Sunday, January 25, 2009
Weekend Update
Hello everyone! Thanks for
stopping by the site. I have to write quickly this morning as I am headed out
for a few days. I won’t be able to post anything tonight, but do hope to be
back on Monday night.
Just had to
write a few quick notes about the baseball-filled weekend. On Friday morning, I headed in to the Lagoon Cinema
in the Uptown to watch a screening of the movie Sugar, which will be coming out in mid-April. Seriously, this might
be one of the best baseball movies I have seen. It actually has a lot to do
with baseball. Think about it. Field of
Dreams, Bull Durham, even For Love of the Game… can we even say
that those movies are 50% baseball? This is a tremendous movie for any baseball
fan, and I will write more about it when it comes out.
Twins Fest on Friday night was
a lot of fun. Got a baseball and had all of the minor leaguers to sign it. What
a group they had! A couple of quick notes. Danny Valencia was terrific with the
kids and in that environment. I was able to talk to him a bit. Ben Revere seems
to be everything we have heard. Charismatic, always smiling,
just a terrific guy. He also is not tall. He looks like he could be a
junior in high school. But he also looks very strong and I was told “He will
hit some over the fence!” On Saturday, I did the clubhouse tour again, and
again I think that is one of the better reasons for a new stadium too. Spent some more time in the minor league area. The lines on
Saturday were absolutely crazy. I haven’t really seen lines like that there
before. When Revere was signing, the line was literally hundreds of feet long.
As always, it was just a terrific event, one I am happy to go to each and every
year. I would love to go back on Sunday but prior commitments make that impossible.
And then on Saturday night, I
went to the 2nd Annual “Final”
Ballpark Tours Hot Stove League Banquet and Charity Auction at Harriet
Island Pavillion in St. Paul. What a tremendous
night. Julian and Sammy did a great job again. Howard Sinker was a wonderful and
comedic MC. Tim Tschida
was excellent, telling stories of umping experiences,
including that rain-filled World Series in Philadelphia last fall. Dave St. Peter was terrific. He spoke
on many subjects Twins, but just was a terrific representative of the
organization. Also, he acknowledged my existence!! LaVelle called me a mean name
for the Springer story last week, which was hilarious! The auction included
items such as a Rod Carew signed
bat, the opportunity to watch Batting Practice from the field and several other
items, and they made a lot of money. And then Corey Koskie got up there. I didn’t know
if he was much of a speaker, but wow (!), he was the highlight of the night. I
think he talked for close to an hour and had the crowd rolling with laughter
with stories of Twins Caravans, spring training, TK and much more. Then the
organization acknowledged and gave an award to the Mauer
family for all of their great work in the St. Paul community. The whole family
was there, well, except Joe who for obvious reasons
was unable to attend. All in all, it was a very fun night. I was sitting by John Bonnes
the whole night and it was a lot of fun. I will definitely be attending again
next year… assuming there will be a 3rd Annual “Final” banquet!!
Alright, I would love to hear
any and all of your Twins Fest stories, so please feel free to e-mail me or put
them in the Comments
to share with others. Have a great week!