mickeymental

i’m still waiting for eddie bane.

hmm. you make an interesting point. i'm old enough that i still think of the astros as an nl team ...

what would scare me if i was an indians fan is that the twins lost 11 of 12 and are still only one game behind the defending american league champs.

reminds me of an anecdote in bouton's ball four: it's one thing to carry a piano on your back but you don't have to stop to play it.

the yankees winning 15 of 16 might also have a little to do with it ...

I'd rather ask the tom kelly twins.

perfect game perfect game perfect game.

only three games out of first place ...

clone him!

twins bullpen theme song? I'm up on the tightrope, one sides hate and one is hope It's a circus game with you and me. I'm up on the tightwire, linked by life and the funeral pyre But the tophat on my head is all you see. And the wire seems to be the only place for me A comedy of errors and I'm falling Like a rubber neck giraffe, you look into my past Well, baby you're just too blind to see. I'm up in the spotlight, oh does it feel right The altitude seems to really get to me. I'm up on the tightwire linked by life and the funeral pyre Putting on a show for you to see.

they don't know if they're foot or horseback.

a keepler?

if mauer’s hr didn’t travel at least 500 feet it shouldn’t count.

does domino's still give out free pizzas for no hitters?

was punto busy?

can they get him in tonight's starting lineup?

morneau to pinch hit?

on the other hand, a simple little five-game winning streak = .500.

the twins will look back at the middle game of the cincy series as an enormous source of strength and inspiration for many seasons to come.

there once was a skipper named paul who had to give someone the ball when the ninth inning came round and no one could be found the fans banged their heads on the wall

sign him to a three-year extension!

i hate the yankees.

i hate the yankees.

I don't hate the Yankees. I don't hate the Yankees. I don't hate the Yankees. You heard right: I don't hate the Yankees. In fact, I harbor a soft spot for the Bronx Bombers directly related to the NYC subway system, the crack epidemic and some very bad baseball. My no-hate affair began in 1988 with a two-week 4th of July road trip to Manhattan that ended up lasting five years. By October I lived on the Upper West Side and, when the ’89 baseball season rolled around, the Yankees truly stink, stank, stunk. Steinbrenner's squad was about to embark on four years at a 288-359 won-lost clip. Ah, the days of Stump Merrill, Neon Deion and Bam-Bam Meulens. The good news for me was twofold: 1) I lived near a subway line that went straight to Yankee Stadium (on a good day, the express D-train made the trip in less than 15 minutes), and 2) all the local young crackheads liquidated their ill-gotten tickets to the sparsely attended ballpark for $5 (if you waited till just after the first pitch). Inside the gates, ushers kept low-rent fans like me from the primo sections closest to the field -- but they allowed total access to the ocean of empty seats everywhere else. The late '80s and early '90s offered a much different baseball landscape. Mainly, of course, there was no Internet. But New York’s four daily newspapers (Times, Daily News, Newsday, Post) all had lively sports sections that ranged from sober to snarky in their coverage of the Yanks and Mets -- with overwhelming disregard for the rest of the majors. It wasn't easy being a Twins fan in Gotham City. Still, as an alternative to the Metrodome, the fabled ballyard offered a worthwhile, albeit temporary, oasis. It was aged and rickety, but it oozed palpable history. I clearly recall the spine-tingling thrill upon entering The House That Ruth Built as the glorious vista opened up to spectacular blue seats, impossibly green grass and the signature white facade crowning the upper deck. I made the trip dozens of times and usually sat in really good seats behind home plate. The fresh popcorn from an old-fashioned covered wagon in a nearby corridor was perfect. But once, just for kicks and the sake of experience, two of us decided to check out the right-field bleachers. Ex-Twin Gary Ward was by now an ex-Yankee playing out his final seasons as a well-into-his-30s right fielder for the Tigers. His stint with the Yanks had been unremarkable at best and, inning after inning, the notoriously unforgiving Bleacher Creatures tried to get under his skin with crude insults, incidental vulgarities and nasty singalong chants. Some were tinged with dark humor and some were not. But Ward remained stoic and wouldn't give the locals any satisfaction of acknowledgment. Then, around the seventh or eighth inning, a new serenade began to build in volume and intensity. Based on "Camptown Races,” this special ditty took aim directly at Ward’s genealogy with an unusually foul licentiousness not fit for a family publication, a major-league ballpark or civil society at large: “Ward’s mother bleep bleep bleep -- do-dah, do-dah; Ward’s mother bleep bleep bleep -- oh, do-dah day.” After several unrelenting rounds of this personalized gem, Ward finally gave in. He slowly turned his neck to glare at the Creatures and, wearing an expression somewhere between pity and disdain, gave his head several measured shakes. That was it. He turned back toward the field and ignored the fans for the rest of the game. For future outings, I returned to the box seats behind the plate. And to this day -- except for when they play the Twins and despite (or because of) never setting foot inside the new Yankee Stadium -- I manage to maintain warmly nostalgic feelings for the storied franchise. But as for at least some of the Yankee fans? Not so much. Twins: 1. Brian Dozier ® 2B 2. Joe Mauer (L) 1B 3. Miguel Sano ® 3B 4. Eddie Rosario (L) LF 5. Max Kepler (L) CF 6. Eduardo Escobar (S) SS 7. Logan Morrison (L) DH 8. Robbie Grossman (S) RF 9. Jason Castro (L) C Lance Lynn ® Yanks: 1. Brett Gardner (L) CF 2. Aaron Judge ® RF 3. Didi Gregorius (L) SS 4. Giancarlo Stanton ® LF 5. Gary Sanchez ® DH 6. Tyler Austin ® 1B 7. Miguel Andujar ® 3B 8. Austin Romine ® C 9. Gleyber Torres ® 2B Sonny Gray ® Gametime Forecast: 58°F • Overcast • 15% PoP

we’ll always have puerto rico ...