The Twins selected Trevor Plouffe with their first round pick (No. 20 overall) in the 2000 draft and then watched as he hit .283, .223 and .246 his first three minor-league seasons. They preached patience, noting how he had been drafted out of high school and pushed quickly up the minor-league ladder. Invariably, Plouffe would get off to terrible starts and then spend the season trying to bring his numbers back to respectability.

Well, that won’t be a problem for him this year. Plouffe is off to a great start for Class AA New Britain. Still two months shy of his 21st birthday, he’s batting .340. Tonight, in a victory over Portland, Plouffe went 4-for-5 with two doubles and his third home run in nine games.

The urban legend of Curt Schilling’s bloody sock has resurfaced, thanks to the comments of Orioles broadcaster Gary Thorne. Today’s Boston Globe has the details.

“It gets stupider,” Schilling said with a tone of resignation in his voice. “I got the 9-inch scar for you. You can see it.

“There are some bad people in your line of work, man.”

I covered the 2004 ALCS and World Series for the Baltimore Sun, when Schilling took the mound with that big red splotch on his sock. Within the press corps, there was growing cynicism that Schilling was milking his heroics for all they were worth. It made for great copy, but soon a conspiracy theory surfaced that the red spot on his sock wasn’t really blood — that it was food coloring or paint. A Sun columnist pushed that angle harder than most, and during the World Series, my editors asked me to pursue it as a news story.

After Boston took the first two games of the World Series, the series moved to St. Louis. I was standing in the visitor’s clubhouse at Busch Stadium, when I suddenly found myself alone with Red Sox GM Theo Epstein. Considering how massive the World Series press corps is, this was my chance for a rare exclusive. I had known Theo since 1998, when he was in law school and working in the Padres baseball operations department. Of all the questions I could have asked him at that moment (coming off Boston’s miraculous uprising from a 3-0 deficit against the Yankees in the ALCS to a 2-0 lead in the World Series), I mumbled something about needing official confirmation that it was indeed blood on Schilling’s sock.

Theo let out a big sigh and said, “Blood and fluid.” We spoke for about 20 more seconds alone, and he went back to watching his team win its first World Series since 1918. They say, “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire,” and this urban legend has now resurfaced three years later. Thorne said Red Sox catcher Doug Mirabelli later confirmed to him that the spot wasn’t blood, but last night, Mirabelli denied saying that.

I don’t mind going against the grain as a reporter for my editors. About that, let me be clear. It was because of passive reporting by myself and other baseball writers that the game’s steroid problem didn’t really surface before Ken Caminiti’s confession in 2003. Going against the grain is what David Halberstam did for the New York Times and later in his book “The Best and the Brightest” in covering the Vietnam war. But this was about a red spot on a sock. And that moment with Theo remains one of the low points of my career.

Class AAA Rochester was rained out today. According to beat writer Jim Mandelaro’s blog from the Democrat and Chronicle, Matt Garza pitches Friday, and Twins GM Terry Ryan is scheduled to be there on Saturday. This is business-as-usual for Ryan, who will begin taking trips to watch the organization’s minor league clubs while the Twins are on road trips. I’m guessing Ryan will see Rochester once through the rotation.

Update: I just spoke to Terry Ryan in the Metrodome dining room, and he’ll actually see Rochester play Friday and catch six games. That means he’ll see Garza twice, but again, this is standard practice for Ryan.

As Sidney Ponson gets ready for a big start Wednesday night for the Twins against Kansas City, it should be noted how well Kevin Slowey did tonight for Class AAA Rochester. The kid turned up the heat in a 5-2 win over Pawtucket. His line: 7 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 9 K. For the season, he is 3-0 with a 0.96 ERA.

Meantime, it another night at the office for Jeff Manship in a 1-0 victory for Class A Beloit. A friend recently named me President of the Jeff Manship Fan Club. I’d rather be his agent. The righthander is 1-0 with a 1.08 ERA with 28 strikeouts and two walks allowed in 25 innings pitched. His line tonight: 6 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 5 K.

I got the word late last night on ESPN News, of all places, that Pulitzer Prize winning author David Halberstam had been killed in a car crash at age 73. This is definitely a sad day, and I’ve spent most of it reading tributes to Halberstam. As Peter Gammons writes today in his blog, Halberstam was the “greatest journalist of my lifetime.”

As a journalist, I don’t pretend to have any of Halberstam’s gifts, but I’ve tried drawing inspiration from his writing and reporting. Because this is a baseball blog, I can start by recommending his baseball books, particularly “Summer of ‘49″ and “The Teammates.” But every American should read his most important works, specifically “The Best and the Brightest” and “The Powers that Be.”

David Halberstam was 73.