I’m blaming it on the Vikings.
I’m talking, of course, about the nearly universal pessimism of the Twins that is flowing through the daily print, radio waves, and my inbox. The Twins don’t have the pitching. The Twins need to trade Torii Hunter. The Twins are finished.
And I’m blaming it on the Vikings. This state has always been a football state, and we’ve ingrained some bad habits.
Like, a 6.5 game deficit is NOT particularly daunting. It turns out that there are 162 games in a baseball season and roughly 16 in a football season, and you don’t have to be able to do OPS calculations in your head to figure out that means one football game corresponds to roughly 10 baseball games. So, we do not need to plan for next year. And, more importantly, after every loss, we do NOT need to question every pitcher, every hometown hero, every coach, and every front office move to determine if we’re on the right track.
So tonight, try this. Try watching Joe Mauer’s four at-bats as something less than a referendum on his career. And while you're at it, try enjoying a more sane game.
That doesn’t involve hyperventilating.
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Hey. We're playing around a little this week. Several GameDay writers have agreed to try and write a "Bloggers Minute" - something rheotical that can hold an audience's interest, but still be about 200 words or less. If you're interested in joining the fun, or just showing your chops, post a comment with your own 200 word take. I'd love to see what you got.
Thanks,
John
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3 comments:
OK I'll play along since it's the noon hour at work and I do have a pet peeve to rail about. Here's my 200-word entry:
It’s tough being a MLB fan in Iowa. Not only do we stay so busy watching corn grow all summer that we don’t have time to watch baseball, but it turns out MLB doesn’t even want us to buy their product.
How else can you explain the fact that Iowans are blacked out from watching games on ESPN and even MLB.com involving the Twins, Cubs, White Sox, Brewers, Cardinals and Royals… every team located in every adjoining state? It’s certainly not out of concern for possibly dissuading me from making my half dozen trips to the Twin Cities, Chicago and KC to watch games in person every year since both home and road games are blacked out.
Clearly, this is about protecting the market rights of the broadcast/cable partners for each of these teams… and that’s understandable. If people can choose to watch a game on ESPN rather than FSN, the value of the local TV rights goes down.
But when none of the rights holders for the Twins, Brewers or Royals choose to beam games in to Iowa, how are they benefiting from a blackout?
Is this any way to expand, or even retain, your fan base?
Just to follow Geek's train of thought:
Let's lighten up on the Twins players and management. They've given us the only two championships in major sports in the past 46 years. They've been a playoff team in four of the past five years, and they're competitive again this year.
Despite our whining, they've demonstrated that they're not being managed just for short-term financial gain, a la the Red-era Vikes; they're not being incompetently managed in the manner of Denny's Vikes, or the current Timberwolves.
They've developed the current AL batting champ, MVP and Cy Young winner, and have not dealt, or let walk, every worthwhile player for financial reasons. Perhaps we're being a bit hard on the only franchise that's not dependent upon ice to give us a reason for hope and desired success?
The truth is that we're actually much EASIER on our teams than most cities. The handwringing may not be less, but the incessant second guessing and in your face nature of said second guessing most certainly is. Just ask Latrell Sprewell -- oh wait, now I'm not anonymous anymore. :-) WolvesGeek
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