D. Hocking

It will be a nice symmetry next fall when you have this issue of how much of an early season Wild game in October while truly focusing on the Twins play-off game.

Probably should not steal from another game thread but... As Expected.

I believe sitting somewhere silently with a single tear of joy rolling down his cheek as he is overcome with pride and emotion -- looking at his autographed Ploufe rookie card that has been carefully laminated .

Comparing Hawk to a child -- you must really hate children.

Maybe some assistance from your uncle to make sure the voodoo worked. My condolences.

At least with great age comes great wisdom and great maturity (at least for some people).

You do know when you reach your 100th post you need to buy a round of drinks for the board -- and it can't be the cheap stuff.

See - we have potential to match the 1991 2-9 start and then the magic will really start.. Destiny awaits the 2015 Twins. The threads of negativity will shrivel up and blow away like a sand dessert.

Was that the one where they almost got off the island, and then Gilligan did something to screw it up? I think Skipper might have hit him with his hat if I remember correctly.

I remember for certain holiday meals we would get water with our sand. The Easter Day mud pies were always really special. One Fourth of July we were surprised by getting gourmet sand from the beach.

I have tattooed this on my arm - but it has not really made me feel that much better about the April games.

My siblings also used to "check" any dessert (esp ice cream) I was eating to "make sure it was not poisoned" and then eat half of it. Although I suppose that was better than when they made me chocolate milk and added some Tabasco sauce with the chocolate syrup. Kind of scary that they ended up having kids of their own, because looking back, they might be sociopaths.

I had siblings 5, 6, and 7 years older than me - the years I trick or treated after they had to stop, they were relentless hunting down my stash. No two week grace period. If it was not properly hidden it instantly started to shrink. Same with any spare change I had. I just realized, they really were/are not good human beings.

Who would have guessed his real life transformation end up being scarier. Thriller: Real Life: http://cdn.sheknows.com/filter/l/gallery/michael_jackson.jpg

Never underestimate they intelligence and capabilities of the TD staff. It is possible that they have figured out to go back in time in order to go back and fix some of the Twins' mistakes. The time traveling license discussion on a previous game thread now makes sense.

Another post that has made me say to myself, wow - we really have had a lot of less than ideal players cycle through the roster the last few years. I can't even remember them all (which I guess is not all bad).

I was not a fan of the Hunter signing -- felt they needed someone better defensively, that the whole club-house thing is overrated in general and overrated for Torii, and that if the season goes south Torii might actually be a negative presence in the club house, but I thought Torii would be better at the plate than Kubel circa 2014. Now I am not so sure. I will say the Hunter signing did help decrease any positive feelings for the front office. It just seemed like the classic veteran move they have made the last few years that have not panned out. I am over-generalizing, but it seems like they cannot veer too far off from their old model. The way they quickly dismissed Torii's defensive metrics in interviews reinforced that. I am getting biased and not looking objectively, but it seems like Ryan quickly goes into defensive mode when asked about how he makes his decisions. I am Terry Ryan, I know how to make decisions. I will admit this is a little tenuous of a theory, but I also feel like part of the Torii signing was to deflect from their previous rosters not working. It is not just because we did not assemble a team talent-wise, it was because our players were too quiet in the clubhouse. It is not playing ability, it is because Joe etc. is too quiet and Torii will change that. Again, not exactly a substantive argument/theory, but I am tired and crabby. As for hope - it is April. It could be that this bad of play is going to force them to think outside the box and make some changes and moves they would not have if we were merely playing mediocre. I do think the hitting will improve, and the pitching has a chance to stabilize. Chances are we were not going to make the play-offs, so this bad first week probably is not going to cause us to lose the wild card spot by one game.

Is he going out to play one of the defensive positions?

Unable to watch or listen to the game and tracking through this game thread - it is posts like these that have added a lot of mystery and suspense to my day.

Is there a new rally animal/creature this year? Although due to the fact we did not exactly play baseball in October last year, I am not sure a rally animal by itself can elevate this team to the top of the division (although maybe a wild card spot).

Yes -- although trying to piece together what is going on by the short, ominous sounding replies on this thread is a bit unsettling. Partial descriptions of some horror you cannot see.

When a team has shown it is capable of consistently playing elite defense, I think they are given the benefit of the doubt when it comes to errors.

When people were throwing out the KC references the first name that popped into my mind was Kevin Correia, which both scared me and made me sad. So many players the last few years that I have tried to repress, but you never really do forget them.

I initially read this as: MOLITOR dangles two year old over railing of a Cheetah Exhibit. . . First thought was managing the Twins have sent him over the edge or alternatively this is some offering to the baseball gods.

Just to clarify -- when we say "fun" we mean a "fun" as the Marque de Sade would see it -- something that will induce a hearty gallows humor chuckle.http://cdn.meme.am/instances/57232246.jpg