Those immortal words spoken by "Lou Brown" manager of your Cleveland Indians from Major League fame just as the Wild Thing, Ricky Vaughn, got off the motorcycle at spring training, complete with razored in sideburns, are quite relevant as the first place Twins pulled off yet another come from behind win by the Twins this very Friday night.
Tonight made you forget about the free-swinging days of Jacque Jones and Torii Hunter when a team that batted a collective sub-.240 still found a way to win three straight division titles in spite of swinging at anything not being held by someone else. In those days, if Crash Davis had told Nuke to throw at the Twins mascot, it still would have been a strike (swinging). Nope, today's Twins actually want to see more than just the first pitch or two (thank you Carlos Gomez who sat on a 3-2 breaking pitch that in the past would have been a swinging strike three for any of a number of Twins) and actually make smart plays (Delmon Young's steal of third with two outs, while inocuous at first, opened up second base for the soon-to-be-walked Gomez to steal, again on defensive indifference, and set the stage for two to score on Lamb's bloop single).
When young Isabelle saw it in her heart to give baseball a second chance last Sunday after the National Anthem, I got the chance to firsthand see this team gut out a comeback after Boof Bonser pitched an 0-6 hole right out of the first inning gate. (BTW, the Twins are winning in spite of Boof's best efforts to pitch otherwise--can a brother get at least a few shutout innings from a guy who is supposed to be the #1, which btw is now happily occupied by Mr. Hernandez, Livan, if you please).
Speaking of young Izzy, while she wailed during the National Anthem, she "settled down" and went seven strong, allowing her previously-mentioned father figure to see the entire Twins comeback. One day, she will pick the proper song during which to wail..."God Bless America" during the seventh-inning stretch. Not only did I not remove my cap, I didn't even stand until the song was finished and they started Take Me Out to the Ballgame, the true seventh-inning stretch tradition (and celebrating it's 100th birthday--more on that in another blog).
Why do we insist on singing two patriotic--strike that, one patriotic and one self-importantly jingoistic song, during a major league baseball game? And then to request people remove their caps for the second one? Listen, I'm all for singing the National Anthem before any sporting event...it is because we are a free country that we don't have to worry about the government executing a pitcher for throwing "ground balls, it's more democratic". But we have one National Anthem, not two, and patriotism doesn't need to be slammed down everyone's throat during a baseball game.
Especially when the song is one that associates our country with a divine being...your beliefs aside, church and state are and should forever be separate. Not everyone is a believer and not everyone is a patriot.
But we all should be baseball fans. Izzy proved Sunday she has the potential. And if you are, this is a fun Twins club to follow right now.
Right, Charlie?
Peace,
Reg
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