Nikki Sudden R.I.P.

I'm spending a good amount of time blogging everywhere about this heavy bummer. Another of my heroes died, Nikki Sudden of Swell Maps. Now both the main guys from this group are gone, and taht is a big loss for us all. They ruled, and pretty much defined what punk rock means to me. Serious lo-fi without carrying a banner for it, noisy and immediate. Great songs with fun and interesting lyrics and musicianship. A real sense of humor.

I'm gonna miss him.

The World Baseball Classic -aka Got More Hits than Sadaharu Oh

With the help of my Comcast DVR Tivo-like device, I watched almost every game of the World Baseball Classic. This was a great event. Japan vs Cuba was about the perfect matchup for the championship game. Some of the drama was almost Shawshank Redemption - esque. The Japan team lost a game to the USA on a bad call, but then made it to the next round when Mexico beat USA. In the game where Mexico beat USA, there was another wrong call when a ball hit the fould pole for the Mexicans but was called a ground rule double. But the Mexico team prevailed and knocked the US team out.

When Japan got into the "final four" with Korea, Dominicana and Cuba, they drew Korea in the semis. Korea had been undefeated in the first 6 games, upsetting Japan twice and planting their flag on the mound after the 2nd victory. What happened in the 3rd meeting between the 2? Of course, Japan won convincingly 6-0. Korea beat them twice, but the 3rd time, when it really mattered as an elimination game, Japan won. Then Japan won the Final against Cuba and then it was time to throw Saduharu Oh into the air. I can't think about that guy without thinking about the Beastie Boys song with the timeless lyrics, "Got more hits than Sadaharu Oh"

With the US, Mexican, Dominican, Canadian, Venezuelan, and Puerto Rican team jam packed with Major League talent, the two teams in the finals had a total of 2 major leaguers, Ichiro and Otsuka. Korea only had a couple also. To me this just shows us that there is plenty of major league talent playing in the rest of the world. It is a little bit of a wakeup call to the Majors that maybe our World Series isn't worthy of that lofty name anymore. But it is great for baseball and baseball fans anyway. Kind of like a World Cup, except the sport is so much better.

I wrote a letter to Castro wishing his team well in the tournament, and they did well. I hope for good US relations with Cuba someday. This hope is not altogether altruistic though, I would like to vacation there some day and get some of those guys on Major League rosters, without making them ride rafts in the Atlantic to defect.

If I could get any players from this tournament on the A's roster here is who I would go for:

Matsuzaka P Japan - throws hard and is fearless out there, throwing inside at will.

Ueahara P Japan - this dude pitches like Greg Maddux except with 5-10 mph more on all the pitches. Could succeed in the Majors for sure.

Y Gourriel 2b Cuba - a 2b with massive power and speed. This guy got an inside pitch that looked like it was going to hit him in the hands and hit a bomb about 400 feet. Mad skills.

So much for that...

Arroyo to Reds for Peña

Kirby Puckett

I grew up in Minnesota. There used to be 2 stadiums in Bloomington, about an hour from my house. One was Met Stadium, and one was Met Center. The Vikings and the Twins played at Met Stadium and the North Stars played at Met Center across the huge parking lot. Eric Clapton played at Met Center too, and so did Jimmy Page. It was a concert venue in addition to being a hockey arena. The Met was an OK place to watch baseball and football, but there were many sections of the stadium which were aluminum bleachers, and others that were wood. I was there with my dad and brother and sister on jersey day 1977 when one of the biggest crowds in MN history watched the Twins beat the White Sox 19-14. Rod Carew was over .400 and it was August. There were so many kids there we didn't get a jersey. We got coupons that my dad had to redeem at the Munsingwear factory a few weeks later. There are tons of photos of the kids in our family wearing that jersey from the following years.

Rod Carew was my first favorite baseball player. To this day, when I bat I try to look like Rod, leaning back, smooth level stroke, like him I am a lefty and like him, I like to hit the line drives the other way. I was heartbroken when Calvin Griffith traded Rod to the Angels.

In 1982 the Metrodome opened. They use air pressure to hold the roof up in the dome, so all the doors are revolving doors. After a big game they open the regular doors and you get shot out of there. A girl from my high school told me her dad was working on the metrodome. How exotic, he was walking on the roof before it was inflated. In 1984 I started vending at the Metrodome. It was awesome! I was getting paid to watch baseball! And if someone wanted a soda, I would give it to them and they would give me money. 20% commission. It was easy money. Many of the vendors who were working at the dome in the 80s still work there. The working conditions may have the best in the history of vendors. I worked at all the games of the 87 stretch drive and world series. I expect a championship of my favorite team to never be quite as magical again. Of course the Twins won all the home games of the WS in 87 and 91, making the beer sales that much better.

At the beginning of 1984 the Twins had a center fielder named Bobby something. Bobby something didn't pan out and by the all star break the starting cf was Kirby Puckett. I think most people might not remember that when Kirby came up, he only had gap power. I don't think he hit a homer that first year, he hit a lot of balls the other way and hit a lot of choppers. I heard Harmon Killebrew taught Kirby to get the bat head out in front and hit more homers in his 2nd or 3rd year. Right from the get-go Kirby was chubby, but fast. He was the leadoff hitter immediately. And the Twins announcer would love to announce his name. It sounded like this KrBEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE PUckett! And the fans went nuts. The announcement never got old, and the fans never failed to go nuts. This guy was immediately a huge hit with Twins fans everywhere. Most Minnesotans can tell you precisely where they were when the Twins won the WS in 87. Minnesotans could probably tell you where they were when Kirby almost singlehandly won game 6 in 91. Before that we had the feeling of being the great loser place, the Vikes had lost 4 Superbowls without winning one, the North Stars had lost a Stanley Cup, the Twins lost the WS in 65, the year before I was born.

The joy that Kirby played with was palpable. Kirby was a hacker, and hit a lot of balls hard. I remember watching the 91 ALCS Twins/Blue Jays on TV in Seattle with a Minnesota buddy of mine. Kirby came up to bat at a crucial time and his bat seemed to be waggling even more than usual, and my friend said, "Look how ready Kirby is." Kirby was definitely ready to hit, and he hit a double on the next pitch.

In the last week I have read many accounts of how great he was in the clubhouse, and what a leader he was. I can't address any of that. I never met him, never talked to him or got an autograph. But he was a great player, with a great smile. Once he was in contract negociations and was offered more by the Yankees, but chose to stay with the Twins for a million less. He said on TV, "you know, a million bucks, it's not all that much money." Then he laughed his great laugh. When some guy like Ted Williams dies at 84 you are sad, but you figure in this day and age, that's about what you get in life. Kirby went too young. It is a great loss.