Twins Ft. Myers Baseball Academy

[Seth Stohs]

David Dorsey from the News Press provided more video from the Twins Ft. Myers Baseball Academy. The dorms are tremendous.

 

In this video, we even learn/see that Miguel Sano is pretty good at another sport!!

 

http://www.news-press.com/videos/sports/mlb/2014/07/26/13226119/ 

[JB_Iowa]

Seth,

 

For some reason I couldn't open your link so here is another to the same story/video (I hope):

 

http://www.news-press.com/story/sports/mlb/2014/07/27/minnesota-twins-player-development-academy-benefits/13223975/

 

 

The Twins have shown fantastic leadership in adding the academy -- although I hope it gives the Twins an edge, it is something I'd like to see other clubs add for their minor leaguers.

 

And congrats to Bill Smith for what appears to be a job very well done.  Overseeing the renovation of Hammond and the Academy upgrades (and Perry's Hill, too) seems like it has been a great use of his talents.

[Halsey Hall]

Bill's ramrodding things down here, and warned me not to go where I shouldn't be, lol.  The minor league ends looks just great!  The minor league offices have moved across the street into a big complex that's beautifully landscaped next to the dorms. 

 

But Hammond is still under construction and you can't get near it.  It looks wierd looking through into the stadium from the parking lot as that part has been finished.  There are no offices done yet, and the gift shop, which is really looking big, is still under construction.  The Miracle had control of the old gift shop and weren't allow to sell Twins merchandise after spring training.  The Twins now have control and will make much moola off the merch.  There's a new elevator with tower, just like the old one, on the right field side of the entrance.  The construction is supposed to be done at the end of the month, but they'll have to hustle to meet that. 

 

No players here yet but the rehab players are supposed to be here on Monday, so something to watch anyway.  It's hot, the grass is green, the birds are eating the grass seed and baseball is in the air. 

[Halsey Hall]

Fantasy camp this week.  It was a great day for autographs today if one chose.  I got Herbie, Viola and Gags. 

[Seth Stohs]

Fantasy camp this week.  It was a great day for autographs today if one chose.  I got Herbie, Viola and Gags. 

 

 

Who else is there this week? is there a list somewhere? That would have to be a lot of fun. 

[Halsey Hall]

Seth, there's not a list as far as I know.  Usually on the Fantasy Camp site they list the same players every year.  It's not really up to date. 

 

I'll probably miss someone, but here's the former players off the top of my head:  Gagne, Viola, Hrbek, Blyleven, Senior Smoke, Tony O, Steve Braun, Bruno, Larkin, Dick Stigman, Lee Stange, Laudner, Quilici, Mickey Hatcher, Juilo Bequier, Aggie, and Stu Cliburn and Milt Cuyler. 

 

Saw something strange today, as one of the morning games was tied at the end of regulation.  Bert called the director and they were to play on, no ties in baseball.  After another 2 or 3 innings it was still tied so they changed the rules a bit and the last batter last inning would start off on 2nd base, with the count 1-1 on the hitter.  It took another 3 innings before the visitors scored 3 runs.  The home team came back with 2, but it finally ended that way.  After the morning games they all go have lunch.  So all the other teams had eaten and were back out for the afternoon games, and had to wait for these two teams to end it.  So two teams had to wait for these teams to go eat and then return for the afternoon game.  Going to be a long day for some here. 

 

Sometimes you hear some great stories.  Steve Braun told one this morning.  Calvin signed him for $7000 his first year.  He hit .250.  Then next year he comes back and meets with Calvin and Calvin offers him a contract for $6000.  Braun held out and continued with spring training for 2 weeks.  Then Calvin called him back in and said sign it, or you'll never play in the majors again.  Braun signed.  That previous winter Steve said he made $4500 a month playing in Venezuela. 

[nicksaviking]

 

Sometimes you hear some great stories.  Steve Braun told one this morning.  Calvin signed him for $7000 his first year.  He hit .250.  Then next year he comes back and meets with Calvin and Calvin offers him a contract for $6000.  Braun held out and continued with spring training for 2 weeks.  Then Calvin called him back in and said sign it, or you'll never play in the majors again.  Braun signed.  That previous winter Steve said he made $4500 a month playing in Venezuela. 

 

I'm against the PED users getting inot the HOF, but if anyone is voting that way based on the "morales" clause, I'd have no problem if they decided to up and revoke Griffith's membership.  Man, he was like the worst parts of Carl Pohlad and Marge Schott combined.  I'm not a Carl Pohlad fan, but even I feel guilty saying his name in the same breath as Griffith.

[Steven Buhr]

I'm against the PED users getting inot the HOF, but if anyone is voting that way based on the "morales" clause, I'd have no problem if they decided to up and revoke Griffith's membership.  Man, he was like the worst parts of Carl Pohlad and Marge Schott combined.  I'm not a Carl Pohlad fan, but even I feel guilty saying his name in the same breath as Griffith.

I was never a Griffith fan, even as a kid. I blamed him for pretty much everything that went wrong with the Twins.

 

That said, I think we need to be cautious about viewing historical figures (which, in this context, Griffith is) through the prizm of current definitions of "morality."

 

Was Griffith a racist? Yeah. But if you pull his membership in the HoF for that, you're going to have to start pulling an awful lot of the owners, managers, players and sportswriters that were part of Griffith's era in baseball. Unfortunately, for most of MLB's history, our entire society was unconscionably racist and probably more than half of those inducted in to the HoF would fail to measure up, in some significant manner, to today's standards of morality and/or acceptable viewpoints toward all manner of minorities.

 

Which is just one of many reasons I feel that HoF voters who cast votes based on their personal views of a player's "morality" are, at best, misguided.

 

Now, after sidetracking this discussion, let me just add that any time someone wants to pay my way to the Twins Fantasy Camp (preferably while I still have all my own original joints and organs), please sign me up! I can't imagine a more enjoyable way to kill a week in January!

[ashbury]

Which is just one of many reasons I feel that HoF voters who cast votes based on their personal views of a player's "morality" are, at best, misguided.

OK, but note that the instructions given to the BBWAA voters each year explicitly includes "character" as one of the criteria.

 

5. Voting: Voting shall be based upon the player's record, playing ability, integrity, sportsmanship, character, and contributions to the team(s) on which the player played.

http://baseballhall.org/hall-of-famers/bbwaa-rules-for-election

 

IMO it would be unfair to judge one person's character against the standards of another era, but it's completely OK to judge it against his contemporaries.

 

If we need to pursue this tangent, I'd suggest starting a new thread in an appropriate place, of course.

[Seth Stohs]

I talked to many players last weekend at Twins Fest. I know that Minor League camp opens March 10, that's the date they are to report. However, several of the minor leaguers I talked to said they were going down there March 1 and that they would be staying at the academy. What a great opportunity for those guys! And, more important, it's one more thing these guys don't have to pay for. Their salaries are ridiculously low, and they don't get paid at all for spring training. Having a place to stay is a good thing!

[JB_Iowa]

I talked to many players last weekend at Twins Fest. I know that Minor League camp opens March 10, that's the date they are to report. However, several of the minor leaguers I talked to said they were going down there March 1 and that they would be staying at the academy. What a great opportunity for those guys! And, more important, it's one more thing these guys don't have to pay for. Their salaries are ridiculously low, and they don't get paid at all for spring training. Having a place to stay is a good thing!

 

And a few before then:

 

http://www.news-press.com/story/sports/mlb/2015/01/28/early-birds-arrive-minnesota-twins/22472121/

[Halsey Hall]

That article cracked my up!  But Dorsey has to do something for the paper, so this weeks that's it.  I was the only one there for a good hour and then he showed up, then later the Roberts guy, who by the way is a pro autograph hound, and works at a golf course, and then the photographer for new press who asked where Dorsey was.  Roberts got a tip that Bradley was training and he came down to get auto's from him and Vargas, but settled for Gibson while here.  So he was the media source. 

 

Usually the Red Sox get most of the paper exposure down here, so at least the Twins got the jump on them this week.