Game 36: A’s at Twins

Time: 7:10 Central. Vegas Line: -109 OAK / MIN +109

Weather: Cloudy with a chance of rainballs, 59° at first pitch

Opponent’s SB site: Athletics Nation

TV: BS North. Radio: Even the Twins stinking is no reason to get Sirius

A’s starter Frankie Montas was suspended in 2019 for the Bad Pee, and had this interesting response to jerkholes giving him crud for it on Twitter:

“If you need to feel happy by talking s*** to other people, you have issues. My life is that important, bro? You take all this time to message me?”

Most pushback on internet critics comes from a place of suggesting the critic has an unimportant life (the “loser in basement” cliche). Montas seems to be suggesting here that his life, as a pro athlete, isn’t really worth getting too worked up about. It’s kinda humble, if this indeed is what he meant. I like it.

Also, per Wiki, his full name is Francellis Montas Luna. Wiki adds, “In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Montas and the second or maternal family name is Luna.” I didn’t know that about some Spanish names. It’s cool.

Anyhoo, he throws a moving high-90s fastball, slider and change. Before his suspension, that slider had gotten a lot of batters out. Since, not as many.

Shoemaker, you should know by now. 2021 digits (drool if you’re an Oakland lefty):

I received a correction several Fridays ago, after mentioning that Twins rookie Ben Rortvedt (who I suggested we call Mortimer Rortvedt, or Mortivedt, for no real reason except it’s fun) was from New Glarus, WI. At least that’s where Cory Provus said he was from.

Not so fast, said a Sconnie in an email. (A very polite email.) Mortivedt is actually from Madison, and played high school baseball in nearby Verona. Provus lied! (The emailer’s kid played with Mortivedt on that high school team, and is in an MLB minor-league system now. Always trust minor-league parents to follow the progress of their kids’ former teammates.)

But wait! The emailer updated me the next day. Turns out Rortvedt’s parents were separated, and one DID live in New Glarus (a bit further from Madison than Verona). So, the correcter corrected himself. Provus was right! The emailer wrote, “I’ll drink to New Glarus, too.”

Folks, this is how you write nice emails to baseball bloggers! I loved it. And drinking to New Glarus inspired this week’s entry in the doomed series of “baseball swag pictures/stories.”

(Yes, it’s sideways. I can make it point every direction but up. Pretend it’s a lazy MC Escher drawing, or blow it out your 12-23 record.)

There’s nothing special about this glass, except that I stole it from a bar I like whose owner was politically connected and using those connections to try defeating a law that would pay restaurant/bar staffers better. So I stole a glass from his bar. He deserved it.

As always, if anyone has any pictures/stories they’d like to share (hopefully not crooked by 90 degrees), you can send them to twinsbrewer@gmail.com.

Finally, I can’t intro an Oakland game without this unofficial team song played at the Coliseum by Bay Area bar band The Phenomenauts, because it’s neat:

Not enough lyrics never stopped the Ramones...

(Your Neil DeMause update on Oakland’s owner trying to blackmail the city into new stadium funding is here.)