Waking up to a no-hitter

Dang.

What a way to end a great nap.

I woke up at about 9pm, flip the TV over to the Twins game that I had been missing, and the Twins have just broken up a no-hitter that had carried itself into the 9th inning. The big news on ESPN appears to be the current news of Gavin Floyd’s almost no-hitter against the Twins.

To me, this is really not a surprise. I get to see the Twins get shut down by mediocre pitchers all the time. It’s just something that happens. I don’t get it.

The Black Bear, The Unpaid Prison Guard

This is a great addition to a prison security scheme.

The way the warden sees it, the more than 400-pound black bear living in the middle of the sprawling Louisiana State Penitentiary is an extra layer of security.

More prisons should adopt a policy such as this. Why not?

Just bring in all the animals that need to be removed from city limits for whatever reasons. There are always bears, wolves and other potentially dangerous wild animals being found within city limits. They need somewhere to be removed to.

Detroit Tigers let Jacque Jones go

The Tigers have decided to not be patient with Jacque Jones and have let him go. His batting average was sitting at .165 for 24 games.

The Tigers brought in Jones last November from the Cubs in exchange for utilityman Omar Infante, who was later dealt to Atlanta. The goal for the Tigers was to add a left-handed bat who could help balance out a predominantly right-handed hitting lineup. However, Jones got off to a slow start, similar to last season in Chicago.

And so, it did not work out.

The reason I am actually paying attention to this is because I can pretty vividly see Jacque Jones flailing away at high fastballs in a Twins uniform. It was somewhat of a surprise to see him playing for the Tigers against the Twins. I guess I kinda forgot about him when he was in the National League with the Cubs.

I wonder where he’ll end up.

From ESPN:

Jones — in his 10th season — is a .278 hitter with 165 homers and 628 RBIs.

He played for the Minnesota Twins from 1999-05 and hit .300 in the 2002 and ‘03 with 43 homers over those two seasons.

Yeah.

So, the Twins are on a 5 game winning streak?

They are in first place in the Central Division? Great stuff. One can only hope that this young Twins baseball team can hang on. If the Twins can keep up the solid play and general enthusiasm and excitement in their dugout, they should be able to scrape together a pretty nice season.

I’m not saying they’ll win 95 games, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the Twins end up with a strong 2nd or 3rd place in the division. I don’t think they’ll be in the cellar at the end of the season.

Carlos Gomez getting hit in the head

I cringed when it happened, when Gomez got nailed by the throw to second by Ivan Rodriguez during May 2nd’s game. Sounds like he’s used to getting hit in the head.

“I got hit in the head five times in my career, so it’s no big deal,” Gomez said. “I’ll see how I feel tomorrow. I did hit my head, so it’s hard to tell if we play tomorrow or not.”

He was playing again already today.

GTA IV launch day burglary, how appropriate

I suppose this is an appropriate way to celebrate the launch of GTA IV. I’m surprised this didn’t make more of a stir in the “anti-violent video game” sectors of the politics and mainstream media.

Denver Man Proposing City-Wide Commission on Space Aliens

This guy feels the city needs to be prepared. For space aliens. The story doesn’t get horribly specific, but I assume this is mostly a “what would we do if they showed up?” type of commission.

A Denver man who wants the city to be prepared for space aliens is proposing a commission to deal with the matter.

Read the rest here.