Daily Archives: May 24, 2010

Game 10: Saints 7, Wingnuts 4

May 24, 201011:36 p.m.

Box score — St. Paul 7, Wingnuts 4

Dear Cleveland Indians:

Bring back Ole Sheldon and Jason Cooper!

You’ve had both of these guys in your organization in recent seasons. Why did you let them go?

Yeah, Sheldon was a 27-year-old playing in Class A ball last season. And still he wasn’t even that great. And yeah, even on his very best day as a one-time prospect, Cooper still only projected as a fourth or fifth outfielder.

So what?

Have you seen these guys raking for the St. Paul Saints lately? Do you think Lou Marson could crush American Association pitching the way Cooper and Sheldon are? Uh, probably not. So give Cooper and Sheldon another chance. It can’t get much worse than Matt LaPorta out in left field.

This is what it’s like to be an irrational fan. Of course Cooper and Sheldon aren’t major leaguers. But against guys who throw 86-88 mph on the independent level, they’re pretty fun to watch. Cooper, especially. I’m not sure how he didn’t make it to the majors at least for a cup of coffee. He was in Triple-A for a long time, and for two different organizations.

It just so happened that he spent a lot of time in Buffalo. It was first the Triple-A affiliate of the Indians, then when it switched to the Mets, Cooper went to the Mets. He never quite reached his potential, and he’ll probably never make the majors.

Cleveland’s (non) loss was St. Paul’s gain, though. And if we’re going to be witness to independent baseball, it’s good that there are hitters like these two. Professionals. Guys who have had success at much higher levels. They’re the “fear” guys I was talking about the other night that not a lot of teams on this level have.

They hit around Adam Cowart tonight. That doesn’t happen often, so you know Cooper and Sheldon are worth watching. And maybe the Indians should take another look.

Up next: Wingnuts travel to Lincoln for a three-game series beginning on Tuesday night.

I’ll be off until the next homestand after the one this weekend. Headed to Lawrence for some 6A state tournament baseball. I’ll do my best to keep the blog updated and have some material for you all to look at in the newspaper, too. See you soon.

By Jeff Lutz | Filed under Uncategorized | Comments Off

Just A Few Questions, Vol. II

May 24, 20104:19 p.m.

Cephas Howard made a case for being the weekly guest in “Just A Few Questions”. The guy nailed it today. I talked to him about his two years as a math major at college in Georgia:

Q: I want to talk to you about your time as a math major.

Please don’t. Please don’t.

Q: Why not? Was that a difficult four years?

Actually, it was two years, but it was difficult.

Q: Were you a math major right of high school?

Yeah.

Q: That’s a strange decision.

Well, I wanted to do civil engineering. So I did math because the junior college I went to didn’t have that.

Q: How long did it take you to change your mind?

Two years, actually. My roommate, it was actually my best friend since we were little. He was a math major, and I saw him doing calculus 4, and there were no numbers invlolved. So I didn’t like it.

Q: How far did you get?

After that year, I changed to exercise science. I got to Calculus 2. That’s a lot of letters. Not as complicated as the ones he was doing, but it was hard.

Q: Did you look at all the letters and say, I thought I was doing math?

Exactly. That’s exactly what it was. It was different.

Q: Did you enjoy any part of it?

I still enjoy math. But that part of it, that’s English.

Q: Can you do math in your head? Are you a mental mathematician?

You’ve got to catch me on the right day. When I’m at the ballpark it’s kind of hard, because I try not to think about a lot of things. If you get worried about what’s outside of here, for me, it’s kind of hard to work. If you asked me before I came to the clubhouse, I could probably do it.

Q: What’s 306 plus 285?

Why you gotta do that, man? I told you!

Q: I got it. I just had to see for myself.

The numbers just went in and out of my head. The reason I don’t think about numbers is because baseball is a numbers sport. I try not to get involved with the whole numbers thing.

Q: I was going to ask you if there is ever a time you think about numbers on the field.

Yeah, 0-2, 1-2 (counts). Strike a guy out, here and there. Not really. It’ll be times when somebody will say something and it will just kick in, Oh, that’s 66 percent. But other than that, definitely not on the mound.

Q: Here’s a math and English question: Spell pythagorean.

Yeah, no. Actually….no. No chance. No chance.

By Jeff Lutz | Filed under Uncategorized | Comments Off