BrentMpls

Most of the media is claiming he grew "at least an inch" since last year as well... hard to say what he'll turn out to be of course.

Not much that is for sure, but I think most remember him the Evans pickoff fondly!

Well he's been doing that forever. That way he can take either side of an issue and claim the other stance was just a joke or to get people riled up.

Sounds painful and terrible, hope he recovers. Regarding your bet - I think there is 0% chance he comes back to the Twins.

According to St. Peter Twins renewed 81% of season tickets & TwinsFest attendance was 81% of 2012. DSP went on to say that 75-80% renewal rate is pretty standard across the league and excellent of course for a team with two 90+ loss seasons. IDK - neither? Not sure why either comment or question was directed at me really?

Yep, ever since it started in 2000, same year the bobble heads started.

Not a surprise since St. Peter said it was between Grant, Knoblauch and Guardado last year for the 2013 induction. While I feel other candidates deserved this well before him, I think it is a great addition. This is the Twins Hall of Fame, and Everyday Eddie while not a legend even in the Twins history, was a great player that helped add something worth watching during some very lackluster years. That of course depends on what you feel should be the criteria for The Twins Hall of Fame. Also, I can't help but think that Knoblauch wont be getting an honors anytime soon due to the very negative things he has done in life since leaving baseball, maybe least of which including wanting nothing to do with his baseball past. My experience at Twins HOF day last year: Honoring Camilo Pascual - Blogs - Minnesota Twins News & Rumors Forum Previous list: Minnesota Twins Hall of Famers | twinsbaseball.com: History

Payroll is one of Mackey's personal missions to hammer into the ground as not being an issue and how fans are idiots. Much of his arguments are true and make sense, but he never mentions the biggest elephant in the room with cutting the payroll back to Metrodome numbers 3 years into the new ballpark: If you don't want to spend, even if the reason is not to save costs but rather why acquire more mediocre talent - then where does that extra unspent money go? It's not like they save it away and accrue interest to use in 2014, and go back to over 100 million + the 20 not spent this year + the interest gained. St. Peter will give vague answers like the extra money will go back into the ballpark, but I haven't read anything about a 20-40 million Target Field upgrade. Tickets aren't going down in prices. Tangible freebies aren't being offered. The only real perk I've seen is Season Ticket Holders getting a 10% off card at -some- concession stands. I'd rather see us take a gamble on a mediocre players than have it go into a Pohald void, but I guess that makes me an idiot by Mackey's thinking.

I cringed a bit when The Geek kept talking over St. Peter. Fun episode still, TwinsFest is always a fun event!

For what it is worth, Sid on the Sports Show tonight (which was super creepy and bizarre by having a girl stand in the background, never introduced and silent) said he asked Mauer today about the no-trade clause and Joe says under no circumstances would he waive it.

That Pohlad-generous 10% off only applies to certain CONcessions I'm afraid. No details on what that means, but my spidey-sense tells me craft beers wont be on that list, meaning my Surly will still cost me as much as my ticket. Didn't see any Frankies, but there were some hot Span and Revere Jerseys in stock.

I thought the farm lineup was good too. It was pretty decent weather today until around noon when the slush started to fall!

I associate TK with #10 (the number they retired last year) so definitely Frank "Sweet Music" Viola.

Well, depends on what you mean by that. Since you are on this website, I'm guessing you like to consume as much Twins related content as possible. But to the general public, obviously the game broadcast is the most significant thing. It is a really weird setup playing pop music all day and then broadcasting a game, but it keeps the ratings up higher than having sports talk, at least with the current crop of hosts and format that has been on display at other stations. Also, I found this (why diamondbacks is in the URL... I don't know) Minnesota Twins announce new radio partnership with FM 96.3 K-TWIN | twinsbaseball.com: News "On the programming front, FM 96.3 K-TWIN is committed to an impressive year-round lineup of baseball-themed shows featuring Twins players, coaches and broadcasters. During the season, FM 96.3 K-TWIN will feature comprehensive Twins coverage including game day shows often originating on-location from various places in and around Target Field and Northern Lights Broadcasting’s new studios at the Ford Center (which is across the street from Target Field on 5th street in downtown Minneapolis)" "in 2013 1500 ESPN and the stations of the Treasure Island Baseball Network will continue to air a variety of Twins-related year-round programming including the "Ron Gardenhire Show," “Inside Twins" and an off-season Twins "Hot Stove League" program."

In case you don't click the blog section and are interested in a few words & pictures about my visit to TwinsFest this year, including some Sweet Music and On The Farm action: TwinsFest 2013 - Sunday Jan 27 - Blogs - Minnesota Twins News & Rumors Forum

It looks like all 5 of those are available on eBay at the moment, albiet not cheap, especially 1961.

And I'd also like to say that the 1500 booth was actually kinda fun - friendly people working it, a game of sorts, and some decent freebies (nothing great but magnet schedule and sunglasses are better than nothing!) 96.3 on the other hand had nada mucho.

Twins programming will still be on 1500 - I'm not sure what will be on which station off the top of my head, or if they have even made that 100% clear yet, but some official tie in programs will still occur on 1500 (Ron Gardenhire show for example I believe will still be on 1500). I get the impression that 96.3 will have a morning show, pop music, and Twins games with (maybe?) a pre and post game show. Not sure about pre and post game show even. Everything else will be on 1500 (again, I think).

TwinsFest - which I first experienced when the Twins were riding high on World Series victories, was a fun event to walk through and soak up the baseball atmosphere. It comes at the perfect time of year - Baseball has been done for a few months, and wont be back for a few months, Spring Training and Hot Stove coming up and in full effect. Wonderful. Lets start thinking baseball. A fun autograph opportunity for me has been to bring Seth Stohs's Twins Prospect Book. It is a lot of fun to bring that around to the 'On the Farm' booth and have future prospects sign their entry. [ATTACH=CONFIG]3134[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]3142[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]3145[/ATTACH] I had the chance to meet 8 prospects before I was too tuckered out to wait through another line. Both Aaron Hicks and Kyle Gibson were among them! The Cedar Rapids Kernals were there, selling their goods as this will be the first year that the Class A affiliate will be playing there rather than in Wisconsin (Beloit Snappers). While I'll miss the cool turtle logo, I never did make it out there for a game. Maybe I'll make the trek to Iowa someday. There are also other stations around TwinsFest, where (for a fee) you can meet and obtain autographs from big leaguers, like Willinghammer & Duensing: [ATTACH=CONFIG]3136[/ATTACH] Anyone feel the need for Kemps Ice Cream or a quick Head & Shoulders Shampoo? [ATTACH=CONFIG]3137[/ATTACH] Rollie Fingersand his mustache were signing autographs: [ATTACH=CONFIG]3138[/ATTACH] One of the booths there was this guy who was collecting ticket stubs from games his favorite player appeared in. He said that Minnesota games in the 70's and early 80's are some of the hardest to find in the country: [ATTACH=CONFIG]3140[/ATTACH] I won sunglasses from the ESPN1500 booth, but opted to take a magnet schedule instead. The 96.3 booth didn't have any notable freebies. I was a bit bummed that for the second year in a row all the 'grab bags' were sold out already - for those not familiar they are often stuffed with SGAs (stadium give aways) that were left over from the previous year such as bat day bats, bobbleheads and other fun goodies, usually for around $15. I spotted Jim Pohlad running around the floor. Last year I saw Bill Smith doing the same. Tom Kelly, signing autographs for some guys booth to be sold: [ATTACH=CONFIG]3141[/ATTACH] Tom Pelissero and Jim Souhan interviewing Tom Kelly and Bert Blyleven: [ATTACH=CONFIG]3143[/ATTACH] Tom Pelissero said nobody would shed a tear for this place (The Metrodome - or 'Mall of America Field' as it is officially known today) once it was knocked down and when the Twins moved to Target Field - and yeah - it is a bit of a dump, certainly outdated at least. And Target Field is amazing. My jaw dropped when I first walked into the ballpark and saw how the concourse opens up to the field. I will always have great memories of the dome, and it was nice to hear Tom Kelly say much the same thing to to Mr. Presso. I also got the chance to meet (and get a signature!) from another one of my childhood heroes - Frank Viola, the MVP of the 1987 World Series: [ATTACH=CONFIG]3139[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]3144[/ATTACH] It was a fun time, I'm not sure if this will be my last time in the Dome thinking baseball or if there will be one last TwinsFest hurrah next year before they rip it down for the new Vikings Stadium, but just being back in the building where I had so many good memories, was a lot of fun. Numbers retired by the Twins as of Jan 2013: [ATTACH=CONFIG]3135[/ATTACH]

Disagree with you there, especially if you look at the past several years where making that change would have been a good move. Also, I wasn't Gardy-bashing, simply stating his (very firm) stance on the subject and unlikelihood of its change.

Not Gardy's way. While this might be his last year, and I wouldn't put it past him to finally make this change, I kinda doubt it.

I can't tell from your post if you are serious or not, but I would be against this change. Opposing teams have no trouble hitting it outta the park as is.

No doubt some deep insights will be revealed. har har.