This is getting really lame. I just want to sit down and watch a Twins game tonight, and yet again the Twins pregame show is on (what a huge tease) and then FSN cuts to “FSN programming” because yeah, I’d much rather watch street ball, poker or boxing than the Twins game tonight.

This has happened so many times this summer it’s getting sickening. I’m not a fan of CableOne in Fargo at this point, what a waste of cable subscription money. For years I have told people “yeah the only reason I have cable is so I can watch the Twins”, and now I look like a fool for saying that and subscribing to CableOne, getting the shaft from them all summer. Hopefully my apartment building can host a dish on the porch, since there’s no cable competition in Fargo.

It’s Nick Punto day! And because I’m not feeling creative enough to write anything crafty, here’s a few quick links to some excellent blog posts around the Interweb:

• A Day in the Life of Little Nicky
• Who is Nick Punto?
• Nick Punto is the equivalent of a solid employee
• Nick Punto Reports to Fort Myers

And don’t forget that all stop signs are optional today!

Happy Nick Punto day!

According to Joe Mauer. Pretty good interview with Joe here.

Adam Everett just hit his 37th career home run to put the Twins up 2-0 against the Yankees.

He’s had 2236 at bats over 8 seasons of Major League Baseball. And just hit his 37th home run. At least I’m pretty sure about that home run number. I might be off by one or two. Hopefully not. Yeah!

I was just taking an innocent look at the American League Central Division standings and overall team record stats. Trying to figure out why I am awake right now too, I should be sleeping or something.

… Right now the Twins have just overtaken the White Sox for first place in the division. So.. the Twins will remain in first place for at least a few more guaranteed hours before the next round of games gets started later today.

Back to the stats.

It looks to me that the Minnesota Twins and the Chicago White Sox share some interesting similarities at this point in the season. Here’s a few that I noticed.

Let’s start off with their win-loss records

• Twins are 65-51
• White Sox are 64-51

Divisional Records

• Twins are 7-15 vs the East, 36-20 vs the Central and 8-12 vs the West
• White Sox are 8-13 vs the East, 33-21 vs the Central and 11-11 vs the West

They both pound the other American League Central teams. They have completely beaten up on their own division. At the same time they have struggled when playing out side of their divisions.

Inter-league Records

• Twins went 14-4
• White Sox went 12-6

Both teams had success against the National League. On a similar note, the majority of the American League Central teams beat up the National League. The Indians were the only ones that didn’t with a record of 6-12.

Home & Road Records

• Twins are 39-21 at home
• White Sox are 38-18 at home

Both teams win at home, at lot.

• Twins are 26-30 on the road
• White Sox are 26-33 on the road

Both teams are just a bit worse than .500 on the road.

Runs Scored & Runs Allowed

• Twins have scored 578 runs and given up 540 runs
• White Sox have scored 578 runs and given up 514 runs

Exactly the same amount as of today. Interesting. But, the runs allowed are a bit different. The Twins have given up more runs but have been able to win more games. Well, they have been able to win 1 more game the the White Sox at this point, but have also played one more game.

I might dig more into some other stats to see if the teams share any other similarities. All of these jumped out at me while I was looking at the divisional standing and the typical stats that go along with those types of grids.

I follow the Minnesota Twins. Let’s start this post out with that fact. I’m not bragging or anything, I respect any person’s allegiance to any team. But, this story casually includes that fact a few times and it needs to be known up front.

I feel a certain allegiance to the Twins, to the point where it’s blasphemous for me to wear a White Sox jersey. For the record, as much as I respect the White Sox I do not like them and I hope they end up at 3rd place behind the Detroit Tigers by the time that the 2008 MLB season arrives at completion.

Now… I have recently begun to like wearing mlb jerseys just ’cause it’s better than t-shirts. Ebay is amazing, as far as finding cheap jerseys goes, so I’m on a roll.

But… there is always the issues of buying or wearing a jersey which conflicts with my support of the Minnesota Twins.

So.

How should this be handled?

I present these rules, which should be followed by sports fans who are allegiant to their teams, yet like to wear league gear in general. This could apply to MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL or whatever.

The Rules For Wearing “Other Teams” Jerseys

1. Wear a generic team jersey, a jersey with no player number or name. This will make it appear as though you don’t have a favorite player, and you’ll have no logo or recognizable information on the back of the jersey.
2. Wear the jersey of the player that plays the worst against your favorite team. In my case, I would want to wear the jersey of a White Sox player who always gets schooled when playing the Minnesota Twins.
3. Degrade the opposing teams jersey in some manner. In my case, I’m going to have a graphic designer that I work with design the word “Sucks” using the same lettering and look of the White Sox logo. I will then take this logo and have it embroidered underneath the Sox logo that is on the front of a White Sox jersey that I bought off of Ebay for $12.80.
4. Wear the jersey of a player who has played in the past and has no general effect on the team and players that you actively have followed in your lifetime. For example, I was born in 1979, so I figure that I can get by with wearing any team gear from any MLB baseball team or player from before the year 1979 without having a fan conflict situation.

Yeah.

If you have some more ideas for rules, feel free to post a comment to this rant.