A few random thoughts about Space Shuttle Families, Minnesota Twins, Tennis & more, sponsored by Insomnia

• STS-128, Space Shuttle Discovery, was scheduled to arrive back at Kennedy Space Center on Thursday night. They were only 8 minutes from the de-orbit burn, meaning they'd been in those super comfy orange suits for quite awhile & were all strapped down for landing, when weather made it a "no-go" for the night. These crew members had a few experiences sitting out on the launch pad in these same comfy suits (plus being stuck on their backs with gravity) for many hours before being scrubbed for lift-off due to weather. I asked STS-127 Commander Mark Polanksy, via twitter (@Astro_127), if it was mentally draining to not know when you are going to be able to take off, and I'm assuming his answer would apply to not knowing when you will be able to land as well. " Mentally, it's not bad. You know that you'll go-just not sure which day. It's harder on families." Somehow, while watching all that in the past, it never occurred to me how the families feel, not knowing if their wives/husbands/fathers/mothers/daughters/sons/brothers/sisters are going to be heading to space that day or returning home when scheduled. At least the astronauts have the excitement of a launch to think about at one end, and the amazing view of earth to watch while orbiting at the other end. So for the sake of the families waiting at home (especially Tim Kopra's in this case, as he has been on the Space Station for nearly 2 months), I hope Commander CJ Sturckow is given the "go" to land Discovery at KSC or Edwards Air Force Base for Friday afternoon/evening!
• The Kansas City Royals continue to show that regardless of how bad their team is, they can always come up big in the "spoiler" role in September. After the Tampa Bay Rays, who were desperate for wins to stay in the race, were swept by Detroit, the Royals went ahead and swept the AL Central leading Tigers. This could've been a huge boost to the Twins, who were 7 games back as of last weekend, as the Twins were in Toronto playing the long ago eliminated (at least in their minds) Blue Jays, but all they could muster up was a split, so they are still 5 1/2 games back. They are 3-4 in their last 7 games, against two teams between a .430 & .450 winning percentage. So thank you again to the Royals for helping out against the Tigers, but the Twins seem to be determined to be a .500 team.
• Roger Federer. 22 straight Grand Slam Semifinals. Previous record was 10 straight by Ivan Lendl. 22 straight. Nothing else needs to be said other than "22 straight Grand Slam Semifinals." Can he make it 6 straight US Open Championships?
• ABC's "Defying Gravity" does not appear in the listings after this Sunday night's episode, which is unfortunate, because what it lacks in reality, it makes up for with stories fun enough (or at least fun enough to rip on) to make it enjoyable to watch each week, especially when communicating with other people who love Space. If you are on Twitter, and have watched the show, make sure to check out the hashtag search of #defyinggravity on Sunday night. It seems to have had no publicity, so I'm not surprised the ratings are low. I watch ESPN & ESPN2 very regularly (sometimes 'round the clock), and have seen ads for many shows from their sister station ABC, but have never once seen an ad for Defying Gravity. That means ABC is slacking almost as much as Ron Livingston's much-loved character in Office Space! (Plus if it goes off the air, how will we ever find out how "beta" is making all these decisions, and if Maddux Donner & Zoe will end up together?)

I think I will now (again) attempt to get some sleep!

Random Thoughts about Joe Mauer, a Space Travel TV Show & the guy whose name is spelled wrong a lot

I've always felt that the MVP in a sport, in this case Major League Baseball, should come from a contending team, because how can one be the most valuable player if their team has no value in September? Hence, I was never terribly happy about Alex Rodriguez winning it with the Rangers during a down year for the team. However, watching Joe Mauer this year, as his numbers are rising this month (which should not be possible for a catcher in August), I might have to change my opinion. The Twins are still technically "in it" but they need to get more than 1 good start every 7 days if they'd like to cut into Detroit's lead. What Mauer is doing now though, is enough to transcend wins & losses.

He's leading the world in hitting, up to .383 after Tuesday's win over the Rangers, a team he has historically struggled against until this week (Ichiro is at .365, and Hanley Ramirez leads the NL at .359). He's on top of the MLB on base percentage list at .448; yes, he is currently ahead of the machine, Albert Pujols (.441). His Slugging percentage (.653) is behind Pujols, but is nearly 80 points ahead of the next AL competitor. If you had told anyone in baseball back in April that he'd be leading in BA & OBP now, they wouldn't bat an eye, but slugging? Naturally, his On Base + Slugging (OPS) numbers lead the AL at 1.101, just behind Pujols for MLB lead.

His 25 homeruns are tied for 17th in baseball, ahead of traditional sluggers Miguel Cabrera, Paul Konerko, Jim Thome & Alex Rodriguez. He's also tied for 11th in the AL for number of hits for the season, even though he missed an entire month! He's 8th in the AL for total bases - did I mention he missed one of the 5 months played? 20% of the season to this point?

I could keep talking about him for hours, but I'll spare you the pain of that. I'm sure in his spare time he's also rescued a baby from a burning fire and stopped a runaway train, but the media is too busy looking at his stats to have time to check out his activities outside of baseball. I just might be convinced that an MVP can come from a non-contender, though I hope the Twins make another late season push to make that a moot argument!

Now for the random thoughts:

• NASA and the Space Program is essentially an obsession for me right now, which my family & friends know all too well. I adored it as a kid, then sort of forgot that these missions were going on in outer space, and now, thanks to Mike Massimino being on Twitter, and Apollo 11's 40th Anniversary, I am catching up on everything I'd missed, before & after I was born. However, as I have watched 3 of the first 4 episodes of ABC's "Defying Gravity" about missions through the solar system 40+ years in the future, I pray that our real astronauts aren't like the "Grey's Anatomy in space" characters on this show. There seems to be a lot of, um, extra-curricular activity among these fictional astronauts. It is fairly entertaining so far though, so I think I'll stick with it, even if it's just to support a show about space travel. Plus I need to start watching it as it's shown, so I can see some of the hilarious comments on Twitter that occur under the hashtag #defyinggravity on Sunday evenings.
• Because we have all been bombarded by him today (and for months prior to that) I'll keep my Brett Favre thoughts to a minimum. I am on the side that is happy to see him in purple, as I feel like the Minnesota Vikings would once again fall short at the quarterback position, allowing defenses to stack the box to stifle Adrian Peterson. I don't expect #4 to be a savior, just to complete some passes to help open up the running game, which in turn opens up the opportunity for some fun long bombs to Bernard Berrian & Sidney Rice that we'd all enjoy seeing. Plus, anyone who can get on Twitter's trending topics list twice at the same time, is pretty impressive, even if it's due to half the country spelling his name correctly & the other half phonetically sounding out "Farve."
• University of Minnesota Football & Baseball player, Eric Decker, continues to make decisions & behave in ways that impress those around him. Now it's the Minnesota Twins, appreciating his honesty during their efforts to sign him (he was a 27th round pick of the Twins): http://bit.ly/uWtee I'm curious to see which sport he'll be in 5 years down the road, but I think he'll be successful in whatever he does.

That's all for now. Nothing too deep - just some random thoughts!