Pulling A Blyleven

Here, watch this right quick, at least the first few minutes:

Mike Nelson's "Oh, I am sad!"

And then think, "Oh nachos!" and here we are

WV: Nice. At least when you just miss the playoffs you can still think, "well, we could've gone all the way!" If you lose in the 1st round, you've lost that possibility.

RK: Right, and while it's easy to say boy, if only the bullpen held up on that big road trip, or they'd beaten the Royals, etc. that kind of obsessiveness is no damn good

WV: We'd become classic cases of Freudian mourning: unable to detach our id from a lost desirable object (the Twins in the playoffs).

RK: Right, though the object itself never existed in esse, so we don't know what exactly we're mourning, and that's the melancholia

WV: Indeed, we may even think we've moved on but there's something from the lost object stashed away in our unconscious leading us to attack our own egos. Which I'll admit, I've done a fair amount of self loathing today based on the result of a game which I had nothing to do with.

RK: Oh yes, many people got an earful from me in the classroom today. But what it comes down to for me is this: regardless of the outcome, we were compelled to watch all 163 games because the team was in the race, and that's a luxury most teams don't have; certainly one we didn't have last year down the stretch

WV: Right, and now we can start getting some work done and start watching "The Office" and "Mad Men" with our significant others again. If Sartre hadn't posited nothingness at the core of being, I probably would've done it just now having read that last comment.

RK: And I'm going to avoid offseason hot stove heater talk, and I'll tell you why. I like this team. Hopefully the rookies will be stronger next year and last longer (Perkins, Blackburn), Liriano will return to true form, Buscher can solidify 3rd, and Guerrier won't have a weird year like this one, and with Mijares and Boof as a surprisingly good longman, I have to say I'm ok with them as currently constructed

WV: Conspiracy theorists would believe that Guerrier was purposely overworked to make winning arbitration against him easier (I know this from Taylor's Twins Talk . Hey, we cite our sources here at PAB. One thing I'd like to touch on is "expectations". I'm happy we were competitive all year, but I'm not with most who think we should be content just because they almost won the division when they were predicted near the bottom. Honestly, when a team has won the division 4 times in the last 7 years, you expect this.

RK: Man, there's a lot of arbitration conspiracy theories around this Twins organization

WV: Even if your team sucks you should still expect them to do well and then be disappointed. I know that coming from a Twins fans that this is easy to say.

RK: But that said, I think we have to keep a level head here. The team BA w/RISP won't be at that historic high again next year, it's just not possible. Hopefully the pitching gets better and they stay competitive. That's really all you can ask

WV: That is all you can ask. Really, the only expectation of greatness is Bert f'in Blyleven.

RK: We're gonna have to do this thing over again, I really fucked it up.... oh we're live? Well I didn't know that

WV: I also understand that Bremer gets a justifiably bad rap for his questionable analysis, but I will miss his naiveté as well. And I'll also admit, when he freaks out on a big play, the hair on my neck bristles.

RK: He sounds like he's about to cough up his dinner like how when old people eat too much too fast

WV: Indeed. It's better than Gordo, because on TV you can at least tell when he's gone overboard on a routine fly out to left field.

RK: God I can't wait for pitchers and catchers to report. I suppose all we can do is keep an eye on the wire and see what's shaking, after rooting for the Rays to go all the way of course

RK: It's like a Bjork song in the PaB universe, that's how oh so quiet it is, and for the first time in a while, I think I'm gonna go to bed early.

WV: I think that is spot on. Soon to come: A strange and off-putting music video involving trees and bugs.

RK: Let's do this again soon, hm? And do be dears and stop by once in a while and say hi or tell us to write about the impending Julio Franco signing. Catch you later everybody. Thanks for visiting.

WV: Indeed, and we'll check in now and again this off-season after we, ahem, sign Julio Franco or Rich Aurilia.