D. Hocking

I don't necessarily think Terry should go, but he gave an interview last spring that really rubbed me the wrong way. It was when the Twins were still above 500 well past the time people thought they would be. When he asked if he was surprised -- he seemed irritated and said he expected more. Now I can see why he would say that, but from his tone he seemed really irritated that anyone would think they were not better than a 500 team. I wanted to shout through the radio, have you seen your roster? There was something about his tone that came off both a little arrogant and a little in denial about the true talent level of the team he had put together - like he really felt he had put together a team that could and should produce a winning record. I think things started to go south less than a week after that interview.

I don't necessarily blame Gardy for the losing seasons, but I do think it is time for some fresh blood. Last year when they made the changes it seems like they were shuffling the deck of the cards they already had; fire the trainer promote his assistant. Even Terry Ryan -- I kind of wish they would have explored looking for someone on the outside to get some fresh perspective and ideas. I think in general the hiring from within is not a bad thing, but after 20 years you do need to shake it up a little. Semi-related, I wonder if Terry really has permission to spend more like he says, or if the Pohlads are singing a different tune behind the scenes.

I have found the game threads to be useful when arriving home during the middle of a game. If I scroll a couple of pages with no baseball references, it means I probably don't want to turn the on the game. If there are more than three pages with no references to the game, I know I should not look up the box score, but often do out of morbid curiosity. I will say someone took things a bit too far last night however. Because of a couple of inappropriate posts I have had the 70's pop song Indiana Wants Me in my head the last 36 hours. References to 70's death pop should lead to banishment - or before you know it things like Seasons in the Sun, Wildfire, Timothy, Billy Don't be a Hero will raise their ugly heads. I think once the Twins are more relevant and playing better, the game threads will end up being more Twinscentric again, so when we are tied for first with the Royals at the All-star break next year, this won't be an issue.

If the people electing him are not the commenters on the Star Trib webpage or from a certain radio station message board he has a good chance of making it. When I hear the national sports people talk about him it is usually in glowing term both for his play and his off the field persona. He kind of gets criticized here for being too even-keeled and nice, but I think the national sports people appreciate not having to deal with another over blown ego (although I suspect they would like better sound bytes...). Not that being nice or not nice should have anything to do with it (Ty Cobb), but if you are a borderline case it probably helps. I think it would help if he played catcher part time a couple more years, but if he could play good first base for a number of years and add to some of his totals, he has a good chance.

I can see why they made the trade, but it is a bit disheartening when you think about it. When you think back to 2006 and think back to all the potential that never got fully realized. I know baseball is cyclical, but you think they could have stayed relevant a little further into Morneau and Mauer's primes (I know there were injuries etc...)

Hopefully he will get some play-off success out of this. I wonder what he is thinking right now. I wonder what Mauer is thinking right now.

Ah - thanks. I take it he probably did not break any speed records.

Just got home and saw this on the box score: . Plouffe walked, R. Doumit to second, J. Willingham out at home How did Willingham get out on a walk?

OK - now I am feeling there might be too much game talk on the game thread -- at least for this game. I am kind of missing the non-baseball tangents distracting me from the game. I am guessing there are some Vikings boards that are not coping with their loss as well tonight.

Not a good sign when not a post on this page is about the game. I suppose I should page back to see what all the lists of three are for, but am not sure I want to know...

I have no idea what is going on in the clubhouse, but I agree I think largely whoever the local media presents as the club house leader is the one who gives them the quotes. Mauer goes out of his way to give the most bland quotes possible. Although the local media makes it easy for him by asking him the same questions every time, so it is easy for him to supply one of his canned answers. I have noticed the most interesting interviews or articles about him are by some national writer who goes outside the box in the interviewing and ask him different questions and getting quotes about him from different people. Some Perkins quotes in the last year or so have actually fleshed him out a bit more. That said, I do think a mixture of personalities is good. You don't want 25 Mauer clones or 25 Sano clones personality wise.

I am sure Mauer gets some special treatment (no criticism of him - just the way it is - the star franchise player gets some special treatment), but for something like this I think they would be the same for any other player. I cannot think of a specific example, so it does not make for the most compelling argument, but I in the back of my mind it does seem like there have been other instances where they have been flexible for when a player or coach comes back from family leave, whether it be birth/funeral/or undisclosed. I would say no season is completely meaningless, but a series is less significant when you are not in a play-off race. It is not like one less victory is going to prevent us from playing in October. If this does cause us to miss the play-offs by one game, that means we are about to go on an incredible run the next six weeks.

I thought I also heard on one of the 1500 shows that when he was reprimanded by one of the coaches his response was less than ideal (possibly disrespectful). Terry Ryan was also there and talked to him, and it sounded like his response to Terry was not much better, and that might have led to the suspension, or at least to the multiple game suspension. Yes -- they did say the pitcher was a recent ex-teammate and that contributed to the suspension.

Newborn twins are also a different ball of wax. They were almost six weeks early, they are under five pounds, and I read in one article his wife was still in the hospital. None of this is unusual for twins, but it is still different than have a typical 7 to 9 pound baby. I could see why he wanted to stick around for a couple more days. And as mentioned above, it is kind of a lost season.

None of the players mentioned would be bad choices. I would probably lean towards Harmon. He was basically one of the founding fathers and was a great senior statesman and was involved with the organization for decades (obviously that factor was out of Kirby's control, and he is definitely right up there). Mauer will hopefully have a good 6 to ten years left to add to his resume which could/should involve another chance at the play-offs. I suspect he will also actively involved with the Twins post-retirement even as his grandkids are dominating the sports at Cretin. (I also have some sentimentality towards Kent on this issue.)

I am not saying Mauer could not be more vocal in the club house, but the team leader arguments always seem a little speculative to me. No one really knows what goes on behind closed doors. I could see someone who has all the right quotes for the reporters being different when it is just the team, and someone who seems reserved to the public might be different in private. That being said, I suspect Mauer does not take on the persona of Orlando Hudson in more private situations. For better or worse, Mauer is probably always going to be a lead by example type.

Figures Barriero would have had someone who said Mauer was not respected nationally. While Souhan's columns seemed to be more calculated to sell papers (after he wrote the article linked above he toned down his anti-Mauer stance a bit), Dan B. seems to have some real personal grudge and dislike against Mauer. Although I have not listened to him for a good year, so maybe that has changed. Whenever I have heard Mauer discussed by the national media they almost come across as fanboys. I think he is very respected nationally. I think the most interesting articles about Mauer I have read have been by national writers. The local reporters are kind of lazy and tend to ask him predictable questions which he has pre-canned Mauer type answers ready. When a non-local reporter asks him something different, his answers aren't quite as generic. I give Mauer credit for acting like he was not savaged in 2011 when he deals with the press now. Mauer probably should have handled the PR a bit differently in 2011 (the Twins definitely should have), and I understand some of the criticism, but I always felt that the fact that he might actually be dealing with a messed up knee was practically dismissed - and I think that viral infection really had some long lasting effects. When they were grousing about him not playing when he had pnemonia, I wanted to say -- look at him - he looks like death warmed over and can't even talk without coughing up a lung. I almost feel that the Twins did not simply say he tried to come back too soon and too quick after his knee surgery because it would be one more thing that could reflect badly on the medical/training staff.