Sarah

Thanks for sharing, it was fun to read!

I feel the same way about MLB Extra Innings - I had that for one year and I felt like it made me sit on my couch for the entire summer!

I am a big basketball fan but I don't have the passion for it like I do for baseball. I mostly follow high school and college basketball because the seasons line up almost perfectly. Even though March is the best time of the year to be a fan of both sports I usually hit a wall at the end of March because I have watched as much basketball as I can possibly watch and I really want to focus my attention solely on baseball!

Tampa now has my two favorite ex-Twins, Denard Span and Wilson Ramos. Always liked both of them. Nice bases clearing triple by Span yesterday!

I would love to but I don't have the funds for that. It would be an amazing experience though! I agree with the others, a full report would be a fun read.

I remember when I heard Delino DeShields was playing for Texas and my first thought was "Delino DeShields is still playing??" Then I realized it was his son...yes, I did feel old.

I have one that is the opposite of regrettable but it was from a player that was forgettable - I had my picture taken with Matt Kinney and he thanked me for coming to the game. Clearly I remember that!

You and me both Carole. I grew up in Minneapolis and neither my high school or college had a hockey team and it was the time when the North Stars had left and the Wild hadn't started yet. My nephew plays hockey and I tell people to me it seems like they are just skating around out there because I know nothing about the game...to each his own!

I have watched some of it mostly because I have taped it so I can skip through the commercials. I enjoyed Adam Rippon's performance in men's figure skating. I like skaters who have so much power when they go up for jumps and then they land perfectly. I don't understand the skeleton, do those athletes have a death wish or something... Maybe some of the curling will be on next weekend when it is the medal round, I don't have cable so am limited to what is on NBC. Speed skating is hard to watch on TV because you don't get a sense for how fast they are really skating. (Upon seeing it, my 11 year old nephew who is a hockey player said he could skate faster than them. I told him you can skate faster than an Olympic athlete that has been training his entire life...uh huh.)

I also noticed the lack of home games on holidays - if they were in town for the Fourth of July I would definitely be going to that game, not that I'm complaining to get the day off but not much else you can do with a Wednesday in the middle of the week. At least they are playing somewhere, I remember in 2000 they were off on Memorial Day. Not on the road, just off. I was outraged...and considering I remember the year it clearly has scarred me for life. :-) Looking forward to watching some Gopher baseball again this season at US Bank Stadium. Definitely eat before you go, I was there for the X Games last summer and the food was even more overpriced than Target Field and not nearly as good.

Thanks Tom - I remember all of these. It is still pretty amazing when I think about how serendipitous the Get to Know 'Em ads were with the team improving. I still have a lot of the magnets and buttons they gave out at the games too. Clearly as we are still talking about them nearly 20 years later they were a special group.

I was happy to see the prospects autograph signings were free this year, they had been in the past but I think they were making people pay for them at some point. I didn't have a chance to do it this year but that was always one of my favorite things, sometimes their lines aren't too long and you can talk to them as well.

I went last year and enjoyed it so am looking forward to attending this year. It's a great deal for being free as John mentions there are others out there that cost hundreds to attend.

I am a member of the local chapter and we have lots of events throughout the year whatever your interest is. We have a book club where we choose a baseball related book to read and some people come to those events even if they haven't read the book just because they like to talk baseball. :-)

I think Thome will get it, he was a feared slugger in both leagues for many years. Johan Santana is my favorite Twins pitcher but even I don't think he should get into the Hall of Fame. His peak was amazing but it was so brief. Even though he wasn't playing for the Twins any more it was kind of sad to see his career derailed by injuries.

Is Curry more of a power forward? I don't remember him much from last year, too bad he's injured but that's life. I forgot about Oturu, I haven't watched him at Cretin but he definitely seems like more of a center, will be interesting to see how he does with the Gophers too.

This is the best news since...well, since they left WCCO. 96.3 comes in fine for me but I remember having trouble getting 1500 at my house...grr. Glad we are done dealing with this!

I was at the game on Wednesday and while it's always hard to judge when they are playing some random non-conference team (bitter rival Niagara this time...) they have some good big men in Murphy and Lynch which is always needed when you are playing in the Big Ten. Coffey had a good game - one thing that was weird to me is that he is listed as a guard but he seemed more like a small forward to me. I am excited to watch Gabe Kalscheur with the Gophers next year, I have watched him with DeLaSalle and he is a good one. Pure shooting guards are really fun to watch. It's funny I was thinking with Coffey, Washington, Kalscheur and Murphy next year they have an opportunity to have some good guard/forward play...too bad they are losing Lynch and none of the other center type players they have seem that great. Typical Minnesota sports team that has talented players but can't put it all together.

I agree about Greg Gagne! 2001 was pretty fun too - that was the year both Hunter and Mientkiewicz both won Gold Gloves and after the dark ages of the late 90's it was fun to watch them both break through on the national defensive scene. But Buxton's season this year was ridiculous.

No, I agree with this. I don't think he will win but I remember saying earlier this season that Dozier is a better second baseman than people give him credit for. And he's out there busting it every day - I can't remember a game this season when he didn't play. Nice to see him getting some recognition for this underrated part of his game.

I always have to chuckle when announcers say stuff like this - Joe Buck: "Dodger Stadium is the third oldest ballpark in the majors but you wouldn't know it because it's so well maintained." Hello?? California?? A little harder to maintain a ballpark when we have this thing called WINTER. Minnesota snarkiness aside, Dodger Stadium is a classic ballpark though - very comfortable place to watch a game. And I don't even like the Dodgers.

It is interesting to wonder if we will ever know the truth on this - for those from Minnesota, I always thought about the Jacob Wetterling case this way. On the 25th anniversary of his kidnapping I wondered if we would ever find out what really happened. It's been more than a year since then and it's still kind of surreal for those of us who grew up with that mystery. So never say never...

I suspect that is a part of it for me as well - Wrigley Field was the second MLB ballpark I went to after the Metrodome. It was a nice day and I remember coming out of the concourse, looking at the field and going, "Oh okay, so this is what a ballpark is supposed to look like..." I've been to almost all of them now but Wrigley is still a special place.

“Sure, we knew about racism – met it every day. But we loved playing ball and that field wasn’t black or white, just beautiful green grass. It treated everybody the same.” Negro Leaguer Joe Scott As one of the official reviewers for the Twin Cities Film Fest, I am provided with advance screeners for many of the movies selected to be shown at the annual October event. One of the best parts about it is discovering films that I may not otherwise see. Such is the case for “Legends of the Road,” a new documentary making its Minnesota premiere on October 23 and highlighting the story of students from Chief Sealth High School in Seattle and their classroom project: to uncover forgotten stories of baseball barnstorming from the early 20th century and then plan and execute a summer long re-creation of this era with a 5,100 mile, 71 day trip done on bicycle while playing 33 games along the way. If this sounds like an extraordinary film that any baseball fan would enjoy, it is. For two years, these public high school students made more than 15,000 phone calls and conducted nearly 500 phone interviews with black barnstormers, their opponents, Ex-Negro League players, baseball historians and others to shed light on a part of, not just baseball history, but American history. According to the film, the students compiled more information on black baseball player movements in the western United States and Canada than both the National Baseball Hall of Fame and the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum had at the time…combined. Minnesota is mentioned twice in the film – when Buck O’Neil comes to visit one of the female students asks him if there were any women playing. Without hesitating, O’Neil mentions St. Paul’s Toni Stone, adding “Toni Stone could play.” Also, during the biking trip it lists game #25 as being played in Mankato. The logistics and documenting of the second part of the project, in which participants covered twelve states and provinces, was also the work of these ambitious high schoolers. Opponents faced included semi-professional clubs and American Legion teams and the trip was funded with business sponsorships. After losing their first game 14-0 and making six errors, they finished the trip with a winning record. “People wanted to see a different brand of baseball – we invented the double steal and the drag bunt,” Negro Leaguer Hank “Pistol” Mason says in the film. In addition to the interesting anecdotes gleaned from the interviews during the movie, baseball fans are sure to enjoy the closing shot of the credits in which the ballplayers emerge from the corn at the Field of Dreams in Dyersville, Iowa. “Legends of the Road” will be making its Minnesota premiere at the Twin Cities Film Fest on Monday, October 23 at 3:30 pm at the Showplace Icon Theatre in St. Louis Park. Filmmaker Gary Thomsen and Negro Leagues Museum President Bob Kendrick are scheduled to be in attendance. There will also be a book signing and pre-show Q&A prior to the show beginning at 2 pm including Minnesota authors Frank White (“They Played for the Love of the Game”) and Conrad Kerber and Terry Kerber (“Mayor Taylor: The Inspiring Story of a Black Cyclist and the Men Who Helped Him Achieve Worldwide Fame. To purchase tickets, visit their website.

My second favorite team is the Cubs because I grew up watching them on WGN with Steve Stone and Harry Caray and my cousin used to live on the north side of Chicago so I'd go to Wrigley Field when I went to visit him. Yes, I was a Twins fan and Cubs fan growing up... In general I'm also a fan of teams that haven't won in awhile (because being a Twins and Cubs fan I have sympathy for their fans) so I was rooting for the Royals a couple of years ago when they won the World Series. But it gets annoying when a team I wanted to win at first does so too often (see Red Sox and Giants) because I like to see different teams win. Kind of a socialist baseball fan I guess...