I always loved Toronto fans visiting at Twins games, they were so polite!
First pitch: 7:10 Central
Weather: National Weather Service still gutted, gettin’ humid, 70°
Opponent’s SB site: Bluebird Banter
TV: Twins TV. Radio: Let’s get Molitor paired with Mark Eichhorn on the radio, I say
Looks like this will be a bullpen game for Toronto, so we’re skipping the usual pitcher stats. Besides, lots of other fun things to get to. (I am kinda lying; some aren’t fun. Some are, though!)
Some quick $tadium $windles updates: remember how Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe called an emergency special session to fund expected cuts federal in aid to states oops, sorry, stadium giveaways? Well, Neil deMause tells us, a bill passed the state Senate, and now needs to go through the House, which seems almost certain. The bill would have 50% of all taxes paid by fans at the stadium shoveled right into the teams’ pockets, forever — not just the Royals. Also including the Chiefs… possibly the Cards and the hockey/soccer teams, too (I’m not 100% sure on the ones outside KC, but I think they’ll get their goodies as well).
Fun for them! And remember, money spent at sporting events is already money that doesn’t go to other local businesses, since people’s entertainment budgets aren’t infinite. So, in case you needed reminding that subsidies for stadiums NEVER pay for themselves…
Nothing too awful happened to the Twins or A’s playing in Sacramento this week (nothing that’s stadium-connected, anyways, the López injury wasn’t stadium-related). But check out this article by Rio Vazquez about all the crummy crap that HAS been going on in Sactown.
It’s too hot on the field (predicted), a ground rule double call was missed because the umps couldn’t see it hit the ground from their sightlines (not predicted, not surprising), and when one player needed to be carted off the field due to injury, THE CART BROKE DOWN and needed pushing by grounds crew (oh my goodness). Also, check out the A’s conference room, where reporters gather for postgame comments by the manager/players:
Vazquez writes, “they bought the cheapest shed they could find at Home Depot and squeezed every reporter into it … Team management couldn’t be bothered to spend more than the absolute minimum not to make their team look like a laughingstock.” He adds, “the plan is to move to Vegas in 2028. However, they haven’t acquired the land for the stadium, don’t have approval from the state, and haven’t even come close to beginning construction.” Yup.
On to Toronto things. We’ll start with this Daulton Varsho catch from earlier this year:
Here’s the replay GIF for your repeat viewing pleasure, from The Athletic:
Some fun Jays history stuff: this YouTube video has the wild story about Mark Eichhorn, a pitcher with an 11-year career, including an outstanding 7.3 WAR season in relief with the Jays in 1986. What’s wild about him? He never threw harder than 75 MPH that season!
After seven mediocre starts his rookie season in 1982, Eichhorn’s arm was basically shot. Something was wrong. He was considering retirement or coaching, until pitching coach Larry Hardy convinced him to try throwing from different arm slots. One sidearm angle didn’t hurt to throw, as long as he threw all splitters, sliders, and changeups. Since he threw so softly, he could go for multiple innings, too.
He’d have good years and so-so ones after 1986, and after a few years playing for other teams, returned to Toronto for their two World Series championships. Tim Sitar at SABR has the story.
Also from SABR, this good post about Paul Molitor, who won a World Series with Eichhorn in 1993. Our own BH-Baseball steered us to this story thusly: “’His SABR page is very conclusive, regarding injuries from childhood all the way through his first several years in the majors which made him deemed as “injury prone”. Also the cocaine use which was so prevalent back in the late 70’s and early 80’s, and his struggles with it. But about coming home to play in Minnesota, it’s really a powerful read.’” I like how when Molitor was offered a managing job with Toronto in the early 2000s, he declined, to avoid uprooting his family.
Hey, did you hear about that time when Jays player Cal Quantrill (son of Jays pitcher Paul) was caught doing a naughty thing? Or how later another player yelled at him “you j****d off in a f*****g parking lot, you dumb f***!” Craig Calcaterra has you covered.
Finally, leaving Toronto for our neighbor state of Iowa, a U.S. Senator made some comments amount people losing their Medicaid which were, at first, heartless, and then later, contemptuous mockery. So a minor-league baseball player who serves in the Iowa state House, J.D. Scholten, announced his intentions to run against that cruel Senator next year.
As someone whose wife is alive and still able to walk after her stroke BECAUSE of Medicaid, I applaud Mr. Scholten! As a baseball fan, I gotta say a few things. One, his latest team, the indie-league Sioux City Explorers, has an ugly-a** logo. Two, Scholten does not have great stats. With the usual caveat; anybody good enough to pitch professional baseball at any level (this one’s kinda comparable talent-wise to High-A) is better at baseball than I will ever be at anything. Scholten did play for the Twins in 2023 — the Dutch Oosterhout Twins! Whose logo TOTALLY rips off Minnesota’s. And who are looking for a PA announcer right now, if you’re in the area and speak Dutch.
The Sioux City Explorers are so named because Lewis & Clark were briefly in the area, where the expedition suffered its only fatality, 22-year old Charles Floyd of Kentucky. It’s not known what he died from but it was likely appendicitis. There’s a 100-foot-high monument dedicated to Floyd in Sioux City. I’d bet he’d have taken not dying at age 22, though.
Anyways, whenever the Twins play Toronto, I have to include this song, which sounds like Kermit’s stoned uncle singing; it’s still fun. The clips don’t always match the lyrics, but one at the end is a CRAZY triple play: