Teflon

August 8th, 1988 (8-8-88) was the first game played under the lights at Wrigley Field.

[video=youtube;Fdtn0Z4o8cM] Maybe Suzyn Waldman's available...

[ATTACH=CONFIG]4766[/ATTACH] Structure: 2 Leagues 16 teams in 4 4-team divisions, wherever possible preserving traditional league associations and rivalries. (Only exceptions - Colorado, Tampa Bay swap leagues to have closer divisional opponents) 1 western expansion team and 1 southern expansion team are needed to field even team numbers by league and division with symmetrical alignments. Schedule: Ideally no inter-league games. 18 games against teams in the division, 9 versus each team in the rest of the league. Should I not be as omnipotent as I thought and interleague play has to continue, 18 games against teams in division. 8 games versus each team in rest of league. 3 games versus each team in one interleague division – rotating divisions yearly. Rules: If interleague play stays, DH is universally adopted. If no interleague play, NL could stay in the dark ages although the DH would be used for the All-Star game and ALL World Series games. 5th umpire is added in replay booth to review close plays. Playoffs: No wild cards. Four division winners qualify. Teams with best records get home field advantage. AMERICAN LEAGUE AL East Baltimore Orioles Boston Red Sox New York Yankees Toronto Blue Jays AL Central Chicago White Sox Cleveland Indians Detroit Tigers Minnesota Twins AL South Colorado Rockies Houston Astros Kansas City Royals Texas Rangers AL West Los Angeles Angels Oakland A’s Seattle Mariners Expansion Team 1 (Portland?) NATIONAL LEAGUE NL East New York Mets Philadelphia Phillies Pittsburgh Pirates Washington Nationals NL Central Chicago Cubs Cincinnati Reds Milwaukee Brewers St. Louis Cardinals NL South Atlanta Braves Miami Marlins Tampa Bay Rays Expansion Team 2 (New Orleans?, Charlotte? Monterrey?) NL West Arizona Diamondbacks Los Angeles Dodgers San Diego Padres San Francisco Giants

The Twins are going to need a 1B who can slug over .380. That's not Morneau or Parmelee these days so I would eventually hope to see the Sano/Plouffe issue resolved with one at first base and one at third.

Sounds like a good solution for the Twins and for Benson as well.

Interesting post. Thanks, John. Perhaps there needs to be context around the base runner situation in which the strikeout occurred since the value of a strikeout over a fly out or ground out is that it tallies an out with no chance of a runner advancing. Also, I would be interested to know the correlation between strikeouts and runs surrendered to see if it is similar or dissimilar to the correlation (or lack thereof) to wins.

I recall that Hrbek's nickname for Gladden was "Wrench" - from Herbie's impression that Gladden spent most of high school taking shop classes. Gladden on the radio doesn't do much to dispel Herbie's characterization. Nor does the fact that Gladden's biggest on-air spokesperson spots over the years have been for beer and Harleys.

If Plouffe doesn't get ABs at third, then keeping him on the roster means he'll cut into the ABs of Arcia and Parmelee who already seem to be cannibalizing each other's AB's. Not sure I want that.

Tsuyoshi Nishioka is currently batting .344 with a .415 on-base percentage for the 2nd place (14-10) Hanshin Tigers in the Nippon Leagues' Central League. He's played 22 games at second base, making two errors. According to the Google Chrome translation of the Hanshin Tigers website, Nishioka "emits" right-handed and "strokes" with both hands. He's had one "Death Ball" so far, zero "Conjunction Killing Strokes" and 32 "Cheap Shots."

One thing hindering the defensive development of Twins third basemen is how infrequently Twins pitchers strike out opposing hitters which in-turn reduces all the normal in-game practice opportunities the third baseman would have gotten from the throws down to the hot corner from the catcher following the K's and the subsequent relays of said throws to second. Seriously, we're arguing about this? A third baseman fields the ball three times a game. Detroit has the right idea.

Andy Pettitte is one of only 4 current pitchers in the MLB with 90 more pitching wins than losses. (Sabathia, Hudson, Halladay) Based on his career so far, is Andy Pettitte a Hall-of-Famer?

With all the garbage that goes on in college and pro sports these days, I really appreciate a story like this. Thank you for your classiness, Mariano.

Mike Marshall had a doctorate degree in kinesiology - which is the study of the human body in motion - so was less a freak of nature than he was a studied master of his discipline. Marshall, like Campbell, (and Tug McGraw) threw a very effective screwball as an out pitch - something you don't see much anymore.

Found the reason for the Angel's protest from Retrosheet - "Angels protest game based on bullpen mounds being too flat."

Quick notes on the upcoming series with the Mets: For an extra $15 the Twins are letting fans come in to Target Field early and shovel. The MLB is looking into staging a Winter Classic type event at Target Field based on the popularity of the NHL version. The Twins have stated that on games days with temps in the 40s (or below) there still are no plans to sell hot beverages at more than 3 concession stands.

You can view the page at http://twinsdaily.com/content.php?r=1501-April-22-1980-89-Degrees-at-Gametime

[ATTACH=CONFIG]3618[/ATTACH] The Twins started the 1980 season with a 12-game west coast road trip and didn't open at Metropolitan Stadium until late in April. I was going to college in Minneapolis at the time and when the day of the home opener dawned warm & sunny, there was no mistaking mother nature's intent for me to go to the ballpark and not my Tuesday classes. A buddy of mine had reached a similar conclusion so, seeing as I had the wheels, (a sweet mint green '73 Nova) we hit Zip's Liquor Store for a cooler of cold ones and Clark's Subs for sustenance and cruised down to Met Stadium for a day of tailgating and Twins baseball. Temps were already in the 80's and traffic was heavy as every college student in the Twin Cities and half the state workers had been likewise seduced. We inched the last half-mile down Cedar with our windows cranked down and stereos cranked up. We weren't worrying that it was taking forever to get into the Met parking lot, because, hell, it just felt awesome to sit and bake in the sun in the car for a while. One-by-one, we finally got in, paid our $2 to park and found our way to the grinning Indian sign in the Cleveland section of the lot. Darn racist, we often admitted, but sure easy to spot. We got in line to get tickets ($4 unreserved bleachers behind 3rd base) and went back to the vicinity of the Nova to kibbutz and nosh and quaff. There were already great smells and great sounds and Frisbees everywhere. We opened the trunk, got out the cooler, and set about formally making some toasts. To the weather. The girls in tube tops. Bombo Rivera... It's about this time that the details start getting less distinct. I recall the Twins started their crafty lefty Geoff Zahn. I don't recall the Angels' starter but in looking it up on Baseball Reference see that it was Dave Frost, who had pitched a 10-inning 4-hitter against the Twins a week earlier in Anaheim. No such luck for Frost in the rematch. Roy Smalley hit a 2-run homer in the bottom of the first and Minnesota never trailed after, adding 6 more runs on home runs by Hosken Powell and Ron "Papa Jack" Jackson, a double by Rob Wilfong and base hit by Butch Wynegar. Zahn went the distance, giving up only one run and 6 hits. I would have tacked onto the end of the previous sentence "sending the 36,268 in attendance home happy" but for the fact that the Twins, not envisioning 90-degree weather on the 22nd of April, grossly underestimated the walk-up sales and the beer supply required, exhausting their supply long before satisfying demand. This, of course, led to friction in the cases of the less-than-adequately lubricated fans. At least those who didn't have the foresight to stop at Zip's. I've had memorable, enjoyable, drama-filled games at the Metrodome and Target Field that I wouldn't mind reliving but to be 21 and do April 22nd, 1980 over again, would be my favorite, I think. Postscript: I saw on the box score on Baseball Reference that this game was protested by the Angels. Unless they were miffed by the Twins running out of beer I don't remember why this was. Anyone remember?

Yeah, I know. wishful thinking on my part. It's just that carrying three catchers so you don't have to pull Liam Hendricks an inning early for a pinch hitter should the starting catcher tweak something dives me crazy.

Glad to see somebody saw the light as to the questionable value of carrying a third catcher to counter the situation that might occur in ONE GAME should either Doumit or Mauer have to leave. Encouraged by this display of roster logic, can I now suppose that the Twins will also start putting injured players on the injured-reserve list promptly instead of leaving them on the active roster as "day-to-day" and THEN putting them on the injured reserve list?

This is great news considering my awesome collection of jiggly girl gifs.

The Twins Play the Game the Right Way The Twins were always credited with good fundamentals on defense during their winning seasons. While pitching and injuries were blamed for the horrid season in 2011 and mostly just pitching in 2012, the media was still praising the team for playing the game "the right way" even though the Twins also really stunk on defense. (-55 runs in Zone Total Fielding Runs Above Average for those two years)

The loopy logic of having what amounts to a 24 man roster and a minor league catcher all season long just so the Twins can avoid the possibility of losing the DH for a couple at-bats in one game should both other catchers be playing and one gets injured -drives me freakin' crazy. The last time I looked, baseball still lets you pinch hit and do double switches in the batting order - so even the chance of a pitcher having to hit in that situation is minimal. This is like making your kids share a bed room even though you have another one unoccupied on the off-chance that the Pope will move in with you when he retires.