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.