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Cup of Coffee: December 20-21, 2008

Miss SBG opened her gifts last night(!). She sure enjoyed her new wrist watch (clock!) and Elmo slippers.

This entry was posted by SBG on Saturday, December 20th, 2008 at 6:41 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.

46 comments to Cup of Coffee: December 20-21, 2008

  • Jeff A
    December 20th, 2008 at 7:58 am

    Thursday, Aragua scored four runs in the seventh to defeat Lara 9-7. Matt Tolbert was 1-for-4 with a double and a walk, driving in a run. Jose Mijares pitched the eighth and gave up a run on two hits and a walk, although he struck out three.

    Friday, La Guaira scored six runs in the eighth to defeat Aragua 9-4. Oswaldo Sosa was one of the pitchers responsible, giving up four runs on three hits in two-thirds of an inning in the eighth. Matt Tolbert was 0-for-3, although he did walk twice and score once.

  • Jeff A
    December 20th, 2008 at 8:07 am

    Aragua is currently in second place, 6.5 games behind first-place Caracas. Some stats:

    I'm assuming Luke Hughes has left Aragua, as he has not played in a couple of weeks. If so, he ends with a batting average of .292, an OBP of .348, and a SLG of .423. He had 2 homers, 14 runs, and 14 RBIs in 104 ABs.
    Matt Tolbert has 51 AB so far. He is batting .216, with an OBP of .310 and a SLG of .333. He has 1 homer, 8 runs, and 8 RBIs.

    Jose Mijares is 3-1, 1.23. In 22 IP, he has a WHIP of 1.32, 28 Ks, and 9 saves.
    I'm assuming Bobby Korecky may have left Aragua as well, as he has not pitched in a couple of weeks. If so, he ends with a record of 1-1, 6.00. In 15 IP, he had a WHIP of 1.73 and 11 Ks.
    Yohan Pino is 1-0, 1.86 in 9.2 IP. He has a WHIP of 1.14 and 7 Ks.
    Oswaldo Sosa is 0-1, 12.86 in 7 IP. He has a WHIP of 2.00 and 6 Ks.

  • Jeff A
    December 20th, 2008 at 9:53 am

    Someone mentioned being tired of winter when it hasn't even officially started yet. I fully agree. We had five inches of snow Tuesday, eight inches Thursday night-Friday morning, and as I write it's snowing again, with 40 mph winds creating blizzard conditions.

    I guess it doesn't do any good to complain, and if I don't like it I should move, but it's not exactly contributing to a good mood right now.

    • cheaptoy
      December 20th, 2008 at 10:00 am

      I had to stay home from work yesterday, since the plow didn't come to get the 10 inches off the street I live on until about 1 or 2. I needed to get to the post office anyway, so I made the 1.5 or so mile walk downtown. My boots rubbed a raw spot on my leg, and most of the sidewalks weren't shoveled at that time so I was walking through knee high snow. But, as I decided on that walk and told a guy out shoveling, I wouldn't trade the weather we get here for all the sun in Florida. I'm still not sure why I came to that conclusion, though.

  • SBG
    December 20th, 2008 at 9:59 am

    Improving the speed department: I am working on formatting a tabbed window to replace the one that I'm currently using (I'm suspecting that this one I've used is a major resource hog and possibly the cause of a lot of the problems we've seen). This one appears to load a lot faster. (If you want to see it, it's on the single page.) You will note that I've fixed the sidebar on the single page -- and eliminated the WGOM video from that page. The sidebar on the single page has to be lightweight, especially during the baseball season, to cut down on the load on the server.

  • E-6
    December 20th, 2008 at 3:41 pm

    Tubby Smith's unranked Gophers topple Rick Pitino's #9 Louisville Cardinals 70-64. Nice
    one, fellas.

      • E-6
        December 20th, 2008 at 4:00 pm

        No doubt. Gopher hoops relevant again? Man, I hope so.The putridness of the Monson era really sapped my interest for the alma mater's basketball program. Tubby is starting to earn it back.

        • SBG
          December 20th, 2008 at 4:20 pm

          The basketball landscape has been bleak for a while now around here. Tubby can make some hay with a successful season.

        • cheaptoy
          December 20th, 2008 at 5:01 pm

          Thanks to the magic of the internet, I was able to watch the Gophers today. They were pretty impressive, I must say. They played some really nice defense, too, which is quite the change for the current Minnesota basketball landscape. Tubby Smith really made a great decision based on the way things are going, and the prospects for the future. He's going to become a local hero if he sticks around.

        • Rhubarb_Runner
          December 20th, 2008 at 6:24 pm

          Can't find the article online, but early in the week the local news covered a local HS'er committing to play for the Gophers next year, basketball and FB, I believe. Local news was totally caught off guard by the announcement at the press conference, expecting Mizzou as his pick.

    • davidwatts
      December 21st, 2008 at 8:50 am

      I listen to the game on the radio yesterday. I was impressed. The Gophers should be ranked the next time the polls come out

  • socaltwinsfan
    December 20th, 2008 at 6:54 pm

    Miss SBG opened her gifts last night(!).

    Wow. I thought we were bad for letting our boys open them on Christmas Eve.

    • SBG
      December 21st, 2008 at 5:41 am

      We are going to my wife's parents for Christmas Eve and we don't want to drag presents there. So Lucy decided that Friday night was the night.

      • brianS
        December 21st, 2008 at 10:52 am

        Santy made a special delivery?

      • socaltwinsfan
        December 21st, 2008 at 11:38 pm

        Ah, yes. I believe I remember getting to open presents early one year for the same reason. IIRC, I got a portable soccer game, one of those game with the little light blips for players and the ball, that incidentally was perfect for entertaining me in the car on the drive to my grandparents' house. That was one of my all-time favorite presents.

  • Rhubarb_Runner
    December 21st, 2008 at 7:09 am

    I'm excited that our brass ensemble will be playing along with the choir when we present Handel's "Halleluijah" chorus at church this morning, but especially since my daughter will be filling in for one of our trombonists. It's only the second public performance that I've been able to play with my daughter. Should be a lot of fun.

  • Jeff A
    December 21st, 2008 at 8:31 am

    This is my first winter in North Sioux City. We've had snow before, but this weekend is the first time we've had lots of wind with it. We've been under a blizzard warning since yesterday morning, but I kept looking outside, and it didn't look that bad. What I did not realize is how sheltered the area in which I live is. When I got out to the main road, I suddenly realized what they'd been talking about in regard to a blizzard. I turned around, went home, and called off church.

    The moral of the story is that when the weather people say you're under a blizzard warning, there's a reason for it, even if it is not obvious from looking out the window. Take it seriously.

  • Jeff A
    December 21st, 2008 at 9:41 am

    Thanks to the list sean linked to above, we know there are a lot of Twins prospects playing winter ball other than those with Aragua. I also found out that there are a couple of guys on Aragua whose connection to the Twins I did not know. It appears that the Twins have more prospects on Aragua than any other team, so I will continue to report on them, and will perhaps give updates on Twins prospects on other teams once a week or so. If someone wants to do more than that, of course, please feel free to do so.

    Yesterday, Aragua shut out La Guaira 4-0. Matt Tolbert was 1-for-3 with a run scored. Wilson Ramos was 1-for-3 with an RBI. Yohan Pino pitched a scoreless 1 1/3 innings, giving up a hit and a walk. Jose Mijares got the last out of the eighth inning, giving up two hits, but no runs.
    Twins prospect Pedro Guerra pitched an inning for La Guaira. He gave up two hits, but no runs.

  • Big Mak
    December 21st, 2008 at 10:27 am

    I am in the midst of a dilemma.

    One of my friends recommended a CD to me. Generally, he has pretty good taste in music, so that’s not the problem. The problem is that the CD in question is Let It Be by The Replacements which was released in 1984.

    Up until yesterday, the only albums in my library released in the 1980s were Nirvana - Bleach (1989), The Cure - Disintegration (1989), and Nine Inch Nails - Pretty Hate Machine (1989). I had always thought of this as an interesting quirk of my music collection, but I had never gone out of my way to preserve it. But now that I’m faced with ruining that perfect gap in my collection, I find myself a little reluctant to do so.

    Of course I still added the album, but now my '80's collection looks terribly incomplete. What else am I missing out on from that decade?

    • brianS
      December 21st, 2008 at 11:06 am

      this list should help, Big Mak. Rolling Stone's top 100 albums of the 1980s, as ranked in 1990.

      And here is Time Magazine's list by decade.

      The Rolling Stone list is pretty ridiculous, IMO. The River is 86th and Born in the USA is 6th??? Bonnie Raitt doesn't even make the list?? (Nick of Time was 1989) I could go on, but I'll let E-6 do the raving and ranting.

      still, it reminds one of a lot of 1980s music.

      • E-6
        December 21st, 2008 at 4:39 pm

        I think a far more interesting list is Pitchfork's Top 100 of the 80's. Definitely less commercially skewed than Rolling Stone's. (RS has been little more than a glossy fish-wrapper since about 1980. John Cougar Mellencamp at 34?!!!)

        Here's 10 from the decade a hip young fella like yourself should own:
        Gang of Four Solid Gold
        Dinosaur Jr You're Living All Over Me
        The Pixies Doolittle
        X Wild Gift
        The Pretenders The Pretenders
        REM Murmur
        Sonic Youth Daydream Nation
        Husker Du Zen Arcade
        The Replacements Tim
        Meat Puppets II

      • AMR
        December 21st, 2008 at 9:29 pm

        I saw that Time listed Bob Marley's "Legend." I'm a fan of Marley and I hate that compilation. I don't know exactly what it is, but it just bores me and makes Bob Marley seem more "Important" than actually good. If it wasn't for "Buffalo Soldier," I probably wouldn't own the disc.

        If you want to try out Marley... go "Exodus," then "Burnin'," then "Kaya." I got "Burnin'" for less than $8 in a bargain bin once.

    • AMR
      December 21st, 2008 at 4:55 pm

      You could always ditch that NIN album... I was a big fan of Broken and Downward Spiral, but PHM is not that good. (IMO)

      Good stuff from the 80's (I don't trust Rolling Stone...):
      Sonic Youth: Evol, Sister, Daydream Nation
      Meat Puppets: II, Up on the Sun
      Jane's Addition: Jane's Addiction (I think that's the name, their first album, live), Nothing's Shocking
      Sugarcubes: Life's too Good.
      Coil: Horse Rotorvator
      A Guy Called Gerald: Automanik, and "Voodoo Ray" (single, bonus track on US version of Automanik)
      Fishbone: Truth and Soul

      Just stuff I've listened to in the past few months.

      Soundgarden's Ultramega OK, too.

      • Big Mak
        December 21st, 2008 at 5:54 pm

        Rather than looking for these albums myself, I knew I could get the Nation to do my heavy lifting for me. Smile

        Thanks for the recs, I've been a fan of REM's 90's stuff for sure, and I've heard selected songs from a bunch of the others (Meat Puppets, Pixies, Husker Du, etc.). I'll have to investigate a little further.

        but PHM is not that good

        I like that album, although to be fair I like just about every NIN album at least a little bit. But you're right, Broken and Downward Spiral are far and away the best.

      • AMR
        December 21st, 2008 at 5:54 pm

        Now I looked at Time, Pitchfork, and (yes) Rolling Stone. Here are obvious oversights from my catelog:

        Paul Simon: Graceland (which seems more relevant now due to Vampire Weekend)
        Prince: Purple Rain
        Robbie Robertson: S/T (thank you Rolling Stone)

        And Early Rap, which I have not been into much this year, so was kindof out of mind...
        Erik B & Rakim: Paid In Full
        BDP: Criminal Minded
        Public Enemy: It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back

        • Whiffers
          December 21st, 2008 at 10:27 pm

          I'm late to the discussion and haven't followed any links, but I have to suggest De La Soul's 3 Feet High and Rising if you're going to listen to some 80's hip-hop.

  • freealonzo
    December 21st, 2008 at 7:30 pm

    More 80's albums from that Pitchfork list that I endorse (but not listed by others, I think)

    Mekons Rock and Roll
    Mekons Fear and Whiskey
    Violent Femmes Violent Femmes
    REM Murmer
    REM Reckoning
    Pogues Rum Sodemy and the Lash
    XTC English Settlement
    Elvis Costello Imperial Bedroon
    Elvis Costello Get Happy!
    Feelies Crazy Rhythyms
    X Los Angeles
    Stone Roses Stone Roses

    • E-6
      December 21st, 2008 at 8:09 pm

      Good call on the Mekons. (As I was picking just one album per band for Big Mak's starter kit, I'll take Rock and Roll.) Here's 3 more rather obscure things from the decade that I've begun playing again: Syd Straw Surprise, Giant Sand Long Stem Rant, and This Mortal Coil It'll End in Tears. All have held up remarkably well.

      I often joke that the 80's were the nadir of music, fashion and film. Looking again at some of the music on the lists makes me soften my stance a bit on the music. I'd still rate the decade well below the 90's, 70's, and 60's, though.

      • AMR
        December 21st, 2008 at 9:23 pm

        I don't like 80's music, I like some music from the 80's.
        Having my adolesence in the 90's (I turned 13 in 1990), I think my lists are biased towards things that I would like in the 90's.

        Coil preceded the nine inch nails (in a way).
        Jane's Addiction preceded Pr0n0 for Pyros (whom I actually prefer).
        Early Sonic Youth preceded Washing Machine.
        The Sugarcubes preceded Björk.
        80's rap preceded 90's rap.
        80's Fishbone preceded 90's Fishbone.
        A Guy Called Gerald preceded house & techno & ambient.

        The only one of those things I listened to in the 80's was Paul Simon. Other than that I listened to things from the 60's and 70's in the 80's... Jimi Hendrix, Simon & Garfunkle, Cat Stevens, Gene Pitney, Roy Orbison, the Animals, the Guess Who, basically my dad's record collection plus the Monkees.

        Which is probably why I've never listened to much Cure or Hüsker Dü or Replacements or Stone Roses.

        If I were going to recommend things that you probably wouldn't hear anyone else recommend, I'd say download "Voodoo Ray" (the song) and most of the album "Horse Rotorvator," just to check them out.

        • Big Mak
          December 21st, 2008 at 11:25 pm

          I searched youtube for "voodoo ray" and listened a couple of times. I dabble with house/techno music every now and again when the mood strikes and I liked that song, so I'll throw it on the "techno s**t" playlist.

      • SBG
        December 22nd, 2008 at 8:14 am

        Saw about five minutes of a movie last night from the 1980s. Bad hair, crappy synthesizer music, guys with sweaters tied over their shoulders.

        It was not pretty.

    • davidwatts
      December 21st, 2008 at 10:31 pm

      Elvis Costello Get Happy! - One of my all time favorite albums. But I would say that if you dont have any Costello, Get Happy is not a good place to start. I would go in chronological order. That said, 'Trust' is a pretty solid album

      Violent Femmes Violent Femmes- also a great album

      I would also add: The Police Zenyatta Mondatta
      The Pretenders Learning to Crawl
      U2 The Unforgettable Fire and The Joshua Tree
      Dire Straits Making Movies

    • brianS
      December 21st, 2008 at 11:07 pm

      X's Los Angeles is fantastic. I also endorse Pretenders, Pretenders II and Learning to Crawl; Remain in Light, Little Creatures; Purple Rain; She's So Unusual; U2's War; Sandinista; Ghost in the Machine, Synchronicity; The River, Nebraska; Hawks & Doves, Old Ways; Mellencamp's Scarecrow; Townsend's Empty Glass; John Lee Hooker's The Healer; Sting's (yea, Sting!) The Dream of the Blue Turtles, and Nothing Like the Sun; Emmylou Harris's Roses in the Snow; the B-52s Wild Planet; Stevie Ray Vaughn and Double Trouble's Texas Flood; Nick of Time.

      that's a few.

  • E-6
    December 21st, 2008 at 9:58 pm

    What a long, strange trip it's been. Dock Ellis dead at age 66.