Squirrel

Hey ... I saw a yard full of toilets being used as flower planters! And horses at a rest stop! And received a text welcoming me to Canada just as I was taking a picture of a port-o-potty at an overlook on Lake Champlain. I'd say that was smelling flowers, so to speak.

Oh, thank you ... and here I thought I was just tired from driving a combined 1000 miles yesterday and today.

Game-time forecast: Mostly sunny. Winds blowing out to left field at 5-10 m.p.h. Temperature around 70. Twins: SP, Correia Santana SS Dozier 2B Mauer 1B Willingham LF Morales DH Arcia RF Suzuki C Escobar 3B Fuld CF Red Sox: SP, De La Rosa Holt LF Bogaerts 3B Pedroia 2B Ortiz DH Napoli 1B Nava RF Drew SS Pierzynski C Bradley CF ----------------------------- Okay, Brian ... I'm back home. And am prodding your thinking, so go to it! Trips are fun but it's always good to be back home unless it's someplace like Illinois. Things to think about: 1. Boston -- Bwoast'n is a city along the Atlantic Coast of Massachusetts. It's like the worst city to be driving in a Cah. The roads are wicked narrah and people are all over the place. The driving rules are a little different. In Bwoast'n... never stop for a pedestrian unless he flings himself underneath your cah... You should always look both ways when running a red light... If you make eye contact with the other driver... you no longer have the right of way and study the hand gesture handbook provided by the Bwoast'n department of transportation. The population is around 636,000 people of that... approximately 400,000 are college students attending one of the 10 million colleges and universities in the city. Of the remaining 236,000 people of Boston... 100,000 are relatives of the Kennedy clan. They ski in to trees... the drive off bridges... they fly into oceans and that helps explain the driving that tourists encounter in the city. Like most major cities... The city of Bwoast'n consists of many neighborhoods... However... it doesn't matter because no one can understand how each neighborhood is pronounced so it's almost like they don't exist. 2. Fenway Pahk -- Without a doubt... It's iconic. It's been standing there since I was a child and since I was a child I've been mesmerized by the Green Monster. It was the most unique feature in all of baseball and watching televised games from Fenway were can't miss events because of the Green Monster. Now that I'm adult... I think it's possible that I may have over played it's significance because I was a freaking child. The Green Monster had to be built because the ball park dimensions had to be squeezed into the dimensions of the streets that surrounded it. It only left room for a short left fence so the fence was raised. The Park was built in 1912 and at that time... The Green Monster was the tallest structure in all of New England. It could be seen in a photo from space taken in 1915. The right field line is where the Pesky Pole stands. It was named the pesky pole because it kept toppling over when they were trying to erect it. The construction workers found it to be Pesky to place upright. Johnny Pesky came along 30 years later and named himself after the pole. His original name was Johnny Pleasant and he underwent a drastic personality change when his name was changed. They also have a place in CF which is called the Triangle. It is called the Triangle because CF'ers are challenged to Try" and take a decent "Angle" when chasing baseballs around the bullpen. 3. Rubby De Le Rosa -- Rubby is 25 years old and from Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. He is called Rubby because he likes Cheetos. The Red Sox acquired him in that huge trade with the Dodgers. The trade that emptied all the lazy overpaid superstars like Nick Punto off the Red Sox roster and put them on the Dodgers roster. Once Rubby became a Red Sock... The Team turned it around and won the World Series. He didn't pitch in the World Series but the team did rub his head for luck. I remember seeing him pitch with the Dodgers and back then he had a big fastball in the upper 90's and a decent change of pace and a wicked slider that he would throw for balls. He had TJ surgery since then and I admit I don't know if he is still that power guy. 4. World Series Winners -- Boston won the World Series last year... This year the Red Sox are 31-38 and 9 games out of 1st place. You don't have to look far to know where to place blame. John Ferrell is obviously a bad manager. 5. Kids -- I overheard my son arguing with a friend of his. His friend said "His Dad could beat up your Dad (meaning me)". I knew the kids dad... It wasn't true... This was clearly false. As a matter of fact... it isn't even debatable. So... I waited for my son to set him straight and he replied "Yeah... When"?

Ugh. Just tuned in in between stuff. Deduno. <shakes head> Have never been that high on him. Too erratic.

If TJ surgery hasn't already been scheduled, I think he will be okay to play soon.

No way would I want to listen to TKs monotone for an entire season. I love TK and he definitely has some good things to say, but he puts me to sleep.

Exactly.

Game-time forecast: Mostly sunny. Winds blowing out to center field at 10-15 m.p.h. Temperature around 65. Twins: SP, Gibson Daniel Santana CF Kurt Suzuki C Joe Mauer 1B Josh Willingham LF Kendrys Morales DH Oswaldo Arcia RF Trevor Plouffe 3B Eduardo Nuñez SS Eduardo Escobar 2B Tigers: SP, Smyly Ian Kinsler 2B Austin Jackson CF Miguel Cabrera 1B Victor Martinez DH J.D. Martinez RF Don Kelly LF Nick Castellanos 3B Alex Avila C Andrew Romine SS ----------------------------- Well, Brian, think! Think hard! Oh, but don't give yourself a headache! ------------------------------------------------------ OK... But I just ate a bowl of ice cream real fast. Things to Think About: 1. Detroit -- Nestled in the beautiful Mountains of the Rio Grande... Detroit is a destination city for tourists across the globe who are immediately struck by the beautiful turquoise ocean and it's soothing waves crashing upon the shore. The City of Detroit was built by the Auto Industry... Around the turn of the century Lew and Danny Ford were tired of getting where they needed by horse and buggy. Looking at the back end of a horse is no way to go through the life so they built the automobile. The brothers went to Kitty Hawk North Carolina and tested this new contraption and they found out that the pure weight of the automobile made it difficult for the horses to pull. A month or so later... they decided to put wheels on the automobile and the horses were soon able to pull them and an industry was born. A few years later... the horses were no longer necessary and fast forward to today and the Toyota Camry is the number one selling car in America. 2. The Tigers -- They have cooled off quite a bit and they seem determined. Determined to make the AL Central the tightest race in all of baseball. Just 4 games separate the 1st place Tigers from the last place Twins. If this keeps up for a couple more months... The entire division will be buyers and not sellers. 3. Drew Smyly -- He's a 25 year old lefthander from Little Rock Arkansas. He played college ball at the University of Arkansas. He's Arkansas to the bone. He wears a silly Razorback Hat... He's been to Hot Springs and finds the waters slightly warm. He was in Texarkana when the Bandit and Snowman picked up cases of beer. He was implicated in the Whitewater scandal and he doesn't wear shoes. His uncle is the Mayor of Bugtussle and used to date Jethrine. When I've seen him pitch... he looks like the real deal to me... His fastball will sit in the low 90's but it has nice movement into right handed batters. This would be the type of guy that Dozier would love to turn on but it seems he isn't in the lineup. 4. Brian Dozier -- He isn't starting today and that's the first time he hasn't started all year. His back must still be a little wonky after running into Nunez. Eduardo Nunez is playing SS once again so he will have to run into Eduardo Escobar this time. We have the Eduardo Keystone Combo working today. Obviously... Nunez doesn't have 2B experience because leaving Escobar at SS and putting Nunez at 2B would have been a cleaner move. 5. Restaurants -- I wanted to try a restaurant that we haven't tried but my wife got a bad review from a co-worker and didn't want to go. According to my wife... the co-worker said and I quote... "The food was terrible and the portions were too small". I just asked her to think about that combination of problems for awhile. My wife looked at me funny... She didn't get it. As we were driving to a different restaurant. All of a sudden she started laughing out of the blue... She finally got it.

I'd think dropping the switch hitting at an inopportune time without really consulting about it wasn't a great way to go about it and probably left a few wondering about him.

sigh. at least my cookies turned out nice.

Cmon ... just one more run in!!

And baking night has gotten better

One of my nieces graduates from high school on Saturday; and I'm making some cookies (my famous mocha cookies) for the open house. Also am bringing a tin of Garrett's caramel crisp popcorn.

This has not been the best of games to bake by.

In double good fashion!! Woohoo!

And we're off!! In good fashion!

He also said, he just didn't know and he/they would take it one day at a time. So my interpretation was simply that ... one day at a time and we'll see without a real time frame in mind. However, given that he had been working out regularly and the need for him to be there, I was hoping for sooner rather than later. Am pleasantly surprised that it's this soon, as I'd have guessed sometime this series with a late inning pinch hit low leverage situation. But again ... was my guess ... as it was all a one day at a time.

JB - wonder what color suit, tied, hat and shoes he'll wear?

Indeed.

Meh ... they probably said that as they were all guessing ... and probably guessing on the side of forever instead of too soon as not to make us all irate if it was 5 games in before they played him.

Who talked about that? What I heard on the press conference was that they'd see his BP and take it from there, one game at a time. Plus he's been working out this whole time. Maybe some weren't expecting it tonight but I saw a lot of guesses that he'd make an appearance at some point this series. Oh and I merged your thread with the game thread. Made more sense to do that with lineups et al.

Game-time forecast: Mostly sunny. Winds blowing from right to left field at 5-10 m.p.h. Temperature around 75. Twins: SP, Nolasco Daniel Santana CF Brian Dozier 2B Joe Mauer 1B Josh Willingham LF Oswaldo Arcia RF Kendrys Morales DH Trevor Plouffe 3B Kurt Suzuki C Eduardo Escobar SS Jays: SP, Dickey Jose Reyes SS Melky Cabrera LF Jose Bautista RF Adam Lind DH Edwin Encarnacion 1B Juan Francisco 3B Brett Lawrie 2B Josh Thole C Anthony Gose CF ------------------------ And now we wait. And wait. And wait. And wait ... It has nothing to do with patience. It's all about timing. ----------------------------------------- And Perfectly Timed Things to Think About: 1. Toronto -- I had to research it... But it turns out that the Twins have to travel mostly east but a little bit South to get to Toronto. This is because Toronto is located in a completely different country called "Boobakin" whch means "everyone squeeze to south to stay warm" The Blue Jays carry the hopes and dreams of the entire country. Since there is seemingly no chance that any of their many hockey teams will ever win the Stanley Cup. Toronto was formed in 1935 on the northern shores of Lake Ontario. Rickshaw traffic jams are quite common and can delay getting home from work by as much 2 hours on bad days. The standard tip for a rickshaw operator is "Get a Car... You'll get where you are going faster". Politics are a little bit different in Toronto... High ranking city officials craft deals in crack houses with large buffets of endless food... creating a whole new race of power brokers that others call "Overweight Crackheads". They have a bouncy energy that is hard to follow and they take powernaps that last 4 days but in the end... deals are struck and nobody can remember them. According to demographics... 65 percent of Toronto is made up of Canadians which means that they like beer and have a good sense of humor while wearing funny hats and the other 35 percent stare at them not sure how to respond. 2. The Rogers Centre -- It used to be known as the Skydome but they realized that it was actually built on the ground so they changed the name to the Rogers Centre. When spelling "Center" they got the R and E mixed up at the end and were too lazy to change it since they already ordered the signs and letterhead. It's a multi purpose facility which means that it can host baseball games and football games(if you can call anything with a 55 yard line football) and it will also transform into a giant Godzilla type creature and patrol the city for villians and crush anything in it's path with it's giant teeth and long tail. The dimensions of the baseball field are normal sized but it's odd because home runs that clear the fence in Toronto seem to clear the fence by a long long way. Balls don't just barely fall over the fence... They bounce off of Hotel Room windows... land in upper decks and knock dinner plates on to the floor in the restaurant. 3. The Blue Jays -- Toronto is having a good year. Last year... expectation was quite high after they increased payroll significantly... trading young talent for high priced talent. The team was loaded on paper and empty on the field and it failed. This year it's coming together as they currently lead the AL east by 4.5 games. Not over the Yankees Red Sox or Rays but over the Baltimore Orioles... Yep the Blue Jays are bringing it while the usual suspects are nowhere to be found. It could be the year of the Maple Leaf. The lineup is long ball heavy... Bautista... Encarnacion... Francisco(named after Palo Alto)... Lind and Lawrie can all go deep at any time. They also have speed with Jose Reyes and Anthony Gose which provides a lineup that can beat you a couple of different ways. Tonight we face Knuckleballer R.A. Dickey... Which means stand there and watch it bounce around and then swing the bat. 4. Kendrys Morales -- Whenever... I read his first name... I can't help but wonder if he is plural. He has been officially inserted into the lineup in the 6th spot. When Stephen Drew signed with the Red Sox... They were able to send him down to the minors for a little game experience before putting him in the major league lineup. That worked real well since Drew is currently hitting .071. Kendrys don't need no stinking game experience... He just needed a meal at Murray's... A chance to burp... stretch his arms a little and wait for his shipment of bats to arrive and he's good to go... And I'm looking forward to watching him. 5. Walking -- I hear it's good for you... I guess it's better then doing nothing and letting your important parts atrophy. My Aunt was getting up in age and was having some medical issues and the doctor strongly suggested taking long walks... so she did. She started walking 5 miles a day. It's a couple of years later now and we have no idea where she is.

They said that they would watch his BP and when he's ready, he's ready. So who knows?

Okay ... closet done ... cleaning the bathrooms is next ... yes, more interesting than the game ... Welcome to the Twins, Señor Morales.

Or something other than rocks, sand and cacti in it.