Results tagged ‘ Kevin Slowey ’
Congratulation, Tigers, You Suck
Well it was a great day for baseball! Sure it was
a little cool and windy outside, and occasionally it liked raining on
us, but I couldn’t complain. I got out of work to go see the Twins to
help the win the final game against the Tigers! I now have a 6-0 record
when attending Twins games. I think I need to find out who to talk to
about getting free tickets since I am the good luck charm. I ended up
finding fabulous seats for cheap for the game yesterday. We were a mere
10 rows up in section 121. For the price we paid, we should have been
sitting in the 3rd level (the area behind home plate).
I was a little nervous, to be honest, about going
to the game yesterday. I didn’t want the Twins to lose (the sweep
was on the line, along with Kevin Slowey getting another win!) and I
didn’t want to tarnish my record and have any games in the loss
column. Thankfully the Twins took an early lead of 2-0 in the first, (which
for those who didn’t know, they are the first team since the 1971
Yankees to do so in 6 consecutive games) and got off to a great
start. The only runs that the Tigers scored were on home runs, and
there was only 2 players getting these home runs: Avila and Cabrera.
Thankfully the Tigers had no base runners on, and thankfully Jon Rauch
was plagued by Avila as well when he faced him.
Overall, this series was good to sweep! It pushed
the Tigers to 3 1/2 games behind us and it made us look like a force to
be reckoned with! I would’ve wrote about the game on Tuesday night (I
was at that one as well), but the little bit of time I had before
the game yesterday afternoon didn’t allow for me to get anything
written! I was very impressed with Nick Blackburn and his complete game
that he pitched. Sure, I’d like to take back that home run he gave up (the
tying run in the 9th inning), but hey, at least JJ Hardy pulled
through for us with not only a diving save (which lead to an out),
but also a great plate appearance, scoring the winning run on a wild
pitch. I’m sure Detroit would like to have that game back. It was
awful for them!
I am tired of seeing Kubel not be able to hit the
ball to save his life. I know that FSN was calling his ONE HIT
good, but one hit does not make you a good player. He got out both
times that the Twins had the bases loaded for him. Last year, Kubel
would have knocked that ball out of the park and made the bases loaded
haunt the other team. This year, it’s our version of Kryptonite, it
just kills us and the other team makes it out of the inning without any
more harm. So far Target Field is like how the Metrodome was to Matt
Garza, he just can’t play the best there. Which is sad, and I would
love to see change going forward.
I did find it funny that Nick Punto plays a Phil Collins song for his
at-bat music. That man has some strange taste in music, that’s for
sure. I guess it’s better than him playing “Satisfaction” by Benni
Benassi. I guess hearing Phil Collins every time Punto is up to bat is
better than seeing Jon Rauch naked on the large video screen (mainly
his tattoos, but he’s at least 1/2 naked). The Twins’ twitter
person asked what people thought of the video, I responded. “It’s
gross. I don’t want to see Rauch naked, or even partially.”
Being that the Twins WON the series on Tuesday night, and swept
yesterday, your beloved 3 Stars of
the Series:
3. Michael Cuddyer (his 3 run blast got him 3 more bags of
Skittles, he almost threw Cabrera out at first base, on what should’ve
been a single though Cabrera ran slowly, and Cuddy was all-around great
this series!)
2. JJ Hardy (he went 2 for 4 in both games of the
series that he played, had the winning run on Tuesday and made some
outstanding defensive plays as well!)
1. Denard Span (he was rocking Detroit and hitting at least
.500 in every game. It was fun to watch him get on base every game!)
Now, I present some more pictures from the game yesterday! Enjoy:
I’m A Big Kid Now!
Thankfully last night was the last night on the West Coast for this
week. I don’t think my body would’ve have taken many more games that
last until at least midnight when I have to work in the morning! It’s
rough getting up when you have little sleep! (I’m sure at least some
of you can relate to me!) Although last night was not the best
we’ve seen Kevin Slowey do, he wasn’t terrible in his outing. Sure he
got into a few jams (which make me nervous) but at least he was
able to work his way out of those jams only surrendering one run in his 5
1/3 innings.
I did have to remind Kevin, that while we all are aware that he has
balls (he threw a lot of balls last night, compared to how he
normally pitches), that I prefer strikes when pitches are thrown at
the batters. Walks are not something I ever like to see one of our
pitchers give up. We all know that walks can haunt!
I thought Pat Neshek looked good last night in his outing. I realized
how much I’ve missed seeing him pitch. He starts his windup on the
pitching rubber and ends up at the front of the pitching mound by the
time he’s done throwing. Before he throws another pitch, he has to walk
all the way back to the back side of the pitching mound. I’m not sure
if this is just a habit of his, or if it’s a superstition of his.
Either way, it amuses me.
With all the home runs our teams has been hitting in the first four
games of the season, it makes it feel like we’re as big and powerful as a
team like the Yankees (yes, the comparison is hard for me to write
with how much I loathe the Yankees, but they are power hitters for the
most part.). This was the first time since 2003 that the Twins won a
series against the Angels, and I think that says something too. It’s a
good feeling to take a series. Jim Thome finally blasted one out of
the park last night, J’Brendan Harris and J’Delmon Young did as well!
Home runs that have extra runners make me very happy.
One thing I’ve noticed on MLB’s site for the game recaps now (HERE)
is that they display the Tweet volumes too during a game. I’m not
surprised that the Twins have a high Tweet volume with how many tweets I
see during games. I never am out of the loop with what’s going on,
that’s for sure! For those of you who don’t currently have
Twitter…it’s a good thing to have. I wasn’t sure about it at first,
but I’ve grown to love it and get a lot of news and information from
it. You can follow me on
Twitter as well! (I know, shameless plug, but it’s my blog so I can
do it!)
I think this year, I’m going to do the 3 Stars of the series, rather
than the 3 stars of the individual games. This gives some players a
little more of a chance of making my star list!
So onto the 3 Stars of the Series:
# 3. JJ Hardy (He hit home runs in a couple of the games, and had some good
defensive moves as well. It’s good to see him in a Twins uniform and
doing well in it!)
# 2. Delmon Young (Delmon hit a couple home runs too during
the series and apparently can run a lot faster after shedding some
pounds!)
# 1. Justin Morneau (Justin showed us all that Spring Training
numbers really don’t matter. After struggling this spring, he’s really
found his groove.)
Happy Opening Day
(No,
I don’t consider the Boston/Yankees game last night to be considered
“Opening Day”…it’s today.)
So I was watching ESPN the other day and they were talking about opening
day of baseball, then they pulled out a list of Opening Day starters
that all had some bit in common (I don’t remember what it was). I
found it strange that Carl Pavano was listed on this list. Carl is our
home opener starter, but he is not the Opening Day starter…(Timmy)
Scott Baker is. I wish I had a way to call them out on their lack of
fact checking. It’s fun to do that with magazine and papers and such.
Mostly, it just makes me laugh at how lax our entertainment world has
become on fact checking.
On Saturday, I got to check out Target Field for myself in the second of
two exhibition games against the Cardinals. I was super excited to
finally get to go into Target Field (without having to scale a wall
to see into the field.), I was stoked that Kevin Slowey was pitching
in Saturday’s game (for those who don’t know…he’s my absolute
favorite player…though it shouldn’t be too hard to tell) and
seeing baseball live made me realize that Opening Day (and home
opener) are just around the corner!
Saturday was a fun game, the Twins looked ready
to go. Joe Mauer and Michael Cuddyer both hit homeruns (and I fully
believe that Cuddy’s was a result of Katie talking about him getting
Skittles for homeruns last year. He wanted some this year already!)
Even though we had Cardinals fans in abundance around us, they were
pleasant and we were still able to fully enjoy the game! By the time
most of the starters had been benched for the players (that won’t
make the Opening Day roster), Katie and I decided to leave the
comfort of our seats and go wander around the stadium to check out
different views around the park.
Here are the various places I took pictures (all lower level
areas)
seats
(or about) view
downtown Minneapolis view
home plate
view
you can see across the street from Target Field (on the 7th Street N
side)
are at home again! This week: Angels (9:05pm start times
Monday-Thursday) and Chicago White Sux (Friday-Sunday). Be sure to
welcome back baseball with me and cheer on the Twins tonight!
TwinsFest 2010
Well another year of TwinsFest
has come and gone. I only went on Saturday, because limited funds made
it hard to purchase additional tickets, plus I know how tired I get
from going one FULL day that I figured one would be plenty!
I
got to meet and run into tons of people from the blog world! (Though
one person choose to not introduce themselves to me when they found me,
I’ll let it slide) Met Howard Sinker from A Fan’s View, Seth Stohs from Seth Speaks, and John Bonnes from Twins Geek. Met up with bloggers I’ve met and hung out with before (Katie from KC’s Baseball Blog, Kirsten from K-Bro’s Baseball Blog, Topper from Curve for a Strike, Tricia from Twins Sisters, and Erin from TwinsGirls: A Baseball Blog) all in all, it was fun chatting with everyone.
I
was insane enough to wait in line for pictures with the players. I was
not terribly thrilled to have to pay $2 per player to get pictures with
them, when in previous years it was free. It kind of seems lame and
like a slight rip-off to charge people for admission and getting
nothing for free in the process. Sure, if you wanted to wait for 6
hours in the prospects lines, those were free, but everything else
costs money. I know that the proceeds from the picture line were going
for a good cause (I have nothing against giving money to Haiti through UNICEF, don’t get me wrong), I just think that it should have been more of a “suggested donation,” than a requirement to pay. I believe they still would have gotten money donated to the good cause.
There
was also disappointment this year in the fact that the autograph lines
went up by $5 at every station. I never went through many of these
lines to begin with, mainly cause if I really want autographs from
players, I know that at some point, I can most likely get them for
free…plus I also don’t want to wait for so long to get the
autographs. Two years ago, I waited for a good amount of time to get
Kevin Slowey’s
autograph (since he’s my favorite Twins player). I made the mistake of
going through his autograph line that he was in with Francisco Liriano. NOTE TO FRONT OFFICE FOLKS WHO MAKE UP TWINSFEST SCHEDULE: Please, for everyone safety, sanity and crowd control, put Francisco Liriano up in the Cambria booth where the likes of Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau and others are. It makes things really crowded down on the turf when he’s signing at Station #2.
I was only disappointed with one of the players that I met at TwinsFest, and that was Jon Rauch. I was all excited to get a picture with him standing next to me, since I’m 5’3″ and he’s 6’11″. I got up to him, no pleasantries from him and then when I asked him politely
if he would stand up (he was sitting on a chair), he said “I’m not
standing for anyone.” He was very short with me and very rude. I’m not
gonna lie, I like him less now than I did before TwinsFest mainly due to the attitude he had. We paid to get pictures with him, yet I got treated poorly.
Quite honestly, I’d nominate him for the Biggest d-bag at TwinsFest award.
(Here’s my picture with the “cardboard cutout” of Jon Rauch.)
Good Sport award would go to Justin Morneau.
I asked him if he would puff up his cheeks (like he does when batting)
with Katie’s 8 year old nephew, and he did it, just before the picture.
Justin and I…can’t tell we were both laughing before this picture, huh?
Mr. Morneau and his usual smirk of a smile…
Nicest newcomer goes to JJ Hardy. He was very sociable to everyone one, even gave hugs to several girls. Plus he was very nice eye candy.
Me and JJ Hardy
Quietest player goes to Carl Pavano. He was nice, just very quiet and seemed like he felt a little out of place in the photo line (and a little uncomfortable).
Myself with Carl
Nicest non-new Twins Player: Kevin Slowey.
I already knew he was a very nice guy, but he was very tolerable of the
crazy girl by me, and then was willing to take pictures with fans after
his autograph session was over (Brendan Harris only stuck around for about 2 pictures before bolting out of there)
Kevin posing for pictures.
Myself with Kevin Slowey
Here are a couple other TwinsFest pictures for everyone:
Jason Kubel and Matt Guerrier
The Justin photo line before us…
The line for Justin photos after us…
Joe Mauer is in there somewhere…
The crowd at TwinsFest on Saturday from the stands by the KSTP AM 1500 booth.
Only 70 days until Home Opener now (and counting!)…21 days until Pitchers and Catchers report for Spring Training.
Also, February 12th is going to be Nick Punto Day. For more information about that go here: Nick Punto Day.
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