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Cup of Coffee: November 8, 2007

Cup of Coffee Print your virtual playoff tickets, the 1986 Twins are 2-0.

This entry was posted by SBG on Thursday, November 8th, 2007 at 7:04 am and is filed under Cup of Coffee. It is one of 3094 entries by the author. We are no longer accepting Letters to the Editor on this post.

52 comments to Cup of Coffee: November 8, 2007

  • Algonad
    November 8th, 2007 at 8:09 am

    I'd forgotten how bad the relief pitching was for the Twins before Jeff Reardon. Good luck!

  • ubelmann
    November 8th, 2007 at 8:53 am

    Looks like Frankie V had a slight case of the Radkes.

  • brianS
    November 8th, 2007 at 10:12 am

    1986 Twins >> 1927 Yankees.

    and SBG is testing the "anybody can be a closer" theory. Pete Filson!!!

  • Jeff A
    November 8th, 2007 at 11:40 am

    Keeping up with the ex-Twins:

    Cleveland sends Luis Rivas outright to AAA Buffalo. Rivas refuses the assignment and elects free agency.
    As previously reported, Atlanta removed Corky Miller from the 40-man roster. Miller has refused an assignment to AAA and has also elected free agency.

  • brianS
    November 8th, 2007 at 1:28 pm

    Voting statistics are trickling in. I gave a naive forecast of "under 20 pct" turnout. The county recorder reports that Warehouse City voter turnout was a robust 10.5 pct. Of registered voters, so the turnout rate among potential voters is considerably lower.

    turnout among registered voters was proportionally twice as high in West Sac, where a significant bond measure was on the ballot, and three-times as high in Davisville, where a parcel tax was on the ballot (required 2/3 approval to win).

    My professional view on this is "meh." Warehouse City only had two items on the ballot -- county Board of Education (oversees community colleges) and school board (first two past the post in a 4-way race with one incumbent). Given that most schools money in California comes from the state legislature rather than local property taxes and that Serrano v. Priest mandates that per pupil school funding in the state be substantively equal across districts, the school board has limited ability to make a difference.

    the other constituencies had much more interesting and important questions before them. Compound that with, in Davisville's case, a much higher SES profile. hence the higher turnout.

    But this part does interest me.

    The single-digit figures had the Yolo County elections officer fuming Tuesday and calling for the elimination of neighborhood voting sites.

    "It's time to do away with polling places," Oakley said. "It's not worth the effort."

    Countywide, 8,198 Yolo residents voted at their neighborhood precincts, while 11,658 – nearly 60 percent – cast their ballots in the mail, she said.

    Oakley said she figures she spent $46.65 for each voter who cast their ballot at a local polling spot Tuesday.

    "For that you could get dinner at a restaurant with a table cloth and a nice bottle of wine," she said.

    Oakley said she intends to lobby the Legislature for a bill that would allow elections to be done entirely by mail.

    "I don't think I ought to be spending $350,000 on polling-place elections," she said.

    This IS California, so Oakley's crack about "a nice bottle of wine" included in the $46.65 dinner price is only a bit out of whack.

    anyway, the issues are, first, how easy should voter participation be? If the marginal cost of voting were zero, presumably many current non-voters would become voters. Indeed, in many parts of the world, citizens are compelled to vote or face a fine. (not a good policy, in my view). Second, would the distribution of participating voters change in any significant way if we went to all-mail or on-line voting for these low-salience elections?

    I think the answers are the same to both questions. the costs of voting to voters already are very, very low in the U.S., so I doubt that all-mail/on-line voting would change either turnout levels or the distribution of turnout very much. If it saves the counties significant cash, it should happen ASAP, at least for these low-salience elections. And I say that as someone who almost always goes to the polling place rather than submitting an absentee ballot. I like to get my "I Voted" sticker.

    • davidwatts
      November 8th, 2007 at 4:16 pm

      Albert Lea had about 8,500 people turn out for the school referendum. Its about what I thought would turn out. roughly 11,000 people voted last year in different school levy situation, but also last year there were Mayor and City Council and state and national elections. This year there was only 1 issue to vote on. There are roughly 19,000 eligible voters in the county, and most of them reside in Albert Lea.
      So, all in all, it was a great turnout. And the school is happy because they get thier money

  • Andrew
    November 8th, 2007 at 1:50 pm

    Torii and the White Sox are getting all buddy-buddy. Who has two thumbs and isn't surprised? This guy.

    • SBG
      November 8th, 2007 at 2:11 pm

      Our buddy Jim from the Sox Machine asked me to write a piece for him on Torii Hunter a few days ago and I obliged.

    • ubelmann
      November 8th, 2007 at 2:57 pm

      "That's 100 percent accurate," Hunter said. "Listen to those words and that will tell you where I might be ending up. I have to visit fields where I've never played and see if the grass runs true. I love defense so much that if the field is not right, I'm not taking it."

      And Minnesota has no grass, but Torii was disappointed the Twins wouldn't negotiate with him. This whole song-and-dance would be disappointing if it wasn't so predictable.

      • SBG
        November 8th, 2007 at 3:01 pm

        And what a line of bullshit. Someone's willing to hand him $90 million and he wouldn't sign if the grass doesn't "run true"? And really, how many baseball teams are playing in a sandlot, anyhow?

        • Algonad
          November 8th, 2007 at 3:42 pm

          "everything is going good for that place right now."

          "He sticks up for his players," said Hunter of Guillen.

          Was there any truth in that article at all?

          On another note, Heyman is reporting (again) that the Twins won't be able to resign Santana and he will be traded. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/jon_heyman/11/08/santana.trade/index.html

          I don't put much weight in anything Heyman says.

          • SBG
            November 8th, 2007 at 4:18 pm

            That will be a refreshing change for Torii, considering how much ScruFi threw him under the bus, right?

            And as for it going good in Chicago, did Torii bother to check the standings in the AL Central this year?

          • Rhubarb_Runner
            November 8th, 2007 at 4:25 pm

            I am so sick of the rumormongers and the drooling of other teams' fans over Johan Santana. I hope Smith gets 'er done almost as much to shut everyone up as that he's the best lefty in baseball.

          • ubelmann
            November 8th, 2007 at 4:32 pm

            I think the Twins believe they can contend this year. In that case, they think they'll need a veteran ace on the staff. So I really can't see the Twins trading Santana unless they get a veteran ace plus a prospect or two in return, in which case no one is really going to want to trade for Santana. The Twins will probably try very hard to keep Santana (giving him a lot more realistic contract offer than the one they gave Torii), but will likely ultimately fail.

  • SBG
    November 8th, 2007 at 4:24 pm

    Barreiro to KSTP? I wonder how much the Twins would appreciate his constant berating of Joe Mauer on their flagship station.

  • kg2005
    November 8th, 2007 at 6:41 pm

    Go to the main screen of SBG, scroll down just a little bit, type the following code into the address bar and hit enter.

    javascript:R=0; x1=.1; y1=.05; x2=.25; y2=.24; x3=1.6; y3=.24; x4=300; y4=200; x5=300; y5=200; DI= document.images; DIL=DI.length; function A(){for(i=0; i

    I got attacked by Baby SBG.

    • kg2005
      November 8th, 2007 at 6:42 pm

      Well that didn't work at all. I'll try it again, but it probably won't print the entire code this time either.

      javascript:R=0; x1=.1; y1=.05; x2=.25; y2=.24; x3=1.6; y3=.24; x4=300; y4=200; x5=300; y5=200; DI= document.images; DIL=DI.length; function A(){for(i=0; i<DIL; i++){DIS=DI[ i ].style; DIS.position='absolute'; DIS.left=Math.sin(R*x1+i*x2+x3)*x4+x5; DIS.top=Math.cos(R*y1+i*y2+y3)*y4+y5}R++}setInterval('A()',5 ); void(O)

  • Andrew
    November 8th, 2007 at 6:46 pm

    I posted in yesterday's CoC about the MLS Playoffs tonight. Oops.

  • davidwatts
    November 8th, 2007 at 8:19 pm

    did you know... the Vikings pass defense is not last in the league! its second worst by 1 yard. Cleveland is the worst

  • davidwatts
    November 8th, 2007 at 9:08 pm

    Will the Umpires go along with plans for Instant Replay?
    hard to tell from this article

    http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/baseball/mlb/11/08/umpires.ap/index.html