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Sunday, August 23, 2009

Brief Thoughts About Baseball (08/17/2009 - 08/23/2009)

1. I suppose we should start with some positivity. Joe Mauer has been awesome. Check out this story.

I'd like to point out this paragraph:

"According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Mauer is one of five American League players to have at least 25 home runs and at least a .380 batting average this late in the season. The others were Ted Williams (1941 and 1957), Joe DiMaggio (1939), Lou Gehrig (1930 and 1936) and Babe Ruth (1931)."

That's a jaw-droppingly crazy list of names for Joe Mauer to be associated with.

2. Thursday's game snapped the Florida Marlins' steak of 15 straight games with at least 10 hits. That's pretty impressive. (Unless those games were all against Twins pitchers, but they weren't.)

3. Drew Stubbs hit his first home run on Thursday and it just so happened to be of the walk-off variety. But, if a walk-off home run is hit but there's no one in the stands to see it, did it really happen?

4. This clip is best watched with the sound off and imagining the Benny Hill song playing as soon as Denard Span's bat hits the ball.

5. I was trying to come up with a pun involving Pujols and jamming the bases or something, but it just didn't work out. But what I really like about this play is the catcher's heads up reaction in just booking it out to second base.

6. Speaking of things you don't see every day, this is the first time a Twins player hit two home runs in the same inning.

7. And this is definitely something you don't see everyday. In fact, the unassisted triple play is more rare than a perfect game. Sunday's was only the second time in baseball history an unassisted triple play ended the game.

8. But if we're talking baseball history, then we MUST reference the Red Sox and the Yankees, right? Friday's Red Sox/Yankees game featured the most runs scored in Red Sox vs. Yankees history. The Red Sox lost that game and that pretty much ended their chances at an American League East championship.

9. Speaking of Red Sox/Yankees, why does Sports Center recap the Yankees/Red Sox game mere minutes after the game ended? Wouldn't you think that anyone watching Sports Center at that time was watching the game? Why don't you give it a half hour.

10. Well, the Twins managed to win 5 of 7 games this week which was just enough to keep them relevant in the AL Central. I'm still not optimistic. Although it should be noted that they won those games without Justin Morneau. Maybe he's been hindering the team? I say the Twins should cut him.

3 comments:

  1. baroness van bitzenhoferAugust 24, 2009 at 7:28 AM

    1. I love me my Mauer Power. :)

    6. Yay for Cuddy; that's pretty darn awesome.

    7. Craziness. That guy definitely got some action that night.

    8. I could look it up myself, but would you mind sharing what the actual score was?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yeah, I suppose I should have mentioned this:
    The score was Yankes: 20 Red Sox: 11.

    Surprisingly, the game was *only* 3 hours, 57 minutes long. (Which is short for a Yankees/Red Sox game.)

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  3. 1. That is truly some esteemed company. If the Twins won the division this year, Mauer=MVP?

    2. It's even more impressive considering it's the Marlins. I'm always amazed with what they can do with the peanuts of a payroll they're given.

    4. Wow, you're absolutely right. Hilarious!

    5. Maybe it shouldn't be, but the sight of a catcher hoofing it out to second base is just bizarre. Good heads up play indeed.

    6. I know the Twins, as a team, have never been known as a home run slugging team, but it still surprised me a bit that no Twin has ever hit two homers in one inning before Cuddyer yesterday. Who knew?

    7. Wow, that's just awesome. There's something so elegant in the simplicity of the tripe play. And a game-ending one? Wow. You really do not see that everyday. Or just about any day.

    8. Heh. Eat it Red Sox.

    9. Because as far as ESPN is concerned, everyone everywhere only wants to ever be talking about or watching the Red Sox and the Yankees.

    10. I'm not optimistic either. It should be noted that Justin Morneau cannot pitch (as far as we know) and thus his return will do little to fix what ails the team right now.

    ReplyDelete

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