Do Minnesotans Love the Twins?

[Thiéres Rabelo]

At some point, a large portion of Twins fans should be asking themselves if they really like this baseball club or if they call themselves “fans” only because it’s their home state team.

Image courtesy of Bruce Kluckhohn-USA TODAY Sports

The first piece of context this article needs is the fact that yours truly is not Minnesotan. Heck, I’m not even from the United States. But I’m not a character here. I’m stating this because said context is important. Whoever is reading this needs to understand that this is an article by an outsider who’s been following Minnesota sports and observing Minnesota sports fans' behaviors for years.

The headline of this article is an honest question. Do you love the Twins? From what I’ve been observing for years, I think the general answer to this question would be “yes” on the surface. But, for many, that answer is not accompanied by loving actions. In other words, I think many Minnesotans say they’re Twins fans and “love” the team, but, in practice, they don’t.

Here are two reasons why I feel that way:

Poor attendance
The Twins were terrible for almost a decade. It’s understandable that after that many bad seasons – including a record 103-loss campaign in 2016 – Twins fandom may have lost its excitement about this ballclub. However, they’ve also been a pretty good team since 2017. Yet, fans have still been reluctant to pack Target Field regularly for an entire season.

In the Target Field era, the Twins have made the playoffs five times, including four American League Central titles. Their overall winning percentage is .485 despite having four consecutive seasons (2011-2014) with a winning percentage of .432 or worse. Most of their success in the Target Field era started in 2017, with three of those four division titles and a winning record of .528 since then.

Yet, the Twins have a worse average attendance in that span than the Colorado Rockies.

The Twins’ average attendance from the opening of Target Field until the end of the 2023 season is 29,046 fans per game, while the Rockies, one of the most terribly-managed sporting organizations on the planet, average 34,225 fans per game in the same period. The Rockies haven’t had a single season in that span with less than 31,334 attendance average. The Twins haven’t had a single season over 28,322 since 2013.

The Rockies comparison is just one example. The Twins have seen worse teams have better attendance than them for years now. After some early success during the first three years of Target Field’s existence, Minnesota has ranked in the bottom half of attendance numbers in all but one of the nine seasons with normal attendance (2020 and 2021 not considered). The only time they didn’t was in the 2019 season and they ranked only 15th. They ranked in the bottom third of the league in five of those nine seasons. This season, they probably will be ranked 23rd.

There is a list of excuses Twins fans come up with for poor attendance. Some are completely understandable, but some just sound far-fetched. The top two are “It’s too cold when the season starts” and “Fans will show up when kids are not in school.” Sometimes, there are excuses based on previous seasons' performance: “They’ve been bad for almost a decade,” “They lost 103 games last year”, “They didn’t make the playoffs last year.”

Your team being bad one season kind of justifies attendance drops (except for the Colorado Rockies, apparently). But only if the opposite is true as well: if your team does well one season, there should be an attendance rise the following year. That hasn’t been the case for the Twins. Minnesota saw its attendance drop the following year in each season, and they've had a winning record since the opening of Target Field (2010, 2015, 2017, and 2023). Maybe this wouldn't have happened in 2020 after the fantastic 2019 season, but COVID-19 hit, and now we'll never know.

The 2024 season felt doomed before it even started when the team announced the payroll slashing late last year. The lack of big offseason moves made it even worse. As a result, fans averaged less than 22,000 a game in the season’s first three months. Some might say that the aforementioned circumstances justified it, but I don’t think that’s fair to a team that just months before ended the club’s playoff curse by snapping the 0-for-18 losing streak and winning the franchise’s first playoff series in over two decades.

Another reason why this year’s attendance drop isn’t fair (and the timing couldn’t be worse to mention this) is that the 2024 Minnesota Twins are not a bad team. They collapsed at the end of the season, yes, but they were also in the fight for the American League’s best record until mid-August. They might not make the playoffs after having over 92% odds of making it, but they can still mathematically finish the season with 86 wins. We believe a lot could’ve been done better by the owners and front office both in the offseason and the trade deadline. However, none of that changes the fact that the 2024 Twins are a good team. Considering only full 162-game seasons, the Twins are about to have back-to-back winning records for the first time since 2010.

General social media behavior and perception of the team
The whole point of this article can’t be made simply with poor attendance. Even though I don’t think this year’s poor attendance is fair to the players, I absolutely understand why one would simply choose not to attend games as a form of protest against the team’s ownership. But there’s more.

As I said, I get to observe fans’ behaviors on social media. And here’s something that blows my mind: there’s a scary number of so-called “Twins fans” online who straight-up seem to hate this team. If you take a moment to scroll down through Twins Daily’s Facebook feed, you’ll see that almost every post has reactions with a laughing emoji. The most shocking example for me are the game recaps of losses. Call me crazy, but if your first reaction to your team losing a game is laugh, you should consider asking yourself if you really like that team or not.

Basically, anything positive that is posted about the Twins or their players all across the internet can be met with a negative spin. The Byron Buxton hate is terrifying, especially when he’s having a great (and, most importantly, healthy) season. You already have the “Royce Lewis is made of glass” crowd. You have the Fire Rocco Club, which will always find a way to blame Rocco Baldelli for every single loss.

And don’t get me wrong. Fans can criticize whatever and whoever they want. But it’s easy to see when that’s done with absolute loathing and despise. A lot of those people I’m referring to seem to be absolutely disgusted by the Minnesota Twins. That’s not the same with Timberwolves and Vikings fans. They obviously criticize the teams and the players, but you generally don’t feel they have any hate when you read most of their social media comments. I certainly think you won’t see as many Timberwolves fans reacting to their losses with laughing emojis as Twins “fans.”

Timberwolves and Vikings fans demonstrate sincere joy when their teams win. When the Twins win, it feels like most their fan base doesn’t feel happy about it. The feeling seems to be that the team did nothing but their obligation. And they better not lose the next one.

It’s not my place to tell anyone how to be a fan or to judge if you’re a “real” fan or not. But you can tell a lot about people's actions and you are always entitled to have an opinion about about those actions. This article is just something to think about.

And I have a series of questions and comparisons to wrap this up and make you think: Do you really love the Twins? If you’re a Minnesota sports fan, are you harsher on the Twins when they have bad moments than you are on the Timberwolves and the Vikings? Or I can go even further in these comparisons: when a family member that you love screws up, do you point and laugh at them? Do you completely turn your back on them?

Feel free to only think about those questions or to use the comment section below to express your thoughts about them.

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[mikelink45]

I like a lot of the things that you write, but I take exception to this. Fans are fickle in many ways, no matter what. The sport and the twins have a long history starting with Calvin Griffith in which we have had a bad interaction between the team leaders and the general population. Some of it comes from stadium issues, some dates back to when Calvin drove rod Carew and others out. Some of it relates to when the Pohlads were ready to have the team eliminated from the league. Is it downsizing. Then they continue downsizing with their own team even when we feel like we're on the cusp of something really good. So yes, I follow the twins through all their ups and downs.  But like many of us in the country I am a radio fan and I know some would be TV fans if they could get the TV channel. 

Our area is filled with every major sport you can ask for and we are in every league in every season. But we're also a state that loves to be outdoors on the water and the forest and the parks. And an afternoon in the ballpark isn't always as attractive as you might expect. 

I think you can also see a real change in youth sports. When I was young, lacrosse was something we read about in the history books and now our grandchildren all play it. Soccer was a European sport and now it is everywhere. Basketball is inexpensive and can be played one-on-one. There are just a lot of good options. 

For me I will always follow the twins, but my loyalty might be questioned since I'm not really anxious to make the drive to the cities to see the games and then drive home. And it's not inexpensive to stay in the twin cities overnight. 

I actually do appreciate your raising this question and I'm not sure I did an adequate job of giving you my perspective. 

[Hrbeks Divot]

This article is interesting food for thought. I love the Twins but am extremely frustrated this year. I like to think of my fandom as a partnership. I’m a season ticket holder and spend my money to support the team. In return I’d like to see the Ownership invest in the team and show the fans they are serious about winning. I’m not asking for top payroll spending in the league. Just show some self awareness. It was a slap in the face to fans and terrible business practice to throw cold water on the excitement around the most successful season in years. It was a prime example of why fans feel that ownership is truly all about making money over results. I’m going to the game on Sunday and I’ll be back next year. But I’ll continue to criticize the Twins not because I hate them but because I’m invested in them and love the team.

And I don’t agree with your fan base comparison. The Timberwolves were so bad for so long there was apathy around them. There were some diehards but in general people didn’t hate on them because they couldn’t care less about them. The Vikings, and the NFL in general, are the kings of professional sports. They’ve made their sport relevant year round and the fans have followed. Fans complain plenty about the Vikes but  they do generally watch regardless of the on field product. It also helps that football is just one game a week. Its easier to get hyped up for one day versus six out of seven like in baseball.

[blknbdstytwinsguy]

I was pondering this exact thought as I watched the twins blow it against the marlins. empty stadium while team still has a shot at the playoffs. The Twins fan base sucks, it really does. A bunch of fat lake daddy's that don't like the team and don't like baseball. it's a boring white people club and arguably the worst in baseball. It is what it is. They have playgrounds and lounges and all sorts of things to entertain people and not watch the game also. And although Target Field is nicely designed, it feels more like a mall than a great stadium for baseball. Like i said, it is what it is, and what is it? not a fun club to play for as a player, and you wonder why they collapse. I sure as hell would not want to play baseball for Minnesota if I was a pro I'd rather go literally anywhere else.  

[NYCTK]

If you think the 2024 Twins are a Good Team and that this is a Great Season from Buxton, I think we see the divergence. 

The Twins organization has, in the entirety of the Pohlad ownership, done nothing more than strive for mediocrity. (Why spend money to try to win 95 games when 87 can win the AL Central and earn a healthy profit?) And they have been rewarded more than appropriately. 

 

[LastOnePicked]

Honestly, I'm perplexed at how many people seem more interested in diagnosing what's wrong with the fanbase than what's wrong with the organization. This is the longest WS drought in the franchise's history. The playoff losing streak was historic. This collapse was epic. The team has faced some bad luck, sure, but they also seem to perennially struggle to put up a fight. Winning isn't priority here, and that's abundantly clear both on the field and off. Over time, that just wears out the faithful. Believers are punished and skeptics are rewarded. As Gleeman points out, "you get the audience you deserve."

As for me, I have loved the Twins. I try to love the Twins. But it's often embarrassing and maddening to love the Twins. The loyalty isn't rewarded. And though I think your allegory about family is sweet, to me it's also ridiculous. My daughter screws up, I stick with her. My Dad makes some bad decisions, I keep helping. But blind loyalty to a corporate-owned professional sports team? Come on. Maybe it's Midwestern culture that has German and Swedish roots, but that's completely silly. To me, at least. Try to show up at the Pohlad's door to talk passionately about the Twins - any illusions about "family" will quickly be dispelled.

But a good article regardless. And it is clearer and clearer to me that I don't love this team anymore, and I should probably just leave it to the folks who do.

[sweetmusicviola16]

Lets be fully honest, this is a mediocre team. The past off season added more mediocrity than greatness. By far. The record proves it. 4th place 82-78. That record itself is deceiving. 27-5 against CWS, Oak and Anaheim and a couple NL bottom dwellers. Against the rest of the league? Teams that are above them in the standings? 55-73. A .429 team. This doesn't draw people out in droves. 

Thanks for your take though.

[LastOnePicked]

41 minutes ago, blknbdstytwinsguy said:

it's a boring white people club and arguably the worst in baseball.

???

If you weren't around in '87 and '91, we were kind of the envy of MLB. We darn near made each other deaf in our inflatable stadium. We were a fanbase at least as white then, too. Maybe we all just got boring as we aged, who knows.

OR ...

Maybe championship runs and an owner committed to winning solves an awful lot of these "fanbase" problems. That's the answer I'm sticking with.

[bean5302]

Social media is not a valid source for the feeling around a team, LOL. Twins fans love the Twins. Minnesota fans love the Vikings, but at one point, they did love the Twins. In regard to Denver, it is 100%, absolutely 100%, a Broncos fan base. Every other sport is just a an also ran.

The Rockies are the little engine that couldn't. I've lived in Denver, seen dozens of Rockies games over the years at Coors including Twins at Coors games. The Rockies are the St. Paul Saints prior to affiliation. Do you know the Rockies audio people taunt opposing pitchers? They play "Say something, I'm giving up on you" for opponents' mound visits. They engage adults in actual on-field intermissions, like running from the left field wall to 2nd base, placing the base, then running across 1st base. The Rockies cater to young adults with an awesome upper deck bar area (like what Cutwater was probably imagined to be by some idiot Delaware North hack). The Twins cater to 5 year olds (who have a little less discretionary spending capability it turns out).

Again, I don't know how many times I need to state this.
PEOPLE DO NOT GO TO STADIUMS TO WATCH THE GAME.

People go to the game because:
1. It's trendy. It's popular. It's a place to be seen and to brag you're there (social media). FOMO stuff.
2. It's fun to be out at a crowd event.
3. The entire game day experience is special and memorable.

It's item #1 where the Twins fail. The most important item on the list. Target Field was popular in 2010-2013. Do you know how hard it is to find somebody to go to a Twins game? I created an online friggen spreadsheet with all my games and which ones I had a buddy to go with and shared it countless time this year. I messaged people, posted, etc. I still wound up going to several games solo despite offering a free Club Level seat, despite being able to show people the coolest things at Target Field. It was so much easier to find people to go to Wild games (even though the fan experience at Xcel absolutely sucks aside from the action on the ice).

Going to a Twins game is largely seen as a nuisance for people. A "I'm probably not going to have any fun anyway, but at least there will be good company" That' the reputation Twins games have right now. Do you know what changes that? -> People in the seats; popularity
Do you know what changes people in the seats? -> Season ticket holders.
Do you know what changes season ticket holders? -> North Loop residents
Do you know what the Twins have done to attract North Loop residents? -> ABSOLUTELY NOTHING

The Twins are busy catering to K-6 kids in the suburbs like it's friggen 1985.

[sweetmusicviola16]

.356 against PO teams, granted I may have missed a series in that record. This doesn't create excitement in your team.

[Craig Arko]

I think a more interesting question is: Would people miss the Twins if they were gone?

I would, at least for a time.

P.S. Looking at that photo, Bailey Ober definitely needs to get a Red Guardian uniform.

[Richie the Rally Goat]

46 minutes ago, LastOnePicked said:

This is the longest WS drought in the franchise's history.

False. 1924 to 1987 is far longer than 1991 to 2024

[ashbury]

St Louis and Milwaukee are the standards the team should aspire to.

My view, from moving to the Twin Cities in 1978 and keeping tabs on things since I moved away in '96 is that it's just not a good baseball town.  Never been, in my range of experience - maybe you could have called it that during 1961-70 but it didn't last, and they began having occasional last-place attendance despite not fielding last-place talent. 

Could it be developed now into a good baseball town like the two I just mentioned?  Maybe, but it would take a decade or more to do it - this is like an ocean liner that can not be turned around on a dime.  I bet the Pohlads have paid for multiple market studies and concluded that long-term investment would not do what I would hope. 

Can't replicate the tailgating experience in Milwaukee, and I don't know St Louis's secret sauce.  I am guessing though that both teams have forged a close relationship with the community in various little ways that are self-sustaining now but would be expensive to initiate from scratch.  The Twins seem to try to market their stars, and when those stars get injured or don't perform to their ceiling they are left with little.  I'd term the Twins' marketing as "transactional," meaning "you give us your money, we'll give you this."  And when expectations fall short, the Twin Cities behave a bit passive-aggressively and starve the franchise of revenue.  I feel sure the Brewers and probably the Cardinals market the overall experience more effectively than the Twins can.

It's above my pay-grade, sad to say, and I hold no illusions that I would do better than Dave St Peter if I were in his job.  I loved living in the Twin Cities and enjoyed the people, but I missed having good water-cooler talk with co-workers about the Twins, except in 1987 and 1991 when success was easy to talk about with front-running fans.  Twin Cities is a good sports town: it's Vikings, Vikings, Vikings.

But I've said this before in other threads recently and I'm not* going to keep banging the same drum.

* Probably.

[Craig Arko]

3 minutes ago, ashbury said:

St Louis and Milwaukee are the standards the team should aspire to.

My view, from moving to the Twin Cities in 1978 and keeping tabs on things since I moved away in '96 is that it's just not a good baseball town.  Never been, in my range of experience - maybe you could have called it that during 1961-70 but it didn't last, and they began having last-place attendance despite not fielding last-place talent. 

Could it be developed now into a good baseball town like the two I just mentioned?  Maybe, but it would take a decade or more to do it - this is like an ocean liner that can not be turned around on a dime.  I bet the Pohlads have paid for multiple market studies and concluded that long-term investment would not do what I would hope. 

Can't replicate the tailgating experience in Milwaukee, and I don't know St Louis's secret sauce.  I am guessing though that both teams have forged a close relationship with the community in various little ways that are self-sustaining now but would be expensive to initiate from scratch.  The Twins seem to try to market their stars, and when those stars get injured or don't perform to their ceiling they are left with little.  I'd term the Twins' marketing as "transactional," meaning "you give us your money, we'll give you this."  And when expectations fall short, the Twin Cities behave a bit passive-aggressively and starve the franchise of revenue.  I feel sure the Brewers and probably the Cardinals market the overall experience more effectively than the Twins can.

It's above my pay-grade to think that I would do better than Dave St Peter if I were in his job, sad to say.  I loved living in the Twin Cities and enjoyed the people, but I missed having good water-cooler talk with co-workers about the Twins, except in 1987 and 1991 when success was easy to talk about with front-running fans.

But I've said this before in other threads recently and I'm not* going to keep banging the same drum.

* Probably.

Thinking about that, things were more fun in the Met Stadium days, for both the Twins and the Vikings. Moving them downtown was an error.

[LastOnePicked]

8 minutes ago, Richie the Rally Goat said:

False. 1924 to 1987 is far longer than 1991 to 2024

Nope. 1948. Didn't say winning, but I could have clarified. Regardless ... that's a long time.

[Guest]

The short answer to your title question is, "no."  The team, the Cities and the fans no longer click.  Mark my words, the Pohlads are gearing up to sell.

[Auto7]

Cannot disagree more with literally everything in the article. This is drivvel.  Fans are hostile towards the Twins because ownership is hostile towards the fans. This entire last 12 months is just another example of that. 

You are so off the mark citing comparisons to the Rockies, it's not even funny. The key difference between Minnesota and Denver is that Denver is a city full of people who came from somewhere else. Those people in the stadium are either a. Fans of the other team. Or b. Are just having a social occasion. When i lived in Denver, my entire friend group was NOT from denver, none of us were Rockies fans, yet we all had some rockies hats/shirts and would go to the game for the social aspect of a nice night, in a great ballpark and an area with lots of cool places to hang out after the game. Nobody cares if the rockies have a good game because nobody at coors watches the game.

Minneapolis is a place full of Twins fans. Fans who have been getting the finger from the Pohlad family for the better part of 30 years. Minneapolis st paul's metro area is more populous than St.Louis. The Cardinals are routinely in the top 8-12 in payroll. The twins at best are top 15. And they only ever went higher for 2010 when TF opened. We should be roughly where st louis is. And if they were, you'd see the crowds get bigger. But here's the rub. People do not want to give the Pohlads money because of the lack of investmemt the pohlads put into the roster.

2023-24 offseason had the TV deal uncertainty. It also was the offseason following the most positive season the Twins had had in 21 years. The pohlads should have said "hey guys, we are facing some income uncertainty but coming off this momentum we cannot justify slashing the payroll. We anticipate being roughly the same or slightly higher next year. This team can be special so we will eat the loss to thank you for your support. Please pack TF this year". Crowds would have been better, everyone would have praised Joe Pohlad endlessly and the fans would have been joyous like you saw in 2023 in the postseason.

Instead, what the pohlads did is say "this is a business and we only care about profits. We dont care if we lose. We don't care whether we win a world championship. Revenue is down so payroll goes down, full stop." A short sighted, STUPID decision to once again tell the fans to eat dirt. They do crap like this then wonder where the fan support is. And then we get nonsense like this article written comparing our fans to rockies fans. IF DENVER WASNT A CITY OF TRANSPLANTS, COORS WOULD BE EMPTIER THAN TARGET FIELD.

So in closing, we love our twins, but screw the owners. And the hostility we show to them is well earned and will continue with enthusiasm until they change or sell.

 

[bean5302]

3 minutes ago, Craig Arko said:

Thinking about that, things were more fun in the Met Stadium days, for both the Twins and the Vikings. Moving them downtown was an error.

Downtown is the only viable solution for an MLB team. You need the population density for season ticket holders and to support attendance for 81 home games a year. Recent stadiums outside of "downtown" areas were designed to be growth communities which would have high population densities shortly after the stadium opened.

[jkcarew]

The more a fan base loves a team, the more that team will be hated/despised when things go south.

You’re supposed to occasionally despise your team. It’s called caring…the emotional attachment upon which fandom is built.

And while you’ll feel it among TD denizens, among the general/broader fan base, the Twins can only dream of ever being as “hated” as the Vikings have been at various times during their existence.

[ashbury]

34 minutes ago, Richie the Rally Goat said:

False. 1924 to 1987 is far longer than 1991 to 2024

25 minutes ago, LastOnePicked said:

Nope. 1948. Didn't say winning, but I could have clarified. Regardless ... that's a long time.

   1948? Of all years to pick....

[jkcarew]

25 minutes ago, bean5302 said:

Downtown is the only viable solution for an MLB team. You need the population density for season ticket holders and to support attendance for 81 home games a year. Recent stadiums outside of "downtown" areas were designed to be growth communities which would have high population densities shortly after the stadium opened.

I think suburban stadiums for Football are entirely viable from an attendance standpoint…maybe less so for baseball.

I think the bigger issue is the magnitude of public funding involved these days. Tremendous political pressure for the money to go downtown.

[bean5302]

1 minute ago, jkcarew said:

I think suburban stadiums for Football are entirely viable from an attendance standpoint…maybe less so for baseball.

I think the bigger issue is the magnitude of public funding involved these days. Tremendous political pressure for the money to go downtown.

Public funding is nuanced in terms of its benefits, which are often very limited, IMHO, but it basically boils down to: Pro sports franchises are in high demand, and they're a major source of prestige for the cities who have them. High demand, and low availability so communities are willing to use public money to acquire them. That's the market at the moment. Like it or not.

[ewen21]

1 hour ago, sweetmusicviola16 said:

Lets be fully honest, this is a mediocre team. The past off season added more mediocrity than greatness. By far. The record proves it. 4th place 82-78. That record itself is deceiving. 27-5 against CWS, Oak and Anaheim and a couple NL bottom dwellers. Against the rest of the league? Teams that are above them in the standings? 55-73. A .429 team. This doesn't draw people out in droves. 

Thanks for your take though.

1000% this

[PatPfund]

I do love the Twins, and have since I was a kid basing my batting stance on my two baseball heroes (my dad and Tony Oliva). Your question is valid and (like anything having to do with people) the answers are complicated, and to some extent involves me (even as a self-identified Twins lover).

Globally, the game seriously damaged itself by tolerating player-induced slow downs, and that definitely includes me. (I remember watching the Twins on a mid-30s evening playing a dull game so slowly that it was a freakin' hour+ before the 9 hitter got an at-bat, and 75 minutes before he got a second.) I gradually stopped going to games as a giant waste of time, especially once the minors started working on the solutions. I think it also hurt the game when a lot of playoffs went behind paywalls (and the games there got the most bloated; 4.5 hours was common), I just stopped paying attention except in the paper unless my team was involved.. The game is much better now, but the damage lingers especially when you look at audience by age.

Minnesota specifically tends to have a very dark view on their teams' success; it probably isn't a coincidence that Charlie Brown constantly whiffing at the football after getting re-hyped by Lucy was drawn up by a Minnesotan. The Vikings have lost 4 Super Bowls, the Timberwolves finally look good but are historic in their NBA badness, and the Twins have had a LOT of awful mixed in with the less regular success including the emotional buzz-kill often delivered by ownership (brutally cheap under Calvin, the Pohlads winning it all then trying to sell the team out of existence, etc). I disagree about the '24 Twins; they are okay, but not good (belly up against good teams and only .500 because they almost swept the White Sox). They also started horribly after the budget cuts, which looked really bad.

But the promise of being better is there, and I'll be there next year, though unless the owners and FO make a serious effort this offseason (which doesn't have to be expensive; sign Lorenzen instead of trading Margot and signing Jackson, and you still make the playoffs without spending a penny extra), I wouldn't count on tons of younger fans, and without them the team's problems are going to get better.

[LewFordLives]

People love a winner. I live near Baltimore and before last season Camden Yards was like a tomb. Now it's packed. And similar to the Twins, Baltimore fans are not in love with the owners.

As others noted above, this is an organization satisfied with mediocrity. I live and die with the Twins and would visit Target Field a lot more if I could. That said, this current iteration of the team can be completely unwatchable at times. The satisfaction with mediocrity permeates the entire organization. I enjoyed watching the losing teams in the late 90s more than this team. At least they tried to win. The current set of coaches and players seem to show up at the ballpark because it's their job.

[Linus]

I have a few thoughts on this article. First is that judging anything on social media is a terrible way to come to any conclusion. This club has made some pretty big mistakes over the years. I mean when you threaten to move the franchise and then volunteer for contraction it kind of sets the tone. The Twins have shown an ability to screw up basic PR situations that is unique to them. They have consistently shown over the years that the bottom line is their priority before winning. And as stated above baseball was nearly unwatchable until the pitch clock. 
Do I love the Twins?  Been a fan of only this club for almost 60 years. I live out-state so only go to a handful of games but pay a ridiculous amount of money for DirectTV so I can watch them. 
My question would be do the Twins love Minnesotans?

[NYCTK]

29 minutes ago, LewFordLives said:

People love a winner. I live near Baltimore and before last season Camden Yards was like a tomb. Now it's packed. And similar to the Twins, Baltimore fans are not in love with the owners.

As others noted above, this is an organization satisfied with mediocrity. I live and die with the Twins and would visit Target Field a lot more if I could. That said, this current iteration of the team can be completely unwatchable at times. The satisfaction with mediocrity permeates the entire organization. I enjoyed watching the losing teams in the late 90s more than this team. At least they tried to win. The current set of coaches and players seem to show up at the ballpark because it's their job.

Baltimore got a new ownership group, right? How are they viewed? 

[TheLeviathan]

You get the trust and devotion you earn.

There is more that goes into that than merely won or lost games.

[LastOnePicked]

25 minutes ago, LewFordLives said:

The current set of coaches and players seem to show up at the ballpark because it's their job.

In recent postgame comments, Rocco defended the team and said something to the effect, "Hey, these guys didn't give up. They came to the ballpark and played every game." And I thought, who says something like this? It's their job to show up and play the games. That's the bare minimum effort required. What kind of culture would accept this as a valid defense for total collapse?

"Yeah, we lost and looked like fools in the process. But come on, we still took the field and finished the game. What more do you want?"

As long as this is acceptable to the owners and the fans, these kinds of failures will continue. It's why we're spending time here debating the commitment of the fanbase rather than culture of the organization. That's why loving these Twins is so difficult for some of us. 

[Jocko87]

I think the real question is are Minnesotans capable of love?

Love includes the hard times and we've seen much harder than this.