I officially jumped on the MN Twins bandwagon last night when I tuned in to watch a Twins game for the first time in I don’t know how long. I had my doubts, too, because I tuned in during the fourth innning and the White Sox were up 2-0.
In the fifth, Joe Mays gave up three runs and yet I stuck with it and I was rewarded in the seventh when the Twins got a run off a solo shot (does he hit any others?) by Matthew LeCroy and again in the nineth when the Twins rallied for three more runs to pull within two points. They lost, of course, 6-4, but the thing is, this time I believed they would come back and win it. They had the look team that believed they could do it. You could’t say as much for them for most of this season.
So, I jumped on the bandwagon last night. I was pretty much running along side it since August 18th. That was when Patrick Reusse began the first of his four part series on the 1965 Twins. That article got me reading but I ended up reading every story about the Twins because, of course, the previous evening was the day that Johan Santana had a shutout going against the White Sox until Konerko hit a solo shot off him in the nineth. Santana no-hit the White Sox for six innings and shut them out for eight.
I’ve been following them in the newspapers ever since and now I’ve jumped on the bandwagon, largely because they’ve got a chance at a wild card spot.
In my own defense, I must point out that I usually follow the team through thick and thin, so there’s no need for a bandwagon. But, damn; there were such high expectations this season. I really expected them to kick butt. Yet they never really got it together. And, honestly, it just sucks watching a team win one run game after one run game when you have such high expectations for them. And after Torii Hunter went down, I figured Terry Ryan would say, well, that’s the season and if Ryan gives up on the season, it’s just too painful.
I’ve watched bad Twins teams for an entire season and enjoyed it. The difference is, I didn’t expect them to do anything. It’s a huge difference.
But I do need to apologize to the Twins in general and Johan in particular for my atypical bandwagon-jumping ways. Any team that can trot out such a phenomenal pitching talent, deserves an apology.
So in the best tradition of President Clinton: I’m sorry.