It was a great game and yet I found some teenage angst to spoil the mood

Ah yes, Silva was awesome. However, I do not feel the need to get on my knees and beg for forgiveness from my co-workers and baseballies that are throwing my fine words back at me. “One good game doth not make a great pitcher.”

But, let’s move on to the point of this blog. Silva pitched a phenomenal game last night. In fact, everyone played their “A” game. It was fun to watch. It was fun to cheer. It was fun to stand during the 9th inning and hold my breath in anticipation of Silva’s shut-out (mind you, this was done from the comfort on my living room with a bottle of Blue Moon beer.)

Bert said…
Do you ever find yourself thinking you are using a new/imaginative nickname or phrasing but then find out everyone is using it? Well, my baseball-gang (yet to be named) and I have been using the term “Hi Ho Silva” in reference to said pitcher. Well, lo and behold, I heard Captain Bert say “Hi ho Silva, away.” I don’t think that means I am cool.

Don’t make me take out my earrings (in reference to trash talking)
I found myself shouting out “in your face” when they showed clips of Bobby Cox (the Braves manager) looking stoic in the dugout. Yeah, I am shallow? What are you going to do about it? You all knew coming into this blog that I was going to write about my favorite thing…baseball but I wouldn’t filter my trashy/ghetto/girly thoughts. I wasn’t going to dumb down myself in order to appeal to “professional baseball talky.”

Warning: Yankee bitching ahead
By the way…on ESPN’s Baseball Tonight I was saddened (aka disgusted) to find them spending 20 precious minutes dissecting the fact that Subway numbers of the Mets and Yankees. What? The Yankees are getting better and the Mets are getting worse? Does no one else see the numbers? What? The Yankees have won 11 of their last 13 games? What? A-Rod hit number 25? Oh, also…this may sound shallow but I wish that Sports Illustrated online would attempt to include a picture of any one of our great Twins plays in their “Great Plays of the Week” photo gallery. Seriously, I grind my teeth looking at them.

In which I rant about the lack of female baseball fans...

Where have all the female baseball fans gone?

With Batgirl gone that only leaves me and one other baseball blog to read that is written with a female perspective…Third Base Line. Come on ladies! Step it up! I sit in a cubicle all day defending my baseballness to the men around me. It is like the glass ceiling of baseball. If I can do it, anyone can!

On that note
I heard through the grapevine (actually from Stacy who heard it from Risa) that there was a Baseball Blogging Luncheon event. *clears throat* And why wasn’t I invited? Anyways, it seems like there were very few ladies represented at that event. *shakes head sadly* That’s it! I am making it my personal mission to become more active in the baseball blogging community (hey, at least it isn’t World of Warcraft, or WoW as my nerdy co-workers call it.)

Back to baseball
Last nights game was fantastic! Was it because they won? Was it because I saw some bats connecting? Was it because our defense rocked the dingy grey roof? I believe it was all of the above. Slowey is starting to build a rep of being solid and deliverable. Red (Redmond) is reliable for some base hits. Castillo is probably our safest bet. Barty looks good at bat (that is the shallow or lipgloss part of the blog.) Baby Jesus (Mauer) is trying to find his groove. Hunter made another highlight reel worthy play and a great hit. Cuddy showed off his cannon. Morneausey was honored as a Canadian (there was a flag and an embassy thing.) The only people I don’t have a smartass comment about are Punto and Lewwwwww Ford. End result: Twins won!

Ouch!

That pretty much sums up the series with the Washington Nationals. Friday I went to the game with a bunch of work people. I know one of them had to be the bad luck charm. I am still trying to channel Nancy Drew and figure out which one.

The game yesterday was good since we won but it was an ugly win. We basically won because some planets aligned and the cosmos were in order.

Check out the latest Twins auction below. You too may have a chance to get a player’s favorite things
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Off day today…Braves next.

The one time being called a Yankee was funny

It is not that I have been a bad baseball blogger it is that I have been road-tripping through the South (and I don’t mean Iowa.) Whilst sitting in a bar on Beale Street (Memphis) they only showed the Yankee game. Whilst eating ribs in a barbeque joint (Mississippi) I watched another game of the Yankees. I enjoyed a relaxing beer in a Honky Tonk (in Alabama) and surprise; they only had a Yankee game on. No matter where I went America’s darlings were the only ones they showed on the television. Damn you ESPN!!! Give the other guys a freaking chance. Anyways, it appears the Twins did not do so well this past week. Friday (the day after tomorrow) I will be at the game while we play the Washington Nationals. There is a group from my office that are going to the game…I am excited to go to the game but bummed it isn’t with my real baseball peeps. I mean, I don’t think these guys are going to get my running commentary that Amy and I usually enjoy.
Well, not much to talk about today but I will start again as soon as the ball starts going.
Oh, here is a photo I took in Memphis of a billboard advertising FSN South. I am personally an FSN North girl.

Hell of a weekend for baseball

Here's Lucy!

What a beautiful weekend of baseball. We had a series with the Blue Jays and started a series with our arch-enemies, White Sox. In the three games I went to I had four beers, one brat, one root beer float, one pretzel, one bag of cotton candy (pink) and a giant soda.

Friday night
Since Steve is now a lawyer we used his perks to score the sweet Dorsey & Whitney (law firm) seats. We sat 14 rows up from home plate (close to our “on deck” circle) and it was amazing. After I got over my initial nervousness of being just shy of the safety netting (we could have potentially gotten smacked by a foul ball (and me without my helmet) I settled in to enjoy the running commentary from Steve. Here is a snippet of the conversation:
Steve: Hey, where is Joe Mauer? I wanted to see Joe Mauer squatting in front of us!
Jen: He’s hurt; he has a hamstring injury that is taking the world’s longest time to recover.
Steve: - pouting –
Jen: Wow, the Bat Boy is cute from this angle.
Steve: He has to be at least 18, right?
Jen: Let me text message Amy.
Jen: Oh, Amy says we are pervs for thinking that.
Steve: He looks nice; I think he has potential for hotness (he’s talking about Cirillo)
Jen: Mmm…
Steve: Did you see that? He’s cute? What does that sign mean?
Steve: What’s happening now?
Jen: Mmm…

Yeah, by the fourth inning I was using my “Selective Hearing” to filter Steve. I did have lot so fun at the game with him and I owe him big time for the tickets, beer and root beer float.

Saturday night
I was living the single gal’s nightmare on Saturday evening. I was crammed in the upper deck in the middle of the row between toddlers and a breast feeding mom. We were celebrating Bennett’s second birthday – Happy Birthday Bennett! The game was good (although the end result of losing after 13 innings wasn’t good) and I think Lucy enjoyed the game. I did get Lucy a Morneausey t-shirt that she can now wear with pride.

Sunday afternoon
Amy, her parents and I enjoyed a fun game, which ended with our winning. Still no Baby Jesus in the line-up but Barty (Bartlett) was back at Shortstop. It was Armed Forces Appreciation Day so we had singing, flags, awards and video messaging from overseas. I will admit that I did tear up a time or two.

Monday afternoon
I wasn’t at the game and I only caught the last three innings but I guess they were the best. What an awesome game made sweeter by the Pierzynski drama. Like Ozzie Guillen said “If he’s not on your team, you hate him. If he is on your team, you hate him less.” Pierzynski is the man everyone loves to hate, including me.

Well, before I sign off I would like to make note that I will be gone for a week and unable to update this blog. I hope to follow the game on recaps but I don’t think they will show them on television, especially not where I am going. I will see you next week if all goes well in Tennessee, Mississippi and Alabama.

Baseball is baseball is baseball, even if the Twins aren't playing

Ah baseball, you are a rollercoaster of emotions!
Here we are in the hangover stage of American Idol and its new winner (no I haven’t been watching but it is all that is on the television this morning) and I am feeling good. Why? Well, the Twins had a great game yesterday that I got to follow while watching the big storm roll through downtown Minneapolis. It was a toss-up: Do I watch Dave Dahl, the weather guy, to see if I need to go for shelter or do I turn to FSN to watch the Twins? Uh, no contest…Twins!
We have a break today and then start a homestand against the Toronto Blue Jays. I will be at Friday and Saturday’s games for sure with a possibility of Sundays. I will be attending Friday’s game with my friend Steve who just moved home from California to be a big fancy attorney at a big fancy law firm. Anyways, he scored sweet seats through the firm and we are going to drink beer whilst watching the boys (let’s just say one of us will be watching for baseball and the other will be watching for a new potential boyfriend.) Saturday I will be tagging along to celebrate Bennett’s 2nd birthday. Lucy will be there so I can’t wait to teach her all about the game. Of course, she is two years old so I will probably be trying to: a.) keep her from going over the railing, b.) keep her busy so she doesn’t become destructive and c.) keep her out of my way so I can watch some baseball. Either way, she is going to look freaking adorable in one of her new baseball outfits.

Other baseball news (aka Life beyond the MN Twins)
After arriving home from happy hour I turned on ESPN to catch whatever game they were highlighting for the evening. I guess I should stop being surprised when every game showed by ESPN is a Yankee game. It was a pretty big match-up though: Pettitte for the Yankees and Shilling for the Red Sox.

On a catty/snotty note (remember…this is Lipgloss & Baseball and today’s lipgloss color is Bitchy): I guess the bazillions of dollars that the Yankees are paying for their Dream Team aren’t going to good use. Carl Pavano, the $40 million man, may be at the end of a not-so-productive career while The Rocket is having a shaky liftoff (pun intended). What? Money can’t buy a winning team? In the end the Yankees took the three-game series by winning this game 8-3. Ouch…okay I better say something nice now. I love Jorge Posada. He is such an awesome player and a cool guy.

Kind of baseball related news:
I have added a new link to Risa’s blog. Risa is a fellow Twins fan and was proposed to last year at a Twins game via the Scoreboard monitor. How awesome is that!!!

Banish the Bandwagons and Find a Freaking Pitcher Already!

Well, baseball and I are having a little tiff right now. You see, I love watching it but the MN Twins don’t seem to really like playing it. There is this phrase that gets used in the Land O’Baseball often that I really don’t like, bandwagon fan. You all know that I am not a bandwagon fan so I want you to remember this through the rest of my rant.

We want a pitcher not a belly itcher!
Seriously, I think the Twins will be holding open auditions for replacement starting and bullpen pitcher. Hmm...I wonder if I could review the headshots. Ponson went down last month and Ortiz hasn’t had good starts on his last few ups. Silva is sketchy and Baker is a shiny new penny. That leaves Santana and I have a feeling he will get burned out pretty fast if the weight on the Defending American Central Champs falls on his big, muscled shoulders. (That one was for you, Amy!) What do we do? Well, actually we can’t do anything. We must sit and twiddle our thumbs (or knit in my case) and wait for Terry Ryan to make the big call. For the Bullpen – the Crainadian (Crain) is out for the rest of the year and I can’t say I will miss him. He hasn’t done a thing for me lately and I am totally holding a sixth grade grudge on that. Glen Perkins (the Great White Hope) is also out for who knows how long. Reyes is out for a bit more. We ain’t got a flying fish over a sea of boats kind of chance. Come on Mr. Ryan, do something already!

Bats in the belfry? What bats? The bats have gone missing in the Land of 10,000 Lakes
We either do FANTASTIC (said in a high pitched hyper voice) or we do below average in regards to our batting. Where is Baby Jesus (Joe Mauer) when we need him? Isn’t his 15-day grounding over yet? We have some deflated batting egos in our dugout. Maybe it is time to shake off the voodoo doll and get some of the questions answered. Here at my desk I have this cookie decorated with the Twins logo that I refuse to eat (because it looks so cool) but maybe if I break the cookie in half it will release some sort of Baseball Genie that would grant me three wishes. I would choose…
1. Four solid starters in our pitching rotation (heck I was going to go crazy I would wish for Liriano to be back)
2. Baby Jesus back and better than ever to shake up our batting order
3. To be in the Hormel Hot Dog Row of Fame

The Twins have lost that love and feeling…whoa ooh that love and feeling
So yes, night after night after night after afternoon I will sit on my sofa or sit in the Dome and watch our Boys of Summer play. I am like the postman “No sleet, nor snow nor rain will keep the mail away.” No slump, no frustrations and no baseball blogging embarrassments will keep me away from the sport I love. HOWEVER, I won’t sit by and watch the suckage quietly. Oh no, my friends. I will bitch and crow and maybe throw a mild tantrum every now and again but I will watch. On that sappy, cheesy and mildly disturbing ending…
GO TWINS!