We’re Talking Baseball
“Play Ball!”
Your Minnesota Twins held their first official workout of spring training yesterday, and their was much rejoicing. Unlike a 2002 beginning that had them coming off talks of contraction and leaving town, 2003 has fans remembering a wonderfully fun season that brought back World Series memories of ‘87 and ‘91, even if we did come up a little short in ‘02.
Can we repeat as American League Central division champions again this year and take it all the way to the World Series?
Well, we have a few things in our favor:
* David Ortiz is gone.
* Torii Hunter will get better.
* Solid team chemistry
* They aren’t afraid of winning anymore.
And a few things against us:
* Eddie Guardado’s ego
* Eric Milton’s knee
* The Chicago White Sox adding Billy Koch and Bartolo Colon
Apparently at least one major sports outlet thinks the Twins can win. According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune:
Mientkiewicz and Pierzynski said they believe many “so-called experts” will make the White Sox the division favorites. But The Sporting News’ preseason magazine ranked the Twins No. 1 among all teams in their power rankings, ahead of even the Yankees, George Steinbrenner’s $150 million international All-Star team.
I’m not sure I believe that myself, but it sure beats the cellar where we had been finding ourselves for a few years. The Twins are a great small market team in that they know how to build a team organically, but for fans this often means years of poor play.
The rewards though, as we found in ‘87 and ‘91, can be fantastic. Win Twins!
By god, I love it! Bloggers are the biggest baseball fans. Why is that, I wonder?
Woohoo! Another baseball blogger. I’m a long-time (and former) full-time sports writer. I cover the Giants and the A’s from my blog almost daily. Last year, blogging pioneer Dave Winer and I blogged much of the World Series in real time and had great fun doing it.
You being a baseball fan and commenting on blogging a bit has earned you a spot on my blog roll!
[...] We’re Talking Baseball - Spring Training 2003. One of the things I wrote that the Twins had in their favor was that David Ortiz was no longer with us. Shows what I know about baseball! [...]
[...] was right to be worried about Eric Milton’s knee as reports have him out as long as six months. Showing us that the [...]