My Fan Friday Debut...

So tonight I thought I'd post my Twins blog for Fan Friday here. Just because. It was my first attempt at sports blogging. I hope it's okay. I'm more of a creative writer. I had Ross read it, but I had to wake him up to do it (Yeah it was only 8pm and he was sleeping, he's sleeping again now and it's only 8:50) anyway he said it was good and since my cat can't read I'll have to take his word for it. It's too late now, it's been emailed.
Enjoy! Until tomorrow...maybe. Depends on what time I get off work. It's Labor Day weekend and of course we're headed to Three Lakes. Duh.

One More Month…
Today marks one month left of baseball in the Dome. I feel like this season has flown by, and I can’t believe we’re almost out of the Dome forever (okay except for Vikings games…)

Like our hero #7, who is my age, I’ve never known baseball without the Dome. I’ve never known sports without the Dome - silly me, a few years ago I thought that most baseball and football teams shared stadiums. That’s normal, right?

My first Twins game was May 18, 1995. Not our best stuff. It was a tough year for baseball in general. I was disappointed, because not only we lost to the Angels (I think it ended up being something like 0-12), but because everyone who knew I was going (I was living in Wisconsin at this time so driving to the Cities was a big deal) told me I was so lucky because I was going to get to watch Kirby Puckett, and he was really fun to watch.

Now they’re talking to a 12-year-old girl who knows nothing about baseball. I guess I expected him to do magic tricks out there or something (of course now I know about the World Series and all that). He came to he plate, swung the bat a few times, and I thought, “this is what everyone was raving about?”

Sadly I was turned off to baseball for quite awhile after that very long and hideous game. A few years ago I picked it up again, realizing the man who cost my high school football team our State Championship title in the 1999 season was playing front and center. (Yes, I did get out of Wisconsin and move to the good state!)

Okay, I was a little bitter, but he was cute. And good. Really good. The more I learned about the Twins the more I realized how different they were from the other teams. How special. The more I learned about baseball I realized what an anomaly Joe is. And what it truly means for someone to be “fun to watch.” I had a lot of help with learning about baseball. I read “Clearing the Bases” by Mike Schmidt, “Odd Man Out” by Matt McCarthy (I realize not the most popular book to a lot of people) and right now I’m getting through “The Yankee Years” by Joe Torre and Tom Verducci.

But “The Yankee Years” has made me think about the Twins a lot this season. Yeah, we hate the Yankees but we can learn from them. In 1998 when they had the best season and won the World Series, they are described as having “a desperation to win.” Granted, they had one of the most perfect parings of teams. But they were desperate to win. Which makes me wonder, are we desperate to win? We could have the most perfect team in the world, but if we don’t really want it and every single person isn’t willing to pull their weight, we won’t get it.

A few weeks ago, I would have said, “I know for sure that Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau, Joe Nathan, Michael Cuddyer and Jason Kubel want to win a World Series. They’re desperate.” But they also seemed to be carrying the team by themselves. Now things have shifted and suddenly the bottom of the lineup is engaged, too. And things really turned around. (We will forget about Wednesday and White Sox).

But what does it take for us to get to that point where suddenly everyone is contributing? Was it seeing the Sox and the Tigers suddenly slip, and realizing that it wasn’t over for us? Did someone give a really moving speech in the clubhouse? Was is the acquisition of all our new players?

We might never know. I hope that we can keep it up. I hope our guys can stay hungry and desperate for a victory. We’re not as bad as the Cubs by any stretch of the imagination, but we’re certainly due. We have too many talented players to not take it into the post season. And of course I’ve been told the AL Central is the worst division in baseball and even if we won it, someone else would immediately knock us out. But why can’t we be the underdogs? The Yankees did it in ’96. No one thought they would either.

So stay desperate boys! Keep playing small ball, and remember that every single person plays an important role. Joe Mauer has some really big shoulders, but not big enough to carry you all into the post-season.