My longtime friend and sometimes commenter ganderson, who lives in western Massachusetts, came through town last month and had the misfortune to attend a couple of the Twins-Yankees games at the Dome. I opted not to join him, in part because there was a lot going on, but also because I tend to shy away from Twins-Yankees games. If I wanted to watch spend money on something with a predetermined outcome, I’d watch pro wrestling. Ms. Baseball feels the same way, except for the wrestling part.

So, as a going-away present for out dear friend and blogger-in-exile Batgirl (click for fabulous flashback link), we decided to go to Tuesday night’s game. Nick Blackburn on the mound… The last-place Royals in town… The beginning of a homestand… A freshened team after a day off… A title race...

Us and 32,000 people couldn’t have been more wrong.

Even with Nick Punto sitting on the bench, the Twins managed to fall behind by 12 before a lame rally at the end (while we were on our way to the parking lot) created a 14-6 final.

As we said during our college days, after Concordia of Moorhead defeated our Macalester Scots 97-6: “The game was not as close as the score indicated.”

Never have I seen so many people bail out of the Dome so quickly. The seats behind us emptied in the fourth or fifth inning, just before the people in front of us decided to call it a night. The only good thing from a fan’s point of view was that people who paid for the cheaper seats were steadily migrating down to get a view from the really good ones, where they could take in the carnage in life-sized reality. I wonder if the all-you-can-eat crowd stayed just for the food.

It reminded me of one of the few Gophers football games I’ve attended, when we stayed around mostly to see if Nebraska would score 100 points. That final was 84-13.

But at least kind of knew what we were getting into that night.

Right now, talk of Alex Rios going to the White Sox and the wisdom of offering a tryout to a 39-year-old second baseman and the failed Craig Breslow gamble and the outfield alignment and just about everything else related to the Twins place in the standings feels totally irrelevant. Yeah, it was only one loss, but the Twins have found ways all season to look adversity squarely in the eye — and whimper. Does anyone really see a way for the Twins to make up five games and pass two teams in the standings when they have been thoroughly incapable of putting together even a solid week of consistent baseball? If you do, speak up.

In past years, you could point to things that were falling in place as the season went along. This season, the Twins just keep falling shorter and shorter, without much to commend them for except the middle of the batting order and Joe Nathan.

A team with a 54-58 record and its followers should have the decency to stop talking about the postseason, at least until they are four games over .500 instead of four games under. Anyone want to venture a guess at what the Twins record would be this season if they faced a steady diet of New York, Boston and Tampa Bay instead of their AL Central-tilted schedule? Go ahead, pick some numbers.

How to react to all this? I’ll hang in there as best I can, if only so I have a better sense of which drums to beat for improving this team. Young220, who was in our posse last night and is returning to school in Oklahoma soon, said there was no way that Tuesday night could be his final Metrodome game of the summer. He said he’ll be going to another game this week. Even Batgirl rolled her eyes.

Young220 is a very tolerant young man.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 12th, 2009 at 9:39 am and is filed under Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.