I got a text message this morning from a friend who covers the Detroit Tigers: “Gotta love C-Mo and his big home runs.”

Indeed, Craig Monroe turned in his first multi-homer game since Aug. 30, 2004, as the Twins defeated the Red Sox 9-8 on ESPN’s “Sunday Night Baseball.”

All night long, the Twins did a lot of real neat tributes for Mother’s Day. Several of the players’ moms were featured telling stories on the scoreboard between innings. It was cool for me because my mom and grandmother were at the game, too.

Monroe’s mom — Marilyn Monroe — was at his house, watching with his family. I wrote about Craig’s special bond with Marilyn for the Sunday paper.

Maybe it was the power of Mother’s Day. The light-hitting Twins have hit seven home runs using those pink bats in two years.

ESPN has a cameraman run right up to the players after their home runs, and at one point, Monroe looked right into the camera and gave Marilyn a special tribute.

“Maybe a little much, saying ‘Happy Mother’s Day’ to her on camera,” Monroe said. “But you know what? It’s emotions. It’s who I am, so it makes me feel good today to do something special.”

Note: The Twins are on ESPN and FSN tonight. Game starts at 6:05 p.m. Check back here for lineups mid-afternoon.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 12th, 2008 at 11:32 am and is filed under Twins thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.