Big Win for the Twins

Kyle Gibson, 25, made his major league debut for the Twins yesterday, winning 6-2....mostly because I was at the game.

We had a great view from the Metropolitan Club, but after the 5th inning, we needed to get together with the hoi polloi, so we retunred to the main concourse and made short work of our polish sausage (or bratwurst) with onions, mustard and sauerkraut. 

A beautiful day for baseball, so different to watch it outside again, instead of indoors at the funky Trop.

My quest for a Rod Carew jersey was fruitless, when I discovered that the authentic style jersey they had at the shop was a throwback to the years the Twins wore the pullover jersey with the V-neck.  Sigh.  I wanted a button up.

Will have to continue the quest. 

RAYS IN PLAYOFFS AS RED SOX COLLAPSE!

Trailing the Red Sox by 9 games on Labor Day, the Rays complete and unbelievable September and celebrate.

Behind the Yankees by 7-0 in a do or die game, Rays fans cheered near midnight when they tied up the game in the 12th inning...they got the word that the Red Sox, once again, stunk up the joint and lost to the Orioles. Rays fans and then watched and celebrated as Evan Longoria hit a home run to beat the mighty Yanks.

The Red Sox, one of the most expensive teams ever assembled, are the laughingstock of baseball.

Rays get a chance to revenge themselves against the Texas Rangers, who defeated them last year in the playoffs.

YAY!!

Tribute to Harmon Killebrew

My Dad was a fierce baseball fan. He had two jobs (he also built our house single-handedly during the years of 1958-1960) plus an acre of law in Minnesota's summers, and a long driveway to plow in the winters. Most times, he couldn't see the Twins on TV, but he always had the game on the radio.

Our backyard was the site of sometimes 2-3 softball games every day in the summers. All of us fought to be Harmon Killebrew, because naturally, we had to be one of our heroes in our sandlot games. Harmon Killebrew, quiet, talented, reliable, the very embodiment of Midwestern values, was our hero.

It was with great regret that I learned of his passing today.

Rest in peace, Harmon.

If It's Spring, We Got the Yankees

I'm usually moaning about all the traffic and snowbirds here for spring training, a time when the Yankees move in and take over my town.

This year, it seems positive. Signs of life, looks prosperous. Very different from the Florida of the last two years. Still, home values falling, prices rising, jobs growing by inches at a time.

Saw one of these running around town today.......

Pretty unique. We've also got Phillies, Twins and the Red-Sox-Who-Absconded-With-Carl-Crawford in the area. Plus our own hometown Rays. Exciting spring ball.

Tune In Friday....The World Series Does Odd Things To Me

You know, there are a lot of great baseball movies. Somehow, at this time of year, when the series is on, I always dig out my favorite... "A League of Their Own". Oddly, the memorable song from the movie "This Used To Be My Playground" was never marketed by Madonna showing clips from the film, and the film's trailer didn't use it at all. Madonna's official video (I'm not a particular fan) is really beautiful and touching. Very restrained. Also very narcissistic.
I prefer the song in combination with the movie.

I watched it tonight and loved it all over again. For those of you who want to reminisce... here's a clever remix, where the video author captured the last moments of the movie, which shows scenes in retrospect, mixed with this lovely song. And here's a link to Madonna's official video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6Ia2Hd_IvM&feature=related

Live-blogging my sports

That's Cody Grimm scoring his first touchdown above, and the smooth profile of BJ Upton. He drove in run #3.

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Rays: Down 2-1 in the playoffs against the Texas Rangers. Game 4 in Texas is must-win.

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Bucs: Just trying to survive this year. A win against the Bengals would be big. Plus, they have T.O. and Chad Ochocinco. Those two deserve to lose.

I'm having a time switching back and forth between the almost-lost Rays and the hapless Buccaneers. Still, I'm compelled by my sports teams. And after all, I watched joyously as the Gators and the Tide lost yesterday. I'm having a run of good luck. Maybe.

At 3:12 pm, I catch the Buccaneers with a go-ahead touchdown (after a controversial call against the Bengals on the goal line), but I missed Wade strike out the Rangers with the bases loaded, thus preserving the Rays' 5-0 lead.

5 minutes later, as I'm finalizing this, the Rangers get a homer, followed by a single in the 6th. Sigh.

More later. If I'm premature, they'll both lose.

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4:25 update

.... the Bucs miraculously pull it out with a go ahead field goal after Carson Palmer throws two costly interceptions

....the Rays go into the bottom of the 9th with a three point lead. Can they hold on? The Rangers have the bottom of their order up first. At this point, only two outs to go before the series heads back to Tampa.

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TWO WINS!!!! It's Unusual

For me to have simultaneous sports successes. Guess I should have been betting. Now, if the Rays come home and lose, they are positively a post-season disaster.

On to Tuesday night at 7:30. Lets hope the real Rays show up.

As for the Bucs...well, I don't want coach Raheem Morris to be a success, because I'd like to see him gone at the end of the season. But you always get excited when your team pulls a tough one out. I had predicted the Bucs would go 6-10. At 3-1, I may have underestimated them.

Lou Checks Out

Lou Piniella was supposed to retire at the end of this season as the Cubbies' manager; to come back to Tampa (where he was born) to take care of his mom, who is very ill.

Abruptly, on Sunday, Lou checked out. Didn't finish the season. Just stopped. Abruptly. My guess is that his mom has little time left. He didn't elaborate.

It isn't the way I expected Lou to go. Frankly, I thought he might have a brain aneurysm someday on the field, mad as hell, and with no way to top his biggest meltdown. Now, I show his biggest meltdown (below) as the day that he kicked his hat around and kicked dirt on the umpire in June, 2007. The Cubbies went from a miserable 22-31 beginning to winning the division. Note the hats and the garbage that Cubbies fans rained down on the infield after Lou was ejected.

Some people argue that Lou's meltdown with the Mariners in 2002, where he did the same things and then picked up a base marker and threw it, was a superlative tantrum. He also did the same in 1990 with the Reds, without kicking sand, but throwing the base marker twice. Sigh. I couldn't find film on either of those.

I like Lou. It doesn't matter if he acts like a 5 year old some times....after all, I grew up on hockey. They all act like that. I don't think his teams perform as well as expected (he only won the World Series once as a manager, with the Redsin 1990). Still, with a 20 year career as a player...11 years and 2 World Series rings, and 18 years as a manager; he is an MLB icon. There are plenty of Lou ejections on record.

One wonders if Lou might translate his onfield antics to traffic in Tampa-St. Pete and thus, all drivers are in danger. Still and all, it is good to have him home. Sigh. Still. The Cubbies do not win the World Series. 102 years. Maybe the next coach.

Here's to Lou!!

Baseball in Minnie

Finish what you start out to do... I started the opus of what I did on my vacation, in 4 instalments, in June. So here is the final entry! At last!

Despite a number of trips to Minnesota since I left for good in 1978, none of them have ever allowed me the time to wander around Minneapolis again, where I lived the single-girl-act-like-Mary-Tyler-Moore life for 3 years after college. Going down for an overnight stay at a scrumptious Westin (very zen; with a multiple head steam shower that was to die for and a view from windows on two sides of my room), we were able to tour my old neighborhood, which, a tad ghetto-ish in the 70's is now very Tribeca. Marc, Gary's younger son lives there, and we had a great couple of chances to see him in a sports bar and and Irish put. Places where my brother an I are very comfortable.

The Twins just opened up a new stadium, next to the Target Center arena downtown. It has further brought the city to life. I loved it. Bob, you will have to go there soon! The designers even brought back the old Twins logo from the 60's for the big sign inside the park. It is the fourth picture down.

We spent Friday night having phenomenal steaks at a place called Pittsburgh Blue, and on Saturday, we got to the Farmer's Market at St. Anthony falls, just next to the new Tyrone Guthrie theater. I still haven't figured out why I didn't have any pictures of that.... oh yes, low battery on camera. We had a great time exploring and tasting fantastic coffee and organic goodies.

The game itself was slow until the Twins broke it open in the late innings and won. We celebrated at a Twins bar later, where Denise showed off her pennant of her favorite player. Later that I night, I posed with one of the multiple statues of Kirby Puckett, Twins Hall of Famer that scatter the city (Louisville has horses, Mpls has Kirby!).

Exhausted, we went back to St. Cloud, but not before Gary got in a bumper thumper with another car and we removed pieces of his front end and put them in the trunk. It was a bad note in an otherwise phenomenal vacation, and I winged off home the next day, satisfied that I'd seen all that Minnie had to offer.

Spring Training

One of the big highlights here is when the Rays play the Yankees. Yesterday, at the mini-kingdom that Tampa built for George Steinbrenner, it was 12-7 Rays. New guy Sean Rodriguez hit a homer, triple, double... and would have gone for the cycle but came out of the lineup in the 6th, disappointing the fans. In no way was it as much of a blast as the spring training brawl in 2008, below:



Today, the Red Sox come to the Rays spring home in Port Charlotte. Naturally, both games sold out!

RAYS WIN!!!!!

World Series Starts Wednesday!

I'm off to repair what's left of my fingernails, as the Rays take it down to the wire. Bye bye, Boston!

Playoff Games Are Tough for the Uninitiated

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DESPITE...


winning 10 of 18 regular season games against the Red Sox, the Rays got a "tough row to hoe" if they think that adrenaline wins playoff games. Boston took it to them at home last night, winning 2-0. Sigh. At least it wasn't a no-hitter. More tonight at 8:07 and then, (shudder) it is off to Fenway.

I'd love to see the underdog, one of the losingest franchises in the history of sport, get to the World Series.

Wouldn't you?