Today in my NLP/IR seminar we were discussing pagerank and I mentioned that my blog seems to have a lot of it (likely from the TTC). So, we did the Google image search for Johnny Damon and I had to explain just what the fishgina was and why it comes up for Johnny Damon.
This, of course, led to me showing them the picture of the cake. And this was when my professor decided to look up from his own laptop and see what we were all talking about.
“Is that Jesus?”

According to this, Kirby Puckett was given his last rites. From what I’ve gathered from a phone call from my dad and some comments on Batgirl, there’s no brain activity and they’ll be taking him off of life support soon.
I feel sick to my stomach right now. It’s hard to describe. To those people who say, “But he’s just a ballplayer,” my response is that no, he was much more. He was a hero and legend to the entire state. He was such an integral part of my childhood, that I often took his existence and his heroics for granted, and I think we all did. The scandals a few years ago just proved that while the man was fallible, the legend was infallible.
There’s something about the loss of innocence and childhood and whatnot that I want to say right now, but I can’t seem to muster the words. I just don’t feel well.
Edit: Mostly for Amy and my dad, but go check these out. The Bob Casey one is particularly memorable.
Edit 2: It’s over. He’s gone.

The day I met Kirby Puckett

Batgirl’s keeping an updated entry with Star Tribune coverage, but the short version is, my childhood hero, Kirby Puckett, had a stroke yesterday morning and is in critical condition at an Arizona hospital today.

I stayed up late to watch him win the sixth game of the 1991 World Series with an 11th inning homerun. When my fifth grade class took a tour of the Metrodome, I joined in with everyone else in trying to replicate Kirby’s amazing catches at the wall in deep center field. How did he jump that high? None of us came anywhere close. My friend and I defended his honor against a bunch of drunken Brewer fans at a game in Milwaukee — they probably hated him for the weekend when he had 11 hits in two games against the Brewers. I saw one of those games too.
When it was announced that he woke up one day in spring training and saw spots out of his right eye, I was worried, but not too worried. It was Kirby, and he was invincible. Yet, as his eye got worse and the season started with him on the DL, I started saving every retrospective the Strib published. When he finally announced his retirement that July, I cried to myself in my grandmother’s bathroom. Then I watched his retirement speech on the five o’clock news where he told us not to cry for him because he had a full life and he got to play baseball — and so I didn’t anymore. But I still kept all of the newspaper articles I could get my hands on. They’re still stacked in my closet at home.
When he was elected to the Hall of Fame on his first ballot, I convinced my dad to schedule my sister’s college tour such that we could be in Cooperstown to see his induction ceremony. On that weekend, if you judged solely by the license plates of most of the cars, you would have thought that Cooperstown was in Minnesota.
Ignoring the scandals that plagued him in the early 2000’s, that was probably his legacy. Not only was he the face of the Twins, but he was the face of all Minnesota sports. When the Twins were terrible, the Vikings stunk, the North Stars moved to Texas, and the Timberwolves a brand new team just trying to win a few games, the Twin Cities could still be proud because we had Kirby Puckett, a virtual lock to start in the All-Star game every season he was out there. Every backyard ballgame, including more than a few that I played in, had a kid that wanted to be the centerfielder and hit a homerun, just like him. He was everyones hero.
We haven’t really had Kirby Puckett as a hero for a few years now, but there have been pushes to get him back into the Twins organization recently as a spring training coach or maybe more. Here’s to hoping that we still have that chance.
Edit: Farewell, Kirby.

In honor of the start of spring training and the fact that there’s currently no snow on the ground here, I reverted back to the old style sheets.
I’m starting to think about stadiums I’d like to get to this season… obviously I’ll return to Comerica, as that’s the easiest for me to get to. More than likely I’ll get to a Metrodome game at some point as well, as I’m bound to go home at some point. Given the frequency with which I go to Cincinnati, revisiting that stadium seems likely as well. The next closest stadium to me is Jacob’s Field in Cleveland to the east and to the west, the only stadium that may rank as high as Fenway, Wrigley Field in Chicago. (Oh, and Chicago has that other team too. I think they were pretty good last year, so I may attempt to brave the Southside as well.) And as long as I’m driving to Chicago, I may as well go a little bit north and hit Milwaukee (perhaps with Amrys?). My other option for a short road trip is to go to the north and west and visit the only remaining Canadian team in Toronto, though I’ve already been to the Skydome.
For longer road trips, I’ll more than likely be driving to Jenn’s wedding in DC, which would be a perfect chance to catch a Nationals game at RFK, before they replace it with a real baseball stadium. (And kudos to Jenn for scheduling her wedding during a weekend when the Nationals are in town.) Saturday’s probably out, though it is an afternoon game, but if people aren’t too hungover after the reception, anyone else attending the wedding would be welcome to join me at a Cubs-Nationals game on Sunday afternoon. (Laura Lopez, I am specifically thinking of you here, given that it’s your team and all.) Pittsburgh is conveniently located right between Ann Arbor and DC, but unfortunately, the Pirates are away that week, so it doesn’t appear that that would work out too well.
So… Comerica, Dome, Great American, Jacob’s Field, Wrigley, Comiskey (because US Cellular is too stupid a name to recognize), Miller Park, Skydome/Rogers Centre, and RFK are all on the short list of stadiums to visit this year. Stay tuned to see which ones actually pan out.

Via Batgirl, a flash game where March of the Penguins goes to the ballpark. (But be warned, this game is only one step above clubbing baby seals.)
Thus far, my record is 320.3 feet (if those are indeed feet… for all I know, they could be centimeters or cubits).

Well, I suppose I don’t need to write an entry for you to notice that there is a new design for this little corner of the web. But never fear — it’s only temporary and the baseball layout will return in the spring. (If you really miss it that much, it’s still here.)
Speaking of baseball… no MVP for David Ortiz. I can’t say I’m that surprised. After all, I’m still a baseball purist at heart. MVPs should play offense and defense. If interleague play has to happen, it should be exhibition only. World Series participants should have the best record in their league. (Did I just imply that the Red Sox didn’t deserve to even be in the 2004 World Series, much less win it? Maybe a little…)

For the second year in a row, a team nicknamed “The Sox” supposedly doomed by past mistakes has broken an 85+ year dry spell to win the World Series. I’ve never really been much of a White Sox fan, but you can’t help but feel happy for them. And they have A.J. Pierzynski behind the plate, a man who takes a lot of flak for having a big mouth, but is a ballplayer after my own heart.
And while I’m happy for the other Sox, I can’t help but feel slightly disappointed by a four game sweep. I always want these things to go seven games, because they’re my last bit of baseball until next year. That being said, this was actually a more exciting series than last year. Of course, I was more emotionally invested then and the 2004 playoffs provides some great memories of quality time with friends, but let’s be honest… the 2004 World Series wasn’t all that exciting if you weren’t a Red Sox fan. On the other hand, despite being a sweep, the 2005 series contained three intense nail-biters, including the longest game in World Series history. I just wish the series itself had been longer.
But I did learn tonight that Barbara Bush keeps score at ballgames. So a point to Barbara Bush. (You hear me, Rheaume?)

Normally I’m a night person, but having been up until 5 AM last night without sleeping in today, I don’t think I can take this 5+ hour ballgame to the end… I may be mistaken, but I think it’s already the longest World Series game by time.
Even if the White Sox win tonight and go up 3-0 in the series, I still say this is a great post-season match-up. But it might be too great for me to watch it, she says as she yawns and her eye-lids droop.
Edit at 1:37 AM: They just announced it — this is the longest World Series game ever. I’m now officially rooting for the current batter to hit a homerun and end this thing. And if he doesn’t, I’ll root for the next guy.
Edit at 2:20 AM: Thanks, Geoff Blum. Final score — White Sox 7, Astros 5. Zzzzzzzz.

That was some damn good post-season baseball.

It’s laundry night, so I was up and down during the game. And it seems that I always left during the exciting parts. With the score tied at 2-2 in the fifth, I went downstairs and came back just in time to see the replay of Berkman’s double to bring Houston up 4-2. But that wasn’t the play I really kicked myself for missing.

In the bottom of the seventh, I watched the White Sox load the bases when Jermaine Dye got hit by a pitch. (Or did he? It looked like it hit the bat to me.) The Astros went for a pitching change, and so I went for a laundry change. But apparently it take me longer to change my laundry than it takes Houston to change a pitcher. When I got back upstairs, it was the top of the eighth, and the score was 6-4. I quickly reached for my computer to figure out how that happened — oh, Paul Konerko grand slam. That play I kicked myself for missing. There have only been 18 grand slams in World Series history.* And I just missed one.

As I sat there folding laundry, I figured with two outs in the top of the ninth and the White Sox up by two, I’d be able to go grab my last load out of the dryer very shortly. But the Astros decided to make it interesting and tied it up at 6 going into the bottom of the ninth. I almost went to get my clothes during the mid-inning commercial break, but having learned my lesson in the 7th, I thought better of it. And I’m very glad at that. Because while there have been only 18 grand slams in World Series history, there have been even fewer (14 including tonight) walk-off homeruns.** And while I can’t find official statistics, I’m pretty sure that this is the first one hit by a guy who didn’t hit any homers in the regular season.

* Bonus Trivia: Two teams have hit two grand slams in one World Series. The first was the 1956 Yankees. The second? My beloved 1987 Twins, with Kent Hrbek and Dan Gladden both going deep with the bases loaded.

** More trivia: One of those walk-off homeruns was Kirby Puckett’s in game 6 of the 1991 World Series. In the right baseball montage, footage of that homerun with the call “… and we’ll see you tomorrow night!” can actually bring me to tears. (Shut up — I know I’m a sucker for that stuff.)

Even more trivia, because I can: Prior to yesterday, the last World Series homerun for Chicago was hit by Ted Kluszewski on October 8, 1959 in an 8-3 loss to the Dodgers, who took the series in that game.

Well, there goes my theory about the White Sox beating all red teams in the playoffs in order to recreate their 1917 World Series win against the Cincinnati Reds… which is to say, perhaps it’s not their year after all.