The not-quite-the-opener opener
Posted on February 26th, 2009 – 10:48 AMBy Howard
Good to see a real baseball game, even if many of the players weren’t the household names by the time the game was midway through and we were saddled with the Red Sox’ telecast. I’m not going to whine about the last part because, without volume, you didn’t miss anything except Boston chatter. I turned off the sound after Boston’s CEO said something, I think, about “good obstructed view” seats being available at Fenway. If I misheard, forgive me.
Four things I liked, even though everything is relative and not a guaranteed indicator of future returns: Perkins pitched a solid two innings and looked like a someone who should be in the rotation, rather than a suspect fifth; Delmon’s hustle from first to third on that hard single that smacked off Youkilis’ glove and into short right (even if there was some comedy when he scored on the Pridie sac fly; Buscher scorching the ball to right on both of his at-bats, and Ayala’s inning of relief.
I’m not going to go back and rerereanalyze the Santana deal but, from a distance, I really like the way Jed Lowrie carries himself at shortstop for the Red Sox.I can’t believe there’s competition between him and Julio Lugo for that position. I wonder if four years/$36 million (the deal Lugo somehow signed in 2007) has something to do with it. Makes Punto look like a bargain, huh?
Taking a few days mostly away from the keyboard. Joe and LaVelle will be writing and blogging, Jim Souhan is in Florida and there will be more Twins video on the web site. Enjoy.
28 Responses to "The not-quite-the-opener opener"
ah yes, another punto season is upon us.
I bet Punto dives head first into the bathtub, his bed, the grocery store among other places.
I think I muted the volume about the time the RedSox started talking about their NASCAR involvement. Could have just been instinctive on my part though, since I tend to hit “mute” whenever I hear someone say NASCAR.
For those who stuck through the telecast all the way through, it was nice seeing Valencia have some success, too. I actually kind of enjoyed watching the kids wearing the jersey numbers in the 70s and 80s for a few innings. There were some nerves, obviously, but all in all, not bad.
I just noticed the first chink in the armor of the Indians - Kerry Wood is experiencing back pain! He has a history of injuries with the Cubs and this may be a real problem for them; I could only listen to the game and it was good to have a game on and to hear that Delmon is hustling is great news. Go Twins!!
The Twins were able to sign Punto this off-season!? That had to cost the Twins a SMALL fortune! No wonder they had to get Crede cheap! (sarcasm)
So, do you thing that when Punto slips on the ice, he slips head first?
“good ubstructed view seats available”…. man the economy is hitting the Red Sox too
Shawn,
Did you find Cubs/Twins tickets yet?
Ayala looked good, and Crain did OK too. I have to believe that Boston will try to dump Lugo and go with Lowrie.
Can you imagine the thrill of taking the field for the first time in the Majors? Even though, it was a Spring Training game.
good obstructed view seats
As a matter of fact, those are some of the best bargains in the whole league. A lot of them are a couple rows behind the pillars of the infield grandstand and are mildly obstructed by the pillars. You can get seats on the 30th row on first base line for half of what you pay for outfield seats and most of them (esp single seats) are available as a walk in at the park.
That had to be the worse announcing job ever. The guy did not even know half of the player’s names, nobody indicated substitutions and had to follow it through the box score to see what was going on… horrid.
I thought the whole team played well and took some great at bats, they look ready for the season already, I believe this team has such a huge chip on their shoulder heading into the season that I would hate to have to play us.
Hey everyone, if you got a minute you should fill out your predictions in my annual MLB pick’em game! Last year Seth Stohs was the winner from a field of about 80.
I enjoyed watching the high numbered guys and putting a face to the names we read about.Other than that is was just fun to watch baseball again.With the Twins roster basicallt set,this could be a long spring training.
I agree with your assessment of Lowrie Howard.He looks like a player.Boston and the Twins have a lot of talent under the age of thirty.
http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=8547
from BP the other day, entertaining article about one pissed off Yankee fan re the way they are dealing with their long-time season ticket holders at the “House that George Built.” Now I would expect nothing less from this revenue-generating, soulless, A-Rod employing, beast of the east, but this is apparently the future of baseball; lower seating capacity with exponentially more expensive seats, squeezing out single game ticket holders and even lesser expensive multi-date ticket holders in favor of season-ticket holders and leaving the rest at the mercy of ticket brokers (the Cubs have apparently looked into sponsoring one of their own.) This isn’t going to end with Yankee Stadium or Fenway or Wrigley.
JustinCB,
last year the Twins averaged 25,000 tickets per game. That is 15,000 less that Target Field’s sitting capacity (and 21,000 less than the Metrodome’s). Unless they pull out a Cleveland in the 90s and sell out every game, this is not happening in Minneapolis.
thrylos,
Agreed, and the Twins will never be operated the way the Yankees are operated, and I didn’t say that this WOULD happen to the Twins, but its a disturbing baseball trend, nonetheless. The Twins are going to get more attendance in the new park, as they well should playing under sun now, and if it ever gets to the point where they can fill that place up on a regular basis, you can expect that they are going to strongly encourage people to spend more money to go to those games. A baseball team that relies so heavily on public financing SHOULD be run as a quasi-public institution, but it isn’t, and it won’t be.
A baseball team that relies so heavily on public financing SHOULD be run as a quasi-public institution, but it isn’t, and it won’t be
You could make the same argument about Northwest Airlines. They got more tax payer money than the Twins did, didn’t they?
I do not like what is happening with the major leagues esp. in the big market teams; that’s why when I want to watch a game in person, I go to AA and AAA games. Much closer to the action and for the price of a movie…
Well we all know what a fantastic job the airlines have done of running themselves… Anyway, we probably shouldn’t hijack the blog to argue the finer points of privatization, but baseball teams ought to know that the service they provide isn’t a necessity for people as the airlines arguably are, and that if the baseball teams try to run their business the way the airlines have run theirs, they are going to feel a backlash.
That was a good one, Aaron.
Nick turns off the bedroom light and DIVES into bed and under the covers to see if he can make it before the room goes dark.
Of course I don’t know that for a fact.
I was at a local establishment last night that claims to be a sports bar wearing my Twins jersey and cap like the rube I am. Sadly, I had to alert the staff that the Twins were on TV so they would change the channels from CNBC, the Golf Channel, and ESPNEWS.
So I agree with Howard that it was fun seeing a real game even if it was meaningless and included such over-the-top Beantown love talk as “I don’t know what it is about this town, but we turn malcontents into team players and champions…”, referring apparently to Randy Moss (who hasn’t won a championship yet), Cory Dillon and Ray Allen / Kevin Garnett (who last I checked were never me-first guys). I know who is though–he’s holding out for more than $45 million over two years as we speak.
I guess I’m just really anti-Bawston for some reason. All that history, money, and hype and we still have as many championships as they do. I always love how they’ll talk about Carlton Fisk and the 75 World Series as if they actually won the thing or something.
Oh well. Yes, Punto watch is underway. 0-for-3 so far. 2 years, 8.5 million, and one very damaging photograph of high-ranking Twins officials, apparently.
Glad 220 is back on a daily basis!
SK77 and Lightning, I think you are both onto something. Punto needs to have a commercial which features all of the things he dives head-first into. In addition to the bathtub and bed, perhaps the dug-out, a snow-bank, maybe a huge plate of pasta (he’s playing for Italy in WBC).
I guess I watch too much television, Jason, I didn’t believe you and had to look that up. In 1975, the Reds beat them in the World series. The Reds had 108 wins that year, but we beat the Reds just today, 10-4 (over and out?)
Greetings from the airport, where finding out my flight’s been canceled was made a bit easier to take by seeing today’s box score. wonder if Humber is gonna be this year’s JD Durbin, a comparison I have kept from making put loud until now. 4 ER/1 IP. Ouch.
Howard,
I hope that Dickie striking out the side eased the Humber pain…
Thrylos,
Absolutely, I would have added that except that my patience with the ‘Crackberry’ keyboard ran out.
Speaking of Dickey, check out this knuckleball video that Jerry Holt shot with him — and some Twins fans.
speaking of those videos in the Twins’ front page; they are great, but there is a tiny bug (not a “bug” really, but the way your page is set up):
If someone watches more than one video in a row, the auto-refresh of the whole Twins sports page is guaranteed to kick in (is the timer set to something like 5′?), the video will stop playing and the user will return back to the top video. Kind of irritating and could be solved with a bit of programming (you really need to only refresh the page units that have your ads -i.e. remove the auto-refresh from the main page or and added it to each of the ad page elements; like MLB and ESPN does) and keep the rest of the content steady.
Humber has to hope the Humber-is-out-of-options snarl will be a dilemma for the Twins a month from now. As it is, no dilemma.
Actually, that article about the seating arrangements at the new Yankee stadium aren’t too far off the mark for Target Field either. The Twins are pumping that the “most important factor” in your choice of seats is ‘how long you’ve had your seats’. The part they leave off is ‘if they are full season tickets’. I’ve got the 41 game package and sit in sec 118, about halfway down the lower level. Beautiful seats. I have no intention to upgrade to a full season ticket, I just don’t have that kind of time, and don’t want to go into the scalping business (funny how the Twins threatened to pull your seats if you sold them, now they’re the ones in bed with StubHub). So, if I keep my package, my spot “in line” as it were, to buy tickets in the new park, will be after everyone (read corporations) with full season ticket intentions, buys their seats. I, like the NY fans, am willng to pay for good seats, but I don’t even get that option. If you aren’t buying full season tickets, the best you are allowed to buy are the very top deck of the infield, the outfield bleachers, or the two baseline sections that are out by the foul poles. And, those choices are only going be available if there are seats left after all the full season ticket buyers make their choices. Also, in my package (the 41 game), they are taking away the “keep these seats for the playoffs”, in the new park. Instead of selling a 41, and two 20 game packages for a seat, they are selling two 40’s, so whoever has the longevity edge gets the seats, and the other person gets…..(I’ve called the Twins, and get assurances that everything will be OK, just wait). So, with the reduced seats, and the maximized “full season ticket” seating areas, I can see where as a 40 game package holder, I might not even get the opportunity to buy playoff tickets; if you’re a 20 game person, good luck (again, the Twins said it should be OK, there won’t be a problem). So it’s really set up as 80% high roller seating, and 20% “family friendly priced”, single game, lousy seats (the Twins response to my assertation was ‘all the seats are so much better than at the dome, so even way out there they’re good.’ When I responded “but my current seats cost me $45 bucks in 2007 dollars, and the best ones I can get (if they’re even available) will cost me $28 in 2010 dollars, how can you say they’re equivalent?” basically got no response.
