Twins Fans, Cheer Up!

All you Twins fans who are feeling sorry for yourselves, cheer up! Just think, you could live in Chicago and have the White Sox and Cubs as your home teams.
by Charlie Leck

The Twins seem almost hopeless, though no real baseball fan ever completely gives up hope. I remember, while growing up near the New York City metropolitan area, how the Brooklyn Dodgers (we called ‘em the Bums) always left their fans disappointed and glum. The expression around Brooklyn was always: “Wait ‘til next year!” I also remember the 1951 New York Giants who were trailing Brooklyn by 13 games in August of that season. On the last day of the season they pulled into a tie with them and then won the third game of a three game playoff (remember the incredible 9th inning homer by Bobby Thompson?).

How I remember the ecstatic joy we had up here in Twinsland in ’86. The Twins won their first World Series, beating the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games. They did the same thing to the Atlanta Braves in ’91. Boy, “those were the days my friend. We thought they’d never end.”

Now, at Major League Baseball’s all-star break, the Twins are hopelessly mired near the bottom of the standings, 12 games out of first-place. Even Kansas City is ahead of us in the standings. I think we’ve got another stinkin’ year to finish up here, but “wait ‘til next year!”

Here’s a bright spot!
Just think, we could be Chicago baseball fans. They’ve got two Major League teams – one in each of the leagues. The Chicago White Sox are trailing the Twins and are 14 games out of first place. Over in the National League, the Cubs (perennially terrible) are already 15 games back (but 4 games ahead of the lowly Milwaukee Brewers).

Mind you, how would it be to be pulling for one of those Chicago teams or Milwaukee?

Here’s how to make the year interesting!
Tell you what, Twins fans, just make the remainder of this year a race against the Chicago White Sox. That’s all that counts. Beat those stickin, no-good, miserable White Sox. That’s the whole deal – the entire goal! Keep winning more than the White Sox. Do that and it will make going to our beautiful ball park, Target Field, worthwhile. Watch the newspapers each day to see how the Sox did! Check the standings! Place some bets with your Chicago friends.

And this is the fun part!
Take a look at the schedule. We’ve a boat load of games (10) left with the White Sox. With my attitude in mind, those could really be fun and exciting games – especially if you have friends or family in Chicago. You can establish a kind of hate match with them and promise to do their fall-yard clean up if your team loses the final ten game series (or vice versa).

Friday                August 9         Twins at White Sox
Saturday           August 10        Twins at White Sox
Sunday              August 11         Twins at White Sox

Thursday          August 15         White Sox at Twins
Friday                August 16         White Sox at Twins
Saturday           August 17          White Sox at Twins
Sunday              August 18          White Sox at Twins

Monday             Sept 16              Twins at White Sox
Tuesday            Sept 17               Twins at White Sox
Wed                   Sept 18               Twins at White Sox

Plan an out of town trip to Chicago for one of the two series. The Sox stink so bad that tickets will be easy to come by. And, in that September series in Chicago you just might get a chance to see the Twins’ pheeenom and future hope, Byron Buxton, play; for I think the Twins are just going to be forced to call this guy up from the minors by fan demand.

The question is whether I’ll be able to get a room with family or friends down there after the nasty things I’ve written about their ball team.

Let me tell you, if you love baseball, you’ve got to do something to make the season a little bit interesting – even if it’s scorching family!

I can’t wait for the All Star game to get out of the way so the real Twins’ season can get started.

“Go Twins! Beat dem Sox!”

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Women Keep Minnesota Sports Bearable

I’m a sports fan. It’s not everything to me, but it’s an important part of my life. Lately, around here, the stink has been nearly unbearable what with the way the Timberwolves, the Twins, the Vikings, the Wild and the Minnesota Gophers main sports teams have been failing. The Lynx and the Gopher women’s hockey team have had enormous success, however, and I find myself becoming more dependent on these women to salve the ego injuries I receive from all the other teams.
by Charlie Leck

It’s difficult to find the Lynx games on television. Y’all – even those of you in New Mexico and South Carolina – know who the Lynx are don’t you? I watched most of the Lynx game on television yesterday. They destroyed the Mercury by 32 points. Maya Moore had 23 points and Linsay Whalen was her usual, brilliant self running plays and distributing the ball.

As a result of yesterday’s fine game, the Lynx remain snuggly and smugly in first place in their conference. They’re playing championship type basketball. Thank goodness.

Only the miserable Chicago White Sox keep the Twins out of last place, but the Twins are battling them with everything they’ve got to take over that spot.

The Vikings, Minnesota’s most popular sports attraction, languish and have been for a decade or so. They appear to be rebuilding with some semblance of success, but that’s only in the eyes of a die-hard fan. There is every chance they’ll sink again this year without the kind of quarterback leadership they must have.

The Timberwolves have a couple of players (Rickey Rubio and Kevin Love) who keep the fans coming to games so that they have reasonably large crowds at Target Center. Another bad year and that will come to an end and they’ll be playing to nearly empty seats.

The Wild had a moment of glory when they made it to the playoffs last season. The Chicago Blackhawks put an end to that run very quickly by pummeling our national hockey team. That’s the first time the Wild have been to the playoffs in years.

Friends of mine around the country – other sports junkies – are starting to snicker at me about my faithfulness to something less than excellence.

These are dog-days around here when it comes to sports. The University of Minnesota women’s Gopher hockey team brought us a great degree of pride this past season. They won the national championship and lost only one game in the entire season. They won 49 consecutive games behind their star, Amanda Kessel. The women outscored all their opponents last season 216 to 36. Man, that’s impressive. The problem is, the team is rarely on television and, therefore, one can’t even watch them closely and get in on the back-thumping nor onto the pride-fulfilling bandwagon.

The Gopher football team? Ugg! The national sports commentators are picking the Gophers for last place this season.

The Gopher men’s or women’s basketball teams? Yuk!

Well, yesterday, the Twins lost to a Canadian baseball team and dropped further down in the standings and raised the level of stink to an almost unbearable level. Very soon, in one of the most beautiful ballparks in the world, they’re going to be playing to mostly empty seats. We’ve begun to call them the Twinkies again. Most recently they dropped four home games in a row to the hated and evil N.Y. Yankees. Doing that tends to leave many Minnesotans in a state of depression and skunkieness.

These are terrible times to be a Minnesota sports fan. However, Vikings training camp opens in a couple of days and I’ll read every line of the reports that flow in to various newspapers and I’ll get my hopes up for awhile. You have to remember, the Vikings have gone to the Super Bowl four times – yes, four times – and they managed to lose all four of them.

It’s tough being a Minnesota sports fan. The Lynx won the national championship two years ago and the Gopher women’s hockey team won the NCAA championship this past season. That’s all we’ve got to hang our hats on.

Even my favorite tennis player got thumped yesterday at Wimbledon. No joke!

I’ve started to read Proust as a substitute for watching sports.

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Minnesota Twins in Poor Hands

If you’re a Twins fan this is hard to take and you have to ask why, why, why? A funeral for the Twins’ season is already being planned!
by Charlie Leck

What am I doing, writing about baseball? I’m not an expert – just another frustrated fan. Yet, today, baseball replaces politics and human behavior (or is this an example of human behavior?). I’ll get back to my senses tomorrow.

It wasn’t supposed to happen this way. Get us a new ball park where we can attract fans and then we’ll have the money to compete.

Well, the people did. We got them a new ball park – a great deal of it paid for by public money and most of that right here in our own county. With the revenue from increased attendance, we expected our Twins management team to get us the kind of ball players we need to, at least, be competitive.

Last year was a skunk year! We lost 99 games and finished in the cellar. In a panic, the Twins brought back a former General Manager who has a great eye for baseball talent. What they didn’t do was give him some money to fill weak spots in the line-up with capable players. As a result we are on our way toward having an even more rotten year than the last one. At this rate we’ll lose more than 100 games and be the embarrassment of baseball again.

I certainly have enjoyed the new ball park as much as any fan. What a wonderful place to watch a baseball game! Now, if we could only watch a good team playing in that fine ball park it would be a much more enjoyable place to visit during a glorious Minnesota summer.

Instead, two of our very best ball players, lured by the big bucks, went elsewhere. We’ve got virtually no pitching (only a couple of hopefuls), serious weaknesses at third base and right field and a first baseman who has medical problems and can only contribute on an occasional basis. Our superstar, mega-million dollar catcher plays like a man depressed and can’t give us any power or consistency at bat and only acceptable performances in the field. Our defense is below average and our offense is extraordinarily weak. We don’t run the bases well and, even if we could, we don’t get on base enough to use speed as a weapon. A former Chicago White Sox manager use to call the Twins players “piranhas.” Now we refer to them as “croppies.”

After the first month of the season, the Twins have won only 6 games and lost 18. That’s the poorest record in baseball.

The stink from our new ball park isn’t coming from the county’s garbage incinerator next door. It’s coming from right down there at field level. The Angels’ pitcher, Liam Hendriks, threw a no-hitter against us last night out there in California. The Twins looked baffled against him. Now, we’re a befuddled team, heading for Seattle and more mistreatment. Turn out the lights! The party is over!

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Desegregating the Minnesota Twins (1964)

Kwame McDonald died last week and I have respectful, kind memories of him!
by Charlie Leck

“If you love yourself, you will never let you down!”

Kwame McDonald thought you had to have self-love and self-confidence. “If you love yourself,” he said, “you will never let you down.” He tried to teach this to children who had every reason to lack self-confidence.

Mr. McDonald died last week at the age of 80. I met the man only briefly in 1964, but I have read plenty about him and I heard him chattering about sports and kids in sports a number of times on the radio. I grew to like him and looked forward to the day when, perhaps, I’d get to spend some time with him and talk about some of the things we had in common. It never happened. I just didn’t try hard enough to make it happen. So, it was my own damned fault.

Here’s where I’ll begin in telling you about Mr. McDonald. When the Minnesota Twins came into existence up here – moving from Washington, D.C. and changing their name from the Washington Senators – Mr. McDonald worked for the Urban League here in Minnesota. He also dabbled in writing about sports for the local newspaper that served mainly the black, minority community. He heard the Twins kept segregated housing facilities for their players at the spring training facility in Florida. It didn’t sit well with him and he didn’t think it was right morally or even as a “team-building” strategy. So, in 1963, he led a small campaign to convince the team to change its policy. After several years of dragging their feet, the Twins ownership and management staff, including their Travel Secretary, with whom I was well acquainted, didn’t hesitate after the Urban League and the NAACP got involved. They saw the sense that Mr. McDonald was making and the change came swiftly and completely after that.

That year – 1964 – was the same year that I went down to Mississippi to make a contribution, as a civil rights worker – to the Mississippi Voter Registration Project. So, I felt a kinship with Mr. McDonald when I read about him in the newspaper. In the autumn of ’64 he was invited to lecture at the graduate school I attended. The entire school gathered to hear him. He didn’t want to talk about the small movement he led to integrate all of the Twins’ facilities. He wanted to talk to us about our own attitudes and how strong we needed to be on matters of racial justice. He always pointed to the children and he pleaded that they needed a break. They needed to grow up in a world of justice and equality. Kwame McDonald loved children.

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Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in baseball in 1946, but life wasn’t easy for him. It took some years before white players would treat him with respect. There were always nagging problems for him at hotels and restaurants during spring training in Florida and when the team was on the road during the season. Jackie Robinson was an extraordinary ball player, but he had to be tough in ways that white players didn’t and he put up with insults and general injustices and always seemed to keep smiling.

This past spring, I visited a high school classmate of mine who lives down in southern Georgia. She had a big surprise for me. Knowing how much baseball is a part of my soul, she took me out for a little drive to the little town of Cairo. On a quiet, country road, she stopped the car in front of a small piece of property where there stood a lonely chimney and, on a pole, some sort of notification sign.

“Come on,” she said, “this will interest you.”

I climbed from the car and up the little bank that led up to the property. I turned and looked at the sign. “Birthplace of Jackie Robinson, the first African-American in Major League Baseball.”

It did affect me. A tear swelled up in my eye and a lump grew in my throat. How I remember the blurring speed of Jackie Robinson as he tore around first place and headed for second after stroking a line drive into one of the outfield gaps. I hated the Brooklyn Dodgers just as my old man did, but I loved Jackie Robinson and my heart was always pulling for him and cheering for him in every Dodger game I saw.

Back in the early 60s, the Minnesota Twins had to lease a ball field for their spring training facility from the city of Orlando and then they had to find housing accommodations for all the players they brought to camp. The team leased the Cherry Plaza Hotel. The hotel held firm to their segregationist policy (common all over the southeast) and wouldn’t let black players stay in the hotel. The Twins had a couple of really talented black players and they had to find separate accommodations for them because their hotel wouldn’t take “any Negroes.” The black players had to accept clearly inferior housing conditions. Hank Aaron, who played for the Milwaukee Braves back then, was one of the most outspoken about the unequal treatment of black players.

It appears that the management of the teams that trained in Florida were working hard to cure the problem. Major League baseball was threatening to move all of their teams out of Florida to facilities in the southwest. By 1962, most of the teams had solved their problems with the hotels and boarding houses they used to house players. Sadly, the Minnesota Twins were the last team to solve this housing problem. A law suit was brought against them in 1962; yet it took two more years before the problem was solved.

Walter Mondale was the Minnesota Attorney General back in those days and he was very involved in the issue, as were two Minnesota Governors – Karl Rolvaag and Elmer Anderson. Calvin Griffith was the owner of the ball team back and he was a stubborn cuss.

Governor Anderson showed signs of anger in his correspondence with the Twins’ owner. Mr. Griffith argued for time because he was negotiating with the city of Orlando about building a new grandstand at the Tinker Field ball park. Anderson told Griffith that the time for waiting was over and that the matter was an embarrassment for Minnesota.

The Governor traveled to Florida and booked a room in the Cherry Plaza Hotel. The hotel was unyielding and made it clear to Governor Anderson that it would not bend its policies. Anderson kept nagging both the hotel and the management of the Twins’ organization for a change in the spring housing policy. He grew frustrated that he was getting nowhere.

The State Commission Against Discrimination (SCAD) came to the Governor’s assistance. SCAD was made up of nine commissioners who were all appointed by the Governor. SCAD’s role in life was “to secure compliance with the Minnesota State Act Against Discrimination, which makes it an unlawful act to discriminate against a person in his quest for employment or housing because of his race, creed, color, religion or national origin.”

SCAD brought a suit in the case on behalf of one of the Twins’ players, catcher Earl Battey. Because it required action in a different state (Florida) it got nowhere. SCAD then filed a direct suit against the Minnesota Twins and its ownership. The legal action particularly singled out the organization’s travel secretary, Howard Fox, for not doing enough about the matter. Years later I would get to know Howard Fox well. He became a good friend and frequent golfing partner, but I could imagine him dragging his feet on this issue. Howard died last year.

More and more newspaper stories appeared about the Twins’ stubbornness. Fox and Griffith were on a hot seat and it was getting hotter. Early in 1963 the newspapers learned that the Twins had signed another lease with the Cherry Plaza Hotel. The hotel would not yield to pressure from either the Minnesota Governor’s office (now under Governor Karl Rolvaag) or to the Minnesota press. 1963 would see no changes in the housing question for the Twins. The team was the last in baseball to have segregated housing for its players during spring training.

The issue dragged on and anger started to brew. Earl Battey publically stated that the issue was affecting team morale. Something had to be done. Angrily, the Minnesota Chapter of the NAACP announced it was getting involved. They announced they would picket the Twin’s opening game at Metropolitan Stadium in 1963. This pressure started to have an impact on the owner of the team, if only getting him really boiled into a red hot anger. He tried to take action to stop the demonstration.

Constant pressure on Griffith and Fox from civil rights organizations, the Governor’s office, the Attorney General’s office and, unceasingly, from SCAD, caused the Twins to finally wake up. For the spring of 1964 they signed a contract with the Downtowner Motel in Orlando and abandoned the Cherry Plaza Hotel. Segregated housing was finally over!

Kwame McDonald talked to us in 1964 about the Twins and the battle it took to get the organization’s ownership to do the right thing. He was very involved in setting up the public demonstrations that finally pushed Calvin Griffith to do what he had to do to end his own policy of racial injustice. It was almost 20 years after Jackie Robinson had “broken the color barrier” in Major League baseball. Mr. Griffith was a selfish, stubborn and foolish man. He proved it over and over again during his period of ownership. He fought off state agencies, bad press and powerful state officials, but Kwame McDonald and the NAACP brought Griffith to heal.

I kept my ears open about Kwame McDonald over the years. He settled into covering sports. He sometimes was interviewed on some of the radio sports talk shows.

When I read the obituaries about him, I was reminded of his strength and resolve. Now I learned something new.

Kids loved him. He gave nearly all his time to encouraging children to have confidence in themselves and to learn and to get what they deserved out of life. He went into the schools and kids gravitated to him as if he was a magnet. He talked to them and tried to encourage them to work hard and to learn – and to love themselves!

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Twins Win!

The Minnesota Twins are on a roll and so is a young, extraordinary golfer!
by Charlie Leck

I will write yarely this morning, only to tell you that the Minnesota Twins, which began the season playing like they didn’t understand anything about baseball and with more players on the injury list than any other team, have now won 14 of their last 16 games and went 7 and 1 in their latest home stand. They just finished sweeping the San Diego Padres in interleague play.

If you are a Minnesota Twins fan you are probably telling me to shut up because I’ll likely jinx them! I hope you are not correct.

Let me tell you, I had a wonderful Father’s Day, switching between the Twins game and Rory McIlroy’s extraordinary win at the U.S. Open Golf Championship. What a day for a sports junky! I actually worked as I watched the game, getting our living room and dining room all spiffed up and rearranged for the coming attack of the grandkids and our children in two weeks time. This morning I ache all over.

I’ll get serious with my blog again tomorrow.

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HAMMERIN’ HARMON, THE HERO

"

Harmon Killebrew was more than a great baseball player; for he was also a great man!
by Charlie Leck

I’m a Twins fan. I have been since they came up here to Minnesota and started playing baseball in 1961. The Killer, as he was called, came here with the Twins from Washington, D.C., where they had been called the Washington Senators.

So, quite naturally, I sat down with dinner to watch the Twins game last night against the Toronto Blue Jays. Dick Bremer, the team’s TV play-by-play guy, announced with a sad voice that he wanted to read a statement that had been released that day by Harmon Killebrew through the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY. With a sad and unsteady voice, he read…

STATEMENT FROM HARMON ILLEBREW
National Baseball Hall of Fame Class of 1984

“It is with profound sadness that I share with you that my continued battle with esophageal cancer is coming to an end. With the continued love and support of my wife, Nita. I have exhausted all options with respect to controlling this awful disease. My illness has progressed beyond my doctors’ expectation of cure.

“I have spent the past decade of my life promoting hospice care and educating people on its benefits. I am very comfortable taking this next step and experiencing the compassionate care that hospice provides.

“I am comforted by the fact that I am surrounded by my family and friends. I thank you for the outpouring of concern, prayers and encouragement that you have shown me. I look forward to spending my final days in comfort and peace with Nita by my side. I am comforted by the fact that I am surrounded by my family and friends. I thank you for the outpouring of concern, prayers and encouragement that you have shown me. I look forward to spending my final days in comfort and peace with Nita by my side."

I’m not ashamed to say that tears poured down my face as Bremer read. Harmon Killebrew was a giant of a human being. He wasn’t just a fine, fine baseball player. He is also an extraordinary, kind and caring person.

The NY Times story this morning carried a soft headline: “An ailing Killebrew Simply Says Farewell!”

Jim Kaat, a long-time teammate of Harmon’s and also a Yankee broadcaster is quoted this morning in the NY Daily News: “He's a great man, a great teammate and a guy who was the face of the Twins' franchise. I think he's the main reason why the Twins have had the reputation of being a gentlemanly organization."

Tony Oliva, another great former Twins ballplayer, said it, with his strong Cuban accent, in a very poignant way: “Everybody knows him because he was the home-run king. I know him better, and I think he was a better person than ballplayer. Killer would always go out of his way to help somebody else.”

The current Twins General Manager, Bill Smith, said: “Everyone he’s ever met has a Harmon Killebrew story and they’re all telling those stories today.”

I suppose that’s true. I have my own little story.

I met Harmon in a personal way only once. It was back in 1980 (I think) when Anne and I were in Paris and browsing through the beautiful shops on rue de Faubourg St. Honoré. We were standing in a remarkable china and crystal shop, waiting for the elevator to take us up to the second floor. When the cabinet arrived and slid open its doors, Harmon Killebrew and his wife quietly stepped out. I took a deep, surprised breath and, as is quite usual for me, I couldn’t keep silent. I burst out with something, telling him in a stumbling, stuttering way how thrilling it was to encounter him like this.

Harmon, as always, was completely a gentleman and shook hands with both of us and chatted for a few moments about Paris, the weather and the lovely shop we were in.

When he walked on, I was as giddy as a child.

“There,” I said to my wife, “is a great man!”

I said exactly the same thing last night when I heard Harmon’s statement and official goodbye to baseball and to all his fans. What a gentle way to slip easily and gracefully into the good night! How touched I was by this statement. How I hope I can be so courageous myself.

Sleep well, dear Harmon, and be at peace throughout eternity!

"They are the only dead who did not love."
[Dylan Thomas]

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The Season Ends in a Head-On Crash

The Twins' dream season ended last night as a bad nightmare!
by Charie Leck

I'm too bummed out to write anything significant this morning because the Twins were shelled again last night by the New York Yankees. There's never any relief against the Yankees. Every batter they send to the plate can strike fear into the heart and mind of an opposing pitcher. They overwhelmed my favorite ball team in this post-season as they so often have in the past.

The night the Twins won the division championship, they should have forgone the big celebration. They were tied then for the best record in all of baseball. They took the next couple of weeks off and lost about 10 of those 13 games. They rested players and took it easy for a while. They lost momentum and never regained it.

When they won that division title and were looking so good, everyone in the Twins' world was touting Ron Gardenhire as the best candidate for Manager of the Year. Now everyone is as silent as can be. He let the team cool down and couldn't get it reheated.

There is no joy in Mudville!

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Twins Win!

Ron Gardenhire and TC make the Twins look great in their spectacular new ballpark!
by Charlie Leck

We were at a Twins game again last week, enjoying our community’s breath-taking new ballpark, when my wife took notice of TC, the Twin’s mascot. She enjoyed watching him interact with the fans and especially the little kids. He’s full of energy and runs hither and yon as the stadium is filling up before the game. During a game you might find him almost anywhere – out in the right field stands, up in the third deck behind home plate, or dancing on top of the Twin’s dugout.

“Whatever is he supposed to be,” my wife asked, “some kind of animal?”

I looked at her in surprise. What kind of baseball fan is she? Wasn’t her very own father one of the movers and shakers among the powers who brought the Twins to Minnesota in 1960 – an amazing 50 years ago?

Instead of telling her the obvious, I tried singing a little jingle to her that might jog her memory…

“From the land of sky-blue waters,
From the land of pines, lofty balsams,
Comes the beer refreshing,
Hamm’s the beer refreshing!”

“Hints of lakes and sunset breezes,
Dance and sparkle in each glassful,
Hamm’s the beer refreshing,
Hamm’s the beer refreshing.”

She still didn’t get it and looked at me as if I’d slipped off my rocker just a bit. I think she was a bit embarrassed by the old singing voice, too, as people around us began to snicker. I figured they were chuckling at her for not knowing what TC is, so I continued the little jingle as best I could remember it.

She began talking to the chap next to her, pretending, I think, that she didn’t know me. So I gave up on the song. Eventually, she broke off her conversation with the dude on the other side of her and turned back to me.

“What has that song got to do with what that mascot is supposed to be?”

I shook my head. Now I was the embarrassed one.

“How long have you been a Minnesotan,” I asked. “You were old enough when the Twins came here from Washington. Hamm’s beer – our own Minnesota beer – was the primary sponsor of our new, major league ball club. You remember that don’t you? And don’t you remember all those commercials – you know, the tom-toms, the canoes, the flowing waters, and the Hamm’s bear?”

She was shaking her head now.

“I was sixteen years old – not even sixteen – and I didn’t care about baseball. I cared about horses – and ice cream – and boys!”

“Well,” I said, with plenty of pride beaming across my face, “at least you now know who – or what – TC is.”

She looked out on to the field, where TC was jogging around the bases with a couple of very small children – perhaps six year olds. She turned back to me.

“You mean that thing out there is supposed to be a bear?”

I gave up and turned to the woman on the other side of me. She, confounded, was shaking her head at my wife’s ignorance. Mutteringly, she whispered something to me.

“Some fan!”

Here’s an old black and white commercial for Hamm’s Beer. It features the Hamm’s Bear and the famous song! You’ll thank me for the memories.

By the way, the Twins are Division Champs again. They’ve won this crown 6 out of the last 9 years. It’s an extraordinary achievement by the team’s manger, Rod Gardenhire. That’s Rod in the picture leading off this blog. We don’t’ look anything alike, but I’m often confused for him when I’m out shopping or dining in a restaurant.

Two weeks ago, a fellow came up to me in the grocery store and told me I was doing a fine job with the team and wished me the best of luck in the playoffs. I told him I wasn’t Gardenhire. He laughed and shook his head.

“Oh, sure!”

“I’m not,” I said. “It four o’clock already. Gardenhire is at the ballpark with his team, getting ready for tonight’s game.”

“Nice try, Ron. Good luck!”

At a restaurant in Northeast Minneapolis on an evening last week, when the Twins were out of town, a woman at a nearby table kept looking over at me. Once, when I looked over at her, wondering what she was staring at, she gave me a little wave, wiggling her fingers at me. I could only shake my head at her.

I don’t have those fat cheeks that Gardenhire has. Sure he’s a great manager, but he’s not the looker I am. Granted, I’ve got some age on him, but… but…. Where was I going with this anyhow?

Congratulations to Gardenhire. As the President of the Twins said a couple days ago: “If Ron Gardenhire isn’t the American League Manager of the Year this year, they ought to stop giving out the award!”

He is! Ron Gardenhire is the manger of the year! And, TC is the mascot of the year! No doubt about it.

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What a Ball Game!

Sometimes a ball game can be awfully, awfully special!
by Charlie Leck

Mighty Casey didn't strike out last night and there was plenty of joy in Mudville. Instead, with the Mudville team trailing the hated White Sox by a run in the bottom of the 10th inning, the powerful designated hitter of the Twins swung at a fast ball right down the middle of the plate and knocked it out into the plaza beyond the right field seats.

Target Field erupted with screams, shouts and howls of delight as the big slugger rounded the bases. The entire Mudville team met him at home plate and engulfed him in celebration just the instant his foot touched home plate.

Ah, what joy in Mudville!

It was a great game and we were ecstatic that we were there to see the moment. This is what baseball is all about. We didn't care if we ever got back -- "for it's one, two, three strikes you're out at the old [hold that note a little longer] ball game!"

Dang that was fun! [You might be able to see the highlights here!]

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Our National Trinity

Baseball, Apple Pie, the Flag and, oh yes, Motherhood!
by Charlie Leck

I’ve been writing a bit about baseball lately. One of my old friends is a faithful reader of my blog, but he really wants me to stop writing about baseball. Basically, he asks: Who cares? Or to put it a bit more profanely: Who gives a damn?

He writes: “I know baseball is supposed to be somewhat intellectual by its nature...but the people who play it are often thugish fools...while most of the people in the stands are foolish thugs...”

Now this is a guy who has criticized (now publically) one of the elements of the great American trinity! Next he will be telling me that he doesn’t like apple pie either!

As Forest Gump used to say: “Let me say this about that!”

Baseball is grand, especially when it’s played properly, with enthusiasm and on green, green grass under God’s magnificent sky.

We’ve got a professional ball team up here in Minnesota and its last couple of managers (over more than20 years now) have made a point of teaching our ball players the true fundamentals of the game. In years past we’ve had some enormous success with our teams even though we weren’t the most talented team in the major leagues. We won the World Series in both 1987 and 1991 by understanding and playing fundamentally sound baseball.

Now, in 2010, I am here to tell you that the baseball world had better watch the Minnesota Twins because we not only have a team drilled in the proper fundamentals, but we are also a damned good team with a lot of talent both offensively and defensively. The great caveat, of course, is that we need our guys to stay health and be lucky enough to avoid serious injuries. If we do, we’ll see you in the playoffs folks and we’ll be there to win. We will not be satisfied with consolation prizes.

A couple of days ago one of the Boston Red Sox players striped a line drive base hit to right field. Now, the generally accepted etiquette of baseball is that, when I guy like that gets a bang-bang solid hit, the other team gently retrieves the ball and returns it to the pitcher. Yet, on this afternoon the Red Sox player sort of sauntered up toward first base after nailing the line drive. The Twins right fielder saw the touch of casualness on the part of the opponent and raced to retrieve the ball that had hit the turf in front of him and fired a strike, as if he were a second baseman, right into the waiting mitt of the first baseman. At the very last second, the Red Sox player saw the embarrassing situation and raced like hell to the bag, just beating the throw from the outfield by a fraction. Notice I have not used the opposing players name here because I don’t want to embarrass him.

From the time we are little kids, we are taught to hustle up the line when we get a base hit because anything can happen to the ball and any defender is capable of screwing up and allowing you to make more out of it than seemed at first obvious. We were also taught that we were never to be thrown out at first base on a ball we hit safely into the outfield. Nothing in baseball, I think, would be more embarrassing.

Now, take the opposite example from the game I attended today. One of the Twins’ players, Nick Punto, lined a drive into the outfield. Punto race up to first base and, as he approached the bag, he saw that the Red Sox outfielder was being very casual about getting to the ball, to field it. Punto turned on the jets, rounded the bag and raced down to second, stretching a simple single into a surprising double.

After the game, the Red Sox outfielder expressed some anger about being shown up by Punto even when the Twins were already ahead by eight runs in the game. It is something ball players are not supposed to do. Sorry sir, when a team is trained to react to certain situations in certain ways, they do so more like a machine than as a thinking human being who doesn’t want to embarrass the player on the other side.

Watch out, baseball! The Twins are cranking it up a notch!

This is information for my friend who was mentioned in the opening of this blog. When a team is strong up the middle – and you, of course, know that that means in center field, at short stop and second base, and at catcher – they are a team to fear. The Twins are damned strong up the middle.

I had a fabulous time at the Twins game today. Parked my car miles and miles from the stadium, boarded an express bus that dropped me across the street from the main entrance plaza and the sun was shining brightly and the place was packed with adoring fans and peanuts and crackerjacks were flowing abundantly.

I was a delighted, little kid again – watching kids play the game the right way.