Aichiman

It gave me a good laugh. That's valuable.

I'm finished with this team. I've followed them loyally since 1982, when I moved to Minneapolis. And I left Minneapolis 23 years ago, but I still followed the Twins. But I'm done; it's over. This team will do nothing until ownership changes. And I'm not willing to wait. I'm going back to my roots. "Let's Go Mets!" will be my new/old mantra. I'll use Trevor May to ease the transition. I could say best of luck; but it'd be an empty gesture. Instead, I invite you to follow my lead and dump this sorry franchise.

Joking? I thought you were joking. I'm dead serious. Rocco's in the wrong job. He's not a leader by any stretch of the imagination. But it's not his fault. The buck stops with the owners. Until they sell the franchise, there's no hope.

The guy's got no fire, no command, no spunk!

Here's a quote from Rocco: "This is not OK. We all have to know that, acknowledge that, own it and do what we need to do going forward to make sure that this doesn’t persist, because it was hard. I mean, that was a hard game to get through." Well that ought to do the trick. Thank God we didn't hire a crass guy like LaRussa, At least in our dugout, everyone feels comfortable!

The problem with the Twins starts and ends at the top, with the owners. Imho, they don’t know what they’re doing. Their thinking seems so simplistic, so black and white: new is good; old is bad. They follow the latest trends and dump everything from the past, even ideas and techniques that have proven, over time, to work. Take our manager, for example. Endorsed (blessed) by Korn Ferry, he embodies all the attributes of the new modern manager as dreamed up by the new modern progressive thinkers. But this ideal, completely ignores the real human element and group dynamics of an all-male professional baseball team. Academically and politically, Rocco checks all the boxes. He loves the new technology, and like a Wall Street quant with his advanced algorithms, he puts unquestioning faith into the numbers it produces. He boasts about how much he cares and empathizes with his players. Catering to all their needs, he treads ever so carefully to protect them from injury and make them “feel comfortable.” And he takes great pride in his even temperament. I don’t know if he’s ever been thrown out of a game. Maybe once; but I’ve never seen him blow up. Unlike the old-school managers, like Earl Weaver, Sparky Anderson, and the current skipper of the Cleveland Indians, Terry Francona, who rarely minced words—or tantrums—our guy never gives a straight answer to anything. So as not to offend, he chooses his words with excruciating carefulness, and he hedges and dodges like a politician. And don’t even get me started on his predilection for raising the pitch of his voice at the end of sentences, making every statement sound like a question, as if he’s unsure about what he had just said. To me, Rocco is the poster boy of the modern detoxified American male. He’s better suited to run the human resources department at a NPO than to manage a group of professional male athletes. Perhaps he's good for an occasional moral victory, but a real championship? Fuhgeddaboudit. Now, I don’t mean to be pounding solely on poor Rocco because in all honesty, it’s not his fault; it’s the owner’s fault for hiring him. And it’s the owner’s fault for hiring Korn Ferry to conduct the managerial search in the first place. And it’s the owner’s fault for giving the go ahead to erase their own history by throwing Calvin under the bus to support (or appease) the BLM. It follows the same pattern: “out with the old, and in with the new” with little indication of thoughtful deliberation or any kind of nod to nuance, ambiguity, or uncertainty. Outside the occasional Central Division Championship, I don’t think this team has a chance to win anything of consequence as long the current owners remain the current owners.

Please Twins, don't give him a post-MVP-season Joe Mauer type contract. The money Buxton is going to command is too much and the injury risk is too great. Either let it ride out for this year and next, or trade him next year and get something in return. We've got Celestino primed and ready to take over full-time in two years. He probably won't be as good as Buck; but the bucks saved will certainly work to make the team better.

The intangibles: the heart, the soul, the smile, the heft, the Turtle! He's our mascot.

Whose Brant Alvea?

I couldn't have said it better. Our manager is not a leader. He's got no fire.

The MLB is contractually obligated to play the all star game in Atlanta this year. They're going to get sued.

The White Sox are going to win the Central, and it won't even be close. The reason? The manager!

I'm worried about the offense too. I'm also worried about our manager. He has no fire.

How can we bring Garlick North with us?