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...