11-1!!!!

Polanco! TWO homers!
Berrios! Seven scoreless innings!
Dozier! Four hits!
Mauer! Now batting .296!
69 Wins! They had 59 all last season!!!

Go Twins!!!!!

Polanco! Santana!

Polanco stays hot with 2 home runs as Santana squeaks into the seventh.

Good enough!

Go Twins!!!

Rocket League

I've seen the future of televised sports and it has nothing to do with athletic people on a playing field.

A few weeks ago my wife and I watched a few minutes of world-class drone flyers competing in an empty big league stadium. It was basically a bunch of nerds with remotes piloting their drones through the hallways and open spaces of the the facility.

Prize money was at stake.

This weekend the NBC Sports channel (NBC's version of ESPN) outdid even that. They were broadcasting the entire Rocket League tournament. For those of you who don't know, Rocket League is a video game where trucks play soccer.

You read that right. NBC was broadcasting tons of hours of nerds playing video games for money. In primetime. They even had commentators and broadcasters giving play by play as if were a real thing.

And get this. The youth market, the ones advertisers seek, is gobbling up this programming.

Do you have any idea what this means for the future of televised sports in America?

Let's just say that major league baseball and its 3 hour snooze-fests are in real trouble.

I have seen the future of sports and it does not involve athletes.

And I used to think all of that televised poker on various sports channels was stupid...

KC Royals

Though very much in the hunt for the last wildcard slot, Kansas City hasn't been playing very well as of late.

Last night they extended their not scoring any runs streak to 43 consecutive innings.

For those of you who can't do math very well, that's nearly 5 straight games.

The record? 48.

I say they go for it.

Vikings

The Vikings subs came back last night and pulled victory from the jaws of defeat with a last second TD.

But that first team did not look good on offense or defense.

Still apprehensive about the upcoming season.

Buxton! Gibson!

Three home runs for Byron. WOW!

6 2/3 innings for Gibson. Only two runs. Wow!

Twins have the best record in baseball since early August. Wow!

I'm still enjoying this run. And they are still very much in the wildcard mix!

Late August and still in the mix!

Wow!!!

Mayweather Wins With TKO in 10th

A real fight.

The last thing anyone expected.

Estimated payout for Mayweather? $200 million

McGregor? $75 million.

It all depends on the final PPV figures.

Twins Score NINE

Kepler grandslam in eighth.

Twins lose.

sigh

Colon!

4 straight quality starts for the fat, old man!

We've had 34 pitchers on our roster this season, and he's seems to be one of the few who actually clicks.

Curtiss looked good in his debut in the 1-2-3 ninth as well.

Buxton! Polanco! Mauer!

Each had three hits!

Go Twins!

The Twins WERE On A Roll...

...until they played the White Sox.

You know you are not doing well when you lose games that Santana and Berrios start.

heavy sigh

Bottom of the Ninth

sigh

Polanco! Vargas! Rosario! Gibson!

Whooo!!!!!

I'm going to add Gibson again.

GIBSON!!!!!

Split

It's always better to split a double-header than to lose one, but it's still hard to see this team lose to the lowly White Sox.

That first game was made worse by the rain delay.

One exclamation.

Polanco!

Colon! (Another Win)

Rosario! (Grand Slam)

9-run first inning!

Sweep!

4 game win streak!

They start a rare 5-game series with the White Sox today. That includes 2 games today.

Go Twins!!!!

Berrios!

I'm enjoying the hunt for the last wildcard slot. (You know, the one that gives you the privilege of losing one extra game each year and not really making the playoffs.)

Go Twins!!

Sano! (2!!!) Buxton! Kepler! Escobar! Dozier! Santana!

10-3!!!!

Whooo!!!

Trivia: The last time someone got TWO inside the park home runs in ONE game? 1986, Greg Gagne for the Twins. Hank Thompson was the last person to do it in the National League. That was way back in 1950.

Twins Lose 2 Out Of 3, Grossman

Now that was a disappointing series. Grossman broke his thumb in the collision with Buxton, and the Twins find themselves even further behind the team they are chasing.

Typical Minnesota situation.

sigh

Giancarlo Stanton

Before the steroid era, the official homerun record for major league baseball was 61. It was a mark Roger Maris hit breaking Babe Ruth's famous 60 home run record.

Then the record fell several times when guys like Sammy Sosa, Mark McQwire, and Barry Bonds started suspected juicing.

Most baseball purists consider the Roger Maris 61 mark the REAL record. For those folks, what Giancarlo Stanton is doing for the Marlins this season is pretty cool. He's been hot lately. Last night his six game straight homerun streak came to an end, but he's still on pace to break or tie the Maris mark of 61.

Me?

I'm a bit more jaded. I no longer think anyone is "clean." They are just better at covering up whatever they are using. Because of that, Barry Bonds has the record. His steroids were better than Maris' uppers.

And Ruth's prohibition beer.

That's the baseball world in a nutshell.

If You're Going To Lose...

...lose big.

Two more games to determine the season, tonight and tomorrow.

Just Do It!

This odd bit of sports history makes me smile.

Last month, a 50-mile ultra marathon race was held in Mexico. The winner was Maria Lopez Ramirez. Please note that she ran the whole race in a skirt and sandals.

It's not the footgear and athletic wear folks, despite how much the Nike marketing machine tells you differently.

Cleveland Showdown

Here we are in the middle of August and I'm typing a Twins's blog about how important this series with Cleveland is for the season.

Wow.

Just wow.

We all know that a sweep would be fantastic (and that getting swept would pretty much end our season) but the main thing is-

-it IS the middle of August and the Twins have a very important series to play. How cool is that? I admit, I'm not caught up in some amazing pennant race frenzy, yet. It's too early, that and our starting rotation and bullpen are as suspect as any team in baseball.

BUT...

...this series IS important.

Cool.

Dozier! Sano!

Buxton!

Keep it going!!!

Heavy Sigh...

A great comeback followed by everything going wrong.

Hopefully they can start another winning streak.

Six Straight!

Kepler Homered!

Rosario Homered!

Buxton's Catch!

!!!!!!!!!!!

Five Game Win Streak!

Whoooo!!!!

Colon!

Shutout!

Dozier! Home run!

4 Straight Wins!

Whooo!

Dozier! (Grand Slam!)

Rosario! ( TWO home runs!)
Kepler! (TWO home runs!)

Three game win streak!

Whoo!

Another Comeback!

Santana might be good, but he sure gives up lots of home runs.

Rosario dancing off third base last night caused the Brewer's pitcher to balk.

BAM!

Another win.

Keep going guys. There's plenty of season left to play!

Comeback!

Kepler!

Dozier!

Rosario!

Still fun about half the time.

Twins Lose

I said I wanted the Twins to finish at .500. I didn't mean I wanted them to lose every other game.

I guess that should be a lesson for me.

Colon Goes the Distance In Twins Win!

Dozier Homers TWICE!

And the Vikings have started camp in Mankato.

Twins Lose

So what else is new?

Santana!

Complete game AND 2 RBI.

More, please.

New Japan Pro

When the Twins start contending again, I'll start talking about them.

New Japan Pro is the WWE of Japan. Recently they've made their product more and more available in the states where U.S. fans can see them. They're hoping to expand into more of a global market like WWE.

Their biggest event of the year dwarfs Wrestlemania. They hold an event called Climax that lasts a week and a half and consists of 14 three hour shows. It's like a year's worth of WWE pay-per-views all in a 17 day span. And THIS year, they're making all of the shows available online for free in the states to try to entice the U.S. market.

Me? Let's just say I'd rather watch three hours of their shows every night than another Twins loss.

I've seen 10 so far, with just 4 more nights to go.

I like their product a lot. They have their primary stars. Guys like Okata, Kenny Omega, Sanada, and Michael Elgin who are as good as anyone the WWE has to offer, but they have a whole roster of other guys who are allowed to win on occasion. That's where they differ from the WWE. Even the guys who aren't top stars sometimes beat the top stars.

And that keeps their product and match-ups fresh. I can't emphasize enough how much that makes their product more watchable than WWE. The first few night they broadcast the event in English. The last several have been in Japanese. I probably couldn't watch them that way if I hadn't seen the U.S. versions first, but since I have, the transition really hasn't been as jarring as you may expect. I KNOW the wrestlers. I know the characters they portray. I'd enjoy the product more with English announcing, but I enjoy it just fine without it.

Best match far? Michael Elgin versus Kenny Omega. It was as good (or better) than anything the WWE has put on this year. (And I thought Cena and A.J. Styles tore it up a few times for WWE.)

I have no idea if fans who see WWE as the only wrestling league out there will ever enjoy the Japanese product.

I mean there are WWE fans who can't even appreciate the incredible ability of WWE wrestlers like A.J. Styles or Sami Zayn, so who knows?

But I like having an alternative to the RAW and Smackdown snooze-fest as of late. A stale product doesn't get any better by consuming more of it.

Kinda' like the Twins....

An Old Sport

With network sports ratings going down all the time, perhaps it's time to bring back an OLD sport based on an even older sport.

Give these guys the personalities of pro wrestlers with a Mad Max type of stadium and you have instant ratings success.

I know I'd watch it over NASCAR.

Kintzler Gone

The season is now unofficially over for the Twins.

We got rid of our closer because we know that we don't need him anymore.

His last couple of outings haven't been so hot anyway.

sigh