Why Reporters Hate Going to Fort Lauderdale….
Posted on March 13th, 2008 – 10:01 AMBy La Velle
As of this writing, Joe C. should be across Alligator Alley and closing in on Fort Lauderdale, where the Twins will face the Orioles today.
Joe used to cover the O’s, so he takes the trip so his old buddies can kiss the ring. Both of us, however, despise the stadium the Orioles play in.
First of all, the pressbox wobbles when it’s really windy which, by coincidence, seems to happen every time the Twins are in town.
Secondly, there’s no wireless set up in the press box. So we have to scramble to a trailer next to the stadium to file our stories. That also means no game updates here today. Sorry.
Thirdly, the pressbox is situated where foul balls reach us very quickly. About 5-10 times a game, reporters are screaming, “Look out!!” when a foul ball comes back. You can’t get caught with your head down.
Fourthly, the Orioles have stunk so much in recent years that the atmosphere is crummy. The only interesting thing is watching small planes land on an airfield about a mile behind the left field wall and wonder where are they coming from and what are they carrying. And that’s when you get caught not paying attention to the foul ball headed for your laptop.
As a favor to Joe, I’m posting the Twins’ lineup here. Jesse Crain is pitching for Class AAA Rochester today at 11 a.m. Pat from Golden Valley is on the scene for that one.
Twins lineup, Span (8), Punto (4), Young (7), Jones (3), Monroe (DH), Kubel (9), Redmond (2), Watkins (5), Everett (6). Pitching:Blackburn, followed by Bass, Rincon, Keisler, Korecky, DePaula and Cali.
38 Responses to "Why Reporters Hate Going to Fort Lauderdale…."
Believe it or not, your frank honesty in evaluating the atmosphere has made this one of your best blogs all spring LaVelle! Thanks for the good humor.
I hope Joe C doesn’t have to travel with Ruesse!He hit a new low in his constant negatism(sp)this morning in the Trib.When he uses the term loser, he should look in the mirror!
What a terrible lineup! Yawn! How am I going to waste my afternoon trying to stay interested in that? At least Blackburn is of some interest.
Why B/B fans hate not being in Fort Lauderdale
1 We don’t see the O’s stadium
2 I can’t feel the warm breezes wigglin the pressbox
3 If I was there you having or not having wireless becomes moot.
4 I can’t duck a foul ball
FYI as I drove home last night I looked south as I crossed the Stillwater bridge and there were 3 pick-ups parked ON the river…..bask in the sun and keep your head UP
Heh, I guess it’s all relative, drred!
La Velle, when is the next cut down on the roster? Enjoy Florida no matter which park. We are still waiting for the first night when it does not drop below freezing this year.
GENO: couldn’t disagree more. Reusse was honest in his comments, and if anything, was just reporting what Vegas thinks and why. There was nothing negative about that article at all. It was just honest in its assessment of the odds, not the outcome, but the odds.
I find Reusse’s willingness to be honest refreshing in this town, filled with the radio/tv announcers and some in the paper who think it is their job to parrot what the various FOs want us to hear/think.
To each his own, I guess.
span punto and everrett in the same line up?
Nolan Ryan is thinking to himself, I bet even at 50 some years old I could no hit that line up right now!
Patrick is like 90% of the writers in this town for either paper….negitive…thank god for La Velle who forgot more about B/B than Pat will ever know……
the sad thing is, that so is every other pitcher playing the game currently.
Will Patrick know any of the players in the AAA game??
Good point Seth.
LaVelle, do you know where we can get some insight on some of those games? do they even keep official stats anywhere?
cool my space bc. Pittsburg pirates hmm…..
where could you even find a boxscore fot the AAA game??
Could of had a starting rotation of
Hughes,Kennedy,Liriano,Hernandez and Baker Slowey or Blackburn. We got Gomez but I guess I am just a little confused
the aj trade didn’t look good half way in the first spring training after it. it takes a year or more to grade out a trade give them some time. and there is no confirmed report saying we could have had hughes and kennedy.
Reusse reported what Vegas thinks of the Twins. It’s pretty hard to be optimistic with this pitching staff.
The lineup could be worse than Span, Punto and Everett, you could could have Gomez in there for Span.
The Orioles ballpark must be bad, their own radio team doesn’t even want to broadcast the home game. Guess we gotta follow the MLB live boxscore.
I think Patrick Ruesse was pretty much right on target with his column today and he didn’t even get into the holes in CF,3b, SS, and 2b. Folks can always hope for the best but right now I don’t see how anyone can predict a strong season when Gardy can only fill out half a lineup card at this point.
I am just curious on what Gomez is hitting in spring training. Can we pleeeeeeease get rid of Kubel now finally.
I want to see way more face painting at games this year!!!
Breaking news just posted….
Also has anyone heard anymore regarding the whacko lady who threw herself on HWY 169 going crazy on bad dope and wasted tax payers money and man hours
Best blog i have ever read.
Why is there no link for the game today on gameday audio?? I paid to hear EVERY spring game, didn’t I?
I second that. Great blog.
Could of had a starting rotation of
Hughes,Kennedy…
No. We wouldn’t have. The sticking point was that the Yankees didn’t want to give up both Hughes and Kennedy.
Interesting lineup. Looks like today’s the day for a lot of guys to get their shot at proving themselves as viable options off the bench.
Nice to see Young hitting 3rd again as well. Hope that’s a genuine attempt at it and not just putting him there bceause Cuddy’s not hitting today.
Reusse reported what Vegas thinks of the Twins.
When it comes to Reusse, he’d post my thoughts on the Twins if I were to give him enough “They suck…” “Won’t be any good…” and “The universe is about to end…” sound bites to use.
Does anybody know what is going on? Did we even send 4 starters over there today?
“The only interesting thing is watching small planes land on an airfield…”
Get used to it, LaVelle, cuz you’ll soon be watching small starting pitchers at the Dome.
Hate to be sarcastically negative, but….
GENO, the Twins lost their 3 stud pitchers this Winter and replaced them with Livan and hopes in their AAA pitchers.
Reusse ain’t DUMB! LOL……..
romer,,, Silva is hardly a stud,, but a really hard luck pitcher,, that is all,
And Silva was worth about $10M in an ordinary market who almost always gave his team a chance to win.
Not a Beckett/Santana/Haren/N. Ryan/etc. type stud. But would you accept stud junior who goes 200 innings?
And he hasn’t come close to being replaced.
And neither have Santana and Garza.
I ain’t dumb either, popbelly.
And BTW, thanks LaVelle for calling out Smith at the Awards Banquet re the prospective Santana trade. Too bad more journalist/reporters didn’t do the same. Maybe he would have waked up and attempted to replace the 3 stud type pitchers he lost with more than a last-minute gasp in the form of Livan……..
mike-Reusse has been negative his whole time on the two local papers.I asked a friend who was a bad arm away from pitching for the Red Sox why he never critized other professional ball players?His obvious answer was he knew the hard work and dedication it took to be big league players.At least we have seen pictures of Reusse and Barrario to know what lack of atheletic specimens they are.Maybe if we could see pictures of all the posters on this blog,the negative comments might end
Doesn,t take much to replace a .500 pitcher, just a little luck,,,and No, Romer, never said that you were dumb,, I really quite like your Blogs,,,
Oh, no, popbelly. I wasn’t taking it THAT way. I was just pissed in general.
But GENO has a point. So I don’t want to bitch and bitch on the blog. It’s just that with one more stud type pitcher (ace) we could make a run at the WC this year.
18 months or so ago we had the then current best team in baseball. Now we gotta wait 14 months or so more to see if we can even compete in 2009. And we aren’t even spending our payroll.
32 months is a long time to wait. And such things get Reusse crabby and he’s not afraid to let people know about it.
I’m thinking about which body shot I’m going to send GENO. Haven’t decided yet.
Get a clue people. It’s the middle of March. Let’s give the local team a chance to play a few games that count BEFORE we all hit the panic buttons. I enjoy the updates & inside info from La Velle, Joe & Howard. Don’t fill these blogs with so much negative comments that they won’t even want to read their own stuff. BTW, Billy Crystal should soon be a available as a pick up at DH. Or maybe we could just let Kubel have 500+ at bats for once & see what he produces. How can our young starting pitchers get experience without actually pitching in the majors? Let’s give everybody a chance to play. The players will succeed or fail. Let’s see what happens. Hopefully we will keep those that succeed & develop/acquire even more. I will be surprised if we compete this year, but if we improve as the year goes on, I will be happy. A mid-market team can not win every year. Just so we don’t pull a Pirates, Royals, Brewers or Rays decade.
Dear coco:
Bah!
18 mos ago:
best bullpen in MLB
good batting average
batting champ
Mvp
Cy Young
pirhanas, in addition to
outfielders with decent HR and RBI output
Exc defensive catcher, exc backup catcher
Excellent defense.
Now we got, “Give our young starting pitchers experience” and “look for improvement” —– all after ticket prices have been raised and not spending anywhere near up to the payroll limit.
Bah!!
romer-I’m not a mind reader but the body part i know you are sending is either the middle finger extended upwards or a shot at your butt.Cute.
