A time for fun. (The lesson of Favre)
Posted on October 6th, 2009 – 10:07 AMBy Howard
Not going very deep today. Win and the Twins are in and we have baseball at least through the weekend.
Lose and the Twins join 22 other teams on the sidelines.
I liked having a day to breathe between Games 162 and 163, even though it turns everything into a scurry on the other end for the winning team.
The thing I keep thinking about today is how much fun this has been. That was reinforced for me last night while I was watching the Vikings-Packers game and, more specifically, watching Brett Favre.
The guy has fun playing football, and that makes him fun to watch. And I say this as someone who has retained one hometown loyalty on the pro sports landscape — to the Bears. They may be fine and perfectly serviceable quarterbacks, but T-Jack and Rosenfels don’t give off the exuberance vibe that has set Favre apart during his Vikings months.
I can’t get inside the heads of those who reduce sports to ongoing curmudgeonly commentary. Yes, there are times when your team will make you crazy — and it’s perfectly OK to call them out for it. Because when that happens, the game isn’t as much fun for the players, and probably isn’t as much fun for you. Watching baseball is fun (almost) regardless. Watching Sean Henn, to name one earlier this season, wasn’t as much fun.
I don’t care right now that the AL Central is the weakest of the American league’s three divisions, which makes it the third best among baseball’s six divisions, right? It’s October 6th and I’m going to a baseball game — which I also hope to be doing on October 11th, for that matter.
Back in my traveling basketball coaching days, I used to tell my players that I was all about having fun — but that we weren’t going to have fun by getting our brains beat out. You work hard in practice and we can have a lot of fun. Get a 20-point lead and the big kid can bring the ball upcourt and the point guard can post up.
Advice for today: Knock off work early, find a gathering place, prepare for so much tension that you won’t notice when it gets dark outside and get ready to celebrate. Have a “fired up/ready to go” afternoon and evening.
Figuring out how to survive the Yankees can wait for a day.
68 Responses to "A time for fun. (The lesson of Favre)"
I’m with you Howard - let’s watch tonight’s game by holding our breath on the close plays and rooting our team on to victory. The Twins looks like they’re having so much “fun” out there because so many people wouldn’t give them a chance to come back. Well they have come back and I’m prepared to watch this game standing up and have fun while doing it. The Tigers just don’t look like they’re capable of having fun at this moment so I believe that we will win tonight. Come on Twin’s fans and have some fun and believe that we can do it! Go Twins!
I will be sitting in section 100 waiting to catch SEVERAL home runs from Twins players today! Hate to be a 20 year old pitcher today in the noise!
Win TWINS!!!!
Picked up a case of beer last night, and it’s in the trunk, awaiting my arrival on the couch in front of the TV at approximately 3:55pm this afternoon. The only time I’m planning on getting up is when I jump to my feet to celebrate some great defense, superb pitching, and long home runs. Twins… I’m not ready for this season to end just yet. And neither are you!
Woolhouse, with a case of beer at your disposal I don’t think I’m alone in hoping you get up at least once or twice more…
I’ll be at the game as well, completely by accident. I was up far too late last night and lucked into a ticket after many denials on the Twins’ site.
Hi Twins FANS! I picked up my case of beer yesterday, also. And proceeded to transfer it to my fridge, which is walking distance from the recliner and TV. I only disposed of 4 last night during the Vikes game, so I am good to go for today’s game. Let’s have “”fun”" as our blog writer suggested, and get our hearts a pumping and our corpuscles a jumping. GO TWINS!
I’m nervous because i wish the Twins were still the under dog but i’m excited because i honestly believe they will destroy the Tigers today.
It’s a good day here, just hung up my new Target Field calendar, wearing Twins colors to the office, bailing at 3:30, have TBS all ready to go on the big screen, and the giant R2-D2 cooler (long story) is stocked with delicious Bud Light.
Whatever else may be said for this season and this team, they never fail to make it interesting. Let’s win Twins!
Exactly…..it has been FUN for the past few weeks. Even though we don’t have a great record, we are one of only a few teams that have been playing games that mattered over the last several weeks. It is fun cheering on players that are smacking the ball around. It is fun being a witness to one of the best players in all of baseball.
If you are one of the lucky ones that got a ticket….cheer long and loud for the Twins today. They’ll need it.
Tigers DEAD! Yankees DEAD! Red Sox DEAD! Cardinals DEAD! All the way! We’re coming! We’re coming!
I’m with Howard…let’s just sit back, have some fun and watch the Twins win the AL Central Division today. The Twins have all the momentum, confidence and the home-field advantage. And as Charlie said, Detroit has a 20-year-old throwing today - FORE!!!
No matter how much I THINK I know about the Twins, they so very often remind me that I know next to nothing…after 49 years of following them. I don’t dare make a prediction about today’s game. It sure feels good to know it is going to happen, though, given the season they had up to September 13. Win Twins!
I completely agree this has been, and hopefully will continue to be, fun, Howard.
Mr. Shoes, maybe Woodhouse won’t have to get up “once or twice more” because maybe he invested in some Depends when he invested in the case of beer.
Needless to say, I won’t be going to class this afternoon.
and i thought jim wacker was dead.
the only way they can lose is if the umps, officials … wait i’ve been reading sid again.
ggg…sorry, I should have given the late Jim Wacker credit for that heart/corpuscles statement. It is very fitting, though.
the AL Central is the weakest of the American league’s three divisions, which makes it the third best among baseball’s six divisions
Nice one Howard.
GGguy,
I just spit ginger ale! The first time I met Jim Wacker was in McAllen, Tex., after his SW Texas team had beaten North Dakota State (badly) for the D-2 football title. He’d been at ‘SU. He sticks his head inside the car we’re in and tells the Bison coach: “YOU GUYS WERE GREAT. OH MAN, WHAT A TEAM YOU HAVE1 YOU GUYS ARE MONSTERS!” And on and on for about 3 minutes. You woulda thought the Bison had won.
Having fun is definitely what sports are all about…no doubt there.
But sports also bring agony and disappointment. If the Twins lose today, there will be disappointment, there’s simply no denying that. If the Twins win today, 2009 is a success, regardless of what happens against the Yankees. We’ve been without the playoffs since 2006–so we need to get back there, even if there’s an inevitable butt-whooping awaiting us (which I don’t think there is).
Lose today and 2009 was not a successful season.
I think we’ll win. It will be the same lineup you saw on Sunday…with Morales DH’ing and Tolbert at third. I won’t lie, the bottom of the lineup kind of scares me…but I’m sure we can win even if we don’t get much production there.
Yanks are next, folks. Yanks are next.
Jason,
Don’t fear the bottom of the lineup because they’ve been doing their part in getting on base someway, somehow. I love going to MLB.com and looking at the league leaders and see Joe Mauer’s smiling face in the batting average category - will be even more “fun” to see his smiling face as AL MVP. Let’s go Twins and get #163 and have some fun doing it.
So excited to go to the game today!!! Go Twinkies!!! Everyone have fun watching the game today and cheering your lungs out!
Jason, I wish you’d see the glass as half-full for once. Life is miserable when you always have to analyze the possible negatives.
This last month has been memorable in so many ways, I’ve taken an eraser to my memories of April through August. No matter what happens today, this has been a great journey.
C’mon boys, let’s have fun today. Go Twins!
Pretty much what I’ve been saying for a while now. This is the time for fun and being a “fan”, not for talking about all the faults or the future….just having fun.
jibiowa, I see both halves of the glass…I think I laid it out pretty reasonably. If the Twins win today, there will be all kinds of joy. I won’t be saying “It’s no big deal because the Yankees are going to destroy us.”
But if the Twins lose today, there will be plenty of disappointment….as in, two straight years of failing to seal the deal, this time with the benefit of your home crowd to back you up.
I’m just laying out the facts as they are…I’m not being negative. Today’s game is everything. Don’t pretend that we’re just so chalked up with joy we will love 2009 forever, win or lose. We have to win.
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I do not know a thing about evaluating players, so I do not make suggestions on what they need to do nor with whom. I do not know a thing about Jason’s business, so I do not make suggestions on what to do nor who to replace. I only know, that it is not what happens to me in life that is important. What is important, is how I react to what happens to me in life. I can live with that.
A side note before Howard’s chat begins…I personally want to see a big game from Joe Mauer tonight. He didn’t come up big in last year’s one-game playoff and he was 2-for-10 over the weekend, although his hit on Saturday off Verlander probably was the biggest of the series. It would be nice for Mauer to end his MVP season with a bang!
Did the Twins have a successful season? The only reason you strive to put together a strong team is to increase your chances of getting to the post season. In the end, does it matter whether you win 110 games or only 86 games in getting there?
Did the 2001 Seattle Mariners, who won an MLB record 116 games, have a successful season? They flopped in the playoffs. For them, just getting in probably wasn’t enough.
I would say the 2009 Twins WILL have a successful season if they just get in.
Agree, WJ.
Well said, DrDon.
Let me add one thing: if the Twins only win one more game this year (game 163), I think they can end up saying they had a successful year. However, I hope they will also realize that they were helped by a few things that were out of their control. Everyone can and should be proud of themselves for how they played the last three weeks or so. But they should also acknowledge that it did take some luck, luck which they cannot rely on to come again next season.
Go you doppelgangers! Smite the vicious Bengals and do our heritage proud!!
—G.G. from 1924
We’ll all enjoy today’s game, but for next year, trade for Zimmerman and sign either Bedard, Haren, or Webb (Brandon, that is, not Jack).
And, of course, sign Mauer to a new, long term contract before the the beginning of spring training.
I don’t know how to feel about this team! Why is it good now that it’s not the kind of team that I wanted to watch? I was sure that this was the year because the twins had a devistating lineup with M&M, Kubel, Crede, ect. But lately they look like Twins teams from previous years with no one that can hit in the bottom 4-5 spots in the lineup and now their winning? I honestly can’t stand them winning like this! I only want them to win with the players I want to see. Watching Cuddyers recent success sucks! I still want Punto to be gone and replaced by someone good. I still want Harden or someone who K’s alot of hitters. The Twins will probably win today and then get served national embarrassment by the yanks because even though they’re hot the twins are a lot less talented without Morneau and Crede and even with those 2 the Twins are still over matched by NY’s lineup.
And why can Gardy only get his teams to perform when at least half of the players are marginal talents? Why couldn’t he get this team to perfrom when it was healthy and “stacked”? Maybe he can’t identify with good players because he was a marginal talent?
hey joe the first,
“We’ll all enjoy today’s game, but for next year, trade for Zimmerman and sign either Bedard, Haren, or Webb (Brandon, that is, not Jack).”
continuing with the linguistics lessons from your recent posts, “either” compares two things, not three. (actually, just saying hi — good to see you back on the blog.)
Jason, TODAY is a day for anticipation and revelry. There is no reason to anticipate disappointment…if we are disappointed, we all have to deal with it then. And I think most of us have played and watched enough sports to know about the “agony and the ecstacy” as they used to say on World World of Sports.
But NOW is the time to simply ENJOY what is happening and to SAVOR every moment.
I can’t think of next year just yet. There’s a lot to address in Joe’s post, I just can’t do it with Game 163 looming. Unlike some, I just want the team to win.
see ya’ll at the game! Go Twins!
boneyard…I can’t even think of tomorrow yet, let alone next year. 
DrDon you may need to change your name to DrZen!
at least you didn’t ask me to become DrZeroBrain. I love the hype for this game.
Hey mickey,
Couldn’t restrain yourself huh?
I understand. I think he’s kind of a blowhard too. I heard somewhere bout “comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable”. That always stuck.
DrZen inner peace, a cold beer and the twins game, priceless!
My Twins’ jersey is hanging in my office, Homer Hanky in my pocket and I will be leaving work early today to take my seat in section 115. Go Twins, let’s have some fun!
hi paul,
that’s a good one. might be applied to the twins vs. yankees, too.
DrDon, at this point, I’m just having a hard time thinking. Go Twins!!
“”gobbledygookguy says:
October 6th, 2009 at 1:30 pm
DrZen inner peace, a cold beer and the twins game, priceless!”"
ggg….I have inner peace, SEVERAL COLD BEERS, and the Twins game. Absolutely PRICELESS!!!!!!
I don’t expect Mauer and Morales and Tolbert to get a hit every time.
But I’m sure gonna have fun watching them try!
So is Morneau. Here comes the BIG ROLLER COASTER, BABY!!!
WHY does this game have to start at 4:00??? Too early to go home, can’t watch at work.
WJ….Not my problem.
I consider this season a success though somewhat boring except for the end. I would take a playoff game to end the season every year for the rest of my life. There are 5 teams with great financial resources and investment trying to win the division each year and if we are in the mix every year I am pretty happy. Being competitive to me does not mean coming close and then losing. It means being in it at the end with the capacity to either win or lose and that is what the Twins have consistently given us this decade.
Not looking past tonight’s game by any means but Howard’s comment about coaching basketball hit a note.
When the opponent’s big man is better than your big man it makes a lot more sense to post up your small guy against their small guy if there is better odds of success. Essentially that is what the Twins must do against the Yankees if we win tonight. Duensing has shown he is capable of pitching very well but is considered our 4th guy so put him against their #1 so that our
#1, 2, and 3 guys face the Yankees #2, 3, and 4 guys.
Amen, Howard. Totally knocking off early and going to the local pub to watch this one…Although I am sure the Lansing locals will be watching different game than I.
WJ….Not my problem.
That’s cold.
WJ: You need to be living in the Eastern Time zone. I’m leaving work at around the first pitch
Howard…I used to coach baseball and when the games were tense I used to tell my players exactly that “have fun”. Another aspect of having fun is that there is a positive ring to it. When players get too tense they tend to play worse.
WJ may be time to come down with the flu!
Last year we scored 18 more runs with 59 fewer homeruns. I know our ave. with RISP was abnormal but still 18 more runs with 59 fewer dingers. I like the home runs but really, what difference does it make how we do it?
WJ. Just giving you fun static, because I am at home, with lots of cold beer, readying for the game. You can all of sudden get sick and go home.
WJ: I give you permission to go home.
WJ, maybe DrDon can give you a doctor’s note and you can use an hour of sick leave.
WJ, WJ, WJ,,, I need to see you at home immediately. I need to discuss your brain scan in the privacy of your home. Don’t worry though, it is not bad news, YET! DocDon.
Keeping hope alive for at least one more day!
Although the fact that everyone and their mother’s cousin thinks a Twins win is in the bag makes me very nervous!
PS-Denard, if you lose today your “choke” comments will be the first thing cited by the Tigers.
Nah, Kirby91, there are a few prognosticators out there picking the Tigers. Made me feel a little better.
What’s not fun is having your football team commandeered by the face of evil in sports. Howard, it is not fun for true Vikings fans with to root for Brett Favre.
Thank you to the Twins for providing the salve to make it all better!
That was an absolute treat!
Ah, Pop, Brett played for the Jets last.
