IdahoPilgrim

Note: This is the last in a series of blog entries detailing my game experiences on a road trip to see all the Twins minor league affiliates in their home parks. For those interested, links to previous entries are listed at the end in chronological order. After a quiet day visiting one of the local state parks and catching a matinee I head out to Frontier Field again. This time it is a beautiful night for baseball and while I am sad that this is the last game of the trip I can’t think of a better way to go out. The parking lot is actually fairly full tonight, and walking up to the ticket windows I see six are in operation, with a line at each (yesterday there was one, with no waiting). Looking around the stadium during the game, it is a nice contrast with yesterday, and when they announce the attendance of 6,700 it seems about right. I get my promised “double pig” macaroni & cheese (with bacon and ham mixed in) and head to my seat. Today I’m back behind home plate (slightly to the third base side), three rows up. From here I can see the rest of the Rochester skyline that eluded me yesterday. This is obviously season-ticket territory; most of the patrons sitting around me are on a first-name basis with their neighbors. I am next to a family with two small kids, and I make a mental bet with myself that they won’t last through five innings. I am proven right when, in the middle of the fourth, the mother takes the two kids to a grass berm area to play while the father stays behind to watch the game. As I get settled, the club president is presenting awards on the field for the largest groups of the year. After he is done and a couple of ceremonial pitches are thrown a local boy scout troop presents the colors and a trumpet duet does a nicely arranged version of the national anthem. It is probably the best anthem I’ve heard on this trip. The starting lineups are announced, and leading off the order for Rochester will be two players just optioned from the parent club, Tsuyoshi Nishioka and Brian Dozier, playing second and short respectively. You can tell that Dozier has just gotten in, as they haven’t even had time to put his name on his uniform yet – he is wearing an unadorned #11. The preliminaries are finally done and it is time for the final game on this trip to start. Rochester gets on the board first in the bottom half of the opening frame, with Nishioka hitting a solid single to right center and Parmelee walking. Then, with two out, Clete Thomas hits a double down the left field line into the corner and the Red Wings stake themselves to a 2-0 lead. After that, the game settles into a groove, with each side getting the occasional baserunner but not being able to seal the deal. It almost feels like two fighters probing, gradually feeling each other out looking for a weakness. On the Rochester side there is none, as Esmerling Vazquez pitches a beautiful seven innings and never lets Indianapolis string anything together. They manage four hits and two walks, but that is more than outweighed by Vazquez’s ten strikeouts (the last of which, to end the seventh, sends the crowd into a frenzy as it is the game’s “K-Man,” meaning everybody gets a free taco at Taco Bell). Even though the game is tight, I never get the sense that the crowd is worried. The game notes in my program say that the Red Wings have the best record in the league since July 1st (26-16), and I get the impression that they are confident that a two-run lead can hold. Fortunately, it doesn’t have to, as Rochester breaks the game open in the bottom of the seventh. With a new Indianapolis pitcher, Wilkin Ramirez takes first after being hit by a pitch. Then Escobar, of Liriano trade fame, hits a beautiful sacrifice bunt down the third base line; the fielder has to hustle to make the play and ends up bouncing the ball to first and everybody is safe on the error. The stage is set for Evan Bigley, who wallops one over the left field fence, scoring three more and giving everybody the sense that the game is effectively over. The Red Wings add one more in the eighth as Ramirez doubles home Thomas. Deolis Guerra takes over from Vazquez to start the eighth and he promptly strikes out the side on nine pitches. In the ninth he starts to get hit hard, including giving up two on a long homer, but he has just enough to cross the finish line, and Rochester wins 6-2. It is the perfect end to a perfect night of baseball. And so the road trip ends on a satisfying note, with a final record of 7-2-1. Tomorrow I head my car west for Minneapolis and home. *** AWARDS Best Stadium Setting: Elizabethton, TN, for the scenic beauty (Honorable Mention for Rochester, NY, for its urban setting and skyline) Best Game Day Experience: New Britain Rock Cats Most Exciting Home Runs: All of them, but special mentions to Miguel Sano, Oswaldo Arcia, & Evan Bigley. Best Performance by a Starting Pitcher: Esmerling Vazquez, Rochester Red Wings (Runner-up: Trevor May, Reading Phillies) Best Hot Dog: Hammond Stadium, Fort Myers, FL Links to previous entries http://www.twinsdail...-Day-One-Beloit http://www.twinsdail...-Day-Two-Beloit http://www.twinsdail...e)-Elizabethton http://www.twinsdail...r)-Elizabethton http://www.twinsdail...age-–-GCL-Twins http://www.twinsdail...ve-(Fort-Myers) http://www.twinsdail...ix-(Fort-Myers) http://www.twinsdail...ven-–-Interlude http://www.twinsdail...in-(Game-Seven) http://www.twinsdail...in-(Game-Eight) http://www.twinsdail...ter-(Game-Nine) Download attachment: Baseball Road Trip.jpg Click here to view the article

Download attachment: baseballislife.jpg Back when I was growing up I had a poster that proudly proclaimed “All I really need to know in life I learned from watching Star Trek.” Teachings such as “Remember the Prime Directive” and “Set phasers on stun” resonated with me then and still do today. As I start getting myself psyched up for the coming baseball season, though, I have found myself thinking that in many ways baseball, in addition to entertaining, can also teach us about life. Hence my thoughts on what I can learn about life from baseball. 1) Individualism vs teamwork – Yes, following individual statistics is fascinating, but at the end of the day how well an individual pitcher or hitter does is less important than whether the team wins. It is a reminder that success is defined more by what we can do together than by what we can do separately. [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK] It is also a reminder that sometimes the “glory” positions aren’t the ones that make the final difference. Home runs and strikeouts are fun to watch, but sometimes it’s the outfielder throwing to the proper base that decides the game. Everyone has a contribution to make, and everyone’s contribution matters. 2) Errors happen – Even the best fielder is going to make a few mistakes over the course of a season. Nobody is perfect. And, yes, sometimes those errors will cost runs or even the game. The question is, will the players let those errors get to them and affect their performance, or are they able to shake them off? That’s what the best players do – they refuse to allow them to fester inside their heads. We are going to make mistakes in life. That’s human nature. We can choose to fixate on our mistakes, or we can learn from them and “play better” in the future. 3) Umpires too make mistakes – All of us remember the playoff game a few years ago when the outfield umpire completely blew it, calling a ball hit to left foul when it was easily fair. Almost invariably in a game one manager (or both) will rush to the field to protest a call. Just as a matter of practicality, though, how often does the umpire actually change the call? At the end of the day, you have to continue playing the rest of the game – you can’t just take your ball and go home. There will be times when life isn’t fair. That’s just the way it is. The best thing we can do is not let ourselves fixate on that unfairness and allow it to keep us from continue trying and working for what is right. Life isn’t fair – get over it. 4) You have to play all nine innings – Unlike other sports, there is no clock in baseball (part of why I like it). At the end of the day, you have to get 27 outs from the other side if you want to win. 26 won’t cut it. In the same way, until you give up that 27th out, you still have a chance (think St. Louis in 2011 world series). Sometimes we do get to those places in life where it seems like things are hopeless. That’s the time for us to remember that there is still more “game” to go, and as long as we’re alive we have a chance to do it better, to make a difference, to turn things around. 5) It’s just a game – I am as passionate (or more so) than most about baseball, yet I always remember that, at the end of the day, this isn’t life. It’s entertainment. The point is to HAVE FUN! In the same way, life, while it is more than just a game, is meant to be enjoyed. Will there be times of pain and sorrow, times of frustration and anger? Absolutely. But I hope I never lose sight of the fact that life is ultimately a gift and a blessing, one that we are meant to treasure and in which we rejoice always. Click here to view the article

Download attachment: 31053.jpg One of the topics being ardently discussed by the Twins fan base these days is the status of Kyle Gibson and his recovery from Tommy John surgery. As a part of that discussion much has been made of the 130-inning limit to which Gibson is being held – indeed, it has become for some the focus of the discussion. If Gibson has only so many innings before he is shut down this year, then doesn’t it make sense to have him “spend” those innings with the parent club, getting MLB experience in preparation for next year? Indeed, there are few topics which evoke as much passion now than how the front office is handling Gibson’s recovery.[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK] The problem is, I’m not sure that that limit exists. I’m going to buck the trend here and challenge the conventional wisdom and say that it probably does not, at least not in the way most are using the term. Oh, I have no doubt that there is an internal target number that the organization is looking at, beyond which they will treat Gibson with kid gloves, shutting him down at the first sign of arm weakness or fatigue. Indeed, I would be disappointed if they did not. But I believe he will be allowed to pitch until that moment comes, regardless of his inning total. I choose to take Terry Ryan at his word when he said in March that such a hard inning limit does not exist. Minnesota Twins send Kyle Gibson down, can't wait to bring him back - TwinCities.com So where did this idea of the 130-inning limit come from? I think it starts last year and the Stephen Strasburg situation in Washington. In his case there was a firm limit, which was announced very publicly early in the season, preparing the fan base for why Strasburg, their ace, might not be available to pitch in the playoffs. That put the whole question of inning limits after TJ surgery center stage in the eyes of the public. Add to that Kyle Gibson’s recovery from TJ surgery and it was natural for Twins fans to raise the same question regarding our young pitcher. The next piece is from an article on 1500espn.com that Phil Mackey published last November. In that article Mackey indicated that Ryan had told him earlier in the off-season that Gibson would be on a 130-140 inning limit, similar to Atlanta’s Kris Medlin who pitched 138 innings in his first full season back. Mackey: How does a 'healthy' Kyle Gibson fit into Twins' 2013 plans? | 1500 ESPN Twin Cities ? Minnesota Sports News & Opinion (Twins, Vikings, Wolves, Wild, Gophers) | Sportswire: Minnesota Twins From that point, the 130-140 inning limit became standard fodder, being picked up by bloggers and others and passed on regularly. Preseason analysis from the likes of Rhett Bollinger also perpetuated the idea, although they did call it an expectation rather than hard information from management. Soon it was the standard on which all forum threads on Gibson were based. And so here we are today. I of course could be wrong – there may indeed be an arbitrary number beyond which Gibson will not be allowed to go, one that has not been made public because that is just not the Twins way. But what if I’m not? What if my supposition is correct, and Ryan wasn’t just trying to fool us all in March? What if Gibson pitches for the rest of the season, although probably with extra days of rest? What does that say about how we handle information in the internet age? One thing it would remind us of is how easy supposition can become “fact” through the process of repetition. That’s something that is not limited to this case, of course. It’s become common in life in general, particularly in politics. The hard-cores on both the left and the right have become adept at repeating the same item of misinformation so often that it becomes factual in the minds of many who listen to them. Think Barack Obama and the furor over his birth certificate. The challenge, then, is to always make sure of our sources before we take as definitive something we’ve read in a blog or forum (or a newspaper or magazine article too, for that matter). It should also remind us that wisdom comes not necessarily from following the crowd, but from recognizing that wisdom is often something that has to be pieced together from multiple sources, never clearly revealed in any one source but only truly seen in composite. Kind of like a jigsaw puzzle – all the pieces have to be properly placed before the true picture emerges. Thus the challenge is to have the patience to truly investigate a question from all sides, and only when we have all the pieces can we truly put the puzzle together. And yes, that means listening to people with whom we disagree, recognizing that even from their words we can learn and grow even if we do not adopt their views and positions wholeheartedly. Finally, it reminds us nothing is carved in stone and the ability to adapt is a hallmark of the human condition. The two articles I linked above seem to be contradictory, until you remember that one was published in November and the other in March. I have no difficulty believing both are accurate. Any change in stance comes from being willing to reassess the situation as more data comes available, in this case as the Twins' staff watched Gibson during spring training. That’s something every organization and every individual needs to be able to do, to always be willing to be flexible and change ones views when new information merits it. It is only when we become so hard and fast in our positions that we stop looking for new information, that we stop being willing to test our beliefs, that we come close to the danger of ossifying and becoming irrelevant, and of having a fast-changing world pass us by. Click here to view the article

As the title of this blog entry indicates, I intend this to be the last entry. For reasons I won’t go into now I have basically curtailed my participation in this site and on this blog. That’s OK. My life is moving in new directions and the changes are exciting, and as I move on to new things it is only natural that some of my earlier passions diminish and fall by the side. I have been feeling, though, that one last blog entry was appropriate, even necessary, if only for the sake of giving myself closure. As I indicated in an earlier entry, this blog was started to keep a record of a trip I took in the summer of 2012 to visit each of the Twins minor league affiliates. The trip, which lasted almost three weeks, was not only a time to enjoy baseball. It was also in many ways a journey of discovery, as I used the time to heal both emotionally and spiritually from the accident I was in the previous fall that claimed the life of my mother and left me with a broken ankle. It was also a time to discern where God might be leading me next. In response to that discernment, late in 2012 I accepted the position of pastor at a Presbyterian church in Idaho, and thus last February I relocated to Pocatello, where I have since been serving. I talked about some of the changes I was experiencing in another blog entry last April. Now, about a year later, as I look back, I can reflect further on the journey on which God has taken me, with joy and gratitude, and with trust for what is ahead. One of the changes that is coming is that I am not going to be able to follow the Twins as closely as I have the past few years. I have decided, for a number of reasons, not to purchase a MLB.TV subscription this year. This means I will no longer have access to TV or radio broadcasts of the twins. I can still follow then on Gameday, but that is just not the same as watching or hearing. My baseball fix will be provided mostly by the Colorado Rockies (with former twins Hawkins, Cuddyer and Morneau) as I get their local TV feeds here in Idaho. I will still follow the Twins long-distance, of course, and my passion for them will not wane. But there will be a reduction in the amount of time I devote to them. That’s the only bad change coming. The rest is all good and reflective of the grace that God has shared with me this past year. First, things are going well in my ministry here in Pocatello. I have just passed the one year anniversary here and the congregation and I are on the cusp of an exciting time. We are beginning to talk together about what new things God may be doing among us and calling us to do. It is a discussion that I have been trained for and have experience in facilitating, and I am eager to see what comes out of this process. The biggest change on a personal level is, that for the first time in my life, I will soon be married. Shortly after moving here I began seeing a woman living about twenty-five miles away, in a neighboring town. The relationship has progressed and, particularly since late last fall, has deepened to the point where I have asked her to marry me and she has said yes. It will be a new time, a new beginning, in both of our lives as I learn how to share my life with her and as she learns how to put up with me. We are well-suited to each other, and she has even begun to appreciate baseball, to the point where she is willing to include a short stop in Seattle on our honeymoon to watch the Twins play the Mariners in July. (I will admit, though, I do tire somewhat of having to continually explain the dropped 3rd strike rule to her). I look forward to the life that we will build together, and the home that we will create (yes, I’m buying a house too.) So now is a natural time to look back, at where I have come from and the journey I have taken the past three years. I have walked through the valleys, and I have climbed to new heights that I never anticipated. And I know the future will continue to contain both, that life will continue to unfold. But I do feel as if a chapter in my life is closing, that a new one is beginning. I can now view the accident as part of my past and not part of my present. And I can look forward eagerly to where God will lead me and Brenda next. For those who have walked with me in this journey, I give my thanks. From those I have offended I ask pardon, and I give it freely to all who have challenged me. I appreciate how this site helped me through a difficult time in my life, and I wish you all well going forward. And I commend you all into God’s care. Oh, and one last thought – for those who question whether God has a sense of humor, consider this: The name of the street on which I have just purchased a house is … Homerun Street. Go figure.

Since society is composed of all of us living together, I would say it is everybody's problem, and everybody should be concerned about it, including employers. I for one fully support the system we have in place (to which you make reference) that attempts to soften the unintended negative consequences of "pure capitalism." I do not, though, think that system, as it currently exists, eliminates the need for continuing concern and to keep an eye out for other instances when unjust inequalities exist.

I would respectfully disagree with the idea that sarcasm is not inherently disrespectful. Type it into google and the definition that comes back is "The use of irony to mock or convey contempt." My experience in life mirrors that. Meriam-Webster has it as "a sharp and often satirical or ironic utterance designed to cut or give pain." I'm just fine with sarcasm being moderated.

I know. It's so frustrating, this parsimony we have here in this organization. A mere $160 million and we could have had him...

Given the rotation the past couple of years, that hasn't been as difficult as you might think.

Or they will realize there is a reason both Minnesota and the Cubs exposed him to waivers, and end up DFA'ing him themselves.

It did seem to me, though, based just on what I remember from forum threads last season, that there were far fewer complaints about the medical staff last year than from previous years, and I seem to remember that that was one area where some changes were made between 2012 and 2013. Sports medicine is not an exact science or a mathematical equation. There's not always just one right answer. Use the same treatment on two people with identical injuries and it might work on one and not work on the other. And ankles are tricky things to rehab and heal - as I can attest having broken one myself. I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt on this one.

Being reported by http://www.1500espn.com also http://www.1500espn.com/sportswire/Report_Twins_give_catcher_Kurt_Suzuki_a_oneyear_deal122013

Depends on the outside GM and his or her skill sets. Happens all the time in the corporate world. The trick is knowing how to enter a system without being corrupted by the system, then you can change it from within. That's what I do in my field as well. And, yes, it does take time to effect lasting change, but it can be done.

Indeed. I remember Gump Worsley, playing goal without a mask. Hard core to the end.

http://ftw.usatoday.com/2013/12/mlb-pitchers-to-wear-protective-headgear-in-2014/ Looks like another step to reduce concussion issues and promote player health. The title of the linked article is somewhat misleading; it sounds like it will be optional and not mandatory, but it does say that MLB has verified at least one option would be ready for next year.

I suspect some of the hesitancy about Deduno is that he is (potentially) a late bloomer. It does seem to me sometimes that late bloomers are treated with a fair amount of skepticism, for whatever reason, and perhaps an overall analysis would justify that bias, but we all know that sometimes it does come together for some later in their career rather than earlier (and we all know that early success in MiLB doesn't always translate into MLB success). For myself, I ended the season believing that two pitchers had earned the right to be considered rotation starters next year, based on 2013 performances - Kevin Correia and Samuel Deduno. Add our new signings (Nolasco, Hughes, Pelfrey) and I think we have the initial depth chart for the rotation (put them in whatever order you like). I believe it is incumbent on all of the rest (Worley, Gibson, Meyer, Mays, etc) to force their way into that depth chart by their performances in spring training or in Rochester. They may very well do so (particularly Meyer), but for me Deduno starts camp with a rotation spot.