mickeymental

allan anderson skipped his last start to win the ’88 era title — not exactly a profile in courage.

yikes -- six twins among top 15 AL MVP candidates for 1965 (mudcat 6, battey 10, jimmie hall 13, harmon 15).

The Kid Who Batted 1.000 (1951), by Bob Allison and Frank Ernest Hill with illustrations by Paul Galdone. The Chicks, a last place team in the American League, discover Dave Smith, a teenage hick and aspiring chicken farmer in back-country Oklahoma, who is found to have the ability to hit any ball delivered by any major-league pitcher in the strike zone – but always foul. Eventually he receives four pitches out of the strike zone and draws a walk, every time at bat, thus leading the Chicks to the league championship. Underworld (1997), by Don DeLillo. A best seller that was nominated for the National Book Award and shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize, it is often regarded as DeLillo's supreme achievement. In 2006, a survey of eminent authors and critics conducted by The New York Times found Underworld the runner-up for the best work of American fiction of the past 25 years; the novel finished behind only Toni Morrison's Beloved.The novel opens on October 3, 1951, when a boy named Cotter Martin sneaks in to watch the New York Giants play the Brooklyn Dodgers at the Giants' home field Polo Grounds. In the ninth inning, Ralph Branca pitches to Bobby Thomson, who hits the ball into the stands for a three-run homer, beating the Dodgers 5-4 and capturing the National League pennant. The fate of that ball is unknown, but in DeLillo's novel, Cotter Martin wrests this valuable ball away from another fan who has just befriended him, and runs home. Cotter's father, Manx, steals the ball and later sells it for $32.45.

no yankees in the top 50. that's promising, right?

season's over.

season's over.

not exactly what i meant by repeatedly saying “free brusdar,” but time will tell.

a great site. i’ve long sniffed out typos for a significant portion of my living — and in my mind, the dramatic decrease over the years reflects an impressive and ongoing increase in professionalism. no need to go elsewhere for all things twins. long live twins daily!

solution: save brusdar for the postseason, where his 18-per-9-innings strikeout ratio and 0.00 era versus the yankees will finally get the twins past the first round.

we'll always have that second game in puerto rico.

crazy as hell. years ago, in a competitive 28-and-over league, my team had a first-base coach with a knack for seeing the signs that opposing catchers put down. on days that it worked (some catchers held their legs closer together than others), he'd say our hitter's first name for fastball ("come on, johnny") and last name for offspeed ("you're due, johnson"). it often worked like a charm, gave us a tremendous advantage and really let you relax in the batter's box. no opponent ever caught on and, in my opinion, it was well within baseball's unwritten rules. but i believe that using a camera (or even binoculars) crosses a line. and in houston's case, it sounds like the yankees caught on -- and houston denied and changed the signal. which seems like VERY dirty pool. One way to stop it might be to always give three sets of signs (like when a runner is on second base) and only the pitcher and defense know which signal is the real one.

my heart was broken in elementary school when koufax won game 7. but i've also been to six world series games in my life -- and the twins won them all. so i'll be ok. i do worry about the newer twins fans who know nothing but total postseason failure. i fear they'll turn their backs on the twins forever. my mid-20s nephew is a huge sports fan who lives in minnesota. i asked him back in august if he was enjoying the surprising twins season so far. he said he doesn't follow baseball anymore -- that he's given up on the twins until they beat the yankees. and that was before this latest sweep!

season is over.

twins coulda used a little chris gimenez relief in this series.

if the twins could get their hands on a shut-down playoff pitcher like anibal sanchez i’m sure they’d never let go.

one thing for sure: anibal sanchez won't be pitching to kurt suzuki for the twins on monday in minneapolis. sanchez gets the start today -- maybe with suzuki behind the plate -- as the nats try to take a 2-1 lead over the mighty dodgers. baseball is a funny game. meanwhile, free brusdar!

beautiful fall day in portland. time for a walk. to a bar. without tv.

free brusdar!

time to dig out the panic thread.

brusdar b free.

shoulda walked him.

me too. but it's offset by the viola and morris syndrome.

dfa brusdar!

where’s brusdar?

carry around a sign that says "the world ends tomorrow" and you'll eventually be right.