Quick Column: Twins Territory

Photo courtesy of Joel Dischinger





















Photo courtesy of MinnPost.com





A number of topics to come in no particular order and none will come to real fruition. It's just the times. Essentially, it's just that I have to get a long tweet out without researching too much further.

As we all know, a Minnesota favorite, Randy Moss was traded back to the Vikings. That stomped all over the air waves and the print media and the broadcast media all morning and afternoon; squashing much of the productive and intelligent Minnesota Twins vs. New York Yankees playoff chatter. Well, that's the second time an NFL story has put the hammer to a significant day in Minnesota Twins history. The first, back in the middle of August was Brett Favre coming back via private plane in handcuffs with Ryan Longwell, Jared Allen and Steve Hutchinson. That was the same day that Jim Thome (is my homey) drilled a game winning home run, defeating the White Sox and making a statement in the American League Central versus the White Sox.

So, let's bury the "lead" story. The Minnesota Twins are the lead story, it is just that this American society needs something newer than a game that hasn't even happened yet! That is amazing, when talking about Americans.

I'm here to say to Minnesotans that they best get their priorities straight. These guys coming from New York are giants! They have taken you out in the playoffs three straight times. They are not afraid of you. The Twins can't have the state overtaken by Moss talk. Not on game one of the ALDS vs. a historical giant in the game of baseball. It takes huge amounts of focus to beat these guys, just ask the Boston Red Sox. So, all of you Minnesotans and media members; please refocus your energies to put the Twins in the lead story.

It was just surreal listening to the Twins get buried all day long as I listened on my KFAN app on my phone. And granted, I was listening to play-by-play man for the Vikings, Paul Allen. However, Dan Cole was all over football too. However, once I flipped it to 1500 ESPN Radio with Patrick Reusse and Phil Mackey, most of the conversation centered around the Twins. Though they happened to be broadcasting live from Gate 29 at Target Field.

You have the rest of the NFL season to talk about an aging superstar and a guy who plays when he wants to. Minnesota, and Minnesotan sports fans, the Twins need you! Don't drop out of the marathon at mile 23 when there's a good chance of finishing and finishing 26.2 miles well!

Lance is my Friend

Lance is my friend because he so kindly let me join him for last Thursday's Broncos vs. Vikings preseason football game and Friday night's Rangers vs. Twins game.

Lance had three tickets to the Vikings game so Paul and I joined him. I don't recall seeing any starter, despite Lance saying two starters did do just that. So, why did I go anyway with no Brett Favre, Percy Harvin, Jared Allen starting?

Well, I went to see Tim Tebow. I saw him complete 12 of 16 passes for 167 yards with one touchdown and one interception. I would have never guessed he played that "well" statistically. He didn't play exceptionally well but most of his passing was short screen passes and drop offs. He did have one very nice pass to Matt Willis from 39 yards out.

Here was the pitch and catch.

http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-network-total-access/09000d5d81a3b06e/Can-t-miss-Tebow-goes-deep-for-a-touchdown

And here's a picture of Tim Tebow.














Friday night we jaunted back to Minneapolis and arrived at Target Field in time to take in some of the sights and sounds of a new ballpark before sitting down near the right field foul pole to watch some of the 50 greatest Twins be celebrated before the game.

During the game, the Twins defeated the Rangers, 4 to 3. We had a good time watching the game despite the chilly 55 degree temperature. I took a 60/40 down to polyester blend coat and wished I took my Columbia winter coat. It could have been used very nicely and kept me warm.

Alas, here are some of the pictures I took.













While there, honoring Kirby Puckett, we watched his appearance on the David Letterman Show on the Top 10 Ways To Mispronounce Kirby Puckett. This was the first, there were some great ones in the top ten.

It was on May 9, 1997, here is the top ten.

Baseball Almanac Link

10.	Kooby Pickett.
9.	Creepy Pockets.
8.	Bernie Crumpet.
7.	Turkey Bucket.
6.	Buddy Hackett.
5.	The Puckett Formerly Known as Kirby.
4.	Punky Brewster.
3.	Kent Hrbek.
2.	There once was a man from Nantucket who Kirbied his very own Puckett.
1.	Englepuck Kirbydink.

Target Field Twins v. Red Sox

Today turned out to be a quite the afternoon of watching baseball with friends!

Katy and I made our second trip to 1 Twins Way, Minneapolis, Minnesota with Lance and Paul for a 12:10pm game with the Boston Red Sox in town. We sat on the right field line just below Gate 34 (Kirby Puckett's gate-also gate 3,6, 14, 29-Rod Carew, Tony Oliva, Kent Hrbek, Harmon Killebrew.)

Today was the final game of the three game set, with the Twins taking two out of three including today's game, 8-0.

Tim Wakefield got the loss and Francisco Liriano looked good, getting the win. The Twins piled on the hits, took advantage of some bad Red Sox defense as the Red Sox couldn't get anything going offensively.

So far on the early season, the Red Sox are struggling in fourth place in the AL East and the Twins are 7-3, top record in the AL tied with the Toronto Blue Jays.

Also of note: April 15th is Jackie Robinson Day in Major League Baseball. So, everyone in the majors wore #42.

Target Field

Katy and I got to go to the first game (exhibition) at Target Field! It was last night at 5:10pm. We went with a fellow manager, Justin, and his wife. They had connections to season tickets and it worked out for us to go. It was a great time and we were very lucky to go!

They ended up losing, 8-4 against the St. Louis Cardinals. However, we saw the regulars play and caught a ton of the scene.

Baseball Season Is Quickly Approaching

Here's a reason why we all love baseball!