At the end of last season, I warned the Twins that I wouldn’t take them seriously this year if they brought back Tsuyoshi Nishioka, which they didn’t. As the 2012 season winds down, I must tell them I feel the same way about Justin Morneau. As valuable as Morneau was in the past – and […]
Today (May 27) the Tigers finished sweeping the Twins, and the three losses each highlighted one of the Twins’ deficiencies: Friday, in a game we attended, their starting pitchers – Swarzak and Liriano – were terrible; Saturday, in a game I skipped, their hitters struck out 16 times; and today, in a game I watched […]
It’s hard to look worse in your first four games than have the Twins, and although the first week of a baseball season is an unreliable indicator I fear the prospects for Minnesota this year are pretty clear, and pretty grim. I have only witnessed one game myself – yesterday’s home opener against the Angels […]
What a dismal month for sports was March! The number one story on Sports Center was, where will Peyton Manning play next year? If you aren’t already sick of Peyton Manning from the way he calls the game at the line of scrimmage, let alone his commercials, the O.J.-like coverage of his every plane trip […]
I The World Series seventh game was a disappointing anticlimax, perhaps because I found myself rooting for the Texas Rangers. 1. They were an American League team, thus one I was familiar with from following the Twins. 2. They seemed more deserving, having won a division, as opposed to wild-carding the party. 3. Tony LaRussa, […]
The trading deadline has passed, the season is two-thirds over, and the Twins remain in fourth place, eight games below .500. Their chances of making the playoffs, even if the Tigers weren’t a far superior team, are nil; and even if they had that chance, the Red Sox or Yankees would blow them out of […]
How could I have been so wrong in my predictions for the Twins’ 2011 season? 45 games into the year, they have the worst record in the majors and show no sign of getting much better. In hindsight, the thinness of the Twins’ roster should have been obvious, but who takes future injuries into account […]
Took my first, and perhaps only, pelagic birding trip with the LA Audubon Society out of Santa Barbara Harbor on April 30. I found out later that this is the notorious rough-water trip. I also discovered as we returned to harbor that half the birders were on scopalamine, scopase or dramamine. The other half, I […]
While Gardy’s conservative managing style seems to pay off, year after year, I admit I get frustrated at his unwillingness to let his faster players try to steal second more often. Lots of good things can happen on stolen base attempts: the pitcher can be slow to the plate, the pitch can be hard to […]
I approach the 2011 season, opening tonight, with some trepidations, primarily because so many pundits (but not all) are picking the Twins to win their division and even beat the Yankees in the playoffs’ first round. This generous appraisal is based mainly on the fact that the Twins won the division last year (relatively easy […]
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