Category Archives: Baseball

Feb10

Truck Day!

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From what I can gather, today is “truck day” for the Twins (when the equipment heads down to Florida for spring training) and tomorrow is truck day for the Red Sox.  Which means that it’s not too far off from pitchers and catchers reporting, which means it’s not too far from real spring training starting, which means it’s not too far from the baseball season starting!  (I pointed this out to Dave and Amal and they just complained that the traffic around AT&T Park is going to suck again soon.  Some people don’t get it.)

So, because it’s time to start thinking about thinking about baseball, I’ve bought my first set of Giants tickets: April 15 against the Pirates (just to get to the park early in the season), May 14 against the Rockies (so I can wear my Michael Cuddyer jersey), and May 20 against the A’s (for the Brian Wilson gnome giveaway).  I’ve also got tentative plans to fly to Seattle the first weekend in May to see the Twins play the Mariners, plans to see a Twins game in June when I’m in Minneapolis for Martini’s wedding, and will probably go see the Twins when they come to Oakland in August.  (The latter is dependent on whether or not a certain person decides to get married in France that weekend instead.  And I don’t mean me.)  Plus, I’ll probably take in a half dozen or so other A’s games, for which I will not buy tickets in advance because that would be silly.

Hurray for baseball!

Dec23

Merry Christmas

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About a week ago, Big League Stew posted a video a Cincinnati Reds fan had made of his Chris Sabo bobblehead doll rotating on a platform to Mannheim Steamroller. My first thought? That’s pretty lame and I can do way better — the bobblehead isn’t even bobbling its head! Plus, I bet I can do more than one doll at a time.

I mentioned this to Dave, and while he’s not a big baseball fan, throw in the opportunity for some engineering design and he gets into it. After taking some measurements and doing a little white board diagramming, we took a trip to Home Depot to buy equipment to build the bobble platform with a fixed mount for the camera. The hats are actually modified socks from the Target dollar bin, the “snow” is cotton balls, and the song is mine.

It’s way better than the Cincinnati Reds video… it even features a cameo by a wind-up Jim Thome.

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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Oct27

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

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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:

 

Oct21

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

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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.)

Oct14

Justin Verlander

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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

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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…

Oct7

Divisional Series Decompression

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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.

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.

Sep28

Giants 7, Rockies 0

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Because I didn’t feel like playing hooky for tomorrow’s day game, I opted to go to the second to last regular season game of the year tonight at AT&T Park.  And what a night it was… two homeruns, each extraordinary in their own way, Tony Bennett, a home team victory, and two foul balls in the row in front of me.  The latter events resulted in me being on TV (again), which I screen grabbed from the archived game on MLB.tv.  What makes it really impressive is that we were in the third deck.

That's me in the gray shirt behind two guys who caught foul balls tonight. We're all laughing at the guy in the red plaid shirt because he just tried to "fight" the guy on the left (with his wife) for the ball even though he already had one from two innings earlier.

But most people weren’t at the game to watch the people in front me catch foul balls. They were there to watch the Giants win a game… which they did in spectacular fashion.  Madison Bumgarner did much better than he did against the Twins (when he gave up 9 runs in the first) by pitching 7 shutout innings.  But it was the Giants offense that really shone.  In the 4th inning, Brandon Belt did something I had never seen in person — he hit a two-run splashdown homerun out of AT&T Park and into McCovey Cove, putting the Giants up.  And somehow that wasn’t even the most exciting homerun of the game.  In the 7th inning, with the Giants already up 5-0 and a runner on first, Conor Gillaspie hit a ball into the odd corner in center field known as Triples Alley.  Only he didn’t hit a triple.  He rounded third, slipped and fell, picked himself up, kept going, and still beat the throw to the plate for an inside-the-park homerun.

But the biggest celebrity at the ballpark wasn’t a ball player.  Tony Bennett, whose voice serenades AT&T Park after every Giants game singing “I Left My Heart in San Francisco,” was in attendance promoting his new Duets II album.  There was also a Tony Bennett bobblehead doll giveaway, but I didn’t realize this beforehand and wasn’t even close to early enough to get one.  I did, however, get a video of Bennett singing “God Bless America” during the 7th inning stretch… so I will close my regular season baseball going experiences with that.