Recently my father told me about a spring training tradition that I had surprisingly never heard of. “Surprisingly” because it involves my two favorite American League teams (no, not the Tigers… I’m still working on warming up to them). Each year, the Twins and the Red Sox train in Fort Myers, FL and as a result, they play each other a fair number of times (six this year). The team that wins the spring training series takes home the annual Mayor’s Cup.
After yesterday’s 4-2 victory by the Twinkies, the series is tied at 2-2. Joe Mauer, who I remember as the star quarterback for the Cretin Durham Hall team that trounced my high school’s football team by some ridiculous score, was back behind the plate after some knee problems and went 2-2, scoring the first run of the game.
However, since the Sox won the cup last year, if the series results in a 3-3 tie, they’ll retain ownership. Thus, if the Twins want to win it, they’ll have to win the next two games.
In other baseball news, Tony Oliva was 15 votes shy of gaining entrance to the Hall of Fame via the Veterans Committee. In fact, no one gained the 60 votes (75%) necessary to earn a plaque in the Hall. This was Oliva’s last year of eligibility. Sorry, Tony, you was robbed.

So, I checked Yahoo! Sports to get the update on spring training and noticed that the standings were listed as follows (screenshot in the “Complete Standings” link):

Now, I can appreciate a conspiracy to put the Yankees at the bottom, but isn’t there something a little fishy about those rankings? Seattle is 1-7. Why are they listed above the Twins and Yankees? And why are the Angels ranked first, even though both Cleveland and Toronto have better winning percentages? Even the National League standings are a little off – St. Louis should be 2nd, not 5th.

Of course, it’s spring training, so who really cares, other than big math nerds like me?

First spring training game today for both my hometown team (the Twins) and my adopted hometown team (the Red Sox). Conveniently for me, they were playing each other, so I only had to check one box score. Unfortunately, I had rehearsal tonight, so I didn’t get to watch the game on NESN. But that’s just as well — my hometown team lost.
Now, admittedly, I’m not one for following off-season trades, unless a major player is involved and I can’t avoid hearing about it. When one season ends, I prefer to wait until spring training to take notice of all the changes in the roster. So forgive me for not noticing until now that Christian “Mr. Triple” Guzman is no longer a Twin, but an Exp… er, Washington National. I’m going to miss watching him zip around the bases.
And since it’s very likely that I’ll be living just outside of Detroit by next fall, I checked up on the Tigers. They creamed the Phillies 9-1. <sarcasm>Oh joy, oh bliss.</sarcasm>
Man, how am I supposed to get excited about the Detroit Tigers?

My superstitious side of me, which admittedly is very small, has this suspicion. I am good luck for baseball teams.
Think about it. I was born in Minnesota. Six years later the Twins win their first World Series (unless you count the ones won by the Senators when the team was in Washington). Many years later, I move to Boston. Four years after that, the Red Sox win their first World Series in 86 years, breaking the supposed Curse of the Bambino. It has to be all me, right?
So I have a plan.
I’ve always had a soft spot for the Chicago Cubs, possibly because WGN broadcasted in Minnesota as a cable station and I would occasionally watch games and listen to Harry Caray do the play-by-play. The Cubs have an even longer drought than the Sox when it comes to World Series – going back to 1908. I figure, if I move to Chicago for grad school (and I’ve applied to two schools in the Chicago area), in about five years, the Cubs will win the World Series. And now that they’ve traded Sosa, who’s been losing his touch, to Baltimore, they’ve freed up the money to rebuild the team into a winner.
Of course, this could backfire if the White Sox grab my good luck instead. If a team from the AL Central is going to win anything, it better be the Twins. Maybe I should think about this plan a little more.

Thanks to a heads up from MRhé… and since I don’t particularly care about the Patriots being in the playoffs, I’ll say something about it.
The front page of The New York Times (subscription needed) had an article about Doug Mientkiewicz and the ball that made the final out of the 2004 World Series. It seems that Doug kept the ball, which is currently in a safe-deposit box in Miami, but now the Red Sox want it. The spokesman for Major League Baseball says Mientkiewicz owns the ball. The spokesman for the Red Sox says the team owns it — and of course he would say that.
It sounds like Doug is willing to have the ball displayed, as long as he can continue to own it. And there is some precedence there — Cal Ripken Jr still owns the baseball he caught to end the 1983 series, but it resides at the Babe Ruth Museum in Baltimore. Granted, he’s Cal Ripken Jr and Doug Mientkiewicz is, well… not. But why give different rights to superstars and legends? After all, in 1983, Ripken hadn’t yet saved baseball from a post-strike decline and Lou Gehrig’s record wasn’t even close to being broken. On the other hand, it does seem a little unfair to Boston that a guy who only played for the team for half the season and who’s future with the organization is unclear gets to own the ball. But hey, he caught it and the MLB says that he owns it so it’s up to him to determine its fate. Besides, I have a soft spot for first basemen who played in Minnesota and relocated to Boston — after all, I was one, along with Doug, David Ortiz, and David McCarty.
And speaking of Minnesota first basemen, that brings me to my favorite part of the article — Kent Hrbek. It seems fairly obvious that part of what the Times did in researching the story was to look up the fate of every World Series-ending baseball caught on the field in the past twenty years. And most get a brief paragraph or just a mention that so-and-so couldn’t be reached for comment. But the fate of the 1987 ball got quite a bit of coverage and plenty of quotes from one of my all time favorite Minnesota Twins, Hrbie, who incidently thinks that Mientkiewicz should run and hide and/or give the ball back. And I can just picture Hrbek, taking a break from ice fishing to talk to the New York Times, delighted to chat with the reporter. That man has had quite the life — growing up blocks from old Met Stadium, getting drafted by his home town team, winning two World Series, and retiring in Minnesota so that he can continue to just hang out and fish. And occasionally talk to newspapers who remember what a big hero he once was. He just makes me smile.

So, I’m watching game 3 of the 1975 World Series, which is being rebroadcast on NESN right now. First, it’s fun to watch Ken Griffey as a player in his own right, whereas now he’s usually referred to as Junior’s father. Second, mutton chops need to come back into style amongst ballplayers. Third, as I was watching, the screen went red and the obnoxious blaring noise came out of the speakers.
Oh great, I thought. It’s a test of the National Broadcast System.
Except that it wasn’t a test. We’re in a winter storm warning. I needed to tune to channel 8. Okay, channel 8. Except that channel 8 was just some unintelligible voice, presumbably telling me that it was snowing. And I was a little annoyed that my baseball game was interrupted for that. (Okay, yes, I could consult one of many books or websites and find out exactly what happened in the game, but that’s not the point.) The point is that New Englanders are wimps when it comes to weather.
Coming from the land of snow and ice, I had been spending the day thinking that it was too warm. After all, in Minnesota when it snows, it freezes and I don’t have to walk home in slush — although I usually risk slipping on ice. But this snow-rain-snow-rain crap is just obnoxious.
Oh, look, Dwight Evans just tied it up in the bottom of the ninth with a homerun. Go Sox!

The 2005 inductees to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown were announced today. Despite having won his ring while wearing pinstripes, Wade Boggs is going in with a B on his cap and red socks. (Okay, I can’t actually verify what color his footwear will be.) And from the other league, career Cubby Ryne Sandberg is going in with a C on his cap.
Now, that’s all great and they were amazing players and all, but even though I live in Boston now and the Cubs are my favorite National League team, I’m not nearly as excited as I was when my old dog, Molly’s namesake was inducted. And I’m certainly not going to spearhead a road trip to upstate New York this summer, like I did when Kirby Puckett went in. This may be related to Kirby and Molly smiling down on me as a sleep from my Minnesota Twins All-Time Team poster, whereas Boggs and Sandberg have never been in my room.
HOWEVER, I will consider planning a trip to Cooperstown if the Veteran’s Committee comes through and elects Tony Oliva, another man smiling down on me. The other guys on my poster who are still eligible for the hall? Jim Kaat (Veteran’s Committee nominee) and Bert Blyleven (40.9% of the vote this year). (Puckett, Molitor, Carew, and Killebrew are already in.) And just for the record, the other guys I like who didn’t get elected this year: Jack “MVP of the 1991 World Series” Morris (33.3% of the vote), Terry “He’s my neighbor — sort of” Steinbach (1 vote and he lost eligibility for next year), Chili “Two more votes than Terry” Davis, and Jim “Look, Ma, one hand” Abbott (2.5% of the vote, also lost eligibility).
Yep, they’re all sentimental favorites. Do you have a problem with that?

From Amrys…
Pay up, Sox fans.

Now that it’s the off-season, all we baseball fans have to talk about are trades and signings. For the Red Sox, it seems like half the team is up for free agency. One of the big questions has been whether Pedro “The-Yankees-Are-My-Daddy” Martinez will play for the Evil Empire that is George Steinbrenner’s baseball club. And now it has finally happened — next season, Pedro’s going to be playing in New York.
No, not that New York.
It’s not official yet (I don’t think), but it looks like Pedro is on his way to returning to his National League roots by way of the New York Mets. Perhaps the World Series reminded him how much he likes to be on the otherside of an at-bat. Or maybe the Mets just offered him more money. Either way, he earned his ring in Boston and now he’s moving on.
The real question is, how will the Mets take to Nelson de la Rosa?

What with grad school applications and organizing this website, I almost missed the fact that they announced all of the MVPs, Cy Youngs, and Gold Gloves. The big one that I was waiting to hear about was the AL Cy Young. I thought it would be a close call between Santana, the hero of my for-now-and-always favorite team, and Schilling, the hero of my adopted second favorite team. (It’s kind of like junior high — you’re my best friend and she’s my second best friend and the Cubs are my fourth best friend once removed.)
Santana was absolutely dominant in the second half of the season, going 13-0, but had a mediocre start and thus Schilling wound up with more wins. I was rooting for Santana, but because the win count usually factors heavily into the Cy Young award, I assumed it would be at least a little close. But no. For only the 18th time in Major League history, Santana was the unanimous choice with all 28 first place votes. Schilling didn’t even garner all of the second place votes — Mariano Rivera slipped one in there. Must have been a New York writer.
Someone queue up “Black Magic Woman.”
In another news, Christian “Mr. Triple” Guzman was traded to the Washington club formerly-known-as the Montreal Expos. (Does anyone know if they’re getting a new name? Ann Myrtle?) Alas, there goes the greatest Twins shortstop since… Greg Gagne, maybe?