Giles Ferrell

Well said, John

In a rare Friday news dump that didn’t make fans want to reach for their Pepto Bismol, the Twins unveiled an updated alternate navy blue jersey for the upcoming season. The release comes a day after the jersey was leaked in an MLB: The Show 26 trailer. In the update, the Twins simply took their existing alternate and replaced the ‘MINNESOTA’ across the chest, and replaced it with the script ‘TWINS’ in white lettering. On the right sleeve, the alternate logo of the state of Minnesota with the North Star over the Twin Cities remains. The left sleeve is not shown in any photos released on Friday but it is more than likely reserved for a jersey sponsor patch, which was Securian Financial in the 2025 season. The ‘MINNESOTA’ blue alternate had been in existence since the Twins rebranded their logos and uniforms prior to the 2023 season. This is not the first time the Twins have switched from ‘MINNESOTA’ to ‘TWINS’ on their blue jerseys, as they had employed one of each jersey in the 2000s with the ‘MINNESOTA’ jersey used for road games and ‘TWINS’ jerseys used for home games. Both were dumped following the 2009 season when the Twins revamped their road uniforms. While this is a nice updated homage to those 2000s home alternates, the jersey itself still comes off as a bit bland. The white ‘TWINS’ lettering across the front over the navy blue jersey just does not strike well. The lettering could benefit from either red borders around the white letters, or going further down the rabbit hole of tributing the 2000 jerseys and make the ‘TWINS’ lettering red with white borders. The same review can also be applied to the numbers on the jersey. The numbers could benefit from some type of border to further emphasize them on the navy blue backdrop. Before this 2023 rebrand, the Twins have always employed some kind of border on their jersey numbering going back to their inaugural 1961 season in the Twin Cities. While the Twins did right with their 2023 rebrand and moved off the gaudy uniforms with gold trim (never understood the gold even though the team tried to tell us often it was ‘kasota gold’), this new alternate and their uniforms as a whole could use some extra tinkering to make them that much better. Simply adding some borders to the letters (not the name on the back, though, those can stay as is) and numbers can take these uniforms from alright to excellent. What do you think of the Twins new jersey? Share your thoughts in the comments below! View full article

Justin Topa szn out of the Twins bullpen (whats left of it)

Yeah, this is probably right. But I saw it as at least trying something is better than pretending nothing ever happened at all.

In baseball, timing is everything. Yet, the Minnesota Twins front office has displayed some of the worst timing for news in the last 18 months, and they have let fan morale reach new lows because of it. On Monday, just a mere three days before the start of the 2025 season - the 41st full season under the ownership of the Pohlad estate – word got out that the Twins owners were looking for at least $200 million more than the $1.5 billion valuation/offers they were getting over the winter from prospective buyers to help offset a debt over $400 million that the team has incurred since 2020. While it appears there is still interest in the club, the prospect of the team being sold any time soon has gotten lower. As a result, the Pohlads might just slink back into the owner’s box that they were looking to get out of just six months ago when they announced they were exploring a sale of the ball club their father Carl bought in 1984 for $40 million. The thought of that happening is very unsettling to a large sum of the Twins fan base. There’s good reason for it. The fans have recently let their frustration show, as 2024 saw attendance decrease following a 2023 season in which they won a playoff game and playoff series for the first time since 2002. Part of that decrease was a dreadful collapse in the season’s final six weeks. But another, and larger, part of that attendance dive was from Twins chair Joe Pohlad saying the payroll had to be “right-sized” when spring training was getting underway and the roster still had some holes. Saying that part aloud, across radio dials of the upper Midwest, sent the message to the fans that the front office was not going to be able to provide modest improvements to a ballclub that looked to be on the doorstep of being an actual American League pennant contender. Then at the trade deadline, the Twins sat 6.5 games atop the AL Central, and their front office did nothing to improve the team. No reason was given other than the usual jargon (nothing piqued our interest, etc.), but it seemed the Twins could not take on any additional payroll in the season. The wheels fell off. The Twins turned into dust faster than half the Avengers at the end of ‘Avengers:Infinity War’. Fan morale sank to lows not seen since the likes of Scott Diamond and Samuel Deduno were getting regular starts for the team. After the Twins were long eliminated, in late September, the Pohlads announced they were exploring a sale of the club. Morale slightly improved, as the thought of a new owner looked promising. Someone that could maybe invest in the on-field product and try and give Minnesota a consistent winner. Things appeared to be heading in the direction of the Twins being sold to Chicago billionaire and White Sox minority owner Justin Ishbia, whos brother Matt also owns the Phoenix Suns. But the White Sox offered to up Ishbia’s stake in the team, and his bid for the Twins was off. Ishbia’s lost bid was leaked at the time spring training was getting underway, just as you started to feel the warm and fuzzies about the boys of summer taking the field. Royce Lewis didn’t even have a chance to get hurt again this news was leaked so quick in spring training. Now here we are, days from the start of the season, and the news has leaked the Twins might not even get sold. So what happens if there’s no sale and the Twins get pulled from the market (just like the Nationals did a few years ago)? Fan morale will get further crushed into oblivion. This is fine dot gif. Just look at where morale is right now. The team can barely give away tickets to their home opener on April 3, as prices to just get in the door go lower and lower as gameday approaches. Hell, a carton of eggs will be more expensive by next week. The objective for the Pohlads should be crystal clear in this scenario of pulling the team off the selling market: They have to go out and earn back fan trust. No, it will not come easily or cheaply for them either. The 2025 Twins could easily win the AL Central. It’s a weak division, and the Twins are projected to have one of the best top to bottom pitching staffs in baseball. But attendance will likely decline again, as no one is rushing to buy tickets as the season begins. This is what has to be addressed from the owner’s box. Here’s how you try and do this: Start with an apology. A statement of knowing that you royally screwed the pooch in the last 18 months. Then you follow it up with a declaration of how you are going to right the wrong. Giveaway more tickets. Offer way cheaper (or even in some cases free) concessions. Discount the merchandise (especially at a time when simple groceries are tough for families that you want coming to the ballpark). Show some free trials of your new TwinsTV network, which casual people aren’t exactly willing to fork out for right now. Then you get an actual willingness to invest more in the ballclub’s on-field product. Let the front office make a trade or two which makes the ball club better (aka adding salary). Show you can be flexible when there is an opportunity to make a meaningful fall run. Don’t give the fans any more B.S. about payroll, revenue, et. Al. Put a few more bucks into the team, right-sizing the payroll be dammed. Buying back that fan trust will not come cheap. But when you are $400M in the hole, what’s a few more million on top of that? Start buying that trust back, and eventually people will come back and spend their money on your product again. This is what the Pohlads will have to do should they retain the club. Simply relying on the baseball team to bring the fans back won’t work this time. It wasn’t working last year when they were sitting nearly seven games clear of second place after 108 games. Otherwise, they might be yearning for the days when their franchise was getting valued at $1.5 billion and they said, “no thanks.” Header photo via Brace Hemmelgarn/Minnesota Twins/Getty Images This post first appeared on my substack. Subscribe here if you like what you read.

One of the best in-season trades for as long as I've been following the Twins.

I've followed the Twins for as long as I can remember. I am not going to pretend I've seen it all, but that makes the following statement come with deep thought and reflections before saying it aloud: I have never been more angry at the end of a season and feel as disconnected from the baseball team I love and support as I do at this particular moment. Just 52 short weeks ago, the Twins did something they had not done in nearly two decades. They won a playoff game. In fact, they won back-to-back playoff games, which constituted a playoff series victory. Another thing they had not done in two decades. After giving a good punch to the Astros in the divisional series, the Twins bowed out of the postseason with three playoff victories and renewed fan excitement. I had not felt this much excitement about the Twins moving forward since the end of 2009 when they were about to move into a new stadium and were going to field a pretty damn good team. The Twins took out a full-page ad in the local papers and spammed this letter across their social media channels, doubling down on our excitement for what was supposedly going to come next. "Imagine what next season could be." That full sense of excitement never made it to the 2024 regular season. That imagination of what 2024 could be never got even off the ground. Right at the beginning of Spring Training, Twins Executive Chair Joe Pohlad had an interview with WCCO Radio, and said the team was not adding any big-time free agents. Pohlad also added that the team's payroll - which had been slashed by $30 million in the offseason - was going to remain where it was presently at. Sonny Gray, who was a key cog in the Twins 2023 pitching staff, had already left in free agency. The Twins could have used another front-line starter to compliment Pablo Lopez. They didn't, opting to go with Chris Paddack and a rotating cast of rookies. Carlos Santana was the marquee free agent signing, but, with all respect, he was not going to fix what ailed the Twins in the ALDS against Houston: clutch hitting. After all that excitement and the fact the Twins just needed a few upgrades, they slashed the payroll and went back to shopping in the bargain bin like the 2000s Twins in the Metrodome. Frustration sank in about the lack of moves during the spring, but hope - as it always does every spring training - sprung eternal and you never know what a regular season will bring. Just inside the start of May, as the Twins were surging after a slow start, myself and a large portion of the fanbase lost the simple ability to view the team on television. Diamond Sports Group and Comcast could not agree on a new contract and all Bally Regional Sports Networks - which included the Twins' television home, Bally Sports North - was pulled off the cable giant. The Twins had the opportunity to go a different route for their TV options following 2023, but they re-upped their contract with Ballys for one year, knowing full well that this could happen. The Twins opted for the largest deal available to them, the same deal that was their excuse for slashing payroll, and lost a large chunk of fans on TV for the summer. Sure, you could go find them on something called FUBO TV, but I had already cut cable before and had to go back to it after Diamond Sports group muscled my streaming service out of showing their games. I was not going down that road again. I'm sure I was not the only one in that boat either. For three months, I sat in the dark. If the game was big enough, I would find a less-than-ideal way to stream the game, but mostly I resorted to listening via radio or just following along with the beat writers via X if I was not attending the game. That was an incredibly frustrating and unideal way to follow your baseball team in 2024. On August 1, the blackout on television lifted after the companies came to an agreement a few days prior. This also coincided with the trade deadline just passing. The Twins did nothing but add a reliever off the scrap heap who was released a month later. Twins President of Baseball Operations Derek Falvey would not commit to saying if payroll had anything to do with the lack of moves. Frustration sank in again as it appeared that ownership had prevented from the Twins baseball people doing anything meaningful to make this club better. Frustration also appeared to be prevalent in the Twins clubhouse after the deadline. Not ideal to see players speaking out about frustrations with lack of upgrades. Surely that will not show its head over the final months, right? RIGHT? The back end of the rotation was lacking, the bullpen needed another quality arm or two, and hitting was problematic at times. But the Twins sat 59-48, six games back of Cleveland in the Central but well in a Wild Card spot in the AL. Mere hope for the best outcome was all we fans had for the final two months. Hope did not carry long. Pitching fell apart, both in the rotation and bullpen, hitting went colder than a trip to the Arctic, and the Twins sank. Along with a late-season surge by Detroit, the Twins had a collapse for the ages. Nothing went right almost nightly, but at least we had them back on TV to watch uninspired baseball. The Twins were officially eliminated in the season's final week, but you might as well have called the coroner on the club on that final day of July when the trade deadline passed. Frustration for the season gave way to sheer anger. Anger that nothing more meaningful was done to improve the team leading up to the deadline. Nothing more meaningful was done to improve the team going back to the offseason. Anger that all the excitement we had for this baseball team one year ago has been so quickly washed away. On the season's final day, as the entire state had its eyes gazed east to Wisconsin for an important football game, the Twins brass came out and spoke on the season's failures. Joe Pohlad spoke, putting his foot in his mouth again, reminding us fans that this is a business and he won't get into business decisions. (credit to Gleeman for putting Pohlad's feet to the fire here) If I wanted to be spoonfed manure, my wife's uncle has a farm I can go visit anytime. I don't need to be given it from the local baseball team. Pohlad mentions he has to "run this business for our team and our fans". Well, Joe, this season has been anything but "for the fans". So where can you tell me things were done for the fans? And if we fans voiced our displeasure in the ballpark, they were told to leave the ballpark and not return for a year. Good look, Joe. In a season in which one of our most prominent players in franchise history went into Cooperstown, and personally, I got to take my baby girl to baseball games, I am left feeling nothing but anger and distrust for what I, and the Twins fanbase, had to endure in 2024. I don't say these things lightly, but this is the reality of what has built up over the last year. The negatives horribly outweighed anything that was fun and good. That's what I'll remember about the 2024 season. And it will now take more than a couple of playoff wins to wash these feelings away. That's for damn sure.

Reminds me of this scene from Friends

I just noticed this today as well. Kansas City crept their way up there.

So many of us grew up into baseball with Joe Mauer as our lodestar. This is one story of thousands, illustrative of all of them but no more or less special than all of them. The special one is Mauer. Image courtesy of © Brad Rempel-USA TODAY Sports At 34, I can say I have followed baseball easily for over 25 years. I have watched and attended many fun things in that time, but never have I been able to say I watched a hall of fame baseball player from the start to end of a career. Sure, I followed some players that went on to the hall. But nothing where I can say I watched a significant amount of a hall of fame player's career in its entirety. That is until Twins legend Joe Mauer got his call to the hall in January. As a Minnesotan, I am not without one of those "yeah I know someone who knows Joe" stories. I won't bore you with that, but that was the reason I took an interest in Mauer when he made his debut in 2004. I was told of a family connection, and I hoped he did alright for my favorite club as he was filling the shoes of a player I liked - AJ Pierzynski. I had also met him at a benefit the winter before, but I was just a dumb kid so I had no idea the gravity of who I was meeting. Then came the debut. I watched on my little 16" TV, on broadcast television mind you,(imagine that happening in this day in age), and can remember that game clear as day. In his first at bat, the crowd booed as he was walked by CC Sabathia on four pitches. The camera kept cutting back to Joe's parents in between pitches. But again, not one swing in that at-bat, and a patented walk came as he never offered at a pitch out of the zone. After a strikeout and another walk - the walk actually started a three-run Twins rally in the eighth - Mauer laced that first major league hit back up the middle. Another staple through his career. He would single in the 11th before Shannon Stewart walked off the game with a home run to send the Twins home winners and this dumb kid to bed (school night)! Thinking on that night now, twenty years later, Mauer gave us what we were going to get for 15 seasons: plate discipline and copious amounts of base hits. Rare finds for catchers. But what Mauer would go on to do in his career was even more rare. He would win three batting titles, something no catcher in American League history had done before. The first of those titles came in 2006, a season that was laced in magic all unto itself. Every time Mauer came to the plate, it felt like he was going to get a hit. He ended up hitting .347 that season, four points ahead of Derek Jeter. The shining star of that season (ok, there were many but this one comes to mind), came on a June night when Mauer went 5-5 against the Los Angeles Dodgers in the middle of a series sweep. He actually went 11-13 in that three game sweep over Los Angeles, to add to his legend of simply never being able to get out. I can still see some fans in that stands after that fifth hit bowing to Mauer. In the season's final game (again, memorable unto itself), Mauer received a well-deserved standing ovation from the 30.000+ in the Dome that day. Spine tingling for this fan as the history of the moment was not lost. Then, 2009, you just had to be there. After missing the first month of the season, Mauer announced his presence with a home run to left in his first at bat back. It would be the first of 28 that season, in which he would go on to win the MVP award. And a batting title again, but you knew that. He flirted with .400 that summer, finishing with a .365 average. Rod Carew must have enjoyed the spotlight that summer as we were reminded time and time again of the last player to flirt with that number. Oh and don't forget, Mauer was no slouch behind the plate either. Just ask Brett Gardner. The Twins christened a new ballpark the next season, and as a direct result, gave Mauer an eye-watering 8 year, $184 million contract extension. We will return to this later, but at the time pen met paper, it was a joyous time in the upper midwest. The Twins were no longer a farm team to the rich clubs. They could afford to keep their talented players. A televised news conference in Fort Myers (I have this on a burned DVD somewhere because i had nothing better to do) at the end of the spring cemented the fact Mauer was going to play here a long time. The last Twin to do something like that was another hall of famer, Kirby Puckett, signing a then record deal in 1993 to remain a Twin. Joe was the face of the Twins. He was the face of video games. He was the face of Minnesota. Everything was great. Everything was great until it suddenly wasn't. No one cares to remember, but the bilateral leg weakness incident of 2011 was forgotten as Joe batted .321 between 2012 and 2013 (all-star selections both years too). He never found that power from 2009, but that barely mattered as the Twins themselves slipped into obscurity, losing 90+ games annually. Mauer still hit at his career marks in those years from behind the plate. Foul ball off the mask, concussion symptoms, et. al. It went south for Joe over the next few seasons. In 2014, the Twins were the host of the All-Star Game. Joe was supposed to be the unofficial host of the week, but concussion symptoms moved Mauer to first base and impacted his hitting. And as the Twins continued to lose for other reasons, Mauer became the scapegoat with some of the local media. As a fan, it was frustrating to watch the Twins lose to no end, with their best player a shell of himself (this is not a complaint at Joe, but merely a complaint at the injury which impacted his ability to do his job properly). If I recall right, Mauer later admitted the 2014 & 15 seasons had him still battling those symptoms. There's so little we know still about injuries to the brain. But as the warrior he was, Joe wanted to carry on playing. Again, dont tell that to some of the local media though. Joe was their punching bag despite the woes of the front office in every other area of the ballclub. Let us also not forget, Mauer turned into a pretty sharp fielding first baseman. He should have had another gold glove in those last years at first, but when your team loses 90 games on average, the voters tend to look away. Mauer looked more himself in the final few seasons. The 2018 season, the final year of his contract that he signed in 2010, never really gave rumblings of what would come next season for Joe. He just went on and played the season with mum's the word about his future. After that final game of the year in which he put on the catcher's gear for a lone pitch in the ninth, there was not a doubt in my mind this was it for him. It was a brisk sunny day in Minneapolis. The Twins were toast and an afterthought in the local sports scene as the Vikings were underway with their 2018 campaign. A trademark opposite field double in the middle innings preceded the memorable ninth inning where Joe was the Twins catcher once again. When Mauer emerged from the dugout with the gear on, I went numb in that moment (not from the cold). While standing in the shade at Target Field I had to put on sunglasses so my then-girlfriend, now wife, would not see the tears stream down my face. Joe waved to the crowd after one pitch, fighting back tears himself. We later saw the full emotions from him as he was putting the gear on in the clubhouse in an iconic Brace Hemmelgarn photo. He left the field, and left the game for good. After 15 years, it was a somber feeling knowing that Joe Mauer would not put on a Twins uniform again. I was there when the Twins retired number seven. I was there a few years later when the team put him in their hall of fame (why wasn't this all done at once?). I watched with my baby girl on an ipad in her hospital room as Joe got his hall of fame call in January. And on Sunday, i'll be parked in front of my television watching him take his place among the all-time greats in Cooperstown (I wanted to attend this in person, but a premature newborn in ICU for two months this year takes a toll on one's wallet to make this trek). Someday, I'll tell my child(ren) about Joe Mauer. Whether they want to hear it or not, I'll go down memory lane with them just as I did here. I'll probably tear up thinking on these memories, just as I did writing them here. It was, plain and simple, a joy to watch play Joe Mauer play baseball for the Minnesota Twins. He was the first hall of famer I truly got to watch from start to finish. Should he be the only one I get to have this baseball privilege with, then no one is more deserving. Thank you, Joe. View full article

I have not written in any capacity in quite some time. It's been even longer since I wrote on baseball, so bear with me as I try and work off the rust here. At 34, I can say I have followed baseball easily for over 25 years. I have watched and attended many fun things in that time, but never have I been able to say I watched a hall of fame baseball player from the start to end of a career. Sure, I followed some players that went on to the hall. But nothing where I can say I watched a significant amount of a hall of fame player's career in its entirety. That is until Twins legend Joe Mauer got his call to the hall in January. As a Minnesotan, I am not without one of those "yeah I know someone who knows Joe" stories. I won't bore you with that, but that was the reason I took an interest in Mauer when he made his debut in 2004. I was told of a family connection, and I hoped he did alright for my favorite club as he was filling the shoes of a player I liked - AJ Pierzynski. I had also met him at a benefit the winter before, but I was just a dumb kid so I had no idea the gravity of who I was meeting. Then came the debut. I watched on my little 16" TV, on broadcast television mind you,(imagine that happening in this day in age), and can remember that game clear as day. In his first at bat, the crowd booed as he was walked by CC Sabathia on four pitches. The camera kept cutting back to Joe's parents in between pitches. But again, not one swing in that at-bat, and a patented walk came as he never offered at a pitch out of the zone. After a strikeout and another walk - the walk actually started a three-run Twins rally in the eighth - Mauer laced that first major league hit back up the middle. Another staple through his career. He would single in the 11th before Shannon Stewart walked off the game with a home run to send the Twins home winners and this dumb kid to bed (school night)! Thinking on that night now, twenty years later, Mauer gave us what we were going to get for 15 seasons. Plate discipline and copious amounts of base hits. Rare finds for catchers. But what Mauer would go on to do in his career was even more rare. He would win three batting titles, something no catcher in American League history had done before. The first of those titles came in 2006, a season that was laced in magic all unto itself. Every time Mauer came to the plate, it felt like he was going to get a hit. He ended up hitting .347 that season, four points ahead of Derek Jeter. The shining star of that season (ok, there were many but this one comes to mind), came on a June night when Mauer went 5-5 against the Los Angeles Dodgers in the middle of a series sweep. He actually went 11-13 in that three game sweep over Los Angeles, to add to his legend of simply never being able to get out. I can still see some fans in that stands after that fifth hit bowing to Mauer. In the season's final game (again, memorable unto itself), Mauer received a well deserved standing ovation from the 30.000+ in the Dome that day. Spine tingling for this fan as the history of the moment was not lost. 2009, you just had to be there. After missing the first month of the season, Mauer announced his presence with a home run to left in his first at bat back. It would be the first of 28 that season, in which he would go on to win the MVP award. And a batting title again, but you knew that. He flirted with .400 that summer, finishing with a .365 average. Rod Carew must have enjoyed the spotlight that summer as we were reminded time and time again of the last player to flirt with that number. Oh and don't forget, Mauer was no slouch behind the plate either. Just ask Brett Gardner. The Twins christened a new ballpark the next season, and as a direct result, gave Mauer an eye-watering 8 year, $184 million contract extension. We will return to this later, but at the time pen met paper, it was a joyous time in the upper midwest. The Twins were no longer a farm team to the rich clubs. They could afford to keep their talented players. A televised news conference in Fort Myers (I have this on a burned DVD somewhere because i had nothing better to do) at the end of the spring cemented the fact Mauer was going to play here a long time. The last Twin to do something like that was another hall of famer, Kirby Puckett, signing a then record deal in 1993 to remain a Twin. Joe was the face of the Twins. He was the face of video games. He was the face of Minnesota. Everything was great. Everything was great until it suddenly wasn't. No one cares to remember, but the bilateral leg weakness incident of 2011 was forgotten as Joe batted .321 between 2012 and 2013 (all-star selections both years too). He never found that power from 2009, but that barely mattered as the Twins themselves slipped into obscurity, losing 90+ games annually. Mauer still hit at his career marks in those years from behind the plate. Foul ball off the mask, concussion symptoms, et. al. It went south for Joe over the next few seasons. In 2014, the Twins were the host of the All-Star Game. Joe was supposed to be the unofficial host of the week, but concussion symptoms moved Mauer to first base and impacted his hitting. And as the Twins continued to lose for other reasons, Mauer became the scapegoat with some of the local media. As a fan, it was frustrating to watch the Twins lose to no end, with their best player a shell of himself (this is not a complaint at Joe, but merely a complaint at the injury which impacted his ability to do his job properly). If I recall right, Mauer later admitted the 2014 & 15 seasons had him still battling those symptoms. There's so little we know still about injuries to the brain. But as the warrior he was, Joe wanted to carry on playing. Again, dont tell that to some of the local media though. Joe was their punching bag despite the woes of the front office in every other area of the ballclub. Let us also not forget, Mauer turned into a pretty sharp fielding first baseman. He should have had another gold glove in those last years at first, but when your team loses 90 games on average, the voters tend to look away. Mauer looked more himself in the final few seasons. The 2018 season, the final year of his contract that he signed in 2010, never really gave rumblings of what would come next season for Joe. He just went on and played the season with mum's the word about his future. After that final game of the year in which he put on the catcher's gear for a lone pitch in the ninth, there was not a doubt in my mind this was it for him. It was a brisk sunny day in Minneapolis. The Twins were toast and an afterthought in the local sports scene as the Vikings were underway with their 2018 campaign. A trademark opposite field double in the middle innings preceded the memorable ninth inning where Joe was the Twins catcher once again. When Mauer emerged from the dugout with the gear on, I went numb in that moment (not from the cold). While standing in the shade at Target Field I had to put on sunglasses so my then-girlfriend, now wife, would not see the tears stream down my face. Joe waved to the crowd after one pitch, fighting back tears himself. We later saw the full emotions from him as he was putting the gear on in the clubhouse in an iconic Brace Hemmelgarn photo. He left the field, and left the game for good. After 15 years, it was a somber feeling knowing that Joe Mauer would not put on a Twins uniform again. I was there when the Twins retired number seven. I was there a few years later when the team put him in their hall of fame (why wasn't this all done at once?). I watched with my baby girl on an ipad in her hospital room as Joe got his hall of fame call in January. And on Sunday, i'll be parked in front of my television watching him take his place among the all-time greats in Cooperstown (I wanted to attend this in person, but a premature newborn in ICU for two months this year takes a toll on one's wallet to make this trek). Someday, I'll tell my child(ren) about Joe Mauer. Whether they want to hear it or not, I'll go down memory lane with them just as I did here. I'll probably tear up thinking on these memories, just as I did writing them here. It was, plain and simple, a joy to watch play Joe Mauer play baseball for the Minnesota Twins. He was the first hall of famer I truly got to watch from start to finish. Should he be the only one I get to have this baseball privilege with, then no one is more deserving. Thank you, Joe.

I am in this boat as well. Would love to see Julien get a shot after the spring he has had.

I feel attacked. 🤣