D. Hocking

I remember TNG was on 10:30 Sunday evening and would get back from the library ( wonder where my Walkman is) not done with all of my homework because I procrastinated too much over the weekend and then procrastinate another hour watching the latest episode. Sunday evenings in college could have a fair amount of self-induced stress.

Sadly, there does not appear to be a Rod Stewart cover of "What a Feeling!"

I thought the same thing about the WCCO interview. I have noticed a couple of times in the past when he had been interviewed by some national sportswriter that he gave more interesting answers largely because they did ask him some different questions. He did not just shoot of a canned response which he could often do with the local interviews because they often asked him the same thing over and over. I remember someone (I think it might have even been Souhan) saying that when Joe does not have to answer questions about himself and how he is feeling he actually has some interesting things to say about the game. He might end up being a much better interview as a relaxed retiree than an active player who probably often felt he had to be politely defensive and guarded in his responses.

So no one volunteered to be part of this trick? I think it would have really made the evening memorable. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sW8YnEobznw

Thanks for sharing - sounds like a good experience or in Mauer speak "neat". I remember someone saying (I believe it might have even been Souhan) when Mauer does not have feel like he has to ask the standard interview questions about himself (how are you feeling etc.) and is just talking he actually is a bit more chatty and has some interesting baseball insights. I thought that was even a little evident in the Twinsfest 'CCO radion interview where he was pretty relaxed. Now that he no longer is in that player mode where felt the need to be more guarded in his answers he might have some interesting stories that he tells in future interviews.

I thought the beginning of the third season it was starting to get a little stale, but then it clicked again. The actress playing Janet had a tour de force performance in the episode leading into the holiday break. Jason is the character who I think is funny in small doses, but gets a little tedious when is the focus of an episode.

I actually thought it was kind of nice and kind of appropriate for Mauer that they surprised him with it at his old Cretin stomping grounds and almost a casual affair. No doubt they have a big formal Mauer day at Target Field next summer, but will be hard (or impossible) to beat the unofficial Mauer day the last day of the 2018 season. The people behind that deserve some kudos. From the clip I saw, he kept his speech pretty much geared for the kids in the audience and told them to enjoy and appreciate what they were doing, because it goes by quickly. Oh, and he thanked people.

This is how I now feel when I watch the news (that will be the extent of my political commentary on this thread).

Was listening to 1500 this afternoon - they had a bunch of Mauer discussion (funny how his retirement came the same week as the Jimmy Butler trade -- could not have a bigger difference in exits or personality of the players). One of the interviews was with Glen Perkins and that is what amazed him - he said he did not change at all. He said people ask him what is he really like - and said exactly what you see. One of the interviewees - I think Roy Smalley - was asked if Joe should have been more vocal - maybe yelled more, and he said no, because it would not have been true to who he was. It never works when someone is faking something like that.

Thanks. I will never get tired of seeing the high school picture of Glen and Joe.

That moment of them running out to first base for his last game was pretty neat (if one uses Mauer speak). They will always be able to look back and see how they were an important part of his big day. Whoever planned all of the unofficial Joe Mauer activities for his last game deserves a bonus.

I was browsing some of the comments, one thing I noticed from former teammates, people how have covered him, and some of his opponents, is that first they would say he was a great player and then follow-up with he was just as good of a person. I noticed the same thing when he played his last game. The comments all seemed genuine, not the obligatory canned response. https://www.sportsnet.ca/baseball/mlb/twitter-reaction-major-leaguers-honour-retiring-twins-veteran/

I am fairly confident I could have scored a touchdown against the Gopher defense yesterday.

I do think it was largely PR, but he also seemed genuine in his respect for Mauer. It seemed like he put some thought into it rather than just spewing some generic cliche, and the story about the bullpen catcher was a nice personal touch. It was also nice to hear him say how respected Mauer was in the league. I did notice he was a bit general in saying there would be place in the Twins organization and not saying as his first baseman, but I suppose the discussion of whether Mauer should or will return should be (and has been) covered in (an)other thread(s).

I am completely speculating here, but when he spoke about it, he genuinely seemed to think it was a strong issue rather than him just giving the answer he felt he should give (he is a good speaker). I am guessing it is a goal of his. Also, he might not be fluent, but he did seem to have some understanding of the language greater than cerveza por favor.

Unfortunately, it was a weakness. He said he could not speak it well, but thought it was an important question. I would have preferred had he been fluent in Spanish, but from it was an answer it was apparent he had thought about it and thought it was an important issue and would be a factor when hiring his staff. I might be putting words in his mouth, but he seemed to be aware not all players were alike, that some players might connect well with his style, but would be good to have a coaching staff that could connect to the some of the players in a way he could not (some of that was Spanish related, but I think he also meant it more generally). I had it on in the background while was working, so I might not have gotten everything correctly.

Esp. if the other phrase you learned was "beer please".

I listened to his press conference. Not an informed or educated opinion, but I liked what I heard. He seemed to know his strengths and weaknesses and really seemed to know he needed to hire staff that complimented those strengths and weaknesses and seemed to be able to think on his feet and was well-spoken in his answers. He acknowledged the ability of speaking Spanish being one of these areas. Not that this necessarily means anything on how one will be as a manager, but he also seemed very personable.

I have not had a chance to binge and have only gotten through episode 3. They have done a good job of showing of spending time in a possibly haunted house as a child can leave a few scars. They did a really good job with casting the kids matching their adult counterparts, and all of them being able to act.

Yes - I did think the original Halloween and Nightmare were decent movies, but the Friday the 13th movies and most of the other slasher movies never did anything to me. I really did not care for them once the Hostel movies upped the torture aspect. I tend to like the suspense more than the gore - such as The Others, Six Sense, the Shining, even though Silence of the Lambs had gore - I thought it was more of a suspense movie as well. I would also throw the original Jaws in there as well. He was an unseen threat for much of the movie that was lurking at any moment. By the time he was cruising a water park for snacks in the third movie he was no longer scary. Most of those movies also had a believable factor to them. The supernatural aspect was either done in a believable way, or it was presented in an ambiguous way where you did not know if it was really happening and the supernatural was manipulating the person or the person was going insane (the movie version of the Shining - still need to read the book). Back to Netflix series that have a supernatural tinge, I did watch Penny Dreadful. I did not care for the third season as much or the finale, but was an interesting twist on the classic Victorian horror and had some good acting. Eva Green was incredible. [sorry that was a long and rambling...]

Hopefully you made it to morning and nothing came for you in the night.

I just watched the first season of Cheers (because, again, I am old). In addition to Hill House, I am watching Happy Valley (spoiler - it is not happy). It is a limited British series about a kidnapping gone wrong and is well done, but it is pretty dark, so it would not be for everyone. If you ever watched Grantchester on PBS, the lead is in it, but he is not exactly nice in his, although this show is better written than Grantchester. I watched Dark, a German series that was probably influenced by Stranger Things. First episode or two showed some potential, but by the end, I just wanted those hours back (and then it never answered anything leaving everything for a season 2 I did not realize was coming and do not intend to watch).

Anyone watching the Haunting of Hill House on Netflix? I am two episodes in and so far am liking the slow burn. The fact that the flashback father was the kid in ET does make me feel a little old. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9OzG53VwIk

I just finished the second season on Netflix. I thought it had some funny moments at first, and then once I got into it I thought it was pretty funny and original, but then the concept started to wear thin and I am luke-warm about whether to try and watch season 3. It is a show seems to be a bit too focused on "look how clever and out there we are". There are also "character growth" moments that don't really seem earned or true to the characters. This is a good example of a show that should have just had a limited ten to 15 episode run. I do think the cast is talented and have had some funny moments, but now their actions have gotten a bit repetitive.

This seems to go with LENIII - Molitor was surprised: I am thinking there would have been some discussion with the Pohlads before last week - but maybe they wanted to have everything in order first. They certainly have not done the rip the band aid off quickly for this regime change. One year they fire much of Gardy's coaching staff but keep Gardy. The next year the fire Gardy, but keep Ryan. The next year Ryan leaves, but the new GM is made to keep Molitor as manager and not bring in their own person. Then the team plays just well enough where they end up extending Molitor only to finally fire him.