Twins poised to make September run for the title

by Jean Gabler | 8/29/09 • For those of you who have missed my entries, I apologize. I did write an entry shortly after I returned from vacation but I just found out that it was lost in cyberspace. Ironically, I was sitting at my kitchen table writing on my laptop and the associate editor for the Daily Planet was sitting at the same kitchen table working on his laptop. That is the shortest distance, I am sure, that my blog entry has had to travel and somehow it got lost. Strange, huh? Anyway, I can’t for the life of me remember what I wrote but I am sure it was brilliant. It was probably when the Twins were in one of their regular slumps and the media was writing them off for the season.

the knothole view is jean gabler’s blog about the minnesota twins and all things baseball.

Just a week ago there were fans talking about next year’s spring training! Baseball is a long season: every team plays 162 games. Last week the Twins were 6½ games out of first place and had over 50 games left to play. Anyone who watches the standings knows that neither the Detroit Tigers or the Chicago White Sox are running away with the Central Division. Today the Twins are 4½ games out of first place and have passed the White Sox for sole possession of second place. We have 6 games left against both the White Sox and the Tigers and the most favorable schedule remaining of the three teams. And how can fans forget 2006 when the Twins were never in first place all season and took first place and the division title after completing their last game of the season? Or last year where the Twins had to play game 163 to determine the winner of the division? As Bert Blyleven likes to say, all you want in September is to be playing meaningful baseball and we certainly can look forward to that.

The other thing that happened lately is that Brett Favre has joined the Vikings. The Twins, along with every other sports team in Minnesota, are already in a losing battle with the Vikings for media time. And now Favre mania has struck and the Vikings have become a national sports story. I went down to the Dome to pick up some Twins tickets on the Friday when Favre was scheduled to start as a Viking and appear in the Purple 4 jersey. I got there at noon and all the streets near the Dome were already closed, the media were there, and the tailgating had started. Crazy!

As I am writing this, I was hoping to catch some Saturday baseball on TV. ESPN is all football. What I did find is a replay of the Twins game where the Twins ended Mark Buehrle’s streak of perfect innings. Coming off his perfect game pitched against Tampa Bay, Buehrle retired the first 17 Twins hitters before walking Alexi Casilla with two outs in the sixth. He set a new major league record by retiring 45 hitters in a row.

Speaking of records and statistics, I have decided to give you my favorite statistic of this past week. Michael Cuddyer became the first player in Minnesota Twins history to hit two home runs in one inning. He did it last Sunday against the Kansas City Royals. The next day I heard that he is actually the first player in major league history to hit two home runs in one inning and hit for the cycle in the same season! Who keeps these statistics?

I have been walking into the Metrodome with my bottle of water since finding out it is allowed. It is great to save that money. Of course, the first game I did this I proceeded to leave my water when we changed seats during the game to escape an obnoxious fan. As my daughter pointed out, at least I didn’t pay $4.00 for it!

So if you fell off the bandwagon, grab your bottle of water and jump back on for what promises to be an exciting ride.