Almost everyone in Twins Territory knows by now that it’s Joe Mauer’s 28th birthday today.  Something about being a hometown boy makes his birthday close to a state holiday.

In celebration of the day, we here at Knuckleballs are giving away a pair of tickets to next Tuesday nights game, April 26th, against the Tampa Bay Rays.  We will be drawing names at the conclusion of tonight’s game.  The way to enter the drawing is to submit your best birthday haiku for Joe.  Anyone who submits a haiku in the comment section of this post is automatically included AND multiple entries are accepted.  The entries will be numbered drawn at random.

Rules for acceptable Haiku:

• Only three lines, totaling 17 syllables throughout
• The first line must be only 5 syllables
• The second line must be comprised of 7 syllables
• The third line must be 5 syllables like the first
• Punctuation and capitalization rules are up to the poet, and need not follow rigid rules used in structuring sentences
• Haiku does not have to rhyme, in fact many times it does not rhyme at all
• Some haiku can include the repetition of words or sounds
• haiku poetry typically discusses subjects from the natural world, including seasons, months, animals, insects, and even the smallest elements of nature, down to a blade of grass or a drop of dew

Again – this should be a birthday greeting for Joe Mauer so that should also be included in whatever creative way you can manage!  Have fun everyone!

And the winner is Haiku #1 from AW! (yes, I literally put them in a bowl and drew one out). Here’s the winning poem:

Happy Birthday, Joe.
Body slowing, legs are weak.
Getting old not fun.

AW, please email JimCrikket ASAP with your mailing address so that he can put the tickets in the mail to you.  Congratulations! If, for any reason, you are unable to attend the game, please let us know.