Twins Fix

I had originally decided to write a piece that praised the Twins, and was extremely hopeful heading into a game that would decide first place. After the game, not so much. This was what I had written before the game:

In order to get a sense of where I am coming from in this writing, one needs to understand my background as a Twins fan.

I grew up with no real baseball taste until I was about 12 years old, at which point I was good friends with a kid named Mike, who loved the Twins. He was older than me, and I looked up to him. Soon I too took a liking to the Twins. Since it’s been actually about five years now that I’ve been an actual fan, I can vivedly remember one season that captivated me more than any other.

We all know the story 2006, from Johan’s dominance after a slow start, Mauer’s batting title, and Morneau’s MVP award. 2006 was my favorite year as a Twins fan, I don’t remember having as much passion about the game than I did that year. Then the playoffs happened and we got demolished by the Athletics. All good things must come to an end or something like that.

This year has been a roller coaster, probably even more than 2006. If you think back to April, the team started out 13-14 for the month, and it seemed like it was going be another season like last year, but the team has come back through the months of May, June, and July and now sit 12 games over .500.

Coming into this season, it was expected that the team would not do too well with our best pitcher, and arguably our clubhouse leader leaving in the off-season with Torii Hunter and Johan Santana. The young rotation has followed through and we are now a half game out on the White Sox. The players that needed to step up have in Morneau, Mauer, and Kubel (if you look past the bad start). The Twins have also gotten unexpected performances from quite a few players: Nick Punto, Alexi Casilla, Brian Buscher, and Denard Span.

After game thoughts: I don’t have any, when can we get rid of Livan?