gil4

I did a list in my head before I clicked the link - perfect match. I did think about holding off on Tony O and saving a spot for Mauer, but I assumed we were ready to break ground now and he's not quite there yet, and no sure thing to get there now. Blyleven might be worth an honorable mention, although he built a fair amount of his resume between his two times with the Twins. Johan's list isn't very long, but the peaks were awfully high. He has two of the four Cy Young awards in team history, and he should have had a third. Does TK deserve an honorable mention?

If he did have that year, what would the Twins have done with him? Would they still have traded him (presumably for a bigger return)? Would they have re-signed him? Then what would have become of our former all-star catcher who is now manning 1B? My guess is they would still have traded him, but it would have been nice to get more for him (even if he was just a rental.)

First thought - Did it go over the fence like Jose Cansceco's did? Second thought - It was Mickey Hatcher - did it dent the ball?

Kevin Reimer of the Rangers had to be worse, although looking back at the stats, it was probably close. Reimer was comically bad - he tried to make up for his inability to catch being slow by taking bad routes, so he wouldn't have to actually try to touch the ball. Norwood had 14 errors one year while Reimer maxed out at 11 (in slightly fewer innings.) Reimer managed a -3.2 dWAR one year, while Norwood's worst was -0.9. (Baseball Reference version.)

I'm not sure what he could have done. Within the first half-second of Cubbage realizing he was out, he threw his hat down and got ejected. Tony O just let him vent for a bit. Maybe he could have kept his manager from getting ejected, but from what I remember about Mauch, that was unlikely. "Great" wasn't the word that came to mind. (I did like those batting helmets, though.)

I'm finally going to post what I was originally planning to write when I clicked on the thread, before I got mad. (After I finished writing, I said a lot more than I originally planned to say.) I never understood the hate. It was a tremendous accomplishment. The countdown was exiting. I remember (and I think I remember accurately) watching Monday Night Baseball and having them switch to the Braves game for Hank Aaron's at-bats. I remember seeing the home run live. And I remember hearing about the people who were upset because a black man was breaking Ruth's record, and in the ears of a nine-year old, it was just stupid. In the ears of a 49-year-old, it's still stupid. I saw the movie "42" for the first time last weekend. There was one scene where Branch Rickey told about a white kid immitating Jackie Robinson. That was me, except I wasn't Jackie Robinson rubbing dirt on my hands (he was before my time). I was the stocky, right-handed white Rod Carew using a lefty open stance, with the bat tilted back, an inside-out swing, and a number 29 taped on the back of my cheap plastic Twins helmet. I also remember a Sports Illustrated article and his wife endured a lot of abuse because he's black and she is white. And that made no sense to me, either. That's not to toot my own horn. If I had been born 10 or 20 years earlier, it probably would have made sense to me, but I wasn't and that wasn't how I was raised. I also know how well prejudices can be hidden. My younger sister was asked to the prom by a kid who was black. My mother gave me the third degree about him, and I gave all the wrong answers. "He's a really nice kid, very polite and respectful (not being condescending - he was just a very "yes sir/no sir kind of kid, and that wasn't the norm in the northeast, so that kind of stood out), they go to our church, you know the family his father is a teacher at the high school... My mother's answer was "But he's black." It shocked the hell out of me. She hadn't raised me like that, but it was there. I answered "So-o-o-o?" She started to cry. She had nothing else. But I'm pretty sure she still said no. (My sister was a few years younger, and I did my best to ignore here at the time.) Arthur C., if your daughter asks my daughter to the prom, and he's as nice a kid as you were, the answer will be yes. That's all I can do. I can't go back and right old wrongs. Our country has come a long way since Jackie Robinson - huge strides, not baby steps. Is there a ways left to go. Of course. Will we ever get there? This study leads me to believe we probably won't: http://seattle.cbslocal.com/2014/04/16/study-babies-show-racial-bias/. All we can do is work to identify our biases and evaluate our decisions in the light of them. If we want to have an honest discussion of race in America, we need to stop expecting to fix past wrongs. It can’t be done. Reparations are not forthcoming. All we can do is draw a line in the sand and start now. My great-great-great grandparents debt is not my debt, nor is my grand-parents’ nor my parents’. (My own sins are too heavy for me to carry without heaping theirs upon me too.) If you’d like to help combat racism of all types and colors, we can talk. If you just want to score points and place blame, don’t waste my time.

Yep, far as I can tell.

Rod Carew. He was about the only thing worth watching for a few years, but those few years were from age 7 to about 13 for me, so it seemed like forever. XL Pepperoni, Italian sausage, mushroom, onion, 3-cheese, extras sauce, cross cut (they call it Chicago cut, but I can't bring myself to do it. If i do, I'm afraid after I place my order they will have someone in there saying "put it on the board, yeah". I don't want to encourage that kind of thing.) The TWINSWIN is a much better promo than the RANGER7 that we have here. We get the half off if the Rangers score 7 runs, but last weekend they scores 7 runs in a series agains the Astros, including two 1-0 wins. Last night was the third time they reached 7 runs all year.

I hate that darned rally monkey, but it was the only logical option this time.

I could see all kinds of new plays. There's the new twist on the hidden ball trick - just throw a snowball back to the pitcher instead. On hits to the outfield, players will be rounding the bases while outfielders dig for the ball, but then outfielders will start decoying by digging when they have already found the ball. It could be entertaining for a while on TV, but I wouldn't want to be there.

Except black crime rates were much lower prior to the 60's, when poverty and racism were worse, but the families mostly stayed together. Then came the so-called Great Society, which sent illegitimacy rates through the roof because there was a financial incentive to not marry. Having a family has an important civilizing effect on men, and having two parents is important for kids. LBJ had one motive for the welfare state, and it wasn't concern for the poor. His reason, in his own words, was "I'll have those [deleted] voting Democratic for the next 200 years" The motives and the results haven't improved since.

Those could all be true and still not indicate racism. Are there physiological difference that make it more difficult to tell ages? Haircuts? Clothing? Facial hair? Tatoos? Are there cultural differences that can result in higher rates of misbehavior? Single-parent? Employment? Media choices (TV/movies/music)? Attitudes taught in the home about authority?

I agree completgely with the post above. You had a little selective editing when you posted the Aaron quote (the bold part is what you left out): "We can talk about baseball. Talk about politics. Sure, this country has a black president, but when you look at a black president, President Obama is left with his foot stuck in the mud from all of the Republicans with the way he's treated. We have moved in the right direction, and there have been improvements, but we still have a long ways to go. "The bigger difference is back then they had hoods. Now they have neckties and starched shirts." That sounds to me like he said opponents of President Obama are gussied-up Klan members.

Tired of the damned lying slander, and that's what this comes off as.

Not quite - the Whte Sox were worse than the Twins last year. (There weren't many bright spots on the season, but that was one.)

Anyone who can reference Hosken Powell and Bombo Rivera in a screen name, two of my favorite love/hate Twins from the bad old days, gets a lot of leeway in my book. Now if you could have worked Willie Norwood in there too...is the "Disco" maybe some kind of hidden code that I don't have?

If you're not right near the stadium, I think the light rail was the way to go for the Dome. Is that still the case for Target Field? (I haven't been back since 2009.)

While I'm at it, my avatar is going to kick your avatar's football this time, too.

You mean so we can borrow them, right? You're not allowed to be that negative in April - they are still the Royals.

Riverbrian mentioned the ruby slippers. I think the hope is he appears in Kansas. (KC or Omaha - either way is fine.)

You mean that's not him?

I'm concerned, too, because of the concussion. Hopefully it's just a slump and he will snap out of it, but we're still waiting for Morneau to snap out of it, and it has been 3 1/2 years.

I voted Yes just because of the Rally Monkey option. I hate that @^$%$@# monkey

I'm finally home with a chance to use my subscription and it's free. Figures.

From the AJC article: According to Keith Law ... "Gilmartin's fastball sits mostly 87-89 mph with a decent changeup, below-average breaking ball and good control … He might be a fifth starter, although it's hard to see him even being average in the majors with fringy stuff and no out pitch." Hopefully that evaluation was affected by the shoulder issues last year and he has a little more juice on the fastball, because if not, he's Scott Diamond Lite rather than the "better, slightly harder throwing version."