Shock Me, Shock Me, Shock Me with that deviant behavior

On the subject of shocking things, there is always a continuum. On one end are totally obvious things like this, that are fully anticipated -- nay demanded -- in every way. And on the other end are things like Francisco Liriano being left off "Take 1!" of the All-Star team.

I voted for him 37 times the day before the All-Star break. Actually it was in the last ten minutes. And I voted once during that time for that Ramon Hernandez guy. I felt bad for him.

Something that shocking makes a guy turn bitter about otherwise meaningless things like A.J. shilling for himself on Crappiest Darn Activities Program and ponder things like, "Damn it! There's got to be a better way! How about a new policy for All-Star voting next year!? Fans are required to pass a knowledge test to be 'vote eligible' -- no googling allowed." Sort of a philosopher kings baseball voting oligarchy. And this seems like a totally implementable and reasonable idea at the time.

However more shocking than all that has been something I've seen while watching the Twins the past two games, once live and once broadcast (because it's not a standard random sample otherwise). Now my shock is statisticaly significant with a super duper p-value. This something is two players rising to the occassion to carry the Twins while emergency staffers are paged and hurried into the HCMC pro sports wing to rehab the major part of the Twinks outfield.

It's this:






And this:







No, R. White and N. Punto are not Farsi for Justin Morneau and Joe Mauer, and yes F-bomb was da bomb during that first game, but there is something uber-fantastic about guys like this coming up huge in the clutch. And this is not your "normal" clutch, but a slightly less critical clutch, when toes are cracked and plantars are fasciated. and you need other guys to step into roles they are previously unaccustomed to. At this point in the season, Joe Mauer would have to hit with his feet or butt cheeks to get me to notice another single into right field, and I need at least 16 K's from Santana to remember that he should have won the last two Cys. And even though Francisco should arguably be the frontrunnner for this year's Cy, the neckbeard was slightly higher on the list of noticeable achievements yesterday than the 8 2/3 innings shutout, but just below the performance of my new favorite men in navy, blue, and white...

Plus, Rondell does VERY well with the ladies I hear.