Name: First Time Long Time, on the internet or Tedd Getman in person.
Hometown: Buffalo, NY
Town I Currently Live In: Buffalo, NY
Profession: Business guy.
Bats: Righty. After an ill-fated attempt to become a switch hitter.
Throws: Right
Positions: Catcher.
Greatest Career Achievement in Baseball/Softball/T-ball: No one memory stands out. I made a lot of all-star teams because I had "heart". I guess I was sort of like the David Eckstein of the little league circuit.
Hobbies: Watching/Reading/Writing about baseball. Also, any, and everything Buffalo related. Oh, and booze.
What are you known for around the WGOM? Taking up game thread space arguing who has the best wings in Buffalo.
If you could have a nice, polite dinner with any 3 people - dead or alive - who and why? Michael Schur of FireJoeMorgan/Office fame. I think that he may be the funniest person writing now-a-days. I would love to invite Delmon Young to dinner and ask him why he swings at every first pitch. I cannot do this while drinking because I might become a little too aggressive, and I think that he could, and would, beat me up. Lastly, I would invite Keith Law. Mr. Law combined with Mr. Schur would convince Delmon Young that he should take a few more pitches and maybe to quit swinging down on the ball. Law through Sabermatics and Schur through humor. Also, Keith Law seems to be quite the accomplished cook.
If you could pick any 3 people - again, dead or alive - to go out and party (or if you're not the party type, go for martini's or whatever it is you do) who and why? My first choice is someone that I am sure only "Meat" will know. His name is Rick Jeanneret and he is the Buffalo Sabres play by play announcer. If you don't know who he is please, youtube him right now. He makes every game more enjoyable. Also, I am pretty sure that he is drunk ALL OF THE TIME. Secondly, I would have to choose Mary Louise Parker of Weeds/West Wing fame. I am just sort of in love with her and I think that if I got her drunk enough that she might talk to me. Lastly, I think that I would choose Craig Finn from the Hold Steady. He writes about getting drunk and loves the Twins. This way I would have someone to drink whiskey with and talk about baseball. Also, if it was just Craig Finn, Rick Jeanerett, Mary Louise Parker, and I hanging out, well, I would have to think that I was the best looking guy around and Ms. Parker might be a little tipsy....
Favorite Books: A Fan's Notes by Fredrick Exley.
Favorite Music: Broken Social Scene, Beulah, and The Hold Steady
Favorite Baseball Movie: Field of Dreams.
Favorite Non-baseball Movie: Manhattan/Shawshank
Favorite Food & Drink: Beef on Weck/ Jameson and water
Favorite TV Show(s): The Wire.
Favorite Twins Player: Kirby
Favorite Twins Player, currently: Joe Mauer
Best Twins Memory: Johan's 17K game last season. I went there alone on my last day of my yearly vacation to the Metrodome. I got there at 11:15 to ensure that I would get my Gary Gaetti bobble head doll. I had a grandmother and her 7 year old grandson sitting next to me and during the game I kept turning to the kid and telling him how special this game was. I even have my scorecard framed in my office. I still wish Gardy would have given him the chance for 20.
Favorite Sport to Play: Bocce Ball, is that a sport?
Favorite Sport to Watch: Baseball
If I could live anywhere in the world, I'd live in: Buffalo, NY, or Minneapolis.
If I was commissioner for a day, I'd: Allow teams to trade draft picks. It is an antiquated idea to think that this would hurt small market teams.
If I had Bill Smith's job I'd: Trade anyone over 30 that any team would take.
Favorite Ballpark: PNC
Favorite blogs: Joe Posnanski, FireJoeMorgan, WGOM.
How does a native Buffalonian come to like the Twins? With there being no major league baseball in Buffalo I was pretty much a bandwagon fan for the first couple years of my life. My first team was the Pirates. At the time Buffalo was Pittsburgh's farm team so it made sense. Then I drifted towards the A's of the Bash Brothers. Strangely enough though, my favorite played was Terry Steinbach. Then the '91 World Series happened. That sort of changed everything. Call me bandwagon if you will, but I have stayed the course. And for someone living in Buffalo who has no real connection to the team, well, lets just say it wasn't always easy.
What kind of hockey career did you have growing up? Nothing formal. I was always a baseball kid first. We certainly played street hockey every chance we had, but never anything organized
I too am Jameson man. Have you ever made a trip to the distillery? I have not. Any vacation money is for baseball trips. I am not going to make it to Minneapolis this year but I have tickets for a Twins/Jays in Toronto and I am going to make it down to Yankee stadium for a game later this month.
As a catcher from the NE - Thurman Munson or Carlton Fisk? I will answer this question from a solely historical perspective as I sort of can't stand the Yankees or the Sox. To make my decision I will look at the "Similar Batters" feature on baseball reference. Fisk= Johnny Bench. Munson= Carlos Baerga. Yeah, I think I will go with Fisk.
Map Time!
Click on the map for a better look.
Welcome aboard, FTLT! I just love that moniker. I've been to your fair city a few times as I used to go to Erie, PA quite a bit. I've snuck up there for a pair of Buffalo Bills games, including the AFC Championship game the year they last went to the Super Bowl. Wow, that was a lot of fun. I've also driven up to Niagara Falls three times. That's pretty great.
Now, to your answers. Would you trade Joe Nathan? He's over 30. Also, I think that baseball needs to extend the draft to all players, not just Americans. This Asian and South American free-for-all is just not fair.
The truth is, before the season started I thought it was foolish to lock up Nathan long term. This season though, I mean, expectations are being defied and I think a lot of that has to do with Nathan. Is that contract going to hurt us a in 2010/2011? I think it might, but for right now, I love watching this team compete.
So my heart says keep Nathan; my head says it might be in the teams best interest to move him. Not right now though, I suppose.
I guess you got me on that one.
I agree with the draft being extended to Asia and South America as well. After I submitted my answers to Andrew I went back and read everyone's answers and I felt much less original. I suppose though since many people feel this way that maybe it has a chance of one day happening?
Bills games are something else. I have taken in a fair amount of sporting events over the years but there is nothing better than being in Rich Stadium in December against the Dolphins. Even if your quarterback was Rob Johnson.
I went to a Raiders game and that was unbelievable. Keep the kids away.
The 51-3 game? You got mighty lucky in going to that one.
Nope. The Raiders game was a regular season game. The AFC Championship Game that I saw was against the Joe Montana-led Chiefs.
I'm sorry, I misread you above. The first Super Bowl that we made it to we beat the Raiders 51-3. In the game you went to Thurman went off for something like 180 yards and 3 td's, I believe.
I miss the Bills being good. This will be my 6th year with season tickets. Haven't gotten to go to a playoff game yet...
A Fan's Notes, huh? I suppose that should be expected from a guy who lists "booze" as one of his hobbies.
I loved that book my first time through(mid-80's). One of the funniest things I'd ever read. I re-read it about a year ago. Couldn't get over how bleak it seemed to me now. Still a staggering book, nonetheless.
It is a dark book for certain. I just see a lot of America in Exley; or a lot of Exley in America if you will. I think that he was pretty fan ahead of his time.
Think of it sort of like Fever Pitch, but a little more intentse.
Big BSS fan here, too. Have you ever caught them live? I saw them in 2005 at First Avenue(with the lovely Leslie Feist doing double duty as opener and with the group). Fan-freakin-tastic show. Loud. Sloppy. Passionate. Perfect. Closed the night with crushing version of "It's All Gonna Break."
I'm a Feist fan myself. I have "The Reminder" on my iPod. "My Moon My Man" gets into my head really easy when I listen to it, but in a good way.
I have seen them three times now. Well, twice as BSS and one of the Kevin Drew solo shows. I cannot think of too many better live bands out there today.
Seeing them in Toronto was especially cool though, if just for it being a hometown show for them.
FTLT: Joe Ferguson or Jack Kemp as your backup QB? (Jim Kelly is a given)
What, no Vince Ferragamo?
well, sure, but isn't he wearing a Rams' helmet in the Hall of Briefly Competent?*
*full disclosure: I was a big Vince fan, given his Nebraska football provenance.
What's your take on Vincent Gallo's Buffalo '66?
(I enjoyed it immensely.)
I enjoyed it enough, could really go either way.
Vince Gallo has been spending a lot of time in Buffalo lately. All of the 20 something girls have their facebook photo's with the two of them. This might be the only city where that guy could get laid consistently.
Yeah, Vincent Gallo is a trip. (Is he still selling his, um, seed online?)
If the edit button was still in play, I probably would have excised the word "immensely." Still, I enjoyed the gorgeous washed out film stock, the incongruous prog soundtrack and fine supporting work from the likes of Angelica Huston and Mickey Rourke. Plus, Christina Ricci has never been cuter.
If he hasn't sold his seed yet it he had better do it soon. He is going to have a lot of paternity suits coming against him. I can not make it clear enough how many 20 something year old girls he has fooled around with in the past year. Well, that, or else every girl is a liar. That is a possibility too.
Oh, and I totally agree about Christina Ricci.
Ah! I knew there was someone I was leaving out of my "go drinking with" answer. Craig Finn would be the best choice and I retroactively change my answer to "Craig Finn and 2 Clones of Craig Finn".
Yeah, you really dropped the ball on that one.
Are you known for firefighting and patriotism?
Note: If you give out your real name, we are going to google you (I do it, too.). This has been a public service announcement for all Citizens.
FTLT if you want it taken down, I will. If you are okay with the
oglinggoogling, well that's fine, too.Oh no, it's fine. I have little to hide. If you notice I won a YardWork Fantasy baseball contest a few years ago. Also, I am quoted quite extensively about the Sabres game this season where Richard Zednik had his throat sliced open.
Sadly, that is about it for my google searches.
This is why I keep to my initials.
I gave up long ago. On the bright side, by sharing my name, people can discover that I look like this:
For anyone that has discovered my real name, I have no problem with you finding out that I'm a world-renowned heart surgeon and professional bass fisherman.
See I was always told that I would have to pick either my love of heart surgery or bass fishing. If only I had your parents; I can only imagine how much more fulfilling my life could be.
Turns out that I am both a surgeon and a dentist. And a lawyer. And a financial advisor, who was sued by the SEC. I do a lot.
Well it is nice to know that I am meeting some multi-talented people.
electrical engineer; Australian race car driver; pot-smoking, fetus-killing truck driver; deceased tatoo aficionado.
Among the living, I am only the real me, as far as I can tell. (My name shows up in geneological searches a lot). Although there was an altarboy in 1989 in Illinois that was not me. Not sure if he survives though.
I did just find out that if un published undergraduate research papers count, I have an Erdos number of 3 (via Daniel Schaal via Arie Bialostocki).
Burn Trauma center founder, Agricultural Systems Educator, CEO of a technology company, and Ph.D. candidate in Molecular and Cell Biology at University of Guelph
turns out I am a singularity in the vast machine. The google monster has only been able to locate my one true self. There is no other me. I am the only of my kind. Sort of disappointing really.
All of those people who have told me for years that "I know someone who could be your twin", were all playing some sick, crude joke.
I should have given my name to my son but couldn't do the whole "Junior" thing to him.
There are at least 12 people in the Twin Cities with the same first, middle, and last names as me. If I were to hit teh Google, it'd burn up.
On the bright side, I was the brother of The Far Side cartoonist (until he changed his name)...
I'm a management of development at Å koda Auto in the Czech Republic, and I also immigrated from that region in 1880 (I was a cigar maker at the time).
I did chant USA! quite a bit over the fourth of July weekend; but alas, I have no firefighting experience. Maybe if I put an extra "t" in my last name people will confuse me for him. Sounds like a nice enough guy.
except for the dead part.
Did you really expect me to read the whole article?
My first choice is someone that I am sure only "Meat" will know. His name is Rick Jeanneret and he is the Buffalo Sabres play by play announcer. If you don't know who he is please, youtube him right now. He makes every game more enjoyable. Also, I am pretty sure that he is drunk ALL OF THE TIME.
I wish that the Twins had somone of Jeanneret's quality in one of the booths. In a drinking related note my former roommate and I went to Papa Jake's after one of the Wild / Sabres games in 2005 and had the opportunity to talk hockey with the man himself. He was exceptionally polite to us even though we were raging drunk.
I wish everyone had someone of Jeanneret's quality, but since that isn't an option I will soak him up.
I had heard that he was offered national positions before but turned them down because they wouldn't let him drink on the air? Did you ever hear anything like that?
No, but that wouldn't really surprise me. Buffalo is the right place for Jeanneret becasue no one gives a shit if you drink on the job, in fact I think they're suspicious if you don't.
I've got half a mind to test your theory.
I've got half a mind
Well, you do live in WNY. 716 in the house. /kidding.
Seriously though, WNY has a little bit of a drinking problem. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
A drinking town with a football problem, if I read the shirts correctly.
I used to print those shirts for Art Dog screen printers. That was a shitty job.
I would imagine, but it would have to better that dish washing at Panos, which was my first job in Buffalo.
Are we to the point that we can declare The Wire as the official television show of the WGOM or do we still need additional converts?
I second the motion. I have the first season on DVD that I would gladly loan to any Citizen who needs convincing.
Of yet, I've not seen an episode... up until this past October, I had a schedule that made it very dificult to watch television, and I wasn't about to watch a show that I couldn't watch regularly.
That doesn't explain my laziness in renting the DVDs, but... ah well, if it's really that good, I'll pick them up ASAP.
Check with your local library. That's what I did for seasons 2-4. They were only $1 to rent for a week instead of ~$60 to purchase.
I don't know what I'm going to do! I have one disk left of season 4 and then I don't know how I'll survive the few weeks until season 5 hits Netflix.
On a related note, throughout the entire time watching the show, Sheenie and I have always said, "Boy, it sure would be awesome if they did something like this to expose all the bullshit in New Orleans."
Well, as Kramer would say, Giddy Up!
I feel comfortable with that as well.
Did anyone get the chance to watch "Generation Kill" this week? It is the new David Simon project on HBO. This is a preview from Alan Sepinwall, who is a a big of a Simon far as there is.
http://sepinwall.blogspot.com/2008/07/sepinwall-on-tv-generation-kill-preview.html
I don't have HBO (or cable for that matter) but I soooo want to see this.
I forgot about it last night, hopefully it is available on demand. Though, I sorely doubt that it will.
I've got it on the DVR but haven't watched it yet.
This is unrelated but ESPN just said that Francona is going to be batting Mauer 8th. Ughhh. Jeter second? That is awfulThis is unrelated but ESPN just said that Francona is going to be batting Mauer 8th. Ughhh. Jeter second? That is awful. Glad to see the best players are being rewarded. I don't even care if it is in New York.
Meh. I can see complaining about Cap'n Jetes being in the game, but you gotta give the Nooo Yawkers what they want. Plus, with any luck, he'll be asked to lay down a sacrifice bunt at some point!
and batting Jetes second probably isn't much worse than batting Ichiro! leadoff, given his performance so far this year.
I know, but it still irritates the hell out of me.
Jeter irritates the hell out of me, period.
you gotta give the Nooo Yawkers what they want.
No you don't. They already get their way too often. I'm so sick of hearing about Yankee Stadium that I don't think I'll be able to watch the game tomorrow night.
When I first saw that Mauer was hitting 8th, it made me wonder if Francona was trying to keep Mauer's glove in there as long as possible, since hitting him at the top of the order there would probably be more pressure to PH for him earlier in the game.