Can Freddy Garcia become a Minnesota hero tomorrow?

What a week it has been, boofaphiles. The rebuilding project that is your 2008 Minnesota Twins is just a Detroit W away from the postseason. Joe Mauer has reclaimed his batting titile crown, Denard Span has made me look like an idiot for making fun of him this spring and Jose Mijares has (at least temporarily) replaced Pat Neshek as the bullpen man crush. But enough season wrap-up, we still have some games to play.

Roommate and I were in the building Thursday night for round 3 with the Sox. It turned out to be the greatest Twins game I have certainly ever attended, and perhaps the greatest I have ever seen. The 4th inning was really a nut pinch for everyone in the Dome. Within the confines of the smoker’s quarantine zone just out gate A, everyone looked either shell shocked or rat arsed. It was really a fantastic crowd that night though, and they got right back into the game in the home half of that inning. You all know what happened from there, and it was crazy and beautiful and euphoric and all those lovely things. I tried to write about it as soon as we got back, but even then, almost 2 hours later, all that came out was “Holy shit. Holy shit. That was awesome. Carlos Gomez. Holy shit. That guy can run the basebaths. Holy shit. WE ARE GOING TO THE MOTHER NAILING PLAYOFFS! DSpan is like the Barack Obama of baseball. Holy shit.” So instead of that being your recap I found this video instead.

Meanwhile, catching up with old friends, Johan was brilliant on 3 days rest Saturday, yet the stacked Mets are staying home once again this Puntober, downed 4-2 at the hands of the Marlins. I checked in with getboof’s Shea bureau chief Lacey for a first hand account of how the Metropolitans’ faithful were coping. “I’m at Shea now. Saddest thing ever,” she said. “I had bought a bunch of playoff tix but that doesn’t matter anymore.” No, Lacey, it most certainly does not.

In case you haven’t heard this story yet, after the game today the Mets had a ceremony to honor the memories of Shea Stadium and all the great players that have played there, or some bullshit like that. These poor sad-sack Mets fans stuck around for this dog and pony after watching their time inexplicably fail to qualify for post season play again. Ouch. If the Twins were eliminated today I don’t think I would have stuck around to hear what Marty Cordova thinks about the Metrodome.

Dudes, if you have any faith in Baseball Prospectus, you have to be feeling pretty good about how these next 2 days will play out. We have the advantage right now. Everyone make sure you have the champagne on ice before you leave your home this morning. Let us pop bottles this afternoon.

PS I stumbled across some Joe Mauer/Justin Morneau slashfiction. If you want it now it is here, otherwise I think I will FJM that beauty or something similar this week, you know, for the ladies. If you want to find more stories like this involving your favorite team or player, click here. Based on this database, Oakland A’s fans have the most fantasies about the team running train on each other in the clubhouse, with the Detroit Tigers coming in a distant second.

The dream is still alive my friends. No thanks, however, to the douche in the front row, 3rd base side who tried to snare a foul ball over Brendan Harris with 2 outs and runners on 2nd and 3rd. What an asshole. Now granted, there are some natural instincts involved here, but come on fans, be aware of the situation. If you are in the front row and your team is pitching you should never lean or reach forward to try grab a ball. I nearly had a pulmonary when this went down. This human paraquat almost ruined the season. That is why Twins fan with the hat who reached forward for the foul ball is your getboofed.com’s September Judas o’ the Month. If you are that motherflipper just email me at bveurink@gmail.com to claim your prize.

Carlos Gomez looked about as bad as he has looked all season at the plate last night, but lordy was that a nice grab in the 9th. He went a mile for that thing. He covers more ground out there than anyone else in the lead, and made me eat my words for suggesting to new roommate that he should have been lifted for Cuddyer in the bottom of the 8th.

Nick Blackburn makes me a Sweaty Chetty these days, but he held it down last night. He gave up that homer to Griffey, who still has the prettiest swing in the game, but otherwise kept runs from finding the plate. Gardy then turned it over to the pen in the in the 6th with Craig Breslow, Boof-o-rama, Jose Mijares and Joe Nathan each working an inning in that order. I don’t think anyone would have guessed that the biggest game of the season would be locked down by that trio rather than Guerrier, Reyes and Crain, but times have changed and these dudes were great. Mijares especially was fantastic getting some legends out. This kid has some filthy stuff and I hope Gardy keeps showing this level of confidence in him through the rest of the season.

Speaking of our patron saint, The Boofster, new roomie and I ran into a former lover of his. Former lover happens to have a few Twins connections, which seems to be the case with every attractive girl in this city. The funny thing is, and this is the tragedy of playing on a Joe Mauer team, these dudes hang out with pretty much every hot girl in this town, but after Puntober buys them a drink, they start thinking, “If Nick Punto thinks I’m cute, I bet his teammate Joe Mauer may feel the same way.” So anyhow, she is hanging out with Boof and she didn’t want to go into many details, but the basic gist of the story is our man Boof was looking to boof a blonde again, but couldn’t seal the deal. In conclusion, ladies of Minnesota, you killed Boof’s confidence. If we lose the division you are to blame.

New roommate and I didn’t make it downtown last night, so we hit up the local pub instead. After the 6th inning we were out for a cig break when we caught this awesome exchange

2 women in their 20s are out on the patio have a smoke. The early part of the conversation was not audible to anyone but the two of them.

Blonde Girl: All I am saying, Jennifer, is that there is a recession going on right now, so maybe you should watch your spending a little more.

Jennifer: (voice raised) I have a job! I worked my ass off and I got a promotion! I don’t give a shit about no recession, we don’t have no recession at my job! I’m making my money.

BG: (raises voice to match J) But I saw on the news and they said it was a recession. Don’t you watch the news? They said that we should…

J: (interrupting) I told you I am getting paid, I have money so there is no recession for me

It pretty much goes back and forth on those themes for a while, then

BG: (trying to sound intelligent) I don’t know, at this point I think we seriously need to consider voting.

FIN

I am hoping to eventually adapt that into a screenplay, with the working title Stupid Drunk Girls Want to Know: What is a Recession?

JASON KUBEL IS A STAR!

From Section 202 in the friendly confines that is the Hubert H. your pal Beave McQueen learned tonight to have faith again. The playoffs can happen to this team, fellas. I am pretty sure we are going to need a sweep of the bastardly ChiSox to make that happen, but that is definitely within the realm of possibilities.

The traffic/parking situation around the Dome was pretty horrendous tonight so new roomate and I didn’t arrive until the 2nd inning, just in time to watch Kube-dog blast one into the right field bleachers. Kubes would later nail a triple past the diving, aging Ken Griffey then another homer that was immediately followed by a Del-bomb. The HHH was going so batshit at this point one expected AJ Pierzynski was about to be flagged for false start.

Speaking of AJ, he is a very despised man in that dome. Now AJ is certainly a dick, but it doesn’t seem like his dickitude has ever been directed at the Twins. AJ was quite good when he did play for the Twins and was a major part of that 2002 contraction fighting team that got the Twins back to the playoffs. When Joe Mauer was ready for the bigs AJ beacme the major piece in that ridiculous Nathan/Liriano/Boof deal. These are the two reasons that I clap politley when AJ is announced at the plate, rather than join the chorus of boos. It is not like I am a big vagine who thinks all the players need encouragement, I just have no beef with AJ. There is a good possibility I am wrong on this so let me have it if I am, but I am not yet convinced being a general dick and playing for the White Sox makes Pierzynski qualified to be the Twins fan’s most hated player.

Back to the meat and taters, Scott Baker was great tonight. He got some help from his defense, particularly a lovely diving stop by Casilla, and made a fairly ridiculous catch himself. What was especially fun about Baker’s catch is that no one out in the 202 could really tell what the fletch had happened on that play until it got jumbotron’d. It was the classic bewilderment turned into quick enthusiasm.

This game was not won by small ball or piranhas or whatever the hell you want to call it. This game was won by getting on base and hitting the ball. Gomez sliding into first and beating out that bunt is great fun and all, but you have to be able to put it in the seats sometimes to sustain success.  How the Twins have scored as many runs as they have this year without hitting home runs, and just hitting for a ridiculously high average with runners in scoring position, is not going to work in the long run.

But frick the long run right now, we got 5 games left to make up that game and a half. A hopefully resuscitated Blackburn v. Buehrle tomorrow night, my main man Slowey v. Floyd on Thursday night. It feels like we are going to need a sweep. See you in general admission tomorrow night.

And just a quick recap, shootings = not funny, shooters looking like Dieleman = funny

(Ed. That is no photoshop, that is the guy)

new roommate!

What’s up dong-mongers? JK, JK. I missed you guys. As you may have  noticed, there has not been a whole lot of activity around these parts for the last few months. I think it is time for a little getboofed version of “How I Spent My Summer Vacation.” I would say my lack of posting motivation was a 4-pronged attack.

A quick dissection of those prongs:

1) Brett Favre. The sports story of the summer (sans Phelps) was about the most boring thing that has happened to organized team sport since the Fort Wayne Pistons beat the Minneapolis Lakers 19-18. Shitpussies, I hate Brett Favre. The good news is his signing looks to be about as irrelevant as we possibly could have hoped it would be, and the Jets should keep on sucking. Add the Tom Brady miracle and the Dolphins still being the Dolphins, and the path is clear for Buffalo and America’s soon-to-be-sweetheart, Mershawn Lynch.

2) Sioux Falls. Up until a week ago, my homestead was Sioux Falls, SD. The name Sioux Falls is actually a mistranslation of a Native phrase, with a more correct translation coming out to “Two douchewads for every chode.” My abhorrence for Sioux Falls was also a product of my job there, which involved credit cards, telephones and guys in a “special jeans project.” By the end of my run there I wasn’t finding jokes in anything. I was a bitter, pessimistic young man. Alas, I have retreated back to the safe haven of Minnesota, about half an hour from Target Field, where the the boofage shall flourish.

fack ya sioux falls

It wasn’t all shit and douches. There are some good people out in KELOland too, and you all know I love you. Take no offense, and thanks for your support of getboofed.

3) Politics and Shit. Beave McQueen would like to quick take this moment and announce that I am endorsing the Junior Senator from Illionois for President of the United States.

Oh yeah. That is the good stuff right there. In an effort to be fair and balanced, here is an artistic depiction of John McCain too.

And that, my friends, is why there has been a lack of posts here. My general election fever has now even surpassed my Olympic fever, which ironically enough was a bloggable topic. If there is anything I am sure Mr. Boof does not stand for, it would be long dissertations on the issues of our times. The one idea that may make it through the de-politicization is a Sarah Palin comic strip. If that is something you the commenters might be willing to tolerate, let me know. I promise it will be at least a little funny.

What’s that? Olympic fever? Bowling? Sacramone?!?!?! Perspiration?

Boo-Yah!

4) Laziness\Lack of Faith in Writing Skills and Ability to Think of Good Words and Funny Jokes and Pictures or Videos. AKA etc. I just haven’t felt very funny these last few months. I had no motivation, inspiration, anything. Dave Davidson, I feel like I owe you the largest apology. I wanted to post for you, I just could not perform when it came time to, uh, perform. But now, well, I feel a lot like Bania.

Welcome back, my beautiful children. Real sports and real posts coming soon. Maybe even Sarah Palin the Animated Series. I will be hitting up Twins-ChiSox: The Legend of Delmon’s Gold, so keep hitting that refresh button throughout the week. It feels good to be back.

The sad thing is, this is probably the highlight of the season for the Royals.  Experience history, guys.

About the actualy home run hitting, what Josh Hamilton did was most certainly awesome, but let us not forget that Justin Morneau is your raining (boner) reigning champ. If MLB wants to change the rules and make it total homers over 3 rounds, that’s cool, but your champion Morneau got heartily dissed last night. Rhymes with porno, fellas, not that hard. I can only imagine what would have happened on the mic if Doug Mientkiewicz would have ever won a home run derby over a feel good story of the year.

Anyway, this is noteworthy because of this:

EDIT: There’s been some nasty rumors on said forum that Chuggo is facing some legal problems for spiking a lady’s drink.  Chuggz has an answer to these vicious allegations.  If there is a god, he will prove these e-mails to be real.  More updates to follow.

subject: thx from chuggz‏
From: Chuggo (chuggolug@gmail.com)
Sent: June 18, 2008 10:04:17 PM
To: Mr. Conductor (xxxxxx@xxxxx.com)

mr conduktr

thx 4 showin me dat hipinion.com/forms wnt me in. it means a lot 2 da chuggz.

sum of wat dey r sayin is fny and tru. its totly a difrent thng 2 pop pilz wit a ho b4 fukin her thn 2 force the bitch 2 take da pill. i dnt get the law.

ill leev u wit a ryme cuz ur frends lyk dem:

my lawyer likes to tell me
be quiet as a cat
u should do the same
when ur mouths around my gat

.chuggz

Or not.  Anyway, that is Ace’s excuse for not manning up and taking Group D, so I’ve assumed responsibility.  After this hopefully we’ll shit out a quarterfinal post by week’s end and we can wrap this shit up.  Group D contains Spain, Russia, Sweeden, and Greece.  Without further ado, the ladies:

Spain:

Russia:

Sweeden:

Greece:

And the table:

Spain
Sweden
Russia
Greece

And there ya go.  Thankfully, the quarterfinals are going to be taken care of in one post, so we are almost through with this shit.  The quarters will match up like this: Switzerland v Germany, Turkey v Croatia, Italy v Sweden, Spain v Romainia.

Also, on a spur of the moment decision the roster of writers for GetBoofed will be growing to four, so be on the lookout for that.

 Why the transition to bullpen duty, you ask?  For starters, opposing batters have been going all MJ on him as Hendrickson sported a 7.20 and 7.77 ERA, respectively, for the months of May and June.  Yes, that’s ERA’s of seven-plus from the man deemed by the coaching staff to have been the best available pitcher at the end of spring training – a 6’9″ former NBA journeyman.  Does he even have a major league pitching job if Randy Johnson wasn’t so tall?

Filling the roles?  Mediocre prospect Chris Volstad and Minneapolis native Josh Johnson, who returns after a year and a half of missed time thanks to Joe Girardi’s Baker-esque abuse (see: Anibal Sanchez) and a little thing I like to call “oh fuck me another Marlins pitcher is visiting James Andrews who will deem that he needs Tommy John surgery.”  You might remember Josh Johnson as being the dude who came onto the scene in that magical 2006 season and posted a 3.10 ERA in 157 innings – a figure which would have been good for 4th in all of baseball had he had enough innings to qualify.

I know I should set moderate expectations for Johnson’s return, but I just can’t bring myself to do it.  Between his return and Anibal’s possible August return – expect the Marlins to actually have some pitching and potentially end the year at .500 or above.  And hell, with no teams in the NL East displaying any desire to pull away with the division, could the Marlins even make a push for the playoffs?  Oh, and for those of you who are already firing up your calculators to comment on Florida’s pythagorean numbers and the fact that they’ve allowed more runs then they’ve scored: fuck you.  Please just let me enjoy my blind bliss for at least a couple days.

Also, I would just like to say that all of these other pitchers could be moot of Ricky Nolasco keeps playing like he has been.