The baseball Twins arrived in Minnesota about five years after me.\u00a0 I have been a fan as long back as memory goes.\u00a0 You could say the Twins have been a constant in my life alongside family, the farm, and faith.\u00a0 At times all of those have given me moments of delight, some disappointment, and periods of drudgery. \u00a0Baseball may not be life, but similarities are rampant.<\/p>\n
Ten seasons ago, the Twins moved out of that mausoleum and into the fresh air of Target Field.\u00a0 After one good season there, the team\u2019s been mostly not-so-good.\u00a0 Beautiful ballpark, ugly team.<\/p>\n
Going into this season, there were reasons to be optimistic.\u00a0 But then, I\u2019m a fan; there are always reasons to be optimistic.\u00a0 Every March for fifty years I thought they would win the World Series.\u00a0 I was right twice.<\/p>\n[ad id=”113688″]\n
For 2019, there was a core of young players who could be expected to improve.\u00a0 There were free agent signings who might be good.\u00a0 You could have made the same observations in seasons past and watched as the best laid plans turned sour by June.<\/p>\n
This year, after a few weeks of winning some and losing some, the Twins became almost unrecognizable.\u00a0 In a good way.\u00a0 They started playing baseball so well that wins came in bunches.\u00a0 It was like the exceedingly difficult game of baseball suddenly became easy.<\/p>\n
The five starting pitchers were effective, and that never happens.\u00a0 The worrisome bullpen had success.\u00a0 Good pitching is nice, and the Twins sure haven\u2019t had much of it lately.\u00a0 But that became an afterthought.\u00a0 The hitters started to score runs in volleys.\u00a0 There were so many runs that games were wrapped up by the middle innings.\u00a0 Shari Hittesdorf could have thrown the last few innings.<\/p>\n
And, oh, the homeruns!\u00a0 Over a month of games, the Twins hit homeruns at an all-time record rate.\u00a0 That\u2019s not just for the Minnesota Twins, that\u2019s for Major League baseball.\u00a0 Ever.\u00a0 Listening to the games on the radio (still the best way to \u201cwatch\u201d a game) has been a steady stream of \u201cYES!\u201d moments.\u00a0 Totally opposite recent power-hitting teams, they didn\u2019t strikeout much.\u00a0 It was as if the ghosts of the \u201927 Yankees had taken possession of the Twins players\u2019 bodies.<\/p>\n
Homeruns are up across the board in baseball, both in number and length.\u00a0 There were more hit in May than any month in history, leaving the suspicion that the ball has been \u201cjuiced.\u201d\u00a0 But you would have picked twenty other teams to lead that record binge before the Twins.\u00a0 Target Field has been considered a pitcher-friendly ballpark.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Historically, after Killebrew, the Twins greatest hitters (Oliva, Carew, Puckett) have been known for knocking the ball around the yard rather than homeruns.<\/p>\n
Winning begets fun, and this Twins team looks to enjoy each other.\u00a0 They are a mix of young men from many places.\u00a0 The Latino players are expressive and play with a passion that stoic Minnesota fans can feed off.\u00a0 Eddie Rosario points out that, \u201cEveryone is happy when you are hitting a lot of bombas.\u201d\u00a0 There is something glorious about old white stodgy guys like me cheering wildly this group of excitable, young Latinos.<\/p>\n
The players respected last year\u2019s manager Paul Molitor, who is my age.\u00a0 New manager Rocco Baldelli is my kid\u2019s age and is at the center of the carnival atmosphere.\u00a0 Reporter Howard Sinker wrote that playing for Paul is like playing for your dad.\u00a0 Playing for Rocco is like playing for your hipster older brother<\/p>\n
It\u2019s likely that 2019 Twins are not the greatest team in the history of baseball, so some return to mean is to be expected.\u00a0 But a nice ten game lead in the division gives hope that games will matter when days turn shorter.<\/p>\n
I think Twins fans have not quite known how to feel about this most unlikely streak.\u00a0 We\u2019re Midwesterners and not prone to exuberance.\u00a0 Unfettered joy is meant for the afterlife.\u00a0 We\u2019re not even sure this is good for us.\u00a0 Such elation could lead to high blood pressure.\u00a0 What about gout?\u00a0 Doesn\u2019t that come from over-doing it?<\/p>\n
As Midwesterners, we know good times can\u2019t last.\u00a0 Remember $15 soybeans?\u00a0 There\u2019s bound to be a price to pay.\u00a0 Maybe the Twins won\u2019t score a run in July.\u00a0 It\u2019s sort of like when Pam or one of the kids is really nice to me.\u00a0 I start to wonder what they want.<\/p>\n
As life goes, this best of Twins\u2019 springs has coincided with the worst of planting seasons.\u00a0 I should be listening to games on the tractor radio.\u00a0 But there have been few and precious days to work in conditions that never were good.\u00a0 I forgot how unfun it is to pull out equipment stuck in the mud.<\/p>\n
Last Saturday, I buried my field cultivator and had to unhook it from the tractor to pull it out, then got stuck again just trying to drive out of the field and had to unhook and reattach the digger and the tractor again.\u00a0 It took a minute to write that.\u00a0 In real-time, that was about three hours of cussing, a thousand times up and down the tractor, two gigantic trenches in the field, and a thick layer of mud on everything, including me.<\/p>\n
There was another blow to my emotional wellbeing.\u00a0 In April came word that Lee\u2019s Liquor Lounge was closing.\u00a0 Some years ago, groups of my friends \u201cdiscovered\u201d Lee\u2019s.\u00a0 It was a wonderful old-timey bar a few blocks from Target Field where you could park for free with the purchase of a drink.\u00a0 It was the greatest deal ever, even if we had more than \u201ca\u201d drink.<\/p>\n
Amidst Elvis Presley memorabilia and a Johnny Cash poster, one might as well have been sitting in the middle of Brown County.\u00a0 We became friends with the manager James and got smiles from the bartenders when we came in.\u00a0 A friend said that Lee\u2019s closing would affect our game day experience.\u00a0 I replied I always worried the Twins might ruin our Lee\u2019s experience.<\/p>\n
Somewhere in the crevices of my head where column ideas jostle around, there was one about a perfect day.\u00a0 It began with a road trip to the Cities, making our way to Lee\u2019s.\u00a0 After time there spent in conviviality with a Hamm\u2019s Beer, it was to the ballpark.\u00a0 With the cheapest ticket you can find, you made your way around the various spots in the park where you can see the game from all angles.\u00a0 It included a visit with Sue Nelson, the gifted and sweet organist, and a stop in Townball Tavern.\u00a0 Maybe I\u2019ll write that column someday.\u00a0 But Lee\u2019s closing leaves a huge gash in it.<\/p>\n
All in all, a spring to remember.\u00a0 With parts I\u2019d rather forget.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[ad id=”50444″] The baseball Twins arrived in Minnesota about five years after me.\u00a0 I have been a fan as long back as memory goes.\u00a0 You could say the Twins have been a constant in my life alongside family, the farm, and faith.\u00a0 At times all of those have given me moments of delight, some disappointment, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[162],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-113773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-weeds-by-randy-krzmarzick"],"aioseo_notices":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-22 14:40:39","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113773"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113773\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":113774,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113773\/revisions\/113774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}