given that Halloween is coming up.

(Oh, and speaking of Halloween, I’m laming out this year and just repeating last year’s costume.  Pippi Longstocking rides again!)

Oct21

My first earthquake… and my second earthquake: Now with bobbleheads

Posted on by
Standard

After coming back from lunch yesterday and sitting back down at my desk, I heard a loud boom and felt myself jolted forward and then back again.  After I yelled a loud “What the fu… dge?” (really, it was fudge *whistles innocently*), Dave looked at me calmly and said, “Earthquake.”  Dave can always be counted on as the sane one in the office.  I did a quick Twitter search (which I figured out is the best real time earthquake tracker even before XKCD told everyone) and confirmed that it wasn’t just someone dropping something really heavy upstairs.  And thus, I felt my first earthquake… a 4.0.

A few hours later, I was at home, watching the World Series.  Five minutes after the final out, everything started shaking again… but this time it lasted much longer and was more of a slow rolling rumble.  Whereas the first earthquake was too short for me to get nervous, this one was long enough to give me time to think and start to worry.  And then the cable went out briefly, making me really worry.  According to the USGS, this one was only a 3.8 but it certainly felt bigger to me.  When the cable did come back, the station cut immediately to a special report about the quake.  Even they thought it was bigger than it turned out to be.  But everything was fine.  After a quick survey of the apartment, I figured out that an empty milk crate had fallen off a closet shelf and my calendar was no longer level, and that was it for damage.

So, now for the fun part.  My dad would like credit for the idea, and he can have it.  For those who have never experienced an earthquake, I give you a re-enactment done with bobblehead dolls.  I would once again like to bemoan the fact that my good camera is still in Minnesota, because the video quality is subpar on my other camera.

(Oh, and thank you to Anand for talking to me while I calmed myself down from the second earthquake.  That kept me sane.)

Oct18

California Weather

Posted on by
Standard

I’ve been having a lot of conversations lately about the weather in California, or lack thereof as it were.  It’s not really a secret that the first snow of the season is somewhat of an event for me.  As we get towards the end of October and I’ve not once thought about even wearing a sweater, it’s starting to hit home that there will be no first snow for me this year.  Oh sure, I will go home to Minnesota for the holidays and there will be snow on the ground or I could drive to Tahoe, but that’s not the same.  The first snow comes with a smell in the air the day before that puts me in a mood to bake cookies and drink cocoa.  It’s how I mark the passage of another year.  (It is probably not a coincidence that it tends to happen shortly in advance of my birthday.)

But this year…

This weather thing has already screwed me up a few times.  I nearly forgot to plan my trip home for the fair and other Minnesota summer things because it never stopped feeling like spring in San Francisco.  Baseball season is ending in a week, and I am not prepared because I see no leaves turning colors.  My roommate reminded me about Halloween and I realized that I haven’t even thought about it once… partly because we were talking about it while swimming in an outdoor pool.  Last weekend, I caught the intro to the local news and the weather promo was “Later we’ll tell you about how the temperature might change by as much as five to ten degrees next week.”  And that was said without irony.

Harvey once told me that he didn’t understand why people from Minnesota complained about the lack of weather.  His metaphor was something akin to why a person would ever want to eat a glass sandwich when they could eat steak all the time.  Well, Harvey, if all you ever eat is steak, it gets boring.  I need my seasons to remind me that life isn’t permanently on pause.

Oct14

Justin Verlander

Posted on by
Standard

Justin Verlander managed to squeak out a win over the Rangers last night with 133 pitches through 7.1 innings.  While it wasn’t the dominant performance I was expecting — he gave up 8 hits, 3 walks, and 4 runs — it was effective.  I then started wondering how many times I had seen Verlander pitch and was never so thankful that I maintain a blog of such things, as I just needed to do a simple search to figure it out.

It turns out, I’ve seen him pitch three times: most recently in September when I sought him out in Oakland, once in 2008 when he got shelled by the Red Sox,  and, most interesting of all, I was at his second start ever in 2005 when he lost to the Twins in the second game of a day-night double header.  As a bonus, he was on my fantasy team in 2007, which I didn’t remember.  It’s amusing to go back and read my thoughts when Verlander was a nobody and Mauer was someone more famous to me because he was a stud high school quarterback.

Having this blog comes in handy sometimes.

Oct7

Speaking of October Baseball

Posted on by
Standard

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…

Oct7

Divisional Series Decompression

Posted on by
Standard

As is probably unsurprising, what with my gushing over Justin Verlander, the Tigers are my team this post-season.  What is probably also not surprising, the New York Yankees are the one team of the eight postseason teams that I can’t stand and want to see lose and lose quickly.  Then there are the six other teams which I am mostly indifferent to.  If I had to rank them it would probably go Brewers, Diamondbacks, Rays (well, they’re already out), Rangers, Cardinals, Phillies.  But really, as long as there is good baseball played, I’m not invested in who advances out of those six teams.

And so that leaves me with one divisional series I watched every pitch of: The Evil Empire vs. the Guys From Near My Old Stomping Grounds Who Have The Best Pitcher In The Game In Their Pen And Delmon Young.  (Hmm… that is a long moniker for the Tigers.  I should shorten it to GFNMOSGWHTBPITGITPADY, although even that is longer than “The Evil Empire.”)

Game 1 got postponed after an inning and a half, ruining the Verlander vs. CC Sabathia start and turning it into an Ivan Nova vs. Doug Fister disaster on Saturday.  Game 2 featured some brilliant pitching by Max Scherzer.  Game 3 featured some not-always-brilliant-pitching-but-who-cares-because-he-won from Justin Verlander.  Game 4 was really ugly and I’ve wiped it from my memory.  Game 5 was a stressful game because even though the Tigers were never behind (and after the second batter of the game were always ahead), it was never a big lead and with the Yankees, I can really only relax when it’s a big lead.

After A-Rod struck out to end the game, I was finally able to exhale.  The combination of wanting the Tigers to win and wanting the Yankees to lose was enough to make me tense whenever I watched it — and exhilarated when the Tigers finally clinched it.  That exhilaration is why I watch baseball.  It’s certainly not for the anxiety that comes before it… but the anxiety is a necessary precursor to the joy.

For better or for worse, now that this ALDS is over, I don’t think I’ll be getting as emotionally invested in the ALCS or the World Series.  The Tigers aren’t really my team and they’ve already vanquished the team it’s fun to watch lose.  (Seriously… click the link to watch A-Rod strikeout.  It’s just so satisfying if you know anything about him — plus Avila’s glee is infectious.  If you’re unaware of why Rodriguez is a guy it’s fun to root against, let this Google image search be your primer.)  For the remainder of October, I’m going to be a lot more relaxed when I watch baseball.

But it also means I won’t be as elated when the Tigers take it all as I was tonight.