Game 159: White Sox @ Twins

Time: 7:10 Central. Vegas Line: -150 MIN / CHW +130

Weather: Cloudy to Clear, First Pitch 70°

Opponent’s SB Site: South Side Sox

TV: FSN, MLB.TV Free Game (outside of region.) Radio: Hasn’t changed much in 50 years, one instance where this is a good thing

Somehow, over the course of this season, I’ve managed to be a bad husband, bad brother, bad friend, bad writer, bad accountant, bad neighbor, bad uncle, bad volunteer and bad citizen. I’m pretty accustomed to failure, no none of this especially surprised me, but having it all in the course of one six-month stretch was a zang right between the eyeballs.

I was, however, successful at growing hops. (Although I failed at uploading a picture to my computer, that’s a generic photo above.)

Hops are the plant that makes beer taste bitter & smell good. As some of you know, I’ve been brewing my own beer for many years, and I thought, “why not try hops?” You order them from a hop farm, and what you get in the mail is a tiny little root in a plastic bag, it’s a smidge bigger than a wooden matchstick.

You put in in the ground, and think for about a month that you’ve killed it. But you didn’t kill it. It grows. Man, does it ever grow! As one writer put it, “first they sleep, then they creep, then they leap.”

Baseball & beer have a long history together, and regular TT readers know that TC Bear is connected to the Hamm’s bear. Active players are banned from endorsing beer brands in all US sports leagues, but that’s going to soon change.

Anyhoo, I didn’t fail at the hop plant, and that makes me happy, I got one thing right this year. All the carrots died, though. Somebody said “well, you have to constantly water them until the seedlings come up.” I didn’t know that, alright!

Chase De Jong does the “opener” thing for the Twins tonight. Sox lineup: Yoan Mocada 2B, Yolmer Sanchez 3B, Daniel Palka RF, Matt Davidson 1B, Omar Narvaez DH, Kevan Smith C, Nicky Delmonico LF, Jose Rondon SS, Ryan Cordell CF.

@Twins