Please Allow Me a Little Self-Promotion

Remember that Metrodome memories story I wrote for Minnesota Public radio? Well, they must've liked it because they asked me to do a short interview for their Morning Edition program.

A friendly intern came to my work, and after short time of technical difficulties, she recorded my answer to "what's your favorite Metrodome moment?"

Let me tell you, there's a reason I'm not in broadcasting. I was pretty nervous; I talked too fast and too loud. And I'm pretty sure I said the word "awesome" too many times. But it was still kind of fun. After she edits it all together (we wound up having to do it in three pieces), it should be only about 60 seconds.

They're creating a bunch of these fan stories, and they'll jam them into their regular programming all Friday morning. Therefore, it's hard to know when it'll air -- sometime between 6 and 9 am on Friday.

So if you listen to Morning Edition on MPR, keep an ear peeled for my little segment. I'll be the one who sounds like a mixture a Frances McDormand from Fargo and Fran Drescher from The Nanny. (Actually, I used my real name, Kirsten Brown, so listen for that.)

If I happen to find it on their website, I'll let you know.

Henry Ford Advice

So, it was a pretty good weekend for the Twins. Of course, it could've been better if they hadn't psyched themselves into losing to Zack Greinke. But, thanks to Ozzie and his Sox winning two in their series with Detroit, the Twins were still able to gain a little ground on the Tigers.

Recap:
Friday: Twins 9 - Royals 4
Saturday: Twins 11 - Royals 6
Sunday: Twins 1 - Royals 4

But now it's time to get really serious. This series will make or break the entire season.

So guys, please take some great advice from your friend Henry Ford.

Whether you think you can or whether you think you can't, you're right.

Go get 'em!

There is a Time

I was going to write this last night, but the season premier of Grey's Anatomy was on, and after six months of waiting, I finally got to find out if there was going to be a funeral and whose it was. (If you think I'm going to tell you, you're wrong. If you need to know and you didn't record it, I suggest you find it online. I am not going to be responsible for spoiling it for someone who did record it and hasn't watched it yet. So there.) I didn't know that it was a two-hour special, and by the time it was done, it was late and I had a headache from the crying, I was in no shape to write about baseball. (Yes. I cry at Grey's all the time. That's the measure I use for determining whether it was a good episode. Last night's had a lot of real tears.) So...anywhooo...

Recap:

Monday: Twins 7 - White Sox 0

Tuesday: Twins 8 - White Sox 6

Wednesday: Twins 8 - White Sox 6

See all that bold lettering? That means the Twins swept the White Sox. Whoo!

Although, to be honest, it really looked like many of the Sox players -- not all of them, but many -- were just going through the motions and not really trying. That's too bad, especially since they were at home in front of their fans. I don't like the White Sox, I like seeing them lose as much as the next Twins fan, but it really isn't right for them to stop trying.

And that concerns me. They're facing Detroit, and the Twins could really use the help of handing the Tigers a few losses. I know that the White Sox don't really care about what the Twins need them to do. But I certainly think they should care about winning for their fans. C'mon guys! Give those Tigers a lesson in not quitting! Win for your fans! Win for Kenny! Win for Ozzie! Win for yourselves!

(Was that too over-the-top?)

What concerns me more about a team that's technically still in the race, but quit, is the team that's not in it, but won't quit. Why are the Royals always so stinking good in September? And this isn't a new development either. Remember earlier in the month when they sent the Tigers into a nice losing streak to get the Twins into striking distance? Remember last year, when they single-handedly messed up the whole division play-off scheme by beating the White Sox when we needed them to and them by beating the Twins when we didn't need them to? Remember in 2006, when they swept the Tigers to help give the Twins the Division Championship? It seems that the Royal were created just to be spoilers.

And now the Twins have to play them for six out the last ten games. Greeeaaaat. Oh, and add to that the fact that the Twins get to see Zack "No-Longer-Afraid-To-Be-Awesome" Greinke not once, but twice, over those six games. So the Twins have a tough row to hoe ahead of them; it would be extremely foolish to underestimate them. C'mon Twins! Win for your fans! Win for Billy! Win for Gardy! Win for yourselves!

(You know, just to be consistent.)

And Royals -- maybe you can give some lessons about spoiling to the Indians.

My Favorite Metrodome Memory

So, word has it that the Twins are no longer going to be playing in the Metrodome after this season. I gotta admit, I'm going to miss the old, ugly Bubble. In fact, I think I'm probably one of about four people in Twins Territory who actually likes the place. Sort of.

There are a million things to hate about it: the roof is ugly, the seats are hard, the concourses are too small, the restrooms are nasty, the lower level doesn't have hand rails, the rows are too long, etc. Heck, even the cup holders are wrong (who thought it was a good idea to install tilted cup holders?).

Even though it's a dump, it's where my team plays, so I love it. Granted, I would go watch the Twins if they the only place they played was on an aircraft carrier asea in the Devil's Triangle...if I could get tickets...and airfare...and a really good life insurance policy. But more than it being the the only place I can see my boys in their home uniforms, there are some wonderful things about it -- the memories.

I mentioned yesterday that MPR is collecting fans' favorite memories. Here is the piece I wrote.

My Favorite Metrodome Memory

My tradition every year is to go to the final home series of the season. In 2006, I was able to go to the Sunday, October 1st game, the last game of the regular season.

By that time, the Twins had already clinched at least a wildcard spot, and it was assumed by many that they would finish out the regular season then head to New York for the playoffs. The Twins were hosting the White Sox, while the Royals were visiting Detroit. A Twins loss or a Tigers win would give Detroit the Division Championship.

Adding another layer of interest was the tight batting-title race between Joe Mauer and Derek Jeter of the Yankees. Our Joe was leading, but only by a few hundredths of a point.

The game itself started kind of slowly. The White Sox took an early lead in the first. But then Silva settled down. In the fourth, the Twins finally put three on the board and another one in the fifth.

Meanwhile, everyone in the crowd was keeping an eye on the Royals-Tigers score on the out-of-town scoreboard. By the sixth inning, the crowd reacted more to KC scoring in their game than to anything going on in the Twins game. It was funny when a Twins batter fouled off a pitch, the crowd roared because the KC-DET score updated at that moment.

My husband kept checking the web on his phone to find out how Jeter's day at the plate was going. By Joe's final plate appearance, Jeter's day was already done -- Joe had won the batting title with a .347 average! Seeing him take a bow and kiss his bat was an amazing moment.

Once the Twins beat the White Sox 5-1, the Metrodome staff tuned the jumbotrons to the Royals-Tigers game, which had gone into extra innings. The crowd was clapping and chanting "Let's go Royals, let's go Royals, let's go Royals" as if they were playing in front of us. After a bit, the Twins players emerged from the dugout onto the playing field to chant and cheer along with the crowd.

When the Royals had finally beaten the Tigers 10-8, the crowd erupted into joyful pandemonium. The Twins' win and the Tigers' loss meant that the Twins were the Central Division Champions!

I was high-fiving and hugging people I had never met, and will probably never see again. From my seat in the upper deck, I could see the players jumping and running and slapping hands of fans hanging over the barriers. Torii Hunter and Gardy found microphones and spoke to the fans, thanking everyone for their support and expressing their spontaneous glee of the moment. I sat in my seat not wanting to ever leave; what a magical day!

I also submitted a picture of the scorecard I kept that day.


Heh. Notice all the scribbling in the Sox side of the 8th? Either I started the inning with the wrong batter, or I forgot to flip it over as the Twins were batting. I hate it when I do that.

Here is the request from MPR for your favorite memory:

MPR News: What’s your Metrodome Memory?

After 28 years, the Twins are moving on from the Metrodome to greener pastures made of real grass. In commemoration of their last season at the Dome, MPR News is collecting memories of baseball at the Dome to feature on our Morning Edition program. We want to hear your funniest, strangest or simply most memorable moments at the Dome – whether on the field or in the stands. Share your story with us here: http://tinyurl.com/mprdome. Please contact Molly Bloom at mbloom [at] mpr [dot] org with any questions. We look forward to hearing from you!

MPR News: What’s your Metrodome Memory?

Hey everyone, Minnesota Public Radio is collecting stories of fans' favorite memories of the Metrodome to commemorate the Twins' final season there. While I mull over the memory I want to share, I'll give you their invitation to share yours. They're collecting the stories to possibly use on their Morning Edition program.

Here's the request from MPR:

MPR News: What’s your Metrodome Memory?

After 28 years, the Twins are moving on from the Metrodome to greener pastures made of real grass. In commemoration of their last season at the Dome, MPR News is collecting memories of baseball at the Dome to feature on our Morning Edition program. We want to hear your funniest, strangest or simply most memorable moments at the Dome – whether on the field or in the stands. Share your story with us here: http://tinyurl.com/mprdome. Please contact Molly Bloom at mbloom [at] mpr [dot] org with any questions. We look forward to hearing from you

When I figure out what I'm going to write, I'll post it here too.

If you want, you can share your favorite memories here in the comments section too. I love reading other fans' stories.

Well, At Least I Have Pictures

Yup. So this weekend went better for the Twins than I expected. Taking two from the Tigers and trimming their lead in the division to 3 games is pretty darn cool.

Recap:
Friday: Twins 3 - Tigers 0
Saturday: Twins 6 - Tigers 3
Sunday: Twins 2 - Tigers 6

In fact, those two wins were pretty much the only sports highlights of my weekend.

But as the Twins' luck would have it, I went to the game on Sunday. I scored (actually hubby scored on my behalf) some really sweet seats and I went with my mom (hi Mom!). We had a great time.

We got there really early. When we arrived, we saw Ron Mahay play catch with his kids. Joe Nathan was also playing catch with some of the Pohlad grandkids. We thought it was the cutest thing ever.

The game itself was pretty good. But Scotty didn't pitch all that well, and Nate Robertson did. And that's that. Oh, and D-Span earned himself a Golden Sombrero. Really, I saw it for myself, up-close and personal.

I did take some pictures. I don't have the greatest camera in the world, but they're not bad.

Quick Notes

I gotta make this quick. Like the evil magician guy from Frosty the Snowman says, I'm "busy, busy, busy." (He also says, "think nasty, think nasty, think nasty," but I haven't had opportunity or need to say that lately.) I've got two pans of bars to bake, some work to do, Bones to watch. Oh, and as I write this, there are about 15 high-school football players in my house, so I expect I'll have some picking up to do.

But enough about me -- back to the Twins. Nice sweep of the Indians! See how much fun winning is? Keep it up guys! Think winning, think winning, think winning.

Recap:

Monday: Twins 6 - Indians 3

Tuesday: Twins 5 - Indians 4

Wednesday: Twins 7 - Indians 3

Also, I'd like to give a shout out to the Kansas City Royals for handing two losses to the Detroit Tigers. Thanks guys -- stay good until we have to face you!

~~~

Another snarky episode of When Baseball and Poor Proofreading Collide: (from the FOXSports Rumor page)

This looks like a classic case of spell-check gotcha. Or maybe it's a straight-up typo (the I and O keys are right next to each other after all). No matter; this is the very reason that folks putting out a national website might want to take a minute to look things over before clicking "Publish".

But, that's not why I thought this was funny. When I saw "White Six," I figured it had to be a name of a band or something. A quick Google search didn't find one.

What it did find was a band named Shitting Glitter (which my inner 12-year old boy finds absolutely hilarious) and their song "The Incomparable White Six".

So if Jake Peavy wants to debut on American Idol or something singing that song, I say "Good Luck!" If, however, he's really debuting for the White Sox on Saturday, I've gotta say "Go Royals!"

A Good Weekend for Football

The Twins sure made it easy for me to get excited over football this weekend. It's a good thing they won on Sunday to save it from being totally painful for my baseball-loving heart.

Recap:
Friday: Twins 5 - A's 12
Saturday: Twins 2 - A's 4
Sunday: Twins 8 - A's 0

So football was the theme of the weekend. On Friday, I sat on some bleachers, getting chewed by mosquitoes, watching j-bro play and win his varsity game (and being very grateful that it only sprinkled a little). The periodic text messages regarding the Twins was the only downer for the evening.

On Saturday, the Twins played an early game so folks could enjoy the Gophers inaugural TCF Bank Stadium (which I like very much, by the way) game later in the day. I had the Twins game on the TV, but I wasn't really watching it because I was busy scrubbing my kitchen floor, vacuuming, and other cleaning. I probably would have watched more if the Twins had made it more interesting. It's too bad too, because I found out that they showed my friend on TV. Watching the Gopher game later was fun.

Sunday was the annual Vikings season opener party at above-mentioned friend's house. Everyone is required to wear purple and gold to attend. So I wore this:



Normally I'm a traditionalist, and this goes against everything I believe about wearing your team's colors (if you're going to wear their logo, it had better be in the right colors -- by the way, pink is never appropriate for an MLB team, except maybe for the mothers' day cancer research thing). But, for this party, I thought it was kind of funny. Everyone at that party knows I'm a big Twins fan, and they usually give me a ton of crap about it -- all in good fun, of course.

Anyway, the Vikings game was fun, and the text updates about the Twins game were fun too.

Also, my first ever fantasy football team did pretty well. And as long as my guy playing Monday doesn't get a ton of negative points, I'll win. So, that's fun too.

Add to that my hubby buying Madden '10 for my kids (no I don't play it, but I'll have to listen to non-stop for the next several weeks), it's a lot of football going on.

Don't worry Twins. Just because I'm not completely happy with you right now doesn't mean I don't still love you. But if you continue to drop series, I'll be more apt to watch football when given the opportunity.

~~~

I'm feeling kind of snarky. Here are some recent occurrences of When Baseball and Bad Grammar and Poor Proofreading Collide.

This is an email I received encouraging me to vote for Joe Mauer for the Roberto Clemente award:


It says, "As a Twins fan, it's a chance you won't want to miss." When you use a modifying statement at the beginning of a sentence, you have to put the thing it modifies right next to it. Always. So in this case, it is the Twins fan. I know a lot of crazy Twins fans, but I can honestly say that none of them are technically inanimate objects.

It should be written, "As a Twins fan, you won't want to miss this chance."

This one was on my Google homepage MLB scoreboard app:



I had heard that the Seattle - Texas game was delayed. Are they really intending to play it at 2:33 AM? Wow. I guess they probably won't take batting practice before the game. (Actually, as I'm writing this, about 8:30 PM, it's the bottom of the 2nd.)

Unpredictable, Eh?

I figured that the Twins would split the series with the Blue Jays, because that's how it seems to go with the stupid 4-game series. But game-by-game, my predictions were all wrong.

Recap:
Monday: Twins 6 - Blue Jays 3
Tuesday: Twins 3 - Blue Jays 6
Wednesday: Twins 4 - Blue Jays 1
Thursday: Twins 3 - Blue Jays 3

After Sunday's flat, lifeless performance on Sunday, the Twins were destined to do the same on Monday -- or so I thought. They actually played well and seemed to have fun.

Tuesday, Duensing took the mound. I've been so impressed with him, so I figured more of the same from him. And he didn't disappoint. Too bad the bullpen blew it.

Next up was Pavano vs. Halladay. Now, I'm totally willing to give Pavano every benefit of the doubt, but he's no Roy Halladay. However, Roy Halladay is Roy Halladay and he'd never lost to the Twins. But Pavano and the Twins' bats prevailed.

Thursday's day game featured Scott Baker, who's been great since the all-star break. Another W for sure -- or not. Scotty pitched ok, but the bats were lifeless again. Maybe everyone was looking forward to getting out of there as soon as possible because they knew it would take forever to get through customs.

~~~

Let me share some recent blog posts, from a couple of Sarahs, that I enjoyed:

• Sarah of Oh, It's THOSE Girls lists a bunch of reasons why we should go to Friday's game against the A's. I love the idea of laughing at them for wearing white shoes after Labor Day.
  
• Sarah-bug of la Beisbolista (a Cardinals blog) tells us how no one team has the best fans, they all do.

~~~

A great big thank you to all my blogging and Twitter friends who mentioned my food drive idea and encouraged their readers to pledge as well.

I really think it would be great if we all get to donate a bunch of food. Go Twins!

Oh, and I think it would be great if fans of other teams would pledge for wins by their teams too.

Doing Something Good

I have made a decision. I've decided that I like Twins' wins better than Twins' losses. Ok, that's not a recent decision, but I was reminded of this while unclinching my teeth as the Twins let yet another game slip away.

Now, I've heard that baseball players are charitable guys, and I'm aware that our boys are no different. So, with that in mind, I've decided to implement a plan to give the guys a little more incentive.

Drum roll please....

For every Twins win during the month of September, I will donate two items to a local food shelf. And not lame generic mac & cheese or cheap-o ramen noodles either -- good, nutritious food that I would eat. (Actually, for the record, I love mac & cheese and ramen noodles, but I wouldn't want to depend on them for survival. I did that in college -- which was a very long time ago.)

And since the Detroit Tigers are leading the division standings, it's kind of fun to see them lose. I want to encourage the teams playing them to keep them from clinching the division as long as possible. So, for every Tigers' loss, I will donate one food item. This part of the offer is good until if and when the Twins are eliminated from the division race.

Won't this be fun? Twins' wins = 2 donated items; Tigers' losses = 1 donated item. I invite you to join me in this plan.

So far this month:
Twins' wins: 2
Tigers' losses: 0
Total: 4 items

Ahem. We can do better than that, right? Let's go, Twins!

[Edit: A big thank you to Howard at Strib's A Fan's View Blog for the nice shout-out. Also, thanks to Betsy from For the Love of the Game for her shout-out. And thanks to everyone who is planning on participating on some level. Hey, if you want, keep track of how much food, money, or whatever you collect, and let me know (or even take a picture and send it to me if you want), I'll mention your efforts in a blog post after month end.]

~~~

Weekend Recap:
Friday: Twins 2 - Indians 5
Saturday: Twins 4 - Indians 1
Sunday: Twins 1 - Indians 3

Appreciation

After such a heart-breaking, soul-crushing loss on Wednesday, it's tough to remember the things to be grateful for. But what better way to cheer myself up, so I'm going to try.

Recap:
Monday: Twins 4 - White Sox 1
Tuesday: Twins 4 - White Sox 3
Wednesday: Twins 2 - White Sox 4

I'm still grateful that...:

• Well, first off, look at the recap. We won two of three. That's good.
  
• The starting pitching was awesome and a lot of fun to watch. I was especially impressed with the rookies, Manship and Duensing. They looked like real big-leaguers.
• We don't have to face Jim Thome any more. I never really liked seeing him in the batter's box. That's supposed to be praise -- it's the best I can do for a division rival. I wish him the best of luck in the National League.
• Joe Nathan is a pro. He knows he's been struggling lately, but I'm confident that he'll right the ship (at least I think I'm confident -- I hope he'll be all right).
• Jose Morales hit the walk-off single on Tuesday. That was a ton of fun. And he was so adorable when everyone was hog-piling on him. His smile was so big.
  
• I was in meetings at work for a big hunk of Wednesday afternoon. I missed the ninth. And I'm willing to bet that my co-workers are grateful as well -- there was no actual screaming this way.
• The Evil Ugly White Sox got to finish their Metrodome tenure on a good note (for them). I'm guessing this kept them from burning the place down out of frustration. This is good because the Twins still need it for the rest of the month. I understand there's a football team that uses it too.

Ok, well that last one was a bit of a stretch.