Article: Game Thread: Twins v Rays, 6/2 @ 7:10pm CT

[Riverbrian]

It is graduation time and graduation is on my mind. My youngest son is officially done with High School as of Tuesday and we now await the ceremony on Saturday. He slept in until noon yesterday and I assume he will do the same today. I’m typing quietly so I don’t wake him because I’m going to respect his right to do that because he’s earned it with a GPA above 4.0 while holding down a 30-plus hour a week job. When I was his age… I used to sleep in until 3PM and that was on school days. Both of my sons are better than me and I couldn’t be happier because that’s the way it’s supposed to happen.

As Twins fans… We are still waiting for graduations to occur that lead to a better class of players. Perhaps the recent call ups of Buxton and Kepler can lead to one or two around the immediate corner. Terry Ryan may be looking for experience to turn things around in the extreme short term. To me it’s pretty clear… the Twins will turn things around when the size of the graduation class increases. It’s up to those guys on the farm to graduate into better MLB players than those before them… just to spark something… anything.

Here are some things to think about:

 

1. Pomp and Circumstance – The traditional song played at graduations is just a smaller piece from a larger composition called “March No. 1 in D Major” written in 1901. I think it’s strange that a section of the song got a memorable title “Pomp and Circumstance” while the original composition it’s from is unimaginably called “March No.1 in D Major”. Titles are important… "Stairway to Heaven" wouldn’t have been nearly as popular if it was called “Stolen Riff in A Minor.”


2. Sheepskins – Diplomas are called Sheepskins because paper was fragile and this made them poor keepsakes. Parchment is made of animal skin and because of its durability… diplomas were printed on it and thus referred to as a Sheepskin. For sheep this can be very traumatic. We take their wool and make clothing. Then we take their skin and make parchment paper for diplomas; and something to serve burnt ends on. The Greeks come along and take the rest and put it on a vertical rotisserie.


3. Throwing your cap in the air -- It was the Navy that came up with this tradition back in 1912. They got new officer hats when they graduated so the old midshipmen hats were no longer necessary and they tossed them into the air in celebration. That’s how it started and it has obviously spread. Although the incidents are rare… the practice does contain an element of danger. Graduates have needed stitches when being struck in the noggin by the square cornered mortarboard. One graduate was blinded after getting hit in the eye and it’s also dangerous for birds who attempt to eat the hats lying on the ground.


4. The Tassel Turn – The tassel turn symbolizes the turn from candidate to graduate. The tassel starts on the right side and is turned to the left. This makes them Democrats until they discover that they like guns.


5. Graduation Party – It’s a time of celebration and should only be considered good times… so a party must be thrown. However… this causes stress as you ready your place for guests. I normally don’t have a problem with that spider web that can’t be reached in the upper corner of the garage but with food being served and people dropping by… that spider web must come down and the walls must be washed and the oil spots must be scrubbed. In hindsight… it was probably wrong of me… in my frustration of the job at hand… to blame it on my son for graduating and therefore making me do this.
--------------------

Lineups:

RAYS
Brandon Guyer(R ) RF
Brad Miller(L) SS
Evan Longoria(R ) 3B
Logan Morrison(L) 1B
Steven Souza(R ) DH
Corey Dickerson(L) LF
Mikie Mahtook(R ) CF
Taylor Motter(R ) 2B
Curt Casali(R ) C

Matt Moore(L) P

TWINS
Eduardo Nunez(R ) SS
Joe Mauer(L) 1B
Brian Dozier(R ) 2B
Trevor Plouffe(R ) 3B
Robbie Grossman(S) LF
Byung-ho Park(R ) DH
Max Kepler(L) RF
Kurt Suzuki(R ) C
Byron Buxton(R ) CF

Phil Hughes(R ) P (Gibson will not be activated today due to a back stiffness, and Phil Hughes will be making a 'spot start.')

Game-time forecast: 72 deg F, clear, sunny while the sun is still up (until 8:53pm), winds at 5mph from the W.

Go Twins!

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[bird]

Brian, so your son got over 4.0 on a scale that stops at 4.0? Now we know where sabermetrics come from.

 

Not to mention the fact that he lives with his mother.

[David HK]

One would hope that face-plant in the photo is not said youngest son.  But if it is, he really stuck that landing!

[HitInAPinch]

In my graduation class, they'd understand everything except #3.  Even then, they wouldn't / couldn't read the rest of it and just throw the caps at each other. 

 

40th anniversary this year.  I'll probably skip it like the rest of them.

[Blake]

Brian, don't you know that guys use power tools, even for cleaning? It sounds like you need a new pressure washer in celebration of your sons graduation and for the pre-party cleaning.

 

For your sons graduation gift, I suggest you let him ogle the power washer and maybe, if he's really good, allow him to touch said power washer.

[Riverbrian]

 

Brian, so your son got over 4.0 on a scale that stops at 4.0? Now we know where sabermetrics come from.

 

Not to mention the fact that he lives with his mother.

 

Yeah... it shocked me as well. I'm hoping that my grandchildren will have a GPA of 17.0.

 

Yeah... Mom was the one who pushed heads firmly so the nose touched the grindstone.

 

My job was to tell them why I thought their noses pressed against the grindstone was funny. 

[Riverbrian]

 

One would hope that face-plant in the photo is not said youngest son.  But if it is, he really stuck that landing!

 

I believe that was Eddie Rosario. 

[Riverbrian]

 

In my graduation class, they'd understand everything except #3.  Even then, they wouldn't / couldn't read the rest of it and just throw the caps at each other. 

 

40th anniversary this year.  I'll probably skip it like the rest of them.

 

You should go and do something memorable.

 

Like... Umm... Show up naked. 

[Riverbrian]

 

Brian, don't you know that guys use power tools, even for cleaning? It sounds like you need a new pressure washer in celebration of your sons graduation and for the pre-party cleaning.

 

For your sons graduation gift, I suggest you let him ogle the power washer and maybe, if he's really good, allow him to touch said power washer.

 

A pressure washer will not be purchased because it would be used as a weapon against me. 

 

It's only a matter of time before I'm payed back ten fold for all the times that I threw cold water over the shower door on them. 

 

In order to avoid this retaliation... I've avoided the purchase of pressure washers... There are also no garden hoses at my place and I had the city remove the fire hydrant from our yard just to be safe... and... and... I stopped paying the water bill. 

 

 

[mickeymental]

 

I believe that was Eddie Rosario. 

can be pretty sure it's not eduardo núñez ...

[Winston Smith]

Wise to keep the baseball talk to the minimum and congrats to your wife for bringing up a smart kid and not a goofball.

[Blake]

 

You should go and do something memorable.

 

Like... Umm... Show up naked. 

Considering that streaking was in during the period of time he would have been in high school, probably already been done. 

[Blake]

 

Wise to keep the baseball talk to the minimum and congrats to your wife for bringing up a smart kid and not a goofball.

Gee, I wonder what Mrs. Riverbrian used as a motivational tool to get the kids to aspire toward high achievement? 

[scottz]

At my college roommate's graduation party, I ended up making out with a hottie named Darcy for a good long time.

 

To make this relevant to the game thread and baseball in general, you need to know that I like baseball and she happened to be at this party and Riverbrian mentioned graduation parties and that was the first thing I thought of.

 

DID I WIN YET?

 

Yes I did.

[Blake]

 

At my college roommate's graduation party, I ended up making out with a hottie named Darcy for a good long time.

 

To make this relevant to the game thread and baseball in general, you need to know that I like baseball and she happened to be at this party and Riverbrian mentioned graduation parties and that was the first thing I thought of.

 

DID I WIN YET?

 

Yes I did.

I see game thread in your future. 

[Circus Boy]

Holy irony, Batman! Led Zeppelin stole the "Stairway to Heaven" riff from Spirit, but Spirit stole it first from Milli Vanilli.

[diehardtwinsfan]

 

Brian, so your son got over 4.0 on a scale that stops at 4.0? Now we know where sabermetrics come from.

 

Not to mention the fact that he lives with his mother.

 

If it was like my HS, they weight honors courses on a 4.5 scale and AP course on a 5.0 scale.

 

Congrats to your son.  He obviously did well.  Did he make valedictorian?

[Winston Smith]

 

Gee, I wonder what Mrs. Riverbrian used as a motivational tool to get the kids to aspire toward high achievement? 

Probably "you don't want to turn out like your dad do you?"

[bird]

As a Subaru-driving tree-hugger and birder (redundant, I know), I can tell you that, according to one study, the mortar hat eating is a helluva a lot bigger problem for birds than them running into a couple tall buildings, wind turbines,  and stadiums in the middle of the night. But they're equally stupid things to do.

Edited June 2, 2016 by birdwatcher

[Riverbrian]

 

If it was like my HS, they weight honors courses on a 4.5 scale and AP course on a 5.0 scale.

 

Congrats to your son.  He obviously did well.  Did he make valedictorian?

 

Nope... They make the candidates spell Valedictorian and he went with Valley Dick Orient on the form and was disqualified.  

 

I was proud that he got the three mistaken words correct. 

[twinsnorth49]

 

Probably "you don't want to turn out like your dad do you?"

http://www.reactiongifs.com/r/ny.gif

[mikelink45]

I believe we have a new - absence without leave graduate - Byung Ho Park.  It's time to talk about our international signing and what has happened for the last few weeks.  I believe an incomplete impacts graduation. 

[chopper0080]

Our lineup last night was gross.

[Comrade Bork]

"The tassel starts on the right side and is turned to the left. This makes them Democrats until they discover that they like guns."

 

 

Hah! That makes me a gun-toting liberal weeny!

[Blake]

 

Probably "you don't want to turn out like your dad do you?"

I was thinking more along the lines of "Don't be this guy" under a picture of RB plastered strategically throughout the house.

[Squirrel]

 

 

 

1. Pomp and Circumstance – The traditional song played at graduations is just a smaller piece from a larger composition called “March No. 1 in D Major” written in 1901. I think it’s strange that a section of the song got a memorable title “Pomp and Circumstance” while the original composition it’s from is unimaginably called “March No.1 in D Major”. Titles are important… "Stairway to Heaven" wouldn’t have been nearly as popular if it was called “Stolen Riff in A Minor.”
 

Actually, Brian ... you don't have this quite right. Pomp and Circumstance is the larger work; or rather, it's the name given to a grouping of marches. And the one that most are familiar with, because it's used at graduations, is March No. 1 in D major. The official title of that particular march is Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1 in D major (and NOT March No. 1 in D major from Pomp and Circumstance.) Sometimes you'll hear orchestras do several of these marches together in a concert, but rarely would you hear all five of them; and most often you'll just hear them performed individually as each is its own work in and of itself. It's not like Pomp and Circumstance is a larger work, like a symphony, and one the marches is an equivalent to one of the movements in that larger work. Put it a different way ... a symphony would be like a book, one large book, with one story start to finish, and the chapters in that book would be like the movements in a symphony; Pomp and Circumstance would be like a large book of stories; each story is separate from the next ... different plot, different characters from one to the next. The marches grouped under the title Pomp and Circumstance would be like these individual stories in this larger collection.

 

And I'm sure that's all clear as mud. But I tried.

[Blake]

 

"The tassel starts on the right side and is turned to the left. This makes them Democrats until they discover that they like guns." Hah! That makes me a gun-toting liberal weeny!

It's bad enough when we get baseball in a baseball game thread but politics? That's a bridge too far.

Edited June 2, 2016 by Blake

[scottz]

 

Actually, Brian ... you don't have this quite right. Pomp and Circumstance is the larger work; or rather, it's the name given to a grouping of marches. And the one that most are familiar with, because it's used at graduations, is March No. 1 in D major. The official title of that particular march is Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1 in D major. Sometimes you'll hear orchestras do several of these marches together in a concert, but rarely would you hear all five of them; and most often you'll just hear them performed individually as each is its own work in and of itself. It's not like Pomp and Circumstance is a larger work, like a symphony, and one the marches is an equivalent to one of the movements in that larger work. Put it a different way ... a symphony would be like a book, one large book, with one story start to finish, and the chapters in that book would be like the movements in a symphony; Pomp and Circumstance would be like a large book of stories; each story is separate from the next ... different plot, different characters from one to the next. The marches grouped under the title Pomp and Circumstance would be like these individual stories in this larger collection.

 

And I'm sure that's all clear as mud. But I tried.

Well that changes Circumstances. I declare this thread null and void.

[Blake]

 

Actually, Brian ... you don't have this quite right. Pomp and Circumstance is the larger work; or rather, it's the name given to a grouping of marches. And the one that most are familiar with, because it's used at graduations, is March No. 1 in D major. The official title of that particular march is Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1 in D major. Sometimes you'll hear orchestras do several of these marches together in a concert, but rarely would you hear all five of them; and most often you'll just hear them performed individually as each is its own work in and of itself. It's not like Pomp and Circumstance is a larger work, like a symphony, and one the marches is an equivalent to one of the movements in that larger work. Put it a different way ... a symphony would be like a book, one large book, with one story start to finish, and the chapters in that book would be like the movements in a symphony; Pomp and Circumstance would be like a large book of stories; each story is separate from the next ... different plot, different characters from one to the next. The marches grouped under the title Pomp and Circumstance would be like these individual stories in this larger collection.

 

And I'm sure that's all clear as mud. But I tried.

And the trombone did it with an accomplice, Mr Oboe in the orchestra pit? (just trying to figure out the last few pages of the last chapter in the book.)

Edited June 2, 2016 by Blake

[diehardtwinsfan]

 

It's bad enough when we get baseball in a baseball game thread but politics? That's a bridge too far.

 

Baseball, politics, and a lecture on the intricacies of Eldgers Op. 39.

 

That's a wide range for a few gun-toting weenies.