Minnesota Twins

purple prose

Learn The Lesson Of Henri Cochet

Slate's Robert Weintraub, like many of us, loves the old purple prose of early 1900s sportswriting, the Grantland Rices, the men who painted epic tales of warriors, grizzled combatants and lardywarks too manly to wear gloves. In an occasional series, Weintraub writes about the week's best baseball game in the style of the vaunted sportswriters of yesteryear. This week: The Twins' comeback win over the Tigers.

One would think the legions of scribblers who emptied out of the press section after a mere half dozen tallies in the top of the initial innings would know better. Surely, they had learned the lesson of Henri Cochet, and would never assume a result, regardless of score. Granted, it was the Sabbath, and Lord knows home and hearth are more important on the Day of Rest than mere sport. But those that departed should consider themselves accursed — they missed a famous rally by the Minnesotans, who pulled themselves from a six-run hole to stun gun the Motor City Tigers, 7-6.

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4:30 PM on Wed May 7 2008
By robert weintraub
3,099 views, 88 comments

mlb closer

Guys And Dolls: Floyd, White Sox Back On Top

The inflatable sex doll community was shocked on Tuesday night when Chicago's Gavin Floyd once again lost a no-hitter in the late going; giving up a double to the Twins' Joe Mauer with one out in the ninth. (Inset: "Nooooo!"). Bobby Jenks came on to get the final two outs in the White Sox's 7-1 victory, which ended their six-game losing streak. More »

10:40 AM on Wed May 7 2008
By rickchand
4,019 views, 44 comments

j'accuse

Bill James's Steroid Accusations Have Higher Range Factor Than Canseco's

By now even most casual baseball fans know the story of Bill James. Baseball thought of stats one way, he thought of them another, using complex equations using the quadratic formula and integrals and grep. Easy enough. But perhaps Mr. James has another e=mc² up his sleeve when it comes to the way we think of steroid accusers. Big muscles and home runs? No, how about baldness and acne? More »

12:50 PM on Sat Apr 5 2008
By sussman
6,376 views, 17 comments

2008 division previews

Your AL Central "Preview"

All right, well, the season has supposedly started, though rain on Opening Day has to be some sort of cruel trick from God. So let's wrap up the last division. More »

6:30 PM on Mon Mar 31 2008
By Leitch
3,413 views, 18 comments

Latest by ArmandTamzarian: And while we're on the subject of the AL Central, does anyone else think that Curtis Granderson needs a nickname? I suggest "Wheels Granderson". Doesn't "Wheels Granderson" sound like about a 35% better player than "Curtis Granderson"? more »

baseball season preview

Baseball Season Preview: Minnesota Twins

For the third consecutive season, we are proud to introduce the Deadspin Baseball Season Previews. Yes, baseball is awfully close now; it's spring training, after all.

Every weekday until the start of the season, a different writer will preview his/her team. We asked a gaggle of writers, from the Web, from print, from books, to tell us, in as many or as little words as they need, Where Their Team Stands. This is not meant to be factual, or dispassionate, or even logical: We just asked them to riff on why they love their team so much, or what their team means to them, or whatever.

Today: The Minnesota Twins. Your author is Aaron Gleeman.

Aaron Gleeman is a Senior Editor at Rotoworld.com, appears regularly on NBCSports.com's "Fantasy Fix" show and has been blogging about the Twins at AaronGleeman.com since 2002. His words are after the jump.

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1:35 PM on Mon Mar 10 2008
By Leitch
5,723 views, 37 comments

johan santana

Santana Headed To Flushing, Finally

It's official (kind of): The Twins have traded Johan Santana to the Mets. More »

4:33 PM on Tue Jan 29 2008
By Leitch
9,292 views, 186 comments

Latest by 13colonies: [www.soxaholix.com] more »

awesome thought processes

A Trade That's Just Crazy Enough To Work!

The baseball winter meetings start next week, and that means countless unsubstantiated guesswork and fantasy trade scenarios. That's the fun of it, really; it will distract you from the horror that comes when your team gives $12 million for four years to Kyle Lohse. More »

5:02 PM on Wed Nov 28 2007
By Leitch
9,947 views, 51 comments

theater

Kirby Puckett, Off-Off-Broadway

When Kirby Puckett died last year, he left behind a most complicated legacy. More »

daily closer

Johan Santana Is Mr. August

This will be your one and only Bert Blyleven update for this season, so pay attention. Blyleven, to my knowledge the only Minnesota Twins starting pitcher to have been born in Zeist, Netherlands, struck out 15 Oakland Athletics on Aug. 1, 1986; a Twins record. Or it was, until Johan Santana struck out 17 over eight innings in a 1-0 win over the Rangers on Sunday. More »

9:15 AM on Mon Aug 20 2007
By rickchand
3,312 views, 50 comments

bridge collapse

Twins Play On After Bridge Collapse

As we wish the best to anyone affected by the bizarre bridge collapse in Minnesota yesterday, we note that the bridge that collapsed — which, somewhat pathetically, was named "the Interstate 35W Bridge" — was right by the Metrodome and was likely carrying people on their way to the Twins-Royals game. More »

10:00 AM on Thu Aug 2 2007
By Leitch
6,917 views, 119 comments

daily closer

It's A Football Score! Get It?

Guys, We Were Closer When We Gave Up 20 Runs. Go ahead. Make the joke. "It's a football score!" Haw haw haw! Because, see, 20-14 is the kind of final score you might see in an NFL game. But you never hear the joke "Wow, maybe they were playing lacrosse!" Or, "Golly, looks like he should have hit on 14, because the house dealt itself 20!" But actually, this was a baseball score. The Minnesota Twins scored 20 runs on the White Sox in the first game, and followed that act up in the second game of the doubleheader with a 12-0 victory. Without looking, I bet that several Twins had multiple RBI and home runs. Combining both scores, the Twins outscored the Sox 32-14. Wait, 32? That's a weird football score. More »

11:59 AM on Sat Jul 7 2007
By sussman
2,067 views, 14 comments

Latest by soozycue: ...the Canadian Crusher's 3 bombs... wouldn't want to make him sound any more awesome than he already is. more »

great the other japanese red sox pitcher won

Bad Day For Neshek

Despite our our (and many others') attempts to get out the vote, Twins reliever Pat Neshek finished third in the final All-Star voting. We wonder if perhaps he might have won if he'd had an extra few days in there, Rory Fitzpatrick style, but, alas.

It was a bad day all around for Pat, who suffered his first loss last night. Fortunately, his beautiful designed Web site — not that we should talk — will keep updating, and even putting up these in-no-way-uncomfortable-to-watch videos. Next year, Pat. Next year.

A Twin Will Keep Blogging Despite Losing An All-Star Vote [New York Times]
On The Road With Pat Neshek
Vote Neshek, Everybody [Deadspin]

10:55 AM on Fri Jul 6 2007
By Leitch
2,247 views, 37 comments

blatant pandering, on both sides

Vote Neshek, Everybody!

Twins reliever Pat Neshek is having a rather outstanding year, with an ERA at 1.37 and pitching in that submarine way we always find charming. He's actually one of the five finalists for the last American League All-Star spot, voted on by fans on MLB.com. And he's unleashing his secret weapon to bring out the vote: His entertaining blog. More »

2:30 PM on Tue Jul 3 2007
By Leitch
5,459 views, 79 comments

look! butt!

What Happens When You Stay Inside Too Long

We don't mean to imply that these men should perhaps reevaluate their life matters a bit, get their affairs in order ... but they freeze framed their televisions so they could see the ass of a Major League Baseball player ... and filmed it!

2:40 PM on Wed Jun 27 2007
By Leitch
2,345 views, 68 comments

goodbye batgirl

The End Of An Online Sports Legend

Back before we started this site, when we were just thinking about it, we scoured the Internets to see which sports sites, we thought, were doing it right, sites we'd want to pattern ourselves after. One of the first ones we loved was Batgirl, author Anne Ursu's playful, cute and hilarious ode to all matters Minnesota Twins. We actually started seeing real life games as played by Legos. It was a little dose of joy, every day. More »

1:45 PM on Thu May 24 2007
By Leitch
2,169 views, 37 comments

Latest by biggie smalls: @metschick: Seriously, I hope Dash is a dog, or other labour-intensive housepet. 'Cause people who name their kid "Dash" are dumb. Now, Hiram, that's a name. more »

baseball

The Royals Can't Even Accept Charity Anymore

Is Torii Hunter about to be banned by Major League Baseball for the next three years? Well, probably not, but he certainly could be. More »

12:45 PM on Tue Apr 24 2007
By Leitch
1,519 views, 33 comments