Saxophone Joe

Ok, gotta run the table the rest of the homestand. On it😒

Yes, we got this!

I am super excited for tomorrow's game! Those jerseys look sweet. Anyone else going? I'm also glad the current team will be playing meaningful baseball too. Every game matters right now... I mentioned in another thread, but my wife is named after Kirby and was born in January 1985, just after his rookie year. I always maintain she's probably the first person or pet named after Kirby. Anyway, going to this game has me thinking about how special a player Kirby was and how sad the final decade of life was. I mean, the guy got a hit off Greg Maddux in March 1996 and woke up the next day and couldn't see out of one eye. Tragic. I'm 43, so really only recall the back half of his career. But he was my idol. I love telling people he has the highest average of any right-handed hitter post-World War II. I don't care about the off-field issues. I mean, of course I do - I don't condone abuse in any fashion, there are no excuses, but the guy wasn't a monster. And it's clear taking baseball out of his life set his life in a different direction. When the cameras were off, retiring completely devastated him, clearly. But it was a miracle he even made it to the big leagues, given where he came from, let alone the Hall of Fame. There's a really fascinating biography or documentary waiting to be made that would peel back the layers of who Kirby really was. Who knows? People are complicated and Kirby died before he had a chance to fully redeem himself. There's a lot to unpack with his life. We can never get inside another person's head, you know? And I'm assuming all the people who now trash Kirby as a terrible person never listened to Miles Davis or Elvis Presley, read Ernest Hemingway, watched a Marlon Brando film, enjoyed a Mike Tyson fight or voted for anyone who was less than moral, etc. You get the point. Kirby has a complex legacy to grapple with, no doubt. So Kirby had his flaws, obviously. But as a ballplayer (and that's why I'm here - to talk baseball)? Man, pound for pound, there was no one better. He brought it, every day, and sure brought Twins Territory a whole lot of joy over 12 years. I'm looking forward to celebrating him (and a Twins win!) tomorrow. PS - a few months back, I read Joe Posnaski's massive Baseball 100 book of the game's top 100 players. Kirby wasn't included. I wrote Joe an email telling him he made a mistake, and he actually apologized for not including him and said he might add Kirby in an updated edition.

I watched this game on replay already knowing the outcome (but just the final score) and kept wondering, How do we end up winning this game? Wow!

Margin for error is gone. Gotta win these next two games then win 5 on the homestand. Or win 1 out of the next 2 and sweep the homestand. Nothing to it! 😬 I wanna go back to last Friday night at like 10 p.m.

Shelty’s tribute in the clubhouse to Josh Bell’s 10 years of service was moving: “The 10 years is special. You’re special.” Good stuff. JB gave a nice speech too. Will be sad if he’s gone two weeks from now. That is all. See ya tomorrow.

Great post, very curious to see how it shakes out over the next couple weeks.

We have a fairly high win percentage when I don't watch Tuesday games live. Go get 'em, fellas! The season hangs in the balance - no pressure. 🤐

Lmao. If you know you know. Tonight was honestly the most shockingly bad performance by a Twins starter I’ve ever seen, relative to the moment. 6 homers - all hit very hard - in 4 innings from your “all star” in a game you badly needed to win was insane! Joe seemed totally befuddled, too.

I think Joe just gave Dan Barreiro a new “it’s frustrating” sound bite for the 2020s in his postgame interview.,

We want the Funk! Gotta have that Funk🤣

This is worse than what we did to Crochet back in April.

Pablo Lopez HAS to win the Roberto Clemente award this year. No debate.

10/10

A bad trip for sure. Buzzkill!

I'm not sure what that means? :) But with 60 or so games left, I think it's quite possible that's a wrap on Gray's time with the Twins, barring injury of course. Hope he finds himself on a big league roster again. Fans are often so quick to hate/be negative (not necessarily on here), but TG provided a legitimate spark at times for the first two months of the season. Production dropped as of late, of course. Probably not a bad time to switch things up and give Roden a longer look and see if Kreidler can continue producing.

Tristan might hold the distinction of hitting a grand slam in the coldest temps in Twins' history. The "real feel" must've been close to freezing (if not below) during the night of the home opener. All in all, not a bad run for a guy who was considering retiring if he didn't make the team out of spring training. I wish him all the best.

I would greatly appreciate an honest, educational, multi-camera breakdown on just what the hell happened from someone like Paul Molitor who's not going to needlessly throw anyone under the bus. It's a teachable moment on the basepath if there ever was one, for both the players and base coaches. And the fans who were pulling their hair out watching it live!

I suppose it's progress of sorts that we've moved on from "If only we didn't have a terrible bullpen...";) Seriously though, if either Pablo and Abel were available to stabilize the rotation, no question we'd be in a much better position. So it goes... Crucial week ahead, needless to say. Will I be watching Joe Ryan's last start as a Twin Saturday on Puckett Jersey Day? My wife's named after Kirby, so I'm very excited for that game, regardless of where we are in the standings. Go Twins!

I stopped watching halfway through. Has the broadcast crew dug deeper into yesterday’s fiasco on the basepath?

Edited for accuracy 🤣

Josh Bell & Brooks Lee redemption game incoming!🙏🏼