Vanimal46

I should host game threads more often! The Twins are doing well!

The bar I'm at finally put on the Twins game. I'm with you guys. Pressly is a beast!

Well, you can use alcohol, responsibly of course.

Is it raining now? It's pouring in Austin. Which means beer intake is even higher than before.

I'm at a pub crawl today so I have nothing but positive things to say about every single one of you.

There's so much Positivity today! Thanks Negativity Police!

You did well Dr. Chief. Your experiment is working out very well today!

Killebrew Root Beer? What are we 12? Vodka or beer only.

I could have sworn we were on ESPN 8, the ocho.

Dr. Chief and Dr. North must have been working behind the scenes to make a better version of you! Thank God you're here. The Twins have gone 1-9 in their last 10 games, and the negativity is infesting the site!

It worked!! I tapped my heels 3 times and said "Positivity, Positivity, Positivity!" Negativity Police, it's been a long time. Do you remember what happened the last time you were alive?

P.S. Happy belated birthday to our good friend Craig Arko! Hope you celebrated in style!

ANND Welcome! To Minnesota Twins Whine Line - Game Thread Edition! I am your host for the next 2 days, Vanimal. We got ourselves a real barn burner match up this weekend between our Twins, and the Cleveland Indians. Let's get some things out of the way like lineups and weather to set the mood... 49 degrees at game time and spotty showers. Winds from the west at 20 mph. Gusts higher than that. Minnesota Twins: 1. Joe Mauer (L) 1B 2. Eduardo Nunez ® SS 3. Miguel Sano ® RF 4. Trevor Plouffe ® 3B 5. Byung Ho Park ® DH 6. Brian Dozier ® 2B 7. Eddie Rosario (L) LF 8. Juan Centeno (L) C 9. Danny Santana (S) CF P- Ervin Santana - 81 overall on MLB the Show! Cleveland Team: 1. Carlos Santana (S) DH 2. Jason Kipnis (L) 2B 3. Francisco Lindor (S) SS 4. Mike Napoli ® 1B 5. Jose Ramirez (S) 3B 6. Marlon Byrd ® RF 7. Yan Gomes ® C 8. Tyler Naquin (L) CF 9. Rajai Davis ® LF P- Corey Kluber - coming off of a 2.2 IP 5 ER beating from the Astros! Alright, now that baseball talk is over, grab a drink and pull up a chair. Uncle Vanimal has a story to share... A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away, resided a community of people known as Twins Daily-ans. They lived in a magical place filled with sunshine, roses, and fertile land to plant their crops. In order to keep this place so magical, King Brock hired several town’s folk as “Moderators” to keep the peace. They were given whistles to alert the town of danger! The worst offenders were given warnings, and sometimes had to leave the magical land…. Luckily, the moderators didn’t have to do much at all! Twins Daily-ans were thrilled about a winning year, along with their crops growing at the right speed. Even folks with titles of “would like to be more positive” BECAME more positive! But something was threatening to ruin the great land, and King Brock knew it…. Off in the distance, the threat was observed by the town’s bird watchers, birdwatcher and Hrbowski. They relayed the danger to the town’s musician, ChiTown. “Oh no!” she gasped. “RiverBrian, take us up Lookout River, we must go tell the king!” RiverBrian, you see, is the best rower in the land, with one fatal flaw…knowing which direction he’s steering! They had to pick up Nick, the town’s Viking, in order to get them to the castle. Upon arrival, ChiTown and the gang raced up the 26 flights of stairs in order to alert the King. “King Brock! Your highness,” ChiTown sang beautifully. “Prepare yourself, the enemy is near!” King Brock paused, and reflected while peering down at the Twins Daily-ans playing in the field. “We must protect this great land,” Brock said. “The only way to do that, is with Plan X. Get Dr. North immediately!” For the next 8 hours, Dr. North, Dr. Chief, and Dr. Diehard worked in a top secret laboratory to create Plan X. A machine with the super power of SNIFFING out the enemy. You may know this machine as The New Sherriff in Town…. The first wave of the enemy STRUCK the community head on, but Plan X kept a majority of the community out of danger. Dr. North, Dr. Chief, and ChiTown jumped and sang in joy as the threat was eliminated! King Brock, on the other hand, was reconsidering what he approved… Was this super power too much for the great land?! It turns out that it WAS! Plan X no longer listened to the King, and started causing more trouble than good. He started pointing out weak conflicts and gave warnings to people who didn’t need a warning! Plan X had to be DESTROYED… King Brock knew the only way to destroy the machine he approved creating, is the SQL SABER… This was done in the middle of the night, in order to keep it out of the Twins Daily Bugle. Little did King Brock know, the next wave of the enemy is here, TODAY! That enemy, everyone, is NEGATIVITY….. Who’s going to be the HERO to save our great land?! Negativity Police, we need you!! Go Twins!

Yeah there probably was some sort of ulterior motive there. Granted when I use Uber it's for events I'm drinking at, so I don't remember the exact conversations. I do recall that $300 figure said by 3 separate Uber drivers. Perhaps it was something that Uber floated to their drivers, thus passed onto the passengers. All of them weren't opposed to further background checks because they have other jobs besides Uber...

Good questions. I don't know the answer to them. Cabs aren't a great option down here either, and I generally avoid them like the plague. I think it stems back to my time in Minneapolis when a cab driver would intentionally miss a freeway exit to keep the meter going.

We were one of the last ones to Uber. I took one on Friday and Saturday. They stopped about 2 days ago.

Full disclosure: I voted against Prop 1 because I want to see Uber and Lyft drivers receive better background checks. There were 5-6 sexual assault cases from Uber drivers over the last year or more here in Austin. I want to know if the driver that's picking me up isn't some kind of criminal. Also, talking to other Uber drivers about this, the cost of getting finger printed would have cost them $300 to get accomplished. They were not scared of further background checks because they had nothing to hide.

Haha well short answer is Uber and Lyft didn't want to play by the city's rules. It seems like Austin is a test for other cities nationwide. They lost the vote, the city said you can still be in operation, instead they took their ball and went home. Long answer- Uber and Lyft IMO did a horrific job with their marketing campaign. $8.6 million of TV/radio ads, multiple phone calls and text messages.. It just got to be annoying near the Prop 1 date. There was a lot of directions they could have gone to get people on their side- job creation, convenience, drunk driving vs. ride sharing stats... Instead the only argument I heard was "Requiring all Uber/Lyft drivers to get finger printed is going to cost A LOT of money" and other corporate jargon. The other problem is the target demographic that uses Uber/Lyft the most typically doesn't get out to vote. That week was finals week for University of Texas students, and others just don't want to do it. With 150+ people moving here on a daily basis, this is a city that desperately needs better public transportation or ride sharing options. That's why I think they'll both be back in the future. Or else some other company will swoop in and reap the benefits.

Happy birthday Craig! What a day for it to fall on! It's National Apple Pie Day and National Blame Someone Else Day! I'm blaming you all for not shipping an apple pie to Austin

4th consecutive game with multiple hits for Buxton! If we were playing NBA Jam, "He's on FIRE!"

It would be absolutely mind.boggling. what the Twins would have to offer to get Trout. I'd love for this team to be in a position to acquire the best player in the game. Unfortunately that's not the case.

Oregon is a place I'd love to visit. It's on the bucket list of places to see before future kids come into play.

Great video!! I would be curled up in the fetal position if I had to step in the batter's box against that....

Let me guess, did she start becoming a fan wayyyy back in 2012? http://www.fantasyfutures.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/seattle-seahawks-meme.jpg http://www.totalprosports.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/3-seahawks-fans-meme.jpg

If I were Mike, I'd ditch any allegiance to the University of Minnesota sports, and become an Oregon Ducks fan in a heart beat. They actually have good teams!