A Day of Firsts

Joe Mauer got his first hit of the season. Oswaldo Arcia got his first hit (and game-winning RBI) as well. Perkins picked up his first save of the season after Wednesday's disaster. Caleb Thielbar picked up his first win AND Chris Colabello picked up the first 6 RBI day of his career.

All of this giving the Twins their first win of the year.

You know it's pretty bad, though, when you need TEN runs just to win, and that the winning pitcher is the guy that gave up the lead in the eighth.

But a win is still a win, and it's always better than another loss.

And look at this RBI chart! Two Twins in the top three in the entire league.

The Thrills and Dangers of Extreme Lifting

It's a 20-minute documentary about powerlifters competing in strongman competitions. I found it fascinating. The dangers are real.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8A7woRoVwyM&app=desktop

Twins

There was just so much sadness and despair in the long drawn-out disappointing ending of yesterday's game that I don't even want to think about it, let alone comment on it.

Perkins, Plouffe, Deduno...

...you all know what you did wrong, and we all saw it.

But there was so many other things that were done poorly in late innings, that I'd have to say this was a real team defeat. Never have so many, contributed so little, for so few results.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, your 2014 Minnesota Twins.

The Twenty Trillion Dollar Challenge

I've decided to one-up Warren Buffet. There are just 4 teams left in the NCAA March Madness Tournament. IF one of my regular readers can correctly guess all remaining winners in the brackets, I will award the winner a 20 trillion dollar bill from Zimbabwe.

That's right TWENTY TRILLION DOLLARS.

Obviously with that much at stake, some restrictions will apply. First off, you'll have to post your predictions to all three remaining games here on the blog in the comments section. If there is a tie, only one winner will be selected randomly from the correct entries. One entry per household.

The winner must pick up the 20 trillion dollar note from me the Tuesday morning immediately following the Monday Championship game, from 9 a.m. until 9:30 a.m CST.

You have to already know where I live.

You will not be notified of your win. We will all know the results from the comments section. If there is a tie, the winner will be announced here at the blog.

This isn't a trick. This isn't a joke. I do have the bill in my possession. I just don't want to go out of my way to give it away. The responsibility for getting it from me will be the winner's entirely under the above restrictions.

This is a picture of what the bill looks like. Actual bill will vary.

Twins

I was reading an article yesterday and the author mentioned that the Twins offense last year was ... offensive. That was the least amount of runs they had scored in a season since 1972. That year was so bad in the AL that they started the DH rule. Imagine that, the Twins run production WITH a DH were worse than the a historically bad team without one.

And nothing indicates that this year should be an improvement. We all hope that this will be the breakout season for guys like Hicks, Pinto, and Arcia.

But we really don't expect it. If anything our expectations are much lower than that.

Much, much lower.

I mean, we still have both Jasons on the roster. In a new season that already features lots of heads scratching that's the biggest head scratcher of all.

Quick Notes

Don Baylor, catching the ceremonial first pitch from retiring Vlad Guerro, broke his leg yesterday on the pitch. Batlor has been battling bone marrow cancer which leaves the bones more brittle..

Vikings head coach, Mike Zimmer, made headlines yesterday by saying Johnny Manziel may be more concerned about being a celebrity than being a winning NFL quarterback, after watching his private workout last week. That didn't earn him many points from Manziel or his people.

The Wolves lost to the Clippers who were missing a couple starters including Blake Griffin. Media people are talking about the possibility of a new head coach for next season.

I know Kurt Suzuki got all the team's RBI yesterday,  but can anyone tell me WHY he's batting SECOND? He is possibly the worst hitter on the team (and on THIS team that's saying a lot) and has no speed, being an old catcher. What is Gardy thinking? That he had success yesterday only means that Gardy will now use him there everyday forever.  sigh

Remember not too long ago when Wilson Ramos was the Twins back up catcher, but we decided to trade him because we had Joe Mauer and we couldn't see needing him or his mega-talents? He's starting and batting cleanup for the Nationals this year. It's enough to make you cry.

Twins

Another opening day has come and went.

Nolasco gave up 10 hits and 5 earned runs in six innings including two monster-shots to the same guy. I watched Mauer ground out weakly to the infield three times. He didn't get on base.

Kurt Suzuki, batting number two, had all three of the Twins RBI.

It was painful to watch. I only lasted into the sixth.