Sarah

Thanks- almost 13 years ago, time flies. Maybe I will ask him about that next week!

Looking forward to it, thanks guys. What year was it that Jacque Jones led off the season (I think it was in Kansas City) with a home run? I'm sure I could look it up but I figured someone on here would know...still remember that obviously. It was a fun opening day jolt like, "Yay, baseball is back."

I think they did it on K-Twin last year, hopefully they will go it again this year. More people will probably listen to it than listen to whatever format that station is on now... Even if you don't stand in line for autographs it is just fun to talk baseball, that doesn't cost anything once you get in. This is kind of cheesy but I like to go to the Kids Q&A sessions because kids ask the cutest questions.

Thrylos, I see that you live in Pennsylvania so you can't attend in person but I attended this last year and I thought Dave St. Peter was candid and engaging with the fans. Do you ever attend fan events for any of the teams on the east coast? I grew up in Minnesota but am always interested to know if other teams have the same level of engagement from team personnel that the Twins do. And a side note, I got my picture taken with Scott Erickson last year and my sister said, "He looks like a Ken doll!"

I hope they move it to the new stadium once it's done. I am going on Sunday and thought it was nice last year but I agree about the dark hallway in the basement. It was fun to see some of the areas that are normally off limits like the clubhouse but it's also the kind of thing that once is enough. It is all indoors, I don't remember being cold and I'm usually cold. I really liked the layout when it was at the Metrodome. And I agree Ben, bring back some of the free autographs - I remember the photos used to be free too.

I agree Jeremy, this is irritating. One of my prized possessions is a Torii Hunter autographed baseball card from when he first came up and his name is perfectly spelled out. Sometimes I forget to write down who signed something and then it's useless to me because I can't remember who it is! Any baseball player who takes the time to spell his name legibly so that it's a great keepsake for that fan definitely gets his gold star in my book.

Old Twins Cap, your comment reminds me of a quote from Nelson Mandela I like: “Sport has the power to change the world…it has the power to inspire. It has the power to unite people in a way that little else does. It speaks to youth in a language they understand. Sport can create hope where once there was only despair. It is more powerful than government in breaking down racial barriers.”

Thank you- maybe I will meet Pete Bjarkman at the SABR convention next summer, I would love to go to Cuba someday.

While the dark, cold days of winter can be an ideal time to dive into research on baseball history, as a lifelong baseball fan I have to ask...is there ever a bad time to talk about baseball history? I serve as co-chair of the research committee for the local chapter of the Society for American Baseball Research and invite other Twins Daily readers to get involved with our group. While the dark, cold days of winter can be an ideal time to dive into research on baseball history, as a lifelong baseball fan I have to ask...is there ever a bad time to talk about baseball history? I serve as co-chair of the research committee for the local chapter of the Society for American Baseball Research and invite other Twins Daily readers to get involved with our group. One of our projects is called the Origins of Baseball in Minnesota Project, where you can select a city to research. Because my parents have a cabin on Lake Vermilion I am up in the Iron Range area frequently so I chose Chisholm. (Yes, insert obligatory Moonlight Graham reference here...) I visited the Minnesota Historical Society, Iron Range Research Center, St. Louis County Historical Society and contacted many other organizations I haven't had a chance to visit in person. I turned my findings into an article for Lake Superior Magazine and a presentation for the fall regional chapter meeting held recently in Minneapolis. http://www.lakesuper...-american-game/ Is there a game or player you remember and want to highlight to contribute to the ongoing collection of baseball lore? For some reason, this random regular season game two decades ago has always stayed in my mind so it was fun to revisit it through writing an article for the SABR Games Project: http://sabr.org/game...y-goes-distance You can also contribute individual articles through the Bio Project and other areas of interest depending on your time- a plethora of opportunities to get involved exist without a huge commitment. The 2015 SABR Convention is going to be held next summer in Chicago, another American League Central city. I was lucky enough to attend this annual event a couple of years ago when it was in Minneapolis- read my Twins Daily blog recap for an idea of what to expect: http://twinsdaily.co...abr-newbie-r591 As I am neither a math or economics major spending my days crunching stats (I tend more toward the liberal arts of writing and research), I still remember being pleasantly surprised by this other wing of SABR more in line with my background. The Minnesota chapter, appropriately named the Halsey Hall Chapter, has many activities locally and throughout the Upper Midwest including a book club and trips to minor league parks around the area.Visit our website to learn more about how you can join us soon or check out the SABR website for endless possibilities on getting involved with baseball history! View full article

While the dark, cold days of winter can be an ideal time to dive into research on baseball history, as a lifelong baseball fan I have to ask...is there ever a bad time to talk about baseball history? I serve as co-chair of the research committee for the local chapter of the Society for American Baseball Research and invite other Twins Daily readers to get involved with our group. One of our projects is called the Origins of Baseball in Minnesota Project, where you can select a city to research. Because my parents have a cabin on Lake Vermilion I am up in the Iron Range area frequently so I chose Chisholm. (Yes, insert obligatory Moonlight Graham reference here...) I visited the Minnesota Historical Society, Iron Range Research Center, St. Louis County Historical Society and contacted many other organizations I haven't had a chance to visit in person. I turned my findings into an article for Lake Superior Magazine and a presentation for the fall regional chapter meeting held recently in Minneapolis. http://www.lakesuperior.com/lifestyle/recreation/361-chisholms-love-for-the-all-american-game/ Is there a game or player you remember and want to highlight to contribute to the ongoing annals of baseball lore? For some reason, this random regular season game two decades ago has always stayed in my mind so it was fun to revisit it through writing an article for the SABR Games Project: http://sabr.org/gamesproj/game/july-8-1994-tewksbury-goes-distance You can also contribute individual articles through the Bio Project and other areas of interest depending on your time- a plethora of opportunities to get involved exist without a huge commitment. The 2015 SABR Convention is going to be held next summer in Chicago, another American League Central city. I was lucky enough to attend this annual event a couple of years ago when it was in Minneapolis- read my Twins Daily blog recap for an idea of what to expect: http://twinsdaily.com/articles.html/_/minnesota-twins-news/confessions-of-a-sabr-newbie-r591 As I am neither a math or economics major spending my days crunching stats (I tend more toward the liberal arts of writing and research), I still remember being pleasantly surprised by this other wing of SABR more in line with my background. The Minnesota chapter, appropriately named the Halsey Hall Chapter, has many activities locally and throughout the Upper Midwest including a book club and trips to minor league parks around the area. Visit our website to learn more about how you can join us soon or check out the SABR website for endless possibilities on getting involved with baseball history!

After I finish watching the Roosevelts series that I taped earlier this fall, I may have to watch the baseball series again this winter- thanks for the idea. You can get all of the episodes on DVD at the library!

She was too young and he was too young to lose his mother...very sad.

I was rooting for the Nationals...darn it. Denard definitely didn't help them much. I was rooting for both the Orioles and Royals so will enjoy watching the ALCS. Giants and Cardinals...meh. Go AL!

I don't blame him for not pitching an extra inning out of the bullpen- this is baseball, he could blow out his arm or get hit in the head by a line drive. He finished the season without being injured, which is no small feat for pitchers these days. And I agree with those who said he shouldn't be paid the bonus- he had to get to a certain amount of innings and he didn't. Paying the money seems like setting a dangerous precedent- what if they have another player next year who is two outs short of a bonus?

Thanks for the tip- hopefully I will be able to check into that someday!

Or for those of us who live in the Twin Cities, MSP and Atlanta are both Delta hubs and Chattanooga is only about two hours from Atlanta. Yes, I've already checked this. :-)

Thanks for the update John- it was fun meeting those guys at TwinsFest last winter!

I agree, that was truly frightening- if he "only" has a concussion he is lucky relatively speaking.

I agree, not the most talented player in the world but a fun guy to watch. I remember I met him when I was about 20 and when he called me "ma'am" I turned around to see who he was talking to. He was a polite guy!

Download attachment: 42-movie.jpg I had the pleasure of watching the movie “42” last night so thought I would post my review. The beginning credits alert us that it was “based on a true story.” Really? Who knew! (Maybe there was a specific reason they had to include that, I don’t know.) The opening scenes paint the picture of the country at the time. Afro-American men returned from fighting for their country in World War II, but Jim Crow laws segregating them from the white man’s world were still in effect. The movie also touches on what I think is one of the interesting contradictions in baseball history - how was baseball, a sport so steeped in tradition and history, at the forefront of integration? Because of the work of two men: Branch Rickey and Jackie Robinson.[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK] I thought the movie was magnificently cast- it was one of those movies where the main players (no pun intended) are so well known that the choice to go with relative unknowns really allows you to identify with them as their character, not as “famous actor x” playing a character. Chadwick Boseman, who bears a remarkable resemblance to Jackie Robinson, does an admirable job in the baseball scenes capturing Robinson’s athletic mannerisms such as dancing off the bases to distract the pitcher or sliding into second base. He also takes us into the mind of a man thrust into this world and gives us a glimpse of the rage, frustration and despair Robinson must have felt leading up to and during that first season in Brooklyn. The other cast members portraying Robinson’s teammates shed some light onto an underappreciated aspect of the story: what must it have been like to be a teammate of his? The actors portraying PeeWee Reese and Ralph Branca both have memorable scenes. Of course, Harrison Ford is a well-known actor and it’s a different type of role for him - instead of the swashbuckling Indiana Jones or playing a romantic lead, he plays an older man with what I’m guessing are fake eyebrows and some face prosthetics? He gives audiences a glimpse of the man who would make such a momentous decision. There is even a local connection: Minneapolis native T.R. Knight plays Dodgers employee Harold Parrott. I am a fan of some of Brian Helgeland’s movies (“L.A. Confidential” and “Mystic River”) and thought the movie was well-paced. There was only one scene, when Rachel Robinson leaves her son with the babysitter to go to the game, that I thought disrupted the flow of the movie. (I still don’t understand what the point of that scene was.) Some of the language is pure Hollywood drama (“What do you do when a hero comes to dinner?”). And, as always, the filmmakers took liberties with the facts to make it flow better as a movie (the legendary scene of PeeWee Reese putting his arm around Jackie Robinson may not have taken place in Cincinnati). But fans of the game will be able to appreciate the research and authenticity of the baseball scenes and non-baseball fans will enjoy the great human story. To Helgeland’s credit, the movie doesn’t sugar coat what Robinson experienced (In fact, as it is in most cases, you know the movie barely scratches the surface.) The PG-13 rating is mostly due to the racial epithets liberally used in the film. With such heavy subject matter, I was also impressed by the film’s ability to intersperse humor throughout. (In one memorable scene, the new Dodgers manager Burt Shotton comes into the clubhouse to introduce himself to the players, turns to Jackie Robinson and says, “You Robinson?”) This is a great addition to the cadre of baseball movies and reminds us to take a minute to remember the sacrifices of two great men who changed our country more than 60 years ago. Have you seen it and what did you think? Click here to view the article

“Value Strategies for Building a Roster.” “Integration or Preservation? The Great Dilemma for the Black Press Presented by Negro League Baseball in the 1940s and 1950s.” “From the Diamond to the Helix: Major League Baseball and Genetic Testing in Latin America.” These were some of the presentations given to a group of hard core baseball fans in Minneapolis last week. Established in 1971, the Society for American Baseball Research is a non-profit organization that works to generate interest in the history of the game and invent new ways to judge player performance (think “Moneyball.”) As a lifelong baseball fan, I had always been vaguely aware of SABR. When perusing their booth at TwinsFest last year, the SABR representative mentioned that the convention was going to be held in Minneapolis in 2012. Download attachment: SABR42.jpg [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK] I love baseball and I love history, so it seemed a perfect time to join. Allow me to share my adventures as a new convert to this mystical baseball world! As I stepped up to the registration table, I was handed a bag filled with enough reading material to last me for the rest of the summer: a current issue of Baseball America, a new SABR publication titled “Short but Wondrous Summers: Baseball in the North Star State” (lots of stories about the history of baseball in Minnesota), a copy of “The Minneapolis Review of Baseball” (yet more local baseball stories), a recent Minnesota Twins program and a St. Paul Saints magnet schedule now on my fridge next to the Twins one I received at this year’s home opener (you can never have too many magnet schedules). I passed over the obligatory Minneapolis-St. Paul visitor’s guide, welcome letter from Meet Minneapolis and Mall of America coupon book. Stew Thornley, the convention committee chair and local Halsey Hall chapter newsletter editor, greeted me warmly and mentioned that, although I would be outnumbered by males, “it’s more about quantity than quality.” By the time I arrived at my first event, the SABR Authors Panel featuring Mark Armour (“Pitching, Defense and Three-Run Homers: The 1970 Baltimore Orioles”), Rob Fitts (“Banzai Babe Ruth: Baseball, Espionage and Assassinations During the 1934 Tour of Japan”), Daniel Levitt (“The Battle That Forged Modern Baseball: The Federal League Challenge and Its Legacy”), John Thorn (“Baseball in the Garden of Eden: The Secret History of the Early Game”) and Steve Treder (“The Hardball Times”) had packed the entire entrance area to Barnes and Noble. I could tell I was in a knowledgeable crowd when one man mistakenly asked about the four 20-game winners on the 1970 Baltimore Orioles (tsk, tsk, everyone knows it was the 1971 Orioles…at least everyone in that group it seemed). John Thorn, Major League Baseball’s official historian, talked about how larger-than-life personalities such as Abner Doubleday and Alexander Cartwright have been elevated to mythic levels in the annals of the game, while the real men behind the beginning of the organized game including Daniel Lucius Adams, William Rufus Wheaton and Louis Fenn Wadsworth, are largely ignored. As I would come to find out in many SABR events and presentations, the Q&A period had to be cut off after a certain point or we would all still be standing there asking questions and debating the game. Yes, these people love baseball. With my status as a new member, I was invited to attend the First-Timers Welcome Reception in the Minnesota Room of the Marriott Hotel. There was also an “Under 30” mixer and reception on Thursday night but I found these titles to be meaningless. These were “receptions” masquerading as excuses to talk baseball to anyone and everyone. (And what’s wrong with that?) The standard ball park fare (burgers and brats) was served and then the trivia questions started. “Who was the first player selected by the Mets in the expansion draft?” (Some guy named Hobie Landrith apparently…) When the speaker admonished everyone to “keep the answers to themselves” I turned to the person sitting next to me and said, “That won’t be a problem, since I don’t know any of these answers.” It was the beginning of my weekend meeting baseball fans from around the country and discussing the illogical nature of the game. I talked to a Rockies fan that night who reminisced about their great run in 2007 and how, going into the last weekend of the season, no less than five things all had to go right for them to even force a one game playoff with the Padres. Of course everything fell the Rockies way and they made it to the World Series for the first time…perfectly logical! I could have stayed to discuss the game all night…alas, I had to get up for work the next day. I envied everyone staying at the Marriott- after all, where else can you roll out of bed and instantly start debating the merits of interleague play with complete strangers? With nearly 40 research presentations running at concurrent times, it’s impossible to hear everything but a couple that I enjoyed were “Trying to Get a Major League Baseball Team in Portland, Oregon, from 2000 to 2005: Political and Economic Realities and the Soft Underbelly of Baseball Exposed” and “The Inauguration of This Noble and Manly Game Among Us- The Spread of Baseball in the South Prior to 1870.” I learned that the lack of a viable ownership group and the political will of the Washington, D.C. area doomed Portland’s chances for an MLB team and how the stories that the northern soldiers brought baseball to the South during the Civil War are not true as baseball was alive and well in the antebellum South. Time in between research presentations could be spent in the vendor’s room, where I was surrounded by authors and reminded of the extensive baseball library that exists and grows larger every year with a seemingly endless variety of topics just waiting to be discovered. There was also a poster room for people who had created reports on subjects ranging from major leaguers who had hit a home run as a major leaguer and minor leaguer in the same park (not as rare as you might think since many major league teams will play an exhibition game at a minor league stadium toward the end of spring training) to trying to determine how much home field advantage matters (it matters somewhat but not as much as it’s made out to according to that author’s research). I appreciated one of the reports which pointed out that baseball is the only sport where you’re guaranteed to be on offense at the end of the game if the situation warrants. Fun facts like that remind me why I like this game so much and - dare I say - why it’s the greatest game in the world. (And at the SABR convention, who is going to argue with me on that?) Or you’re free to spend your time striking up a conversation in the lobby about anything relating to baseball…are you noticing a theme here? Some of the most heavily attended events were the speaker panels featuring a debate about official scoring, women in baseball and a Q&A with Terry Ryan (who they announced would be receiving SABR’s prestigious Roland Hemond Award next year). When discussing Target Field, Ryan emphasized that just about the most depressing thing in the world was having to go into the sterile Metrodome on a beautiful Minnesota summer day. (Amen to that!) Also, with many visitors experiencing Target Field for the first time it was a major topic of conversation. As could be expected, everyone I talked with absolutely raved about it. One person that had been to the Metrodome even said they were so happy for Twins fans because now we have a “real” ballpark. Another attendee couldn’t get enough of it- he went to the game on Wednesday afternoon, went on a tour Thursday morning and was planning to attend the game on Friday night…but then, what better place to talk baseball than at a ballpark? As you can probably tell, I gravitated much more toward the history related events but there was plenty to entertain the sabrmetrics minded as well. I went to the SABR Case Competition, where students from the University of Chicago gave an encore of their first place presentation from the inaugural SABR Analytics Conference in March. As I understood it, students from around the country (seemed to be mostly MBA level or economics majors) were selected to participate and given a case study to analyze data to determine whether the Washington Nationals should have been buyers or sellers at the trade deadline last year. Oh, and they had 72 hours to do it and that included travel time to the conference. The moderator mentioned that team representatives were in attendance at the presentations and several students involved are doing internships for various teams or MLB this summer. I wish I could have spent a lot more time there but I very much enjoyed my first experience at the SABR convention nonetheless. It reminded me of being in Cooperstown for Hall of Fame induction weekend - a mecca for baseball fans. Simply put, it was a baseball “bucket list” item I didn’t even know I should have on my bucket list! I’ll admit I joined SABR with a bit of trepidation (I remember asking the guy at TwinsFest, “Honestly - is this just a group of old guys sitting around and complaining about how much better the old days were?”) but beyond their image as statistics crazed Moneyball junkies, I found almost everyone to be very friendly and welcoming. (Okay, in truth there were a few grumps…but aren’t there a few of these to be found anywhere?) As a freelance writer, I can certainly appreciate the time spent researching and writing each presentation and can only imagine the organizational skill it takes to pull off a convention like this. My deepest appreciation and thanks to everyone who helped bring this great event to Minneapolis for all baseball fans to enjoy! Click here to view the article

I think the saddest thing I have read in this post is that he now has three kids...

You will really enjoy it- the Quad Cities park is the nicest minor league ballpark I've ever seen. I ate at the ballpark so I can't give recommendations for dinner but they do have Whitey's ice cream in the Quad Cities which is awesome and the breakfast buffet at the nearby casino was cheap. I don't know how long you are going to be there but there is also a boardwalk area where you can rent bikes and the Rock Island arsenal was pretty interesting. I like that area!

I was lucky enough to get this book autographed by Tim Wendel when he was doing a book signing in St. Paul earlier this spring. I really enjoyed this book and how he weaved the personal stories in with narratives of each game.