Just Some Notes

Here is a quick rundown of some baseball topics for your reading pleasure.

Twins lose to Giants

Oh, where to start. Well, I guess with the starter. Kyle Lohse pulled a Radke and gave up 4 in the first, and then only 1 more through the next 6. The Twins were able to scrap back 4, but this would not be enough. The next few observations are not as solid as they could be. I didn't watch the whole game. I ran for awhile last night (about 2 miles. Well I ran about 1 3/4, and then being clumsy as I am I mis-stepped and tweaked my ankle and ended up walking the last few blocks home.) Then I had to take the subsequent shower, and then I rode my bike to DQ for dinner.

The offense looked inefficient for what I saw. I don't remember the inning, but the Twins got 2 walks an nobody past 1st base. How, you ask? Walk, Double Play, Walk, Groundout. Even with all of this, the Twins were only down by 1 entering the 8th, by no means an impossible margin to surmount. Then JC Romero gave up 3 consecutive extra base hits (double, double, home run to Vizquel) and the Twins were down 8-4, the final score. To JC's credit, he didn't let any inherited runners score. He didn't inherit any either, but lets not dwell on semantics.

The Twins 1-4 hitters (Stewart, Ford, Mauer, Hunter) went 6-16 with RBI for Ford, Mauer and 2 for Hunter and a run scored each. The 5-9 hitters (Jones, Morneau, Cuddyer, Williams, Castro and pinch hitter Michael Ryan) went 2-17 with 2 walks, 0 RBI or runs scored. Morneau, still in this month long funk where he is 12-81 (.148), went 0-4. To me, Morneau looks like is butt is going away from the plate when he swings. Is this just me, or does someone else see this?

Scioscia v. Robinson

I'm a little late with this, I know, but have you come to expect any less from me? The way I see it, I'd be doing you a disservice if I actually surprised you with timely insights. That'd just be to big a shock to the system, and I won't subject you to that.

Everyone cheats in baseball. Thomas Boswell said "cheating is baseball's oldest profession. No other game is so rich in skullduggery, so suited to it or so proud of it." There was Gaylord Perry's "hard slider" and Phil Niekro's emory board. There is a sense of doing what you can get away with, almost a "it ain't cheating if you don't get caught" mentality. This time someone was just called out on it.

Scioscia knew Donnelly had pine tar. Robinson knew too, and it's his job to stand up for his team. Was it a little petty? Sure, but Donnelly was still cheating. Scioscia looks like an ass for searching the Nationals' pitcher next half-inning. That was just a cheap shot. I'd be more upset by that than the shouting match, although I don't know what was said, but I do have a good idea.

Little Things

I'll be at the Twins game on Sunday. Johan is taking the mound against Padre's ace Jake Peavy. I'm excited to get to see both of them pitch.

Turn off your speakers and click this link (opens in Windows Media Player). Watch the video and take a note of how hard you think Giambi hits this ball. Watch where it lands. Now watch it again with your speakers on. "Fairly deep to right field" my ass, this was crushed. I just about fell off the couch I was laughing so hard.

An article by Tim Kurkjian, who I generally find to be one of the more tolerable writers at ESPN, even though he looks like a ferret. It's a comparison between baseball and golf. A personal touch to this article: One time I was out playing golf at my usual course. I ended up in the trees on a dogleg right where I usually do. I've found my own balls from previous rounds before. That's how often I'm in this particular tree cluster. On a particularly bad round, and I stood over the ball I thought to myself "the only way they could make this game harder is if they threw the damn thing at me." Then I thought "Oh, wait, that's baseball."