I landed in Fort Myers today, just before sunset, positioning myself for the Twins’ first pitchers and catchers workout Monday. As you can tell from La Velle’s blog and daily stories, there already has been plenty going on at the Lee County Sports Complex.

Before leaving Minnesota, I put myself in the perfect frame of mind by visiting the “Baseball as America” exhibit at the Minnesota Historical Society in St. Paul. I’m pleased to say the place was packed on Saturday afternoon, so if you get a chance, be sure to see it.

We saw George Brett’s infamous pine tar bat, a pair of Shoeless Joe’s shoes, Brooks Robinson’s glove from the 1970 World Series, Hank Aaron’s jersey from the night he hit his 715th career home run to break Babe Ruth’s record. We also saw the original oil-on-canvas Norman Rockwell painting “Bottom of the Sixth” of the three umpires in the rain. Up close, the detail was just incredible.

True baseball geek that I am, I went home and watched the first 20 minutes of the Ken Burns “Baseball” documentary. Sappy as it may sound, I love this line from the introduction: “It is a leisurely game that demands blinding speed. The only game in which the defense has the ball. It follows the seasons, beginning each year with the fond expectancy of springtime, and ending with the hard facts of autumn. It is a haunted game, in which every player is measured against the ghosts of all who have gone before. Most of all, it is about time and timelessness. Speed and grace. Failure and loss. Imperishable hope. And coming home.”

For Twins fans out there, you’ve spent the past four months chewing on those hard facts from October, when Oakland swept them from the playoffs in three games. Over the winter, you heard of other teams signing free agents to mind-numbing salaries (Gil Meche for $55 million, etc.). You heard of the Twins’ ballpark plan reaching an impasse over the price of land. And you heard the team haggle with the heart of the order — Joe Mauer, Michael Cuddyer and Justin Morneau — over salary arbitration.

But now, there’s the fond expectancy of spring again. The Twins are back for more, and who knows what historic moments are in front of them? I have a job to do while I’m here, of course, but here are five things I look forward to most for tomorrow:

1. The sight of legendary groundskeeper, George Toma, working over the dirt at Hammond Stadium.

2. The sound of Matthew LeCroy reuniting with his former teammates in the Twins clubhouse.

3. The smell of pine tar.

4. The sight of the affable Aruban knight, Sir Sidney Ponson, getting to know his new teammates. I covered Ponson when he pitched for the Baltimore Orioles from 2002 to 2004, and I know he’s been through a lot since then.

5. The sound of laughter from Ron Gardenhire’s office. Some managers make it painful for reporters to get their questions answered. Gardenhire offers pure entertainment.

I’ll keep the updates coming. And I promise not to make them all so sappy.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 19th, 2007 at 12:03 am and is filed under Catch-all. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.