Take your baby by the wrist
And in her mouth an amethyst
And in her eyes, two sapphires blue
And you need her and she needs you

-Wang Chung, "Dance Hall Days" (watch video)

Back when the Royals ruled the world you could listen to stuff like "Dance Hall Days" on the radio. Regarding Wang Chung, most of the time I'm going to err on the side of "Everybody Have Fun Tonight" or even "To Live and Die in L.A." most times. Still, a little "Dance Hall Days" has its moments. Such a strange song. Not only do I not understand the lyrics, I don't even know what these words are. Take, for instance, this:

We were so in phase
In our dance hall days
We were cool on craze
When I, you, and everyone we knew
Could believe, do, and share in what was true
Oh, I said
Dance hall days, love

Although some sources list the lyrics as this:

We were so in phase
In our dance hall days
We were cool on craze

What?

Anyway, after nights like tonight, one's mind wanders toward the absurd. Nevertheless, thanks to a nice (wasted) effort from Odie the Royals only moved up to #35 on the most runs allowed all-time rankings, now tied with the 2000 Astros at 944. Tonight's game leaves the 1996 Angels in the dust.

With loss #99, the Royals are now one loss shy of their 3rd worst season in franchise history, although the 104 and 106 losses in 2004 and 2005 look save. Continuing the obscure music theme, we might remeber the timeless words of Aztec Camera:

The past is steeped in shame... but tomorrow's fair game
-"Good Morning Britain"

Umm... Loyal2, did you hear the bad news? Shealy has, umm, hives. Just another weird causal link in our effort to field the worst lineup of all time.

Following tonight's game I couldn't help being a little annoyed with the Twins. This is something Joe Sheehan touched on last week, but we continue to see blatant instances of playing for statistics go uncommented upon, while, ironically, the ongoing counter-revolution rages on with reams of print denouncing supposed high stats losers like Arod and Manning. Its an inherently strange notion on many levels, but we'll save the Arod/Jeter, Manning/Brady discussion for another time.

I'm convinced the Twins stuck with Johan for as long as they did tonight in order to give him a pitching "win". I guess perhaps they're actually gunning for the Division Title (makes a better banner I suppose) it was actually even apparent to Baseball Tonight that the most important thing the Twins must do is have Santana ready for two starts in the first series.

Hmm... maybe I'm just wrong though. He did only throw 94 pitches, but considering how large he looms, I can't help but believe that sending him out there for the 8th was just a bad decision. Too much weird stuff happens in this game, especially with the pitcher standing so close to the plate. Ohh well, they've announced he's shutting down from here on out, so its all under the ole bridge.