BG, I feel your pain...deep white hot from the inside out.

It looks like the ChiSox are having their collective character built by the M's, so maybe all's well that ends well. The great thing about AL baseball this April is that the dominant teams seem to be the Twins, WhiteSox, Jays, and O's. I hope that holds up for the season. It's refreshing. Maybe by mid-August a team winning 2/3 of it's games won't be viewed by the myopic national media as the team that played the Yankees the day after the Yankees played the RedSox.

BG, you never cease to make me smile. I'm in dire need of smiles this weekend too. We put our dog of 18 years down (I'm 17 so I grew up with her), and it's been REALLY tough. So, BG, thanks for the smiles and the laughs despite the pain of events in my life and the suckiness of the Twins (sometimes). =)

No jinxing please.

Painful though the loss was, at least it was a beautiful pitching duel. And Mays seems to have his stuff back. Thank God.

(oh, and the O's swept the Yanks. yay!)

I am so sorry Twinsfan. I understand the loss completely, because I was the exact same age, with a cat the same age as your dog, when aforementioned cat Gretchen decided to commit suicide by car tire. It's too bad the Twinkies couldn't cheer you up. Would a sweep of the BitchSox tomorrow help? I know it always makes my day a little brighter.

Mays looked great out there today, but that didn't stop the trauma associated with bad fielding. BG's insightful glimpse into J. Ro's inner demons was very enlightening. Perhaps an enterprising and scientifically minded Batling could look into developing an antidote for The Incredible Sulk, or maybe a laser targeting system designed for infielder's gloves.

But when all is said and done we took 2 of 3, and that ain't bad.

ah... the summation of the games that makes us cry. I have faith in my boys but sometimes my heart just sinks.

But I got my own little Morale booster going on right now that I hope by relating the tale you can share in the uplift.

Outside, on the grass, the little neighbor girls are playing baseball... all under 10, it is something to behold when they start shouting "it's the MN Twins vs Boston Red Sox!"... "No, No, the Chicago Cubs in Wrigley Field!!" "No, I want to be at home so you are all cheering for me"

"Ok Ok, MN Twins vs the Boston Red Sox.. starting pitcher, Belinda Higgins.."

ahh... the dreams of little girls on a gorgeous Sunday afternoon that entail starting pitching for the home team against the Red Sox.

(one of them knows the rules a little too well for an under 10 yo... she's freaking me out as she keeps coaching batters and yelling "strike!" Apparently she has appointed herself the umpire.)

Ahhh the joys of Spring. Even though the twins lost the third game against Cleveland and Captain Cheeseburger (i love that), Ichiro had a little bat-girlesque talk of his own with his mariners, and in his very broken english, he talked them into beating the Bitch Sox, so we're still tied for first.

Althought the white-hot flames in hell may be hot, i don't think they're as hot as the flames coming out of Mr. Stienbrenners head right now. Yankees (4-8)? Who saw that coming!? He said something about "they're not playing like yankees". They sure as hell aren't playing like twins... but who can expect them to, when the whole team is made up of Me's and I's? Personally, *I* think they should lose every game the rest of the year, just to see George fire every damned one of them.... that would be funny.

Bring on the BitchSox! we aint afraid!

I had the impression Mr. Steinbrenner is all wrapped up in his pony and wouldn't have his mind back on the Whys until mid-May. Guess he had just enough time for a rant before his daily combing of Bellamy Road.

Batgirl--everytime you call J.C. "J.Ro", I have to read it a couple of times to figure out you're talking about Romero and not J. RoA. Personally, I don't think it's a good idea to call J.C. a name so similar to the suckfest that was J. Roa. It might not matter, but then again, it might, so why take the chance?

For the record, there's a very good reason the Yankees aren't playing like the Yankees.

The Orioles (courtesy of B-Rob, Sammy, and Miguel the Awesome) have given them 5 of their 8 losses.

I'm sure once they get of out this series, there's plenty of teams for the Yankees to beat. Like Detroit. And Tampa Bay. And the BitchSox (both the White and Red variety). And the numbers will rebound, and Big George will stop smouldering from atop his mountain. As soon as they don't have to play the O's any more.

Because it's very clear that, at this stage of the proceedings, the Orioles can whip the Yankee's entitled little butts.

And now, back to your regularly scheduled Twins worship :)

If you guys didn't notice, J.C. wouldn't have even got the chance to hit Haffner if Cuddy had done his job and went to first base like he should have with two outs!!

Check the game thread. We noticed.

I hate it when the Twins squander an outstanding pitching performance. The only thing that saved the day was the White Sox's loss and Batgirl's wickedly funny recap. Thanks Batgirl for lifting me out of the depression that fell upon me after Big Thighs' poor performance today.

Why does Captain Cheeseburger wear a uniform that looks more like an NBA warm-up suit than a baseball uniform?

I miss the old days at the old nearly empty Cleveland Municipal Stadium where there would be that one guy beating a big drum in the outfield.

The echo just seemed to go on forever.

Squiddle,

The guy with the drum is John Adams, and he has been beating that drum at every home game for 31 straight years. And the drums echo is just as permissive in a near-empty Jacob's field as it was at old Cleveland Stadium.

But I still prefer either of those parks to a damn dome :-)

Cuddyer probably should have thrown to 1st base instead of going for the short out, but I think Punto also should have caught that ball. And J.C. should be sitting down bitches instead of walking a batter to load the bases and following up by plunking Hafner on the shoulder to bring in the Losing Run. Oh, well.

Beege, Torii wants me to tell you that every funkateer knows C.C. stands for nothing but "Chocolate City." Are you up with the down stroke?

Can we replace him with Jesse Crain yet? How many times will the fact that he is LEFT HANDED going to grant him a pass?

I know it's only the first time he did it this season but it was so painful and so... so... EXPECTED of him.

*sigh*

JC, JC, JC.

Frightwig,

You goin' to George Clinton next month at the Quest?

Your's in fries goin' with that shake, RD

T-Bird,
Joa was not that bad. I remember a certain perfect 5 or 6 innings against Oakland last summer, in that 18-inning ordael where TJ Mulholland was sent in to be the sacrificial loser. (i think he had a start 8 hours later). I liked Roa a lot for being "Mop-up guy" last summer, a role that My even more preferred Mulholland seems to have this year.

Go Roa! Go Mulholland! Huzzah!

BTW, i was never happy with the way we let Roa hang in the postseason last year.

As a completely random side note, has anyone noticed that Travis Hafner resembles Shrek? I can't help but yell, "SHREK!" whenever he comes up to bat...

Captain Cheeseburger, not to be confused with Johnny "Captain Caveman" Damon.

RD: In addition to the must see Funk Fest that is George Clinton @ the Quest, make sure to be at the Ted Mann Hall next weekend to take in the one and only Ornette Coleman!! And it does not conflict with a home team game @ HHH either.

I'll take two out of three at Cleveland. Win the series should be the battle cry, just like last year, and we've got a big one coming up. Two out of three at Chicago would make me a happy man.

These no-hit, less-than-stellar-defense, middle-infield, utility men have got me down. I know that they wanted to establish Cuddyer as they permanent 3B for the season, but I'd still like to see them try to work towards the Tiffee/3B, Cuddyer/2B solution. Neither Rivas nor Castro nor Punto does anything for me.

All in all a good start to the season though. Can't bitch too much about a six game winning streak. Now 2 of 3 at Chicago!

Since we only play 2 in Chicago, it'll have to be 2 of 2.

Humm, you're right. And I checked it on ESPN right before writing that post (so I could plan my week, you know).

Gee... lots of "fat" comments in the round up today.. makes me wonder what Boomer Wells is up to at this very minute. Well, besides enjoying watching the Yankees reside in last place with TB!

Mom, Wee Sister, and I were all right there with you, Batgirl.

It seems that J.Ro has a certain number of batters he can face each inning. If for some reason he goes over that number, they must get on-base. At least that's my non-scientific theory of the moment.

Painful as it was, perhaps it's best JC didn't prolong the agony, as we did need another run to win it. Cuddy made a snap decision and went to second with an unfamiliar Nicky there. No doubt he'd go to first if he could do it over again. Now, JC is another matter. He has to pick his teamate up, and had two chances and failed. It'll be interesting to see how he comes back in his next appearance, as he really wasn't sucking to bad this year. Hopefully he'll take a "forget it" pill.

We couldn't hear the drum on Saturday either but even without it, even my 3 year old decided it was a better place than our dear old dome. I convinced her to sit and watch a little of the game with me yesterday and during that time I asked her if she wanted to come to the game with me on Wednesday night. I thought you would like her response:

She said sure but “let’s go to that place, not the plastic place we went to yesterday”. She meant Thursday but when you’re 3 the days kind of meld together.

I had to break the bad news that our only option here is to watch games in the “plastic place” but assured her they would still have hotdogs and cotton candy. She decided we could go was a little upset that we didn’t have a nice outdoor park like Cleveland. I had no explanation for her. Hopefully we get one before she loses her interest in baseball.

SDave

PS. At least she didn't see J. Ro plunk Hafner. Its hard enough keeping her interested in the team at this age. Imagine what that would do to her.

Anybody else notice that Maysie had the reflexes of a Batkitty out on the field. He was almost the best fielder in the game on Sunday.

J.Ro, poor poor J.Ro, I'm really sorry that I called you a $%*@& and a %*@&@# and a %*&@&$ yesterday. I'm sorry, I know that you're a sensitive soul and I was out of line.

Now most of the time I agree with Gardy, I think even though he has some wacky ideas when it comes to the line-up that generally he knows what's best, however when you're facing CC Sabathia, why is Corky f-in Miller in there? Corky couldn't hit a ball if it were on a T lately and dang it I realize Joe needs a day off so that the SRK is good to go, but what about Redmond? I would have been a much happier girl if Redmond was in.

The Gassanator was most excellent on Saturday, I look forward to many more outings such as that. It just goes to show you don't need to hurl the ball 100 mph to be a good pitcher.

All in all 2 out of 3 ain't bad.

I think if CC is "captain cheesburger" then JC Romero is going to be "Just Choked." Go tribe!

i might have even giggled a bit had that last comment not been from a cleveland fan.... instead, i felt a slight bit of pain, and even more resentment of that damned team.... i've hated them ever since Major League came out... now i hate them that much more.

the will, a co-worker of mine dubbed J.C. "Just Crappy" last season. I think it's a tad harsh, but deserved at least for yesterday.

SDave, you are a wise man. You saved yourself the bill for a lot of expensive therapy down the road.

Of all the silly-ass ways to lose a game. I think I heard BatGirl's screams from St. Louis Park. Or, maybe that was me.

RD, I probably won't get out for George Clinton this time, but I'd really like to see that Ornette Coleman concert if I can make it.

Sam, do you know what kind of band Ornette will have with him?

Regarding Ornette Coleman: he'll be joined by
Denardo Coleman, drums; Greg Cohen, bass; and
Tony Falanga, bass.

I thought that sounded like you yesterday TwinsGoddess!

Ornette + two basses, drums. Innerestin'.