AL Central Preview – Kansas City Royals

Disclaimer (since K-Bro loves seeing this link)

With the season about to start, we begin to be bombarded by multiple opinions of how the standings will look by the end of the season. Well, that’s far too common for my tastes, so I’ve decided to take another route. Doing what I occasionally do best, I will present to you my idea of how the AL Central will look at the end of the season in the format of song parodies. However, forget about me telling you everything you need to know other than where they’ll finish…I’ll let the teams themselves tell you how they feel about this year! The order will go from worst to best, so as you can assume, this post will be focusing on my prediction for who will finish 5th in the AL Central this year…the Kansas City Royals. Their song will be sung to Fergie’s “Big Girls Don’t Cry.” Let’s see if Rick Ankiel, Jason Kendall, and Co. have what it takes to truly back up the belief that they had the GREATEST OFFSEASON EVER.

Fantasy Baseball Draft

Funny how things change. For instance, I started off this post by just writing short notes so I could come back to it after my fantasy draft was finished and turn those notes into full sentences. Well, halfway through this I started typing complete sentences for some odd reason. Perhaps it was that I had 10 minutes in between half of my picks (I was 4th of 12 teams, so sometimes I had to wait for 16 picks before I could pick again). Anyway, here’s how it happened for me tonight during my ESPN fantasy baseball draft.

Open For Business

What an experience.

Yeah, sure, it was the Gophers and the Louisiana Tech whatever their mascot is.* Ok, the Gophers were blown out. It might have mattered to the fans, but it sure didn’t matter to me. This game marked my first in uniform as an usher at Target Field, and although I didn’t see the whole game, it was definitely a game to remember. I first worked the aisle between Sections 118 and 119, and for the last 1/3 of the game I was politely turning away guests from the press elevator behind home plate.

* They’re the Bulldogs.

Sorry For The Late Notice…

…but I will be working today’s Gophers game at Target Field. I’ll also be at the open house before the game, which essentially means that I’ll be working from 9 am to 5:30 pm. Feel free to say hello if you’re at the park.

Notepad Scribbles, 3/25/10

The Twins released their newest commercial recently. You can watch it here, but only after you suffer through the Filet-o-Fish song first. The video is titled “Target Field offers a new home field advantage.”

Tonight, I have my final training session as an usher before I am set free into the deep blue sea of helping guests in need. I certainly don’t feel like I’m ready, despite 15 hours of training, but I guess one of the best ways to learn something is to just do it. I just hope that the mistakes that I’m bound to make will be learning experiences for my future interactions with guests, rather than learning experiences that accompany my efforts to find a new job. “I swear he was having a heart attack!”*

* To be honest, I might be fired just for giving CPR to a person that did need it because of legal issues that I’m not first aid trained. Well, I used to be…but that was when I was 15 and still in Boy Scouts. That card has likely expired by now.

Gameday Thread

I’m just trying something out today. This won’t necessarily happen every game (especially since I’ll be ushering 25% of the games) but it’s just something fun to do and it helps me avoid doing homework. I’ll be updating throughout the whole game.

Jim Souhan Hijacked My Blog

Disclaimer

*surfs Internet, stumbles upon this*

*notices particular comment made by Assistant GM Rob Antony, gets idea*

*grabs phone, dials extension number*

Hey Pat, it’s Jim. I’m doing well, you? Good to hear. Say, I’ve got a question for you. I was on my computer and I noticed this Q&A done by this guy named Parker Hageman.

Well, *deep breath* he’s a blogger. Yeah, I know. Just hear me out.

Life Beyond Mauer

I’m willing to assume that you’ve already heard that Joe Mauer has agreed upon an 8-year, $184 million contract extension. Believe me, I was certainly happy and excited to hear that the extension was finalized, but I couldn’t help but wish that I could give one of these to Yankee fans around the globe. It was certainly frustrating to constantly visualize them salivating at the thought of Mauer coming to New York, so I’m very happy to see a superstar (especially one from a small- or mid-market team) stay with his team rather than leave for any of New York, Boston, or Los Angeles.

More Target Field Information

Maybe if I was more motivated, I would have had this done on Sunday night or Monday (six days ago). Oh well, I still have some various goodies to share with you that I learned from my Primary Orientation about Target Field. I’ll try to remember as many things as possible, but I can’t guarantee that I’ll be able to tell you everything that I wanted.

Scouting Yourself

Carson Cistulli at FanGraphs is exactly what the website needs every now and then. The other writers focus so much on critiquing baseball that Cistulli’s writings are like a breath of fresh air. If you haven’t read his posts, he is essentially a poet (without the rhymes) with words, mixing in humor to create a nice change of lightheartedness from the serious tones of the other writers.* When I see his name prefacing a new post, I immediately know that I’m in for a treat, provided that I’m interested in what he’s talking about.**

* Not that I’m saying that I dislike the other writers. Come on, I quote FanGraphs so often, you’d think it’s my favorite baseball website. Well…it likely is.

** There’s a few times where he’ll start talking about stuff that I know nothing about, which causes me to lose interest immediately. We all know that feeling.