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Cup of Coffee: June 2, 2009

Have a new cup.

This entry was posted by SBG on Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009 at 7:37 am and is filed under Cup of Coffee. It is one of 3096 entries by the author. We are no longer accepting Letters to the Editor on this post.

35 comments to Cup of Coffee: June 2, 2009

  • Jeff A
    June 2nd, 2009 at 7:41 am

    It's Jack O'Connor Day!

    Jack O'Connor (1869)
    Bob Lillis (1930)
    Larry Jackson (1931)
    Jerry Lumpe (1933)
    Gene Michael (1938)
    Jim Maloney (1940)
    Horace Clarke (1940)
    Jack O'Connor (1958)
    Darnell Coles (1962)
    Mike Stanton (1967)
    Raul Ibanez (1972)
    Neifi Perez (1973)

  • davidwatts
    June 2nd, 2009 at 8:36 am

    did anyone watch the new Conan O'Brien last night?

  • Nate Tubbs Rules
    June 2nd, 2009 at 9:24 am

    Question: So last year we saw Delmon introduced with former Twin greats Killer, Carew, Oliva, and Hrbek. I want to know when this year's version of the commercial happens where Delmon is annointed with his truly similar ex-Twins Mickey Hatcher, Jason Tyner, John Moses, and Chad Allen. They tell him things like "hit below leage average at a corner outfield position and don't play great defense either" and "walks and power are overated, empty batting average is the way to go"

  • SBG
    June 2nd, 2009 at 10:00 am

    Dwight Howard, talking stupid about his future. The fans will determine his fate? Hoo boy.

    • Rhubarb_Runner
      June 2nd, 2009 at 10:40 am

      When will multi-million dollar sports stars learn that "gotta take care of my family" no longer has any sort of real meaning to, well, pretty much everyone else?

  • davidwatts
    June 2nd, 2009 at 10:53 am

    A Strib blog post today with a comment section worth reading (and I mean that in a good way)

    • UncleWalt
      June 2nd, 2009 at 11:12 am

      Wow. I can't get over the fact that FIRE VAVRA AND GARDY!!!!! was in high school in 1985. That completely explodes my mental impression of what someone with such a moniker might look like.

    • Strib Guy
      June 2nd, 2009 at 12:55 pm

      I HAVE LIKE THE TWINS FOR OVER 200 YEARS NOW I STARTED WATCHING IN 1987 WHEN THEY KNEW HOW TO WIN AND NOW I ONLY WATCH TO LAUGH AT HOW BAD THEY ARE! TRADE M&M TO BOSTON FOR JOSH HAMILTON HE HAD 150 RBIS LAST YEAR GET IT DONE BILLY SMITH!

  • Rhubarb_Runner
    June 2nd, 2009 at 2:37 pm

    Serpentine, Peter, serpentine! Frown

    • Rhubarb_Runner
      June 2nd, 2009 at 3:22 pm

      That article is just about right. Still, for those of us whose cards were not an investment, but a treasure hunt, the hobby is still alive. There is a nice little community of collectors that will work out a nice trade online (of just send you cards sight-unseen and hope for something corresponding in return) that has pulled me back into collecting again after a few half-hearted years. I've made three trades in the last month or so, and just picked up a $30 '61 Drysdale for $12 to surprise a guy that I need to send some cards back to. Still, I thank God that the Baseball Card Bubble is finally collapsing back down towards reasonable levels again.

      • davidwatts
        June 2nd, 2009 at 3:47 pm

        I was a huge card collector when I was a kid. But the hobby got too expensive, and the other kids in the neighborhood last interest fast, at about the same time. So when I moved away to college, I ended up throwing thousands of cards away. I save a large shoebox full of my favorite cards (17 Nolan Ryans! Rickey Henderson! Chuck Knoblauch and Kirby! Ken Griffey Jr!)

        I thought about getting back in, but there are so many sets nowadays I dont know where to start. And I dont have any money

        • Rhubarb_Runner
          June 2nd, 2009 at 5:14 pm

          About the late 80's I decided there were too many cards, so I began only collecting Twins. I traded away much of my non-Twins cards, but still have some I hope to leverage for other Twins stuff. Have to admit I've met some neat people while collecting, which makes it enjoyable, even on a mostly passive basis.

    • Beau
      June 2nd, 2009 at 3:28 pm

      Nice. I have a few binders of worthless cards, and a few decent ones in glass-protected cases: Kirby's rookie card; a 1990 Kirby card he signed; and an Emmitt Smith rookie card. I remember paying $20 for Emmitt's rookie card and thought I had a steal (it was worth $15 at the time and I figured it would only skyrocket).

      Now I figure in sixty years they may be worth something

  • ubelmann
    June 2nd, 2009 at 4:12 pm

    Does anyone understand why the ASA doesn't just publish their softball rules online? From their FAQ, they say:

    Q. Where can I get a copy of your Official Rules of Softball?
    A. ASA Rule Books are only distributed at the local level by the ASA Commissioner or their staff. Please contact your local State/Metro Commissioner or Umpire-In-Chief.

    It seems pretty strange to keep the rules under such tight control. The only thing I can think of off the top of my head is that they don't want some pointy-headed guy like me arguing with umpires over the details in the rules.

    Anyway, does anyone know whether or not you're allowed to switch sides of the plate during the middle of a PA in softball (slowpitch specifically, but I'd be interested to know the fastpitch rule, too)?

    It was my understanding that in baseball, you aren't allowed to switch sides after you've started a PA from one batter's box. The only thing I can find right away, though, is that you're not allowed to switch while the pitcher is in a pitching position, from 6.06b:

    6.06 A batter is out for illegal action when—
    (a) He hits a ball with one or both feet on the ground entirely outside the batter’s box.
    Rule 6.06(a) Comment: If a batter hits a ball fair or foul while out of the batter’s box, he shall be called out. Umpires should pay particular attention to the position of the batter’s feet if he attempts to hit the ball while he is being intentionally passed. A batter cannot jump or step out of the batter’s box and hit the ball.
    (b) He steps from one batter’s box to the other while the pitcher is in position ready to pitch;

    It's not really something I'm terribly worried about being enforced in slowpitch, but there's some disagreement amongst my teammates about whether or not that's allowed and I hate not knowing what it is supposed to be.

    • brianS
      June 2nd, 2009 at 4:37 pm

      can a baseball pitcher switch arms or batter switch boxes within a PA? this article says yes, once anyway. It's the Venditte Rule.

      • ubelmann
        June 2nd, 2009 at 5:00 pm

        With the switch-hitting and switch-pitching, I believe all of that posturing happens before a pitch is thrown. From the NYT article:

        McMahon, who said Friday that he was waiting for an official ruling from higher baseball authorities on the subject of switch-pitching to switch-hitters, said that the way he understood it, “the rule dictates that the hitter establish the box and the pitcher establish the throw, and then each team can make one move, and then it’s play ball.”

        This quotation makes it sound as though each is able to make one switch before the PA starts. ("...and then it's play ball" implying that ball was not played before that point.) It is still my understanding that after the first pitch, you would not be allowed to switch sides.

        The reason I have always heard is that if you go up to bunt left-handed--even though you are naturally a right-handed hitter--and then get two strikes against you, you shouldn't be allowed to go back to hitting righty because you already got the advantages being associated with hitting lefty, so you should have to deal with the downside of hitting as a lefty, too.

        (In terms of the switch-switch dilemma, does that rule really work in practice? It seems like the batter and pitcher would each try to delay as long as possible to establish their initial preference because knowing the other player's initial preference dictates what their first choice would be.)

        • Rhubarb_Runner
          June 2nd, 2009 at 5:19 pm

          I'm a switch-hitter is softball, and although I don't know the rule, I treat it as common courtesy to pick a side and stay with it. The outfielders will think you a bit of a d!ck for making them shift around mid-AB.

          • ubelmann
            June 2nd, 2009 at 6:58 pm

            That's more or less where I stand on the issue. Someone switched sides on us a few weeks ago. I was playing 3rd base at the time and someone on their bench said that it was illegal. I didn't bother pressing the issue, but it did seem like kind of a dick move.

        • brianS
          June 2nd, 2009 at 5:28 pm

          the second link I gave was to a CBS news article from this spring, which discusses the new rule, which they called the "Venditte Rule". The pitcher establishes an arm first, then the batter a side, then each may switch ONCE during the AB (or so my recollection from their description; the actual language of the rule may differ).

          • ubelmann
            June 2nd, 2009 at 7:29 pm

            After looking into this some more, I've decided that I should have trusted my first read through the rules. I don't think there is anything in the MLB rules that prevents a hitter from switching sides of the plate after two strikes (or any other time as long as it is between pitches). But hitters probably don't do it because they don't want to take a fastball in the ear.

            So the Venditte "Rule" seems to restrict hitters from switching sides more than they would normally be allowed to. Though it seems that the Venditte "Rule" is more technically a set of guidelines set out by minor league umpires to deal with ambidextrous pitchers, and that MLB proper has not taken an official stand on the issue as far as I can tell.