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You're right packerboy, the '70s Vikes were a lot of fun but starting in the mid-'80s when they started the string of DUIs and other legal issues it's become harder to like them. Once they put on that purple helmet I find myself cheering for them but I don't connect with them the way I do with the Twins.

With the way this season has gone down, then up and now roller coastering up an down, it'd be hard to imagine a football season that could provide this kind of entertainment for me personally.

Salary Cap, rampant free agency, off the field issues, as well as a sense that the NFL is more hype than actual football; take away gambling and fantasy football and I'm not so sure pro football is that popular. Any sport that has to continually change the basic rules of play just seems to rub me the wrong way. There's more legal contact in any basketball game than there is in any NFL secondary now a days.

Baseball has its problems but it is what it is and what it has always been; baseball. The same game 5th graders play pros play. 38,000 on a beautiful Tuesday night shows that there is a significant interest in baseball here and they'll probably put mid 40,000's for all 4 games with the White Sox this weekend. And like Packerboy points out the top story is a back-up linebackers knee . A big game tonight for Silva, hopefully the bats will come back to life and the Twins can get another win, I think if Silva can get his confidence back he'll be alright down the stretch.

Absolutely goldy. They need to start hitting the ball.

I watched most of the game last night. Santana was great but it was one of those nights when CLE was just missing his mistakes. Again, way to go Johan, but there were a few line drives that found their way to Tyners glove on the track in left.

Lets score 4 or 5 early and stop making these average pitchers look like Cy Young. I was sitting there last night worried as heck that they would lose that game because they could only score 1 run off of Cy Westbrook. I realize Westbrook is not a bad pitcher but come on.

Lets go.

damn vikings...they're never gonna get a new stadium the way they keep ending up in the paper....

Is it just me or are starting pitchers of today emotionally fragile athletes. Anyone notice how Rick Anderson had to massage Silva at the end of the dugout when it was clear Gardy was lifting him after the 5th. You know Anderson was saying, "great game big fella, you're at 94 already, you're throwing great but we need you fresh for the next one, you're a stud, you were nasty tonight, let the Bullpen bring it home."

Many starting pitchers of today are mirror images of the psycholigical enigmas that seem to specialize in catching footballs on Sundays.

Silva's stuff may be coming around, he had some nasty looking K's tonight. Silva had movement on some third strikes tonight that didn't exist in the first three months of the season.

The Minnesota Twins will be announcing today that their August 31 matinee with the Royals will be "KC Royals Appreciation Day". The Twins will be recognizing the Royals for their help in the Wild Card Race. This month alone the Royals have conviently grabbed their ankles for the Twins while turning around and sweeping Boston and taking two in the Wind City. Buddy Bell, on behalf of his club, will be presented with a key to the city, an honory diploma from the U of M, gift certificates valid anytime for 25 Golden Butterknife Steaks, a new Dodge Caliber, a lifetime supply of Land O Lakes 2% milk, and two free boat charters on Lake Minnetonka. "Regardles of how this ends, we must acknowledge the Royals efforts thus far" said an anonymous Twins official. Sid Hartman is also reportedly working on a deal to add Buddy Bell to his ever expanding list of "Close Personal Friends".

Lets give em the Royal treatment.

Crazy game.

CWS plays Det while Twins play Toronto and you figure we gain a game. Nope.

Twins play CLE and CWS play KC and you figure you better win just to stay where you are. Nope.

Silva did well and the Indians look like they are playing out the season.

Its time for a little hot streak. They had that streak when they won like 13 of 14 ending in the sweep of CWS. Since that time they are a couple over .500 which is good.

Boys, dont look now but this team that ChrisK left for dead in June is 70-49. Since IS started this thread they are 36- 15. There is only one team outside of their division in all of baseball who has won more games. (Mets with 71). Incredible.

The media can cover the Koren Robinson thing if thats what they think people want to hear about. They can give us dailey reports on Greenways knee. But the 42,000 people at the Dome last night dont care.

Lets go Twins.

Mental makeup is a large part of pitching, so it's understandable that a coach or manager would need to cater to or massage a pitcher's ego. I see it at the younger levels, a kid gives up a couple of hits and his shoulders slump so the coach needs to try to get him back in a positive mindset. A good coach will recognize which players need a kick in the seat or a pat on the back.

I don't know why the wide receiver position has turned into a haven for the emotionally crippled, I would think the mental equivalent in football would be the quarterback.

Back to the Twins, another nice win last night, Cuddyer gets the big slam. Here's hoping Garza finds a breaking pitch and shuts down the Indians today.

I have done a lot of coaching of young kids and teenagers.

What they need in the way of talk more than anything, if anything, is to explain to them why they did well or didnt do so good.

They need to be reminded of the basics of pitching mechanics, pitching strategy and location.

I love the coaches who yell out to their pitchers "Throw strikes" or "keep it down" or "work ahead"

Oh , great idea coach. Now how do I do that?

Hopefully Silva is getting some feedback about how he is doing instead of just ego message. There is a reason he is not consistently getting his pitches to do what he wants and it isnt lack of confidence.

Its mechanics.

As far as who is and who isnt a head case, its cyclical. Right now, wide recievers have the edge. But maybe Rickey, Mo and Ontario will be back to get the RBs the lead again.

By the way, there seems to be some confusion about who we should be rooting for/against.

I think it is important that we get it straight and now is as good a time as any.

Yankees vs Bos for 5 games this weekend. Root for the Yankees to sweep and sweep Bos out of the playoff race. Somebody has to win the East. We may as well settle on the Yankees and hope Boston loses every night.

White Sox vs Tigers. Same deal. The Tigers will win the Central. Dont root for the Sox to beat the Tigers because it will move the Twins closer to 1st place. Root for the Sox to lose no matter who they play.

I thinks its important that we all agree on this because we should all be sending out the same fibes if we intend to be successful in the quest to play in Oct.

Let me know what you think.

One more thought. I have a feeling Liriano will come back for 3 more starts and win them all. The final one being the clincher in the Dome on the last weekend.

Detroit was gone, they are still gone, and will continue to be gone even though the gap has narrowed. The Twins' only ticket to the post season is via Commissioner Selig's Wild Card. From here on out it goes as the sticker read on the door to Locker room #1 in my hometown rink, "My favorite team is the Gophers and who is ever playing the Sioux."

In this case let's replace Gophers with Twins and supplement Sox (Red and White types) for the Sioux.

I guess who we cheer for is immaterial as it will have no bearing on anything that happens. However, seeing either of the Sox win games at this point is far worse than Detroit winning as it only muddies the water for the WC.

Morneau Hits 31. Garza still not the answer.

Agreed but Garza was better today. 3 runs in 5 innings isnt great but as a #5 starter it ought to be good enuf to give your team a chance to win.

Hit the ball. Stop making the Paul Byrds of the world look like Walter Johnson for 6 inninings.

Lets go.

2 Questions

1. Why does Torii Hunter seem to hit into an astronomical number of double plays? He's no Vince Coleman but he runs very well and has an upper cut swing. I need don't get it.

2. Are the Twins beginning to count the people in the stadium like Flordia counts presidential ballots? I don't see how there were 42,000 in that stadium last night unless 7,000 people were sitting underneath the hall of fame curtain in the upper tank of RF.

1. Hunter isnt a good hitter.

He hits in the 6 hole and he has guys on in fornt of him so the double play is in order a lot when he bats. So he has a lot of DP opportunities.

In addition, Hunter swings at whatever the pitcher wants him to swing at. When there are guys on , throw him something low and away and you are out of an inning.

Right now, he is the easiest out in the lineup.

2. I didnt think they were pushin the number last night. It looked pretty full.

Anyway, if you hold CLE to 3, you should win. Its been too much like '05 with the bats lately.

packerboy, I hope you're right on Liriano but he still hasn't picked up a ball yet.

Hunter has always been an undisciplined hitter, but it seems as if he's lost a step since he came back from the DL so my guess is that his leg or ankle is still bothering him a little which might be why he's hitting into more double plays.

Attendance was announced at 38,000 on Tuesday and that seemed right to me. I believe they have a promotion on Wednesdays, like Dollar Dog night so it wouldn't surprise me if the numbers were higher yesterday. Those are really impressive numbers for midweek games, I don't think they had draws like that during the week in '87 or '91. And like I've said before these crowds really seem to be into the game, rather than the easily distracted crowds that usually populate the dome. They don't play the loud music in between innings either, which is nice.

I only listened to the first two innings today, it sounded like Garza was having trouble keeping the ball down. He must have settled down a bit to have lasted five innings, hopefully this is bodes well for his next start.

Our boys need to start hitting the ball. If they do, things look good for them this weekend.

If they can figure out a way to win tonight with Boof on the hill, it would be huge. If they make Freddy Garcia look like Koufax, it aint gonna happen.

They need to go out and win won 7-5 tonight and then turn it over to Radke and Johan.

Lets go get em.

Saturday night you have the Twins vs. White Sox on FSN amd WGN, Radke against Garland a top tier match up and you have the Vikings at Pittsburgh in preseason football, I'm sure they'll be on tv somewhere; I bet you the Twins game beats the Vikings in ratings but the Vikings will be the top of the fold story in Sunday's sports pages.

Though Boof didn't get the win, the team did. Any win this team gets with the 4th and 5th guy starting is gold. The pressure has certainly shifted towards the first base dugout with last night's triumph. Boof did what this team needed, 5 plus giving up no more than they scored themselves.

Its now under 40 games to go. Thats not many.

Thats good for the Twins. They don't have the personel to compete with the Whiteys over the long haul wih Liriano hurt. But if they can get by and win a couple of Garza starts, it wont matter much.

I stand by my prediction that the Cisco kid will come back and give us 3 key starts at the end.

The pitching and especially the bullpen is back to '05 form. Unfortunately, at times, so is the hitting. Garland was Don Drysdale on Sat night.

But last year they would have lost yesterdays game because they would only have scored 2.

Thats the difference between last year and this years team.

But what was with the 3rd base coach sending Cuddyer home on a doudle from 1st base with one out in the middle of a rally in the 3rd inning? It was a close play but that was just dumb. Rally killer. If 2 outs, take a chance but thats was bad baseball.

Anyway , did any of you 'work the count' geniuses notice that the Twins jumped all over Vasquez on the first pitch to score 4 in the 3rd? He was trying to get ahead and grooving the first pitch. The boys jumped on it. Nice job.

Lets go Twins.

The Twins come out of the weekend taking 2 out of 3 from the White Sox in front of record size crowds. The hitters had trouble with Garland on Saturday but otherwise did quite well, scoring 15 runs over the weekend. The home run totals are low, but the Twins actually lead the AL in team batting average.

If we didn't know it already, we learned this weekend that the Twins have one of the best bullpens in the majors, which bodes well for the rest of the season and the playoffs if they make it. Rincon was a bit shaky on Sunday, but Gardenhire brought in Eyre to close out the 8th and that's how it's been this year, if a guy is a little off, Gardenhire can bring in someone else to cover his back. It also looks like Johan is back in Cy Young form, he was masterful on Sunday.

Ozzie Guillen came up with a new nickname for the pesky little hitters at the top and bottom of the lineup, the 'Piranhas'. Jason Tyner has been a real find, he's good in the field and is hitting .323 right now, Shannon Stewart can keep rehabbing that foot thank you.

Pierzynski was up to his old tricks, mimicking the Twins' 'Smell the RBI' gesture after coming up with a big RBI in Saturday's game. Yeah, he's a jerk but he's a master at stirring the pot and if he were still our jerk, we'd love that stuff. Still, one the enduring images of this season for me will be Cubs' catcher Michael Barrett's right cross to Pierzynski's face earlier in the season.

And Yankee fans are in hog heaven after this weekend's thrashing of the Red Sox. They have one game left in this series, but it's clear that the Red Sox are on life support right now and will need a miracle to avoid getting the plug pulled.

packerboy, I hope you're right about Liriano, I wouldn't mind at all being proven wrong if he comes back. It's looking a little better, he'll start throwing this week but the Twins will be extremely cautious with him.

And you're right, they were jumping on Vazquez's first pitch in the 4th. Somebody (Shanty, Goldy?) had a good explanation earlier here of the approach a hitter should take on counts where you don't need to swing and that's to look for the pitch in a particular zone and take it if it's not there. The flip side is that if it is there, you take a good hack at it. I wonder if the Twins figured out that Vazquez was grooving the first pitch and the hitters were told to try to jump on it.

This team is feast or famine when it comes to hitting, the hits and runs come in bunches. One or two hits in a row seem to light a fire under the rest of the team but they can go silent for a long time.

Well Crisk, I agree that Tyner has been a valuable addition but I wouldnt take him over a healthy Shannon Stewart having a typical year.

Stewart will hit .300 with 40 doubles and 12/13 HRs. Tyner isnt going to give you that kind of pop and this team needs pop.

I think the most fortutious injury we have had for a while was when Ford went down. That gave Tyner a lot of playing time, thankfully. If it were my club, Id hit Tyner first or second. Why not?

Well, we whined about Ryan not adding a hitter (at least I did). Our good friend Mr White comes off the DL today. Lets pretend its 1987 and White is Don Baylor.

You may saaaaaay Im a dreamer......

Speaking of dreaming, I think Lirinao will be back and contribute because there is no tear and no break. This Dr Buss guy is good. Real good. He will get Liriano back and better than he was before.

Rondell will head to Rochester for a rehab and won't be called up until the rosters expand I'd bet. Who would you send down, Rabe I suppose. I have my doubts Liriano will be back for anything other than bullpen use, I hope I am wrong, but I hope the Twins err on the side of caution with him. Interesting note in Sid's column yesterday about how Liriano didn't do his between starts rehab/workout the team Doc's wanted him to do, will he do his rehab work now?

Another big series for the Twins with the Orioles coming up, they seemed to relax last time they were in this situation and the Blue Jays pummeled them, lets hop that doesn't happen this time around.

I was fishing this past weekend and stopped by a local establishment in Waseca to catch the Twins game on tv Saturday night, out of the 5 tvs they had going 4 had the Twins and 1 had the Vikings, though the Viking fans were louder (read drunker) they were far fewer in number than the baseball fans and even though Garland was cruising most of the night the attention on the baseball game was great. The other thing was the baseball people were far more knowledgeable; the disdain for the 2 errors was prevelant throughout the game, the Viking people cheer a 4 yard gain on 3rd and 12 for petes sake.

You're a dreamer packerboy Stop picking on that nice Rondell White now.

Stewart does have more pop than Tyner, but Tyner's definitely a better fielder than Stewart with a stronger arm. The Twins could use more pop but at this point in the season I'd take Tyner over a rusty Shannon Stewart. Maybe Rondell will provide some punch? Tyner does make a good no.2 hitter, but Gardy has settled with Punto in that spot. It does make for a pesky set of hitters at the bottom and top of the order as Ozzie Guillen has discovered.

Goldy, your observations would apply to what I've seen of the crowds at the Dome too, when you see guys up in the cheap seats on a Sunday afternoon scoring the game you know you've got a serious, into the game kind of crowd.

I actually wasnt pickin on Rondell, although its not hard to do.

It isnt totally crazy to consider him as a guy who could help out. He is a career 23 HR, .280 kind of hitter. He was starting to show that before he got hurt.

Kubel hasnt done squat except for 2 weeks. Maybe White can hit a big HR or 2 that will make a difference down the stretch.

The reason I like Tyner at 2 is because he has good speed and can lay one down. I like him better than Punto in that spot.

I agree goldy and was thinkin the same thing. Once again its Sox vs Tigers for 4. Lets take it to the Os while the Sox are gettin pounded by the Tigers instead of disappearing like they did vs Toronto.

People are talkin about the division title because we are 'only' 6.5 back. With under 40 to play thats a huge lead. Huge. Its a whole lot less than 13 but it is still alot. Lets go Tigers, beat the Sox.

I am glad people are tuned into the Twins. The attendance is great. I played golf Sunday AM and nobody was talking about the Vikings game. Just Twins.


Go Twins