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They ain't Irish, but they are from Boston. Close enuff. Plus, the kids seem to like 'em. For Andrew.

Even I'm willing to concede that when the Twins score more runs than their opponent that they've won the game.

Wolves owner accuses KG of tanking by not dressing the last five games of last season. I'm not buying what he's selling.

Do 10 months for someone else's crime, get peed on by the state.

Not quite the same.

Barack Obama addresses racial issues including comments made by his pastor in a speech Tuesday morning.

davidwatts has set up an NCAA bracket for the Nation. Go on and play!
Group ID# 121024
password: sbg

Drink up. You'll need it to overcome that St. Paddy's hangover.

Live at Easy Street Records in Seattle, 2006. A davidwatts pick.

<GreekHouse>I haven't got a whole lot to say at this point. From the Twolves perspective, this season is really starting to drag. From an NBA perspective, the season is getting really exciting!</GreekHouse>

Walking away from a mortgage when you are upside down.

Top O' the Morning to you, Laddie!

A galvanizing polarizing gal. Too bad she's not a Galway Polar gal. 1994.
"Black Boys on Mopeds", 1990.Two more after the jump.

Kaz Matsui to undergo surgery to repair anal fissure.

From LEN3 today:
The Twins have been very pleased with the catch-and-throw ability of Drew Butera, who was part of the Luis Castillo trade.
Butera has no shot of making the club (which is why I’m writing this as a minor league note) but could be an emergency option during the season. He finished last season at [...]

The brilliant Richard Thompson might be a Brit, but this song is as Irish as it gets. Seattle, 1990. A wonderfully droll introduction from the artist.
Something you want to see? Call the request line. Did you miss a video or want to watch one again from a while back? Click here for the SBG [...]

Twins strikeout leaders, spring 2008:
13 -- Kevin Slowey
8 -- Pat Neshek
7 -- Joe Nathan
6 -- Brian Bass
6 -- Glen Perkins
6 -- Dennys Reyes
Catching controversy update:
.455/.600/1.000 -- Eli Whiteside
.368/.480/.684 -- Joe Mauer
First base controversy update:
.455/.500/.818 -- Randy Ruiz
.212/.325/.333 -- Justin Morneau

The Wolves play in the Northwest for a second consecutive night, taking on the T-Blazers. This is the second time in five days that the Wolves play Portland. The Blazers won in Minneapolis on Tuesday, 103-96.
Tonight the Blazers are favored by 9 and the O/U is 191. I'm inclined to take the [...]

It looks like John Lackey won't be pitching on opening day. Kelvim Escobar hasn't begun throwing yet, either, so he won't be able to make the opening day start, either. So it looks like the Angels will probably be throwing Weaver, Garland, Saunders, and Impostor Santana at the Twins in the first series.
Who [...]

I had forgotten how I kept the SBG Headlines and SBG Music categories out of my main RSS feed, so when I moved the Notes from the Ditch to a column and out of the main loop, I didn't do the same thing and these Notes from the Ditch showed up in my RSS feed. [...]

Beware the ides, dude.

In honor of the day. Padre, you'll want to pass on this one.
The Commitments: Da Fookin Short Version

...in various cities/venues. (Inspired by this article.) As someone who enjoys baseball and classical music, but also enjoys the benefits of a student budget, I spend an inordinate amount of time trying to get the best tickets for what I'm willing to pay. Usually that means something that's not the cheapest ticket, [...]

Stock up on Guinness and Bushmills, lads. It's Irish Music Week at the WGOM. Live from the Town & Country, London, St.Patrick's Day 1988.
Same gig, but joined by the wonderful Kirsty MacColl. (Her Pa wrote this song.)Something you want to see? Call the request line. Did you miss a video or want to watch [...]

The Wolves are tied in the loss column with the Sonics at 49 wins. The Sonics have two more wins than the Wolves. It would behoove the local five to lose this game.
Seattle is favored by three. The O/U is 199, after being ridiculously low for the past several games. I [...]

Scientists discover that Liars are better athletes. Good stuff. You can download the MP3 of the show here.

Jon Heyman on the Kyle Lohse signing: Cardinals people didn't sound thrilled to spend the $4.25 million. But it was nice to see them acquire a player with no connection to the Mitchell Report.

LENIII tells us that Michael Cuddyer is the leader in the clubhouse. I care about this as much as I care about TH48 being the leader in the clubhouse, which is to say, not at all.

Fox was farming the chicken coop at the NRCC. As Reagan once said, trust, but verify.

"Most of my travels have been on the weekends, and I put in enough hours as governor to more than take care of my duties here," Pawlenty told reporters this week. Too bad he doesn't referee wrestling matches or call XFL football games.

So what? Well, Pujols has a high grade tear of his ulnar collateral ligament, along with bone spurs and arthritis in his elbow, that's what.

Casilla heads list of second round of cuts. Note that the roster is now down to 42.

A little side note: last Saturday, this site hit 1,000,000 page views. That's a relatively modest number, but cool, nonetheless. I should note that my views are blocked from the counter -- so that number could be about 2,000,000 by now.
We are running well ahead of last year's traffic. [...]

Greg Oden looks good in workout with Blazers. That's slightly more exciting than hearing how Punto's batting practice is "awesome".

My web layout jones continues as I decide how game logs should look for the Twins 2008 season. I've started laying out the page, but I'm looking for suggestions. What would you like to see on the game log page? We will, of course, have an introduction and comments. I've got [...]

"All of my practice has been awesome," Punto said. "It's just taking it to a game situation and having it click. I feel like I'm right there." For the record, Punto is 2-17 this spring.

TGIF, I say.

But I actually liked Top Jimmy's latest effort.

Bummer.  Chris Basak strikes out to end the 3-1 Spring Training loss to the Orioles...

Billy Crystal leads off game as Yankees' DH.

All clubhouse doors in St. Louis are hereby on notice.

Guinness declares Minnesota teen world's best at Guitar Hero.

Bron-Bron on the cover of Vogue with his arm around Brady's main squeeze.

David Mamet waxes philosophically on politics in the Village Voice.

Celtics on pace to win 42 more games than last year. The record turnaround is 36, when the Spurs added rookie Tim Duncan and David Robinson, who missed the season before with an injury.

Curt Schilling placed on 60-day disabled list by the Red Sox.

Kansas woman who lived in bathroom felt safe there; 'It was her choice'.

In the offseason, there were a few free-agent signings, and minor trades.
Don't know how former Royal Brian Bass came to the team, but he's here now, as a NRIT. Former Astros Adam Everett and Mike Lamb were signed in succession.

(Bass '08, '06; Everett '08, '07-PS; Lamb '08)
Also, the team got Livan Hernandez, Craig Monroe, [...]

Week's almost over.

Chaka Khan and crew in Central Park, 1974. A funk masterpiece. Written by Stevie Wonder. (Older citizens will recognize the voice that introduces the band.)

Something you want to see? Call the request line. Did you miss a video or want to watch one again from a while back? Click here for the SBG [...]

Whether he knows it or not.

For better or worse, I doubt this would have happened under Joe Torre.

Hidden beneath a frivolous story about Santana borrowing/stealing bats from Joe Mauer is this thought from our fearless leader:
Knuckler perhaps? He may be gone, but R.A. Dickey hasn't been forgotten. Gardenhire said the 33-year-old knuckleballer, lost to Seattle in the Rule 5 draft last December, remains on his mind as a possibility for the Twins' [...]

[Ed. note-- zooomx provides us with another movie review]
My wife bought me this Jet Li thriller the day it was released on DVD. I had been kicking myself for not seeing it on the big screen. My wife knew that since I was a martial arts film junkie and a huge fan of [...]

Pat Neshek makes lifestyle changes including becoming a vegan to help prevent him from wearing down. Because he certainly wasn't being overused last summer, no siree.

No recession up my sleeve. And yet. I was at the briefing monday. "Looking to the future, there isn't another locomotive. There is still not a reason for great optimism," [UCLA economist Ed Leamer] said.

AMR looks at the new faces on the 2008 Twins.

You really have to wonder who would do this. And no, there isn't any evidence that anyone actually has. Which leads me to wonder why this is a news story.

One of my favorite NBA players, Allen Iverson, is playing through a broken ring finger on his shooting hand.

Spring is coming.

Swing coach Butch Harmon drops John Daly as a client.

Woman asks for restraining order, case against Moss to be tossed .

A great Citizen of this fine nation offered me a ducat to this here particular game and I was pretty excited about getting to my first game of the year. Unfortunately, life had other plans for me today, and I had to cancel out.
The Wolves are taking on a surprising Portland team, although the [...]

Too precious for words. Did you guys discuss this over weekend coffee?

In the grand scheme of things, this won't really make the Twins any worse this season. But it won't make them better, and it kind of pisses me off.
(Also, there's a whole rant here about how Livan has been just as bad as Slowey this spring (if not worse), but he's in line for [...]

Women have too much control, too little sense of humor; have blocked cool baby names.

Geraldine Ferrarro:Barack Obama::Isiah Thomas:Larry Bird

Former 'Gilligan's Island' star caught with marijuana in car.

As I have commented, my professional education obligations prevent me from doing as much on the MPs as I did last year, but I'll be looking at this year's mugshots, so I might as well post them.
Here are the players that aren't with the team this year (and are with another team). [...]

Isn't there a better use of the internet than this ESPN cr@p?

Is one cup enough? I'll leave the pot on all day.

The Stones have continued to make albums into their 60s, but truth be told, I find their newer songs uninteresting and have for a long time. Here's one, though from a few years back that I've always liked. This is pure Jagger -- Richards doesn't even play on the recording (although he's got the guitar in the video). Mick's always been the one who wants to break free from the ancient groove that the Stones have been in since before I was born. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I like this one, it's elegaic and hard driving, Mick's vocal is good and it's truthful -- he's defiant in his old age, and he's not pretending to be 20. There's still some spark there, and I wish he'd spend more time singing from the perspective of an old man instead of as an adolescent.

Jagger says he wants to save his soul and at 64 you wonder if he thinks about his own mortality or more accurately, what he thinks when he ponders that, but guess what? he ain't never going to be a saint. We all knew that, though, I suppose.

Not in my book.

Starting 2B/SS combinations used so far this spring (including the rained out game):
5 -- Punto/Everett
3 -- Harris/Casilla
2 -- Harris/Tolbert
1 -- Casilla/Harris
1 -- Casilla/Everett
1 -- Harris/Basak
0 -- Harris/Everett
Consider yourself warned.

I wouldn't have guessed Cuban would have gone this route. But then again, he's a billionaire genius and I'm not. Link.

Twins leaders in strikeouts, spring 2008:
8 - Kevin "No Out Pitch" Slowey
6 - Brian Bass
5 - Philip Humber
4 - Baker, Neshek, Reyes, Perkins
Note: Statisics current as of the 6th inning of today's game. In the tradition of spring training statistics, I have hand-picked this statistic to support my point regardless of the biases that [...]

Isn't this, you know, his job to stay informed?