Blake

Since I'm fond of movies, I thought I'd see if I could find an obscure book to reference, a book with a movie attached to it and tie it all in to baseball. And, perhaps talk about the Twins in the process. As luck would have it, there is such a book and better yet, it has a predecessor that was made into a fine movie. The Book: "Mash Goes to Maine." Yes, there were several of these books written, all revolving around a bunch of somewhat eccentric and roguish doctors. While the original book, "Mash," had one of those "other" sports featured, there were still some baseball references sprinkled throughout. For instance, in the book "Mash" after an especially tough case in which the patient dies, Hawkeye goes through a period of melancholy describing himself as having "lost the hop on his fastball." (the death part aside, the Twins can be aptly described as having lost the hop on their fastball these last few years) Whereas in "Mash Goes to Maine" Trapper John, Duke and Hawkeye call a doctor in on a consultation, believing the consulting doctor to be seven-eighths moron and the other one-eighth genius and the genius part comes out during a consultation but as it is put in the book, the consulting doctor hits a home run, rounds all the bases, and then misses home plate by an inch. (sort of reminds me of the Twins front office at times) Now, how does any of this apply? I'm not really sure, although, it is possible I missed home plate after rounding the bases. Sort of makes me the Lew Ford of game threads, amiright? My point being that I really have no point and thought I'd toss some word salad and hope people don't notice the roquefort dressing, I mean, mind some weird references that mention baseball but have little to do with the Twins. Speaking of the Twins, it's Milwaukee and payback time. As of this writing, Alex Meyer has been called up to replace Michael Tonkin. Which is a rather surprising move. Or, perhaps it one of those "start him in the bullpen and move him to the rotation" type of delios. It's an exciting time to be a Twins fan, what with people like May, Buxton, Rosario, Gibson and possibly Meyer looking to make their mark on the big league club. The starting staff is keeping the Twins in the game and that's what's been lacking these last few painful years. The outfield has gone from bad to very good, bordering on excellent. Side note: Did anyone else, besides Twins management, see the emergence of Rosario coming? Obviously, winning is better than losing, but being a hit away versus down by a couple of touchdowns is much easier to deal with.* Go Twins! *I wrote this a couple of days ago, thought about changing it, and decided to let it stand. Deal with it.

Well, we have an answer: No.

Ugghhh. Well, with some good at bats, the Twins can perhaps knock Lohse out of the game.

This is not good news at all. Hicks and then Buxton have both sold me on the value of a competent center fielder.

Well, so much for my prognosticatory abilities. Next time, I'll flip a coin.

I'm going with a bat because starting pitching has given the Twins sufficient reason to drop a pitcher. That said, I think there is a pitcher or two that is close to being DFA'd to make room for someone younger. It looks to me like the Twins are trying to balance win this year with a youth movement. So far, I think the Twins front office is doing a pretty good job.

Hawk: "Sale struck out 10 batters today!" Random Sox Fan: "Sale lost 6 - 1" Hawk: "But Sale struck out 10 today!" (I admit, I did not listen to the game today. However, I've listened to Hawk enough to be able to recreate his conversations)

I caught a bit of the game today and it appears the Sox were up to their old tricks, throwing the ball with reckless abandon all over the field regardless of whether or not runners happened to be on base.

Rose bet on the team he was managing and playing for. He was in a position to influence the outcome of the game. Pete commits a timely error, run scores, team loses, Rose wins. Rose was also in debt to people who had a vested interest in Pete influencing the outcome of games, because they did their own betting. Pete probably valued his continued health more than he valued his team winning. Finally, Rose's story has changed after every lie was revealed. Rose never came clean regarding the extent of his gambling, even after multiple lies were exposed.

Well, so much for my career as a prognosticator. Fortunately, I have a back up career as an unpaid game thread starter with Twins Daily. The lack of pay may not fill the belly, but it does fillet sole.

So, the call is: bloop, Sox error, blast..Twins win...

Well, darn it Mr. Pelfrey.

I can understand running on Chicago, considering their lack of defensive prowess.

Brian Dozier has 11 more home runs and a higher batting average, yet makes 18 million a year less. Not even close to ready to eat crow.

No matter. It gave me an excuse to link to one of my favorite scenes. Sublime combination of comedy and weirdness.

The only time Pete and HOF should be in the same sentence is when someone in MLB management says "Pete Rose is never going to get in the HOF and Pete should shut up about it already."

Points for the discworld reference.

Hrbowski, much as I'd like to credit you with getting Robin Ventura fired, should it happen after you attend the game, more credit needs to go to the abysmal play of the Sox.

Okay, the Swan Lake re-enactment by Nunez and Dozier as the ball bounced off the base was kind of cool.

I've never heard that much silence from Hawk. The Chicago feed decided it was necessary to indulge in some masochism by replaying the Ramirez error. I just about hit post during the pitching change and decided to wait, because I was sure there would be some sort of fielding issue by the Sox before the end of the inning. I was not disappointed.

Back to the Chicago feed. This should be good.

Wow, Hawk is in complete thunderous gloom meltdown mode. "We can't win if they're getting 30 or 31 out while we get 27." "Our defense sucks, and that's putting it mildly." Also something about 4 gift runs. The Sox team spent more time talking about the Twins than their own team.

Ah, the beauty of MLB.TV..I will now replay that inning and listen to Hawk go into meltdown mode. I'll be back.

Slogan for the Twins this year: "Winning Weird."

Okay, that was fun, watching Buxton lead off.