A Crikket in winter

Rogers Hornsby is quoted as having said, “People ask me what I do in the winter when there’s no baseball. I’ll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring.”

Thanks to the internet, we can do much more than Rogers Hornsby. We can debate and speculate. We can rant and predict future successes (or failures). We can praise and criticize. And we can laugh at the BitchSox (Mark Teahan? REALLY?).

Spring Training camps have opened and that means a new baseball season is close enough on the horizon to begin serious (or not so serious) discussions about the Twins’ first year of outdoor home games during the lifetimes of a significant number of their fans. (Alas, as one who was old enough to be a young fan when the Senators moved in to Metropolitan Stadium, I’m not among that number.)

Since we decided to make our thoughts on the “offseason” the inaugural topic for our brand-spanking-new blog, I’ve been trying to come up with something intelligent and yet witty to write on the subject. Sure, I have thoughts regarding JJ Hardy, Orlando Hudson, Jim Thome, et al, but those topics have pretty much been beaten to death by postings and comment section in the other 4,391 Twins-based blogs.

This, of course, is where one might ask us why we felt Twins’ Blogdom needed a 4,392^nd Twins-based blog. That’s a fair question, too. But then you have to think about that word “need”. Of course, another Twins blog isn’t “needed”. But when three Twins fans like us have so much wit, wisdom, and imagination to offer, the answer becomes clear. Twins fans deserve, nay they NEED, the benefit of our combined wit, wisdom and imagination!

So, now, as I approach the word limit that Babs has imposed on me*, I struggle to summon all of my wit, wisdom and imagination and come up with something that adequately expresses my feelings about the offseason.

*as we begin this endeavor, this tells me two things about Babs. 1) she thinks I tend to get a bit “wordy” at times; and 2) she’s assuming the role of “sergeant-at-arms” for the blog… which could lead to some interesting discussions down the road.

Now, it has dawned on me that, being a blog, we aren’t subject to all of those pesky “ethical” standards that “real” writers are bound by. So I’m free to plagiarize what others have written about the offseason. And with 4,391 other Twins blogs to steal from, there’s no shortage of material out there. However, recalling what my college journalism professor taught us (yes, I was a journalism major at the University of Arkansas… for 6 weeks), “if you’re going to plagiarize, steal from only the best.” (Clearly, ethics weren’t a high priority at the Razorback School of Journalism.)

So with that in mind, let me steal from the Best. Twins. Blog. EVER. In the words of Batgirl (and I know they’re her words because I have a sweatshirt she sold with these words across the chest):

The Offseason Sucks!