Good Monday
morning everyone! Well, as you know, I have put on a LOT of miles
since I last wrote here. 365 miles each way to the Minneapolis/St.
Paul area. And with the results of the two Twins games, I have been
asked on a number of occasions if I thought it was worth it.
Driving
down there, I was already trying to figure out a game-plan for
getting to the Twins/Red Sox Games 1 and 2 at the Dome on Tuesday
and Wednesday. I mean, if I lived and worked in the Twin Cities, it
would be no problem. But living on the Canadian border, this would
take some major coordination. But again, I was ready to do it!
Whatever it took. And no matter the result, I was happy to have been
there!
As I
wrote in my Twins/Yankees series preview,
I truly believed that the Yankees were a good matchup for the Twins,
and I really believed my prediction that the Twins would win it in
four games. I thought that Johan Santana could get two wins (Game 1
and 4) and that either Brad Radke or Carlos Silva (who
were both pitching well) would get the third win.
As anyone
who would actually come to this site would know, things didn't quite
work out that way for our Twins team, and with Saturday's loss,
their season ended.
With all
the traveling, I really don't have a lot of time to write anything
too major. And sleep really sounds like a good option right now. So,
I am going to just point out some random thoughts from the weekend
and the games for you to ponder. Please feel free to
e-mail me your thoughts
on this and any other topics.
Our
Tickets
Friday
night, my sister, Heather, and I got to the Dome about 5:00 and
walked through the plaza before going into the Dome. Our tickets
said we were in row 7, in centerfield. Well, as we walked down the
steps of our section, I started realizing that we were in a section
that was affected by the football seating. As we got further down,
we realized that Row 7 was actually Row 4 for baseball. Not only
that, but it is a row with just four seats. In other words, these
seats were great. Remember where Torii Hunter almost made an
incredible catch on a ball that turned into a Hideki Matsui
home run? Well, that was about 20 feet to our left. When Alex
Rodriguez hit his ground rule double in the 9th inning of Game 4,
that bounced into the next section, about 12 feet to our right.
Watching batting practice was great, especially when Derek Jeter,
Alex Rodriguez and Gary Sheffield were launching balls
all over the field.
Saturday,
I went with my brother Justin, my cousin Jen, and her husband, the
infamous Jason Bain, who you will hear from later in this
column. We did well in helping the Dome's concessions that night! I
think we each had a Dome Dog and some nachos, both dietary staples,
mandatory to gain a full appreciation of the game! Following the
game, we went to our favorite, traditional post-game spot; Buffalo
Wild Wings in Plymouth, where we finished off our final course of a
ball game meal. Our dessert was to polish off 50 wings! It doesn't
get any better than that!
Game
Thoughts
To me,
there isn't much better than when both teams are introduced and go
to their respective baselines! It seems as though when the Yankees
lineup was announce, there were a lot of boos. My theory is that the
volume of the booing was directly linked to the size of the player's
contract, with Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez getting
the loudest boos! I love how even the Twins trainers and video
coordinators get loud ovations. However, it gave me chills to hear
the ovation for Johan Santana! That was loud!
Going
into the game, we knew that Carlos Silva had to keep the ball
down to be affective. Of the first five batters, four didn't get the
ball out of the infield, and Gary Sheffield's single broke
his bat. Unfortunately, with two outs, Silva allowed five straight
singles. But of those, none were hit hard. Two were jammed and
blooped singles. Two were just ground balls that found holes. Silva
was just fine, until the sixth when Bernie Williams hit a two-run
homer on a pitch up in the zone. In other words, I don't think that
Silva was really as "off" as his numbers might indicate.
Kevin
Brown has not been good, but he definitely gave the Yankees six
very strong innings!
The Twins
ran themselves out of a couple of runs in the 6th inning. When the
Twins came to bat that inning, they were down 7-1. Torii Hunter
blooped a double that Hideki Matsui kicked around. For some
reason, he tried to get to third base and was thrown out easily.
With two outs, Corey Koskie singled to center and was thrown
out trying to stretch it into a double but was thrown out by the
weak-armed Bernie Williams. I love the hustle, but down six,
a little thought should go into those decisions too.
The 9th
got off to an interesting start with Felix Heredia started
the inning by hitting Corey Koskie and Lew Ford.
Tanyon Sturtze came in and gave up singles to Cristian Guzman
and Michael Cuddyer. He left, and in came Mariano Rivera.
Three batters later, the game was over. But I was happy to see that
he pitched, hoping maybe he wouldn't pitch in Game 4!
In Game
4, the Twins went with the same lineup. The only difference was that
Lew Ford was in left field and Shannon Stewart DHd. I was
thrilled because clearly Ford is the better outfielder! When
Johan Santana came out of the dugout, 40 minutes before game
time, to do his stretching and throwing, the crowd erupted! More
goose bumps for me!
The crowd
started The Wave in the 5th inning. I was just explaining how much I
hated the wave. I think it is so dumb. Here is my main reason. It
has to be distracting to the batter. I mean, you have this loud
noise going around the stadium. When the wave gets out to
centerfield, it could easily interfere with the batter's eye line. I
explained that just as the wave was approaching centerfield and the
pitch was heading in to Henry Blanco. He proceeded to hit
that very pitch into the left field bleachers to give the Twins the
3-1 lead. Later in the inning, with two outs, Lew Ford batted
with the bases loaded. He took two hanging curveballs for strikes.
But on 0-2, he pulled the trigger and drilled a liner off the left
field wall to score two runs and up the Twins lead to 5-1.
Johan
Santana started on three days rest. I completely agreed with the
decision to bring him back for Game 4. Santana absolutely struggled
through five innings. I know he threw just 90 pitches, but he did
not have much. He wasn't throwing as hard as he normally does, and
he didn't have control of his fastball or his change up. And still,
he gave up just one run in five innings. He allowed five hits and
walked three, but still struck out seven. I was 100% in agreement
with Ron Gardenhire's decision to take him out at that time.
Grant
Balfour came in and was absolutely dominant! He was hitting 95
and 96 on the radar gun, and when he struck out Derek Jeter
to end the seventh, I was thinking that it should be the end of his
night. Before the 8th inning began, Jason Bain simply said
that it was a bad move to take Balfour out, because of the way he
was pitching. I told him that Juan Rincon would (and should)
come in because he is the 8th inning guy. To me, and the statistics
back it up, Juan Rincon has been every bit as good as Tom
Gordon, just without the name recognition. He has been
great all year in that very role. Rincon got one out and gave up
four runs to tie the game, but I would make that move every game in
that situation!
The scene
engrained in my mind from Saturday night's game happened in that
inning. Two runners on and two strikes to Ruben Sierra. The
crowd is loud and on its feet. Most are waving their homer hankies,
but I'm biting mine, just like Jerry Tarkanian did with his
towels. And then, the pitch. Sierra hit it and I thought it
was a deep fly ball until I looked down and saw that Jacque Jones
was just looking up and watching it clear the fence. I looked
up and saw it hit the football seats. Silence. I looked at Jones and
Hunter, and then back up at the seats. The silence was deafening. I
had heard that comment before, but until that night, I didn't really
understand it. Literally three minutes later, I finally turned and
looked ahead again. I looked over to the left field bleachers and
everyone was still standing, completely awestruck, staring at where
the homer hit. It was an incredibly surreal moment.
The worst
part was knowing that Tom Gordon would be in and Mariano
Rivera would be back too, and both were remarkable. So was
Joe Nathan though.
And,
Kyle Lohse's two-inning stint was almost a microcosm of his
whole season. In the 10th, he looked great. In the 11th, he
gave up the double, then really seemed to let A-Rod steal third
before the wild pitch that plated the winning run. He clearly, very
clearly, has the stuff to be a solid major league pitcher. But in
every game, he went through stints that just hurt enough for him or
the team to lose. I can still see him being a very good major league
pitcher.
FINAL
THOUGHTS
Last
year, when the Yankees beat the Twins in four games, they dominated
the series. Their pitching baffled and dominated our hitters. This
year, that can not be said.
Did the
more talented team win? Maybe. Their lineup is unbelievable. Jeter.
A-Rod. Sheff. Godzilla. Bernie. Jorge. Sierra. Olerud. These guys
are all very good hitters. To me, Sheffield, not Rodriguez, is the
best all-around hitter in the American League (apologies to Manny!).
But I
think that some fans are looking at this wrong. The Twins won game
1. The Yankees won Game 3. The other two games were extra-inning
games. That means either team can win. The Twins were anything but
dominated, so Twins fans should not feel like this is a team that is
or was simply happy with winning the AL Central. This was a team
that wanted, and maybe even expected, to get to and even win the
World Series. This was a team that knows it could beat the Yankees,
the Red Sox or any other team. It just didn't happen. It wasn't
because of any of the manager's decisions. It wasn't because of
anything that Terry Ryan did. It had nothing to do with
payrolls. The Yankees just were enough better to win the series.
This was
a great Twins team that Terry Ryan put together and Ron
Gardenhire led. Instead of criticizing, let's just appreciate
them! Let's look at what they did for us, as fans, over the course
of 162 games this year, not just over the microscopic scrutiny that
is the playoffs.
WHAT'S
NEXT?
Those of
you new to this site may think that now that the Twins season is
over that I won't write this site until next spring. That isn't the
case. I will continue to write probably five days a week (with an
occasional off-day). I will also write about the rest of the
baseball playoffs, the hot stove, the Arizona Fall League and other
baseball topics. Also, I will talk Timberwolves, Vikings, TV,
movies, and plenty more. So be sure to continue stopping by here
daily!
The Twins
will have another off-season full of decisions. Last year, they lost
Eddie Guardado, LaTroy Hawkins, Eric Milton, Denny Hocking
and AJ Pierzynski. Terry Ryan turned them into four draft
picks, Joe Nathan, Carlos Silva, Nick Punto, Boof Bonser, Bobby
Korecky and Francisco Liriano.
This
year, Brad Radke and Corey Koskie are free agents.
There is a decision on whether to pick up Cristian Guzman's
$5.25 million option for next year. Jacque Jones, Carlos Silva,
JC Romero and Kyle Lohse are all arbitration eligible, so
will they be offered arbitration, traded, or let go? Terry
Mulholland. Pat Borders.
These are
the decisions of the offseason for the Twins. They will also be
looking at the list of free agents and determine if they want to go
after any of them.
DISCUSSION QUESTION OF THE WEEK
So
basically, I will write on the Twins throughout the offseason. This
week, I will do a series of Twins postings, culminating on my
thoughts on the 2005 Minnesota Twins roster. But I do want to hear
your thoughts on the 2005 Twins. So please e-mail me your thoughts
on the Twins. Feel free to tell me your thoughts on the 2004 season.
What you would like to see happen in the offseason? Also who do you
think will be on the 2005 Twins roster?
Do you have any thoughts on that? If so, feel free to e-mail
me. I’d love to hear your thoughts.