The Skolney Blog

Somehow the Twins, a team that has spent much of this season with the best record in the American League, and even now sits just a game back of the damn Yankees, gets just TWO all stars. Polanco and Odorizzi. No Kepler. No Cron. No Cruz. No Rosario(who would have needed an injury replacement.anyway, but you could have named him to the team). No Berrios. Meanwhile both the Indians and White Sox get 3 each. June ended fittingly for the Twins, who lose a series in Chicago that they shouldn't have lost. They had chances in the late innings but couldn't get it done. They went 15-12 this month. Not awful, but the record did not reflect their play. They got bailed out somewhat due to playing 16 of 27 games against bad teams(Sox, Tigers, Mariners, Royals). But in July they have 24 games scheduled and only 8 against similarly bad clubs, and 4 of those are at the Sox again. Otherwise they have the A's 7 times and 3 against Texas, the Yankees and Cleveland. If their play in July mirr...

Top 10: 1. Avengers: Endgame 2. Hotel Mumbai 3. Captain Marvel 4. Booksmart 5. Cold Pursuit 6. Long Shot 7. Rocketman 8. Ma 9. Gloria Bell 10. Toy Story 4 Bottom 5: 1. Dumbo 2. Pokemon: Detective Pikachu 3. Replicas 4. The Dead Don't Die 5. The Hustle It hasn't been a very strong year so far tbh.

For the 2nd time in just over 2 weeks, the Twins played a marathon extra inning game today against Tampa. And this one beat the Boston game both in length (18-17) and almost in actual time. And it certainly was more frustrating, since the Twins lost. I'm not gonna recap the game. It was mostly just inning after inning of inexcusably bad hitting by our no longer scary lineup. Our bullpen made a couple escapes. But eventually the arms were running out. Ryne Harper was supposedly off limits, so in the 17th here came Kyle Gibson, and he had a quick, clean inning. So okay, he's good to go for a few more, right? Uhhh, well, we'll never know, since inexplicably in the 18th Rocco Baldelli DID put Harper in. And he had NOTHING to offer. A walk, a hbp, an infield single. Then a sac fly, and two singles put a 3 spot up and the game was done. It was like Baldelli waved the white flag in a tied game. What was the thinking here? If Harper is off limits then why does Gibson only pitch...

Disney and Pixar have certainly done the cash grab sequels(TWO Cars sequels?), but the Toy Story ones didn't feel like them. They also are the only Pixar sequels that are better than the original, although I liked Finding Dory and Monsters University fine. The almost 10 years later Toy Story 4 screamed cash grab. 3 ended the story very well. And since 3 we have seen all the sequels to other movies that failed to recapture the magic. Plus the trailers looked very average. But thankfully Toy Story 4 is good. It's not great. It's easily the weakest of the series, but even if it was created as much for financial reasons as artistic ones they found a solid story worth telling. 1-3 are really works of art. 4 is more of just a fun little adventure. It lacks the depth and laugh out loud humor of the others. It introduces quite a few major new characters that take up a bulk of the screen time. I liked the stuffed animals voiced by Key and Peele. The stuntman figure voiced by Kea...

Late Night: An enjoyable movie. Emma Thompson is very good. Mindy Kaling, who I sometimes find overbearing, is charming. Like a lot of movies about comedy, the material that is presented as brilliant comedy is really not. I mean, characters get standing ovations here for stuff that is at best mildly amusing. But as far as behind the scenes movies go this feels pretty authentic. The Dead Don't Die: I'm all for deadpan comedy, but Jim Jarmusch's zombie comedy is mostly just comatose. It has an eclectic cast that's mostly wasted. There are some meta jokes that fall incredibly flat. There are a few laughs but the film has just zero energy. And I can't believe Jarmusch trotted out the old "consumers are the real zombies" moral, as if that wasn't used in Dawn of the Dead 40 years ago. Child's Play: No, we did not need a remake for a horror movie whose goofy sequels.are still being made(although I think Bride Of Chucky was the last one I actually watche...

On June 4th the Twins began a series against a Cleveland team that stood 11/2 games back, and was primed to be buried by a Twins team that had just taken 3 of 4 in Tampa Bay, the last burst of 27 wins in 36 games. The Twins were 40-18 and riding high. But things have taken a decided downturn since. The Twins have gone 8-8 since that Cleveland series began. Now, they did bounce back from the Cleveland series to take 2 of 3 in Detroit, and then they came back home for a 9 game homestand. But they played sloppy as hell on the homestand in every facet. The offense cooled off considerably and couldn't get a clutch hit. The starting rotation sprung leaks. The bullpen was the bullpen. The fielding was often embarrassing. Now, there were exceptions on all of these, and they still managed to win 4 of 6 thanks to Seattle and KC being 2 of the worst teams in baseball. But Boston totally outclassed them for 3 games. Face it, that 17 inning marathon could have been a loss a dozen different t...

Red Sox 2 Twins 0 Twins game #4 for the year featured arguably one of the very best performances of Jose Berrios's career. And he got the loss. The Twins lineup has spent most of this season being the reason for wins, not the reason for losses. But they are in the homestretch of a bad homestand, and tonight was the most thorough failure. Now, at least here they were shut down by a real pitcher. Rick Porcello's numbers are not great this year, but he does have a recent Cy Young award. It's not like the mutts for Seattle and KC that have made the Twins lineup look mortal this last week. But they had NOTHING tonight. Porcello was averaging about 10 pitches per inning til the 7th. Then they finally at least had a tiny threat. It started with bad luck. CJ Cron hit a ball about as far as you can hit it at Target Field and have it NOT be a homerun. It wound up a double and then Sano of all people coaxed a walk. But instead of letting Garver hit for Castro, our far less dang...

We are less than 2 years removed from Derek Jeter helping to buy the Marlins, then almost immediately ship their best player, Giancarlo Stanton, to the Yankees for basically nothing. Now the Mariners have traded Edwin Encarnacion, who's only the AL homerun leader, to the Yankees for a nothing prospect. So, is the fix in? Encarnacion is not some overpaid scrub that a team would just be incredibly desperate to dump their salary. He's raking this year. He can still play in the field. He has a sizable contract but nothing that any contender would not be willing to take on if it gave them that added boost for a world series run. So what gives? Why would Seattle dump him to the Yankees out of the blue for nothing? Did their GM make no other calls? Was this lousy offer from the Yankees the only one they were even willing to take? It stinks to high heaven. Now this is hardly the first time teams have just given the Yankees good players for nothing, but the money made sense. This m...

Men In Black: International Admittedly this is the most unnecessary sequel of the summer. It's been 22 years since the only MIB movie anyone really liked or remembers. But this sequel/reboot is better than either of the previous sequels. It's breezy fun. Credit goes largely to the appeal of stars Chris Hemsworth and especially Tessa Thompson. I wish it were actually funny though. So much of the humor here really falls flat. It's more a pleasant diversion than anything. I highly doubt this will reignite the franchise. Shaft I have no idea why it took nearly 20 years to get another Samuel L. Jackson Shaft movie. The last one was really good. This one is not as good. It's a little better than the incredibly bland trailers indicated though. This one is much more of a straight cop buddy comedy, with Shaft teaming up with his far from streetwise son. I don't get why Jessie Usher would once again be cast as the charisma-free son of a far more charismatic actor after he ...

Granted, it deserves an asterisk cause of the Durant and then Thompson injuries, but Toronto over Golden State is the first true upset in the finals since the Pistons beat the Lakers in the 2004 finals that should have been the Timberwolves one. It can only be good for the most predictable of the major leagues to have a surprise once in a while. So, in 2 days the list of the big 4 franchises without a title gets 2 more checked off. And we are stuck here with no Wolves title, no Wild title and no Vikings title.

We have now officially transitioned from Traitor Trump claiming (laughably) that he never colluded with Russia and never would, to Traitor Trump openly bragging on national television that he absolutely would collude with a foreign entity to rig an election. Of course he would. He already did. His criminal administration has actively prevented any actions to be taken to defend us from foreign interference into our elections. You don't do that unless you have already benefitted from that same interference and plan to again. He is announcing to the world that the 2020 election will be rigged. He is an unchecked dictator who needs to be stopped NOW. We cannot sit back and wait for a 2020 election that is 17 months away, especially now that we have a taped confession that said election will never be allowed to save this country. Nancy Pelosi needs to act. NOW! I've mostly been on her side regarding impeachment. I understand that given the lawless criminal GOP controls the senat...

Twins lose 9-6 in 10 to Seattle. Is there anything worse than an amazing play or moment getting completely robbed of its meaning by still losing the game in which it occurred? The Byron Buxton 2 run game tying homerun in the bottom of the 9th could have, would have, should have been the finest moment yet of this season, and one of the best Twins moments in years. But it won't be, because the Twins collectively stopped playing after that. 3 straight weak ass ABs to send it to the 10th. Officer Doofy can't keep the bases clean in the 10th, which leads to THREE errors. Garver drops a throw from Cron that should have been an easy out at home. 1 run scores. Sano both bobbles a simple grounder, then decides to throw so off balance that he was practically horizontal. 2 more runs score. A hideous bottom 10 with embarrassing strikeouts by Rosario and Garver. And let's not forget earlier mistakes, like letting Tommy Milone shut our bats down for the majority of the game, or ...

Check off yet another big 4 sports franchise that either won their 1st title or ended an enormous drought recently. And yet Minnesota waits interminably.

Sparks 89 Lynx 85 On Saturday the Lynx raised Lindsay Whalen's #13 into the Target Center rafters. And then we got a harsh reminder that it is now a very different Lynx era. The new look Lynx had started a surprising 4-1, although to be honest their record did not reflect their performance. They escaped with a couple wins where they played pretty bad, especially on offense. The Sparks did not let them escape. Today's Lynx offensive effort bordered on disgraceful at times. The 1st quarter was particularly ridiculous. I think they had 12 turnovers after one.  Every time they put the ball on the floor in the paint the ball got taken away. Every time they tried a lob pass into Fowles, it got tipped away. Add in a slew of easy misses and it's frankly a miracle they even stayed in the game. The defense kept them in it against a shorthanded Sparks club. And the Lynx used one 3rd quarter burst to go up 7. But it didn't last. The Sparks came.back rather quickly, got the l...

It's a shame to see the Fox era X-Men movie franchise go out with so little fanfare. That 2000 X-Men film was a BIG deal. It was not the first comic book movie, but it was the one that kicked off the genre as a big time tentpole. And in 2000 we were still 5 years from Nolan's Batman films and 8 years from the dawn of the MCU. We got Spiderman, but X-Men was kind of the #1 show for a while. And here is my dirty little secret: I have liked every single movie in this franchise. Yes, even the first Wolverine movie. It's not a great movie(the side characters largely suck), and is my least favorite of the bunch, but it's hardly awful. It's like a 6 out of 10. I also really REALLY liked X-Men: The Last Stand (*pause for fanboy rage*). It has a few issues, but I have never understood the hate that movie gets. But that hate, followed by that Wolverine movie, led the franchise to get rebooted with First Class, and that 2nd era of X films closes now with Dark Phoenix. An...

Granted, this debacle of a ballgame against the Indians tonight is only the 20th loss of the whole year, but it's the worst. They've lost by more. They've looked worse at the plate. But this loss is hands down the worst of the year. And it's especially painful since one potential bit of help was also lost. On the night the Twins lost the Craig Kimbrel sweepstakes(if they were ever in it to begin with), they cap a simply horrendous night by watching Blake Parker come in and shit the bed in epic fashion. A 7-5 lead turned into an 8-7 deficit in a blink. Fuck you, Blake. This makes two losses to Cleveland this year that you giftwrapped. Oh but to be fair the fuckups on this night were plentiful. The team that almost never loses consecutive games looked primed to again bounce back. A 5-1 lead after 3, facing an Indians bullpen game, so of course more runs were coming. But Martin Perez peed down his leg, his 2nd consecutive dreadful start. Fucker couldn't even finish...

Rocketman Coming so soon after Bohemian Rhapsody the comparisons were inevitable. Both music biopics of artists who rose to fame largely in the 70s. Both also shared at least a co-director. And yes, both main  subjects are gay. And I liked Bohemian Rhapsody a lot, but Rocketman is the better, more distinctive film, even though I personally would say I'm more a fan of Queen than Elton John. The flow of this movie is just better. It's not stuck in that "this happened, then this happened, then this happened" structure. The music is livelier(although nothing here is as good as BR's Live Aid finale). And Taron Edgerton is simply fantastic as Elton. Ma Really liked this one too. It's a lot of fun watching Octavia Spencer play a deranged character. The whole movie really works cause of her casting, cause we are so used to her always being the nice lady. Doesn't hurt that the absurdly cute Diana Silvers from Booksmart is the lead girl in this either.

Thursday night the Twins go to Tampa, and get just embarrassed 14-3. It looks like, oh no, is this gonna be another awful series in Tampa like the one last year that sent them on their one way tumble from contention? 3 wins later we have our answer. Of all the highlights so far this season, this might top the list. To go into Tampa and take 3 of 4 from probably the best pitching staff in the league, and to have your bats lead the way, along with splendid starts from Berrios, Gibson and Odorizzi, is just tremendous. Coulda done without the bullpen meltdown today, but after Thursday that was really the only negative. And while we got a few homeruns, the Twins largely won these 3 games with smallball, with good situational hitting, with key inside the park XBHs. They even ran a squeeze play. This team can win all different ways.