September 30,2008 - Blackburn starts game 163 for the Twins against the White Sox.

The one or two hits he gave up in 7 1/3 innings included, of course, that HR by Thome.

It was a gallant effort. He certainly pitched well enough to win.

Sadly, that was pretty much the highlight of his career. Great game.

Agreed with Oldgoat about that game being the highlight of his career (and funny enough, 2 beloved by most Twins' fans players were the reason the Twins did not make the post-season: Jim Thome with that home run and Mike Cuddyer who did not try to knock AJP out and score)

I am amazed that the Twins did not try a pen role for Blackburn (like they did with Perkins) It was probably the $ and that ill-advised contract. In the minors he did have a 97 mph four-seamer (that Andy took away) which would had been a decent weapon in the pen.

Maybe he'll surface as a pen guy someplace

He will surface somewhere, but might have to start in the high indy leagues. But he showed nothing this year that I would gamble with even a guaranteed minor league contract. It's his call if he wants to pitch for peanuts with the hope of a return to the bigtime. Hey, Matt Kinney and Dan Serafini still plugged along year after year. His big thing now is to have his medicals covered and to heal.