Unofficial Twins T-Shirt Ideas

By Tom Daymont

Since I have an extreme case of "blogger's block" I decided to just post a quick idea that Haas and I (Mostly Haas) have been working on. Inspired by the fashion segment featuring Alyssa Milano's new baseball clothing line before the All-Star Game. I began thinking about how a lot of athletic apparel, besides authentic jerseys, caps and jackets look pretty lame. (Think of the Twins shirts at your local Target)

Yesterday Haas and I were talking about an idea for a cool shirt that plays off the tie dye grateful dead style imagery.

Here is what we came up with.

Basically what we are looking for are some idea's to improve this design (some people don't like the front) or some completely different ideas that we could work on. Maybe an Official AH! shirt? Any ideas are welcome.
And finally, if we get something going maybe, just maybe, we could get some pretty sweet shirts made.

All-Star Game Preview, Predictions and Notes

By Michael Haas

The All-Star game tonight in San Francisco looks to be a fun and competitive event, featuring some of the biggest and most exciting names in baseball. A lot is at stake this year, as the leagues battle to gain home field advantage for the '07 World Series. Let’s take a look at the players.

Here’s how I would start the lineups:

A.L.
Ichiro Suzuki
Placido Polanco
Alex Rodriguez
Magglio Ordonez
David Ortiz
Vladimir guerrero
Ivan Rodriguez
Danny Haren
Derek jeter

N.L.
José Reyes
Chase Utley
Carlos beltran
Prince Fielder
Ken Griffey Jr
Russell Martin
David Wright
Jake Peavy
Barry Bonds

I predict the pitchers will go like this:

AL:
Dan Haren: 2 innings
Josh Beckett: 3 innings ( I want to see how he does against the whole line-up)
John Lackey: 1 inning
Bob Jenks: 1 inning
Fransisco Rodriguez: 2/3 inning
Jon Papelbon: 1/3 inning

Captain Cheesburger Sabathia: won’t pitch. too fat.
Gil Meche: Won’t pitch - he plays for the Royals
Johan Santana: need him to start Thursday – hopefully he had a good bullpen session on Sunday or Monday.
Something Called J.J. Putz: Sounds like an Auto Repair Shop
Justin Verlander: By all accounts, a terrible human being. Leyland doesn’t even like him.
Hideki Okajima: Won’t play because he hurts himself during the pre-game somehow. That’s what you get for taking Sideshow Pats spot!

N.L.

Jake Peavy: 3 innings
Brad Penny: 1 inning
Cole Hamels: 1 inning (strikes out side. I love Cole Hamels)
Ben Sheets: 1 inning
Fransisco Cordero: 1 1/3 inning
Billy Wagner: 1/3 inning
Something Called Takashi Saito: 1/3 inning
Trevor Hoffman: 1 inning

SO...

The American League appears to have a slight edge. It seems likely that Torii Hunter will hit a home run off of Trevor Hoffman in the top of the ninth to put the A.L. on top. In the bottom of the inning, K-rod will come in and get a quick out, followed by a single. He’ll probably get a guy to hit a foul pop for the second out, but then he’ll walk a guy, putting the go ahead run on first base. So Leyland will bring in the righty Papelbon to face Carlos Lee. Hunter will surely rob his homer and the game will be over. Sounds exciting!


Other All-Star related notes:

• Morneau lost the home run derby. He only hit four bombs. But on the bright side, he was the only player to hit one into McCovey Cove. Maybe that'll shut up all the whiny 'Jeter should have won the MVP' bitchers. No, wait. It won't.

• People are so jaded to the Barry Bonds mess that they have given up ripping on him. I guess that's fine; but seriously, there's no way that MLB and the Giants didn't rig this thing to get him into the All-Star game. Soriano was leading him almost the whole entire voting period and he somehow made up a ton of ground on the last day of voting. It's bullshit. And don't give me that 'well he should be there cuz he has 751 homers and it's his stadium' This is the All-Star game, not some made-for-Tv showcase for the best players to scrimmage each other. Whats that? It is a made-for-Tv showcase for the best players to scrimmage each other? Well it's still bullshit.

• TC the Bear, my favorite baseball mascot, won the mascot home run derby. At least one lefty masher from Minnesota won a derby. Personally, I feel that Morneau should have worn the costume during his home run derby.

• I have NINE All-Stars on my fantasy team, by far the most of anyone in our 11 team league. But I'm only in like 4th place. This points to either A) my guys are barely All-Stars (Meche, Oswalt, Michael Young) or B) the rest of my fantasy team blows (Scott Rolen)

• I must have missed the explanation for why the game has been held in an N.L. park two years in a row. Someone has to look up the last time that this happened. They raised the stakes a couple of years ago by giving World Series home field advantage to the winner of the game, but they give home field advantage to the N.L. two years in a row. Hypocrites. I doubt it would have been a problem for the Metrodome to host it's second All-Star game. All you have to do is ask, Bud.

• And on that thought, how much would you be willing to bet that both Oakland (Fremont) and the New Yankee Stadium host All-Star games before the new Twins stadium? I love complaining about how we get screwed over here in Minnesota.

• Love him or hate him (or don't know who he is) you will have to get used to Eric Byrnes. FOX just loves this guy for some reason. They even plan to put him in a kayak for the game tonight. What a goofball.

• I don't know why, but I really enjoy the All-Star game.

Invitation to ArmChairGM.com

I received an e-mail from one of AH!'s many adoring fans the other day, inviting any of us to write or cross post a sports related article.

 I just stumbled across your sports blog and I'm really impressed.  A
lot of good stuff!

I'd like to invite you -- and any of your Alight Hamilton cohorts who
are sports fans -- to write for ArmchairGM.com, a community sports
blog and wiki started by my friends and me.  
Writing at ArmchairGM is as easy as it is on Blogger, and because we have hundreds of people
already writing (and thousands reading!) you'll have an instant
audience.  A lot of our articles get a dozen or more comments -- and
some get many, many more.

If you'd like to write for the site, just click the link below to
create an account.

http://www.armchairgm.com/index.php?title=Special:UserRegister

Then click the big blue "write a sports article" button to write. Skeptical?  Feel free to cross-publish one of your recent articles.
We don't mind!

And he emailed me again today to ask, so it sounds legit. I just checked out the site and it looks pretty cool. Part of blogging is being friendly, so this could be a good way of getting more contributors and visitors to the site, as well as sharpening our writing chops by writing for that site as well as this one. That site is a pretty good place to get ideas for articles.

Blogs Can Make A Difference!

By Michael Haas

While surfing around the intraweb the other day, I came across an amazing tidbit:

"The die-hard fans at U.S.S. Mariner have been painfully aware of (phenom Felix Hernandez's inability to mix pitches early in the game) for quite some time. Frustration boiled over on June 27th, when Dave Cameron wrote a post: An Open Letter To Rafael Chaves. Chaves is the Mariners' pitching coach. The letter pleaded for Chaves to make Felix mix up his pitches early on.

Cameron probably never anticipated that Chaves would actually read the letter. But he did, and the pitching coach actually gave a copy to Felix for him to read. Chaves has been trying to hammer this point home with Hernandez, but the letter helped reinforce the need for better pitch selection. Hernandez tossed eight scoreless innings today, crediting the letter for his early success"

A blog complaint actually made a difference. This is big news.

So it got me thinking - To whom would I write an open letter complaining about something, in hopes of getting something accomplished? hmmmm.



Dear Johan Santana and Torii Hunter

I will give you my '98 Mazda Protege if you resign with the Twins at a price that they're willing to pay, and one that won't hinder them from making other signings and remaining competitive. I've already figured out how to split the cars usage evenly

Mondays through Thursday - Johan gets the car
Friday through Sunday - Torii gets the car

It's your choice if you'd like the flop-flip the days during the offseason.

Dear Prince

I'd love to play in your band sometime. I can play the opening chord of 'Purple Rain' better than you can. Let's jam.


Dear Jessica Alba

We should get together sometime.


Dear McDonalds at 66th and Lyndale

Give free water, you jackasses.

My Favorite Arcade Games, God yes.

by Mark Waters



Remember Going to any Pizza Hut or Circus Pizza, even Grand Slam as a child? Or how about staying at various Holiday Inns, or Howard Johnson's across the country? Although Pizza, Batting Cages, and Pools are all incredibly awesome, their video arcade games were even better.

There were few better feelings than having a pocket full of quarters and a sweet arcade game full of adventure, excitement, and sweet ass-kicking weapons. Of course Donkey Kong, Frogger, and Invaders revolutionized arcade games, I was too young for them, and they are boring as hell. Well, I tell you something that isn't boring. More like five things that aren't boring.

I know we just did a top list for movies, but too bad. Here's a list of my 5 favorite arcade games.

5. Star Wars. This was one of the earlier arcade games where you could actually sit inside of it. It took place during the last battle of a new hope, when you attempt to blow up the death star. for 1983, these graphics were amazing, and the feeling of sitting in an xwing fighter was a great concept.
There were only three stages, making the game seem short, but if you completed the final stage by blowing up the death star, you would start over at a higher difficulty (like Mario Bros).










4.Final Fight. Guy, Haggar, or Cody? I always enjoyed being Guy and Hagger, because a dude named Guy is just a total bad ass, and Haggar was ripped and had awesome wrestling style attacks.
Although I never came close to beating this game, it was always fun to get sweet weapons, and beat the shit out of people in hand to hand style combat. You even got to fight multiple Andre the Giants,




3.NBA Jam. Boomshakalaka! My God, need I say more?




2. X Men. When you could actually get 6 people playing at once, this game was unbelievable. There would be lifeless enemy bodies flying in every direction. My character of choice was Kitty. Her mutant attack was forming a gun with her hands and shooting an explosion across the board. I also really enjoyed being nightcrawler, cuz he was just flat out cool. Great action, great attacks and special powers, challenging bosses, fun worlds.



1.Golden Axe. Hands down my favorite game of all time. You could choose to be the hot chick, the dwarf, or the barbarian dude. I was usually the barbarian, but the dwarf had his moments. There are two things that made this game what it is. The Dragons you could jump on, and the magic attacks. Every now and then throughout each level, a bunch of little hobbits with sacks would run through the screen. You tried to attack as many as you could, and after each successful strike, they would drop a potion bottle. The more bottles you obtained, the more powerful and awesome of an attack would occur. This worked great for bosses. Its a short game (only 5 levels) but the carnage makes up for it.



What were your favorites?

Take America Back

By Jeff H.

I have been debating whether or not to write about this for some time now. This site is meant to be fun and entertaining, however as we get older there are some bigger issues weighing on many of our minds. After many hours of deliberating, I’ve decided to keep it short and to the point. Some people will disagree with what I have to say, but it needs to be said. As some of you are aware, our country is in the midst of a crossroads. Our foreign relations have never been worse, many corporations and special interests have seized control over policy decisions and many people are still starving and without proper care, just to name a few problems.

In an earlier discussion, many people voiced their opinion on where this country is and where they believe it is heading. I agree with all of you in saying, I will not raise a family in any other country then my own. This country has given me a wonderful life, but I have also realized that some people have not been so fortunate. To deny them a chance because they’re the less fortunate is something I am unable and unwilling to do. With the upcoming election approaching faster and faster I encourage everyone to get involved. This could be one of the most important elections are country has seen in a very long time. Our generation has had a lack of leadership since we have been alive. We have seen a father and son team throw us into two wars in Iraq, and a sex scandal that one man could not escape. It is time the American people took their government back. America needs a rebirth and once again become a government of the people, by the people and for the people. Instead of separating ourselves from world view, come together and realize there are problems we need to solve, problems that must be solved together, not as individuals.

I know there are others that feel the same as I do, and also feel that this country, although still young, can get through this. One man can drag us through the mud; another man can cleanse us and take this country back. In our short history we have had two world wars, fought for civil rights, fought for women’s rights, pulled troops out of Vietnam, all because the American people got so fed up with the system their voices were finally heard. It’s time to be heard again….



http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/eoq2wrap

Pitch in for Pat

Minnesota Twins reliever Pat Neshek is one of five American League players on the "final vote" ballot for election to the 2007 All-Star game in San Fransisco. The Minnesota native, affectionately known as Sideshow Pat, has been one of the best relievers in all of baseball - In 39.1 innings pitched, he has allowed just six runs while striking out 47.

He is running against Jeremy Bonderman, Kelvim Escobar, Roy Halladay, and Hideki Okajima. Those guys all suck.

Pat Neshek has a blog. www.patneshek.com

On his blog, he makes a plea for votes, as well as a number of campaign promises:

WOW, how cool is getting nominated. I don't know what to say it's unreal to even think about. But man I need you guys to vote, vote and vote, http://www.mlb.com/mlb/events/all_star/y2007/fv/ballot.html it's unlimited voting...tell everyone you know and come together and get creative we have like 5 days or something! We need everyone, all Minnesotan's, all graphers, fans of baseball and yes everyone in Yankee Nation ( and we know why!) I seriously would like to promise everyone All Star balls or jerseys for voting but it might be a stretch...I will promise this, if you guys can get me in I will write about everything that goes on... multiple updates each day letting everyone know what the heck goes on behind closed doors, I will always inscribe anything with All Star 07...dont even have to ask, I will try my best to get lots of giveaways and give them away on here and if I get an extra jersey like they did last year I will give it away in a contest not an auction. I don't know what else to say it would be the greatest feeling in the world to be voted in by you guys. Please tell everyone to vote multiple times:)

Seems like a stand-up guy to me. He is man enough to ask people to help him achieve a goal, and he is man enough to use a smiley face at the end.

UPDATE

Here is the Official AH! Neshek Campaign poster. Feel free to print off as many as you would like and place them at work, church or around your neighborhood. Click the image for the full size version. (to print, you may have to click 'shrink to page width' or 'scale to one page' or something like that)

BOOO Nice People!

By Soup Rahn

Anyone can be nice. People cannot choose their personalities. They can, however, choose whether they are nice or not. When niceness is the dominant characteristic of person’s personality it is most certainly derived from adaptation. As every adolescent goes through the growing pains of self-awareness they need to do a personal inventory of the good and bad aspects of their personality. Some are funny. Some are smart. Some are interesting. Some are fun. Some are none of these things, and their only remaining characteristic to offer to society is being nice.

This shouldn’t be a big deal. Nice people shouldn’t really negatively affect me. Unfortunately they do. The problem is I am expected to like all nice people. Well, I don’t like all nice people. I don’t want to hang out someone who is not fun, funny, or interesting. I don’t care how much they can smile and wrinkle brow in fake interest during a conversation.

You never tell stories about that friend who is really nice. The best stories are about that asshole friend that gets kicked out of the bar for pissing in the middle of the dance floor.

Nice people live in cracks between the excitement the rest of us create.

So, give me Trent Walker over Sam Gamgee

Give me Seinfeld over The Brady Bunch

You can keep your nice people, society. Me and the rest of us assholes will be keeping your lives interesting.