tarheeltwinsfan

Thank you Nash for expressing what we Twins' fans are feeling today. And a big THANK YOU to Nelson Cruz. I hope the Twins will make a serious attempt to bring him back to this organization in a coaching capacity immediately upon his retirement, whenever that may be. Nelson Cruz is a great ambassador for the game of baseball and the game of life.

If he would/could hit the ball to the left side during the shifts, he'd raise his batting average and eventually eliminate many of the shifts against him, thus allowing more hits to the right side of the field evetually.

" It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." Who knew that the two cities Charles Dickens was referring to were Minneapolis and St. Paul?

Nick, This was a difficult article to read...because it is accurate. This season has been an unmitigated disaster. And I really had looked forward to watching Twins' baseball again,, However this season has not been good for my pandemic-bruised emotional state. Fortunately I can take a break from this disappointing series of events and lack luster play, and just not watch for a while. I feel badly for the TD writers, the broadcasters, the reporters, the players, staff and FO who must continue to watch this train wreck day after day, and cannot turn away..

I think I can, I think I can.

We need Arraez, Buck and Kirilloff playing ever day. We need Donaldson to run out his groundouts. I know some may say, why should he risk injury running out a ground out? I say because it is the way the game should be played, "The Twins Way" and it sets a poor example for the younger players when the see Donaldson dogging it. I told the FO not to sign Donaldson, due to his long history as a catcher and his resulting recurrent leg injuries. Did they listen? Nope. Sano needed to be traded several years ago . His excessive strikeouts will continue to stifle rallies the rest of his career. The Tigers will love to have another ex-Twin. For the love of all that is good and true and to honor the Hall of Fame player with a .341 career BA, Wee Willie Keeler, every player who faces a shift should be able to hit the ball " where they ain't", and get on base 50 % of the time there is a shift. Finally every pitcher who walks the first batter he faces in an inning should be fined $100 for his first offense, to be increased by $100 for each subsequent offense. Thanks for reading this. I feel better now.

Polanco has to move the runners along with no outs and the bases full. I wonder if that has anything to do with Polanco not playing today and Gordon being brought up to start. I hope today's game helps Gordon and Polanco.

Is Polanco OK? Or is he in the dog-house?

This makes the most sense to me.

In an interview after the game, Arraez said he had worked with Kent Hrbek in spring training to perfect the left-handed push-off move.

Seth, Thank you for your dedication and your informative and entertaining writing about the Twins minor league players. Your hope-filled and positive minor league reports have been missed by us all. Let the games begin. Let the enjoyable reading about the minor leaguers begin. Play ball.

Great post. Thanks.

I may be the only one, but I feel like the Twins have already given Sano too many chances.

Ted, you wrote a most prophetic article on the eve of Kirilloff's breakout game last night. May I borrow your crystal ball so I can know when to buy and when to sell stocks?

The main reason to have hope in the Twins is because: "The lark's on the wing; The snail's on the thorn; God's in His heaven; All's right with the world !" Thank you, Robert Browning

Now that Kirilloff is at 1B, maybe Sano will become another Pee-Wee Wanninger. Who is Pee-Wee Wanninger you may ask? You'll have to look it up.

Maybe Rortvedt's promotion will light a fire under Jeffers. I hope so. I'm rooting for my fellow North Carolinian to light up Triple A and return to the Twins quickly.

Thanks Nash for this up to date article.

Fantastic article and informative video. Thanks Parker.

My memories of the Twins of the 60's are vague. When the Twins moved from D.C.,I was a student at the University of North Carolina and I focused more on studies, parties, girls, and Carolina football, basketball (Dean Smith's era with Billy Cunningham, Bobby Lewis, Larry Miller and Charles Scott, among others). When I graduated from UNC in 1967 I enlisted in the Army and any thoughts of the Twins were immediately over shadowed by basic training, ( Our Drill Instructors would yell: "What's the spirit of the bayonet?" and we trainees would yell: "To Kill !", as we were changed from boys who had no cares, to soldiers who would follow orders to kill and to try to survive, which really grabbed my attention, as you can imagine. In February 1968, we were in advanced infantry training and we were called together and told that we would not finish our 8 weeks of training but that we were immediately being sent to Korea, not Vietnam. Some of the guys were high - fiving, glad we were not going to Vietnam, but I was wondering why are we being rushed to Korea. I found out after I got there. I was sent to the Second Infantry Division in Korea, since the North Koreans were initiating armed conflicts in and around the DMZ in the late 1960's(see the Blue House Raid where 31 NK commandos infiltrated through the Second Infantry Division lines along the DMZ into South Korea to try to kill the South Korean president and also read about the seizure of the US Navy ship, the USS Pueblo off the coast of North Korea, killing 1 sailor and taking 83 others prisoner for 10 months of hell. Also during this time there were ambushes in the DMZ, particularly in the summer of 1968 when my platoon had 6 of my friends shot and 2 who died in 4 separate firefights with the North Korean soldiers. I had my hands full on 24 hour ambush patrols in the DMZ and nights in foxholes along the barrier fence and 4 days at a time with 11 other soldiers from my platoon at Guard Post Gladys, slap in the middle of the DMZ. (see Daniel Bolger's excellent book,: "Scenes From an Unfinished War: Low Intensity Conflict in Korea, 1966-1969", which you can easily find it by Googling. In the back of the book, Bolger has an index of significant firefights. Look for July 30, 1968, when my 3rd platoon buddy, Michael Rymarczuk from Philadelphia, was killed on night ambush and Sept 27, 1968 when Joseph Cayer and Mike Reynolds were ambushed in a jeep in my company area of the DMZ and March 15, 1969, when a soldier from B company was killed in the DMZ and 3 others wounded in a daylight ambush. It started snowing. When the wounded were finally rescued and taken south of the barrier fence out of the DMZ, they were loaded onto a medevac helicopter to be flown to a hospital down south. The helicopter went up, then came straight down and exploded, killing the wounded, the pilot, copilot, a doctor a medic and a crew member - 8 in all. The Army said it was mechanical error, but North Korea claimed on its state radio that North Korean soldiers had shot it down. I'll never know for sure, but I think it was shot down. I am telling you all of this so you will understand how thrilled I will be to read Henniger's book about the Twins of the late 1960's. because I missed several Twins' seasons in the late 60's..

Best of luck to the newest Twins. I feel really badly for Blankenhorn. Hopefully he will be consoled by some of the older players and he will keep on plugging away.

Best of luck to Nick and Alex. We Twins fans have been waiting a long time for this, but I bet it seems like an eternity to Alex and Nick.

At least I can turn off my MLB.com Twins game of the day. Thanks to the TD writers for suffering through watching all the Twins games, some of which have been pretty difficult to watch.

Simmons is a defensive whiz at arguably the most important defensive position on the team. There is no better defensive combo at SS and CF (the 2 critical defensive positions) than Buck and Simmons.

It's a long season. But I'm tired already.