Month: February 2023

My day at the ballpark today

I went out to the Lee County Sports Complex this morning and there was not much going on. There were a couple of players doing some special work with a couple of coaches but when I left around Noon there were no other Twins players working out. Not sure where everyone was.

I wandered off to the minor league side where there was more activity but still a relatively small group of pitchers going through fielding drills. I watched for awhile and decided that I had enough and wandered over to my car. As I was putting my camera equipment away I heard a loud bang on the top of my car, what the heck? It turned out one of the players had hit a long foul ball that hit my car. Fortunately it caused no damage but it did attract a lot of attention from bystanders. A Twins employee saw it happen and picked up the ball that had rolled about 10 yards away and gave it to me saying “here is culprit that hit your car”.

I left a few minutes later and exited the back way onto Plantation Boulevard. Right after I made a right turn on to Plantation a long home run ball from one of the adjacent fields came flying over the fence and netting and bounced in my lane about 20 yards in front of my car just missing my car. Had I been about a second or two quicker a ball would have hit my car for the second time in less than 5 minutes. What the heck is up with that? Of all the times I have gone to the complex my car has never even been close to being hit and here it almost happened twice in 5 minutes. I am sure the players got a kick out of it but I didn’t have time to look and see.

That is my excitement for today. The good news is that exhibition games start tomorrow. I was able to pick up a schedule of the minor league games that will be played at the complex and a first copy of the Twins Minor League Spring Training Roster. There are a handful of players on the roster born in 2004, my goodness. We will take the week-end off and go back again next week.

What’s up at the ballpark you say?

Taking down Luis Arraez

I made my first trip out to the Lee County Sports Complex Tuesday morning to see what is going on out there before Spring Training starts. I had hoped to get out there back in early January to take in some of the Twins Fantasy Camp games and chat with some former Twins players that serve as team managers and coaches but I had a nasty cold for about two weeks that just didn’t want to go away so I thought it best to stay away.

When I got out to the complex today it was a beehive of activity from trucks delivering office equipment, landscaping activities going on around the complex (which actually withstood Hurricane Ian back in late September fairly well), a cherry picker taking a huge Luis Arraez images down from above the ticket office, to major and minor league players working out on numerous fields.

Louie Varland

On my walk to the back fields I noticed a player heading towards me and he looked familiar but I just couldn’t place him, it turned out to be Louie Varland and I got his picture, wished him good luck and embarrassingly I forget to introduce myself. How dumb is that? I didn’t make that mistake on all the other players I met today. This time of the year no one is wearing uniforms with numbers so it is often very hard to know who is who. What surprised me I guess is how many players are already here with pitchers throwing on at least three fields. Catchers all over the place and one of those catchers was Christian Vazquez. Looks to me like Vazquez is going to be an easy player to like as today he signed autographs for a group of people and posed for a picture for me, even went to the trouble of taking off his catching gear first. He reminded us “that I am number 8 and not number 7” and everyone got a good laugh including Christian in an obvious reference to Joe Mauer.

I met a gentleman on the back fields from Indiana by the name of Robert McCammon who is a retired school teacher and now spends winters in Florida and works part-time at Hammond Stadium during Spring Training. He grew up a Washington Senators fan and is now a Twins fan and last year he published a book called Walter Johnson Had No Idea. Twins President Dave St. Peter wrote the Forward for the book. I have a copy of the book and am anxious to read it since I just wrapped up my latest Baldacci novel yesterday.

It was so nice to be at the complex on a nice sunny day with temperatures in the low 70’s and watching people catching and throwing a baseball around again. It is a fun time of the year, no one has lost a game, no one is injured yet, no pressure on anyone to make the team, no trade rumors flying around and everyone is happy and in a good mood. How can you not love baseball at this time of the year. I took a number of other pictures that I will share with you in the next few days.

Update on 2/8 – You can see the rest of the 2023 Spring Training pictures here.

Twins and postseason play

Jack Morris

Here it is early February and Spring Training hasn’t even begun and I am writing a piece on the Minnesota Twins and the postseason. Believe me, I have no magic 8-ball and I am not here to predict the future, I am here to share some Twins postseason history with you and give you a chance to look and see who the Twins best and worst postseason players have been over the years. It can help fill some of your time before Spring Training starts.

The Minnesota Twins have not had much success in postseason play of late, but that is not news, is it? The Twins have been in the playoffs in 2020, 2019, 2017, 2010, 2009, 2006 and have not won a single game. I am not going to remind you here how many games in row that the Twins have lost in the playoffs. The last time they won a playoff game was in 2004 and the last time they won a playoff series goes back even further, not in 2004, or 2003 but in 2002 when they beat the Oakland A’s three games to two in the ALDS before losing to the Anaheim Angels in the ALCS four games to one.

Back in the old days there were no playoffs and the teams with the best records in each league (AL & NL) advanced to the World Series to determine the MLB champions. Who knows, maybe that was really the best and fairest way to crown a worthy MLB champion. It seems to me that the more teams that are in the playoffs, the lesser the chance, that the best team comes out the winner. But we are not discussing the merits of the playoffs here because as we know back in 1969 the playoffs came into existence and they have been changing and growing ever since and now we are at a point that six out of the 15 teams in each league make a playoff appearance and if it was up to Commissioner Rob Manfred there would be even more teams in the playoffs.

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Twins make-over at Target Field continues

According to a recent Minnesota Twins Press Release the following changes will take place at Target Field not to mention a new and much larger scoreboard that had been announced earlier.

Click on this link to see what it should all look like https://fb.watch/iqCv4uRNfV/

MINNEAPOLIS-ST. PAUL, MN – The Minnesota Twins, in partnership with Dimensional Innovations, today unveiled designs for the newest, technologically-enhanced additions to the Target Field experience: An updated Minnie & Paul celebration sign with the words “Win! Twins!” rising above the ballpark in centerfield, and the club’s “TC” mark encased in a revolving, illuminated baseball medallion sitting atop the rightfield tower. These two elements, both featuring design and technology elements unique to the Twins and Target Field, will be put into place over the next two months and make their official debut during Minnesota’s 2023 Home Opener on Thursday, April 6.

Continue reading Twins make-over at Target Field continues