You’re sitting in church, and your brother whispers some hilarious comment, and now you’re both helpless, trying to contain the laughter, knowing it’s the last noise everyone else wants to hear at this moment. … But you can’t control it. One of you wheezes, trying to hold back, and now it’s only funnier, so you both burst out laughing, and you’re completely embarrassed because everyone is watching you. But dang … that was funny.

I can imagine that’s how the reporters felt walking into Manager Ray Miller’s office on April 25, 1999, after his Orioles squad had blown another game to fall to 4-14 on the season. Miller was so angry, he punched one wall and fired a plate of food against another. The PR staff tried to calm him down, but he waved the reporters in, and started his press conference while the food was still dripping from the wall.

“We pitched like a bunch of 12-year-olds,” Miller said. “If you have any more questions, go out into the clubhouse. They’re the ones making all the money. Have them explain to you how they did and how they performed in front of 47,000 people.”

I wasn’t there that day, but our Vikings writer, Kevin Seifert, was covering the Orioles then for the Washington Times. Tracking today’s Twins/Blue Jays game on my computer, sitting there through that 11-run sixth-inning, I could only imagine what the postgame mood would be in the Twins clubhouse. The 1999 Orioles pretty much knew they were finished the day of Miller’s explosion. Do the 2007 Twins have the same feeling today?

A buddy has been riding me all year about my preseason prediction that the Twins would finish 95-67. He keeps e-mailing updates, so I’m well aware that the Twins (51-50) would need to 44-17 the rest of the way for that prediction to ring true. Got a call from him today during the sixth inning. He was on a drive to Duluth, listening to the game on XM. He said he stopped off for a few minutes to buy a chicken sandwich, came back to his car, and in that short time, the Blue Jays had scored six runs.

You have to laugh on days like these, folks. Maybe the Twins should be sellers instead of buyers. Some of you have been convinced of this for weeks. I’m still not 100 percent sure. Wise people have taught me never to make rash judgements about a team during terrible stretches like this. Teams are never as bad as they look sometimes, and they’re never as good as they look at other times.

Getting outscored 26-5 in this series at Toronto, the Twins looked like pretenders, not pretenders. But I think it would be smarter for Terry Ryan to evaluate the Twins as the team that lost three one-run games to Detroit last week. To me, that was their defining stretch. Not a great team, by any measure, but not an awful team either. One that needed to trade for offensive help weeks ago.

Now, buried in the wild-card standings – 7.5 games behind Cleveland, 4.5 behind Seattle, 3 behind the Yankees … and tied with the 51-50 Blue Jays – it’s time to seriously contemplate the seller route. Trade Hunter? Trade Castillo? Trade Nathan? Many of you are convinced those deals should have been made yesterday. I’ll continue analyzing it through the weekend and get back to you. The season didn’t end today. Let’s see if they can pull themselves off the canvas for three games in Cleveland.

And before TR trades away the franchise center fielder, wouldn’t it be nice to see him try that one-more-hitter experiment for a week? Just a thought.

Justin Morneau’s love for baseball came from watching Toronto Blue Jays games as a kid. Their games were televised all over Canada, and even sitting three time zones away in New Westminster, B.C., Morneau paid close attention to the likes of John Olerud, Joe Carter and Pat Borders. He was 11 and 12, when they won back-to-back World Series titles in 1992 and 1993.

So it figured Morneau would have a few extra jitters when he made his first trips to Rogers Center (the stadium formerly known as SkyDome), where he was batting .043 (1-for-23) heading into this series. Before leaving for Toronto on Sunday, he said, “Hopefully I can change that. It’s always exciting when we go there. There’s a little more attention made. I’ve got to go out and try to win games, try not to get too excited and stay within myself.”

I got a kick out of La Velle’s note yesterday, that Morneau is doing promos for the Canadian version of SportsCenter. It sounds like reporters swarmed him in the clubhouse again, so there were the expected distractions, and he still went out last night and slugged his 27th and 28th home runs. As Seth Stohs points out today, Morneau is on pace for 46 homers and 139 RBI. The Twins’ single season records are 49 home runs (Harmon Killebrew in 1964 and 1969) and 140 RBI (Killebrew in 1969).

The Twins’ inability to sign Morneau to a long-term deal last offseason looks incredibly short-sighted. He’s not eligible for free agency until after the 2010 season, but he’s going to break the bank if they keep taking him year-by-year through arbitration. His salary jumped from $385,000 to $4.5 million last offseason, and it will likely move closer to $9 million next year. The Twins worked out a four-year, $33 million deal with Joe Mauer, and from everything we’ve heard, Morneau was willing to do something similar. If the Twins needed to see how the reigning MVP would respond to last year’s success, I guess it’s fair to say he’s proving that 2006 wasn’t a fluke.

I didn’t hear Terry Ryan’s interview on KSTP AM-1500 yesterday, but someone wrote in our comments section that when Ryan was asked about Dmitri Young, he didn’t dismiss the possibility, saying there are about 15 hitters they are considering on the trade market.

Well, we’ve only had nine Trade Targets in this series, so we’ve got some catching up to do. A couple months ago, we had heard the Twins weren’t interested in Young because he had “too much baggage.” But there is a growing sentiment that Young truly has turned his life around since getting released by the Tigers last season.

As Torii Hunter told KFAN’s Dan Barreiro last week, “I talked to [Young] at the All-Star Game. He’s straight, clean-cut. I think he’s ready. … I think I overheard him say he liked the Twins. I don’t know. I thought I heard that through the grapevine.”

Torii obviously was being careful because teams can get penalized for tampering if they’re openly recruiting players. Anyway, many of you have been writing Young’s name for weeks. So, let’s take a closer look:

Name: Dmitri Young, Nationals 1B

Basics: He’s 33 (and turns 34 on Oct. 11). Switch-hitter. Throws R. 6-2, 220 lbs. Born in Vicksburg, Miss. Was a high school All-American for Rio Mesa High School in California. Signed with the Cardinals as a first-round pick (No. 4 overall) from the 1991 draft.

Stats: His .340 batting average currently ranks second in the National League. He also has nine home runs, 52 RBI, a .395 on-base percentage and a .520 slugging percentage.

Salary: $500,000. He’ll be a free agent at season’s end. He’s been an absolute steal for the Nationals this year, as GM Jim Bowden, who knew Young from Cincinnati, took a chance coming off his troubled 2006 season.

Good Twin because: He’s an experienced DH. Rondell White returns to that role tonight, but he said last year that he’s a better hitter when he plays left field. Young is a career .287 hitter with 52 home runs as a DH. The Twins know him well from his years with the Tigers.

Available?: Yes. He belongs in the American League, where he can DH, so it would behoove Bowden to trade him, rather than lose him as a free agent.

Probable cost: My jaw almost hit the floor last week, when a major league insider told me what Bowden asked the Twins to give up in return for Alfonso Soriano last year. I always had heard it was Matt Garza. No, it was Matt Garza and Kevin Slowey and Scott Baker. All three. The insider told me I would be surprised to know just how much the Twins were willing to give up in that deal. We had heard they refused to give up Garza but would have parted with Slowey. Anyway, it sounds like the Twins offered two pitchers other than Garza — probably Slowey and someone else – who have pitched in the big leagues this year. Soriano never got traded. He went on to sign an eight-year, $136 million contract.

Young certainly isn’t that valuable. But you can work backward from Bowden’s asking price for Soriano and realize that he’s hardly going to give away Young. Would you trade Slowey straight up for Young? I sure wouldn’t.

Potential Batgirl nickname (*You know, if she still ran the greatest blog ever): Baseball-reference.com tells us Young’s nickname is Meat Hook. I can’t remember, but Batgirl might have had a not-so-nice nickname when he played for the Tigers. I’ll take your suggestions below.

Odds this trade happens: 15-to-1. I really do get the feeling the Twins will do something before the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline. As I’ve been writing, they seem more inclined to grab somebody who wouldn’t be limited to DH duty. Young would be a great jolt for their lineup, but I’m guessing Bowden’s asking price is just too high.

The Twins activated Rondell White from the disabled list following their 7-2 loss to the Angels on Sunday. Garrett Jones was optioned to Class AAA Rochester, making room on the roster.

White had been on the disabled list since April 5 with what started as a strained right calf muscle and turned into a strained right hamstring. He went 3-for-4 with a double, an RBI and a run scored today as the DH for the Twins’ Gulf Coast League affiliate. Manager Ron Gardenhire said White would likely serve as the Twins’ DH in coming days, until his leg feels strong enough to return to outfield duty.

Joe Mauer is catching a day game after a night game, with Mike Redmond on the bench with that sore knuckle. Updates to come…

Update: Luis Castillo had a friend fly from Miami with his resident visa from the Dominican Republic, a key document Castillo needs to travel to Toronto. Doh! Castillo left that thing in Miami, when he’s known all this time that the trip to Toronto was coming. The Twins have been reminding players since spring training to have their passports and everything organized for this trip. There have been signs all over the clubhouse. Castillo’s plan is to meet his friend at the airport, grab the document and board the team charter to Toronto. Castillo is not in the lineup today, but that is nothing new, as he’s getting a day to rest his achy knee. … Redmond swung a bat and said his finger feels better, but this guy has an incredible pain threshold. He was able to catch in the bullpen yesterday, so perhaps the Twins won’t need to add a catcher to their roster for the road trip. … Also, Gardenhire acknowledged that it’s possible Rondell White could join the team in Toronto if all goes well on his rehab.

Angels: Chone Figgins 3B, Orlando Cabrera SS, Vladimir Guerrero RF, Garrett Anderson DH, Casey Kotchman 1B, Maicer Izturis 2B, Mike Napoli C, Robb Quinlan LF, Haynes CF. LHP Joe Saunders.

Twins: Jason Bartlett SS, Jeff Cirillo DH, Joe Mauer C, Justin Morneau 1B, Torii Hunter CF, Jason Kubel LF, Darnell McDonald RF, Luis Rodriguez 3B, Nick Punto 2B. RHP Matt Garza.

Metrodome. Scheduled first pitch: 1:10 p.m.