Game 111, Twins at Mariners
DMZ · August 8, 2005 at 7:01 pm · Filed Under Game Threads
RHP Carlos Silva v RHP Gil Meche. 7:05.
Ichiro, RF-L
Ignitor, 2B-R
Ibanez, DF-L
Sexson, 1B-R
Beltre, 3B-R
Reed, CF-L
Morse, SS-R
Snelling, LF-L
Torrealba, C-R
Doyle’s 8th? 8th? I don’t get it.
If the Mariners continue on this pace, they’ll go 69-93. This would bring their two-year mark to 132 wins. It would be the worst two year stretch (over full seasons) since 1979-1980, when they went 67-95 and then 69-103. Close stretches include 83-84, 82-83.
Even bad stretches like 86-90 were better than this.
Comments
332 Responses to “Game 111, Twins at Mariners”
Where’s the exciting post we were promised?
OMG – Niehaus looks like the Great Pumpkin in that suit!
He’s batting 8th because, while he hit .390 in Tacoma
he hasn’t exactly blown anyone’s mind the last few days.
We all know its early. And that his numbers, his impact, will be
great…but so far I’m just happy he’s playing. If he hits .300+ up
with the big club over a meaningful stretch and they STILL bat him 8th,
then yeah we have a problem.
I know the Mariners are transactions-happy of late, but one they don’t need to make is picking up Jose Cruz Jr. (DFA’d this afternoon by the Red Sox to make room for the Greek God of Walks.)
Pat Borders was outright released today, too.
“When Meche has his good curveball, its virtually unhittable.”
He’s had it, what, two or three innings in the past several years then?
Snelling has had 19 at bats. And his “not exactly blown anyone away”‘s OPS is STILL 20 points higher than Bloomquist’s.
He shouldn’t be eighth.
Snelling has the 5th-highest OBP on the team even while hitting .211. What’s he gotta do.
“Play for one run every inning.”
If I hadn’t heard Jeff Brantley earlier in the day, I’d give Ron Fairly the dumbest announcer of the day award.
4: But Cruz hit 12 homeruns in his M’s rookie season! He must be good!
Be from Port Orchard?
I’m headed to Australia next month. I wonder if he’d give me some tips on good places to go surfing.
I hope Fairly realizes that 1/3 of today’s lineup are rookies, another 1/3rd have been in the NL since Silva’s career started, and the other three are Ichiro, Willie, and Ibanez, and only Ibanez could’ve hit a homerun off him. So his complaint t hat none of our guys have hit HRs off him is silly.
You want The Outback Steakhouse in Sydney, where you can get a great Fosters.
Would it really be too much to ask for Meche to not to 7-8 pitches deep to EVERY hitter and be under 70 pitches after, say, 3 innings?
You want The Outback Steakhouse in Sydney, where you can get a great Fosters.
Um no.
Foster’s, Australian for horrible beer.
Need a tour guide? I’ll even put a shrimp on the barbie for you, and drive you around in my Subaru Outback (TM).
I understand that Coopers is the Australian Molson’s. I guess I’ll find out if that’s strue when I get there.
DMZ –
there’s good surfing most anywhere in Oz. If you’re in the Sydney area, head up to Newcastle (about an hour, maybe a bit less, north…), and most of the beaches around there have good surfing.
Bondi’s not bad either, but it’s way crowded. Australia rules. Sydney’s a phenomenal city. drop a line if you want more info.
Idaho’s cooler than Australia.
That’s my only comment.
So what’s with Justin Morneau? Did that early-season head-beaning really take away the rest of his ’05?
Are radio stations required to play x% of programming? I’m wondering if these commercial-riddled M’s games might not fail any reasonable standard.
If you’re in the Sydney area, head up to Newcastle (about an hour, maybe a bit less, north…), and most of the beaches around there have good surfing.
I’ve got a lot of time scheduled in Sydney. I’m also thinking about running off to do some surfing when I’m in Brisbane.
#22: The Reagan FCC changed the rules. What you are asking used to be true, but not any more.
There are slight rumblings that Morneau may be having vision problems as a result of the beanball.
From Gene Mauch’s AP obit:
“I don’t think history will be as fair to him as it should be,” said Tim Mead, the Angels’ vice president of communications and a member of the organization since 1979. “He was brilliant. Gene Mauch could put together a game just by looking at the box score.”
That’s a weird thing to say about someone.
I thought so, too.
Meche is unhittable when his curve is working and he can throw it for strikes.
Meche is also unhittable when batters swing and miss at his pitches.
Come oooonnnnnnnnn, Gil
Hey, totally off-topic: does anyone on the Web do decent music reviews? Someone referred me to Pitchfork, but they tend to give awesome reviews to “Roget’s Curse: A 2-hour track of industrial noises with syth backup”
I can put a jigsaw puzzle together just by looking at the pieces.
Meche may have the best stuff of anyone on the team*.
* clearly no longer true
The doubleheader must be why the Ms pitching is so awful.
The only time Meche is unhittable is when the Mariners are up to bat.
I hear Punto explodes if you slap him in the butt.
Meche is never, ever unhittable.
In that particular situation, wouldn’t you have Sexson guarding the line a little closer?
#38 That’s true — Conceivably, Meche *could* get hit by a foul ball or a bat when sitting in the dugout while the M’s are up to bat.. never thought of that.
And here I wasted all that time, and all that airfare, in one of the best cities on the planet when I could have just gone to Boise and saved so much time and effort. What was I thinking?
Nobody in Australia drinks Foster’s. VB is the beer. It’s not the greatest, but it’s better than Cooper’s and more widely available (and cheaper). Just don’t make the mistake that I did, once – when you go to a store, and buy beer, they sell “stubbies” (12oz) and normal sized (16oz) beers – there’s nothing more distressing than buying a case of beer only to get it back home and realize they’re mini sized.
And if you like to gamble a bit, there are entire pubs that do nothing on Saturday but show horse racing and dog racing, and there’s OTB (called, confusingly, AB) everywhere you go.
Industrial noise with syth backup?
Guess it beats Van Morrison.
they sell “stubbies†(12oz) and normal sized (16oz) beers
Wait, wait, wait.. in Australia, the normal sized beers are 16oz?
swoon
Thank you Matt LeCroy, for getting in a rundown. I was about to go mow the lawn or something.
41: I was actually thinking Twin Falls.
I wish I had tickets to the seats right behind the dance team.
HELL YEAH
DOYLE!!!!!!!
YAY!
Thank you #8 batter!
You go crazy, Snelling. You go crazy, little big man.
DOOOOOOOOOYLE!!!!!!!!!!!!
Damn that was sweet.
Praise Doyle!
Let’s try this again…
Gil Meche Death March
How has Ichiro been looking at the plate during this so called “slump?”
Doyle’s 8th? 8th? I don’t get it.
Do you get it NOW? …. Good.
Derek,
Give me the names of 3 bands you like, and I can probably point you in the right direction.
Do you get it NOW? …. Good.
You think batting him 8th resulted in that home run?
DMZ said:”I’m headed to Australia next month. I wonder if he’d give me some tips on good places to go surfing.”
yah– he was brought up on the Central Coast– he’d know some spots. and as mentioned before, VB (Victoria Bitter) which they don’t sell here, dammit. You can get TimTams, you can get minties, but VB? nope.
26 pitches through 3 innings for Silva, by the way.
Snelling just passed Greg Dobbs for total bases this season.
Derek,
All Music Guide is where I go for music reviews.
Pitchfork “Eucalyptus”
It took him ~1/2 the plate appearances to do so.
I meant “Pitchfork Media”.
What’d that double look like? Almost a bomb, or no?
Baltimore chop for Beltre.
in Australia, the normal sized beers are 16oz?
Not true, I just went and looked in my fridge and my bottles are 375 ml (about 12.5 oz). This is a pretty standard amount and is in fact the same size that you get in a can of soda (none of those in the fridge though ).
Stubbies are just short fat bottles that VB uses. Because VB is historically pretty popular though, you’d know what that someone wanted a beer (preferably VB) if they asked you for a stubbie.
If you go into a bar, then it depends on what state you go are in for how you order for example a “schooner” isn’t the same size in all states. There is a good run down here on how to order beer in Australia.
Go Snelling!
No bomb. More of a missile to left.
Woah woah woah. 4 consecutive hits?! This I could get used to.
The Safe looks half-empty again.
#69 –
I stand corrected. It’s been about 6 years since I’ve been down there. a “pint” in a pub, however, is the proper (imperial) pint size, if I remember right (20 oz), correct?
“There are slight rumblings that Morneau may be having vision problems as a result of the beanball.”
He came back from his injury, exploded for about two weeks, was hitting in the .400s with a ton of home runs, and has done nothing since. I can’t imagine it’s his vision. It wouldn’t have been fine initially and then suddenly dropped off. I’m guessing people around the league finally figured something out on him.
#66 DMZ,
Oh, Pitchfork Media.
My bad.
It’s a decent site. Not as good as All Music Guide, but a decent site nonetheless.
Ok, 8 straight balls to the no. 9 hitting shortstop.
Hm. And here I was just thinking how Meche pulling it together last inning was uncharacteristic.
It’s a decent site. Not as good as All Music Guide, but a decent site nonetheless.
I have two problems:
- the constant recommendations of the bizarre and unlistenable and
- recommendations of stuff that’s impossible to fricking find because it was only put out by some Bronx label that pressed a couple of 45s.
How dare Fairly pick on Our Man Bloomquist!
You think batting him 8th resulted in that home run?
How many does he have when batting elsewhere in the order?
Am I mistaken, or is that the first time he’s been past 3rd base?
I believe Doyle is now 3rd on the team in slugging percentage.
You’re mistkaen.
Anyone know Meche’s stats on throwing well after a couple of innings of trouble? I feel like when he implodes he’s usually done for, but that could just be my pessimism at work.
Yeah, that strategy sure paid off.
Snelling’s got the eye.
Paul,
The size of a pint is an imperial pint in all states except SA and WA where it is 425ml (13-14 oz). It really screwed me up the first year I was here, until I realised that all I had to do was point at the biggest glass they had behind the bar.
A couple of years ago on my first visit to QLD, I was driving and saw a resaurant with the following lunch special on their sign out front:
screeeeeeeech….
Needless to say, I was a little disappointed when I only got an 8oz XXXX with my meat pie (XXXX is synonomous for beer in QLD. Its like a light beer so you can drink a lot since its so hot – too me a bit too much like Bud Light).
Derek when are you going to be Oz? For holiday or business?
Extended vacation.
It may be, as Dave N. says, rare for Silva to give up a walk.
But it ain’t unusual for Doyle to take one.
Get down! Get back up again!
God, I love Snelling. I love the way he plays.
That was a lead-off run.
And boom, his OPS is .900. Even with a .250 batting average.
My first visit here was for 3 months around the Olympics in 2000… Since then I have only been in the states about a year.
Hey DMZ:
I agree with your assessment of Pitchfork. They’re ridiculous. If I knew your general taste in music, I could be a bit more specific, but I can tell you that Popmatters does a pretty fair job- occasionally they range into the obscure, but more often than not, they do a fine job of covering good music.
http://www.popmatters.com
Another clutch hit by Bloomquist.
The IGNITOR !!!
Hey! Good for Willy!
There’s no chance the M’s are dumb enough to dump Lopez for nothing in the offseason because of Bloomquist’s little hot streak here is there?
re 96
More likely to keep Bloomquist down in Tacoma, I’d say…
Bloomquist… What a stud!
Why is Thornton ptiching in an important situation? Someone explain for me.
The irrationally loved Snelling scores on a solid duoble by the irrationally hated Bloomquist!!
oh no. no no no.
In the early 1970s, the band Sweet had a hit called “Little Willie”:
“North side, east side
Little Willie, Willie wears the crown, he’s the king around town
Dancing, glancing
Willie drives them silly with his star shoe shimmy shuffle down
Way past one, and feeling allright
‘Cos with little Willie round they can last all night
Hey down, stay down, stay down down
‘Cos little Willie, Willie won’t go home
But you can’t push Willie round
Willie won’t go, try tellin’ everybody but, oh no
Little Willie, Willie won’t go home”
Someone like one or two streets over bought a Constant-Yip dog lately, and listening to the games, it’s hard to choose whether to turn the sound down and get the dog or keep it up and get Valle.
Why do people keep pets like that?
Rational on both counts, as far as I’m concerned, Chief.
re 99
Yeah.
I love it. Heh!
Why, exactly, is love for Snelling “irrational”?
Now putting Thornton in in a tie game… that’s irrational.
Wait didn’t someone make a claim that Thornton was ok as long as it was long relief and not a high-pressure situation?
Although a tie is sort of high pressure…
How far would a yip-yip dog fly if you drop-kicked it?
Pitchfork varies from reviewer to reviewer of course, but it’s overall an excellent site, with several good reviewers and good news coverage. Honestly, almost nothing they write about is actually hard to find. Amoeba’s online service carries almost everything they write about, for example. As for “unlistenable,” well, that hasn’t been true for me, though obviously they are bound to enthuse about things I don’t like, and they do have more of a taste for the adventurous than the conventional. I am sorry if you bought something on their recommendation and actually found it unlistenable, though (I assume you aren’t just inferring unlistenability from the descriptions).
Allmusic guide is more of a reference guide — a good one — than a good review source, in my opinion. And they have some reviewers — search for MacKenzie Wilson — who are flatulently incoherent.
I don’t think there’s a better website (for all their flaws) for tracking new music than Pitchfork. But there are some good weblogs. Maybe you’d like Last Plane to Jakarta.
Must. Refrain. From. Posting. Towel.
Corco – Thornton is pitching because Hargrove’s a moron. Sorry, but anybody who pinch hits Spiezio for anybody has to have a mental deficiency. To bring Thornton out, in a close game (again), is unconscionable. I ask my ex-wife, she’s got more sense than that!
Well. Huh.
#108 – I agree with your assessment of Pitchfork. It’s definitely my favorite music site on the web.
So of course MT has a 1-2-3 inning!
DMZ, here is a few of my favorite music sites…
http://www.stylusmagazine.com/
http://www.dustedmagazine.com/
To each their own with regard to Pitchfork, I suppose. Though I can appreciate some (many) of the obscure artists they tend to prefer, I tend to think they often demonstrate a serious lack of objectivity.
Wow.
Silva is a strike machine.
Well that was a quick, impressive inning by Silva. 9 pitches, all strikes, right through the heart of our order.
He kinda looks like Eddie Guardado too.
Hmm….
10 pitches, actually.
If Thornton has maybe 2 more good innings and finds some local geneology, we could be talking club pitching MVP! Sure, Eddie has better stats, but what do stats tell you about hustle, about clubhouse leadership, about spunk?
But does he look more like Eddie than Ryan Franklin looks like Roano Franklero?
113 – I know you’re not saying anything to the contrary… but bad decisions can have good results. Spiezio could hit a line drive HR while pinch hitting. Doesn’t make pinch hitting him smart. Of course, sometimes it’s better to be lucky than smart. Or so I’ve heard.
119. You’re right, it was 10. Pff, what a bum
My problem with Pitchfork is they seem to play favorites with a few certian bands, i.e. Radiohead, Modest Mouse, etc. I know favoritism plays apart in alot of review sites and magazines, but Pitchfork goes way too far. Isaac Brock and Thom Yorke could crap into a mic and the site would rave about it. Secondly I’ve noticed reviews where the reviewer obviously never listened to the cd. Third, and worst imho, is reviews like the one of Sonic Youth’s ‘NYC Ghost & Flowers’. The reviewer made it into a war between Chicago and NY, and wrote jack about the music.
That being said, I have a few reviewers I trust, and I like some of their interviews (like todays with Berman from the Silver Jews). I just take their reviews with a grain of salt.
Seeing that Bank of America commercial 100+ times in the last week doesn’t make want to switch banks.
The pitiful customer service at my current bank does, but 100+ commercials aren’t going to change the current bank’s “we don’t care if the people who wrote you the check were victims of bank fraud, we’re still charging you $35 for the bounced check and processing fee” crap.
122: I guess my irony was lost due to my brevity. I hope that my 120 post rectified this
Going into tonight, Matt Thornton had an 81 ERA against the Twins.
(OK sample size – 1/3 of an inning, 4H, 3R, 3ER, and 1HR.)
I’m not sure what you mean by this. Reviewing is by its nature subjective. Do you mean they are swayed by non-musical factors? (That’s certainly true to some extent; they are as concerned with being hip as Robert Christgau is with sneering at hip.) Do you mean they give good reviews to things they have a vested interest in? Do you just mean they overenthuse about stuff that you think is no great shakes? Or what?
Dobbs’ one pinch-hit double in the beginning of the season earned him at least a month.
Im sorry, at what point did this thread become a freggin’ music discussion. We got a tie-game here folks.
Isaac Brock and Thom Yorke could crap into a mic and the site would rave about it.
Add Jeff Tweedy and Thurston Moore and you describe 65% of all rock critics.
126 – Like I said, I know you aren’t saying anything to the contrary. I just have this insatiable need to blow of steam whenever Hargrove brings in Spiezio, Thornton, random horrible BA for decent BA or random horrible ERA for decent ERA. I just want to find him the nicest room in rest home and find a replacement manager. Rohn, Brundage, Perlozzo, whomever. Picky I’m not at this point. I would have no problem bringing Melvin back.
Hargrove is my arch-nemesis.
#131:
Heh, hence why I said alot of journalists do this.
That being said, Thurston is god
a few random thoughts
can we say that Doyle is a stubby?
when Neihaus refers to Meche’s “hip”, is that a delicacy akin to Peggy Fleming’s coy substitution of the word “leg” when forced to discuss skater’s groin injuries?
is “you’re not going to believe the expression of love that is reciprocated…” the most awkward attempt to sell an engagement ring ever?
I think they’re totally crazy about some bands and kinds of music that are horribly painful to even listen to because it’s so crazy and unpopular that it’s super-super-hip to like it. “Whee, it’s like William Basinski’s Disintegration Loops I-IV except even longer and with even fewer notes! Twenty stars out of four!”
That’s two hits for Mr. Overrated. Man does he suck.
Not too bad of a night thus far for Mr. 8-spot
Snelling can hit.
Please ignore my spelling error in 132. I’m feel faint.
re 136
Let’s rag on him some more. Maybe he’ll respond with another homer…
#131: Don’t forget Stephen Malkmus. Anything Pavement still gets a critical free pass.
130: It’s an off-topic discussion officially approved by DMZ. The rush of freedom is clearly going to everyone’s head.
No one ever answered my Meche question, either. What do I have to do, research my own damn stats?
Yup.
The problem is that without having a standard, like “an inning where he gives up two or more runs” it’s impossible to research.
So….is THornton back out there for a third inning? Is the bullpen that burned?
I’ll take that standard for $200, Alex.
132: I feel your pain, Gunga. But as to bringing “But Bobby M really wanted to stay in the game and throw 130 pitches” Melvin back – well, you’re going to have to walk that road alone.
You’re mind-reading. It’s possible that Radiohead and Modest Mouse haven’t actually made a record that everyone would dislike. Pitchfork worshiped (rightly) the Dismemberment Plan, yet gave an ludicrously exaggerated pan to Travis Morrison’s solo record; I’m sure they’d do the same to Yorke or Brock if the reviewer felt similarly betrayed.
Anyway, you’re wrong: Last year, Pitchfork gave the reissue of Modest Mouse’s The Moon and Antarctica a 5.0 (out of 10) and Radiohead’s Com Lag Ep a 4.0.
Oh c’mon. Name one.
Agreed. That kind of attitudinizing is their biggest weakness.
Okay. Trying to pull it together. Check. Spelling. Proofread.
Seriously, this is what Grover does to me. I get apoplectic. 11 years ago I was a football fan. Never watched a baseball game in my life. Now I’m reduced to this. Thornton comes in and my heart pounds, my pulse races, and I feel as though I’m about to pass out. I know I’m not in love, so it must be managerial decision induced cardiac distress (MDICD). I’m breathing into a paper bag and everything will be just fine as soon as the little pills kick in.
The last time the symptoms were this bad, Lou was calling Ayala in from the pen.
Nice little bridge job there by Thornton.
Oh, there’s that Thornton we have all come to love, walking a guy with a .634 OPS to start an inning. Well, maybe he aint the pitching MVP after all….
Now if Nellie’s little slider is still fresh, perhaps he can induce an inning-ending DP
Three strikeouts, a hit, a walk in retiring seven? I’ll take that every night.
what happened to Meche???
141 – Aah, Mr. Malkmus is in the Do-No-Wrong Pantheon. Good point.
It’ll be interesting to see how the “hip critics” handle Death Cab’s next album, since it’s major label and all.
Well, DMZ, as someone who likes lots and lots of music that gets me accused of liking it just because it’s weird/unpopular/whatever, I have to say you’re mind-reading too. It’s not something that anyone can defend themself from other than to say it’s not so: but I’ve never understood why anyone would make the acccusation, just because (so far as I can tell) they don’t like the same things. I wouldn’t accuse anyone of liking popular music just to go along with the crowd (and I like popular music too). Can’t we disagree about music taste without motive-bashing?
what happened to Meche???
In general, or….
I was just looking up stats and I saw that 3 of the top 5 leaders of K/BB are Minnesota Twins (Silva, Radke, Santana) Is Rick Anderson available any time soon?
he looked like he was hurt…were they working on his forearm in the dugout? I didnt see it all, but it looked like he was hurt and dejected about it.
The last few Modest Mouse and Built to Spill albums have been major label, which hasn’t seemed to hurt the reviews much.
There’s something wrong with his pitching arm. It doesn’t have any control in it.
Can’t we disagree about music taste without motive-bashing?
I’m not sure how to put my disagreement with Pitchfork’s recommendations of music that seems to me to consist of 15m tracks of distant scratching sounds that turn out later to have been my cat trying to get me to open the office door without in some way impugning their taste.
Was that just an uncalled balk?
Okay, OT#3 (on topic #3): The Arrogant Worms, Tom Lehrer, Les Horribles Cernettes and, of course, Corky and the Juice Pigs. Now that’s music!
Of course, I’m older than a lot of you, except maybe Mr. Corcoran.
Good work, Nellie, thanks for coming back
Tom Lehrer is the greatest. Thou shalt have no other gods before him.
DMZ, all you have to do is avoid implying anyone’s pretending to like the things they like.
Nothing wrong with impugning taste; you impugned honesty.
Tom Lehrer
I have An Evening Wasted. Nearly 50 years old now and it has never ceased to be funny.
Use of “ambient sound” in music has become a horribly slippery slope, I agree.
Thanks Jim! Are you also in your 40′s or above? Kids today… they don’t know from music!
BTW, I got it from Agnes.
Well, of course I’d take 2 1/3 innings with a trio of strikeouts from Thornton every night, but we aren’t getting that every night, are we….
Though to be truthful, I was surprised that he came out for the third inning as I wasn’t aware that he was capable of stretching that far…
163: I have the complete Tom Lehrer box set, including “Silent E”.
I wouldn’t have much of an idea how old most of the folks here are; I’m 41.
Ah. Tom Lehrer. An evening is NEVER wasted with Tom Lehrer.
I think we should adopt the Harvard Fight Song.
Okay, so for instance, here’s the essence of my dispute. 2004′s best album was Arcade Fire’s “Funeral”. Loved it, maybe not my #1, but… #2 Animal Collective, “Sung Tongs”. Descrived as “magnificent, soaring”. Worst album I heard that year. #3 is the Streets, loved it. #4, Fiery Furnaces, liked it. #5, Brian Wilson… didn’t like it, seemed to have a critic hypno-ray, but sure, free pass, I can see where you’d like it. #6 Madvillan, good. #7 Devendra Banhart, 16 tracks of slow guitar plinking with slow singing, baaaaaaaaaaaaad. #8, Go! Team, loved it. #9, Ghostface, meh. #10, Joanna Newsome, awful.
It’s like being offered candy with a 1/3rd chance it’ll be the worst taste imaginable.
I had a few friends who composed “new music” in college. New Music is generally stuff like four and a half minutes of silence, violinists hitting conga drums with their violins, etc.
You know, that music was pretty crappy.
170 – Normally, he can’t stretch more than 1/3 to 2/3 of an inning, so yeah… three is pretty remarkable.
Can George be our closer next year?
God I love George Sherrill.
Big time outs, Sherrill. Big time.
Nothing wrong with impugning taste; you impugned honesty.
What? No I didn’t. I said it seems like they’re recommending bizarre stuff… argh.
Sherrill. Yeahhhhhhhh.
Pitchfork is a bunch of eleatist indie snobs that only rate music based on how obscure it is, paying no mind to whether it is really good music or not.
“Stubbies” are 8 oz. bottles. I grew up in Olympia. I know these things.
Doyal is a freakin’ stud.
okay, thats all.
172 – Yeah Roger, that’d be jolly!
It’s funny to see Sherrill and Thornton in at the same time. I feel like they should battle it out in the ring or something to get to see who comes in.
Speaking of music, I just bought a Jackson Browne CD. Good stuff.
FWIW: Four of Pitchfork’s five reviews today are pop and rock by any measure. While two of them are far from popular — though Unsane aren’t exactly obscure either — the other two are reissues of the Ramones and Electric Light Orchestra. The past week has included reviews of Funkadelic, Teenage Fanclub, Public Enemy, The Melvins, Iggy Pop, Orange Juice, and Bob Mould.
“Doctor My Eyes” — Matt Thornton is in the house!
Van Morrison and Jackson Browne, what’s next? Christopher Cross?
Come on, Ich. GEt out of this little funk
DMZ – They already battled it out. On the mound. George won on a knock out. Grover is having trouble counting Thornton out. Seems he got stuck on two.
At this pace, I’m going to become a Bloomquist fan.
Bloomie, Capt. Clutch
#169: Just turned 40 … but my dad loved to play his Tom Lehrer LPs when I was a wee sprat. And in college, I would play them in my dorm room and fellow students would wander in and start cracking up. A better social lubricant than liquor.
Willie … man. How long can this go on?
Comparing Jackson Browne to Christopher Cross is like comparing Tchaikovsky to Stravinsky! Or Thornton to Sherrill.
163: Gunga, I love the Arrogant Worms and I’m only 25.
But then, I’m also a hockey fan, so.
Hey, check it out. We’re winning! Neato.
Ok, I’m late into the game. What happened to Gil? Forearm? What the @#$@$$^^$$*!!!!! See, no cussing, right?! hehe!
Ignition!!!
So would you walk Ibanez here to allow the force at home on Sexson?
185. All bands that indie eleatist snobs respect because they are to great to ignor. Whats your point?
187: Actually, Elton John.
The Ignitor needs to play every day
DMZ, maybe I misunderstand what you mean when you say “I think they’re totally crazy about some bands and kinds of music that are horribly painful to even listen to because it’s so crazy and unpopular that it’s super-super-hip to like it.” It sure sounds like you’re saying people only like it because it’s hip; i.e., they are pretending to like it for reasons having nothing to do with the music itself, and if not for those reasons they wouldn’t like it (or pretend to like it).
If I have misread you, I apologize. But believe me, that sure is something people say a lot when you like music that other people perceive as unlistenable. And it’s frustrating. So maybe I overreact.
That’d be awesome, though, if Hargrove went to the mound, tapped his left arm for Thornton, and the boo birds come out, but wait –Thornton steps off from the mound and NOOOO! George Sherill knocks him over the head with the Gatorade cooler and now he’s stomping on him — oh my God, won’t someone help Thornton? And now it’s Sherill who runs out to the mound and the crowd goes wild!
As long as we can agree that Husker Du towers above all.
When I was in high school (I’m 44, you can do the math), I was dating my best friend’s mother. She had all Lehrer’s albums. One of many fond memories of that relationship.
194: I mean tied. D’oh.
(See post 181 for a fine example.)
#199 Corcoran,
Elton John is good. IMO, much better than Van Morrison and Jackson Browne. In fact, the only Browne song I ever cared for was his duet with Clarence Clemons “You’re A Friend Of Mine”.
Oh, and Radiohead hasn’t made a good album since “The Bends”. That’s just my opinion, of course.
Scraps: Maybe I should have been more clear than that opening caveat. How about “about a third of the time I listen to something that Pitchfork flips out over, I find it the most bizarre, unlistenable garbage that it makes me wonder if the reviewer had ears, and it reminds me of trying to rent a movie in college with a film grad student who insisted on getting ‘films’ that turned out to be super-low-budget horror flicks from Chile or an eight-hour continious shot of a water meter.”
still last in the AL in runs
wow, does someone want to push the CLUTCH in? *cough*
Hmm, squeeze?
But DMZ … that’s “art.”
Wow this will be officially REALLY disappointing if we can’t get a run across here.
Why didnt Ichiro go there?
And hey, liking two-thirds of someone’s list seems like a pretty good match to me! If you think you’re going to find a site where you don’t hate a third of what they love…. well, I think you’d have to write it yourself.
Am I dominating this thread yet? I’ve never got to dominate a thread before.
No way Beltre bats in this situation last year.
Scraps, you have no idea what kind of music I like. I use to read pitchfork alot, but I got sick of the constant ragging on any band that ended up finding some kind of success, so I stopped readding them.
Wow, Beltre laying off those pitches is good to see.
Alright JR, up to you, buddy
#216: or this year, apparently
hillarious that beltre gets ibb’ed anyway. make ‘em pay, reed.
I *so* wanted that pitch to get away so Ichiro could score from third. That would have been sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet
219, its up to me? I have been waiting for this day!
It’s OK to walk too, JR.
Wait, wait…
When I was in high school (I’m 44, you can do the math), I was dating my best friend’s mother.
There are whole successful web sites devoted to this topic. You were way ahead of your time.
223, maybe you’ll fair better than reed…hopefully not
w00000000000000000000000t Reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeed
woohoo!!
good eye reed!
Sweet!
I can’t stop laughing, wonderful!
nice.
It’s an RBI!!
FREE PASSES all day, baby
This is also good because Hargrove can use Guardado now that they’re ahead, whereas with a tie….
I will tkae that- nice to see JR stay disciplined
Damn, you’ve pretty much already responded to the one-third thing. Okay.
J.R.: “Indie elitist snobs” like Electric Light Orchestra because they’re perceived as too great to ignore? Ahahahahahaha!
Little insurance would be nice here
DMZ – Not sure if this will help you music critic search – but I find that metacritic is a good place to find a lot of reviews.
#225: The entire Jason Biggs cinematic oeuvre is dedicated to that topic.
Ha ha… My Best Friends Mom dot com. It’s a real website.
Jermey Reed is an ELO fan?
He gone.
(singing) “Corco’s mom has got it going on ….”
Mike Morse, rallykiller.
He must be an indie eleatist snob too.
Well….. Morse is definitely over his opening “he’s on fire” month in the bigs.
Mara – If you like the Worms, check out the others listed in my post. Many similarities. Plus Corky and the Juice Pigs have that whole Canadian thing going on. Of course, Liquid Nitrogen by Les Horribles Cernettes. Classic. LHC music is available here free:
http://tinyurl.com/d9rr6
Sure would’ve been nice to have had Doyle in that spot instead of Morse. Just my opinion, though.
Also a David Allen Coe fan, when I’m pissed off. Led Zeppelin is good as well.
First sentence from an actual Pitchfork review:
#251 – is that a positive or negative review?
251 – nuff’ said.
Yeah, I believe I acknowledged that Pitchfork has some lousy reviewers.
Hey, Richie Sexson doesn’t have a great batting average, did you know that?
It’s 9/10.
I have that CD. I have no idea what 75% of the review is talking about.
#251: That is a classic example of a reviewer writing only to interest fellow High-Fidelityesque musical know-it-alls. It sounds exactly like something Jack Black’s character in that movie would write.
Snelling, two-way player. Oh yeah.
#251 – but what does it say about Sandfrog?
I got no results with my search…
Annnnnnnnnnnyway, thanks to everyone for the suggestions on alternates, I’ll be checking those out.
256 – AKA Indie Eleatist Snobs.
That piece also has notes of rotted cucumber and horsehair. The vague flavor of unripe clingstone peaches lingers on the tongue.
Hey, on that whole “best friend’s mother” thing… it was largely intellectual. I mentioned she had all Tom Lehrer’s music, right?
Goodnight, game over, drive home safely
Damn Eddie, that was…well damn.
Guardado needs to hang out in the bench, maybe some of his enthusiasm will actually seep to our hitters.
Nice win. It’s always good to see the team crawl out from under a rough start like that.
I’m so happy that they ended up hanging on to Guardado.
M’s with the W.
Goodnight all!
HE GAWN!!!
Sorry. My bad. Sorry.
Gunga: Thanks, I’ll do that. I need some new mix cds for the car.
J.R.- You’re from Olympia, but you don’t like elitist indie snobs? Huh? Oh wait, you GREW UP in Olympia, which means you’ve moved. Nevermind. Man, I sure do miss Oly Stubbies.
Scraps- Ever heard of the Lightining Bolt? Just curious.
Mara – Do me a favor, okay? Listen to Liquid Nitrogen first. Listen all the way and pay attention to the words. Starts to sink in about halfway through, at least in my experience. BTW, the Les Horribles Cernettes name was chosen largely for the acronym, LHC. Same as Large Hadron Collider. Gotta love a group with a physics bent.
I can’t wait to read about this game on Batgirl’s site.
Gunga: Yessir. *salutes*
The geek humor appeals to me as an enginerd.
When I have my own shoegazer band we will be called the Indee Eleatist Snobs.
Gunga, nothing stirs sweet romance quite like “Poisoning Pigeons In The Park” … how can a woman resist a line like “My heart is quick’nin/With each dose of strychnine”?
Batgirl has the article, in the form of a Shannon Stewart apology, up already.
And Mara… sorry. I get a little carried away when it comes to my obscure musical interests.
Think I’ll go back to lurking. Great night y’all!
Jim, my daughter hates that song. She seems to think that Tom spent his days engaged in that particular pursuit. Of course, as I explain to her, it’s not against any religion, to want to dispose of a pigeon.
Sele beat Tacoma tonight, pitching for Oklahoma… figures.
I went to game tonite and it was quite enjoyable to see Doyle hit not only a HR but to look so confident against a pitcher who had incredible control. Even when he was behind in the count he remained confident, and Willie B also had two solid hits. One when he was behind ) and 2. Morse looked overmatched. He is probably down to 300.
I left the TV on while I went to wash some dishes and ran back for Doyle’s post-game interview…he sounded oddly hesitant and kind of chokey. Dare I suggest it sounded like he was trying not to cry?
Or is that just the fangirl in me talking?
I laughed a while at this parody front page of pitchfork.
wow. can’t believe how many tom lehrer fans are on the board.
theme for wfb:
“albeit they posess the might; nonetheless we have the will!”
Well solap, it figures. Lehrer’s been around, almost literally, since Hitler was a Corporal. Lots of time for people to get to know his work. In other words… he’s a proven veteran.
Alright, which one of you was sitting 5 rows behind me in section 320 tonight and also yelling “CMON DOYLE!!!”? I was the girl in the Meche shirt and long skirt cheering wildly for him… cmon, fess up, I know it had to be someone from here!
Hm, I’m 28 and been listening to Tom Lehrer since I was 10 or so. Got the piano book so I could learn “New Math”…
Tom Lehrer was (is?) a math prof at my beloved alma mater, uc santa cruz. But as I’m a lit geek I was never exposed.
Tom Lehrer now teaches math at UCSC, has for a while. My father grew up with him in Shaker Heights Ohighoh. Have always been fond of the Elements Song.
Scraps-
Sorry I didn’t respond to your question sooner- went to a late dinner. My comment regarding Pitchfork’s objectivity was primarily directed toward their apparent inability to look favorably upon an artist once they have attained more than a modicum of commercial success. Don’t get me wrong- I’m a longtime fan of primarily underground music, and many of the bands they review/imbue with hype I actually enjoy. It just got to a point where I would open their site on a given day and found that I could quite reliably predict the results of their reviews with a mere cursory glance at the artist/label without ever reading the review itself. I’ll acknowledge that much of what the major labels foist upon the masses is often drivel; however, I will not allow my taste in music to be painted into the Pitchfork’s elite indie corner. I’d rather wander the room. And for my time and money, a good music review can provide a nice guide to that room, not just a flashlight shining into the aforementioned corner.
So there you have it. I can certainly appreciate your perspective, I just see things a different way in this instance. Interesting o/t discussion, by the way.
Of all the people I’ve mentioned Tom Lehrer to previously, only a couple had ever heard of him. This is a good and special place that we share. *harp music wafts gently through my speakers*
It’s nice to know that genius is still appreciated.
BTW, I’ve spent the last few minutes reading Radiohead lyrics, if I may use that phrase for them. A poll question: Is anyone hear both a Tom Lehrer fan and a Radiohead fan?
Pitchfork is pretty notorious among the online punk/indie circles. I wish I had an alternative to suggest but alas I don’t.
Gunga, if you leave out the unfortunate “OK Computer” … then, yeah, I’m also a Radiohead fan.
Okay Jim. I can’t criticize what I don’t rightly understand.
For myself, I’m going to clean house a little before bed. First, I’m going to make a Stan Rogers and Roger Whittaker playlist and stick it on the iPod. Gotta get the Radiohead lyrics out. Ah well. Different strokes and all that. Honestly, though only song of theirs I’ve ever listened to was Paranoid Android. That more or less did it for me. Okay, I’ll stick some Barenaked Ladies on there too. And some CCR. Maybe a little BTO.
Have a good one and hopefully Doyle will prove to be a 30 dinger a year guy after all. I mean, if Willie can bat 280…
I was, but I stopped being a Radiohead fan when “Look Ma, No Tunes”[1] came out.
Sorry, Kid A, it’s called Kid A.
[1] Of course, only fellow elitist indie snobs will recognise that as a HMHB reference.
I think I found your culprit:
Good Lord! I spelled it hear? My. Worst. Spelling. Day. Ever.
I meant here… of course.
wayyyyy late here, but:
DMZ – as for Aussie beers, you should try some Touhy’s to honor the future m’s not-shortstop, as well as the Raiders backup qb and 300-200 man (it seems almost impossible that he once did that for the Huskies). And its good beer (Touhy’s New…mmmm)
Also, if you have some free time on your schedule, head up to the Arts Factory Lodge in Byron Bay. Great place to relax for a few days and meet interesting travelers. You can even look for Rickey Williams’ roaches there.
Thank goodness y’all reined in the off-topic posts. Nearly 300 posts on this thread and there must have been, oh, nine or ten that related to the game.
And this is a game the Mariners won!
“I hold your hand in mine, dear
I press it to my lips…..”
Last night we got a taste of why the M’s are more reluctant than many “fantasy GM’s” to get rid of Thornton. If that kid ever learns how to repeat his delivery, which would lead to consistent command of his fastball……..he’d be a dominant left hander in the pen (think….a good Arthur Rhodes). In a season like this one, it doesn’t hurt to give Thornton a chance to continue to improve.
Snelling will hit for more power than most give him credit for. As he matures and gets stronger that short compact swing will generate some decent power. Heck, the kids still only 23.
Thank goodness y’all reined in the off-topic posts. Nearly 300 posts on this thread and there must have been, oh, nine or ten that related to the game.
Game threads frequently go wildly off-topic.
In the cold light of dawn this remains one of the funniest threads I’ve read during my short tenure at USSM. The head-on collision between sports and music whackos: priceless. And I use the word ‘whacko’ in nicest possible way.
The new compilation of Orange Juice, “The Glasgow School”, is essential if you haven’t got all their stuff already. Seminal 80s pop band, the first indiepop band by most reckoning.
Melbourne is better than Sydney. To tie two themes together, why not warm up for your trip with some Australian music? The new Go-Betweens (from Brisbane originally), “Oceans Apart”, is fantastic, almost as good as the classic old (78-90) Go-bes. And the Lucksmiths (from Melbourne) are the best pop band in the world. Their new one, “Warmer Corners”, is a damn masterpiece. Tali White is the best singer in pop, and Marty Donald the best songwriter.
For beer, I’m partial to Tooth’s Sheaf Stout, myself. In a big bottle.
Do coaches ever signal to the batter what pitch they think the pitcher will throw? This strategy could be useful, especially for rookies. Is this practice done today? Has it ever been employed?
The Barenaked Ladies just haven’t been the same since they stopped being really goofy. Their last good album was Gordon.
They’re still really goofy live, though.
That said, I’m a big fan of Uriah Heep, so take my musical comments with the appropriate scepticism.
Like most rock critics, the music review discussion took itself way too seriously, but this amounts to a mere quibble with a thread featuring a Mariner win, the celebration of a Doyle home run, and the evocation of Oly stubbies. I give this thread ***1/2 out of ****.
I haven’t read everything in this thread, but did anyone else catch the FSN Live reporter continually referring to Felix as “King Felix?”
The name is growing…
Australian music? You want You Am I. If you like melodic power pop, you won’t find anything better. “#4 Record” is classic, “Hourly, Daily” is amazing, and “Saturday Night, ‘Round Ten” is a great live record if you’re into such things.
The Melbourne/Sydney experience, to me, is two sides of a coin – Sydney’s got the most stunning natural setting of almost any city in the world, and crap architecture; Melbourne’s got really cool architecture and not much in the way of geography. But both cities have pubs, so there’s really no loser.
After the game, Grover said of Doyle:
“I felt like tonight was the first game he was really seeing the ball”
Really? The man has a .423 OBP, and you think he just started seing the ball?
296: Great, so I was sitting 5-6 rows behind myself? I *knew* something about the game reeked of a bad sci-fi movie, but I thought it was just the part where they were trying to swap Torrealba’s brain with Olivo’s, including them putting up the wrong picture during the pre-game lineups.
306: I think BNL’s Maybe You Should Drive is actually their best album, but much like the trap Moxy Fruvous fell into with an overly goofy first album and hyper live show, people expected more of the same and were disappointed by a deeper second effort. It’d be boring if all their stuff was in the same style, though, wouldn’t it?
Brent said:”I haven’t read everything in this thread, but did anyone else catch the FSN Live reporter continually referring to Felix as “King Felix?†The name is growing… ”
some on KJR have a distressing tendency towards “Felix the Cat” as a nickname, complete with the tv themesong. This is just wrong. How can you strike fear in the hearts of your opponents when accompanying everywhere by a perky little theme song?
After the game, Grover said of Doyle:
“I felt like tonight was the first game he was really seeing the ballâ€Â
Really? The man has a .423 OBP, and you think he just started seing the ball?
This makes me wonder why Bavasi hired Hargrove. I offer no explanation except that it’s probable that both saw eye-to-eye because they are “baseball men”.
Hargrove has clearly done advanced studies at the George Bush School of Manly Inarticulateness.
From someone old enough to know . . .
An Oly stubby was 11 oz. Such bottles were standard and ubiquitous. In my Wazzu days a case of Rainier stubbies was ALWAYS $7.99 at Rosauers. In an previous college stint, Ballantine (in stubbies, of course) was the quaff of economic limitation.
In my earlier, money-scrounging-kid days, the distinction for me was that stubbies were returnable (worth $.01 at a local tavern) while the “export” bottles and other pretentious screwcaps were “No Deposit, No Return.”
Full Sail is now selling “Session” premium lager in a stubby, although it’s an angled-shoulder screw-top version similar to Red Stripe rather than the round-shouldered traditional stubby. Still, the short neck and 11-oz. capacity evokes a certain nostalgia, although it is possible that the 5.1% talking.
This flashback brought to you by the memory of beers gone by . . .
Revenant Edgar said:”This makes me wonder why Bavasi hired Hargrove. I offer no explanation except that it’s probable that both saw eye-to-eye because they are “baseball menâ€Â.”
or perhaps it was a compliment for how well Doyle has hit without really ‘seeing the ball’ until now? Remember, unlike us, Hargrove knew nothing about Doyle when he came up from Tacoma– as was said this Spring, “aside from pitching coach Bryan Price, no one on Mike Hargrove’s coaching staff has even seen Snelling play. Since his eight big-league games in 2002, injuries have limited him to 65 games the past two seasons.” Since he’s been up, Hargrove has made a lot of complimentary remarks about his hitting, his patience, his eye…
#301 This has been going on for 2 seasons and cost sherrill being here half this season .A trained monkey can read a radar gun the bottom line is getting outs and not walking people and sherrill has proven since he has become a mariner in the minors all the way thru he does this and thorton had 1 season in A ball a while back he could do this.This is only 1 of the reasons we are a last place team but it is one of the reasons.Maybe a new pitching coach who can evaluate talent is needed!!
Oh, and while we’re talking about Orange Juice, let’s all which lead singer Edwyn Collins well as he continues to recover from the he suffered in February.
Oops. That last bit should say “the cerebral haemorhage he suffered in February.”
296: Great, so I was sitting 5-6 rows behind myself? I *knew* something about the game reeked of a bad sci-fi movie, but I thought it was just the part where they were trying to swap Torrealba’s brain with Olivo’s, including them putting up the wrong picture during the pre-game lineups.
What you encountered was a trans-reality echo. You were in the reality where Torrealba is catching, while another version of you was in the reality where Olivo wasn’t traded. This usually happens when there’s a fold in space-time or a weakness between the boundaries of differing realities. As a result, the two (or more) realities temporarily exist simultaneously, sometimes slightly out of sequence.
Nothing really to worry about, though it’s a good thing you didn’t encounter the other version of yourself, since that could have caused all sorts of Star-Trek-ese to come spewing out, and the only way to reverse that is to modify the Deflector Pickle to emit a sub-space polar bear that will cause the cake to be left out in the rain.
re 316
Could also mean that he wasn’t seeing it well enough to hit it, as opposed to seeing it well enough for walking; after all, it was Doyle’s best hitting game.
He’s been tearing the cover off the ball all year. No one told Grover, though.
Wow, Uriah Heep. Talk about your nostalgia.
Side note to this music thread. I don’t think anyone needs a critic to tell them what music to buy. I just listen to real music and make up my own mind what is good or not.
dw
my brain asploded reading that. I’m not so sure I like that I actually hung in there and caught it all and much of it made a wierd sort of sense.
Doyle = good. I don’t think anything else needs to be said.
Reed = nice eye. After getting rung up last week on some questionable pitches, it was awesome to watch him continue to know the strike zone. He is going to develop into someone who will make games happen, much like last night.
Uriah Heep is a great comp for Spinal Tap. After Heep’s second album, they had to replace their drummer because they COULDN’T FIND HIM.
Wow, I’m sorry I missed this game thread. I’m a huge Tom Lehrer fan.
I’m confused. Someone mentions Edwyn Collins on USSM, and it’s not me? That’s freaky.
I have the Postcard Records logo tattooed on my arm, is how damaged I am on the subject.
Edwyn is apparently recovering nicely, and has recently been able to walk again. Where they had to open his skull for the hemmorhage got infected with persistent staph and had to be opened again. Get well, Edwyn.
There’s an opportunity I never thought I’d have.
Speaking of cities with spectacular natural settings but crap architecture, we live in one. It’s easy to forget that having both the Cascades AND the Olympics, as well as the monster Rainier, is pretty unusual and startling to visitors from, say, Iowa.
If you do go to Sydney, be sure to ask as many natives as possible what it’s like in Auckland, on the other side of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. They never get tired of that one. Or the one about Arnold Schwartzenegger. Gets ‘em every time.
Uriah Friggin’ Heep? Couldn’t wear Humble Pie’s jockstrap.
Anyway, dw is wrong about Lauren’s trans-reality echo. It is clearly a case of quantum mechanical superpositioning not succumbing to einsteinian physics. I believe dw is freelancing off the “Many Worlds” theories, which are now espoused mostly by people wearing masks at Star Trek conventions.
320: Actually, if there was a trans-reality echo at Safeco, that could do wonders for the Mariners. Just imagine how much better Matt Thornton might be if he could always pitch in an alternate reality where there’s nobody on base. Or if Good Gil Meche could go slap around Bad Gil Meche for a while.
On the other hand, I’m not sure the time-space continuum could handle what would happen if Evil Rick Rizzs met his counterpart…
ooooh– sudden mental picture of a toupee flying through the air…
329 – That’s out of line. How often did Humble Pie have a complete woodwind section?
And, Heep’s still a great live band. I saw them some years back (1996 or so) in a quadruple bill with Wishbone Ash, the Blue Oyster Cult, and Nazareth.