sampleSizeOfOne

Agnes Nutter, i am not. (A kneejerk mildly oblique reference to the most recent book i finished reading. Nearly a month ago at this point... Which i didn't make at the time in favor of sleep. RIP Terry Pratchett. ) But then again, not saying anything, is perhaps the simplest way to be less wrong. Anyway, scouring the radar feeds, it would seem the game is on?

Thanks a bunch! I was a little leery of the source where i got 'em: through the notes link on mlb.com, as it said "today's lineup" and the pitchers listed reflected that, but amongst "upcoming games", april 8th was still listed... But as it is consistent with the gameday link what just appeared, i can rest assured i didn't mess up. On the other hand, a quick look at wikipedia enlightened me that argon is more prevalent than carbon dioxide. I should rectify that omission. It is very noble of the argon lobby not to have taken me to task.

Line ups here (as i seem to have mislaid my "edit this post" link) Minnesota: 1. Santana, D, SS 2. Dozier, B, 2B 3. Mauer, J, 1B 4. Hunter, T, RF 5. Vargas, K, DH 6. Plouffe, T, 3B 7. Arcia, O, LF 8. Suzuki, K, C 9. Schafer, J, CF Detroit: 1. Gose, A, CF 2. Kinsler, I, 2B 3. Cabrera, M, 1B 4. Martinez, V, DH 5. Martinez, J, RF 6. Cespedes, Y, LF 7. Castellanos, N, 3B 8. Avila, A, C 9. Iglesias, J, SS And current weather forecast i believe to be: 78% chance of nitrogen, 21% oxygen, 1% other gases, primarily carbon dioxide and water vapor. As we are at the bottom of most atmospheric conditions, and most of that 1% being denser, We may have disproportionally higher chance of that.

"Can you help us out with game threads?" Yes. (Sorry, i could only resist that response for so long. Though i think i thought it every time i saw the topic.)

Game Thread, Twins @ Tigers, 4/8 @ 12:08pm CT First! (Sorry, just had to get it out of my system) Weather: (Forecast from weather.gov... which calls Detroit "4 miles s hamtramck mi" now that's humor!) Showers likely, possible thunderstorms after noon. Cloudy, high about 47. Er, line ups: ---to be filled in either by me if i get up in time, or some kindly moderator type saving my bacon. (if posting this without full information is a rash move, then would saving my bacon be a rasher one?) Twins Pitching: Ricky Nolasco 1.Santana, D, SS 2.Dozier, B, 2B 3.Mauer, J, 1B 4.Hunter, T, RF 5.Vargas, K, DH 6.Plouffe, T, 3B 7.Arcia, O, LF 8.Suzuki, K, C 9.Schafer, J, CF Tigers Pitching: Anibal Sanchez 1.Gose, A, CF 2.Kinsler, I, 2B 3.Cabrera, M, 1B 4.Martinez, V, DH 5.Martinez, J, RF 6.Cespedes, Y, LF 7.Castellanos, N, 3B 8.Avila, A, C 9.Iglesias, J, SS And now for the game thread ignition sequence: 1) Previously... Now that opening day hullabaloo has blown over, we can get back to normal work. What are the take-aways? (Me? Oh, i was hoping you'd answer it. But here goes) Hughes had one inning he regretted. Graham got his jitters out of the way. A little hitting 'gainst good pitching and fielding on the Twins part, but not much to speak of. They ran on Hughes. I don't expect it to be too big a concern going forward. More importantly, a fine game thread! Welcome back y'all. 1a) for extra credit: If the Twins tied Monday's game in the top of the 9th. What position does Escobar field in the bottom? 2) Mulligans. I'm so glad i get second chances. So not that i have any say in the matter, but i'm on board with giving Nolasco a second chance to give a first impression. Or is that a first chance to give a second impression? What was my point again? I know i had one somewhere. Wait. Can i try that again? No? Oh well. Live and Learn. (Gosh, Riverbrian, this is harder than it looks.) 3) Growth. If the days of August are dog days, might not the days of April be puppy days? Bright eyed and bushy tailed. Are these the formative games for the season? Who needs to learn what? Discuss. 4) The weather. At the time of this posting, possible thunderstorms are predicted. But assuming nature doesn't provide the thunder, which Twin will provide it? Any guesses? My (hopefully reasonable, but not obvious) guesses: (and feel free to play along at home, kids) The thunder (Homerun) Mauer. Rain (Run) Robinson. Clouds (RBI) Santana. Er, Danny, that is. Hail (Extra Base hit) Vargas. Lightning (Stolen Base) Nunez. A crack in the metaphor (Sac Fly) Escobar. Tornado (Bunt Single) Arcia. At this point the metaphor has snapped and injured the writer, who will take a moment to wipe the egg off his face. When it rains, it pours! 5) A school bus metaphor... Someone's driving the bus. And indeed someone is in the front counting people, making sure no one is left behind, and that we're all wearing our safety belts. And of course most of the world is probably in the middle, passing the time until we get there. But i imagine the game threads are the people in the back of the bus, where the bumps and turns are hardest felt. It's the exciting place to be. Anyway, you'll have to figure out if it is an apt metaphor. In the meantime, thanks for an opportunity to do some good ol' fashion backseat driving! Will that get it up and running? I hope so, but if not, i'm no stranger to popping the clutch...

Twins doubling seems fitting. Makes me think of the old doublemint commercials.

Nice scoop by Gibson to complete another double play. After a bloop to right that fell.

3-6-1 Double play erases the errant Plouffe throw to start the game and end that half the inning, sandwiching a long fly ball to hunter.

Are they still saying "Cowboy up"? "Boston Strong" is a little bit better, i think. I still get a kick anytime i think of Mientkiewicz and the ball what broke the curse.

Is it still denial if you're right?

Ah, that makes sense he'd be off folk's lists. Thanks!

They ever figure out who it was?

Nice infield fielding (infielding?) by Red Sox. If either of a couple of balls squeaked through, Twins coulda scored another run.

I hadn't thought of that. With shift on and runner at third, the person covering third base could be... the pitcher! Now i gotta see a pick off sometime!

Stereophon... stereoscop... posting in stereo. That's what it is. To find a literary reference... "Aye, with both eyes at once — this and that. The testimony of one eye is naught — he may lie. But when it is corroborated by the other, it is good evidence that none may gainsay. Here are both present in court, ready to swear to him!" (if more people do it, will we find out what seeing through bug eyes is like?) Anyway, back to the game, yeah! Escobar is doin' right by himself! 5-2 it is (even if someone says so before me)

Herrmann comes through past a diving Pedroia to plate the run!

Too slow of me... Sorry.

And steals second!

Yeah, Herrmann pounced on it, but it well coulda bounced far enough for Sandoval to make it. He scores anyway, on a ball kicking off the heal of a diving Bernier's glove. Heard the grounder to first and looking Sandoval back, but had left the room, so can't comment. Anyway Boston up, 1-0 after 2 innings (er, and 2 outs. That's how slow i type)

Sandoval leads off with right center double, and advances on a ground out to short. Can we strand a runner at 3rd?

naught naught after 1 inning... (it's a useful thing, even if we retire the CBU title...)

Thanks for havin' a sense of humor. Yeah, i don't think i was telling an april fool's joke, just a bad joke, and figurin' i could get cut more slack on that day of all days... This contest makes me think about teams other than the Twins, which seems like extra effort. But i'm sure that is well worth it, and deepen my appreciation of the Twins... Somehow. Do haters really have to hate? I guess so, but only in the tautological sense, and it doesn't say what they have to hate. If i must be a hater, i'll be the self-loathing type, so i can like everything else. Not wanting to overwrite a joke, here is a vaguely serious, if no better informed set o' guesses. Anyway, i always seem to get side tracked... Philadelphia Phillies - 68.5 over. Arizona Diamondbacks - 71.5 over. Colorado Rockies - 71.5 over. Minnesota Twins - 71.5 over. Atlanta Braves - 73.5 over. Houston Astros - 75.5 over. Cincinnati Reds - 77.5 over. Milwaukee Brewers - 78.5 over. Tampa Bay Rays - 78.5 under. Texas Rangers - 78.5 under. Chicago White Sox - 81.5 under. Kansas City Royals - 81.5 over. Miami Marlins - 81.5 over. New York Mets - 81.5 under. New York Yankees - 81.5 under. Oakland Athletics - 81.5 over. Baltimore Orioles - 82.5 over. Chicago Cubs - 82.5 under. Toronto Blue Jays - 83.5 over. Cleveland Indians - 84.5 under. Detroit Tigers - 84.5 under. Pittsburgh Pirates - 84.5 over. San Diego Padres - 84.5 under. San Francisco Giants - 84.5 under. Boston Red Sox - 86.5 over. Seattle Mariners - 86.5 under. Los Angeles Angels - 88.5 under. St. Louis Cardinals - 88.5 under. Los Angeles Dodgers - 92.5 under. Washington Nationals - 93.5 under. Tie breaker 1: The two AL WC teams will be: Twins, Red Sox (i guess just 'cause they're playin' tonight) Tie breaker 2: The two NL WC teams will be: Giants, Pirates (well, it worked once before...) And back to the comfortable world of game-threads!

Regardin' scrubbiness, isn't that standard operating procedure for spring training road games? Not that this is far away road game, unless traffic is really that bad. What happens if the scrubs win? Anyway, in the immortal words of Fezzig, "i hope we win"

The double off of lefty ex-Twin Breslow (if memory serves) so it would seem he's figuring out how to hit lefties? One can hope.

If i ever make it to Sanibel again, i'll stop by, even if i never figure out what a former commune is. Gopher turtles? Sausage trees? Next thing you'll tell me spaghetti grows there... And i suppose we might have a bigger lead if those runners weren't stranded, but hopefully the pitching and fielding will hold.