Another MLB season is starting and it’s a feel-good time of year. Yup, you might still be wrestling with Uncle Sam over taxes and if your kids are on spring break they’re driving you nuts but come on, start humming “Take Me Out to the Ball Game.”
Or at least whistle a couple lines from John Fogerty’s classic, “Centerfield.”
Now that we’re in the mood, here’s what I am feeling and thinking about baseball:
Baltimore’s Camden Yards, where the Twins open on Friday, is 20 years old in 2012. The park started the chain reaction of building retro ballparks and remains one of baseball’s best venues. The problem is the Orioles have stunk for years and moving a major league team into nearby Washington,D.C. has delivered a double-shot of attendance woes at Camden.
The best of stadiums built in the 1960s was Dodger Stadium. The home of the Los Angeles Dodgers turns 50 this year and new franchise ownership gives Dodgers fans reason to celebrate.
Baseball’s newest park is Miami’s Marlins Park, a retractable roof facility that opened this year. Speculation is that in sultry Miami the roof will be closed for all but a handful of games.
Target Field celebrates year three and right now not even last season’s 99 loss Twins season can dim enthusiasm for the home opener next Monday against the Angels. The charm of opening day is that the results of the game are secondary to the experience.
There will be plenty of time to scrutinize how the Twins play in April without getting too worked up by the results in Baltimore and on opening day in Minneapolis. Before the month is over the Twins will compete against some of baseball’s best clubs — the Angels, Yankees, Rays, Red Sox and Rangers. I don’t expect Twins Nation will be thumping its collective chests on May 1.
My guess is that after last season’s 63-99 record, Twins fans might get excited about a season of .500 baseball. Maybe I have consumed too much morning coffee, but I think the record could be 81-81 if the team’s best players stay on the field.
The Twins are likely to score more runs than any of us thought. If Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau, Josh Willingham, Denard Span, Trevor Plouffe, Ryan Doumit and Danny Valencia hit like they can, the Twins won’t be at the bottom in runs scored like last year.
Pitching? Yeah, you had to bring that up. But if Francisco Liriano is ever going to put together a full season that approaches his potential, this will likely be it and he could be the top of the rotation guy the club is looking for. Lirinao is 28 and in the last year of his contract and is pitching for a future big buck deal. It’s now or never for Frankie.
In the bullpen Glen Perkins may turn out to be the closer. That means failure for the guy fans love to hate, No. 1 closer Matt Capps. This much is for sure: the bullpen — long relievers, short relievers and closers — won’t be this team’s strength.
The season ahead looks like it could require a Chicago Cubs fan mentality. Soak up the experience of being at Target Field, or watch your boys of summer on TV. I am not worried about the starting pitching or the first time Morneau slides hard into second base. I am more concerned about how long the line will be for a Kramarczuk bratwurst, or whether I can purchase good seats for a game on Father’s Day weekend against the Brewers.
If the team can’t be expected to contend for a pennant, we’ll find other ways to entertain ourselves. That could even include reading up on Twins history. The other night I was digging through an old file and came across some favorite quotes from the book Holy Cow! The Life and Times of Halsey Hall. Hall was part of the Twins’ first broadcast team and he was among the most colorful characters this town has ever enjoyed. Hall hated to fly and once remarked to an airline clerk: “Give me one chance to Chicago.”
Before broadcasting Twins games, Hall was a sportswriter for the Minneapolis Star. A colleague remembered Hall’s less than tidy housekeeping at the newspaper: “A building move by the Star sports department forced him (Hall) to clean out his desk one day. Not since King Tut’s tomb was opened was there so much dust. In one drawer he found a pair of socks as good as new and in another a two-year-old sandwich that wasn’t.”
Years ago Twins fans looked forward to rain delays so that there would be more time for Halsey Hall storytelling. These days we’re all more likely to use any pause in the game to surf the web, and hard core Twins fans will no doubt direct searches to the organization’s minor league operations.
Down at Triple A Rochester the Tsuyoshi Nishioka saga will continue. Of this I am sure: the Japanese infielder is a lock to have a batting average to match his weight (175).
Brian Dozier is also in Rochester and with a spring training average of .277, three home runs and nine RBI for the Twins it seemed possible he would make the jump from Double A shortstop to big leaguer. He still might do that in 2012 and is on the short list to replace 38-year-old Jamey Carroll who will start the season as the Twins regular shortstop.
I am not planning a road trip to Rochester but could find myself on the way to Beloit some time this summer to see the Twins Class A farm team. I expect to find a lot of other cars with Minnesota license plates in the parking lot outside the Beloit Snappers stadium. Twins fans visiting Beloit will be taking pictures and tweeting comments about 18-year-old, 240-pound power hitting third baseman Miguel Sano.
Sano could be the best prospect in the Twins organization, a home run hitting talent bringing much needed power and excitement to Target Field. But his debut is for another time and 2012 is what we have right now.
Enjoy it.
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