Thursday (Twingo) edition: Wha’ Happened?
Posted on April 17th, 2008 – 7:58 AMBy Michael Rand
Anyone who has been to a few Twins games with us knows we have a deep and abiding love — as well as a freakish good luck streak — when it comes to Twingo, the bingo-esque game that involves scoring plays. We’ve won twice in past years (including last year), and last night we would have won if not for one thing: Jason Kubel stopped running. Kubel, you see, laced a ball to right field with a runner on first and two outs in the bottom of the fourth. Kubel isn’t the fastest guy on the Twins, but we didn’t care. All we needed was a triple to complete our Twingo, and this at least seemed like a good bet — particularly with a runner on first. But as Joe Mauer chugged around third, Kubel rounded second and stopped. Nooooooooooo! The throw went home and Kubel started up again, making it to third. We hoped against all hope that the Twingo (and official scoring) gods would smile upon us, but we knew in our hearts that when “double” was flashed on the board, it was the right call. No luck.
(That picture, by the way, is of the Renault Twingo, a French car reborn last year. The name is said to “denote the ‘fun and active personality’ of the car,” sayeth Wikipedia. Who knew? But we do know this: All Twingo winners throughout the year in 2009 should be entered in a drawing to win one of those things.)
You can have your “runs created,” “VORP,” “OPS” and whatnot. What we really want to examine is the Twins’ RBBH factor.
Fact: The Twins are 2-0 in games attended by the RBBH, 5-8 in all other contests.
Fact: Joe Mauer and Carlos Gomez are each 5-8 in games attended by the RBBH (.625 batting average). In all other games, Go-Go and 4+3=7 are a combined 22-for-99 (.222).
Fact: The Twins’ bullpen has pitched 5 1/3 scoreless innings in games attended by the RBBH.
Case closed.
What else? Good angle by LEN3 on today’s Twins’ gamer. What was Carl Crawford thinking by catching that ball and giving the Twins the game? Also, an underrated play earlier in the game: CF B.J. Upton threw home, completely missing the cutoff man, when Carlos Gomez scored (easily) on Joe Mauer’s two-out single in the fifth. Mauer took second, which paved the way for a pitch-around walk to Justin Morneau, which ultimately led to two more runs on Jason Bartlett’s throwing error (Delmon Young). Fundamentals. … Our initial reaction to the Wolves’ win was “How could they do that?” but we have to stick to our original guns. Don’t mess with karma. A win is a win, and this will work out in the long run because they did things the right way down the stretch this season. … Kevin Love makes his decision today.
Game 5 tonight. Can you dig it?
Fasola-link! The art of the save.
21 Responses to "Thursday (Twingo) edition: Wha’ Happened?"
Game 5 tonight. Can you dig it?
Are we playing the Warriors or something?
I messaged RB and Stu last night but Scott Erikson and Lisa Guerrero were up in the booth last night with Bert and Dick. I missed the beginning to hear if they thanked the local blogger for helping to promote the movie.
Nice win for the Twins last night.
Carlos Gomez has a great arm, but Lord is it erratic. I predict that Gomez will hit Dick and/or Bert with a throw at least once this season. And MLB will require all announcers to wear those helmets without earflaps next season. Dick and Bert will take a field trip to Valleyfair to try and win their helmets by guessing their pitch speed.
Dick will meet an announcer from another team who is on a similar field trip while in line for nachos. They will make out on some folding chairs behind the stroller rental kiosk. They will exchange a few awkward phone calls over the offseason. “We should totally meet somewhere. How about the One-Potato-Two at the Burnsville Center Food Court?” Dick will say. But the meeting will never happen.
Dick and Bert will take a field trip to Valleyfair to try and win their helmets by guessing their pitch speed.
When I was 6, I won two helmets in two tries at Speed Pitch. It helps to be able to throw the same speed over and over and over again…
Dave - I’ve got 2 speeds. Suck them both!
RK
There was no mention of the Stu Huntdown. I thought for sure DickBert were avid Randballers and would have brought that up, but nope. My favorite part of the interview, right before Scotty boy leaves for the 10th time he says, “Oh by the way the Movie is opening April XX”. Like anyone is going to actually go watch this movie.
Clarence: your imagery is quite disturbing. That said, +3.
I still can’t get over the fact that the Wolves [redacted] up again and won last night. They were trying to tank, Jefferson didn’t play in the 4th or OT, and still managed to win. I’m starting to think my blood pressure would be better if the Wolves moved to Las Vegas.
Never won at Twingo. I’ve always thought it was fixed and that only Twins family members won. Good to know I have some hope that that catcher’s interference middle square might get me an Applebee’s gift certificate some day.
As Crawford was running for the ball in foul territory I was yelling,”Catch it! Catch it!” And he did. What a moron. As LEN pointed out in his gamer, that is why the Rays suck. He just didn’t say it so bluntly.
Yep, but it’s Delmon’s fault the Rays used to lose, right Carl? I got the feeling LEN was trying to get Young to say something, based on the fact he was quoted more than once in that story.
What does RBBH mean? RandBall something?
Sorry, yes, RandBall Better Half. My wife. As named by a commenter. Might have been Roughkat or Stu. Can’t quite recall.
Who will have the least amount of HR’s by the end of the year
Mauer
Young
Punto
oic
It’s easy to mix the two of us up. Here’s a recent photo that should clear things up. I’m the taller one.
I was half awake last night watching the Twins when I heard Dick say what I thought I heard was No Power is coming up to bat and what he really said was Joe Mauer. Hahahahahahahaha
rk
Who drank all that beer and didn’t Stu have to put the kids to bed?
hmmmm beer…..
hmmmm vietnamese food…..
hmmm… Vietnamese food and beer…..
I try to avoid ACCESS VIKINGS whenever possible but the headline got me hoping. Could LA get another team from a midwestern market?
jama - Yes they will and the vikings would be the replacement team for the LA area after the Traders left town. They will play near Watts in the LA coliseum. They may change the name though to the transients. The Watts Transients
