Here is something interesting about game 2 of the 2004 Division Series against the Yanks:

CBS Sports’ Jon Heyman, the longtime Sports Illustrated baseball writer, talked to Hunter and Michael Cuddyer about the Yankees’ hold on the Twins. Hunter, while getting the situation slightly wrong (the Twins weren’t trailing by a run, the score was tied), said that someone on the bench was asked to pinch hit for Kubel but declined.

On the bench at the time were catcher/first baseman Matthew LeCroy, who pinch hit later in the game; outfielder Lew Ford, who batted .299 in 154 games that season and started at DH the other three playoff games; and infielder Augie Ojeda, who didn't appear in the series.

Either Torii is yackin' just to yack or something went unacceptably awry. I cannot see LeCroy refusing this assignment as he seemed to be a pretty good natured team guy. Augie Ojeda in his career was always fighting for a roster spot (don't see it). That leaves us with our formerly beloved Twins favorite Lew Ford. Is that smug lil' bugger the culprit of refusing to pinch hit? If T-Hunt isn't just running his lip and this did happen, he would be my guess. Thoughts?

When the,article first came out a couple of weeks ago, it named Ford. But our friend, Commnman, did the,research and showed that Hunter's 'facts' were not correct. Heyman did take Ford's name out of the article but that's about it.

Torii talks Just to talk. as we like to say, there's no I in team but two I's in Torii!

The context of Hunter's memory would also be in question. Assuming for a minute someone did decline, what were the circumstances? Illness? Injury? Was there another legitimate issue that was part of the discussion?

These kind of half-stories crack me up. It's like they want to bash the Twins, but don't want any accountability either from the person giving the quote or the person the quote is about.

But of course we are talking about Torii "Mouth Runs Like A River" Hunter...

Heyman's piece is ridiculous. He's honestly suggesting that the '03 and '04 Twins were evenly matched with the Yankee teams of those years? Please. Compare the records, rosters, and payrolls. It's not even close. And I find it hard to believe that what happened to them in the playoffs those years would somehow be the heads of an almost completely different roster of guys 5 years later. There were a lot of close games between the teams, and you can't point to a lot of reasons the Yankees won. They had more talent and more experience. The Twins caught some bad breaks (Koskie's double, Cuzzi's foul ball call, Morneau out in '09 and '10) and made some dumb base-running mistakes. But the east coast centric national media loves the storyline of a "Yankee mystique" so powerful that the mere sight of Yankee uniforms has small-market teams like the Twins quivering with fear. So they keep hyping that. But it's silly. Bear in mind Heyman is the guy who thinks Morris should be in the HOF but not Blyleven, so that should tell you a bit about his knowledge level of baseball in general and the Twins in particular.