Twins Gameday Graphics for 2013 Season

It’s the fifth year of the tradition of posting various graphics to be used in the WGOM Twins’ game logs this season, brought to you mostly by the magic of MS Paint.

This list is underconstruction; God knows there are enough new players that will need fleshing out these first few weeks. As always, past season graphics are still in play. First up are the strikeout thumbnails:

Vance Worley:

Kevin Correia:

Glen Perkins:

And various miscellaneous…

Twins Gameday Graphics for 2012 Season

Time to continue a tradition of creating various graphics to be used in the WGOM Twins’ game logs this season. This is the fourth year I’ve done a little screen capture and MS Paint magic with the hometown team.

These are under construction, so I’ll be adding more as we go. Some I’ve carried forward from last season, but I should revise them a bit, too.  Let’s see what we have so far:

Scotty “Light Rail” Baker:

 

Carl Pavano

Francisco “F-Bomb” Liriano

Nick Blackburn

Matt Capps:

. . .

And in addition:

NCIS: Duryea, PA [2012 Topps Series 1]

Time to do the NCIS treatment to a 2012 Topps card; here’s the Series 1 Trevor Plouffe card (and it’s really him, not Drew Butera this time):

2012 Topps #249 Trevor Plouffe

This shouldn’t be too bad. What do we know?

1) Plouffe! is playing shortstop, or maybe second base
2) it’s a day game at the Oakland Coliseum
3) Ryan Sweeney is coming in hard with a take-out slide

Once more this was a no-brainer for the WGOM Citizens.:
- Plouffe! only played four games in Oakland at SS/2B; two in May and two in July
- Sweeney never played on 7/29 and was in no plays at second on 7/30, and Plouffe! played 2B those two July games
- the play never happened on 5/18, but 5/19 looks good. In that game in the bottom of the 4^th, Sweeney drew a walk and then was doubled up on a Matsui grounder to second, 4-6-3.
- Minnesota won 11-1, and Plouffe! hit one of the three HRs that the Twins hit that day. They also made three errors.

There you have it — another case solved.

NCIS: Duryea, PA [2011 Topps Update]

Here’s a great card from 2011 Topps Update. It has a cool photo: bright colors, action shot, foreground image, and I like the horizontal format.

2011 Topps Update #177 Rene Tosoni

Now the question is, can we identify exactly what play is captured on this card? What can we tell right off the bat, so to speak?

Well:
1) no, it’s not Busch Stadium, this is in fact Target Field in Minneapolis
2) it’s a day game
3) #12 is shortstop Alexi Casilla
4) in order to make any deadlines for the Update set, it had to be a game from earlier in the season, and the long sleeves bear that up
Also, this isn’t a typical toss to the cutoff; probably an XBH or a deep flyball with a runner on first.

Once more I’m amazed with the gang at WGOM for their dogged investigations. What did they determine?
- Tosoni and Casilla only played in six home games together in which they were in the field and the opponent got a base hit
- of those six games, the first game of the April 28^th doubleheader looks promising
- there were two doubles hit to left in that game, both by Ben Zobrist; since both were scoring plays, there was a chance it would be in the MLB archives, and it was!
- the play is a two-out, two-run double in the 7^th inning
- the Rays won a 15-3 laugher; Ben Zobrist set a team record with 8 RBIs in this game
- the photo was of Tosoni playing in his first game in the majors; he collected his first two hits and was 2-for-4

So there you have it — another case successfully solved.

The Bullseye!

This past weekend I flew up nort’ to God’s Country to attend my first Twins game at Target Field with the free tickets I had won. As a double bonus, my baby brother Craigy drove down and we were able to spend the better part of a couple days together as well as the ballgame.

As Monday morning rolled around, we visited a card shop, then spent the next few hours roaming the downtown skyways and the blocks around Target Field.

statues of Kirby Puckett, Tony Oliva, Rod Carew, and Harmon Killebrew

More Kindness of Strangers (Some Stranger Than Others)

Once more a rash of gifts came at me, again from different (and sometimes unexpected) directions. And these have nothing to do with my upcoming birthday — more on that in a couple days, including a CONTEST.

First was a great treat from my “baby brother”; he and his family attended a recent Twins game, and the four of them each got a unique bobblehead giveaway, one of which he earmarked for me (and is much appreciated). This is my first bobblehead, a cheeky one the Twins organization had made to memorialize the infamous controversial wrestling/momentum play at first base during the 1991 World Series.

2011 20^th Anniversary 1991 World Series bobblehead – Ron’s head doesn’t move well, but Herbie’s fervently bobs in agreement with the ump’s call

Next Mark, the owner of Baseball Plus, my LCS, surprised me with a few trinkets that I think he found on the cheap with me in mind. Not sure what spurred this, but I definitely like them!

Twins chopper, emblem patch, and logo magnet

 
Lastly comes a package from Ernest at Blue Heaven. He was holding a series of Beatles CD giveaway contests, and I stumbled upon one soon enough after it was posted to put in the winning guess. And Ernest wasn’t satisfied to send me just the CD; no, he send a slew of early ’90s packs, a bunch of Topps mini Leaders cards, and a small stack of Twins cards. What’s up with that?! Cool.

The Beatles “Love” CD, along with some Twins, Topps mini Leaders, and some rippable goodness

Thanks guys!

The Kindness of Strangers

And really, who’s stranger than neighbor J, or K’s godfather Mark? Okay, that’s an old (and bad) joke.

Recently, J and family took a driving vacation eastward, and one of the stops included Cooperstown. Besides sending my cellphone a nice photo of Bert Blyleven’s new HOF plaque, he picked this up for me:

Commemorative Hall of Fame Weekend Program

Meanwhile, Mark’s family was up at the Twins Cities, and while there Mark saved the special Blyleven HOF edition STrib section for me:

Star Tribune sports section and Blyleven HOF special section

Mark also nabbed Morneau’s cup. Yeah, sorry, another bad joke.

Thanks guys!

It’s Happening!

First, the email:

RE: 167 2/3 Bill Campbell From: Radio Network ——————————————————————————– Congratulations, you have won a pair of tickets to the Twins game on Monday, Spetember 26th! Please reply to all with your address and phone number. Thanks, and again congratulations!

Looks like that July 15^th correct email answer to the Twins radio trivia question paid off. Then, the subsequent letter:

Minnesota Twins Baseball Club Dear Twins Fan: Congratulations on being drawn as a winner of the US Bank Question of the Day contest. Enclosed are your tickets. Enjoy the game and thanks for listening to the Twins Radio Network. Go Twins!

The two tickets are for the first row of the Home Run Porch out in left field – sweet! Gene & I are already beginning to work out our travel plans. Can’t wait!

———————————

And speaking of the Twins radio trivia question, I answered another one (#11 this season) this past weekend. Q: Cesar Tovar broke up four no-hitters during his career; who were the pitchers in those games? A: Dave McNally, Mike Cuellar, Barry Moore, and Dick Boseman