I don't know whether to feel like a loser because I don't understand any of the Star Wars references, or if I should feel exactly the opposite because I don't understand the Star Wars references. :-)

Is that Tom Kelly in the picture???

Sure looks like TK.

I bet TK-da's speech patterns would be a little more...biting. None of that backward sentence structure crap.

Also, the Doctor just looks plain odd in the Jedi Mullet...

But Darth Seligous is just as I always pictured him LOL

bravo, Goober! JoHan Solo. nice.

The Force was indeed with our boys today.

Actually, they were just lucky, lucky bastards. Every single one of them should send a fruit basket to Junior Speevy (who looks so forlorn that I kind of felt bad for him).

BTW, if Johan keeps up at this pace, he'll strike out 291 on the season. At that's if he keeps up at this relatively slow pace (he's been striking out 7-8 a game, when we know he can be striking out more than 10 every time). It'll be fun to record watch on that one...

TK is a fitting yoda, and I'm still giggling over Corey Wan Kenoski. A great installment!!

JoHan Solo - this SW reference tops all. Love it!

Great re-cap, Goober! I'm not a star wars geek (never watched the movies--think I would like it if I had), but I still picked up enough references that this worked out brilliantly. :)

I am amused by the trying to create a rivalry where it doesn't exist. That's how I've always felt about this rivalry. But perhaps that's because all my friends from Wisconsin are heathens and don't care about baseball.

I agree, what rivalry. I have always been bored when the brewers are in town. Does anyone consider them a rival?

Very nice fill-in work. Sort of like a certain middle infielder.

I also am very impressed with "JoHan Solo." Nicely done. And may the fundamentals be with you all, too.

I have to interject a plug: I went to "Take Me Out" at the Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago this weekend. It was the last weekend of the run here, but what a great play. If you like both theatre and baseball, you'll love this. (Don't bring Grandma or the kiddies, though.) Best line: "And baseball is better than Democracy--or at least than Democracy as it's practiced in this country--because unlike Democracy, baseball acknowledges loss. While conservatives tell you, leave things alone and no one will lose, and liberals tell you, interfere a lot and no one will lose, baseball says: someone will lose. Not only says it -- but insists upon it! So that baseball achieves the tragic vision that Democracy evades. . . Democracy is lovely, but baseball's more mature."

-- "and was arguing about the time value of money "

How many times have I been caught in that trap!

The Brewers were a bigger rival when they were in the AL (and didn't have there own version of the great time of sucking going on).

I don't think it's much of a rivalry either, but it is kind of fun when the Brewers' come to town. I'm also looking forward to the trip down to Milwacky at the end of June. It'll be nice to see some Twins baseball outside that I don't have to travel too far to see. It's nice to mix it up a bit, however I think the whole Giants/Padres interleague series will be rather boring.

I only felt a little bad for Spivey.. I saw his quotes after the game where he just said it was a horrible day and they sucked on the field and I almost got a little mad.

There is a certain kind of ego that when he had a bad play at the end of the game, he just kind of attaches it to the whole team. I just about yelled, "speak for yourself!" at my computer. I couldn't believe I felt like defending the Brewers but there you go.

To set the record straight, they fielded admirably yesterday. There were many occasions when I sat there and said DAMN, they could have missed that and I would have been happy. How many line drives do they have to nab to our surprise before we admit that they played well!?

Yesterday's game was so amazing because BOTH teams played the Moral highground and it was great small ball. After this series, I have to say that I will look forward to games against the Brewers a lot more - not because they are division rivals or something but because both teams seem to have the same basic understanding of good ball. That was also very unexpected.

Jim Souhan has a great article in the Strb about yesterday's game. It even has some Star Wars references! Click my name for the link.

The Brewers are just no kind of rivals anymore. Back when we were in the same division, if I remember (I was rather young then), it was a decentish rivalry. If nothing else, we could always struggle to see who could avoid last place.
I'm looking forward to our visit to Milwuakee, though. I love to watch Johan bat....

At least Twins-Brewers has soem logical geographic rivalry potential. Moreso than Seattle v. San Diego or Detroit v. Arizona (?!?). And what's up with Baltimore not going toe to toe with the Nats?

And for what it is worth, Ep III was dynamite. On par with Ep IV, better than Ep VI, and far superior to Eps I and II. It will take a second (and perhaps third) viewing to determine if it will rank as the second or third best of the films (Ep V is the hands-down best).

For us Minnesotans living in Wisconsin, especially near Green Bay, it's pretty important to win these games (so many Vikings losses...)

Oh, and the Brewers and Twins were never in the same division. Milwaukee was in the East, Minnesota in the West.

Granted, this was before the "unbalanced" schedule, meaning that each team played every other team in the entire league roughly the same number of times (two home series, two road series). Unlike today when the Yankees, for example, only make one trip to the Dome and the Twins only get to the Bronx once. But Twins vs. Tigers happens something like 63 times.

I'm with you double-a. I hate the way they schedule right now.. This is the third season in a row that we haven't played the Cubs at all I think. Drives me crazy. We play the Indians close to 20 times I think - WHY!?!?!?!?!

I have to say I love Interleague play. If we are going to have 160+ games on a calendar, let's get them a bit more spread out shall we?!?!?

Ahem.

Me, the Brewers have has the time of great sucking going on since the late 80's. The Brewers will always have the great sucking time going on.

That is because they were owned by Bud Selig.

Off-subject here, and I really should have written about it on Saturday, but I was stuck with gerbil-powered dial-up. I was watching the Cubs/Bitch Sox game on Fox Saturday afternoon. The announcers couldn't stop talking about Ozzie and his "Smart ball" or as we know it, small ball. They talked about him like he was some great genius who invented the concept. The whole time, I'm sitting there fuming, because the Twins have been quietly doing this for years. It all made me so mad I had to shut off the game.

Didn't you know? After Torre invented the moon, Guillen hung the stars.

Don't listen to Fox announcers, you'll only put your fist through a wall.

The French missionaries and explorers began visiting Milwaukee in the late 16th century.
Milwaukee is actually pronounced "mill-e-wah-que" which is Algonquin for "the good land." It is the first city with three socialist mayors.

-paraphrased from Alice Cooper in "Wayne's World" (my adult onset ADHD kicks in whenever I hear the word "Milwaukee")

"Oh, and the Brewers and Twins were never in the same division. Milwaukee was in the East, Minnesota in the West."

Back when there were two divisions, yes, you're right. For a brief time (1994-1997), they were in the AL Central with us. You may have blocked those years out; I certainly did.
I just remember being able to say "well, at least the Brewers are doing worse than we are" as consolation during really bad times for the Twins. Unfortunately, they were often ahead of us.

I tuned into Baseball Tonight and Sportscenter last night expecting to get some decent highlights. Boy, did they fail to capture the drama that game turned out to have.

Most depressing, L-Rod's beauty of a DP went unnoticed. Though Shannon's homer and catch in the 10th/11th? made the top plays on both.

ndtf...the difference is Ozzie called it something different. So if you invent a new word, you get the credit.

ndtf, I'm reading the Souhan article:

'During The Daily Show with Ron Gardenhire -- Gardy's postgame comedic monologue -- he grinned and said, "We felt like we snuck one in. And sneakin' is good."'

I like that quote. I like that alot.

Ok... I think we should start calling it "Twins Ball," because the Twins aren't receiving nearly enough credit for winning 3 consecutive division titles with small ball, smart ball, Twins ball, whatever you want to call it. Sorry for the rant, I just believe we should be giving credit where credit's due. Ozzie didn't invent small ball, he just picked up the concept and ran with it.

I enjoy the schedule as it is.
The Brewers are our rival because Selig tried to contract us and Molitor played for them. Also, Packers fans are often also Brewers fans.

But the thing with these interleague rivalries is that very few of them are real, because these teams used to never play each other.

Baltimore played Philly and Washington played Toronto because the schedule was made before the teams were moved. I assume BAL-WAS will be the rivalry next year.

I would pair DET with PIT and PHI with TOR ('93 series).

SEA with Choice of COL, SD, or AZ.

There is a problem with interleague because the AL has two fewer teams, so there will always be some teams with fewer interleague games.

I like all the interleague together in the secound quarter of games, because it's not too early, and not so late that it mucks up races.

I like the unbalanced schedule, because it's fun to get to see teams a lot and really know them and build rivalries, and win divisions. Two series each other team sounds about right.

I like the rotating nature of interleague, because you don't get to see each team each year, but will get to see each about every 3 years.

The Brewers are now going through the time of NL sucking (no DH). They used to be going through AL sucking, but they were more fun to watch when they were Harvey's Wallbangers.

And can we work on a better nickname for Rodriguez? Is it just me (isn't it always???) or is the X-Rod thing getting trite?

Mondays . . .

I agree with the X-Rod thing. I was liking: "Rook" Even though he's been in the minors for 8-years.

I'm not to good at this :)

Couple things I noted while doing my daily baseball reading:

Gardy has already been issued a warning that if any scuffles happen he's out for 5 games. What a crock, the Tribe is always the one that provokes, yet Gardy get's the warning.

El Duque is out on the DL and will miss 2 starts. I'm hoping that turns into 2 losses.

Seems pairing up JM-squared for appearances is the thing to do, they'll be at the Best Buy in Maple Grove on June 13.

Random thoughts:

I don't like interleague play. Essentially it was invented so that the Yankees can play the Mets, the Cubs can play the White Sox, and the Giants can play the Athletics, and the rest of us just have to suffer. Arizona vs. Detroit? What a waste of everybody's time.

I was at Saturday night's game and alas, it broke Bella's and my streak of (regular season) Twins wins at the Dome. While I don't know exactly how long the streak was, it went back at least a couple of seasons. That game sucked so bad I haven't even had the heart to go back and read the game thread. But there was a fun moment after the game was over and they had Luis Rodriguez go out and field high infield popups in order to get used to the lights. Just kind of a fun inside look.

And finally, can I just ask, what the heck do the Twins pay Scott Ulger to do? We have a pitching coach who, after our ace pitcher struggles a bit, goes and looks at the video and spots something and works with him and then the pitcher goes out and throws a whale of a game and you say, wow, that's what you want your coaches to be doing. But our batters continue to flail and struggle and look really bad and sure, I know they are adults and all that and should know better by now but geez, don't you think somebody should do something to try to help?

hey, CB, I think Spivey was only referring to himself. my name links the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel write-up, and the impression I get from that is he's just mad at himself.

The 'Dome always fills up with Cheds when the Brewers come to town. So maybe it's not a rivalry as such, but still a great way to sell some tickets.

Mary Mallon = "Typhoid" Mary
Scott Ulger = "Ass-Bat" Scott

The dude is your high school shop teacher who was missing a finger.

Word Smith, I've been yeling the same thing about Ullger for a while now. Torii and Jacque have some kind of viral disease that causes them to swing at everything, and now they've infected Justin and, to a lesser degree, Mauer. when will the madness end?! Ullger needs to do something NOW.

Even though I haven't seen any of the SW movies, that was very funny. Especially JoHan Solo.

Has anyone else noticed that Lew seems to be growing somekind of beard again? Batgirl needs to go on another crusade against goatees.

I've been waiting for Lew to do some mid-game shaving again. I guess I won't criticize his facial hair choices too much, as long as he keeps hitting like he did yesterday!

I agree Hooligan...it's BS that Gardy always gets the brunt of the warnings.

I bet the first inside pitch or hit TWINS batter will be a warning to both benches.

If we hit a guy, Gardy gets autobooted. Just watch.

It always seems like the teams get to play dirty against us, and we get nothing.

That was inspired, Goober. My favorite line?

"Darth Seligous -- an evil Sith Lord with a ballpark financing plan so powerful that it could destroy an entire city."

Too funny.

Belle,

Lew is tired of being Luke Fordwalker, and now wants ot be Lewbacca

Ok, someone help me..is this right
L-Rod has been in the minors for 8 years, but he is only 24. So he was up when he was 16?

kaufumbly...I would guess he was hitting coach when Ortiz was still with us.

Makes you wonder what the HECK we were missing with that guy.

Mic -
Seems a lot of those Latin American guys get signed when they are mere babies.

Wasn't there confusion for awhile regarding the real age of the Original Luis R?

Me.. I am sorry to tell you this but try as he might to grow the facial hair, Lew would still only faintly resemble a cute little Ewok - there is no Wookie in his future.

Now OMM on the other hand, I think has significant potential to pull off that role.

I seriously think all they guys pick a date to "grow facial hair" maybe its a competition..haha, Cuddy, Doc, and Leewwww were all sporting the sprout of hairs yesterday. Well Cuddy can actually pull it off:)

Torhu, he's been our batting coach since 1998. ... time for a new batting coach?

In regards to facial hair, I also noticed yesterday that Jesse Crain had trimmed his chin pubes a little bit so it looked a little less like a dead animal hanging off his chin.

But Lewok doesn't sound nearly as cool as Lewbacca.

And this way he can rip the arms off of Protocol Droid Shannon Stewart when he beats him at chess.

(Oh, I sooooo just failed the nerd test)

Coco Crisp on his injured thumb: "Getting hot, feeling good and the year's coming about that I can possibly support my family, and then something like this happens."

is this a Sprewell comment, or am I missing something? support his family on his hundreds of thousands (or millions?) of dollars a year? what a hardship for him.

On Coco Crisp, ESPN says he makes something like $364 K a year.

On Luis Rodriguez-- it turns out he's _smaller_ than Little Nicky Punto. The same height, and 12 pounds lighter. There's got to be a nickname in there _somewhere_, right? (And I don't mean "Lil' Rod.")

Kafumbly,

$364,900 a year doesn't go near as far as it used to. Have you seen the price of gas?

'Liller Nicky Punto

Poor CoCo Crisp... Perhaps we should have a food drive for him? I think I have a box or two of Hamburger Helper he can have.

And someone smaller than LNP? Wow... Lil' Luis?

I've got some EZ-Mac in the kitchen I can donate, ndtf. I'd love to be able to help out those less fortunate.

Tonight I'm going grocery shopping, so maybe I'll pick up some Ramen for Coco. At 14 cents a package, you can't beat it!

Me, I would just like to point out that $364,000 a year is more than 10 times what I make... *sigh*

Somehow I think his family is well supported, but no one likes to be sitting on their butt when they actually enjoy their job.

For those of you with a little extra time on their hands, read this blurb on our favorite mistress of sass:

http://www.rakemag.com/angle/detail.asp?catID=40&itemID=20777

extra time? what are you implying??

Thats an awesome article. Glad they recognized her.

Cool article. All hail our Bat Queen. We are mere worker bats.

Rook the Tiny.

I am sooooo jealous of BG now....

*reads article* She didn't tell us she met the boys! How awesome!

I'd be jealous if she had her stinger in Cuddy... LOL

Can't believe Gardy had a team screening of "Oh Five." Would love to have been a batling on the wall at that little event. I laughed till I cried when I watched it, so I can only imagine how they reacted.

Batlings with time on their hands? No! Impossible!!

wow, great article!

OH MY GOD!!! Until now, I had the mental image of our boys reading the page in the category of "dreamlike fantasy". DAMN...

*stammer*

Dudes... I bet they read the game threads... *blink*

That is just so cooooool! I can totally see her getting wrapped up in a big Gardy bear hug.

If they read game threads...what do you think Hunter's thinking right now?

My game-thread nose is clean, thank goodness. I haven't made one non-baseball comment about the gorgeous hunk of manliness that is Michael Cuddyer.

Until now. LOL

(I'm safe, though. I'm all the way in New York City! No one can touch me!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA)

Probably something very similar to what Cuddy was probably thinking in April!

holy cats... er bats! think this will help the boyfriend t-shirts cause?

awesome!

Torhu, he's thinking "Gosh, that Laurie girl is a sweetheart!! Look how she takes up for me when everyone else is being so mean!!" ;-)

(My last comment was in response to Torhu wondering what Torii was thinking)

man.. I HOPE it helps the t-shirt situation! I do hope that our fearless leader made her plug in the clubhouse.

Although I think at least one or two of our guys are the type that would actually blush and stammer in that conversation - what I wouldn't pay to see that.

I was in an elevator with a bunch of them once. But I didn't let on that I recognized them.

Wow. How many of us can say their very presence in a room inspired Torii Hunter to go "batshit"?

(The best I can do is to say that Glenallen Hill, late of the Giants, Yanks, and Cubs, was moderately pleased when I showed up at his house to help him with his PowerBook -- again.)

...Okay, Peter Gammons used to be my buddy. But now he's trying to say CHW isn't a homerun team.

Last night they had three runs, all off solo shots. A majority of their games came down who hit more.

Again, more love for Ozzie. Here's my prediction, regardless of how Twins/Sox finish, Ozzie WILL get Manager of the year. Gardy could take the Twins to number one in the AL, and they'll ignore him once again to give it to a guy who was a big thing in one year.

Didn't Tony Pena get it two years ago? Look where he's at now, and where his team was the last three years.

Aw, poor Tony. Let's let him be.

I don't think my presence has ever inspired anyone to go "batshit." Although I'd like to think a few of the Twins players would have gone batshit if they had known I was at a game. Hey, I can dream, can't I?

She meets the team, then leaves for France without giving us a detailed report??!!

This is not like Batgirl. Not at all.

Now I'm worried. Is she really in France?

Has she been kidnapped by insanely jealous Bitch Sox fans who want her for their own evil blogging purposes? Did Carlos Lee make a deal to grab her while he was in town and drop her off in Chicago?

And when did this happen? Before or after the whole "boyfriend t-shirt" issues came to light??!!
Maybe she is really going on the road trip with our guys, to play video games with Lew and work out the details so we can have our shirts back??

I'm psyched because today I bought myself one of those XM MYFi portable satellite radios (the one in those "why can't we be friends?" commercials). I made this purchase solely to be able to follow Twins games when I'm at Mets games or otherwise not in front of the TV. You're a Twins fan in NY, ya gotta do what ya gotta do!

what is BG doing in france? i tried to dig through the archives, but i must have missed it. can someone point me in the right direction?

say rah! loves france almost as much as she loves her twins.

I'm not at all surprised that they know who she is, she's BATGIRL for crying out loud. How can one not gush over her?!

I am excited they read it, because even though we don't necessarily have all the mechanical talk,(which I personally think they get bombarded with enough anyway), they get lots of sass.

Everyone needs some sass in their life, especially our boys.

Laurie-
How much does something like that cost? I'm guessing it's out of my price range, since I make significantly less than Coco Crisp, but the device intrigues me... Not that I'd use it to follow the Twins, that's why there's an AM dial on my radio, but the radio stations around here don't always fit my taste in music.

Say Rah-

http://www.bat-girl.com/archives/000885.php

NDTF: I bought mine used for $215. New it's $300, then $12.95 a month. I already have XM in my home, so I will pay $6.99 a month for this one as my second radio.

Wow...watching Fantasy Baseball talk on ESPNews. They just called Javier Vazquez's Strikeout/walk ratio "Johanesque."

I feel silghtly better now.

Thanks for the info. Looks like I'll have to keep listening to the local stations for a few years!

Hahaha. I also pay $42 a month to watch the Twins on TV here. And as a self-employed writer, I also don't exactly rival Coco's spending power! LOL

well, I just hope Juan Rincon looks back on our Florida vacation with fondness.

I'm speechles. A great (if wonderfully nerdy) write up, BG hangin' with the Twins, and... well, I guess this is where I'm speechless. Yay team.

Tumbleweed-
Will you be helping LNP's thumb heal as well?

Wonderful article on Batgirl's visit to the dome. OF COURSE the Twins love Batgirl. Doesn't everyone? (Okay -- there may be some players in other clubhouses who aren't on the bandwagon, but really. Who needs Captain Cheeseburger's acolades anyway?)

Tumbleweed is going to eat Captain Cheeseburger for lunch. that home run of his won't help him escape my cat's digestive system.

ndtf, I'm already on it. I'd give you a thumbs up, but... alas, I have no thumbs. plus, it would be rude of me, considering LNP's thumb ordeal.

Tumbleweed-
Completely understandable. I'm sure you get as warm a reception when you go into the clubhouse as BG does!

dude, you have no idea. belly rubs and scratches behind the ears galore. :)

naptime with Jesse Crain is the best.

awesome article but I hope this doesn't change Batgirl -- maybe it's just the Minnesotan in me, but can you still be sassy to/about guys who are reading your page? Don't go changin, BG!

Hey, stop Picking on Crisp.
He meant, he was having a payoff season, the one that will get him the million dollar deal and so his family can be fed for life. If you're the only income-earner (even if you're not) in your household, you've got to be frustrated to be disabled right before a big promotion.

Cocoa Crisp this season had been worth more to the Indians than he was getting paid. Spree's problem was that he wasn't worth what he's getting paid, and still wanted more.

I'm sure Mr. Crisp is hoping he can become a big enough name to get his own cereal. (Flutie had Flutie Flakes, anyone got an idea what Coco's cereal could be called?)

Wow, I bet Gardy, Torii & co. totally rocked at "Name That Butt."

BTW, I saw Terry Mulholland in the Skyways right after we bought his contract last year, before he ever pitched to us. I was gonna say hi, but i couldn't catch up to him.

"Don't go changin, BG!"
I'm certain she won't, mnminx.

'Has she been kidnapped by insanely jealous Bitch Sox fans who want her for their own evil blogging purposes?"
Thanks for the great idea, bubblemint. We could grab BG, send her to a reeducation camp where she would have to watch Hawk and DJ over and over.

No, I wouldn't want that to happen. I love reading the stylings of BG and the batlings, even if I am a Bi*** Sox fanatic.

A toast to BG. Prost!

I wonder what LNP thinks about being eaten on a semi-regular basis. Hopefully someone told Lil' Luis to watch out for this. He's just a rookie, I'd hate to see him get eaten so soon!

BTW, I mentioned this on the In Case You Missed It thread, but I'll mention it here too: The Twins website has pics of Lew, LeRoy and VP at the book signing at Barnes & Noble. Scroll down to the photo gallery.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/bbtn/index

bb2n is on the lookout for Star Wars character parallels in baseball... Me, here's your chance to push for Lewbacca.

Can't get enough Batgirl?
Try:
http://www.goatriders.org/archives/2005/05/terry_ryan_my_g.html

Catching up:

Interleague play: I hated it when it debuted but it has grown on me considerably. I get to see a lot of teams (e.g., the Cubbies!) that I wouldn't normally have a chance to see, and admittedly interleague puts more fans in the seats almost everywhere, which is good for all of baseball. I mean, of course "rivalry weekends" aren't appropriately named for everyone, but in the middle of May and June, would you rather see the Angels again or someone you don't get to see, like the Giants (Bonds, back in the day) or Cubs or Mets at the Dome? For me, mixing it up a bit is nice...

Coco Crisp on his injured thumb: "Getting hot, feeling good and the year's coming about that I can possibly support my family, and then something like this happens."

I do not believe this is a Sprewell comment. Spree was making the insinuation that the offer to re-sign with the team, which stood at millions of dollars, was not enough to feed his family. Coco (in my opinion) is saying something else. Coco (yes I like typing that) is saying that this year he had a chance to make an impact such that his "market value" would be increased. By showing people what he could do, he could then re-sign in the offseason at true market value, instead of a deflated market price due to the fact that a) he is injured; b) missed a bunch of games; and c) would still be considered a "wild card" (i.e., "sure, he played a bunch of games and did ok, but can he contribute for a whole season?"). I am usually hard enough on millionaires bitching about their salaries (for playing a game, no less) but in this case, I believe that Coco was merely frustrated at not having the opportunity to show the world (and the MLB owners) what he is "worth." To me, it would be analogous to a situation in the "real world" where you have an opportunity to shine on a project and you get sick. It sucks to be sick, but you know that you were going to nail the project and get that promotion because you showed the boss what you could do. Now you're stuck in bed for three days and Ed from Marketing is assigned the project... I am getting frustrated just thinking about it :)

Finally, while I have always assumed that the Twins players knew about this site (and probably read it from time to time), I am glad that BG knows that her contribution is appreciated by the payers, as well as this myriad of fans. Kudos, BG. As for the rest of us, it opens up a series of questions (as least for me) like:

1) do they just skip over my posts or do they read through?
2) if they read through, do they think "what a putz?"
3) when i relay something that happened (like the garrett anderson no-ball-to-my-neice thing -- you all need to see these pictures by the way) does one of them call up anderson and say "hey, what gives?"
4) does jacque jones remember when he was a rookie and we were heckling him in yankee stadium with a bunch of kids that were screaming "jock-strap jones" and giggling?
5) will BG get the permission she needs to continue selling merchandise with twins players' names on them?

for the answers to these questions, tune in tomorrow.... same bat-time.... same bat-channel! (sorry, couldn't resist).

YankeeFan