IndianaTwin

Earlier this year, Twins beat writer Do-Hyoung Park finished second to bazillion-time champion Amy Schneider, but apparently he scored well enough to make it into the Second-Chance Tournament, which aired Wednesday night in my market. (Spoiler alert, in case you haven’t seen it yet — a summary of the results is below.) “Honestly, I was just way too adrenaline-hyped after the game ended to be too upset about it,” said Park about his first-time experience, when being interviewed by host Ken Jennings. “I thought it was just the coolest experience. But then after a while it was kind of tough — I thought it was my one shot. Once I got over it, I was like, ‘I’m ready to get back to being a real person, going out with friends and things like that, instead of just cramming for everything.’ “And them, ‘Bam.’ Second-Chance Tournament and here I am, right back into the hidey-hole.” During Single Jeopardy, Park particularly thrived in the “Peaks and Valleys,” category, picking up three questions in four attempts, but got caught in the barrage that was Rowan, who ended the round up $9,400-$2,000. Third-place Nikkie was stuck at $0 after betting $1,000 and missing the Daily Double on her very first clue selection. Early in Double Jeopardy, Rowan largely put the game away, going for a True Daily Double with a lead of more than $8,000. A correct answer doubled Rowan’s money to $21,600. Later in the round, Rowan hit the second Daily Double. Up $20,000 to both opponents’ $6400, this time Rowan went with a more conservative bet of $2,000. Another correct answer boosted the lead to more than $15,000. Throughout the remainder of Double Jeopardy, the buzz saw named Rowan extended the lead, turning it into a runaway with $26,800 entering Final Jeopardy compared to Nikkie’s $7,200 and Do’s $6,800. With “Charity” as the category for Final Jeopardy, as long as Rowan didn’t pull a Clavin and bet more than $12,399, a win was assured. To the answer, “A Catholic charity called Caritas Rome is the beneficiary of money collected from here, over the years averaging about $3,500 daily”, Do wagered $401 and incorrectly asked “What is St. Peter’s Basilica?”, leaving him with a total of $6,399. Nikkie wagered bigger, at $5,401, and incorrectly asked, “What is the Red Cross?” With the error she fell into third place at $5,401. Assured of the lead unless pulling a Clavin, Rowan instead bet $10,000. With the correct question, “What is Trevi Fountain?”, Rowan finished with an impressive $36,800, qualifying for Thursday and Friday’s two-day Second-Chance Tournament championship, with the winner earning a spot in the Tournament of Champions. For his effort, Do pocketed the second-place prize of $2,000, with Nikkie winning $1,000.

I think one of the biggest things this trade would provide is a new scapegoat for folks on Twins Daily. For a net $7M cost, I don't think that and a little more flexibility in CF is worth it.

How about Correa being one of that half? How about 8/$234.4M? Spread out as $35.1M for the first four years (see what I did there?), followed by two years at at $32M and two years at $30M, with opt outs after four and six years. For the Twins, the price trickles down a little when he hits age 32 and then again at 34. At those points, if he thinks he can beat $124M over 4 seasons or $60 over 2 seasons, he can do it. Yeah, there's Lewis, but I'm willing to let him bang his way into the lineup at another position. And in several years, maybe he takes over at short and Correa moves to third like A-Rod did.

Well, he obviously wasn't trained by Harmon Killebrew.

According to this... https://www.mlb.com/player/devin-smeltzer-656970, Smeltzer has already opted for free agency.

With the arguments that sometimes break out on TD, maybe he signed Judge Wapner!

Always a fun list to scan through. Thanks for sharing each year. Nitpick -- I think something is missing in the "Yrs" column. Only 9 for Killebrew and 13 for Mauer? Part of the fun of lists like this is the names from the past that come out. I referenced Paul Thormodsgaard in a post a week or so ago, for example. Or to see how folks stack up in various categories. For example, unless there are other errors in the years column, if Kepler appears next year, there will only have been 13 other guys to have appeared in more than his eight seasons. Wow!

I think he was hurt much of the year, but if he's healthy, bring back Sisco on a minor league deal. With only Jeffers in the fold, and even if they sign a top catcher, you can almost not have too many catchers with major league experience in camp and stashed at AAA.

Maybe searching for Lonely at the Mall of America? ? Great name, Lonely...!

Pretty much the same reason the Sox gave Abreu the day off. And the Tigers Miggy... Quite common for veterans to not play on the last day of the season when the team is out of it. In this case, I don't mind saying, "Hey, Jermaine, we know you played hard this year, even though you struggled. Good chance we'll non-tender you in a couple weeks, but here's a lovely parting gift. And nice job with the homer Tuesday night -- take another whack at it." And kinda cool for him that he did. Two homers in two days is a warm, fuzzy way to end the season.

(I'll respond to this one, though several folks have named a variation on this.) But we did... Correa has missed one game since July 8 and just three since coming off the IL on June 8. Miranda has missed two games since June 11. He's started every game since the All-Star Break. Arraez has missed six games since June 9 and 11 since being out a week in early May. Urshela has played every game since August 15. Though primarily a catcher, Sanchez has missed only one game since Aug. 20 (which was essentially when Buxton was lost for the year), though some of those have been as a DH and some as a PH. Gordon has missed only seven games since June 22 and only two since Aug. 20. Aside from an IL stint from June 12-28, Polanco missed two games between May 27 and when he went on the IL and was lost for the season on Aug. 27. Who else that was healthy did we want playing every day?

Agree on keeping Urshela. At the least with Sanchez being a FA is that he can be taken off the 40. Can someone clarify how a contract like Dobnak's fits in here. Does having a guaranteed contract mean they have to put him back on the 40?

It seems the Twins have been in a different time zone since about May.

I'm calling this getting there on a technicality, since it was still at one page at game end. ?

Well, folks. We seem to have made it. An entire Game Thread packed on to one page.

So Foley is pitching for Detroit, huh? Let's knock him off his Axel.

Excused absence.

Lineups: Twins P: Woods Richardson Detroit P: Wentz

1. Babe Dahlgren. 2. No limit, because walks and errors don't count as hits.

The Twins appear to be making history today with Simeon Woods Richardson on the mound. He’s believed to be the first person in MLB history to have a 16-letter name on the back of his jersey. The 13-letters of former catcher Jarrod Saltalamaccia pales in comparison. As Twins go, my understanding is that the record for longest surname was set in the mid-1970s, and I found out the hard way. When I was a kid, the radio station in Cedar Rapids had a baseball trivia question each afternoon at 4:30, with the winner getting two tickets to the Cedar Rapids Astros/Cardinals/Reds/Giants or whoever they were affiliated with at the time. My school bus got me home at 4:20, and I was regularly calling in for tickets. I think I won about 70 tickets over the course of a few years, though that wasn’t 35 winnings. Sometimes they gave more than two tickets, particularly for special events like the Midwest League All-Star game. (Memorable questions that got me seats: 1. Who replaced Lou Gehrig at the end of his Iron Man Streak? 2. What is the most amount of runs that can be scored on six hits? Answers in comments.) At any rate, early in 1977, on the day after the question was, “Who has the shortest name in baseball?” (Ed Ott, at the time, which I won as the result of having his baseball card), the question was, “Who has the longest surname in baseball?” The DJ gave the clue of it being 12 letters. I thumbed through my trusty April issue of Baseball Digest and confidently called in with Claude Westmoreland, who was listed on the 40-man roster of the Dodgers. I was shocked when he told me I was wrong. I was even more shocked to find that Paul Thormodsgard had made my favorite team, the Minnesota Twins. Apparently he was in camp as a minor league invitee, because he wasn’t listed on the 40-mans in the magazine. He’d go on to throw 218 innings that year, starting 37 games and finishing with an 11-15 record and a 4.62 ERA. His ERA was still under 4 after his Sept. 5 start, but he gave up 26 runs in 24 innings over his last five starts. The next year he started 12 games before being sent down to Toledo. He must have gotten hurt, since he only threw four games there. He spent most of 1979 in Toledo before a September callup, where he gave up three hits and a run in an inning. That winter he was traded to Philadelphia for Pete Mackanin. Thor pitched one year in the minors for Philadelphia, but didn’t get called up, and hung it up after his 1980 season. For his career, he was 12-21 with a 4.74 ERA and an 84 ERA+. Though Thormodsgard is the first Twin I’m aware of with 12 letters, we’ve also had Trevor Hildenberger. Are there any others? But lest you think Woods Richardson is anywhere the world record for longest last name, that pales in comparison to the world record as listed by Guinness. Though good old Hubert Blaine Wolfe­schlegel­stein­hausen­berger­dorff Sr. passed away on October 24, 1997, in Philadelphia, that wasn’t his full name. His full named totaled 747 letters (sans “Sr.”) and was, as verified on January 1, 2021, and found at https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/67285-longest-personal-name, Adolph Blaine Charles David Earl Frederick Gerald Hubert Irvin John Kenneth Lloyd Martin Nero Oliver Paul Quincy Randolph Sherman Thomas Uncas Victor William Xerxes Yancy Zeus Wolfeschlegelsteinhausenbergerdorffwelchevoralternwarengewissenhaftschaferswessenschafewarenwohlgepflegeundsorgfaltigkeitbeschutzenvonangreifendurchihrraubgierigfeindewelchevoralternzwolftausendjahresvorandieerscheinenvanderersteerdemenschderraumschiffgebrauchlichtalsseinursprungvonkraftgestartseinlangefahrthinzwischensternartigraumaufdersuchenachdiesternwelchegehabtbewohnbarplanetenkreisedrehensichundwohinderneurassevonverstandigmenschlichkeitkonntefortpflanzenundsicherfreuenanlebenslanglichfreudeundruhemitnichteinfurchtvorangreifenvonandererintelligentgeschopfsvonhinzwischensternartigraum. In other Twins name news, I noticed the other day that the Twins have eight (8) pitchers on their 40-man roster (including the 60-day IL guys) whose first name starts with the letter “J” – Jorge Alcala, Jordon Balazovic, Jhoan Duran, Jorge Lopez, Jovani Moran, Jhon Romero, Joe Ryan and Josh Winder. They are joined on the 40-man by Jose Miranda, Jermaine Palacios, Jorge Polanco and Jake Cave, for a total of 12 out of what is now 50 guys, counting injuries. And there’s also Griffin Jax and Ryan Jeffers. In terms of the pitchers, perhaps it’s a good omen to have this many “J” names, given that this is an organization with Johan Santana, Jim Kaat and Jim Perry in its top seven in bWAR for pitchers since moving to Minnesota in 1961, along with Jim Merritt as the career WHIP leader and Joe Nathan as the career leader in saves. The stuff we come up with trying to come up with a Game Thread intro for a team that has assured itself of not having a winning record... What I’m not able to come up with is the starting lineups, since it won’t be posted before I leave for church. Can someone get those?

I remember the 1970s.

Um, that's going to take a while for this old guy to process.

The radio guys were saying that the plan for Monday-Wednesday is Ober, Winder, Varland. So, with Bundy listed for Saturday and a TBA for Sunday, the suspense is killing me. Which day might he fit in? ?

Oops. Written before the dive in the third inning today, right? ?

Nowhere as good as Benny “The Jet” Rodriguez.