Category Archives: Baseball

Jun15

Twins 1, Phillies 6

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Twins 1, Phillies 6

I’m currently in Minneapolis for Martini’s wedding. On Sunday, I’ll be at Target Field taking Harvey, Quinn, and Katie to the Brewers-Twins games. I was so excited about this that I forgot to notice that it was going to be Father’s Day and I’d be at a baseball game in my hometown without my dad. To make up for this, I bought four Legends Club seats to tonight’s game against the Phillies — Jim Thome’s triumphant return to Target Field — and took my parents and sister.

Now, Jim Thome holds the current record for number of homeruns hit at Target Field.  He hit his 600th career homerun for the Twins last season in Detroit (which, if you’ll recall, I screwed up by not being at), and then they released him so that he would get picked up by a contender.  Now this year he’s playing for his old manager Charlie Manuel in the National League where there is no DH… except tonight in the Interleague game against the Twins.  He already crushed one homerun on Wednesday, so my hope was that he’d gotten it out of his system and the Twins could win today’s game and thus win the series.

Nope.

Jim Thome crushed a 3 run homer in the third to put the Phillies up 4-1.  Odds are, that’s his last homerun at Target Field.  Slightly smaller odds are that that’s his last homerun, since I’ve heard rumors that he’ll be retiring once these interleague series are over. Unfortunately, I foolishly left the good camera at home, so the only picture I took is this camera phone shot of Thome about to cross the plate… good job, Gentleman Jim. And happy father’s day, Dad!

Jim Thome crosses the plate after his 607th homerun, his last at Target Field.

May20

Athletics 6, Giants 2

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Athletics 6, Giants 2

A few months ago, I bought tickets to today’s Giants-A’s Battle of the Bay (ugh, I still don’t like interleague) primarily because of the giveaway: a Brian Wilson gnome.  If the only Brian Wilson you know is the lead singer of the Beach Boys, watch this and then you might begin to understand.  But I don’t think anyone fully understands the madness of the beard.

What I really misunderstood was the demand a Brian Wilson gnome would bring.  Now, I should have been tipped off when, pre-season, the only tickets I could get for the game were way up in the third deck behind left field — not exactly prime seats.  But this morning, knowing that the gates opened at 11 AM, I figured that leaving my apartment at 10:45 would be no problem.

Here’s the thing: my apartment is only a few blocks from AT&T Park.  To get to the end of the line that had formed, I had to go the opposite direction of the park from my apartment to just under the Bay Bridge.  Google maps tells me that it was a line of about 2/3 of a mile.  Some of the people I talked to had been there since 7 am.  Eek!  I was pretty sure I wasn’t getting a gnome.

But I was wrong!  After getting to the end of the line, it shortly started moving forward.  I kept waiting for a message to get passed back that they were out of gnomes… but none ever came, and when I got to the ticket gate, the agent handed me my very own box of gnome.  Would you like one?  They’re going for $60-$75 on Ebay.

Oh, and then there was a game.  It was a pretty exciting game and I decided (again) that I am an American League gal at heart and rooted for the A’s.  Which was good, because the A’s won and I was wearing a Kurt Suzuki jersey.

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May20

Giants 3, Rockies 2

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Giants 3, Rockies 2

For 11 seasons, Michael Cuddyer played for the Minnesota Twins at nearly every position, save for catcher and shortstop.  (Yes, he even pitched one scoreless inning during a blowout loss to the Texas Rangers.)  But, as the baseball economy goes, when Cuddyer was up for free agency last off-season, the Twins couldn’t afford to keep him and he was off to tap the Rockies (for more money).

This past Monday, I saw him in his new uniform and new number (3, for Harmon Killebrew) when the Rockies came to San Francisco to play the Giants.  While Cuddyer went 0 for 4 on the night (just missing a grand slam in the third by about 10 feet), the game itself was well worth the price of admission.

Scoreless for three innings, the Rockies struck first with a solo shot by Wilin Rosario to lead off the top of the fourth.  The Giants struck back in the bottom of the 6th went Gregor Blanco went yard to right.  The scored stayed tied at one until the bottom of the 8th when Blanco singled followed by an odd “Sac, E-2” by Joaquin Arias to put runners on first and third.  After Melky (not Miguel) Cabrera sac flied to left to score Blanco, fan favorite Buster Posey singled to center to score Arias, giving the Giants both the lead and insurance run that made fruitless the Rockies run in the bottom of the 9th.

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May13

Tigers 3, Athletics 1

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Tigers 3, Athletics 1

It’s Justin Verlander Day!

I don’t think I’ve hidden the fact that Justin Verlander is my favorite player outside of the Twins.  He’s just so consistently dominating — he’ll hit 100 MPH in the 8th or 9th inning like it’s no big deal.  So when I noted that he was going to be pitching against the A’s, I e-mailed my friend Suzanne and invited her to join me at the game.  (And even if she had said no, I’d have gone anyway.)

Verlander didn’t disappoint even my exceedingly high expectations.  The A’s didn’t get a hit until the 4th inning.  They got a second hit in the 5th, which happened to be a solo homerun by Seth Smith, but other than that, Verlander was lights out for 7 innings.  (And that homerun didn’t hurt as the Tigers had already scored 2 runs, but I didn’t go to watch the Tigers offense.  Especially since my former second favorite Tiger, Brandon Inge, is now an A.)

When he didn’t come out for the 8th, I was a little confused, because normally he doesn’t let things like pitch counts get in his way — it turns out he had a callous on his hand that had cracked open and started bleeding during the 7th and the trainer decided he should be done.  I will note that the 7th inning was the only inning he didn’t get a strikeout… probably the bleeding thumb.

This season I’ve been trying to pick 10 or so diverse pictures to illustrate whichever game I was at.  In honor of Justin Verlander, this time I picked 13 pictures of JV’s delivery, taken with burst mode, so you can watch him pitch in slow motion over and over again.

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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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Apr15

Giants 1, Pirates 4

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Giants 1, Pirates 4

In an attempt to balance my Bay Area allegiances, today I went to my first regular season Giants game during their home opening weekend, much like I did with the A’s last week.  It also happened to be Jackie Robinson Day today, when all players wear 42 in honor of the anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s major league debut, breaking the old Gentlemen’s Agreement that kept blacks out of Major League Baseball.   (Of course, I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t mention that Robinson wasn’t actually the first black man to play in the majors.  That honor goes to fellow Michigan alum Moses Fleetwood Walker… although Wikipedia is telling me I might be wrong there.)

Much like last week, the home team lost to a team of seafarers, but this time it was Pirates instead of Mariners.  But the weather was nicer and there’s no denying that it’s just more fun to be at a full stadium with that gorgeous open outfield showing off the sky and the bay than in a mostly empty bowl in Oakland.  On the other hand, no player ever delivers pizza to the AT&T bleachers.

Today I sat (pizza-less) in those bleachers and found myself talking to a couple of fans who were fascinated by my scorebook.  They’d never seen anyone keep score before and they wanted to know how it worked, what the rules were, and why shortstop is 6 and third base is 5 when they don’t play in that order around the infield.  Also, when the Pirates scored their 3rd and 4th runs, they asked if I could just leave that out of the record and make it official… tempting, but no.  Their four year old also seemed interested… for about 10 seconds and then he just wanted a sno cone.  And then he wanted a nap, so he slept on his mom’s lap.  Nothing cuter than a kid with rainbow colored sticky stuff all over his face and hands, wearing a mini Buster Posey jersey, curled up in a ball.

Sitting behind me was a pair of couples on a double date… and I’ve discovered my new pet peeve: guys who try to explain the rules of baseball to their dates and get the rules wrong.  (The runner didn’t take off even though it was a fly ball to the outfielder because of “The Sac Fly Rule” — he took off because there were two outs.  He would have had to tag on a fly ball.)  What’s worse, when the guys left to go get beer, the women suddenly started talking about the game like they’d been watching for years, which I suspect they have.  They probably didn’t need their dates to explain to them that “bases loaded” means “the Giants have a runner on every base.”  And yet, they seemed pretty grateful when that happened.

The game itself was owned by the Pirates pretty early on when Garrett Jones launched a homer to right in the top of the 2nd.  They scored another run later in the inning on a series of singles, and never really looked back.  The Giants tried to squander a Brandon Belt lead-off double in the fifth, but two ground outs later and Belt was crossing home plate as the ump was calling the second out of the inning.  They were more successful squandering Angel Pagan’s lead-off triple in the 8th.  Once that happened, the stadium started to thin out and sure enough, there was no rally in the 9th.

Pictures and such in the slideshow…

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Apr7

Mariners 8, Athletics 7

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Mariners 8, Athletics 7

I volunteered to help run a curling clinic this afternoon, and because I was on that side of the Bay anyway, when it was over I headed over to O.co Coliseum (possibly the most terrible stadium name ever) to catch the second home game of the Oakland A’s season… because in Oakland, the seats are always cheap and plentiful.  (Today: $10 from a scalper for tickets that are $16 face.)

And why are A’s tickets so cheap?  Well, because they tend to trade away players once they start to get expensive (see awesome jersey for Player To Be Named Later I spotted while leaving the game) and because the team’s not that good.  Which they mostly proved by going down 7-0 after the top of the 4th inning.

But then, a funny thing happened… those scrappy little Moneyball players started to crawl their way back.  First with a manufactured sac fly run in the bottom of the 4th and then a solo shot from Jemile Weeks in the bottom of the 5th.  (Weeks is really fun to watch by the way… some big pocketed team will probably snatch him up in a few years, sadly.)  Then they scored two in the 6th off a Kurt Suzuki double that nearly cleared the wall in left and got every one cheering, but they were still down 8-4.  In the 7th Yoenis Cespedes launched a three run bomb to deep center to bring the A’s within one and the crowd — all half-dozen or so that were left — went nuts.  I briefly thought about how amazing it would be if the A’s could actually come back and win…

… but they didn’t.  Of course they didn’t.  The only remaining highlight after the Cespedes homerun was the bunch of balloons that first floated out of the stadium at the end of the 7th and then apparently lost buoyancy as they came back into view in the 9th.  They floated around awhile, nearly landing in center field prompting an usher to run out and jump in the air manically trying to grab them.  Eventually they floated over to the left field seats where another usher retrieved them.  And so ended the balloon drama… and more or less the game.

Apr3

Giants 4, Athletics 2

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Giants 4, Athletics 2

And so it begins…

Okay, not actually the regular season yet, but the pre-season Bay Bridge Exhibition series between the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland Athletics got me out to the ballpark for the first time this year.  I wasn’t sure if I was rooting for the A’s or the Giants, but I wore an A’s jersey that was a free giveaway from last season, and I’m kind of an American League gal, so if forced, I guess I was leaning A’s.  On other hand, I actually live in San Francisco so…

Keeping score at a spring training game in a National League (i.e. no DH) park is quite a challenge.  I utilized my new-ish smart phone more than once to keep track of all the crazy substitutions.  I also used it to tweet in the middle of the game… yeah, I’m kind of ashamed of myself.

The game itself was pretty exciting.  Madison Bumgarner was much more solid than the last time I saw him pitch for the Giants when he gave up 8 straight hits to the Twins to start the game.  However, in the third he gave up a single to Jemile Weeks, followed immediately by a homerun to Eric Sogard to put the A’s up 2-0.  Sogard was an early substitute for Cliff “ought to play cricket” Pennington.  Quick show, Pennington! (That’s for you, you-know-who-you-are.)

It looked for awhile like the underdog A’s might pull it off against the much more beloved Giants, but then Jordan Norberto gave up a solo homerun to Melky Cabrera in the 6th to bring the Giants within one.  A disastrous outing by Fautino DeLosSantos in the seventh led to three Giants runs on one hit: a walk to Ryan Theriot, a hit-by-pitch to Nate Schierholtz, an error by Josh Donaldson at third that allowed Theriot to score, a fielders choice by Angel Pagan that scored Schierholtz, and finally a solid single by Melky Cabrera to score Emmanuel Burriss.

Brian “Fear the Beard” Wilson came out in the 9th with three quick strikeouts to get the save and end the game.  Within about five minutes, seagulls descended out of nowhere onto the stands, eating all the leftover food and beer.  I have no idea where they came from or why they didn’t show up earlier.  I took a bunch of pictures, including one of the seagulls… they’re all below.  Baseball — it’s back!

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