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MinnPost – Pat Borzi: Twins won’t win championships without more championship players:

“It comes down to this: As a franchise, what do you aspire to be? If ‘world champion’ is your answer, you cannot tolerate or coddle role players who botch bunts, run the bases poorly and miss signs or cutoff men — brainless mistakes that cost you runs, and games, especially against the monsters of the American League East.

The cuddly, underdog designation used to be cute. Now, it’s old and annoying. It’s time to win. The Twins need fewer Muppets and more Huns, and this is the off-season to find them.”

went to the twins game with matt and madeline, jason and nathan today. first one of the year, it’s hard to believe. i’m so excited about that new stadium, i think it’s just especially hard to head to the dome on such a beautiful night.

the real reason for our attendance though was to celebrate madeline’s visit to mpls and her first twins game. in honor of the occasion, a message was purchased by some stranger friends

great to finally get to a game and enjoy the sights, sounds and tastes of the game. (off my health diet again — it was dollar dog night)

Our first big snowstorm of the year finally arrived yesterday. Apparently, February is our least snowiest month?  I’m pretty sure that’s what Paul Douglas said yesterday, but they don’t keep archives of his sage wisdom over at the Star Tribune.

I love getting out to shovel the snow after a big storm. I take an almost guilty pleasure in suffering and sweating through the shoveling. I think perhaps it has something to do with the driveway at my childhood house. It was enormous! Well, enormous for a 7 year old trying to shovel. In the winter of 1983-84 here in Minneapolis, we received 100" of snow. I was 6 that year. Now we’re lucky to get 20".

February also means baseball. The Star Tribune has stepped into the present with blogs from some of their Twins reporters.

• La Velle E. Neal III – Twins Insider
• Joe Christensen – Around the Majors
• Howard Sinker – A Fan’s View

Baseball is the perfect sport for blogging, and having our local paper do it is even better. Obviously these guys have access and resources that mere mortals could never get, and as Aaron Gleeman said, their blogs will hopefully get filled with the little anecdotes that typically would’ve been tossed out of a story in the paper.

We’re a week in, and so far the writing has been fun and informal. I think the readers already know more about the personalities of the writers and the players than we have in the past. Keep it up!

There are quite a few fan blogs out there, I keep up with a couple of them, I mentioned Aaron Gleeman above. I really enjoy his statistical analysis. There is also Bat Girl, which is funny if you find butt shots and elaborate puppet and lego game reenactments funny. (I do.)

Well, it won’t be long before this snow is a memory and spring is upon us. But for now, I’m going to go out and enjoy it.

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You could say I’m extremely upset about this:
Twins reliever Juan Rincon suspended

For years, Twins players have chuckled at assertions that someone on their team — known for pitching, defense and lack of power hitting — could be using performance-enhancing drugs. One of them, outfielder Torii Hunter, was floored by the news.

“I feel bad because I know [Rincon],” Hunter said, “but I don’t know what is going on and I have to get the details. … We have to get steroids out of the game. I can’t believe that it may be one of my teammates, but we’ll see.”

Twins closer Joe Nathan, who has become good friends with Rincon, said the news was hard to believe. “I know what kind of guy he is,” he said.

It’s unclear when the appeal process will take place, or what the chances are that Rincon’s name will be cleared. But, as of now, Rincon has become a focal point in the league’s efforts to rid the game of steroids.

“He’s crushed because baseball is his entire life,” Setlik said. “He loves the Twins, and he loves his teammates and he’s worked nine years to build his reputation.”

I’m willing to wait until this is fleshed out to pass judgement, because obivously I want to believe that the Twins were somehow special. But man, doesn’t this just destroy our image? I’m probably in denial and being naive. I think if it’s true, and Rincon took steriods, I hope he will come out today during his press conference and just straight admit it. I can hope, right? I wish the whole team would say, look, test us all. But that’s not going to happen.

Grr….

Awesome, awesome, awesome!

Twins, Hennepin County have stadium deal.

Under the terms of the plan to be unveiled at a Metrodome press conference Monday, the Twins and the county would build a $360 million, 42,000-seat open-air stadium. The site is near the confluence of Interstate Hwy. 394, the end of the Hiawatha Light Rail line and the proposed Northstar commuter rail in downtown Minneapolis.

Now I REALLY want to live closer to the light rail line…

Pitchers and Catchers reported on Sunday, an event that always turns my attention towards spring. Good thing we got 4 inches of snow yesterday.

It does look nice and wintry outside now, a snowy blanket covering everything. But I know in the back of my mind that there are Pitchers and Catchers warming up, tossing batting practice, chewing bubble gum (insert romantic baseball feelings here).

Have you ever tried to answer the question “What is your favorite season?” It’s an underrated question. I think the answer for me is as follows:

• November 15th – (Whatever day Pitchers and Catchers Report, usually about Feb 20th) – Winter
• Pitchers and Catchers until Opening Day – Spring
• Opening day until about August 14th (whatever night happens to be the one where it is 95% humidity and 84 degrees at 10:00pm) – Summer
• August 14th until November 14th – Fall

So I guess I like all the seasons. Which is one good thing about living in Minnesota: All 4 seasons are present and accounted for.

But this was going to be about baseball! I’m even more excited than usual for the Twins season this year. Hopefully we will see a full season of Joe Mauer. Justin Morneau will hopefully see a full season as well. The pitching staff is solid, and if Joe Mays pitches well, better than last year.

This will be my first season back in Minneapolis. I probably won’t have season tickets this year, but the dream is still alive. I’m hoping to make it to about 20 games this summer. (Maybe I’ll get the voucher tickets?)

Also, I’ve begun research for CBaO BBL ’05. The draft is fast approaching!

If we could only get a new stadium.

It’s a sad day for Twins fans. Corey Koskie signed a 3-year contract with the Toronto Blue Jays.

Normally I wouldn’t get all wispy-eyed about multi-millionaire baseball players changing teams, and given the Twins finances, it’s basically a fact of life that your favorite players, if they are good, will eventually leave for greener pastures.

But losing Koskie really sucks. Baseball euphemisms can be tossed about, how he was a clubhouse leader, ‘backbone’ of the team, etc. Maybe I’m naive about baseball players being a part of the community, but when Koskie does things like raise money for the homeless by sleeping outside in the winter, he adds to our unique Minnesota feeling.

Maybe people who have never lived here just won’t get it… but Koskie seemed Minnesotan to everyone.

Well, Corey, the baseball fans of Minnesota will miss you…