It's Monday morning and Lucy and I are on our way back to Minneapolis. It was a great time in Raleigh. We went to Lucy's college roommate's surprise 40th birrhday party. Her husband put on a great party, and we had a great time.
Last night we went out for dinner [...]

Waiting for our flight to Raleigh.
My wife claims that I'm addicted to this website. Maybe she's right. After all, I'm sitting here on a min vacation writing away. Well, actually, I'm just killing time. Lucy is tired and barely awake.
I was watching TV and I saw an ad for [...]

Lucy and I are headed off to North Carolina for the weekend to visit some friends. Is there a more basketball crazy state?
No, I don't have a golf game scheduled with Mike Jordan. That old knucklehead! I hate taking his money on the course all the time.
See you next week, [...]

The Tigers turn to their rookie Justin Verlander in an elimination game. Meanwhile, every St. Louis Cardinals fan who disparaged the 1987 Twins for their poor regular season record will probably forget their nearly score old complaints should the Cardinals win tonight.

• End of the month is near. Yahoo! By Nov. 1, things will have slowed up. A little.
• So, we are one game away from an 83 win team winning the World Series. To be fair, the Cardinals have been a good team for some time. Not so [...]

Maybe?

• No time to write -- will I ever have time again?
• AMR wondered the other day if any World Series had been played where neither team won consecutive games. Yes. It happened in 1997 between the Marlins and the Indians. I don't know if it has happened any other [...]

Maybe.

• Whew. The month is coming to an end, and it can't come soon enough -- although I don't know if adding four or five days to October would be the worst thing ever -- it would take some pressure off of me.
• The F-Bomb has reportedly left the Twins year round [...]

I've actually seen very little post season baseball and I'm stuck in the office again tonight.

• I intend to start writing again soon and I have a lot of stuff to write about. Right now, though, my writing is all of the legal kind.
• It's kind of a family campaign right now. I've been working some pretty long hours, but not as long as [...]

• I'm still crushed at work.
What's on your mind?

Surprising result last night I think, but today is another day.

• I went to a football game yesterday and an all-school reunion broke out. That was one of the most fun sporting events I've ever been to, ever. Lucy and I walked over to the NDSU Alumni tent from my office and the place was overflowing with Bison fans. It's clear [...]

Go Tigers! This should be a fun series.

Final Score: Minnesota Goofers 10, NDSU 9.
NDSU completely dominated play today and should have won the game. They had a chance, but a last second field goal was blocked.
Total yards: NDSU 381, Minnesota 249. The Bison completely dominated the line of scrimmage both ways. That game was theirs [...]

• Well, the World Series is upon us. I am a little enthused that we've got the teams that we have. I said before the playoffs started that if not the Twins, then the Tigers. Really, if they win the World Series, what a story. No winning seasons for about [...]

• So, it's the Cardinals and the Tigers in the World Series. Wow. I'm glad for the Tigers and I hope they win. Oh, to have known this fact back about October 1. The Tigers and Cardinals both performed a face plant in September and were playing worse than any [...]

Go Cardinals. Eliminate the Mets. It's all that I ask.

• I had a list of things that I wanted to write about, but I am just way too busy right now. Here are some things that I do want to mention.
• I just read yesterday that Grant Balfour was released by Cincinnati and picked up by the Brewers. Here's hoping that Mr. Balfour can [...]

My next door neighbor in college was a bandwagon Mets fan in 1986. Bad mouthed the Twins every chance he got. I was pulling hard for the Red Sox just to shut him up (and because I hated that Mets team, especially Gary Carter). When Buckner let that [...]

• As you know, I'm a big Timberwolves fan. As the season gets closer and closer, I am looking forward to watching KG play, but I'm afraid that once again, this team will be a below average team that will fail to make the playoffs. With every day that passes, I feel like the [...]

It's that crucial game five. Oh wait, this is baseball not basketball. Anything can happen.

• Still crushed. Talk amongst yourselves.

• I’ve decided that the coffee machine at work makes some damned strong coffee. On Friday, I was tired and I was drinking a little more coffee than I might usually. I actually started to not feel well, and I’m pretty sure it was the coffee.
• I read the column by Alan Schwarz reflecting on [...]

It's throat grabbing time for the Cardinals. Whose will they grab? The Mets? Or their own?

• Hey, did you ever hear anyone say this playoff stuff is a crapshoot? (Note: don’t use that word in a comment or my spam killer will eat it.) If the Cardinals go ahead and win the NLCS, no sure thing at this point, but they have to be favored I would think, we [...]

NAME
POS
PA
PA%
AVG
OBP
SLG
SB
CS
MLVr
PMLVr
VORPr
MLV
PMLV
VORP

Joe Mauer
c
608
9.80%
0.347
0.429
0.507
8
3
0.323
0.366
0.468
46.0
52.1
66.6

Justin Morneau
1b
661
10.60%
0.321
0.375
0.559
3
3
0.282
0.162
0.335
43.6
25.1
51.8

Michael Cuddyer
rf
635
10.20%
0.284
0.362
0.504
6
0
0.143
0.095
0.243
21.3
14.1
36.1

Torii Hunter
cf
611
9.80%
0.278
0.336
0.490
12
6
0.072
0.097
0.227
10.3
13.9
32.5

Luis Castillo
2b
652
10.50%
0.296
0.358
0.370
25
11
-0.043
0.005
0.139
-6.5
0.8
21.2

Jason Bartlett
ss
372
6.00%
0.306
0.364
0.390
10
5
0.006
0.059
0.187
0.5
5.1
16.2

Mike Redmond
c
191
3.10%
0.339
0.363
0.411
0
0
0.063
0.114
0.209
2.8
5.1
9.3

Nick Punto
3b
524
8.40%
0.290
0.352
0.373
17
5
-0.055
-0.076
0.074
-6.7
-9.3
9.1

Jason Tyner
lf
232
3.70%
0.312
0.345
0.353
4
2
-0.079
-0.112
0.022
-4.3
-6.1
1.2

Josh Rabe
lf
51
0.80%
0.286
0.314
0.490
0
1
0.044
-0.003
0.079
0.5
0.0
0.9

Shannon Stewart
lf
190
3.10%
0.293
0.347
0.368
3
1
-0.070
-0.131
0.012
-3.1
-5.8
0.6

Alexi Casilla
2b
6
0.10%
0.250
0.500
0.250
0
0
0.068
0.156
0.237
0.1
0.2
0.3

Chris Heintz
c
1
0.00%
0.000
0.000
0.000
0
0
-1.394
-1.181
-1.181
-0.3
-0.3
-0.3

Terry Tiffee
ph
49
0.80%
0.244
0.306
0.400
0
1
-0.132
-0.136
-0.078
-1.5
-1.6
-0.9

Phil Nevin
dh
54
0.90%
0.190
0.340
0.286
0
0
-0.246
-0.300
-0.160
-3.1
-3.8
-2.0

Ruben Sierra
dh
32
0.50%
0.185
0.281
0.222
0
0
-0.463
-0.447
-0.347
-3.5
-3.4
-2.6

Luis Rodriguez
3b
132
2.10%
0.235
0.315
0.322
0
0
-0.234
-0.221
-0.109
-7.2
-6.8
-3.4

Tony Batista
3b
195
3.10%
0.236
0.303
0.388
0
1
-0.167
-0.212
-0.090
-7.6
-9.7
-4.1

Jason Kubel
lf
235
3.80%
0.241
0.279
0.386
2
0
-0.209
-0.249
-0.110
-11.5
-13.7
-6.0

Juan Castro
ss
164
2.60%
0.231
0.258
0.308
1
1
-0.370
-0.316
-0.197
-14.2
-12.1
-7.5

Lew Ford
lf
255
4.10%
0.227
0.287
0.312
9
1
-0.308
-0.353
-0.187
-18.4
-21.1
-11.1

Rondell White
dh
355
5.70%
0.246
0.276
0.365
1
1
-0.241
-0.286
-0.158
-20.0
-23.8
-13.1

The Twins offense had a VORP of 194.8. I tried to pull up the pitching VORP numbers, but BP's database was having a problem. I'm pretty happy with a 194.8 VORP, [...]

For your primetime enjoyment, a battle to see who will be a big underdog to the Detroit Tigers.

Oakland has to hope that the Tigers are as big a bunch of chokers at the New York Yankees.

Back when I announced to the world that Lucy and I were expecting, I got an e-mail from esteemed blogger and frequent commenter here, frightwig. He let me in on a little secret. He was expecting a baby, too. Well, he's expecting no more. frightwig is the proud father of a [...]

• Really, I do intend to start writing substantive articles in the near future. For now, though, I'm only able to devote enough time to posting an open chat.
What's on your mind?

I swear if the Cardinals win this series it'll be 1968 all over again.

The varsity game is right after this one.

• I was going to write a bit last night, then I fell asleep about 8:15. I needed a good night's sleep after a long week.
• Then, I got set to write this AM and the site was down. Again. Sigh. The day is moving along and I got [...]

This time it counts.

• So, from what I hear, Eric Chavez has been a butcher at third base (I didn't see last night's game). Funny, he was All-World against the Twins. Truly, you cannot judge your talent by their performance in the post-season.
• A rainout in New York and a Tiger win in Oakland. [...]

The Birds on the Bat Boys invade Gotham. That is, if you accept that Queens counts as Gotham.

I wonder for whom Derek Jeter is pulling in this series. How come no one is asking that question, huh?

• There is plenty to write about -- Oakland's game 1 debacle, Hunter's extension picked up, etc. and so forth. However, I'm kind of crushed right now and have no time. The floor is yours. (And the Wild are 3-0.)

Winner plays the Yankees for the right to go to the World Series.

• Good morning! No coffee is brewing, it'll be a work coffee day. The brand currently in the coffee machine there is a Kona blend.
• The ALCS begins tonight. Detroit and Oakland make six different teams in the ALCS in the last three years. Think back two years when [...]

• Seen on a T-Shirt this afternoon: "There are 10 types of people in the world. Those who get binary and those who don't."
• Had some comments in moderation today. I used the word "crapshoot" in a post. Comments posted using that word and my spam checker nailed them. Sorry.
• Oakland last won [...]

• Once again, I have to start out by quoting Joe Sheehan, a writer whose columns I surely enjoy, even if I don't always agree. A professed Yankee fan, Sheehan nevertheless has his eyes open.
Torre’s handling of the Rodriguez situation is perhaps the blackest mark on his record. Going so far [...]

• Lucy and I had a nice day today. We ran some errands, did some chores around the place, took a nap, relaxed, etc. In a sense, there is some relief that the baseball season is over. I enjoyed the season tremendously, but a little time with the wife is a good thing, [...]

I gotta believe that all of Detroit is on pins and needles over this one. Heh.

• Another unsuccessful season in the Bronx. Can you believe it? For all his so-called leadership, it should never be forgotten, if you put all your stock in such things, that Derek Jeter hasn't "led" the Yankees to a single World Championship since people like Paul O'Neil and Tino Martinez were there. [...]

• First of all, I want to thank all of you for the kind words about the site. I can assure you that no one enjoyed this site more than I did this summer. The cast of characters made this a truly enjoyable ride. Many times Lucy said in disgust, how come you [...]

• Tough to see the Yankees lose. What will Tim McCarver do if Detroit clinches? Obviously, I hope that the Yankees lose. If they do, have they had a disappointing season? If your measure is winning a World Series, of course. If you measure is the regular season, then [...]

• Twins lose. Season done. Sigh.
• Tigers lead Yanks 3-0 in the fifth. Not all is wrong with the world, at least at this minute.
What'll you have?

We could use a victory here. That's what I'm saying. A victory would be nice. How about a win today. That's what I'm talking about. I'm saying the Twins need to outscore the A's. Yep.
I've had one server outage today that lasted about 2 1/2 hours. [...]

• Coffee is brewing in the old Bunn coffee maker (I'll have it soon!) and I've got some toast with peanut butter for breakfast.
• It's elimination day number 1. Hopefully, of course, it isn't the last elimination day of the year. These last two games have taken a little of the [...]

• The Tigers evened the series with the Yanks today. That was a big deal, not only because they have wrested home field advantage from the Bombers, but for their own confidence. Beating the Yanks three times is a tough proposition, but it's not impossible. Joel Zumaya can bring it. Verlander is [...]

• Lucy, normally a coffee drinker, can't stand the smell of coffee during her pregnancy. Nevertheless, she keeps buying the stuff for her addicted mate. For that, I'm grateful.
• The Yankees will be playing at noon today following their rainout. It breaks my heart that the nation will be deprived [...]

• I do believe that I need a drink.
• First, let me talk about the server issues. The server was down three different times today. I woke up to write my “Cup of Coffee” post and the server was down. I got the game log posted, but about the time that Torii Hunter blew [...]

The site has been down most of the moring. I have hope that it will be up during the crush of game 2.
Methinks that the Twins need to win this one. Go Boof!

• Well now. That was disappointing. I guess we all figured Game 1 was ours. Now we need someone else to step up. Like Boof.
• Nick Punto should be fined for sliding into first base. That's my latest determination.
• I hear that there other playoff games going on outside of [...]

I have a new idea! How about you post your thoughts about the game right here?

• Good morning. I've got an appointment this morning and the pot of coffee is a-brewing.
• Of course, there's only one thing on everyone's mind this morning -- the 2006-07 Timberwolves season. Just-about-the-best-thing-going-at-the-abyss-that-is-ESPN(.com) John Hollinger looks at the T-Wolves upcoming campaign. Writes Hollinger about last year (this article is an [...]

• One of Lucy's friends is a season ticket holder and she called tonight to offer me a ticket to the Wednesday afternoon game. Damn. I'm going to have to take her up on it.
• The server outage on Sunday was rather unfortunate, and I don't really know what happened. I don't [...]

• Yesterday was a bittersweet day for SBG, the WGOM. The last day of the greatest Twins regular season ever, the big payoff, and my server is down pretty much all day long. I was truly bummed, yet elated.
• Lucy and I went for a bicycle ride during the first part [...]

My host has been having problems today. Sigh. Hopefully, this will be available for today's game.
Thanks to everyone who has contributed to the Game Logs. It has been a lot of fun for me and I hope for you. I will post playoff Game Logs for the Twins (of course) and [...]

• Good Morning! It's October 1, 2006. Time for some October baseball! We'll start out game one of this month finishing out the regular season. Against all odds, the Twins have lost the first two games of the White Sox series and have a chance to win the division today. [...]