Friday,
January 29, 2010
Twins Fest – Day 1
I think for these Twins Fest
blogs, they will be written in an almost diary or journal form. I absolutely
enjoy Twins Fest
and it is always fun. I enjoy seeing players up close, listening to interviews,
shaking hands and saying congratulations to minor leaguers and just being in
the presence of thousands of Twins fans. As I have said before, 
if you are
able to attend, even just for a few hours, it is worth it.
Tonight, I went with my whole
family. My dad and 3 ½ year old daughter went in as the gates opened. The lines
were huge and very unorganized. And it was cold outside! But eventually we got inside.
My mom, brother and sister showed up a little later. But here is a quick
run-down of the night.
·
The first place
we went was to the Photo area where Jozie and I got our picture taken with Jeff Manship and talked for a minute.
·
From there, we
went to Corner #7, which is the free line comprised of minor league players.
The first was Eden Prairie native and former Gopher Cole Devries. Next in line was Canadian top outfield prospect Rene Tosoni. Then came Team USA hero
and Twins shortstop prospect Trevor
Plouffe. Next was Twins infield 
prospect Toby Gardenhire. Finally, Twins minor
league pitcher of the year, David
Bromberg signed a ball. My daughter went through the line with a baseball
and asked each for their autograph. When she got to Plouffe, he said to her, “OK,
I’ll sign your baseball if you write your name for me.” He gave her a pen and
she “wrote her name” on the table in front of him. It was pretty cool. Bromberg
said that the Diamond Awards went well last night, and that he was given his
award first, so a little extra pressure.
·
Then we saw that Aaron Hicks and Kyle Gibson were available for photos in the Photo area. Obviously
Gibson has been on my podcasts five times, but it was very nice to finally get
a chance to meet him in person. I had not met Hicks before, but he also appears
to be a genuinely good guy.
·
At that point, it
was time to let my daughter get her picture taken with the one that she was
most excited to get her picture taken with, TC Bear. While she played in the
kids section, my dad, brother and I went to the KSTP radio area and listened to
their interviews with Jim Thome and Joe Mauer. Both were excellent. Mauer
wasn’t asked about the contract situation until the final question and he gave
the same answer you would expect to hear. He basically said nothing.
·
We grabbed
something to eat. Interestingly, hot dogs were $3.50. 2 hot dogs were $3.50.
So, when I went up and ordered four hot dogs (no, not just for me!), I had to
specify that I wanted two two-for-one hot dogs, and not four single hot dogs.
Seriously.
·
We had a picture
of us taken at the Target Field display area with a nice background.
·
Then I stood in line for the third group of the minor
league autograph section. The line was incredibly long. I must have been in
line for 50 minutes, which is crazy! The lineup for this group was pretty
impressive. First was Carlos Gutierrez,
who was excellent on my podcast on Tuesday night and is one of the Twins better
pitching prospects, a sure-fire future big leaguer. Then came Drew Butera was next. Both were very
nice. Next was Chris Parmelee who
took a big step forward with a very strong 2009 campaign in Ft Myers and more
than held his own in the Arizona Fall League. Next up was Iowa native and
another strong pitching prospect, BJ
Hermsen. Last in line was Kyle
Gibson, and he was the one that most that I overheard in line were excited
to get to sign something.
At that point, it was time to
head out for the evening. When you have a three-and-a-half year old, and it’s
8:30 and it’s been a long day, 8:30 is plenty late! I posted a couple of
pictures on here, but if you would like to see more, you can see them on my Facebook
page.
Although I haven’t figured
out how to Tweet from my phone, you can also follow me in Twitter @sethtweets.
I will be back on Saturday
night with more thoughts, from Day 2, of Twins Fest.
And, of course, you can still
pre-order the SethSpeaks.net Minnesota
Twins 2010 Prospect Handbook by clicking
here.
If you have any questions or
comments, please feel free to e-mail me or leave them in the Comments
section.
Friday,
January 29, 2010
Twins Fest is
upon us!
I’m about to drive in to the
Metrodome for Twins Fest. Really looking forward to being there all weekend. I
always enjoy the environment and excitement of Twins Fest. As you know, Harmon Killebrew will not be there. I
got a note from Danny Valencia last
night telling me that he will not be at Twins Fest because he is playing in the
Caribbean World Series. Yes, I had heard about Nick Punto’s need for wrist surgery, but I’m glad to hear that it
won’t take too long to recover and he should be ready for camp. Anyway, I’ll be
at Twins Fest tonight with my whole family. Looking forward to it. If you see a
short, non-skinny guy with little hair (and a red SethSpeaks.net hat) and his
daughter, please feel free to say hi.