Make Money on the Twins!

Ha! Caught your attention with that title didn't I? Well, let me explain myself -- next time you are at a bar watching your team, whether in a hotel in Saskatchewan or O'Gara's on Snelling, bet your neighbor a dollar that you can stump him with a random fact about a Twins' player... or ten. Just beware, if his name is Paul Feiner, the Minneapolis financial planner who is the only person to have struck out Joe Mauer in high school, you're probably screwed.

Top Ten Bar Bet Facts About Twins Players

10. Johan Santana is the only starting pitcher chosen in Major League Baseball’s Rule 5 Draft to have won the Cy Young Award.

9. Lew Ford had the highest SAT score (1400) of any member of the Twins’ 40-man roster.

8. Jason Tyner is the only active major league player to have had his official 40-man roster position designated as “pinch runner,” while with the Devil Rays in 2003.

7. Joe Nathan is the only major league baseball player ever produced by the State University of New York at Stony Brook (SUNY-Stony Brook).

6. Sir Sidney Ponson was knighted in 2003 by Queen Beatrix, the long-standing Queen of the Netherlands.

5. Jeff Cirillo holds the record amongst active major league players for most games played (1541) without a playoff appearance.

4. Luis Castillo was the batter of the infamous ball that was taken away from Moises Alou by Cubs’ “fan” Steve Bartman in Game Six of the 2003 NLCS.

3. Jesse Crain is the only Twins’ player to be named a first-team Baseball America All-American, while with the University of Houston in 2002.

2. Dennys Reyes has played for the most major league organizations (9) of any Twins’ player.

1. Justin Morneau is the only living holder of a Most Valuable Player award who has never appeared in an All-Star Game.

So, have you just collected $10, or better yet, if you were smart enough to entice your neighbor into a silly "double or nothing" run, $512? Quit now -- or if he or she wants to switch to music in order to win the money back just remember that the only member of ZZ Top without a beard was the drummer, Frank Beard.

Cory Caouette is a Twins' fan living in San Diego who couldn't possibly write serious statistical analysis while watching the Devil Rays.