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 SBG  December 19, 2009, at 8:46 am  - (Sorry, but the time to add LTEs has expired)  Timberwolves, WGOM Caucus I just happened to walk by a calendar the other day and hey, this year (and decade!) is almost over. I don't know for sure if this has been the best year of The WGOM -- I mean, we had a lot of fun, our favorite club won a division title in game 163, and Baby Jeebus finally got that richly deserved MVP. Was it better than 2006? I don't know. Nevertheless, we had a stable of writers contribute, including Jeff A, who has pounded out over 400 posts. It's been a great year.
I am looking forward to the WGOM Festivus Caucus next week. I intend to have a WGOM get together about every two months or so in 2010. This was my plan in 2009, until I was overcome by events. Still, though, this will be the fourth official WGOM event of 2009, so I only missed out on two of them. I don't think it's too early to start thinking about WGOM Convention 2010, though. With tickets to Twins games likely to be much more difficult to obtain than in previous years, I think it would be a very good idea to start planning the event early and possibly get enough people committed to get to large group status with the Twins. I think it's always been 25 or more get a small discount on tickets. I would love to get north of 25 people to go to the game together and partake of the picnic. If you are from out of town and would seriously like to get in on the Convention, let me know and we'll try to get something arranged. I would have preferred a late afternoon Saturday game, but the Twins don't have any of those in 2010. So, the early date is July 31 against Seattle. It's a 6:00 PM game. We'll have a picnic at Minnehaha Falls and ride the light rail to the game. I'll be there at 6:00 AM to secure the site and I'm hoping Banjo will show up in the morning, too. He and I (or just me) will have a breakfast and then we'll have a picnic meal later on in the afternoon. I know this: the bigger the crowd, the better the meal. Mark your calendars.
The Wolves won last night over the Sacto Kings, drilling the visitors from Cowtown by almost 20. Kevin Love led the way with 20 points and 16 rebounds and is clearly, I think, establishing himself as the best player on this club. His ability to rebound is absolutely tremendous. I don't think he's the kind of player that you build a club around -- this club still needs a ton of pieces, but Love is a keeper. Coach Rambis has been dogging him about getting in shape and he does look a little less than chiseled, so maybe with a little work the kid can find some explosiveness that he lacks. In case you didn't notice, I quit posting game logs for the Wolves and haven't said much about them. The boys at Canis Hoopus do a great job of following the Wolves in great detail and I check out their site daily. They provide passionate analysis -- much more passionate than this club deserves. When stop-n-pop breathlessly described Ryan Hollins as the most athletic big man the Wolves have ever had, I thought, well that ain't saying much, because who have the Wolves had that has been an athletic big... wait, WHAT? Number 21 had some athleticism, methinks. Well, Hollins can jump out of the gym, which is amazing, because those hands of stone must weigh about 75 pounds a piece.
I must tell you, though, that I can't get excited about minor moves until the answer to the following question is not nobody: Who on this club could crack the starting lineup in Boston or Los Angeles (not the Clippers, dude). I realize that this move or that move might save a million here or incrementally improve the club there, but the fact remains that this club's futures are linked to their luck in the lottery and draft. The Wolves had four picks in the first round last year: Rubio is in Spain, Flynn might be a player, but he has a lot to learn about running an NBA offense, Ellington is not likely to be anything more than an end of the rotation dude (but he could be a valuable spot up shooter on a good club and he does like to rebound). Ty Lawson looks like a nice backup PG, but he's in Denver. I remain one of the 25 or so people that watches most games, but until the Wolves get an impact player or three, there's not a lot to talk about, unless you want to speculate about whether the Wolves should give up on the centerpiece of the KG trade and move BAJ. Or whether the triangle offense is the right fit in Minnesota (you draft and sign a stable of point guards and then you install an offense that doesn't rely heavily on PG play?). Me, I'm waiting to see what the ping pong balls say next summer.
Meta alert: I upgraded to WordPress 2.9 this morning. If you don't post here, you won't care. If you do, you might not care either. The WordPress developers claim to have provided an improved handling routine for uploading photos, including the ability to crop.
Well, it's Saturday morning, so that means it's time to work on the site. I went to the drive last night and didn't get home until 12:30 or so, so I didn't get up too early. But, here's what I did get done.
Quicktag Bar on LTEs -- One that's always bugged me is that I didn't know how to add buttons to what is known as the "Quicktag Bar" on the LTE form. If you don't know what that is, it is the little bar with buttons like "b" "i" "link", which allow you to format your LTEs. I used to have an "img" button, but for some reason, that floated into the ether. Well, I figured out how to add buttons (thanks, The GoogleTM). So, I added the "img" button back. Plus, I added the "<" and ">" buttons and the "sup" button. The first two add greater than and less than signs for showing people how to write HTML code. If you don't know what that means, that's okay, but for those of you that do, you won't be typing the "&" much any more. The "sup" allows you to add superscript, like the TM symbol above.
Blog Page -- You know, the new look is fun for me and I like it, but maybe it's not your cup of tea. If not, try this on for size, the "Blog Page". You'll note that the toolbar across the top of the page says "Home" and then "Blog". If you click on that page, you will get none of the frilly new stuff -- just the entries on this site in a blog form. You can bookmark that page and enter the WGOM there, if you like. You can always just go there from the home page. However you prefer. The URL is http://www.stickandballguy.com/blog/blog. Bloggy goodness!
If you don't write for this site, this post is of little interest to you. I have updated the Wordpress engine on the WGOM to version 2.6. There are a few minor changes to the system, the most notable (and this is relevant to those of you who post headlines or are working on videos), the "Press This". You will see this just to the right of the main editing window. Drag and drop that to your bookmarks bar on your browser and when you want to add a WGOM Headline, click on it when you are on that page. You will be able to do all kinds of things and post your article with ease. NOTE that this is REALLY cool if you are posting videos (VJs). Try it out.
Note to VJs: unfortunately, the popup window associated with this "Press It" feature doesn't have a schedule feature, so just SAVE the videos, don't publish. You can go through YouTube, save videos to your heart's content and then edit them later (note that they are now drafts).
SBG July 6, 2008, at 10:16 pm - (Sorry, but the time to add LTEs has expired) Polls, Template
 Good taste is the first refuge of the non-creative. It is the last ditch stand of the artist. -- Marshall McLuhan
I'm pretty excited about the new template and look here for the WGOM. I've tinkered many times with this thing, but now I have what I really want -- tons of information available without refreshing the page AND a nice clean look. Wow.
There are a couple of huge changes. The first, of course, is the huge tab window that is located just below the header. I've set up a number of tabs, including the main tab, which right now has a little information on it with links to a number of recent articles. I've also added a "Featured Articles" tab, which has the last ten featured articles shown in their entirety. It kind of looks like a blog page. What are "Featured Articles"? Well, they are articles other than WGOM Headlines, Cup of Coffee, Notes from the Ditch, Game Logs, and WGOM Videos. Most of what's been written there lately has been ubelmann's writings, but things like "On the Grill", "Barley Pops and Hop Hits" and "Better Know a Citizen" will show up in the "Featured Articles" list.
The WGOM Headlines are located under a tab. Yep, they aren't readily viewable without a click, but they also are in a lot better format. Note to those who submit WGOM Headlines -- you can write more than a sentence now, because you aren't constrained by a 150 px column. So, if you want to make your post a little meatier, go ahead. Also, add tags if you would like that are directed to the content of the posts. I've got a related articles function running, which will make the content richer, if posts can be accessed in the future.
I'm hoping to write more on my "Notes from the Ditch" column. This column is really not about anything related to the main topics of the site -- baseball, basketball, music, movies, wine, food, etc. These are my personal ramblings. I intend to do more with that. The stuff is sitting on a tab, so those who don't want to read my off topic palaver can vote by not reading. It's going to be out there.
One thing to note about the tab window. You can switch from tab to tab without refreshing the page, which is nice, but in order to get new information, you will have to refresh the page. In other words, if you load the page at 1:00PM, don't expect the game log for a 7:00PM page to magically appear. The tab window is nice, but it's not that nice. Maybe someday, I'll have auto refresh on the tabs, but until then, refresh the page for new content.
Another cool thing is the addition of polls. I've been wanting to do this forever, but the poll engine that I have would not work in the old template. It works here, though, and I'm very happy about that.  I intend to have polls fairly often. The first one will run for a couple of days, but then I'll start making new polls with regularity.
I hope you like the new look and expanded functionality. If you have any feedback, let me know at sbg at stickandballguy dot com. Thanks.
Today is your last chance to sign up for the Convention, at least if you want to sit with us at the game. It promises to be a great time. Banjo and I'll be there. Andrew, Will, Aaron Gleeman, Seth, ubelmann, Nick N., and others. It promises to be a lot of fun. The picnic should be a good time to visit. BabySBG'll tell you what a fish says. How can you turn that down?
I'm tentatively planning on the bar-b-que being at Minnehaha Falls Park. Apparently, they have a bar-b-que area large enough to accommodate our crew that is first come, first served. So, I'm planning on getting there when the park opens to claim it. Yep, that's a scant eight hours before the picnic starts. Sigh. I should have tried to get a reserved spot before then. (Note to self: do that a couple of months early next year.) I'm thinking that I'll have a little breakfast there and do some food preparation as well. You are invited to show up early! If you are a Iowan running in a 5K that day, just hop on the Light Rail after the race and get off at 50th Street. Then, mosey on over and I'll cook you breakfast. Plus, if there's anyone else around to save the place, I can take to my chateau so that you can get cleaned up.
I finally got an insurance settlement hammered out. I'll be getting a car in a little more than a week to replace the duct tape mobile. Can't wait for that.
It appears that my car will be a total loss. The carriage did what it is supposed to do in an accident, namely, protect me. I felt no effects from the accident and I am fine, so that is great. The carriage, however, is bent and the repair costs are very high, more than the value of the vehicle -- obviously, since it is a total loss.
On my way home from work today, I was crawling down 35W about 10-15 miles an hour when another car smashed into the back of mine at a fairly high rate of speed. The back of my car was damaged, but I was able to drive it home. The other car appeared to be totalled and the driver of that car went to the hospital in an ambulance, although I don't think she was injured too badly. I'm sore and a little queasy. I'm going to head to the doctor and get checked out.
I really want to do some fun things with the site, but there's a problem somewhere and I need to resolve it. So, if the site looks screwy for a while or isn't working properly, please bear with me.
The season has started and things are rolling along here at the WGOM. I want to thank those of you who have been contributing articles here so far. ubelmann, of course, has been terrific so far. I also have enjoyed Big Mak's contributions, especially his Bell-Wah trip. That was fun. If you want to put pictures in future posts, go ahead and upload them to my server. I've also enjoyed the wine articles from zooomx. I'm going to head out and buy a Reisling this weekend. Also, I'm happy that brianS has rejoined the fray with his beer musings. And, of course, the WGOM videos is a great feature, kudos to our DJs: brianS, E-6, and the lately somewhat absent frightwig. WGOM-signal out west!
I know that Andrew is champing at the bit to resume work on the SBG HOF, and I promise that I'll work with you on that. Plus, I think there have been enough new folks added around here lately that a reprise of the Better Know a Citizen feature is in order. If you do not know what that is, check here for some examples. If you are interested, send me an e-mail at sbg [at] stickandballguy [dot] com and I'll sic Andrew on you. That was a great feature last year.
Rhubarb_Runner is patiently waiting for your submissions to the SBG Library. We don't need a 2000 word essay on a book you've read. One or two paragraphs is all we need. If you've read a good baseball or sports related book, let Rhu_Ru know so that he can disseminate the information to everyone. I think we'll be doing some exciting features there this year... I'm hoping for an appearance by JoePos! (If you are checking the site JoePos, WE LOVE YOU!)
If you have any ideas that you'd like to pitch me, let me know. We aren't hurting for material, but the more we have, the merrier. So, put on your thinking caps and let me know what's spinning in your head. One article is fine. A series of articles is great. Whatever you'd like to share with the Nation will be considered.
It's time for the Hacking Mass contest at Baseball Prospectus. Deadline for entry is Friday at midnight. We need players and pitchers that are going to (a) suck and (b) play a lot. Adam Everett is a candidate! Scour the Giants lineup!
Put your suggestions for the SBG Nation team here.
If I had just one column on this site, I'd be a lot better off.
I wish I knew how to make the site behave, I really do. Actually, the site behaves great, for the most part in FireFox. But, most people use IE. And IE6 is so damned buggy that everyone in the world should refuse to use it. It doesn't interpret HTML like other browsers, so it's seemingly impossible for me to get my site to look right on IE6. The main column, for some reason, decides to stick out way further than it should. Pffft. The thing is, if you go back a page to previous entries, it looks perfect. Pfft. Why? I don't know and can't figure it out.
Update: I figured out what was causing the problem. Believe me, the solution is inelegant, but the page looks right now in IE-6.
On the way back from SBGVille on Sunday, Lucy, BabySBG and I stopped in Alexandria, where we met Citizen zooomx. We all enjoyed our visit with our esteemed citizen and thank him for his hospitality. A tip of the cap to you, sir!
Lucy, BabySBG and I made it to SBGVille on Friday night. The roads weren't half bad, considering all the snow that fell.
Diesel is selling at $4.05 a gallon in SBGville. Gulp.
BabySBG is taking up to ten steps now. It won't be long and she'll be running.
I'll be gone for the rest of the weekend. DJs, make sure the videos aren't screwed up, given the new set up.
That's all. Happy Easter!
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Cup of Coffee  62 LTEs The melting continues. I'm seeing grass around the trees in the front (north side) of the yard. Roof is ice free. Grass showing up in the back yard. These updates brought to you by someone who is profoundly sick of winter.
Retired WGOM Jokes
- "The Twins should have drafted Mark Prior."
Race to the Bottom: Highest Loss Totals in T-Wolves History 67: 1991-92
63: 1992-93
62: 1993-94
61: 1994-95
60: 1989-90, 2007-08
58: 2008-09
56: 1995-96
53: 1990-91
52: 2009-10
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Recent Letters to the Editor
In Response to Cup of Coffee: March 13-14, 2010,
Milt on Tilt wrote: Road to the Show is the greatest thing since sliced bread. And apparently the Reds are treating me like the Mets. They called up the young prospect with less than 500 professional at bats. I'm…
spookymilk wrote: Daylight savings … morning, guys. Don't be late for, you know, whatever.
CarterHayes wrote: unless you're a … fightin' words. The DAM is definitely on the list. We didn't allow for enough time at the Seattle Art Museum last year, a mistake we won't be making twice. Those brewery recommendations…
Beau wrote: Sweetwater, Texas is my favorite song by Fastball. You can listen to it on Lala here:
meat wrote: I concur.
meat wrote: CH, the Cherry Creek Arts Fest is pretty cool, and the new DAM is a great place to get some culture. As far as breweries are concerned you shouldn't miss Oskar Blues (don't screw around…
meat wrote: Fixed, and I don't know what more to say. Damn, Texas is one hell of place.
E-6 wrote: I'm afraid yer gonna have to say more, Tex. Or fix your link...
meat wrote: Dr. Chop and I just returned home from the annual Rattlesnake Roundup . Wow, that's all I can say. I have never seen anything like it before, nor will I see anything like it again.
AMR wrote: I have three TCs: Red, Blue, and Throwback Blue. The only difference is Throwback Blue has a blue button, no MLB logo on the back, and flat embroidery. It is my newest and my going…
In Response to Happy Birthday--March 13,
AMR wrote: If it were a different Bass, we'd have an all-pitcher day!
CarterHayes wrote: .
cheaptoy wrote: …
SBG wrote: Santana is just another Latino taking the job of some poor black kid in Detroit.
In Response to Cup of Coffee: March 12, 2010,
Rhubarb_Runner wrote: I got no problem with that. ;)
Rhubarb_Runner wrote: Delmon was drafted out of Miskatonic University??
AMR wrote: Oh jeez, don't mention Olive Garden and Beer in the same post. I think I could have had a premium tap, like Killians or Michelob Amber.
Milt on Tilt wrote: he's still awesome in The Show. I signed him as the Pirates number one starter!
meat wrote: Sorry to hear that, New Guy. My thoughts are with you.
Jeff A wrote: Our condolences to all of your family.
Milt on Tilt wrote: Tickets came in the mail today. Section 323 row 11 seats 13 and 14
cheaptoy wrote: Worse, I recall seeing the suggestion by a stribbie commentor in the story about Nathan's injury. I'd hate for the front office to be doing things suggested by that lot.
cheaptoy wrote: My wife loves it too. I don't hate it to the point where I refuse to go, but I'm starting to wonder about her tastes when she'd prefer to go there than a new…
hungry joe wrote: my sympathies as well. and thirded.
In Response to Music Day,
Milt on Tilt wrote: hater