Game 50: Royals at Twins

Time: 7:10 Central. Vegas Line: -140 MIN / KC -130

Weather: Clear & nipply, 60° at first pitch

Opponent’s excellent SB site: Royals Review

TV: BS North. Radio: Audacy is a new thing pronounced “odyssey” and I’m sure I already hate it

Kansas City’s lefty starter Kris Bubic (not a Big Mouth character; check the spelling) has a 1.52 ERA so far in 2021. So why do Vegas gamblers slightly favor his opponent, Randall P. Dobstache? Well, for one thing, gamblers don’t know everything. But, for another, they may not trust the fact that Bubic went straight from single-A to the Royals’ rotation in 2019. Furthermore, as our friends at Royals Review noted last year, Bubic just walks too many guys. There was hope he’d turn it around after early rookie control issues, but he hasn’t so far this season. He’ll get a chance against Minnesota’s typically free-swinging lineup with his low-90s fastball and so-so curve; his best pitch is the change against RHP.

Meanwhile, Dobbers had his first start of 2021 last Friday, it went well, and the seemingly unanimous verdict among commenters here was “never make Dobnak the long reliever again.” Career digits:

Our doomed series in Baseball Stuff James Owns returns to this broken fan, which I showed before but didn’t describe:

The fan in question was a promotional item from late 2003 or early 2004. In July of 2003, former Metrodome employee Dick Ericson told somebody at the Star Tribune that he adjusted the fan speed behind home plate (you know, the fans that maintained air pressure for the roof) in order to help the Twins. It’s dubious this this could be done without umpires noticing, and Ericson’s former boss called him “a wonderful elderly man” but his claims “a bunch of hooey.”

Still, the Twins were in their brilliant “Get To Know ‘Em” ad campaign period, and couldn’t pass up this opportunity for a great giveaway idea. They ran with the blowy-fans story, and handed out these little mini-fans at a game I went to. Thing is, if you put a battery in, it actually worked!

Sadly, the fan fell and broke a few years ago when I was photographing it for another game intro here, and I haven’t been able to fix it. All things resembling broken toys bring up painful childhood memories for me, so we won’t linger on this one.

By the way: that Ericson fellow was inducted into the MLB Groundskeepers Hall Of Fame in 2014; betcha didn’t know that was a thing which existed.

And if you want to hear some of those old “Get To Know ‘Em” radio ads again, here’s a few!

As always, if anyone has photos/stories of their own old baseball objects, you can send them to me via twinsbrewer@gmail.com, if you’re not chicken. Or even my normal email address. Hell, slip them under my door. Apparently y’all threw away your Twins stuff after that one Houston game... I completely understand.