2010 April | Minnesota Twins Fan Blog

Twins Fans Have Lots Of Reasons To Be Optimistic

If you are a Minnesota Twins fan these days, you ought to be pretty happy. Nearly everything you could have hoped for going into the season has happened. The new Target Field has gotten rave reviews, the club locked up hometown hero Joe Mauer to a long term deal, and the Twins are off to one of the best starts in baseball. All of the worry about Joe Nathan’s season ending elbow injury has seem to simmer for now, as Jon Rauch has been fantastic thus far in Nathan’s absence. Rauch has only given up 1 earned run and walked only 1 batter in 6 appearances thus far. If Rauch does begin to struggle as the games get more important into the summer, it seems as if the Twins are willing and able to spend money and go out and acquire a proven closer to finish off games for them. Usually in the bottom thrid in terms of payroll, this years Twins opened the season with a payroll approaching 100million dollars, putting them up there with typically big spending teams like the Giants, Mariners, and Dodgers.

While the Twins fast start has to have fans excited, prehaps the biggest and best news surrounding the Twins in recent weeks was the 8 year, $185 million dollar extension that Minnesota native Joe Mauer signed just before the season. As soon as Mauer signed the dotted line, you have to think that big market teams like the Yankees and Red Sox let out a collective scream, as they anxiously awaited Mauer hitting the open market. The fact is, Mauer remaining with the Twins, the team he grew up cheering for, is good for baseball. While he still got big time money, he certainly took at least a little bit of a hometown discount. Had he left the Twin Cities, where he is by far the most popular athlete, it would have been a crushing blow to the Twins franchise, especially as they try to sell seats and luxury boxes in their new stadium. Keeping Mauer ensures that the fans will remain happy and more than likely, that the team will remain contenders in the American League.

by Josh Weiner at the Sports Fan Blog Network

April 21, 2010 Posted by jmw24 | Joe Mauer, Joe Nathan, Jon Rauch, Josh Weiner, Original Content | | No Comments Yet

Twins’ rebirth on Target

Except for the early morning, when sunlight bakes the place like a greenhouse, Jerry Bell’s office down the left-field line at Target Field offers a comfortable and spectacular view inside the Minnesota Twins new ballpark. On the highest shelf behind his desk, Bell keeps three souvenirs of his 23 years as the club’s top executive.

Two are obvious: small replicas of the Twins’ 1987 and 1991 world championship trophies. In between, however, is an inside joke: a model of the Titanic.

That, Bell says, was a Christmas gift from his two daughters, late in the club’s 11-year pursuit of financing for a new stadium. At times, Bell thought the Twins’ effort was as doomed as the ocean liner that sank on its maiden voyage in 1912.

“I’m going through the Legislature. It’s not going well. The next thing I know, they buy me the Titanic,” Bell says. “It was pretty funny.”

Nine years after Twins owner Carl Pohlad offered the club to Major League Baseball for contraction because it couldn’t make enough money in the Metrodome, the Twins will play their first regular-season game Monday in a $545 million open-air downtown stadium.

Click here to read the full article – By PAT BORZI of USA Today

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