Teflon

This game was just such a refreshing throw-back to how baseball games used to be played, The starting pitchers went deep enough to keep the game from becoming a bullpen parade. Strikeouts were limited allowing more balls to be put in play and fielding to be more of a factor. There were enough good plays and scoring chances to keep fans engaged despite being a low-scoring game AND - it was played in a tidy 2 hours and five minutes. If anyone needs a pattern for the desired baseball game esthetic, they should look at this as an example.

Can Trevor Larnach be taught 1B?

It's a very limited field of owner candidates that are willing to pay over market value, take on $425 million in debt and still have Joe Pohlad calling the shots.

I was at the game when the roof tore in 1986. I first noticed that something was flickering in my eye. Looking up, I saw that the lights and the speakers were swaying. I thought, "this isn't good." When a mini-waterfall started falling in right field. I was getting a "Poseidon Adventure" vibe. The game was stopped and Bob Casey then told us to go to the concourses. People didn't leave right away because they wanted to watch what was happening. It took Casey invoking some of his "No Smoking" attitude to get people moving. I read that the incident was caused by the blowers that were supposed to keep the dome rigid not compensating correctly when the outside wind increased. Some facilities person manually turned them up to high and the roof went back up in a matter of minutes. I know the Twins used to manipulate the blowers for their own benefit from time to time so I was wondering if the auto-compensating function had been turned off for some reason during that game.

Baseball attendance is weird. In the 1960s and 1970s when the NFL hadn't become the juggernaut it is today, an average game attendance of 17,000 would still have been considered good in the Major Leagues. The Twins averaged 17,477 in 1962 which was 2nd in the American League. The Twins averaged 11,910 in 1971 which was still 5th in the American League. Baseball was the National Pastime, but people didn't pack the ballparks. Somewhere in the 1980s, baseball attendance started increasing even with the NFL now occupying the top spot in people's minds. When the Twins drew 15,499 in 1986, consistent with attendance figures mentioned earlier - this was now next to last in the American League. Considering the ballpark construction frenzy wouldn't start for another half decade, something else about this era was driving more people to the ballparks. Perhaps the ticket price relative to household income had hit a sweet spot. Perhaps the amount of locally free over-the-air broadcast games was becoming optimal, perhaps the upcoming generation of players like Ken Griffey Jr. were capturing imaginations again. I don't know, but attendance was rising. Then, spread out over the next 20 years, nearly all MLB teams built new ballparks, enjoying a 3 or 4 year novelty phase period in which fans flocked to them. To me, this has seemed like a bubble period... albeit a very long bubble. I never thought it was sustainable for the majority of MLB teams after the honeymoon phase of their ballparks. Without the novelty of new ballparks, with the loss of free broadcasts, with the ballpark experience no longer a cheap entertainment option for the average fan, with the prevalence of internet doom-saying discouraging more fans from attending when the team is losing, I'm not surprised if attendances revert back to what they once used to be,

Thanks Al! That was a fun read. I went quite a few games in the Metrodome during the 1980s. One of the Twins' rituals during those years was a Kent Hrbek routine that occurred when PA announcer Bob Casey would bellow "NO SMOKING! There's NO SMOKING in the Metrodome!" During the announcement, Herbie would turn and face the crowd sitting behind first base and pantomime a person smoking and then shake his head and make a "no" gesture with his hands, Then he would pantomime a person drinking a beer and emphatically nod his head "yes." That was always a fun little thing to watch for. One night I was bummed to find Hrbek was not in the lineup and assumed his pregame ritual would be missing. To my delight, Gaetti did the whole pantomime routine from 3B during the Casey announcement. I got a big kick out of seeing his homage to Hrbek's little ritual. Another cool Gaetti memory occurred when George Brett got is 3000th hit. The Royals were playing in Anaheim and Gaetti was playing 1B. Brett got his 3000th hit in the 7th inning off Angels' reliever Tim Fortugno. (a one-out single to 2B, his 4th hit of the game.) All the hoopla of a player getting his 3000th hit ensued and then Gregg Jeffries followed Brett to the plate and flew out to RF for the second out. Brett was still somewhat in a daze as he took his lead off 1B with Mike Macfarlane at the plate. To everyone's surprise, Fortugno turned and threw to Gaetti at first, who tagged Brett out easily. The expression on Brett's face is priceless as is his wife's reaction in the stands. Imagine getting picked off first after your 3000th hit! I wonder if Gaetti and Brett have ever talked about that since.

I'm waiting for them to implement the Andy Etchebarren eyebrow rule. PS - Miranda actually looks better with a moustache

I owned a book a few decades ago called Cult Baseball Players in which a number of authors wrote about their favorite players. Danny Peary put the book together and contributed a chapter on his favorite player, Vic Power. Power played the game with a great flair and sounded like an interesting person both on and off the field. He has been my avatar picture for as long as I have been on Twins Daily.

Does anyone know if we''ll have the option of choosing between the home or away TV broadcast or to use the radio audio with the TV video? Those are all regular options on the MLB.TV games. Not sure if that works the same when you buy a separate team subscription.

I thought life was about as absurd as it could get already. Guess not. SCOTT BORAS: The Little Farm Boy Who Changed Baseball Contracts Forever (A Biography Book For Kids)

I grew up in southeastern Minnesota in the 1970s and there wasn't a Twins affiliate broadcasting games in that area. We could sorta get WCCO at night if we drove up out of the coulees onto the ridges. WKTY in La Crosse carried the Brewers games, however, and those came in clear as a bell. The Brewers broadcasters were Bob Uecker and Merle Harmon. Harmon was a top tier professional play-by-play guy and Uecker was, well... himself. Man, those games were great! The Brewers were getting good with a core of Yount and Molitor and Cecil Cooper and Ben Oglivie (hitter of the longest homerun in Metrodome history) and the broadcasts were lively. I would love one more teenage summer evening hanging out with my buddies, drinking Old Style lager and listening to Uecker and Harmon calling a Brewers game. Rest in peace, Mr. Baseball. Hoping you're in the front row.

The Twins bullpen is a known haven for lefties.

It's interesting to speculate how the Twins would have been different if Calvin Griffith had sold the team to somebody other than the Pohlads. In Gary Olson's SABR article on the ownership history of the Minnesota Twins he wrote: Griffith had explored several sales options, but decided in the end to sell to Pohlad because it was the first serious offer he got that met his terms. (Earlier in the year Donald Trump had approached Griffith about buying the team, but that exchange went nowhere.) A Minneapolis-based group led by Marv Wolfenson and Harvey Ratner offered $27 million in cash, but Griffith turned them down. https://sabr.org/bioproj/topic/minnesota-twins-team-ownership-history/

I would rather the Twins convert Trevor Larnach to 1B to platoon with Miranda and find a LFer with more range so it's Buxton flanked by only 1 slow guy instead of 2.

Read all about it: More than thirty years ago, the Metrodome roof swallowed a Dave Kingman fly ball

Now I even long for the days of a Tsuyoshi Nishioka or Byungho Park signing.

June 22, 1984, the Griffith family sells the Twins to Carl Pohlad. (Calvin Griffith, Thelma Griffith Haynes, Carl Pohlad) Star Tribune photo

The infamous Joe Neikro nail file.

That was a change-of-pace type of post for Twins Daily and it was much enjoyed! I'd like to see more like this.

I think the Twins were also taken aback upon discovering that Free Agents weren't actually "Free."

The fans in left field at the Metrodome would give Rickey the business long and hard and he would taunt them back. Cup his ear, tip his hat, whatever. I got the feeling he loved it. Then he'd steal two bases or hit a homer or make one of those exaggerated swipes with the glove catching a fly ball. I wondered if he would be that devastating on the Twins if the left field fans just left him alone. I loved watching him play, though.

Don't knock hose water. Best drink in the world after mowing the lawn.

This is the honest truth. The amount of bulk popcorn you could purchase for the price of a movie theater popcorn tub would fill an SUV when popped. That large movie theater soda is a about 85% carbonated water. Both are probably still under $1 to produce. The theaters only make about 30% of the ticket price in profit. The other 70% goes to the distributor. Given the continued decline in attendance, I don't see how theaters can continue to operate.

One problem in baseball is you have to wait sooooo long to see prospects. It's hard to be excited about drafting a Walker Jenkins then having him disappear into obscurity for three or more years. Players coming into the NFL and NBA are already well-known from college and instantly recognized when they show up professionally. The closest thing for the MLB is signing international stars but it's hard for the average fan to feel the same connection to a player who needs an interpreter for the post-game interview. Awkward. Question - Golf has got to be the absolute most boring sport on TV. Is it suffering through the same decline in popularity as baseball? If not, why?

The best Black Friday deal had to be the game-worn Isiah Kiner-Falefa spring training jersey I got in 2022 that was not actually game-worn.