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No, Herrmann, put on that glove so you can heat up your bat.

Joe Joe!

Yeah, yeah, let's see how many runners can die on base now.

Because the game is no fun anymore...disaster just struck in my house. My sister bought tickets for my mom and a few other family members (me excluded - wail) to a Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra concert, and they were mislaid for about 5 minutes. Imagine the ruckus.

I suppose this is just awful of me as a Twins fan, but I actually laughed for the first time today when I saw that.

Why is it that if somebody, just anybody, says "The Twins are gonna win this," the Twins are immediately placed in serious jeopardy of losing the game, but if somebody, anybody says that we're going to lose... well, it's kind of given, right?

Well, what next.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!! I HAAATE Kris!! He's celebrating like this is the best day of his life! He's just making life worse for me right now!!

No. No. No.

Noo. You'd think I was listening to Cleveland's announcers the way Kris is so excited. He always roots for the opponents. Even Hawk Harrelson is funner to listen to that Kris. At least he knows who his team is.

The first thing I wondered at the beginning of the game was if we should switch completely over to pink bats.

Bring a pocket radio and conveniently get stuck in the bathroom for a couple of hours. That way you won't miss anything (unless game threads count as something).

I'm sorry to say that Kris Atteberry is the most annoying of them all. It figures that I'm the one listening to the game. Why don't you try Cleveland's radio with the sound turned down on the TV? As a general rule the radio announcers are better. Unless you do indeed feel lucky listening to Cleveland's TV broadcasters.

And Santana... nice!

Happy Mother's Day, all you mothers who happen to read this! Especially you, ChiTown, since you did the game thread today. I picked out a picture just for you:

No.

GONE!!!

And this game is underway.

To which you replied, "I don't know whether or not to be afraid." I hope you know now. And good job, by the way. It's always nice to look at the things that we have a tendency to forget matter, like well-fed children and yes, even simple game threads.

I don't know. I think that Torii Hunter actually plays a big role in this situation, even though there are still a lot of people who would like to stick a fork in him. We did have good examples last year - Joe Mauer, for instance, but did we have a real strong leader like Torii? I don't think so. You may disagree with me, but somebody can't just be a good example to be a leader. He has to be fun so that everyone wants to hang out with him and great so that he's respected. Age is also a huge factor here. Brian Dozier has the makings of being a great leader, but he is still establishing himself, and you can't expect him to lead a whole team. Anyway, who else on the team has the cockiness that Torii has? He's instilled into the team something that Brian Dozier, a player who has never been on a contending team, could never have done this year. So basically I think that Gardy would have had a good year, too. But I like Molly and his willingness to experiment. It's fun, entertaining, and, best of all, we're getting those wins. I may have been upset when we fired Gardy, but you know, I ain't complaining now!

Luke Westphal pitched two innings in relief today against the Jupiter Hammerheads. The Miracle won in the 10th inning, and Westphal, whose ERA now stands at 4.82, picked up his 1st Minor League win.

A couple weeks ago, I sent a letter to Luke Westphal asking him if he would mind answering some questions as I write about his minor league career here on Twins Daily. I remember predicting (to myself, that is) that he would be one of the more likely minor leaguers to respond since he's from Wisconsin, and if there was ever a friendly person in the world, I think I can safely say that they were probably Wisconsinite. Not to bash Minnesotans or anything, but as a general rule, while they are very nice, they are a little more reserved. In answer to my questions, Luke told me that he grew up in a small town about 2 1/2 hours north of Milwaukee, so he was a Brewers fan growing up. Anytime he would go to a big league game it was always at Miller Park to watch the Brewers. Besides baseball, he played basketball and football throughout high school and enjoyed them almost as much as baseball. When he was younger his favorite player was Cliff Lee since he was a lefty, but he would watch a lot of different left handed pitchers and try to learn whatever he could from what they were doing. Obviously he was excited at the opportunity to play affiliated baseball with any team, but he said that being signed by a team so close to home was a great added bonus. He said that he has had a lot of good coaches who have helped him out along the way at every level. His college coach was fantastic when it came to working with pitchers, so he learned a lot in college and still tries to carry that over with him now. He said that his entire family serves as his mentors and that they provide him with enough support and reason to succeed. In answer to my question about whether he had a specific pitch that he was planning to devote extra work on this year, Westphal said that he will just devote extra time to making sure he can throw each of his pitches for a strike whenever he needs to. That way he will have 4 possible pitches in any count (fastball, curveball, slider, and changeup). When I wrote the letter, Westphal had had only one outing from the bullpen so far in the minors, in which he put up good numbers in a single inning. I asked if he hoped to eventually move back to his native starting position or if he saw himself in the bullpen in the future, and he responded, "Well so far this season I came out of the bullpen for one outing, and then I have had 3 starts since then. Right now I am not sure what I will be doing for sure. I enjoy starting and hopefully I will continue to do that for a while, but I will pitch in whatever situation they decide to put me in, starting or relieving." Westphal assured me that he would be more than happy to answer any questions I have in the future, so if anyone happens to have a question of their own, they can pop it to me in this thread or a PM, and I'll consider passing it on based on its pertinence. Hope you enjoyed reading this!

Oh well, big deal. Actually I wanted the Cards to win the WS so much in 2011 I almost died of a stress attack, and when they finally did win I ran out to the garage and kissed the hoods of the cars.

That must be why he added that part about "love it or hate it." We're not all fans of St. Louis here in Minnesota.

She, I believe.