Squirrel

just call them Geek 1, Geek 2, Geek 3 and you'd be as right as guessing which is which

Um, I posted how that first half inning went. Couldn't you read my scorecard?

Yeah, I wasn't going to go there.

Okay, Van ... take your pick:

This has been your half inning CBU

Best I could do:

There's diehard:

Lol. I'm going to look for an Orioles fan for Van

Oh, and diehard will be there, too, but my seats aren't near those guys unfortunately.

I've seen Chief and Ash as recently as 10 minutes ago. I've seen Halsey a couple times this week. And I'm told Thrylos is around and may have had him pointed out to me, but haven't officially met him.

Okay, my 2nd ST game, not counting parts of some minor league games I've seen. Minor league games are great fun. But the totally geeked out participants make me a little nervous. Pictures of this will not be posted to protect the not-so-innocent geeks. (You know who you are.) I'll post lineups once in my seat, but for now this is my vantage point:

Please keep this discussion in the context of baseball, or as close to it as possible. Making this and taking this personally will never help the discussion, unless you have a personal experience that is relevant to this discussion. Thank you.

I've read a lot of words and comments here ... stoicism vs flair, emotion, passion, showboating, manners, respect, showing up your opponents, respect for the game, etc ... yet I've really not seen anyone define these words or give examples other than American vs Latin. My guess is that every single one of us would have a different sense of what these mean in context of the game of baseball, and every single one of us would have a different sense of what is and is not acceptable based on our own personal experiences. That's part of the problem. Maybe discussing some of this vocabulary we could come to some kind of consensus. To force anything into one ideology or culture will ensure its demise, imo. It's all of these things together is what makes baseball, and life, interesting, that there are these differences in style, personality, ideology, whether it be American, Latin, black or white. Just because it's not of one's own personal preference or experience doesn't make it wrong; just because that's not the way it's always been done doesn't make it disrespectful, either. However, when you start attaching these words to a specific group of players, judging them by it, criticizing them for it, generating stereotypes with it, yes, I'd call that racist. I mean, look at those words I listed above, how many of them would you say have negative connotations and how many of those would you have attributed to a specific group of players? Yes, there have been examples made outside that specific group, but how many in general negatively affect a specific group of people? Maybe it's not full out, full blown, in your face, knowingly out of hate racism, but it is racism. And we all do it to varying degrees. I'd rather Kinsler have shrugged his shoulders and said 'It's not my style, but whatever.' Why the need to specifically attach it to the teams of PR and DR? When a public figure of any kind starts doing that, and telling kids to appreciate the game 'our way' vs 'their way' I do cringe a bit. I don't think Kinsler's intent here was malicious, not one iota, but that doesn't mean it wasn't racist. And I don't believe Kinsler to be a racist or a monster, I don't know him at all and can't and won't pass judgement on him. But I do think his comment did have racial overtones that I didn't like. And I do think those overtones are something to address in baseball as I think they are prevalent, and not in a healthy way. And maybe Kinsler was just pointing out different styles of play, and encouraging everyone to appreciate that in and of itself, because there is a great thing in our differences, I just think he did so in an unfortunate way initially.

Um, van ... I had to put my beloved cat to sleep ... 2 years ago.

I've heard these 'respect the game' comments before, and I'm not trying to be contrary, but what exactly does that mean? Should there be one standard of what that means? And who sets that standard? This is my issue with that ... how is being outwardly expressive disrespectful? To me disrespecting the game is cheating (steroids, for example), lacking integrity in play, intentionally flaunting the rules, intentionally trying to cause harm to a player ... to me that's disrespecting the game and not jumping up and down and cheering when you win, not giving a fist pump as you run the bases or get that strike out. We have different ideas of decorum, and that's fine, but maybe some really need to quit being so offended over someone else's joyfulness.

Exactly. The inconsistency of criticism, and from whom, is pertinent. If Kinsler was making that comment about all emotional displays, okay, but he singles out a sector. Yes, part of it is cultural misunderstanding, imo, however, instead of just negating it, Kinsler should immerse himself to understand why it is. Isn't racism rooted in ignorance of a people and culture and generalizations? Instead he says 'Play like us, not like them.' Us and them. Hmmmm ...

Maybe Nolan Ryan didn't see that one.

My family enjoyed meeting you, although my Dad has already forgotten it.

It will be interesting to see how much momentum this procedure gains. Thanks for posting this.

Yeah, not surprised and why I distance myself from these events. But very cool that you went. Do you have pictures? Going to the finals?

I really don't understand how Kepler's play was not an error, or even possibly two. I guess they didn't rule the missed catch an error because it was 'difficult' to begin with. And I guess that throw wasn't an error because the runner didn't advance, but there was a lot amiss with that.

That would be the equivalent of me eating a whole French silk pie every day, instead of a small piece of apple pie. Heh. But hey ... whatever works, right?

http://twinsdaily.com/topic/25256-article-twins-roster-projection-2017-version-30/?p=592480 'Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.' I think maybe we need to do a study on your hoping and not my having pie for breakfast.

Well, I'm glad my Dad had had enough of the game at the end of the 8th so I didn't have to see that 9th inning. I'm guessing Boshers is now out of competition for a BP spot.

Van, I'm watching the game and not what others are eating. And I'm not scouting the crowd for potential dates for you, either.