Twins Sisters

"We're going to be thinking about winning as many games as we can and irritating the living heck out of a lot of people who said we can't play," Gardenhire said. "Whether we can or not, we want to make it look like they have no clue what they're talking about. That's our goal."

Have a great day all, and enjoy the game tonight, whether from your seats at the Dome or from your living room.  Win Twins!


Play ball! 

--Tricia--

I was lucky enough to be on vacation all this week. I slept in, went to a bunch of different appointments and just enjoyed not being at my annoying job. The best time of the whole week was last night and today.

The Twins Kid was on Spring Break this week so he stayed over last night and we hung out all day today. We watched our two of our favorite baseball movies, Rookie of the Year and Angels in the Outfield. I've seen both of them countless times.



                      Rookie of the Year is so funny--and I just love Angels In The Outfield. The whole story is just lovely and heartwarming.

If Tony Danza, Danny Glover, Matthew McConaughy and Adrien Brody can win the Pennant, the newbie group of the Twins at least have a shot.  :-)  

Twins Kid and I wore our Twins hat all through Rookie Of The Year. We are just silly like that.

The best part of today is our trip to Underwater World at the Mall of America. I had never been before, and I thought it would be an interesting thing to do. I was right! I paid a little extra so we went on a behind the scenes tour in a small group. TK and I were above the aquariums and were able to see down. Pretty cool. We also saw there they prepare the food for the animals and the charts of how much each animal eats and when. It was all very imformative. The one question I REALLY wanted to ask was how they did the piranha commerical from last season with Jason Bartlett and Nick Punto. I'm sure they have been asked that plenty but for whatever reason I couldn't work up the nerve.

So Easter is in a couple of days and then back to work for me. Drag. But I'm so glad that I had some time to stop and smell the roses.



**Becca**

I never thought it would happen, but I have an interesting anecdote regarding me, my hairdresser and the Yankees third baseman, A-Rod.  Tricia thought this was funny and entertaining, and I guess it is a little funny.

My friend Alecia has been been cutting and coloring my hair for the last 10 years.  She is great at what she does and is a total sweetheart. She all too well how much I love the Twins and how I have nothing but disdain for the Yankees. Rewind to 2 seasons ago:

My friend Denise (who LOVES A-Rod) and I were at a Twins/Yankees game. At every Twins game, as you know they have the Kiss Cam. You know, where they play some cheesy song and show some hapless couple of the jumbo-tron until they smooch. Denise and I were watching and thought, "That one woman looks a lot like Alecia." I just shrugged it off and didn't think about it until the next time I went to get my hair cut.

Her: What have you been up to lately?
Me: Denise and I went to the Twins game when the Yankees were in town. (She does my friend's hair as well)
Her: Really? Trent and I went and it was a lot of fun. We were on the Kiss Cam.
Me: That's so funny! Denise thought that was you.

Turns out Alecia and her husband were sitting right behind the Yankees dugout. A-Rod signed a baseball and gave it to her and said, "Here you go, Kiss Cam Girl."

How about that? I asked here the other day if she still had it and she said, "Of course! I'm keeping that forever." She has it in 4 year old son's room.  We laughed about it. Denise was so jealous at the time and I couldn't have cared less.  I think it is pretty funny!

**Becca**

Twins 4  Baltimore 2

Hometown boy Joey Mauer is on fire!  He hit a home run today and had a run scoring single. I HOPE HOPE HOPE that he can carry his awesome ways into the regular season.  This hometown gal has faith that he will kick ass and take names like he did in 2006! 

I was browsing at Barnes and Noble yesterday and I found a great book. It is called: The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly.  Below that it says: Heart-Pounding, Jaw-Dropping, and Gut-Wrenching Moments from Minnesota Twins History. Written by Steve Aschburner with a foreword from Bert Blyleven.  You can read the Amazon description here. I'm only 21 pages in, but so far so good.

The 2008 season is underway in just 13 days. I'm getting anxious for it! I feel like a kid waiting for Christmas.  I already have tickets for 4 games.  Two at the Metrodome and two in Miluwakee. I'm hoping that is just the start. 

On a totally unrelated note, do you ever wonder why people are so rude? I was at the salon waiting to get my hair cut and foiled when some lady leaving stopped by the desk to make her next appointment. She told the gal behind the desk what day she wanted but was informed the stylist was already booked. This boorish woman said, "That is totally unacceptable." I turned on my MP3 player at that point because I didn't want to listen to any more of overly self importance bologna. 

Have a good week! 
**Becca**

P.S. Sign Joe Nathan, already! Twins fans have lived through enough trade and free agency heartache to last us for a long time!
 

Happy St. Patrick's Day!



I have a case of the Mondays today, and the snow didn't make them any better.  Hearing that the Twins lost to the Marlins(!) didn't help much either.  (It's only Spring Training....it's only Spring Training.)

I have decided not to worry about the pitching abilities, or possible lack thereof, of Livan Hernandez.  Remember, he's a virtual clone of Carlos Silva, only cheaper, as we've all been reminded a zillion times. We all know Silva sucked it up in Spring Training last year, (he seems to be at it again) and he turned out to be a fine, reliable pitcher.  He got 13 wins during the regular season, and probably should've won more, but man!  He just couldn't get any run support in some of his games last year.  Therefore, since Hernandez is a Silva clone, I'm going to assume that his rough spring will translate into a fine season.  How's that for rationalization?

I added some new links to the blog list so we can  keep track of how Matty, Barty, Torii and Johan do this season. 

Francisco didn't get any guys out in the top of the 4th before they pulled him out of the game today.  Gardy claims that he's doing better every time he pitches.  Since I haven't seen him pitch, and am no pitching coach anyway, I'll have to take Gardy's word for it.  F-Bomb knows what he needs to do: "I need to locate my fastball and get some people out," Liriano said. "I need to throw more innings and throw less pitches. I need to throw more strikes." I have every confidence he'll get there.

This color green makes me want spearmint gum.

Twins Kid played in a basketball tournament over the weekend.  His team won all 4 games, and they are now the 2008 Coon Rapids Athletic Association 4th grade basketball champs!  Pretty cool.  They worked hard to learn the game, and they really played well as a team.  Plus they had a great coach, who we'd like no matter what, but we like him more because he always wears a Twins hat. 

Up next for the Twins:  Phillip Humber starts tomorrow against the Orioles.  Could he be a candidate for the starting rotation? 

Time to go do something more productive, but less entertaining, than blogging.  Should I go exercise or do some housework?  Decisions, decisions. 

--Tricia--

Twins 3  Blue Jays 8

Our guys lost today. The big problem today was the starting pitching. I've heard all this talk about Livan Hernandez being an "innings eater" but I have to say that if he keeps pitching the way he was today there may be some trouble. Giving up 6 runs over 4 innings is not the kind of thing I want to see every 5th game. I've also heard that he is our probable opening day starter.  There. I've said my peace. Now here were the highlights for me:

**Joey Mauer hit a couple of nice singles and scored all the way from 1st base on a Justin Morneau double.  He clearly has his leg/knee problems behind him. That is great news! On his birthday is April he will only be 25 years old. I predict this will be a great year for him.

**Justin Morneau went 2 for 3. Nice.

**Nicky Punto hit a perfect bunt and made it to second because of a Toronto throwing error.

**Carlos Gomez made a very Torii-like catch while smacking full force into the wall. Ouch. He got the wind knocked out of him but good. He was ok--just came out of the game as a precaution. We really need this kid to be our starting center fielder! 



There was a nice story about Joe and Justin on the Twins website. 

*Becca**

Twins 11  Phillies 2

From what I've read it seems as though it will be either Carlos Gomez or Denard Span as the Twins starting center fielder. From what I SAW today my pick would be Carlos Gomez.

This guy is a speedmeister! I'm really impressed with how fast this guy can round the bases. He hit a homer and a single today. But Denard Span had a couple of nice hits today and made a great catch. So while my pick would be Carlos, Denard would be ok, too. Both those guys seem like a good fit with the Twins.

I was happy to see Nick, who has been having such a hard time get a couple of hits with a walk. I especially enjoyed the triple toward the end of the game.

Kevin Slowly pitched four innings and was looking sharp. He just gave up one solo home run. I think that if he can get a decent amount of run support he will be a-ok.

Joey and Cuddy were not in the lineup today so I haven't had the chance to see them in spring training action yet. I'm hoping that they will play tomorrow. I just love watching Joey Mauer bat. He always looks cool, calm and collected.

I want to give a special shout out to my sister and co-blogger, Tricia. Losing Torii, Johan, Barty, Matty and especially Jason Tyner broke my baseball loving heart this winter. While she was disapointed, she never lost her baseball enthusiasm. A month or so ago I asked her, "Do you still think watching the Twins will be fun without all the guys we lost this winter?" Without missing a beat she said, "Yes!" I can't explain how, but that really helped to mend my baseball loving heart.

**Becca**

I'm guessing that anyone who reads this blog also reads Howard Sinker's blog, Section 220, over on the Star Tribune's website, and therefore has already seen this, but that's ok.  This video of various Twins reading haikus (submitted by Section 220 readers) is too cute not to share.  And yes, I know grown men don't generally appreciate being called cute, but I don't care.  They are.  

--Tricia--    

I love spring! The days are longer, the snow is melting and you can just smell the fresh spring scent outside. I just think it is great watching winter slowly fade into spring. People that live in a warm climate year round can't possibly appreciate this time of year like this!

Batter up! Just 2+ weeks till our summer friends take the field.

After the excellent time Tricia and I had in Kansas City last September we thought that the Twins Sisters should head east this June. The Twins Sisters, the Twins Kid and Tricia's husband are headed to:

Milwaukee!!!! 

The Twins will be there Friday, June 13-Sunday, June 15. We already have tickets for the games on Friday and Saturday.  I hope to go to the game on Sunday as well, but I suppose that will hinge on if we drive home on Sunday or Monday. I'm rooting for Monday because since we are going all that way I really want to go to all three games.

This will be the first time the Twins Kid has been to a outdoor Major League game. This will get him ready for 2010 when the Twins will be playing outside!  It is pretty cool of the Twins Hubby to go to Milwaukee and hang out with his wife and sister in law who are obsessed with baseball! 

So while this is three months away, it is something to look forward to. When I'm having a crappy day at work I can take a deep breath and think about how awesome it will be to sit outside on a warm June night and watch baseball.

If anyone has been to a game in Milwaukee, please post a comment and let us know about your experience at Miller Park or if there is anything especially cool that we should be aware of.

And just because I love LNP so much there was a nice little article about him on the Twins website. You can read that here.

Peace out and have a good night!

**Becca**