Why I'd Be a Twins Fan Even If I Weren't

For those of you who weren't watching the Twins beating up on the hapless Nationals last night, you missed a great play that was inches away from an amazing play. With runners on first and second, there was a sharp grounder to thirdbaseman Brian Buscher, who stepped on the bag, rifled it to Alexi Casilla, who just barely missed the bag before sending it on to Morneau for the second out.

Any good Twins fan was already thinking it before Bert said it: Gaetti, Newman, Hrbek. In a 1990 game against Boston, the venerable infield, just a season away from wining it all, turned two triple plays in one game. To put it in perspective, that is not only the only time that has ever happened, the record for triple plays in a season is 3. Yes, the Twins infield got 2/3 of the way to the season record for triple plays in one game. Of course, being the Twins, they lost that game 1-0, but still...

To bring this to a point, that is exactly why being a Twins fan is so much better than being the fan of a team that "wins consistently" or "puts up offensive numbers." Sure, the Twins may be last in the bigs in homers (though they're safely in the top half of runs scored), but let's face it -- homeruns are really pretty boring. Not all the time; everyone can appreciate the drama of a slugger getting a big homer when his team is down late. But with the steriods era and general power surge (not to mention the DH in the American League), homeruns are pretty common. And most of them aren't dramatic at all...sure, you get to see about a cool two-three seconds of a big swing and then a towering fly. And then you get to witness the pure excitement of a fat man jogging and the historicism of knowing this guy will only do that another 30-40 times this season and a couple of hundred times over his career.

Contrast that with knowing that at any moment, you could see one of the rarest plays in baseball, a play that requires athleticism and split-second reactions, much more so that a fat guy standing there hitting something. Call me a purist, but I think it's a bit more engaging to watch a team, you know, play baseball instead of line up a bunch of guys for a homerun derby and then take the next half of the inning off.

And that's why Minnesotans love the Twins. Even though they'll pretty consistently break your heart, they play the game the way it's supposed to be played. And out here, we'd rather you do something the right way than win.