Postgame power blog: Spell check edition
Posted on August 23rd, 2008 – 1:25 AMBy Joe Christensen
ANAHEIM — Former Twins infielder Denny Hocking, who lives in Orange County, was at home in bed tonight, watching his old team play the Angels, when he noticed something peculiar about Adam Everett’s jersey.
Sure enough, there was a misspelling across Everett’s chest: M I N N E S T O A.
So Hocking sent a text message to Angel Stadium, and someone relayed the message to the Twins’ clubhouse.
After the fourth inning, Everett came in from shortstop and started getting ready to lead off the fifth, when equipment manager Rod McCormick, alerted him to the problem.
“I’ve gotta lead off here,” Everett said.
But McCormick had another of Everett’s jerseys ready, with Minnesota properly spelled. Everett slipped back into the tunnel, did the quick change, and went to the plate good as new. He hit a bloop single, eventually scoring the third run in the Twins’ 9-0 victory.
Everett was still smiling about the jersey snafu after the game. Earlier this week, Nick Punto sent a screaming liner into the dugout and almost sent Everett back on the disabled list with an injured right hand.
This time, “I’m going, ‘No way,’” Everett said. “I mean, I am snake bit. This is unbelievable.”
Hocking, who visited the clubhouse after the game, said, “Middle infielders take care of each other.”
BACK IN FIRST
With Chicago’s 9-4 loss to Tampa Bay, the Twins moved back into first place for the fifth time this month.
Asked if his team was likely to play Leap Frog with the White Sox the rest of the way, Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said, “No. I’d like to go on strike right now and end the season and start the playoffs right now.
“As T.K. always said, ‘Stop the race.’
“We’re just going to keep playing. There’s a long ways to go here. It would be nice to get where the Angels are, and get a big lead, but all we can control is our games and do the best we can.”
PERKINS CONTINUES ROLL
Glen Perkins (11-3) was in complete control, allowing five hits and two walks in eight innings. He is 9-1 in his past 15 starts.
Pitching coach Rick Anderson put an arm around Perkins after the eighth inning and praised him for not letting up with a big lead this time. Perkins was at 107 pitches and missed a chance at his first career shutout.
“You get over 100 pitches — and we’ve been there before — it’s not worth risking an injury,” Perkins said. “So I understood that. I’ll get a chance at some point, but if I go eight and don’t give up any runs every time, that’s not too shabby.”
MORNEAU SNAPS SKID
Both teams started emptying their benches in the late innings. But Justin Morneau asked Gardenhire to let him hit in the ninth, even with the Twins up by nine runs.
The reason?
Morneau was in an 0-for-26 slide against the Angels that dates back to last year.
“He told me he can’t sleep at night,” Gardenhire said.
So Morneau got his chance to hit and singled, ending his skid.
“How about that?!” Gardenhire said.
SHORT HOPS
(*) As Bill Plunkett notes in the Orange County Register, Angels manager Mike Scioscia kept the clubhouse doors closed for 18 minutes, telling his players they had to stay hungry despite a 15-game lead over Texas in the AL West.
The Angels have lost seven of their past nine games.
(*) Joe Mauer extended his hitting streak to 14 games with a seventh-inning single.
(*) Nick Punto extended his hitting streak to 10 games with a sixth-inning single.
(*) The Twins had their highest scoring output at Angel Stadium since June 26, 2000, when they defeated the Angels 10-8.
(*) No time for In-n-Out Burger today with stories due for our early Sunday editions. I did visit the Panda Express across from the stadium, where a big sign has two pandas dressed in boxing gear with the words: Orange Chicken vs. Beijing Beef.
I ordered both and gave this one to Beijing Beef in a 10-bite decision.
45 Responses to "Postgame power blog: Spell check edition"
First place to stay…
My daughter and I were at the game, and Garret Anderson should not be playing left field. He was slow and indifferent on two catchable line drives (Delmon had a similar hit go over his head, and he got in position, and held the guy to a single). When the Angels hit balls to the outfield, there were usually two Twins there waiting! The Angels looked old and exposed. Torii looked lost at the plate, and miserable, watching his old pals zip around the bases and the field. Texiera can’t catch the ball.
The Angels were forced to play the infield in for half of the Twins lineup! The Twins played their infield comfortably on the outfield grass for the entire Angels lineup.
Could it be that in the past couple of years, the older players can’t do the types of things they used to to stay fresh through the season, and that as the season goes on, the younger teams are loping past the suddenly-old teams? It looked that way last year with the Diamondbacks and the Rockies, and it sure looked like that tonight at Angels stadium.
Bet the Angels have some of their kids playing on Saturday!
Who wouldn’t like to see the Twins and Rays play? That’d be some kind of baseball…Cheer for your MINNESTOA TWINS today…
PS In-N-Out is great, but Joe you gotta try the local chain Juan Pollo Chicken! They take it out of the rotisserie and cut it up right when you order it! Personal guarantee. References available on request.
[…] Originally published by Around the Majors […]
we are twins fans from the twin cities now living in las vegas and can hardly wait for next weekend cuz we are driving up to oakland for the whole 4 game series.by the way before the season i bet 100dollars that the twins would win more than 74 games now its set and match pint
sorry i cant type i mean match point
In 35 days I’ll be eating my fist In-N- out double double in over a year while I get to watch Twins playoff baseball from the comfort of my living room. If the Twins win the World Series I will volunteer for another one year depolyment to this sand box.
Big Dawg in Iraq
maybe a one year DEPLOYMENT. Anybody know what a DEPOLYMENT is? Changing my name from Big Dawg to Fat Finger.
`hey tom s.d. twins fans now las vegas locals 4 the past two months……would b nice 2 find the same 4 the home stretch…..lol… almost said playoffs aleady,,,,lets get in touch. . stay on this board
anybody who thought the stretch run two years ago was magical better wait and see what this group has goin on……crazieness….crazzyness….crazziness….. its gonna be good….lol
Most of the fans didn’t know that at one time (in the 60″s) the Twins were a “Lemon - Green - Battey”. OK the catch:
Jim Lemon - first base
Lenny Green - out field
Earl Battey - catcher
I will keep my day job and not continue my stand up comedy.
This group is fun to watch. And it was nice to see Young and Span crush the ball (and Morneau finally get a hit against the Angels). Sure hope the carriage doesn’t turn into a pumpkin before this season is over. Go Twins.
One time Cecil Fielder, I think, came to bat with a jersey that said “D-E-T-R-I-O-T”.
Keep safe, Big Dawg. We won’t be happy till you’re all home safe and sound, ASAP. Please don’t make the deal to return there if your Twins win in October…it looks like it’s a realistic outcome!
ChinoTwinsFan - In regard to Anderson…I think there are several teams who have chosen to give up defensive prowess in return for solid offense.
There’s no question G.A. is a liability in the outfield but he still carries a pretty big stick so he’ll be out there until he stops producing.
The Angels made a number of plays yesterday that left me confused. A few lazy throws, and yes….Anderson’s lazy play in LF.
Hopefully the Twins can avoid getting complacent. They have a chance to win this series and turn the Angels on their heels.
Panda Express? Joe, you’re kiling me here. I got sick the only time I’ve eaten there.
Reminds me a little of the 1999 season…I was in St Louis, and the Cardinals had just changed their uniforms (yellow beak instead of red beak, numbers on the front). On one road trip, Kent Bottenfield (their version of an ace that year) started two games in his 1998 uniform.
Forget In and Out go to The Habit! Way better then In and Out!
All star game in the Dome, the tiger player didn’t have a jersey, so they had to go to the souvenir shop and got a generic tiger jersey and magic markered on his number. Love uniform stories
It must have been the Eastern/Western Garment Industry bias against the fly-over states.
Nobody in that sweatshop knew (or cared)
how Minnestoa is spelled.
“There’s no question G.A. is a liability in the outfield but he still carries a pretty big stick so he’ll be out there until he stops producing.”
Except the problem is that Torii Hunter was DHing. The Angels should have a outfield of Matthews Jr./Rivera in left, Hunter in center, and Vlad the Impaler in right, with Anderson at DH, but I thought I remember reading that Anderson didn’t want to play DH…
Joe…there is a nice little sandwich/coffee shop across the street from the Ducks stadium that we ate yesterday…its called Perk U Up or something like that. It is always nice to try places other than the standard Subway chain fare. Anyway, they make a pretty good sandwich for lunch.
I agree about Anderson…he was horrible. But, the Twins weren’t infalliable either. Gomez oversliding third and Span overrunning first cost the Twins two runs early. I’m just glad it didn’t come back to haunt them.
Cloudy this morning in sunny Anaheim, but still plan on enjoying the day.
Go Twins!!!
PT,
Span and Gomez were over-aggressive.
Garrett Anderson was comatose.
My choice is over-aggressive.
I love hearing these uniform stories. For others who like them, check out Paul Lukas, who writes the Uniwatch column for ESPN, and a blog at uniwatchblog.com. Daily uni fun!
Yay Twins!
In and Out burger rules!
For the money, the Twins have to be sending out the best rotation in the bigs right now, I can’t think of any other team that is getting such good value out of a starting staff, one that makes just a small fraction of what Santana and Silva combined take in.
It’s also encouraging to see the Twins winning difficult games on the road, though I think a little bit of that 15 game lead is being reflected in the Angels’ apathetic performance lately.
Come playoff time, our middle relief problems should go away, and if we can win difficult games on the road maybe our disappointing playoff perfomances (disappointing being anything less than a World Series trophy ;)) will be a thing of the past.
But lets not get too far ahead of ourselves, there is still a lot of season left.
First place feels good. What a great team to root for and watch. Save for Rays fans (and can you really say there is such a thing?) Twins fans have to be having the most enjoyable season among all the MLB teams. I mean, who else can be having this much fun?
Big Dawg, keep your head down and make it back safe.
Though he is now on the DL, I’d take Reggie Willits over all the other Angels outfielders, except for Vlad.
I watched the game again and sure enough Everett’s jersey can be seen clearly in the second inning. Wow.
Video of Everett’s jersey:
I was down in Qatar last week and came across about 10 Twins fans watching a game on Armed Forces Network. Thanks for the support everyone. See you in the playoffs.
If you ever make it to San Diego again go to Hodad’s in Ocean Beach. Incredible burger.
bigdawg,
Anyone who can say in back-to-back posts that not only have they been deployed to Iraq but also that they’d go back and then make fun of themselves for misspelling a word is a MAN in my book. Good luck, Bud, and thank you for your service! Go Twins!
Hodad’s
is that the place where the serving staff has the novelty of being rude to the customers. ate there, great fun….
Good news for the Twins budget–Livan got knocked out in the 4th for the Rockies last night. He has now pitched 12.3 innings with an era of 15+ in three starts with his new team and there is talk he will be pulled from the rotation. This takes Livan up to 152 innings pitched for the year. At 160 innings he gets $133K from the Twins and then another $133K for every 5 innings thereafter. Doesn’t look like it will cost the Twins much. Well negotiated, Mr. Smith.
I woke up from a coma last night and went right to the Trib blogs.From reading some of the comments i assumed the Twins were doing lousy in the 2 months i was asleep and then i saw they were in first place.Who would have ever thunk it!
on Sports Talk today, Reusse said what I have been thinking, and I guess maybe many.
He said he hates to say it, but Cuddyer getting injured three times is the best thing that could have happened to the Twins this year, because otherwise, we would not have Span in the lineup, who he thought after Morneau and Mauer, was the teams MVP. I would go two better, I think he has been the MVP.
Also, I noted that Santana only got a 3-0 shutout last night. Perkins got a 9-0 shutout so that means Perkins is 3 times better than Santana.
The fox announcers for the white sox game are the dumbest announcers I have ever listened to. They compared the rays to gum on the bottom of the shoe. These dumb announcers must learn that the rays are the shoe and the red sox are the gum. Not the other way around.
Minute by minute Cuddy’s Twins future slips away … or at least changes shape. Lots of options with him though next year and as we’ve seen this season depth is needed (maybe the big toe will be the body part of choice to injure next year). Span is totally Wally Pipp”ing” him right now.
Now the fox announcers called the white sox as complete of a team as there is in the american league. Ok.
The most complete 2nd place team in the AL…
Wow just saw the Red Sox/Jays score. That could be a tough series at Toronto.
Hey Chino fan– great post!!
Let me get this straight… Denny was in bed BEFORE while the game started and then showed up in the clubhouse AFTER the game? Nice commitment by the former Twinkie.
Hocking wanted to be congratulated for his spelling skills………which by far surpassed his baseball skills.
